How Competitive am I for top-10 Bioengineering PhD Programs?

[PickleRick]

Hi All, I'm just submitting my PhD applications to bioengineering programs, and have only selected those that fall in the top-10 or so (ideally trying to land at Stanford, UCSF/UC Berkeley, MIT, Johns Hopkins, UMich or Duke). My concern is that I may have overestimated my chances at these schools. I'd like to consider applying to a more medium ranged program or two if it seems my chances are relatively weak. Would love any feedback, thanks!

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Undergrad Institution: Middle-teir private school

Major(s): Bioengineering (B.S.) & Electrical Engineering (M.S.)

Minor(s): n/a

GPA in Major: 3.43/4.00 (B.S.) & 3.89/4.00 (M.S.) ... I realize my UG GPA isn't ideal, my first two years were significantly worse (~3.2) than my last two years. I'm a 1st generation college student so was kinda just getting used to college.

Overall GPA: 3.47/4.00 (B.S.) & 3.89/4.00 (M.S.)

Demographics/Background: White, 22 (will be 23 in February), 1st generation college student

GRE Scores:
Q: 164 (87%)
V: 156 (73%)
W: 5.0 (93%)

LOR: 3 great LOR (2 from undergraduate and graduate PIs who've supervised me for 3 years and 2 years respectively, and 1 from my internship mentor at a large biopharma company)

Research Experience: almost 4 years mainly split between 2 different academic labs and a summer in the biopharma industry

 

Publications/Abstracts/Presentations: (1) first author, (2) second author, and (2) third author publications in peer reviewed journals with impact factor >5, another first author publication in preparation but likely won't be submitted until early next year (noted in one of my LOR). I've presented at 4 different conferences (all poster presentations)

 

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: I independently wrote and submitted 5 different grant applications that gave me ~$25,000 of funding for research work in two different labs, associate member of sigma xi research society (not sure this means much?), and was selected for the excellence in research award at my universities engineering awards and honors convocation.

 

Fellowships/Funding: Applied for NSF GRFP

 

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Worked at a large biopharmaceutical company for a summer

 

Research Interests: Single cell proteomics/genomics, microfluidics, mLSI, medical imaging. 

 

Comments: Mainly just trying to gauge how I stack up at these competitive schools, I appreciate any comments!

[katpillow]

PickleRick, it's probably late for it now, but I'd say you're a competitive candidate for many programs. Your MS GPA definitely tells a fresh new story and proves you can tackle grad level coursework (which is what they want to know). I don't know how much they'll weigh your school on that, though. The thing that they'll really like is the first author paper (and the others are nice too). Knowing that, I think you're a strong candidate, but what do I know? It's hard to predict how they'll react to certain things. Your UG GPA doesn't even touch the horror of mine, so I think you'll be just fine.

Hopefully you hear back from several of the schools you're interested in in the next few weeks. Good luck! Hopefully we'll run into each other at UMich, MIT, or Berk/UCSF interviews.