Undergrad School: Nationally recognized university in India
Undergrad GPA: (I have been told that after WES evaluation, approximately 3.5 on a 4.0 scale)
Major: Biotechnology Engineering
GRE: V: 156, Q: 162 W: Not sure. Estimate: 4 or 4.5
Experience/Research (please, be brief):
-1 month summer internship at Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology working on gut microbiome related research
-1 semester long project work based on herbal medicine
-3 months summer internship at National Institute of Epidemiology
-(will run ~1 year, will be 1 semester when I apply) currently working on final year project on transcriptome analysis (dealing with environmental science and microbiology) (
got funding for this from my college!!!)
-3 years of volunteer work at NSS (National Service Scheme), with experiences ranging from assisting in helping set up medical camps and blood drives, work in flood relief and regular donation drives. I'm also editor-in-chief of this organization.
LOR: one from mentor at my internship (at Nat'l Institute of Epi), one from a biopharmaceuticals professor who I took 1 class with, and one from my PI (for both projects, and is my faculty adviser as well)
Interests: MPH in Epi
Applying: Emory, Columbia, BU, GWU (maybe UTH, UAlberta, UCBerkeley)
I've posted once before, which may be why this post looks familiar! But I have updated many things, and have new questions for those willing to answer
1. Should I retake my GRE? My verbal score is on the lower side for most of the colleges I am applying to -- is this something I need to worry about, or since I'm aiming for epidemiology, will it not really be a problem?
2. Speaking of, I know quant is important for epi -- is 162 good enough? It should be noted that my undergrad math grades are really bad (I'm talking D and below) but I have full confidence in my math skills and ability to pick up math. I was really hoping to offset the grades with a 165+ in quant in GRE but clearly, that didn't happen. Should I retake GRE, if not to improve verbal score, then for this? (I will make sure to ask my referees to bring up my math capability in the LOR, especially my referee from the internship I did at the Nat'l Institute of Epi.)
3. What do you think about UTH, UAlberta and UCB (I feel like this one is beyond a reach school, especially since the program itself is Epi/Biostats, and I'll be applying with horrible undergrad math grades).
Thank you all in advance. Really just freaking out about GRE and the need to retake.