Master vs. Phd

[halfstrengthKarnovsky]

Hi,

I'm preparing to apply for grad school next year. My undergrad GPA seems too low to get into any good PhD programs... I'm hesitating if I should do a master program first to get better GPA and then apply for PhD programs.

uGPA: 3.1 BS Molecular biology from a large public university

GRE(V/Q/W): 160/170/4.5

Research experience: 2 years as undergrad researcher & 2 years as full time technician at a well known institute.

Co-authored 3 papers(second and third author). Impact Factor ~25 / +10 / +15.

Interested field: immunology, biochem, molecular bio, cancer bio

Interested school: Stanford, Yale, UC Berkeley, UCSF, UCSD, Columbia, NYU, Emory, WUSTL

Thoughts?

 

 

 

 

 

[Concordia]

Molecular biologists will have a better idea of how you stack up, but if the GPA was a temporary problem, there might be some merit to doing a master's-- to prove that you now have your act together.  Of course, if you get into a good PhD program the first try, then that becomes irrelevant.