2018 Applicant Profiles and Admissions Results

[jougami]

1 hour ago, paxillaris said:

Nervous about applying for the first time this cycle and would appreciate any feedback on how competitive I'd be for my programs of interest! I’m interested in studying the molecular and cellular mechanisms of how organisms interact with their environment.

Aside from feedback on my list of programs, I have a few specific questions that I’d appreciate any answers to:

1. How specific do I have to be about my research interests in my statement of purpose? When looking at labs I’d be interested in working in, I’ve found that my interests encompass genetic/molecular approaches to sensory biology, host-pathogen interactions, and ecophysiology… which I think all technically fall under “genetic and molecular mechanisms of how organisms interact with their environment.” I can tie these interests to my past research experiences, but I’m concerned about being too broad. Should I try to narrow it down more? For what it’s worth, I’m applying to mainly umbrella programs that I chose for their breadth of faculty, since I'd like the opportunity to do interdisciplinary work.
2. How much should system of study factor into deciding on if a lab would be a good fit? I have the most experience working with plant models, but also have insect and mammalian experience, and the labs I’m interested in cover a wide range of models as well.
3. How many PIs per institution should I contact before applying? Currently have at least 3 PIs per school whose work I find interesting.

Thanks!!

Based on your stats and experience I think you'll be competitive for the programs you applied for. I had a 4.0 from a flagship public university, 168/169/5.0 GRE, and 2.5/1.5 years of research (concurrently in different labs) when I applied and got into UPenn, Duke, and Cornell. I'm not in your field but I would say don't sell yourself short and apply to Stanford if you'd like to go there. If you apply to mainly umbrella programs, you don't need to be super specific about your research interests. In undergrad I did research on plant biochemistry and human cancer, which are two very different things; in my applications I vaguely stated that I was interested in research involved in curing disease, especially cancer, which is also very broad. I would say you don't need to contact more than 3 PIs; I didn't contact any before applying but like for all the above advice your mileage may vary.

[Omarr]

Looking for inputs on my profile and whether it matches with the school list; I'm really lost as to how ambitious I should be...

Undergrad Institution: University of Alabama at Birmingham (Good Med School, below average engineering)
Major(s): Mechanical Engineering
Minor(s): NA
GPA in Major: Not sure but slightly above overall GPA
Overall GPA: 3.52
Position in Class: I'd estimate top 20% of class
Type of Student: Hispanic/Middle Eastern Male, Citizen

GRE Scores (revised/old version):
Q: 162 (81%)
V: 154 (65%)
W: 4.0 (60%)
B: NA

Research Experience: Conference paper in Mechanical Engineering, Started Bio-printing project with Materials Engineering Lab in August (won't have paper by application deadline, but will get some lab experience).

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: 3 Dean's List, 1 President's List

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: TA for 1 year in a lower-level engineering class, 2 manufacturing engineering internships,

Should I include these in my resume: Co-owner of a restaurant, Youth group leader

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help: 

Special Bonus Points: (Such as connections, grad classes, famous recommenders, female or minority status etc...)

Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter:

Applying to Where: 
Northeastern - Bioengineering - Biomedical Devices

Worcester Polytechnic Institute - Biomedical Engineering - Tissue Mechanics and Mechanobiology

Tufts University - Bioengineering - Biomechanical Devices

Dartmouth University - Engineering Sciences - Biomedical Devices

University of Connecticutt - Biomedical Engineering - Biomechanics

University of Alabama at Birmingham - Biomedical Engineering - Biomedical Devices

Stevens Institute of Technology - Biomedical Engineering - Bioinstrumentation

I'm thinking of adding one more 'safe' school, what's y'alls opinion on that?

Comments: My first-choice school is by far Northeastern. Can anyone tell me if I'm a good candidate for the M.S. Bioengineering Program over there?

 

[paxillaris]

On 9/7/2017 at 3:48 PM, jougami said:

Based on your stats and experience I think you'll be competitive for the programs you applied for. I had a 4.0 from a flagship public university, 168/169/5.0 GRE, and 2.5/1.5 years of research (concurrently in different labs) when I applied and got into UPenn, Duke, and Cornell. I'm not in your field but I would say don't sell yourself short and apply to Stanford if you'd like to go there. If you apply to mainly umbrella programs, you don't need to be super specific about your research interests. In undergrad I did research on plant biochemistry and human cancer, which are two very different things; in my applications I vaguely stated that I was interested in research involved in curing disease, especially cancer, which is also very broad. I would say you don't need to contact more than 3 PIs; I didn't contact any before applying but like for all the above advice your mileage may vary.

Thanks for all the advice! I was worried that my experience might be a little average for the more competitive programs (and in such different fields too), but it's reassuring to hear from someone with a similar background.

[Molecular_nutrition_2018]

This is my first year applying for phD, so any help is very much appreciated!!! Being honest is the best I can ask from you, I am not gonna get offended in anyway so please speak up! I am applying from now and still got 3 months to fix any problem (hopefully that's enough time). 

Undergrad Institution: US Top3 public school 
Major(s): BioScience
GPA in Major: 3.3
Overall GPA: 3.34
Position in Class: no clue
Type of Student: International, male

Master Institution: Columbia University
Major(s): Nutritional Science
Overall GPA: 3.5
Position in Class: no clue

GRE Scores (revised/old version):
Q: 167 (93%)
V: 153 (60%)
W: 2.5 (7%) eh....i don't know how either
TOEFL Total: can waive from most school since I attended a US college

Research Experience: 

3 years, 3 labs.

Junior year in college: Marine biology/ecology lab,

-Doing meta-analysis for a phD student

-Collecting data from field work,

-Determined relationship between climate change / thermal tolerance and marine invertebrate disease

-Researched age-dependent responses of marine invertebrates to climate change

-attending seminars. 

 

Senior year in college: Physiology lab,

-Investigating the Adaptive Modulation Theory upon xxx fishes

-Measuring gastric pepsin and chitinase activities in spectrophotometer

-Aiming to execute digestibility trials to observe whether there is a correlation between gut enzyme activities and digestibility of dietary biochemical constituents, referring back to human

-PCR 

-field work and DNA extraction 

 

Master: Molecular biology lab,

-Transporter expression, down from the scratch (DNA-RNA-Protein). From exp design to final protein activity measurement, I have learned and performed all steps from the central dogma 

-purification, gel electrophoresis, in-vitro transcription, in-vivo translation, oocytes injection, flux measurements, protein assays and etc. 

-pretty much every experiment related with DNA and RNA in molecular biology, I have tried them, failed them, mastered them. Pretty happy and confident at the end of the journey 

-this lab experience showed me my potential in the field of molecular biology/ molecular nutritional biology, I am trying do this as my phD

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: 

Dean's list 2 times at undergrad, well I was struggling learning English so...

Honor student at Columbia (possibly, me and my PI are discussing it rn)

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: 

1 conference & poster at college,

1 small conference at grad school,

1 first author publication in preparation (already finished both exp and writing, polishing up rn, but not gonna publish anyway before the end of 2018 probably).

contributed in several labs and maybe my name will magically appear on their future papers, I am being optimistic only. 

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help:

Got an 2.7-2.9 GPA at the sophomore year in college which completely destroyed my GPA, but 3.35- 3.7 from junior to senior, so 3.35 cumulatively with the onward curve, 

Got an 3.0 at the first half of the master, got 3.5 at the second half of the master, so 3.3 cumulatively with the onward curve. 

-I will write these in my SOP cause I am a slow starter, i need time to digest everything, but after the warm-up I can get into a good shape pretty easily. 

 

LORs:

-1 from my best friend, also my advisor from college (yeah this person is beyond helpful and we are that close, her and my senior year lab PI wrote me stellar LOR to boost me into Columbia)

-1 from my senior year lab PI, again I don't know what they wrote but probably pretty good, I can bet on this person. 

1 from my Molecular biology lab PI, he is beyond satisfied about the quality of my work, he even promised that he will adjust his letter according to my SOP, and he will show me what he wrote, no catfish 

-2 from my undergrad teachers, I attended more than 3 biology classes from each of them, and got A-A+ in all of the classes, they know I worked hard and have wrote me LOR for my master

-1 from my master teachers, maintained great relationship with this one professor and he is helping me getting through the whole master program, a good friend of mine, we had very often conversations and he is being a great friend, recommending schools and programs and etc. 

Special Bonus Points: 

-international student assistant for 2 years at college, I like helping other kids who have similar background and struggle blending in.  

-I am really talented in many fields outside of school, I am good at painting, 12 years calligraphy master (had a piece stored at my high school HOF), lv.10 certificated in clarinet (=clarinet teacher certification), national certificate athlete (basketball, made it 2nd national place at my sophomore),

-Great communication skill, extremely outgoing, never spoke english before college in my own country but pretty fluent without an accent after just 2 years. All in all, I am really spontaneous 
-Trilingual


Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter:

Some questions:

-I know I have made up my mind to stay with Molecular biology, but other fields are intriguing as hell, like cancer, virology, stem cell/regenerative biology, and etc. Therefore, I am thinking of applying to those umbrella programs, Columbia and penn have "Biology phD" which don't restrict your interest area, I am planning to apply for 3-5 programs like that and rotate in different fields before I made any decision.

-I have jumped around in different fields. I studied heavy ecology, marine biology at undergrad. Majored in nutrition science at master, but got into a molecular biology lab whilst. I did it because I am just generally interested into bio, I like and enjoyed learning and wanted to maximize my experience. All fields are fascinating, but now I am hooked by molecular biology since I have done some great work in the past year. I gotta admitted that I was scared by hard courses back in college such as cell bio, oncology, virology and such, but now boy do I regret...

-The most important question, I need someone hit me with reality: is it too late to change direction? I really liked molecular biology and worked 40-50 hours per week throughout the year, I was more passionate about doing stuff than attending lectures, so should I just stop being overoptimistic and settle down with what I have experienced? -other than the general biology program, I am interested in 2 other fields, molecular nutrition biology, and physiology.

-I am very anxious and unconfident when facing applications, I know it is tough for us international student, I am not sure how competitive I am, I am still doing research about my school list, I need advice for my safe bets, as you can see all I have right now are top universities which I know damn well that I am not getting interviews from....

Applying to Where:
NYU: nutritional and food studies

Boston University: molecular nutrition (dream)

Wisconsin-madison: biomedical & molecular nutrition (dream)

Tufts: biomedical & molecular nutrition (dream)

Columbia: institute of human nutrition (dream)

Brown university: biotechnology (including molecular therapy) (stretch a lot)

Cornell: Nutritional science program (stretch a lot)

UCD: nutrition science

UCLA:

UCB: 

OHSU: Molecular & Cellular Biosciences

 

Penn: biology phD (broad program)

Columbia: biology phD (broad program)

 

*************************I will keep editing my post, especially for the school part, any advice helps, thanks a lot!****************************

 

Edited September 10, 2017 by Molecular_nutrition_2018

[Bioenchilada]

16 hours ago, Molecular_nutrition_2018 said:

This is my first year applying for phD, so any help is very much appreciated!!! Being honest is the best I can ask from you, I am not gonna get offended in anyway so please speak up! I am applying from now and still got 3 months to fix any problem (hopefully that's enough time). 

Undergrad Institution: US Top3 public school 
Major(s): BioScience
GPA in Major: 3.3
Overall GPA: 3.34
Position in Class: no clue
Type of Student: International, male

Master Institution: Columbia University
Major(s): Nutritional Science
Overall GPA: 3.5
Position in Class: no clue

GRE Scores (revised/old version):
Q: 167 (93%)
V: 153 (60%)
W: 2.5 (7%) eh....i don't know how either
TOEFL Total: can waive from most school since I attended a US college

Research Experience: 

3 years, 3 labs.

Junior year in college: Marine biology/ecology lab,

-Doing meta-analysis for a phD student

-Collecting data from field work,

-Determined relationship between climate change / thermal tolerance and marine invertebrate disease

-Researched age-dependent responses of marine invertebrates to climate change

-attending seminars. 

 

Senior year in college: Physiology lab,

-Investigating the Adaptive Modulation Theory upon xxx fishes

-Measuring gastric pepsin and chitinase activities in spectrophotometer

-Aiming to execute digestibility trials to observe whether there is a correlation between gut enzyme activities and digestibility of dietary biochemical constituents, referring back to human

-PCR 

-field work and DNA extraction 

 

Master: Molecular biology lab,

-Transporter expression, down from the scratch (DNA-RNA-Protein). From exp design to final protein activity measurement, I have learned and performed all steps from the central dogma 

-purification, gel electrophoresis, in-vitro transcription, in-vivo translation, oocytes injection, flux measurements, protein assays and etc. 

-pretty much every experiment related with DNA and RNA in molecular biology, I have tried them, failed them, mastered them. Pretty happy and confident at the end of the journey 

-this lab experience showed me my potential in the field of molecular biology/ molecular nutritional biology, I am trying do this as my phD

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: 

Dean's list 2 times at undergrad, well I was struggling learning English so...

Honor student at Columbia (possibly, me and my PI are discussing it rn)

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: 

1 conference & poster at college,

1 small conference at grad school,

1 first author publication in preparation (already finished both exp and writing, polishing up rn, but not gonna publish anyway before the end of 2018 probably).

contributed in several labs and maybe my name will magically appear on their future papers, I am being optimistic only. 

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help:

Got an 2.7-2.9 GPA at the sophomore year in college which completely destroyed my GPA, but 3.35- 3.7 from junior to senior, so 3.35 cumulatively with the onward curve, 

Got an 3.0 at the first half of the master, got 3.5 at the second half of the master, so 3.3 cumulatively with the onward curve. 

-I will write these in my SOP cause I am a slow starter, i need time to digest everything, but after the warm-up I can get into a good shape pretty easily. 

 

LORs:

-1 from my best friend, also my advisor from college (yeah this person is beyond helpful and we are that close, her and my senior year lab PI wrote me stellar LOR to boost me into Columbia)

-1 from my senior year lab PI, again I don't know what they wrote but probably pretty good, I can bet on this person. 

1 from my Molecular biology lab PI, he is beyond satisfied about the quality of my work, he even promised that he will adjust his letter according to my SOP, and he will show me what he wrote, no catfish 

-2 from my undergrad teachers, I attended more than 3 biology classes from each of them, and got A-A+ in all of the classes, they know I worked hard and have wrote me LOR for my master

-1 from my master teachers, maintained great relationship with this one professor and he is helping me getting through the whole master program, a good friend of mine, we had very often conversations and he is being a great friend, recommending schools and programs and etc. 

Special Bonus Points: 

-international student assistant for 2 years at college, I like helping other kids who have similar background and struggle blending in.  

-I am really talented in many fields outside of school, I am good at painting, 12 years calligraphy master (had a piece stored at my high school HOF), lv.10 certificated in clarinet (=clarinet teacher certification), national certificate athlete (basketball, made it 2nd national place at my sophomore),

-Great communication skill, extremely outgoing, never spoke english before college in my own country but pretty fluent without an accent after just 2 years. All in all, I am really spontaneous 
-Trilingual


Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter:

Some questions:

-I know I have made up my mind to stay with Molecular biology, but other fields are intriguing as hell, like cancer, virology, stem cell/regenerative biology, and etc. Therefore, I am thinking of applying to those umbrella programs, Columbia and penn have "Biology phD" which don't restrict your interest area, I am planning to apply for 3-5 programs like that and rotate in different fields before I made any decision.

-I have jumped around in different fields. I studied heavy ecology, marine biology at undergrad. Majored in nutrition science at master, but got into a molecular biology lab whilst. I did it because I am just generally interested into bio, I like and enjoyed learning and wanted to maximize my experience. All fields are fascinating, but now I am hooked by molecular biology since I have done some great work in the past year. I gotta admitted that I was scared by hard courses back in college such as cell bio, oncology, virology and such, but now boy do I regret...

-The most important question, I need someone hit me with reality: is it too late to change direction? I really liked molecular biology and worked 40-50 hours per week throughout the year, I was more passionate about doing stuff than attending lectures, so should I just stop being overoptimistic and settle down with what I have experienced? -other than the general biology program, I am interested in 2 other fields, molecular nutrition biology, and physiology.

-I am very anxious and unconfident when facing applications, I know it is tough for us international student, I am not sure how competitive I am, I am still doing research about my school list, I need advice for my safe bets, as you can see all I have right now are top universities which I know damn well that I am not getting interviews from....

Applying to Where:
NYU: nutritional and food studies

Boston University: molecular nutrition (dream)

Wisconsin-madison: biomedical & molecular nutrition (dream)

Tufts: biomedical & molecular nutrition (dream)

Columbia: institute of human nutrition (dream)

Brown university: biotechnology (including molecular therapy) (stretch a lot)

Cornell: Nutritional science program (stretch a lot)

UCD: nutrition science

UCLA:

UCB: 

OHSU: Molecular & Cellular Biosciences

 

Penn: biology phD (broad program)

Columbia: biology phD (broad program)

 

*************************I will keep editing my post, especially for the school part, any advice helps, thanks a lot!****************************

 

Why do you have like 6 letters? I don't think you should have more than 3. After all, you want to get straight to the point as quickly as possible instead of having to convince the PI that you're a good candidate with all this extra information. 

[Molecular_nutrition_2018]

2 hours ago, Bioenchilada said:

Why do you have like 6 letters? I don't think you should have more than 3. After all, you want to get straight to the point as quickly as possible instead of having to convince the PI that you're a good candidate with all this extra information. 

Thanks for replying Bioenchilada! Yes I  totally agree, I am not sending more than 3-4 letters to each school. I sent 6 letters while applying for masters and got into it so I thought it worked perfectly, but if that's too much I will definitely take down 2 or 3 of them. I had 6 letters from undergrad (which I am unaware of the quality), right now I can get another 3 from master (I know these 3 are good) so ill rethink about my choice before sending out anything. 

What do you think about my thoughts? Do you think it is possible to still experience more fields? if so do you know how competitive it is for general biology phD program like columbia and Upenn? Sorry to bother you but this overwhelmed unsettle feeling is slowing eating me day by day...... 

[Bioenchilada]

22 hours ago, Molecular_nutrition_2018 said:

Thanks for replying Bioenchilada! Yes I  totally agree, I am not sending more than 3-4 letters to each school. I sent 6 letters while applying for masters and got into it so I thought it worked perfectly, but if that's too much I will definitely take down 2 or 3 of them. I had 6 letters from undergrad (which I am unaware of the quality), right now I can get another 3 from master (I know these 3 are good) so ill rethink about my choice before sending out anything. 

What do you think about my thoughts? Do you think it is possible to still experience more fields? if so do you know how competitive it is for general biology phD program like columbia and Upenn? Sorry to bother you but this overwhelmed unsettle feeling is slowing eating me day by day...... 

I don't you necessarily need to have experience in the actual field to get into a program as long as you can effectively connect your experiences to the field and explain why it makes sense for you to switch fields in your SOP. For example, I never did cancer biology research per se but I explained how each of my experiences helped me grow professionally and put me on track to want to study molecular mechanisms in the context of cancer.

I don't know much about the general biology program here, but it's still probably competitive. If you are unsure about your competitiveness in a field specific program, try applying to umbrella programs. 

[Molecular_nutrition_2018]

1 minute ago, Bioenchilada said:

I don't you necessarily need to have experience in the actual field to get into a program as long as you can effectively connect your experiences to the field and explain why it makes sense for you to switch fields in your SOP. For example, I never did cancer biology research per se but I explained how each of my experiences helped me grow professionally and put me on track to want to study molecular mechanisms in the context of cancer.

I don't know much about the general biology program here, but it's still probably competitive. If you are unsure about your competitiveness in a field specific program, try applying to umbrella programs. 

Thank you, I will definitely keep looking for fitted umbrella programs! May you have a nice day  

[virology_2018]

On 8/1/2017 at 11:32 AM, virology_2018 said:

I am currently a research technician in a virology lab and looking to apply to grad schools for virology (this is usually within a cell/molecular bio or microbio program.) Would love to hear if my list of schools are good choices for virology research/ how strong of an applicant I would be!

Undergrad Institution: Big Ten, top research university, strong microbio reputation

Major(s): Biology, French

Minor(s): Global Cultures

GPA in Major: not sure… I had great grades in biology electives but struggled with organic chemistry

Overall GPA: 3.73

Position in Class: Top 20%

Type of Student: Female domestic

GRE Scores (revised/old version): taking later this month

Q:

V:

W:

B:

Research Experience:

• 1.5 years genetics research characterizing a drosophila gene family (well known PI, see below). Worked part-time during the school year and full time during the summer. Two poster presentations at my university. There was talk of working on a manuscript but since I (as well as my mentor) left the lab not much has materialized.
• 1.5 years (by time of app) virology research ( well known PI in virology field). One semester part time, 1 year full time. Two poster presentations; one for the university and one for the private research institute at which we are based.

Awards/Honors/Recognitions:

Graduated with Distinction (top 20% of class)

Dean's list 3/7 semesters

Germaine Mercier scholarship (not relevant, it's from the French department)

Member of the American Society for Virology (attended ASV'17 but didn't present)

Pertinent Activities or Jobs:

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help:

graduated a semester work full time on research

Special Bonus Points:

• One of my recommenders is extremely well known in his field (evolution/ genetics) and to the greater science community
• My current PI is well known/regarded in the virology field

Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter:

Worried about two things, if anyone has input:

I took a semester off of research between labs to study abroad (for my French major)

I got C's in both semester of organic chemistry ( I plan to address in personal statement)

Applying to Where: I have 13 schools on the list right now and would like to narrow down to maximum 10. I tried to have a range of schools in terms of prestige.

Harvard -DMS Virology

Yale -BBS

UCSF -BMS

Rockefeller

Mount Sinai

U Penn -CAMB

Northwestern -DGP

University of Washington

University of Michigan

University of Maryland

Boston University

Albert Einstein College of Medicine

Oregon Health and Science University

Hi everyone

I've since taken the GRE and tweaked my list of schools; would love more feedback from anyone if possible. 

GRE Scores (revised/old version)

Q: 161 (78th percentile)

V:  170 (99th percentile)

W: 5 (93rd percentile)

School List:

Harvard -DMS Virology

UCSF -BMS

Rockefeller

Mount Sinai

U Penn -CAMB

Northwestern -DGP

University of Washington (MCB and Microbiology)

University of Maryland

Boston University

Emory

University of Chicago

 

[Molecular_nutrition_2018]

On 9/10/2017 at 7:34 PM, Molecular_nutrition_2018 said:

This is my first year applying for phD, so any help is very much appreciated!!! Being honest is the best I can ask from you, I am not gonna get offended in anyway so please speak up! I am applying from now and still got 3 months to fix any problem (hopefully that's enough time). 

Undergrad Institution: US Top3 public school 
Major(s): BioScience
GPA in Major: 3.3
Overall GPA: 3.34
Position in Class: no clue
Type of Student: International, male

Master Institution: Columbia University
Major(s): Nutritional Science
Overall GPA: 3.5
Position in Class: no clue

GRE Scores (revised/old version):
Q: 167 (93%)
V: 153 (60%)
W: 2.5 (7%) eh....i don't know how either
TOEFL Total: can waive from most school since I attended a US college

Research Experience: 

3 years, 3 labs.

Junior year in college: Marine biology/ecology lab,

-Doing meta-analysis for a phD student

-Collecting data from field work,

-Determined relationship between climate change / thermal tolerance and marine invertebrate disease

-Researched age-dependent responses of marine invertebrates to climate change

-attending seminars. 

 

Senior year in college: Physiology lab,

-Investigating the Adaptive Modulation Theory upon xxx fishes

-Measuring gastric pepsin and chitinase activities in spectrophotometer

-Aiming to execute digestibility trials to observe whether there is a correlation between gut enzyme activities and digestibility of dietary biochemical constituents, referring back to human

-PCR 

-field work and DNA extraction 

 

Master: Molecular biology lab,

-Transporter expression, down from the scratch (DNA-RNA-Protein). From exp design to final protein activity measurement, I have learned and performed all steps from the central dogma 

-purification, gel electrophoresis, in-vitro transcription, in-vivo translation, oocytes injection, flux measurements, protein assays and etc. 

-pretty much every experiment related with DNA and RNA in molecular biology, I have tried them, failed them, mastered them. Pretty happy and confident at the end of the journey 

-this lab experience showed me my potential in the field of molecular biology/ molecular nutritional biology, I am trying do this as my phD

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: 

Dean's list 2 times at undergrad, well I was struggling learning English so...

Honor student at Columbia (possibly, me and my PI are discussing it rn)

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: 

1 conference & poster at college,

1 small conference at grad school,

1 first author publication in preparation (already finished both exp and writing, polishing up rn, but not gonna publish anyway before the end of 2018 probably).

contributed in several labs and maybe my name will magically appear on their future papers, I am being optimistic only. 

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help:

Got an 2.7-2.9 GPA at the sophomore year in college which completely destroyed my GPA, but 3.35- 3.7 from junior to senior, so 3.35 cumulatively with the onward curve, 

Got an 3.0 at the first half of the master, got 3.5 at the second half of the master, so 3.3 cumulatively with the onward curve. 

-I will write these in my SOP cause I am a slow starter, i need time to digest everything, but after the warm-up I can get into a good shape pretty easily. 

 

LORs:

-1 from my best friend, also my advisor from college (yeah this person is beyond helpful and we are that close, her and my senior year lab PI wrote me stellar LOR to boost me into Columbia)

-1 from my senior year lab PI, again I don't know what they wrote but probably pretty good, I can bet on this person. 

1 from my Molecular biology lab PI, he is beyond satisfied about the quality of my work, he even promised that he will adjust his letter according to my SOP, and he will show me what he wrote, no catfish 

-2 from my undergrad teachers, I attended more than 3 biology classes from each of them, and got A-A+ in all of the classes, they know I worked hard and have wrote me LOR for my master

-1 from my master teachers, maintained great relationship with this one professor and he is helping me getting through the whole master program, a good friend of mine, we had very often conversations and he is being a great friend, recommending schools and programs and etc. 

Special Bonus Points: 

-international student assistant for 2 years at college, I like helping other kids who have similar background and struggle blending in.  

-I am really talented in many fields outside of school, I am good at painting, 12 years calligraphy master (had a piece stored at my high school HOF), lv.10 certificated in clarinet (=clarinet teacher certification), national certificate athlete (basketball, made it 2nd national place at my sophomore),

-Great communication skill, extremely outgoing, never spoke english before college in my own country but pretty fluent without an accent after just 2 years. All in all, I am really spontaneous 
-Trilingual


Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter:

Some questions:

-I know I have made up my mind to stay with Molecular biology, but other fields are intriguing as hell, like cancer, virology, stem cell/regenerative biology, and etc. Therefore, I am thinking of applying to those umbrella programs, Columbia and penn have "Biology phD" which don't restrict your interest area, I am planning to apply for 3-5 programs like that and rotate in different fields before I made any decision.

-I have jumped around in different fields. I studied heavy ecology, marine biology at undergrad. Majored in nutrition science at master, but got into a molecular biology lab whilst. I did it because I am just generally interested into bio, I like and enjoyed learning and wanted to maximize my experience. All fields are fascinating, but now I am hooked by molecular biology since I have done some great work in the past year. I gotta admitted that I was scared by hard courses back in college such as cell bio, oncology, virology and such, but now boy do I regret...

-The most important question, I need someone hit me with reality: is it too late to change direction? I really liked molecular biology and worked 40-50 hours per week throughout the year, I was more passionate about doing stuff than attending lectures, so should I just stop being overoptimistic and settle down with what I have experienced? -other than the general biology program, I am interested in 2 other fields, molecular nutrition biology, and physiology.

-I am very anxious and unconfident when facing applications, I know it is tough for us international student, I am not sure how competitive I am, I am still doing research about my school list, I need advice for my safe bets, as you can see all I have right now are top universities which I know damn well that I am not getting interviews from....

Applying to Where:

NYU: nutritional and food studies

Boston University: molecular nutrition (dream)

Wisconsin-madison: biomedical & molecular nutrition (dream)

Tufts: biomedical & molecular nutrition (dream)

Columbia: institute of human nutrition (dream)

Cornell: Nutritional science program (stretch a lot)

UCD: nutrition science

UNC: nutrition science 

UIUC nutrition science 

*************************Schools updated at 9/13! **************************************

 

Applying to Where:

NYU: nutritional and food studies

Boston University: molecular nutrition (dream)

Wisconsin-madison: biomedical & molecular nutrition (dream)

Tufts: biomedical & molecular nutrition (dream)

Columbia: institute of human nutrition (dream)

Cornell: Nutritional science program (stretch a lot)

UCD: nutrition science

UNC: nutrition science 

UIUC nutrition science 

*************************Schools updated at 9/13! **************************************

[CaliforniaRunnerKid]

Applying for F2018. Please be VERY honest with me in whether I stand a chance at these schools or if I should lower my expectations. 

Undergrad Institution: NYU College of Arts and Science
Major(s): Biochemistry
GPA in Major: 3.60 
Overall GPA: 3.66
Position in Class: Top 10-15%
Type of Student: Domestic, Male, Whiter than Wonder Bread

GRE Scores (revised/old version):
Q: 163 (84%)
V: 162 (91%)
W: 5.0 (93%)

Research Experience: 

Over 2 years in a lab at NYU School of Medicine that works on drugs for neurodegenerative diseases. 1 Publication as 3rd author of 10 published in Scientific Reports.

Summer internship at a biotech firm where I worked on antibody-drug conjugates for cancer therapeutics. 

3 poster presentations at minor conferences and one industry presentation for ~200 people, after I won an industry award.

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: 

3 years deans list, NCAA Academic All American, Presidential Honors Scholar, Intellectual Property Contributor Award (Award from the company I worked for for developing a method for antibody expression and purification which had higher yield and purity than what they were previously using.) Senior Honors Thesis in Biochemistry

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: 4 year NCAA varsity athlete in track and cross country, Over 1500 hours of community service

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help: NCAA cross country conference champion?

Special Bonus Points: (Such as connections, grad classes, famous recommenders, female or minority status etc...)

One LoR writer, the PI of the lab I have worked at for 2 years at Langone, is 'famous' in the world of neurodegenerative diseases and pharmacology (~400 publications and 19 patents) 

Another LoR writer is an alumni of both Icahn School of Medicine and Rockefeller

Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter:

Applying to Where:

School	Program
UC Berkeley	Molecular and Cellular Biology - Molecular Mechanisms of Disease
UCSF	Pharmaceutical Sciences and Pharmacogenomics - Molecular Pharmacology
NYU Langone	Mechanisms of Disease - Molecular Pharmacology
Columbia	Molecular Basis of Health and Disease - Pathobiology and Molecular Medicine
Johns Hopkins	Pharmacology and Molecular Sciences
Weill Cornell	Pharmacology
Icahn	Biomedical Sciences - Biophysics and Systems Pharmacology
Rockefeller	Mechanisms of Human Disease
Yale	Molecular Medicine, Pharmacology, and Physiology
Brown	Molecular Pharmacology, Physiology
UCSD	Biomedical Sciences - Molecular Pharmacology
UWashington	Pathology - Molecular Medicine and Mechanisms of Disease
Harvard	Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology

[biomol]

Any thoughts or advice, please?

Undergrad Institution: foreign, the top school for science in Peru

Major(s): Biology
Minor(s): none
Overall GPA: 15/20 aprox 3.85
Position in Class: Top 10
Type of Student: International, female

GRE Scores (revised/old version): (Practice scores)
Q: 155-160
V: 155-160
W: 4.0

TOEFL Total: (I haven't taken it yet)

Research Experience: 

1 year undergraduate thesis on protein activity 

3 month internship in plant genetics, in a research institute

3 months as a research assistant in biophysics Lab at a school 

2 month internship in nematode genetics abroad

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: none

Pertinent Activities or Jobs:

Biochemistry tutor

Biology workshops for High school students

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help:

Special Bonus Points: (Such as connections, grad classes, famous recommenders, female or minority status etc...)

Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter:

Applying to Where:

NYU - Biology - Genomics and Systems Biology
U of Chicago - BioSciences - Genetics, Genomics and Systems Biology
U of Wisconsin-Madison - Cellular and Molecular Biology

Edited September 14, 2017 by biomol

[Sakashi]

Undergrad Institution: R3 school, I'd say it's more lib-arts focused. IUP
Major(s): Biology (Pre-Veterinary Track)
Minor(s): Chemistry and Psychology
GPA in Major: 3.34 
Overall GPA: 3.64
Position in Class: Magna Cum Laude? 
Type of Student: Domestic, Female
GRE Scores: Q:155-59% // V:162-90% // W:5.0-93%
Research Experience: Undergrad: 2 school years. Neuroethology of reward and aggression w/lizard model. Essentially became assistant lab manager of the very small lab by my second year. Gave poster presentations at schools symposium, chosen to present poster at state-wide poster thing. (1 unrelated publication, 4th out of 9, from summer research program/course)

Post graduation: Research Tech, mechanisms of prenatal effects of alcohol exposure. Little under 2 years total. 2 pubs, 2/5 and 6/8; 1 manuscript in progress where I'm first author out of 4. 

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Deans award of excellence for poster presented at university's undergrad forum, chosen by school to go to an annual undergrad research conference at the state capitol. 
Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Research Tech just under 2 years, volunteered at variety of places like wildlife center (which means I can put the cool phrase "small-to-medium raptor handling techniques" if I so choose) and veterinary clinic.
Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help:  One of 100 accepted into the university's special honors college. Required attendance in Socratic style classes which emphasized critical thinking, exchange of ideas, civil discussion, open-mindedness, problem-solving and public speaking. Required two end of unit mini-theses per semester, for total of 8 theses total. Topics had to be related to core subject of that unit. Relevant mini-theses included the philosophy surrounding the use of animals in research and the public image of an uncaring scientist. over a decade of experience using photo editing/graphics programs. Was a designated note taker for a giant number of classes, turning notes in on time  for them to be photocopied for some other student; included Physics 1&2, Genetics, Virology, Micro and more that I'm forgetting. 
Special Bonus Points: Female. 

Any other things that show up on application: 2nd semester chem courses are my downfall. Gen Chem I dropped from an A to a C. Orgo I dropped from a B to a C. Orgo is explainable, I went from a professor who taught via literature. Had his own textbook packet, simple, informative, easy to read, really helped me. Explained the concepts behind the chemistry at work. Orgo 2 I had a different professor, who taught via diagram. Threw equations onto board, verbal and brief explanation of the concept behind the chemistry, just utterly different. Ends up, I need to read to learn things effectively. Even though I took copious notes, it was just a little bit too far out of my grasp. 
(thinking about)Applying to Where: Gonna be Neuro for all of them, and Research interest is going to be the same for all of them; addiction, reward/motivation, psychiatric disorders, animal models, behavioral neuro. 
JHU 

Penn State

U. Penn

Pitt

Carnegie

VCU

UVA

VT

U Maryland

U Maryland, Baltimore

UNC

Edited September 14, 2017 by Sakashi

[Nick1452]

On 9/13/2017 at 8:46 PM, CaliforniaRunnerKid said:

Applying for F2018. Please be VERY honest with me in whether I stand a chance at these schools or if I should lower my expectations. 

Undergrad Institution: NYU College of Arts and Science
Major(s): Biochemistry
GPA in Major: 3.60 
Overall GPA: 3.66
Position in Class: Top 10-15%
Type of Student: Domestic, Male, Whiter than Wonder Bread

GRE Scores (revised/old version):
Q: 163 (84%)
V: 162 (91%)
W: 5.0 (93%)

Research Experience: 

Over 2 years in a lab at NYU School of Medicine that works on drugs for neurodegenerative diseases. 1 Publication as 3rd author of 10 published in Scientific Reports.

Summer internship at a biotech firm where I worked on antibody-drug conjugates for cancer therapeutics. 

3 poster presentations at minor conferences and one industry presentation for ~200 people, after I won an industry award.

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: 

3 years deans list, NCAA Academic All American, Presidential Honors Scholar, Intellectual Property Contributor Award (Award from the company I worked for for developing a method for antibody expression and purification which had higher yield and purity than what they were previously using.) Senior Honors Thesis in Biochemistry

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: 4 year NCAA varsity athlete in track and cross country, Over 1500 hours of community service

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help: NCAA cross country conference champion?

Special Bonus Points: (Such as connections, grad classes, famous recommenders, female or minority status etc...)

One LoR writer, the PI of the lab I have worked at for 2 years at Langone, is 'famous' in the world of neurodegenerative diseases and pharmacology (~400 publications and 19 patents) 

Another LoR writer is an alumni of both Icahn School of Medicine and Rockefeller

Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter:

Applying to Where:

School	Program
UC Berkeley	Molecular and Cellular Biology - Molecular Mechanisms of Disease
UCSF	Pharmaceutical Sciences and Pharmacogenomics - Molecular Pharmacology
NYU Langone	Mechanisms of Disease - Molecular Pharmacology
Columbia	Molecular Basis of Health and Disease - Pathobiology and Molecular Medicine
Johns Hopkins	Pharmacology and Molecular Sciences
Weill Cornell	Pharmacology
Icahn	Biomedical Sciences - Biophysics and Systems Pharmacology
Rockefeller	Mechanisms of Human Disease
Yale	Molecular Medicine, Pharmacology, and Physiology
Brown	Molecular Pharmacology, Physiology
UCSD	Biomedical Sciences - Molecular Pharmacology
UWashington	Pathology - Molecular Medicine and Mechanisms of Disease
Harvard	Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology

You'll be fine, I'm sure you'll have more than enough interviews. Maybe think of Duke to add? 

 

[Bioenchilada]

On 9/13/2017 at 8:46 PM, CaliforniaRunnerKid said:

Applying for F2018. Please be VERY honest with me in whether I stand a chance at these schools or if I should lower my expectations. 

Undergrad Institution: NYU College of Arts and Science
Major(s): Biochemistry
GPA in Major: 3.60 
Overall GPA: 3.66
Position in Class: Top 10-15%
Type of Student: Domestic, Male, Whiter than Wonder Bread

GRE Scores (revised/old version):
Q: 163 (84%)
V: 162 (91%)
W: 5.0 (93%)

Research Experience: 

Over 2 years in a lab at NYU School of Medicine that works on drugs for neurodegenerative diseases. 1 Publication as 3rd author of 10 published in Scientific Reports.

Summer internship at a biotech firm where I worked on antibody-drug conjugates for cancer therapeutics. 

3 poster presentations at minor conferences and one industry presentation for ~200 people, after I won an industry award.

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: 

3 years deans list, NCAA Academic All American, Presidential Honors Scholar, Intellectual Property Contributor Award (Award from the company I worked for for developing a method for antibody expression and purification which had higher yield and purity than what they were previously using.) Senior Honors Thesis in Biochemistry

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: 4 year NCAA varsity athlete in track and cross country, Over 1500 hours of community service

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help: NCAA cross country conference champion?

Special Bonus Points: (Such as connections, grad classes, famous recommenders, female or minority status etc...)

One LoR writer, the PI of the lab I have worked at for 2 years at Langone, is 'famous' in the world of neurodegenerative diseases and pharmacology (~400 publications and 19 patents) 

Another LoR writer is an alumni of both Icahn School of Medicine and Rockefeller

Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter:

Applying to Where:

School	Program
UC Berkeley	Molecular and Cellular Biology - Molecular Mechanisms of Disease
UCSF	Pharmaceutical Sciences and Pharmacogenomics - Molecular Pharmacology
NYU Langone	Mechanisms of Disease - Molecular Pharmacology
Columbia	Molecular Basis of Health and Disease - Pathobiology and Molecular Medicine
Johns Hopkins	Pharmacology and Molecular Sciences
Weill Cornell	Pharmacology
Icahn	Biomedical Sciences - Biophysics and Systems Pharmacology
Rockefeller	Mechanisms of Human Disease
Yale	Molecular Medicine, Pharmacology, and Physiology
Brown	Molecular Pharmacology, Physiology
UCSD	Biomedical Sciences - Molecular Pharmacology
UWashington	Pathology - Molecular Medicine and Mechanisms of Disease
Harvard	Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology

I would not apply to more than 8 schools, it is very likely that you'll have a conflict when it comes down to interview. Also, your list seems very top-heavy. Make sure you are applying because there are at LEAST 5 faculty members that you would work with and because you are legitimately interested in the program and/or school. It is really easy to fish out when someone is just applying for the prestige, and it becomes more difficult to write a good SOP if that's the main reason. Who is the other person writing you a letter? 

PS. Alumni status does not really mean much from what I've seen. From personal experience, I had a letter from a Harvard alumnus and PI, and still got rejected. 

[Bioenchilada]

6 hours ago, Sakashi said:

Undergrad Institution: R3 school, I'd say it's more lib-arts focused. IUP
Major(s): Biology (Pre-Veterinary Track)
Minor(s): Chemistry and Psychology
GPA in Major: 3.34 
Overall GPA: 3.64
Position in Class: Magna Cum Laude? 
Type of Student: Domestic, Female
GRE Scores: Q:155-59% // V:162-90% // W:5.0-93%
Research Experience: Undergrad: 2 school years. Neuroethology of reward and aggression w/lizard model. Essentially became assistant lab manager of the very small lab by my second year. Gave poster presentations at schools symposium, chosen to present poster at state-wide poster thing. (1 unrelated publication, 4th out of 9, from summer research program/course)

Post graduation: Research Tech, mechanisms of prenatal effects of alcohol exposure. Little under 2 years total. 2 pubs, 2/5 and 6/8; 1 manuscript in progress where I'm first author out of 4. 

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Deans award of excellence for poster presented at university's undergrad forum, chosen by school to go to an annual undergrad research conference at the state capitol. 
Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Research Tech just under 2 years, volunteered at variety of places like wildlife center (which means I can put the cool phrase "small-to-medium raptor handling techniques" if I so choose) and veterinary clinic.
Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help:  One of 100 accepted into the university's special honors college. Required attendance in Socratic style classes which emphasized critical thinking, exchange of ideas, civil discussion, open-mindedness, problem-solving and public speaking. Required two end of unit mini-theses per semester, for total of 8 theses total. Topics had to be related to core subject of that unit. Relevant mini-theses included the philosophy surrounding the use of animals in research and the public image of an uncaring scientist. over a decade of experience using photo editing/graphics programs. Was a designated note taker for a giant number of classes, turning notes in on time  for them to be photocopied for some other student; included Physics 1&2, Genetics, Virology, Micro and more that I'm forgetting. 
Special Bonus Points: Female. 

Any other things that show up on application: 2nd semester chem courses are my downfall. Gen Chem I dropped from an A to a C. Orgo I dropped from a B to a C. Orgo is explainable, I went from a professor who taught via literature. Had his own textbook packet, simple, informative, easy to read, really helped me. Explained the concepts behind the chemistry at work. Orgo 2 I had a different professor, who taught via diagram. Threw equations onto board, verbal and brief explanation of the concept behind the chemistry, just utterly different. Ends up, I need to read to learn things effectively. Even though I took copious notes, it was just a little bit too far out of my grasp. 
(thinking about)Applying to Where: Gonna be Neuro for all of them, and Research interest is going to be the same for all of them; addiction, reward/motivation, psychiatric disorders, animal models, behavioral neuro. 
JHU 

Penn State

U. Penn

Pitt

Carnegie

VCU

UVA

VT

U Maryland

U Maryland, Baltimore

UNC

Though your GPA and GRE math are a little bit on the low side, I think that your research experience speaks to your skills as a scientist and am confident that as long as your LOR writers can further vouch for this, you will be more than fine. You also have a pretty good mix of schools, so I'm confident that if you write a good SOP, you'll get a couple of interviews

[samman1994]

6 minutes ago, Bioenchilada said:

I would not apply to more than 8 schools, it is very likely that you'll have a conflict when it comes down to interview. Also, your list seems very top-heavy. Make sure you are applying because there are at LEAST 5 faculty members that you would work with and because you are legitimately interested in the program and/or school. It is really easy to fish out when someone is just applying for the prestige, and it becomes more difficult to write a good SOP if that's the main reason. Who is the other person writing you a letter? 

PS. Alumni status does not really mean much from what I've seen. From personal experience, I had a letter from a Harvard alumnus and PI, and still got rejected. 

at least 5? That's quite a bit, I'd say 3 is a good number, don't think you'd need five. But he is right on the other point, don't apply to a school just because of it's reputation and name, make sure to apply because the faculties research really interests you. I'd also recommend narrowing the list down a little bit, maybe down to just 5. Keep in mind you want an individual SOP for each school, it costs quite a bit to apply, and you will have potential interview conflicts. So the more schools, the more time, money, and potential problems you'll have. 

[Bioenchilada]

7 hours ago, samman1994 said:

at least 5? That's quite a bit, I'd say 3 is a good number, don't think you'd need five. But he is right on the other point, don't apply to a school just because of it's reputation and name, make sure to apply because the faculties research really interests you. I'd also recommend narrowing the list down a little bit, maybe down to just 5. Keep in mind you want an individual SOP for each school, it costs quite a bit to apply, and you will have potential interview conflicts. So the more schools, the more time, money, and potential problems you'll have. 

In programs where you have to rotate, only having three could be a problem. Rotations are not always very straightforward to set up and professors might have their reasons to not let anyone rotate in a given year. You have to consider that if you choose a high-profile professor, odds are there will be competition. Interviewing also gets more complicated with only a short list of people because the probability that you'll talk with people you have zero familiarity with their researcbh skyrockets. Having gone through the process myself, I don't think three is enough. At most, it is the BARE minimum, but you should aim for more to be safe. 

Also, I think 5 is risky if the list is full of top schools. If the OP has the money and time to write good SOPs, they should go ahead and apply. Anything above 8 is probably too much, though you could always call and check what the interview dates are, or look it up online, sometimes it's publicly available. 

[Sakashi]

8 hours ago, Bioenchilada said:

 You also have a pretty good mix of schools, so I'm confident that if you write a good SOP, you'll get a couple of interviews

Haha, yeah, I've definitely got a mix of schools. There are a couple reach schools on there just because I figure I've got the money to cover applying, and it won't be any more effort (and the program and faculty research seem a good fit, but that should go without saying). I'll probably narrow it down further than this list (for instance, as much as I like the BB2 program by Carnegie in assoc. W/ Pitt, Pittsburgh as a city isn't top on my list due to distance and cost).

[StemCellFan]

17 hours ago, biomol said:

Any thoughts or advice, please?

Undergrad Institution: foreign, the top school for science in Peru

Major(s): Biology
Minor(s): none
Overall GPA: 15/20 aprox 3.85
Position in Class: Top 10
Type of Student: International, female

GRE Scores (revised/old version): (Practice scores)
Q: 155-160
V: 155-160
W: 4.0

TOEFL Total: (I haven't taken it yet)

Research Experience: 

1 year undergraduate thesis on protein activity 

3 month internship in plant genetics, in a research institute

3 months as a research assistant in biophysics Lab at a school 

2 month internship in nematode genetics abroad

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: none

Pertinent Activities or Jobs:

Biochemistry tutor

Biology workshops for High school students

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help:

Special Bonus Points: (Such as connections, grad classes, famous recommenders, female or minority status etc...)

Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter:

Applying to Where:

NYU - Biology - Genomics and Systems Biology
U of Chicago - BioSciences - Genetics, Genomics and Systems Biology
U of Wisconsin-Madison - Cellular and Molecular Biology

I think this looks good, but I would aim to do well on the GRE.  GPA looks fine.  I don't know why you picked those schools specifically, but I would definitely consider more than 3 schools, especially since those are pretty competitive ones to get into and you're applying as an international student.  Good luck!

[samman1994]

3 hours ago, Bioenchilada said:

In programs where you have to rotate, only having three could be a problem. Rotations are not always very straightforward to set up and professors might have their reasons to not let anyone rotate in a given year. You have to consider that if you choose a high-profile professor, odds are there will be competition. Interviewing also gets more complicated with only a short list of people because the probability that you'll talk with people you have zero familiarity with their researcbh skyrockets. Having gone through the process myself, I don't think three is enough. At most, it is the BARE minimum, but you should aim for more to be safe. 

Also, I think 5 is risky if the list is full of top schools. If the OP has the money and time to write good SOPs, they should go ahead and apply. Anything above 8 is probably too much, though you could always call and check what the interview dates are, or look it up online, sometimes it's publicly available. 

I don't exactly know how rotations work. Are they mandatory? How many labs do you have to rotate around? Also, I don't know how the interview process works. Is it based on who is on the grad committee during that time (i.e. it could literally be anyone in the biochem/chem program)? 

 

[StemCellFan]

5 minutes ago, samman1994 said:

I don't exactly know how rotations work. Are they mandatory? How many labs do you have to rotate around? Also, I don't know how the interview process works. Is it based on who is on the grad committee during that time (i.e. it could literally be anyone in the biochem/chem program)? 

 

Rotations are done either in the first year or semester of a program (this differs a lot by program) and last for a few weeks.  You contact a PI after you are admitted into a program to set up a rotation if he/she are accepting students.  My impression is that they are mandatory for the programs that do them, and the number of rotations you do differ from program to program.  Some do 2, some do up to 4.  The institution I'm working at now does 4 rotations over the course of the first year, 9 weeks each, and there is option for a 5th if none of those work out.  If you can't find a lab after that, then you are basically removed from the program.  I would look at student handbooks on the websites of the programs, or any other information that lets you know how their systems work.

For the last question... I will tell you what the institution I'm working at does for their umbrella biomedical sciences program.  For interviews, there are 4 faculty members.  One member is on the admissions committee, one is on the recruiting committee, and the other two are individuals whose research you are interested in.  The program director will send an email before the interview weekend asking which faculty you would be interested in potentially working with.

[samman1994]

1 minute ago, StemCellFan said:

Rotations are done either in the first year or semester of a program (this differs a lot by program) and last for a few weeks.  You contact a PI after you are admitted into a program to set up a rotation if he/she are accepting students.  My impression is that they are mandatory for the programs that do them, and the number of rotations you do differ from program to program.  Some do 2, some do up to 4.  The institution I'm working at now does 4 rotations over the course of the first year, 9 weeks each, and there is option for a 5th if none of those work out.  If you can't find a lab after that, then you are basically removed from the program.  I would look at student handbooks on the websites of the programs, or any other information that lets you know how their systems work.

For the last question... I will tell you what the institution I'm working at does for their umbrella biomedical sciences program.  For interviews, there are 4 faculty members.  One member is on the admissions committee, one is on the recruiting committee, and the other two are individuals whose research you are interested in.  The program director will send an email before the interview weekend asking which faculty you would be interested in potentially working with.

Oh ok. I'll look them up then and see how many professors I should start looking at for each school. Since I'll be explicitly stating some professors in my SOP who's research interest me, I hope they would put them on the committee. Especially since I'm changing majors, I'm not super knowledgeable about all the fields of the major i'm going into, so if they brought people who's research focus was outside of mine, I'd be screwed. 

[Bioenchilada]

46 minutes ago, samman1994 said:

I don't exactly know how rotations work. Are they mandatory? How many labs do you have to rotate around? Also, I don't know how the interview process works. Is it based on who is on the grad committee during that time (i.e. it could literally be anyone in the biochem/chem program)? 

 

If a program is rotation-based, they are mandatory. My program has 3 12-week rotations. In terms of interviews, my program had 3 interviewers that you picked ahead of time, don't know if any of them had to be on the adcom. A lot of the time, you don't get who you pick. This is variable per school in terms of number and length.

[Bioenchilada]

35 minutes ago, samman1994 said:

Oh ok. I'll look them up then and see how many professors I should start looking at for each school. Since I'll be explicitly stating some professors in my SOP who's research interest me, I hope they would put them on the committee. Especially since I'm changing majors, I'm not super knowledgeable about all the fields of the major i'm going into, so if they brought people who's research focus was outside of mine, I'd be screwed. 

They don't put people on the commitee for certain applicants, that is picked ahead of time. Also, schools will typically send you a form after you get selected for an interview, or you email them, about your picks. Some will tell you to send a list of like 10 people, literally. So, this goes back to not choosing a school where three people are doing the work you want. I made that mistake, and it was very difficult to pick interviewers.