Biology/Biomedical Sciences Applicants 2008

Nissle1917
Sun, 01 Jun 2008 10:05:43 +0000

I’m applying to PhD programs in Cell Biology/ Molecular Biology. My specific topic of interest is cell death (apoptosis)/ cell cycle regulation. Some places I am applying to are BU, Dartmouth College, Princeton, Rockefeller.

I am currently finishing up my Masters in Microbiology at the University of Rhode Island. My GPA for my Masters isn’t great, but my professors don’t like to see "A"s on grad transcripts: they think that means you’re not doing enough research. My GPA is above the 3.0 cutoff. It’s around 3.3. I have mostly "B+"s and "A-"s and one “C”. My GRE score is 1380 (V- 640, Q- 740) and my Biochem GRE is 77 percentile. I don’t have any papers yet, but I know I will have about three in the next year and a half. I visited BU recently and met the prof I’m interested in working with, and she was impressed with the amount of research I had for a Masters. And I was able to demonstrate that I had read her research and thought about it to great depth. I have almost two years teaching experience (1 year as TA and almost a year as a one-on-one minority student tutor). My university is not famous, but my prof is a very famous and respected microbiologist. My LORs will be great: one from my PI, one from my teaching and one from a prof who had me as a student.

But I still have a bad feeling about my GPA. I think it might hold me back.

What do you guys think? Please. . . I’m freaking out.