Applying to grad school after 2yrs undergrad?

meguca
Thu, 24 Jan 2013 05:53:57 +0000

Hi,

I haven’t done much research into the grad school application process. I’m definitely going to finish undergrad in two years. I’m currently in my 1st year of undergrad (but I’m very advanced for a 1st year student). Would it be viable to apply to graduate schools for a PhD directly after undergrad? Here’s some basic info about me:


I have two fields of interest: (1) slowing and delaying aging and the onset of aging-related diseases, especially using C. elegans as a model to explore particular ways to combat oxidative stress, and (2) applying novel stem cell-based research to combat Alzheimer’s and other neurogenerative diseases. (Can go into more detail but would rather not.) I am strongly biased towards working on the former but I will admit that (2) has been on my mind for a while so I just thought I’d list it here as well.
I have been working with two research groups/labs. The first one focuses on aging and the second one is a physical chemistry lab (I have done projects with EPR, studying the effects upon the anisotrophy of the g factor when the molecule possesses various functional groups/changes/etc.). Both PIs will be willing to give me a good LOR. I don’t know about a 3rd LOR - is that usually required? I can definitely find one of my course instructors who will be willing to write me a good LOR, but it would definitely not be as good as the other two LORs.
My GPA is above 3.9, my general GRE score is above 95th percentile for both verbal and math, and my GRE subject test in Biochem is above 95th percentile. Majoring in Biochemistry.
I go to a large public state university strong in research.
I am 18 years old and will graduate at 19 - I don’t know how much graduate schools care about age.
NO PUBLICATIONS YET, UNFORTUNATELY! But hopefully that will change next year…


I have been considering taking a “gap year” after I graduate but I want to get into a top PhD program ASAP for personal reasons. Would it be a waste of time for me to start thinking about applying or should I do the gap year?

Again: I absolutely do not want to waste my time applying to graduate programs if I don’t have a good chance of getting into universities/departments/programs which are strong in my research interests (especially (1)) and are good/prestigious. I want to get into a HIGH-QUALITY graduate program and definitely do not want to “rush” getting into grad school and end up at some mediocre program with a PI who doesn’t really care about my research. I’m just VERY curious to know if it’s even worth my time applying next year or if there’s ABSOLUTELY NO CHANCE that it’s worth it.

Schools that have PIs who I would be interested in working with (I just did a cursory search, this isn’t very refined): Caltech, MIT, Stanford, UC-Berkeley, UWashington, UCSF, Harvard, JHU

On that note - how many programs/schools do people usually apply to?

Thanks, everyone!