I’m a junior majoring in chemistry and have a plan for applying Ph.D. after graduation. My current GPA is not distinct, just 3.65 out of 4 (Many people say 3.7 is competitive while 3.6 is like average if want to apply for top programs). My current school is awesome though and highly prestigious in Chemistry, ranks 10ish on USNEWS, I don’t know if that helps when the GPA is not that top?
In addition, I’m a transfer student, which makes the things more complicated. Before coming to US, I spent 2 years at a Chinese university with an overall GPA 3.43/4.00 and rank maybe top 10%, which seems to be fine but not that satisfactory. The most serious problem is that I even got C for some important courses like Orgo 2 (well even I got an A in orgo 1…)and both 1,2 of p.chem. The average scores for these courses were around C and the failure rate was about 30% so luckily I at least didn’t fail but just got an average score. That’s terrible and I don’t know if the past transcript will play extreme bad effects on my application. (Actually, I think I put more emphasis on some entrepreneur and voluntary activities, that was really time-consuming and meaningless…)
I want to do research in the biochemistry field. And it’s a dilemma. The pChem seems to have no significant relation to my field of interest(ye, orgo 2 does…) but which are definitely important courses for a Chem major. And I’m wondering if sacrificing time to retake these courses is a better choice since I really want to take some grad level course during my senior year. If the good performance in upper-level courses can cover the bad grades in past?
And I know the research is extremely important for Ph.D. application. I did one in my former Univ. in my sophomore which is related to organic synthesis but was very basic. I didn’t have some papers for this one I just started my second research last semester here at my current university. It’s awesome the lab is closely related to my field of interest and the PI and Ph.D. mentor are really nice and helpful. But here comes the question, I think the lab is awesome and if I continue to involve there is possibility I can get some result maybe some publication? But the lab is very new and the PI just started her AP position here, definitely, she is willing to write a strong RL for me if I continue to work at her lab, but is the RL strong enough for a top program? (I know I’m greedy but… Everyone wants the best right)
I know it’s a whole lot of questions and sorry for that…
The transferred courses are excluded from my current GPA and tagged TR in the place where should be A,B,C… on the transcript. But I heard some grad schools requires original copy of all the academic institutions where we received credits…
It’s more than satisfactory. Top 10% in college is excellent.
One C is not going to tank your chances.
The simple fact that your school is ranked higher doesn’t mean that a 3.6 holds more rate. Lots of highly ranked schools inflate their grades or it’s easy to get As and Bs there, even if their courses are more stringent/rigorous. If your university is well-known for giving out lower grades than other schools (so-called “grade deflation”), then your 3.6 will be viewed in a different light. However, I wouldn’t worry about it because a 3.6 is a great GPA and nothing to worry about.
Cover isn’t the right word, but excellent performance in upper-level classes in your area may outweigh the impact of poor performance in lower-level classes outside of your area.
It makes me sad when undergraduates come here so stressed out about publications, because it means that the competition of academia has made its way all the way down the food chain and is stressing out a whole new generation of scientists before they even BEGIN their careers. Unnecessarily!
You don’t need publications to get into a PhD program. They are nice to have if you have them, but they are totally not necessary and few people expect a fresh out of college grad to have any.
Now, as for the question of whether you can get some? It depends. Publications take a long time to get published; they even take a long time to get to the point at which you can put them on your CV (when they are under review, at your level). First of all, you have to make a big enough contribution to warrant authorship on a paper. Usually you have to be in a lab for at least several months to a year or so before you are able to do that. The writing of a scientific paper with several co-authors can easily take 6 months to a year. And that’s just to get to “under review.” They’re usually rejected at least once for revisions before they are published. Frankly, the average undergrad isn’t in a lab long enough, and doesn’t know enough, to get any publications. That’s why nobody expects you to have any.
Also, a common misconception is that you need a letter from a famous person to get into a top program. Nope. If you happen to work with a famous person who knows your work well, that can help out quite a bit, but most undergraduates don’t work with famous people. So a recommendation letter from a professor who knows your work well and can comment on you glowingly is what you really want.
I hate the word “top” for programs. The rankings are all just popularity contests with large departments getting ranked higher than smaller department which might be very good too. A better way of describing what you are interested in is a “highly selective” program. This is a good term because lots of people apply to such programs and only a few are able to get in. This is just a numbers game for the most part because all the applicants are usually very strong and a choice has to be made to select from such a large pool.
It sounds to me like you can have a competitive application but it is never a sure thing. You need to apply to programs which are less selective but which have faculty of note in the area you are interested in. Your current research mentor can help you choose and hopefully write a strong, personal letter of reference.
As for transcripts, ALL programs will require you to present original transcripts for all of your university work. This means that you will have to get your transcripts from China as well for each application. In some cases, you can provide a scanned version and the original when you decide to enroll but you need to carefully check the requirements because you don’t want your application to not be considered for this reason.