Hmmm....random Q. Obviously, who really knows, as its pretty much a giant lottery in the end, but what do you guys think? Do I have a shot at Rockefeller SURF?
Basic Research Stats:
Junior
cGPA: 3.9 (plus a scholarship or two) (first-year dragged me down a bit
)
Research Experience: 4 active years (1 part-time full year (during HS), 4 summers (2 on competitive full-time sumer research fellowships), 1 full-year 3rd year thesis) - spanning 3 different labs in disparate fields (stem cells and cancer, epigenetics, chemical biology), starting since Grade 10; 5 semi-/fully-independent projects associated with these, plus leading various research seminars and research side-projects, etc. + signed onto 4th year neuroscience thesis
1 First-Author Published Paper (written summer after first year) in medium-ranking international journal (IF~4) + currently on the way to a 2nd first-author paper
Editor-in-Chief of 2 post-doc reviewed undergraduate research journals over two years; both of which are indexed in various worldwide databases
+ founded new university-wide cross-disciplinary undergraduate research journal endorsed and funded by university president and heads of every faculty, and to be integrated into course curriculum across university
Numerous personal self-directed research “design” projects (largely for challenge and fun) that references can attest to…for instance: in-silico designing 3 completely new therapeutic drugs (in first year) on my own with predicted higher efficacy and lower toxicity than marketplace counterparts, designing and modelling a de novo novel tissue-embedded protein from scratch for anti-thrombosis, designing a silicon-based protein, and designing a novel artificial intelligence neural network and associated engineered biosynthetic neural architecture both distinct from previous literature.
Fairly wide breadth of courses (in a very selective integrative PBL science program (4.5% acceptance rate)), but primary focus on biochemistry, molecular biology, and research design.
Very strong Reference Ls from Chair of Research of the Faculty of Medicine from major North American research university, another from a dean, and another from another prof (emeritus).
Plus a bunch of other stuff, like founding a new university orchestra, etc. but that's the general gist of it “research-wise”.
I think my letter of intent was pretty solid and creative, but who really knows lol. These kinds of things are fairly subjective.
But, my app was marked as “complete” on Friday (day before deadline) for various reasons, so idk how that will affect it, given that Rockefeller reviews in order of when apps are completed.
Thoughts?