Biosciences: Application information (old results thread)

[choijae]

Anybody from way up north here?

I went to a top 3 university in Canada (International!!!)

Research interest : Genetics/Molecular evolution
GPA:3.7 and 3.8 for major GPA
GRE: taking both the subject and general in Oct

Research experience : 3 fourth year project/thesis or whatever its called. Poster presentation etc. A summer of national grant funded research. A year of lab tech(aka the lab slave).

LOR: 2 from P.Is who supervised me and 1 from a upper year course prof.

Planning to apply to

Harvard
Yale
Cornell
Columbia
Upenn
Chicago
U of Wisconsin
Rockafellar
Maybe add on as time goes...

Hey Ive got a question. You guys planning to take the subject test as well? By the looks of the posts it seems not many people are taking or took the subject test. I thought even though many schools say they dont require it but its pretty much required anyways.
Any thoughts?

[roxannecellbio]

The rule I followed when I applied to programs last year was: unless the program absolutely required the subject test, I did not report my score. I did take the test because one of the more than ten programs I applied to (UCSF Tetrad) absolutely required it, but I reported my score only to that one school. All the other schools said the subject test was "highly recommended," but I ignored that and did not report the subject test score to them. It didn't hurt my application at all (I still got into a lot of competitive programs).

So, unless you know you'll ace the subject test, don't take it unless it's "required."

[MasterMoe]

Hey Choijae! I'm assuming this means my contact contacted you lol.

Nice to know we have another one also applying this year. Good luck! So it totals 4-5 biomers and former biomers on this forum atm.

I'm assuming you'll be writing the Biology subject test and not the Molecular Bio subject test. If you're taking both the subject and general tests, I'm going to assume you already started studying for both.

What happened to MIT, Duke, Johns Hopkins, Princeton, and UWashington?

[choijae]

Hey Mastermoe
Nice to meet ya and other biomers as well!!lol
So there are 4-5 biomers here?
lol it feels nice that there are some people out there that I sorta know

Anyways i dunno if im gonna take the subject test now. It seems people take the subject test if they have a bad GPA and wanna make up for it or come from a generally unknown university and wanna prove their academic ability. Also it seems that if I take the subject test I'd have to get really good scores or its just better not taking it at all.

And hmm didnt think of the 5 schools you mentioned that much. Maybe Ill consider them now lol.

[kryptonsa36]

Originally Posted by roxannecellbio

(UCSF Tetrad) absolutely required it

While that's their official statement, it is by no means an absolute requirement in practice. I know a couple individuals who were accepted without having taken a subject GRE.

[sarbruis]

What's a biomer?

[roxannecellbio]

Before I took the test, I did actually call UCSF up and ask them if the subject test is definitely required, and they said absolutely yes. So I took it and only reported my (very low) score to them. However, I too have spoken with people who said they didn't take it and still got in. It goes to show there's no cut-and-dry way of doing things when it comes to graduate school applications.

[safetypin00]

@ sarbruis. Life Science undergraduates at UofToronto have their forum with discussions relating to courses, undergrad life, tests, and other random junk like general "life" things.. it is called Biome, and thus those at LifeSci UofT who utilize it are "biomers".

[MolSysBio]

this subject test stuff is absolutely useless. it's in our interests as applicants to make the process as stress-free as possible, and the ets and 1/1000000 graduate schools in the country have to complicate the matter by "strongly recommending," "requiring" or "absolutely requiring" us to spend valuable money and time on a stupid subject test. that's something else.

</rant>

[LAC operon]

"So I took it and only reported my (very low) score to them." What is a very low score? People aren't responding to my other post about that (570, 70th percentile, taken mid-molec. bio/pre cell bio because of my major's graduation requirements forced the timing; my biochem sub test was 84th percentile and my cell and molec bio were lower than 70th percentile, so it averages)

[MolSysBio]

^^

i asked about this once and i got the reply that anything above 85 percentile is a good score.

[Bentham]

Interest: Molecular Medicine/Pharmacology
GPA: 3.2 overall, upward trend junior year I had a 3.5 in mostly upper level courses
Major: B.S. Biology minor in Economics
GRE: 550 (75%) V/ 640 (57%) Q/ 4.5 (63%) AW
Experience: 1 summer in a pharmacology lab and the senior project I will be working on this year
LORs: 1 from senior thesis advisor, 1 from academic advisor who also taught two bio classes, 1 from PI over the summer

Applying:
Pitt
UNC
U of Virginia
U of Maryland
Duke
UT Houston
UT Southwestern
Baylor
Case

[GCN2]

My sentiments exactly MolSysBio, but at the end of the day it's just another hoop to jump through. The crappy part is, it's a "go big or go home" sort of thing. If you do well it might help, but if you don't your screwed.

[kryptonsa36]

My impression is that even the benefit from doing well is very minimal.

[GCN2]

I got an email from UCSD BMS saying I was approved to fill out the application (they have a pre application they require first). Anyone know if they actually screen people?