Another "What are my Chances" thread

[xygplat]

---

Members do not see this ad.

Right now I have a list of 35 schools to apply to and am (obviously) trying to cut it down to about 20-25. The only problem is I have no clue how competitive I am. I assume at the "top 10" schools that I apply to, I am just throwing my hat in the ring, and at the other schools I am at least somewhat competitive.

Info:
Decent state school
GPA: 3.9
MCAT: 34Q
Major: Computer Science and Molec. Bio
PhD Interest: Computational Biology

Research: 5 summers (full time) + 4 semesters (10-15 hrs per week) + 2 more semesters next school year. Worked in 4 seperate labs in this time. Few abstracts & posters. One 6th-author pub (just was helping out) and hopefully a 1st author in the fall or so. 2 summers were basic science research; rest was computational

EC: volunteering, just a little clinical (about a month of shadowing during school year, volunteering 4hrs a week in an ER this summer), music, leadership


Thanks for the help

 

[Maebea]

Your profile looks fine. Provided your recommendation letters are strong, you should receive several interview offers, primarily from schools that are interested in recruiting computational biology students. Some of these schools will be "Top 10"; you should receive invitations from at least some of these schools. To pare down your list, eliminate schools that do not have much going on in comp bio and those that are in locations where you do not wish to spend 7 or 8 years.

Best of luck.

 

[pky463]

Your stats look fine to me, but I don't know too much so take that with a grain of salt 🙂

Have you done research on comp. bio programs? It's my interest too and I'm not applying till next year but from what I see, there doesn't seem to be TOO many programs that offer it.

 

[xygplat]

Have you done research on comp. bio programs? It's my interest too and I'm not applying till next year but from what I see, there doesn't seem to be TOO many programs that offer it.

It's not too bad - there seems to be decent amount of programs

Out of the schools that I've looked into, these 29 definitely have a computational biology/bioinformatics PhD program (although they are all not always listed directly on the MSTP/MDPhD website):

UCSF, Stanford, UCLA, UCSD, USC, Univ. of Colorado, Yale, Univ. of Illinois at Chicago, Johns Hopkins, Harvard, Univ. of Michigan, Washington Univ. - STL, Dartmouth, Columbia, Cornell, Mount Sinai, NYU, Duke, UNC - Chapel Hill, Univ. of Cincinnati, Oregon Health & Sciences, Univ. of Pennsylvania, Univ. of Pittsburgh, Vanderbilt, Baylor, UT - Southwestern, Univ. of Virginia, Univ. of Washington, and Univ. of Wisconsin - Madison


I've looked into these 12 as well, and they don't seem to have their own independent bioinformatics program, but they do seem to have some computational research going on.:

-Univ. of Iowa (Comb bio focus within biomedical engineering)
-Albert Einstein Yeshiva Univ. (seems like they have a new computational department that is just starting up now)
-Univ. of Arizona (ASU has a comp bio program for the phoenix campus, have some bioinformatics in tucson in bioengineering, Comp Sci, and other depts)
-Univ. of Rochester (seems to have a computational divison within the structural bio & biophysics area - some faculty from bioengineering too)
-Northwestern (they seem to have a masters program in comp bio, but no phd - they do have alot of faculty in comp bio spread about in many depts though)
-Mayo Clinic (looks like they have comp bio faculty in the biomedical engineering dept, also found a ppt from a google search that said that they are starting a new comp bio dept soon)
-Univ. of Alabama - Birmingham (have a bioinformatics track in the CS dept)
-Univ. of Minnesota (havent been able to find anything so far)
-Case Western Reserve Univ. (havent been able to find anything so far)
-University of Massachusetts (have comp bio in the CS dept)
-Drexel (has comp bio in biomed engineering)


I havent looked into any other programs since it looks like others dont take enough OOS MD/PhD applicants to justify applying to

 

[magwi11]

Just because a school HAS a graduate program in your area of interest does not mean that program is available to you thought their MSTP program. Usually the MSTP program has to have some sort of agreement with the graduate department. For schools that don't have the degree that you're interested in listed directly on the program website, get in touch with the office to make sure that it is an option before you send an application. When I was originally looking, I was considering working with people that fell under the psychology department at some schools, and even where these labs were clearly doing work that would fall under "neuroscience" I was told in some cases that it would be very difficult to impossible.

Just checking in might make your task of cutting down the list easier than you thought.

Good luck!

 

[pky463]

Just because a school HAS a graduate program in your area of interest does not mean that program is available to you thought their MSTP program. Usually the MSTP program has to have some sort of agreement with the graduate department.

Yup. I've only done a cursory search but I think there's a few on your list that aren't within the MSTP program. There is always the option of applying to Neurobio/Phys/BioE programs if they do computational research but I really wanted something of a formal math background and I don't think that will happen very easily in those depts 🙁

 

[Calf]

Ok so here are my stats:

GPA: 3.61
Science GPA: ~3.6
MCAT: 39
Washington University in St. Louis Cum Laude Major in Bio
Spector Prize for best undergraduate thesis in biology
4 continuous years (will be 5 upon entering med school) of research
3 national conference presentations, including one best poster award

and here are the schools I'm considering applying to (MSTP only):

Baylor College of Medicine
Harvard Medical School

Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicin
Stanford University School of Medicine

University of California San Francisco

University of Chicago - Pritzker

University of Colorado School of Medicine

University of Illinois at Chicago-College of Medic
University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
University of Washington School of Medicine
UT Southwestern (AMCAS)

Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
Washington University School of Medicine

Lol I'm lazy and copy/pasted from AMCAS.

Anyways, what do you think? Is that a good selection? Anything you would change?

 

[mark-ER]

Hey XYG,

I'd really encourage you to apply to our program at UMich. We've got a pretty new, but always expanding (and EXTEREMLY well funded) bioinformatics and computational biology program. Here's the site:

http://www.ccmb.med.umich.edu/

We're also getting a new division within the Physiology department - more sepecifically Systems biology which may soon be getting a seperate funding "kitty" and perhaps seperate space/director(s), though that's still in the organizational process.

The computational biology/informatics students have been very very successful in the past, with a lot of quality publications and 3 years for PhD is not unusual. For a recent grad, search "Rhodes DR" on pubmed (admittedly he's a superstar, but not alone).

I did a combined molecular/computational PhD, which was great. People will literally bend over backwards for your services, but CAREFUL do not overextend yourself.

 

[JHopRevisit]

Anyways, what do you think? Is that a good selection? Anything you would change?

Very strong app, and good selection of schools, I think. Your GPA is obviously a weak spot, a strong upward trend from a bad freshman year would really help. Your research experience sounds strong, your application is strong as long as your LORs and ability to communicate your research and understanding of the broader field reflect this. Be aware that your school set is extremeley competitive, it's a good list as long as you really follow through and apply to all of the schools listed (don't get complacent just cause you get an early interview invite from Harvard, make sure you fill out secondaries and go to interviews for most of the schools you're invited to). What specialty/department are you looking into, and what region(s) are you looking at, might help us refine your list.

Just because a school HAS a graduate program in your area of interest does not mean that program is available to you thought their MSTP program.

Really? Short of Anthropology or Romance Languages and Literature, our program allows you into any department. Research interests change a lot over the course of your med school years, I think programs should be flexible. Is this a wide-spread policy?

 

[xygplat]

Hey XYG,

I'd really encourage you to apply to our program at UMich. We've got a pretty new, but always expanding (and EXTEREMLY well funded) bioinformatics and computational biology program. Here's the site:

http://www.ccmb.med.umich.edu/

We're also getting a new division within the Physiology department - more sepecifically Systems biology which may soon be getting a seperate funding "kitty" and perhaps seperate space/director(s), though that's still in the organizational process.

The computational biology/informatics students have been very very successful in the past, with a lot of quality publications and 3 years for PhD is not unusual. For a recent grad, search "Rhodes DR" on pubmed (admittedly he's a superstar, but not alone).

I did a combined molecular/computational PhD, which was great. People will literally bend over backwards for your services, but CAREFUL do not overextend yourself.

thanks for the info

ill most likely apply to UMich

 

[xygplat]

Right now I have a list of 35 schools to apply to and am (obviously) trying to cut it down to about 20-25. The only problem is I have no clue how competitive I am. I assume at the "top 10" schools that I apply to, I am just throwing my hat in the ring, and at the other schools I am at least somewhat competitive.

Info:
Decent state school
GPA: 3.9
MCAT: 34Q
Major: Computer Science and Molec. Bio
PhD Interest: Computational Biology

Research: 5 summers (full time) + 4 semesters (10-15 hrs per week) + 2 more semesters next school year. Worked in 4 seperate labs in this time. Few abstracts & posters. One 6th-author pub (just was helping out) and hopefully a 1st author in the fall or so. 2 summers were basic science research; rest was computational

EC: volunteering, just a little clinical (about a month of shadowing during school year, volunteering 4hrs a week in an ER this summer), music, leadership


Thanks for the help

I've now narrowed it down to 31 + 3 schools (the three I'm thinking of removing have an *). they all have comp bio programs within the md/phd program. Is this a balanced list of schools? Any sugestions on schools to remove from the list (I'm having a tough time with that obviously)? I'll probably end up applying to about 25 schools or so.

Univ. of Alabama
Univ. of Arizona
UCSF
Stanford
UCLA
UCSD
USC
Univ. of Colorado
Yale
*Northwestern
Univ. of Illinois at Chicago
Johns Hopkins
Harvard
Univ. of Michigan
Mayo
Washington Univ. - STL
Dartmouth
Columbia
Cornell
*Mount Sinai
NYU
Univ. of Rochester
Duke
UNC - Chapel Hill
Univ. of Cincinnati
Univ. of Pennsylvania
Univ. of Pittsburgh
Drexel
Vanderbilt
Baylor
UT Southwestern
*Univ. of Virginia
Univ. of Washington
Univ. of Wisconsin

* - already considering removing from list

 

[GWD]

Hahahahahah *LOL* :smiley faces:!

If you want it, you might be able to get it.

How bad do you want to get it?

What makes you think you would be a sucessful physician scientist xygplant?

I think most of those schools might be beyond your means.

 

[seraph524]

You're going to kill yourself applying to that many schools...it costs an average of about 500-600 dollars per school (primary+secondary+plane ticket+hotel), not to mention the hours necessary to fill out the essays...

I would recommend whittling that list down to ~10-15 at most.

In comparison, I sent primaries to 23 schools, filled out 19 secondaries, but only ended up interviewing at 13 or so schools. I had a easy senior year, and even then, it took a lot of effort and time. Considering each interview basically occupies a week, you are going to have a difficult time scheduling interviews and/or keeping up with school work with too many schools...

 

[Rowany]

Hey xygdplat,
Word on the street is that the magic number is ~13. People who applied over 20 ended up withdrawing a large number of their apps anyway. Since you app looks competitive, and most of your schools are at about the same tier, I wouldn't worry about how competitive you are and focus on fit.

Although the strength of the PhD department is of course important, I would also weigh in the MD curriculum: is it lecture or problem based learning? what is the emphasis on primary versus specialized care? are the first year(s) pass fail? how flexible are the class schedules/curriculum for research?

I would also look at the MD-PhD administration in how flexible they are and how much they take care of you, such as being able to have classes count for both med and grad requirements.

Good luck! I'm glad you're doing computational biology because I certainly wouldn't touch it with a 10 foot pole!😉