Astaroth

2:1 is 60% and above, not 65%, however it is difficult to translate that between grading systems, as for example a 60% in the US system would be a lot less well regarded than in the UK. Try asking the undergraduate administration at your university whether they could convert your mark to a UK equivalent. Also look around the Cambridge website as they might have a rough guide. The idea is that you apply to the school during your final year undergrad, and your progress up to that point should indicate what your final degree mark will be like. Your supervisor should also be able to give an estimated final degree mark. This is what they are referring to when they talk about a "good 2:1", you don't need to actually have completed the degree to apply.

Well done! Not heard from MIT yet, seems they are taking a while... They must have so many applications. Please let us know as soon as you hear anything from MIT! I should mention that I've received an interesting e-mail from UMichigan, basically telling me to wait until March 8th to hear back from them regarding interviews for international applicants. I think this means I've made it through some sort of "first cut" and am being shortlisted for an interview, which is great! March 8th is nice and late as well which gives the other programs a good chance to respond in the meantime.

I've always thought of it that way myself. Talking to grad students in my lab you can see that the attitude they have towards what they do is essentially like a job, and that's the way they are treated by permanent staff as well. Kind of makes you wonder why some people have to fight to get funding to do their PhDs! Not really a problem in the US but I'd say most people in the UK doing PhDs in the biosciences need to compete for funding and stipends to essentially work at a lab. Bizarre situation.

Thanks for posting, people. I am really losing hope for MIT so now I'm just waiting to hear from UT and Brandeis. I have exams next week so at least revision is keeping my mind off all this most of the time. I'm really annoyed because I know the results from these exams will raise my GPA quite a bit, but they won't be out till March or maybe even later so it will be too late to send a new transcript out. I know it's my fault for not doing so well at exams so far but I really wish someone with more experience would have just pointed out to me that my final year won't actually contribute towards my PhD applications, and that all I'll have to show for myself will be 1st and 2nd year marks. It's easy to tell someone that they should have thought of it but some things just never dawn on you until it's already too late.

sorry, forum giving me errors

There seems to be such a wide variation between schools as to what proportion of their intake every year is international, and it doesn't really seem to have to do with whether the school is public or private. I know, for example, that Vanderbilt and Carnegie Mellon take on 30%-50% international students, while MIT takes on 3%-5%. Very frustrating. I understand why a public school would want to severely limit the number of international students it takes on because the US government obviously wants to fund american students, but there should be no such distinction in private schools. Yes, the excuse is that international student fees are higher, but guess who sets the fees in the first place....

Why not re-take the GRE? you could easily get another 250-300 points on your V score just by memorising some flashcards for a couple of weeks. I think it would be well worth it, because it's safer than relying on something you read on an internet forum :D Also do you have a TOEFL? If you're a transfer student my guess is you would need one. If you have a very good TOEFL they might overlook the low GRE V and AW scores.. but it's still worth re-taking the GRE with better preparation. Look on the GRE subforums here for preparation tips.

Well, one thing's certain, I can kiss both MIT and Rockefeller goodbye.. those are amazing credentials, Penicillin.

Have you tried flash cards when preparing for the Verbal section? They help a lot. If you check the GRE subforums you will find some really good advice on preparing for the GRE. I think you could easily raise your Verbal score in to the 600s if you use flash cards. I was getting similar Verbal practice scores to yours until I started using them and I eventually got a 670 at the actual test, I only learned about 100-150 words.

I would mostly agree with darbear. Going to a less known university for undergrad will not preclude you from getting into any of the best grad schools, however you might have to work a little harder, not just in getting good grades but also in your application. You'll need to have a very good statement of purpose and some really strong references. If you're a great package overall then they'll be fools to reject you.

Sorry, didn't know you were already at CM. I sympathise with that though, York is a great place to do a PhD but experiencing different academic environments is very important in my view. In fact, I would say that experiencing both academia and industry is really essential if you are serious about going into science.

I had the same problem with a recommender. I was sending him reminder e-mails 4 or 5 days before deadlines and even using the reminder function within the application if there was one, and for two of them he did it at the last possible minute, and one of them he didn't submit it until a few hours past the deadline! Very irresponsible. I definitely won't be asking that person for a recommendation again. I must say that (and this probably goes for me as much as you) you are applying to some very high tier schools and your credentials are unlikely to get you into them. That's fine if you don't mind re-applying next year, but have you considered applying to some lower tier universities that are still good but more likely to accept you? I'll give you some examples that I was considering myself: Vanderbilt, Carnegie Mellon, UVermont, Brandeis. Deadlines for these are all yet to come so you still have time to apply. If you are worried about costs, Vanderbilt and Carnegie Mellon charge no application fee, the Brandeis fee is only $55 and Vermont $40. To be quite honest I'm still not even sure that your scores will get you into these schools, but at least for Vanderbilt and CM it's worth the shot simply because it's free to apply. As for UCSD, only international applicants need to do a pre-app, and I guess the point of the pre-app is to just run all these pre-apps through a very strict GPA/GRE score cutoff and reject any that don't make it in order to make the admissions committee's job easier when it's time to look at actual applications. This is pretty brutal but I fully understand it considering they have to look at hundreds of applications and, being a public school, only have 4 or 5 places for international students every year.

This is a 4-year old thread, I doubt they are worried about the AWA anymore :D

Please post your profile, where you applied and what responses you've had so far. Feel free to comment on people's profiles/applications or ask anything about the application process if you still haven't applied. International student 4-year BSc in Genetics (with a year in industry) from University of York, UK (graduating in 2009) GPA so far - 59%, or 3.3 GPA equivalent. Predicted degree classification: 2:1 General GRE scores: V: 670 (95th), Q: 740 (81st), AWA: 4.5 (58th) No TOEFL. No publications. Research experience: 1 year in industry (pharma), and currently doing my final year research project Applied to: UT Austin (Cell & molecular bio) Mayo Graduate School (Biomedical sciences) UMichigan (MCDB) Rockefeller MIT (Biology) UCSD (Biology) (Pre-app) UVA (Biology) Brandeis (Molecular/cell biology) Accepted: None Invited to Interview: None Rejected: UCSD (at pre-app stage, didn't make it to applications! how sad)

I got a 4.5 which is 58th percentile, which looks really bad, unless you consider the fact that AWA scores are very low accuracy. IMO they should not provide percentiles for AWA scores because they can be misleading. My other scores are V:670 (95th), Q:740 (81st), and even though a 4.5 AWA is not bad, the 58th percentile makes it look very bad. I just really hope admissions committees know this and ignore the AWA percentile.