International student from Europa: Any chance at getting into T10 for biology?

Germany has excellent biological research. In fact, my PhD advisor used to have a joke: Every physiologist will eventually be frustrated to discover that all the work they’ve ever performed in their career has been previously done and was published in German decades earlier.

I don’t know how much undergraduates are typically involved in research there, however. It’s obviously possible, based on the fact that you already have a TON of research experience. Come to the US if you really want to, but it’s by no means necessary, nor is going to a T10 school ($$$) necessary.

Have you considered attending university in Germany, but doing a study abroad or exchange program in the US? I just googled and found 2 such programs for Germany biology exchange at Michigan Tech and U Wisconsin-Madison, just as an example. Some programs are specific to certain subjects, such as biology, while some of them are more general. If you do some careful searching, I’ll bet you could find a suitable partnership of this type between a German school of interest and a US school.

If you are really set on a career in biology research, you’ll want to aim for a PhD. You could do your undergraduate studies in Germany, with a possible exchange to the US, and then do your PhD in the US. That is VERY common here, and you’d get into good programs. It doesn’t matter that much where you do your undergraduate degree, as long as you do well. US vs Germany, or T10 vs lower ranked schools. Many Europeans do their PhD in a different country from their undergraduate anyway, so I’d strongly consider that path if I were you. It will likely save you a TON of money.

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