Graduate School

[Enlitx]

I am currently a sophomore biochemistry major enrolled in the honors program at a Division I research university. I have a GPA of 3.726, but I am not into very many extracirricular activities. It has recently occured to me that I need to be preparing for my future soon, but I don't know much about graduate school or any other options I might have.

Basically, I would like to go to graduate school for bioinformatics or some advanced field of research that is related to biochemistry. My question is, with my GPA (I can only imagine it getting better or staying the same until I graduate), and lack of extra cirricular activites, how competitive will I be for graduate school? Does my enrollment in the honors program help me out in this area? I also forgot to mention that I work in a biochemstry lab doing research with a professor, and I will have three years of lab experience by the time I graduate.

I am just confused on how selective schools are and the options that will be available to me when I graduate. Will I have a good chance of getting into Division I research schools for my graduate studies? I always assumed someone needed something close to a 4.0 or a lot of extracirricular activities to be a strong applicant, but I am hoping that my lab experience will help me (I might even get published as an undergrad!). Anyways, if anyone can clear these things up for me I would appreciate it.

 

[kidamnesiac]

extracurricular activities arnt worth a damn for grad school, forget about them.
do research, research, research. then some more. preferably for a few people if you can. get published, esp. first name.
make sure at least 3 profs KNOW you. not some lecture people, but take some small grad level classes and get to know the prof.
take the hardest classes you can. and do well.
ace the GRE's (or above at least 66% for the subject)
end of junior year/summer before senior, email people you really, really want to work for. let them know this and let them know you have REALLY READ their research papers and are interested in working on a project they have. keep up a line of communication with them throughout the application process.
keep your GPA as it is or higher...
and you can get into harvard if you want.
~KA<-Biochemistry PhD student

 

[dexis]

Boy things have really changed since I graduated with my MSN in 94! But you biochem guys are the real brains. You must be researching pharmacology to be members here, because there's no way you guys can be "users" and have such high GPA's in such hard majors! GOOD LUCK! And if you take any advanced psych courses, feel free to use me as a subject!

 

[protovack]

you're fine.