<p>I have been following this post recently and I just wanted to congratulate everybody who have gotten acceptances/interviews for fall 2009 PhD programs. I am a prospective PhD applicant for fall 2010 cycle, and I was wondering if people here could post their experiences while going through the application process, any advice and/or tips for future applicants to keep in mind, any other comments you have in general. </p>
<p>Thanks a bunch in advance and congratulations once again to all for the success. Hope you thrive wherever you go.</p>
<p>Thanks for the congratulations.</p>
<p>I think this entire board consists largely of people posting their experiences while going through the application process and sharing advice/tips for other applicants to keep in mind.</p>
<p>Agreed. You can see the whole gamut spilled out here and in the past years threads. When you’ve got more specific questions, let us know!</p>
<p>Also, keep an eye on thegradcafe.com, which is especially useful for their result page. Not as many biomed people over there, but some good resources all the same.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>Has anybody started doing anything yet for grad school? Signing up for courses? Discussing rotation projects? I don’t know if I should be stressing out about things yet or if I should just wait the next two months to do anything.</p>
<p>I don’t think you need to be stressing out yet. If you know of someone you really want to do a rotation with in the fall, you should contact them… but fall isn’t the best term for a rotation anyway because of all the settling in.</p>
<p>I’ve done most of my homework on my impending move (I can’t stand not being organized and planned out well in advance with relocations), but I haven’t done much of anything directly school related yet.</p>
<p>You could always contact the coordinator and ask if there’s anything you should be doing in the next month.</p>
<p>If the labs you are interested in are suspected to be “hot” you should contact the PI in the summer to express interest and hold a spot. Some labs are only willing to take 1-2 rotation students. If you contact first you are likely guaranteed a spot, although you don’t have to make solid commitments. </p>
<p>It is not usually a good idea to commit to rotating prior to meeting the PI, discussing projects, and most importantly, talking to people in their lab. Once you move and start socializing with the students you will get the word on who to run from.</p>
<p>Edit: Disregard this, thought I was responding to a recent post that turned out to be from last year. Last page? I think not.</p>
<p>Hi Mollie,</p>
<p>I was wondering when you were going to start a fall 2010 thread? Is it ok if I post my stats here?</p>
<p>Interest: PhD in Cancer Biology or Genomics (particularly for targeted therapies and epigenetics)
GPA: 3.66/4.0 (class of 2008) from a small liberal arts college with honors
Major: B.S. Biology minor in Jewish studies
GRE: will take them Sept 8 <em>gulp</em>
Publications: 8 publications (mostly 1st or 2nd author), 3 abstracts, 1 chapter in a book
Work experience: Currently working at a cancer center doing lung cancer research on EGFR targeted therapy since June 2008
Other work experience: 3 years of undergrad research (2 of which were funded by an internal college grant that I received). TA for 2 years in general biology, human physiology, and evolutionary biology
LORs: 1 from undergrad research mentor, 1 from biology professor whom I took many classes with and TA-ed for, 1 from current boss – hopefully all will be great
Citizenship: INDIAN <em>sigh</em></p>
<p>And here are the questions:
- Where should I apply?
- How much does my GRE score matter?
- Should I take the subject test?
- How much does my lack of American Citizenship matter?
- My first semester in college was really bad due to adjustment/family issues. Is it possible to discuss this in my application?</p>
<p>Thank you so much in advance!</p>
<p>I wasn’t planning to start the thread myself – if you want to start one, I’m happy to sticky it to the top of the forum.</p>
<p>With 8 publications as 1st or 2nd author and a book chapter, I don’t think you should be worried at all.</p>
<p>I just started a thread and made it sticky.</p>
<p>Hey everyone,</p>
<p>I was wondering if anyone has applied to the following programs and has started hearing back from schools about decisions/interview invites:</p>
<p>UCSD (BMS)
Stanford (Biosciences)
Harvard (HILS)
Columbia ( GSAS)</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>Hey everyone, so I’ve applied to the biology/zoology programs at the University of Miami, Louisiana State, Portland State, the University of Hawaii, UC Irvine and Washington State.</p>
<p>-citizenship: canada
-ethnicity: hispanic (does this help my chances?)</p>
<p>-uGPA: 3.01 (bad first term in junior year) from the University of British Columbia
-GRE: 770Q, 550V, 5.0AW</p>
<p>-2.5 years of research experience (graduated last year but still working in the lab)
-co-author on paper (not first author, but undergrad thesis is included in this paper. approx. half of all the data is mine), another co-authorship on the way
-3 strong LORs, from my supervisor, my professor who is very well known in his field, and the last from an internationally known researcher</p>
<p>what are my chances?</p>