Graduate School Hopeful

<p>I have recently graduated from Oregon State University with a degree in Biochemistry and Biophysics. My GPA was a 3.2. My GPA before my senior year of college was a 3.5. I had many health issues my senior year of college. I also was also an Honors College student, but once again didnt finish it because of senior year issues. However my question is this, I just got a GRE score of 1410. 780q 630v. I am very interested in getting a Phd in Biomedical Informatics. The schools that I like are:
Stanford
UC Berkeley
UW
UCSF</p>

<p>I actualy am currently working as a part time research assistant at Stanford University. This is my top school, obviously, do I have any chances here. My senior destroyed everything I feel like…argh Any help appreciated. How important is GPA really? My friend had a 3.2 gpa, lots of research experience and great LORs, she got into Stanford and UW. She ended up at UW, they gave her more money. Oh yes, this sounds terrible, I have never used the ethnicity thing, but I was born in Mexico and moved to US when I was 6. English is pretty much my first fluent language but I learned Spanish first. I dont know if the ethnicity thing go’s into play or not or whatever.</p>

<p>Nobody is going to care what ethnicity you are when you apply for bio informatics programs. You probably realized you picked arguably the four best programs in the field. They surely have a lot of applicants with the same or better GRE scores and no blotch on their record (I had the almost the same GPA and exactly the same GRE scores). Furthermore, many of their applicants probably have a publication or two. Apply more broadly and you might have better luck.</p>

<p>one thing about ethnicity is that it makes you eligible for a host of excellent fellowships- and having a nice fellowship will definitely aid your application… you should check it out.</p>

<p>but being born in mexico (or outside of the united states) makes you ineligible for a ton of fellowships too. one door opens, the other closes.</p>