Biomedical sciences PhD Fall 2010 - seeking advice

[ishani]

Hello everyone,

I have found the 'what are my chances' kind of posts extremely helpful in attempting to gauge my own options. However, as much I have tried, I have not been able to come up with a complete list of universities, as at this point I am lacking any ounce of self esteem whatsoever, and being international is not helping either. so I am looking for help, suggestions, advice, anything.

My profile:

Undergrad: Transferred from an Indian university to a state university in the u.s., in Biotechnology
GPA: 4.0 throughout
Aiming for programs in: Biomedical sciences, genetics and molecular biology
GRE general : Verbal-740, Quant-760, AWA- 4.5
Research experience: 1.5 years in a plant molecular biology lab with a possible pending publication, working on genetic mapping of wheat chromosomes, 8 months including a summer undergraduate fellowship (and another 6 months after graduation as lab technician) in a molecular biology plant lab performing gene transformations and genotyping plant populations. 4 months in an Animal sciences lab performing Western blots and protein analysis.
Recommendations: 2 from research advisors one of them with a publication in science magazine, expecting at least one to very good, 1 from a professor with whom I have had only minimum research experience, but she will certainly have a very good recommendation for me, she is well known in her field too.

Universities applying to:

Dartmouth -MCB
U of Wisconsin
Northwestern
U of Pittsburgh
Penn state
U of Chicago
U of Texas, southwestern medical unit
I am still debating applying to hopkins, even as a dream school as I see the chances to be pretty slim
Purdue
Wake forest
I am still looking for safe schools, but the problem is I don't know how low i need to look into the rankings to find a school that is safe for me, or ones that I should even have a chance of getting into.

I am also looking for Masters programs, but I need funding, so I having a hard time finding masters programs that are ready to fund me.

It would be of immense help at this point if any of you could help me make a decision.