Biology PhD advice required??

molliebatmit
Mon, 30 Jul 2007 20:16:57 +0000

If you’re relatively sure you can get an excellent score on one of the biology subject GREs (most schools will take either biology or molecular/cell), then take the test. If you are not positive you will do well (and remember that you almost certainly won’t be able to see the scores before you send them to the programs), don’t bother. It’s not going to make or break an application unless you have a poor score. For the top programs, ideally you’d like to have a subject GRE percentile of 90 or above, although people certainly do get interviews in the 60-80th percentile range.

As for recommendations, ideally you’ll have all of them from professors, but if there’s someone you think would write a very strong letter, it’s okay to have one non-professor. I had a postdoc write one of my three letters, and it worked out very nicely. Having very strong letters is the most important factor, but it’s preferable to have them all from professors.