Applications to Biophysics - Rejected, How to Proceed

[irongoat333]

Greetings All,

So this cycle I applied to a few different programs that are biophysics-related after finishing a HBSc at U of T.

My situation is a bit odd (I'm an older student who finished a degree in EE 12 years ago with horrendous grades,
did an entire arts-degree worth of credits the bulk of which are pulling down my cGPA heavily, I'm at about 2.95.
However, in my 3rd/4th year biophysics I'm standing at a passable 3.4, with a 3.55 in my 4th year courses) I also
did a year of research in Fluorescence, and had two professors familiar with my early research efforts endorse
my application.

So far I got rejected from McMasters EngPhys program, and Guelph's program, after having conversations with
prospective supervisors that lead me to believe that my grades were in a competitive range. Guelph gave me some
useful feedback, telling me that the issue was primarily that I haven't taken enough biology to do NMR work (and that
this, rather than grades was the issue) and I suspect my rejection from McMaster was largely due to my first degree
from 12 years ago, even though my recent grades might have been in range. I am worried however that one of my
LORs might have been not great - My father was dying during that year, and it really affected my output in the lab.
I still finished what was assigned to me and got an A- in the end, but the professor changed his mind on allowing
me to continue in his lab into the summer. The prof did say he would write a good letter of recommendation, but
I'm worried that this isn't the case. The professor in question won't really answer my inquiries with anything but
vague suggestions, and won't recommend any labs or put in a good word for me with colleagues.

The rejections so far suck, but I'm not too phased. I want to delay graduation and take advanced versions of
some of the important third year courses I got B's in : StatMech, Optics, Computational Physics, etc and pull
my 3rd/4th year physics GPA (senior GPA) up to > 3.6, my cumulative up to >3.0 and get more credits in biology.
The problem is that I feel like my reputation in research work is bad, and that nothing I do at this point will help
me achieve my goal of getting into spectroscopy/optics. More school is expensive, and I haven't gotten much
feedback from the graduate programs as to why I am so uncompetitive. I'm worried that its the letter more than
the grades, and there's no way to know.

Has anyone else found themselves in a similar situation? I'm really at a crossroads, where I want to push
forward but am quite discouraged at just how badly things have gone in spite of efforts to overcome.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

C

Edited December 22, 2017 by irongoat333

[jtrick]

Hey irongoat333,

I'm not an expert on this at all, but I had luck applying to some biophysics and computational biology programs this season (4/4 with Princeton/Yale/UChicago/UWashington). I'm writing this because I don't see you mention the GRE in your post, but you're asking for advice on how to be competitive. There are a bunch of books on the subject, but I recommend skimming "Inside Graduate Admissions" by Julie Posselt. The author is a sociologist that shadowed graduate acceptance committees trying to figure out what they're looking at when accepting students (an interesting subject given how all the students are basically qualified). Long story short, by the author's estimation, the GRE matters the most, followed closely by having some kind of background/cultural similarities with high-ranking people on the committee (but you can't control for this second factor).

One example she uses to support her point about the GRE trumping all else: the committees tend to rank applicants in Excel by GRE score before going down the list to fill their acceptance list. Further, small difference in GRE scores were, when debating the relative merits of different applicants, used as "tie-breakers." So while publications obviously help, as do good grades, LORs, etc., the professors on the acceptance committee are (I believe, after reading the book) leaning very heavily on GRE scores.

If you give it another go next year, I would try to invest a ton of time in doing well on the GRE (doing every Magoosh math problem, or taking an in person course, etc).

Some books that I thought helped a lot (in order of their relevance):

"Inside Graduate Admissions: Merit, Diversity, and Faculty Gatekeeping"

"Graduate Admissions Essays, Fourth Edition: Write Your Way into the Graduate School of Your Choice"

"Getting What You Came For: The Smart Student's Guide to Earning an M.A. or a Ph.D."

Sincerely,

J