Virology, Microbiology, Cellular Biology Programs?
Hey everyone, I'm new here.. and new to grad school [I guess?]. My name is Laura, I'm 23, and if all goes according to plan, I should be graduating in May with a BS in Biology...
So the deal is this, I have no idea where to start. My academic adviser has been completely unhelpful in the whole thing, which is astounding to me, seeing as how she is the chair of the Biology department at my university... but, to the point.. I've been requesting information from various schools by filling out those request cards they have on the program posters around the department... And now I have no idea what to do.
For some reason I feel like my adviser is trying to turn me off from grad school and push me straight into industry. Any time I've brought it up she just tells me how hard the work is, how much of a pain in the ass it is, how difficult it is to actually get in, then she changes the subject and asks if I've thought about working in a hospital when I graduate in the spring. I'm confused as hell by this because she's supposed to be providing me with the tools I need to succeed, or at the very least pointing me in the right direction and giving me some tips/advice, but she's not even doing that.. I've spoken with other professors [including my PI] and it seems that no one has enough time to actually sit down and talk to me and tell me what I need to do to get started..
Like I've said, I have requesting information from several schools that seem to have programs I'm interested in, including SUNY Syracuse, University of Iowa, Marquette, Indiana University, and Louisiana State. I have tried requesting information from University of Massachusetts [Amherst] about four times and they ignore me every time.. I'm located just south of Cincinnati, OH, if that matters. I've heard that Ohio State has a very good program for Virology and they do a lot of research, specifically in Virology there. It's not far from home, and Virology is my main interest..
If anyone knows of any good programs I should be looking into, specifically for Virology, that would be excellent. I'm also very interested in Microbiology, and to a lesser extent, Cellular Biology. I have maintained above a 3.0 GPA since I started college [is a 3.0 even good enough to get into a grad program??], and I've been doing Virology/Cell Biology research for the last two years [with very unsatisfactory/ie: junk, results]. I have no extracurriculars at all if that makes a difference.. I don't have time since I go to school full time and I also have to work full time, although I do work in a diagnostic medical lab, so its related experience..
Now the big question, where do I go from here? I realize that in the next year I will need to take the GRE, but in addition to that, what else should I be doing? Should I be contacting individual professors? How do you get an interview? I'm literally starting from scratch. My professors have been extremely unhelpful in all of this, and I'm super confused.. If anyone could give me any sort of advice at ALL, program-specific or general, I would very greatly appreciate that.
Thanks for taking the time to read/possibly respond to this.
So the deal is this, I have no idea where to start. My academic adviser has been completely unhelpful in the whole thing, which is astounding to me, seeing as how she is the chair of the Biology department at my university... but, to the point.. I've been requesting information from various schools by filling out those request cards they have on the program posters around the department... And now I have no idea what to do.
For some reason I feel like my adviser is trying to turn me off from grad school and push me straight into industry. Any time I've brought it up she just tells me how hard the work is, how much of a pain in the ass it is, how difficult it is to actually get in, then she changes the subject and asks if I've thought about working in a hospital when I graduate in the spring. I'm confused as hell by this because she's supposed to be providing me with the tools I need to succeed, or at the very least pointing me in the right direction and giving me some tips/advice, but she's not even doing that.. I've spoken with other professors [including my PI] and it seems that no one has enough time to actually sit down and talk to me and tell me what I need to do to get started..
Like I've said, I have requesting information from several schools that seem to have programs I'm interested in, including SUNY Syracuse, University of Iowa, Marquette, Indiana University, and Louisiana State. I have tried requesting information from University of Massachusetts [Amherst] about four times and they ignore me every time.. I'm located just south of Cincinnati, OH, if that matters. I've heard that Ohio State has a very good program for Virology and they do a lot of research, specifically in Virology there. It's not far from home, and Virology is my main interest..
If anyone knows of any good programs I should be looking into, specifically for Virology, that would be excellent. I'm also very interested in Microbiology, and to a lesser extent, Cellular Biology. I have maintained above a 3.0 GPA since I started college [is a 3.0 even good enough to get into a grad program??], and I've been doing Virology/Cell Biology research for the last two years [with very unsatisfactory/ie: junk, results]. I have no extracurriculars at all if that makes a difference.. I don't have time since I go to school full time and I also have to work full time, although I do work in a diagnostic medical lab, so its related experience..
Now the big question, where do I go from here? I realize that in the next year I will need to take the GRE, but in addition to that, what else should I be doing? Should I be contacting individual professors? How do you get an interview? I'm literally starting from scratch. My professors have been extremely unhelpful in all of this, and I'm super confused.. If anyone could give me any sort of advice at ALL, program-specific or general, I would very greatly appreciate that.
Thanks for taking the time to read/possibly respond to this.