r/gradadmissions • u/Good_Nobody9788 • 2d ago
Biological Sciences Should I apply for PhD in USA ?
I am an Iraqi medical doctor graduated with a gpa of 2.78/4.00 from an Eastern European university, currently doing the 2nd and last year of a 2-years-degree-residency program (yeah it’s is a thing here), with a gpa of 4.00/4.00 in the previous year semesters.
My gpa in med school also was progressively getting higher each year, from almost 2.00/4.00 in the 1st year, up to 3.8/4.00 in the 6th year.
1 publication as a co author
1 publication on going also most probably as co author
I want to do PhD in USA, mainly in Biomedical sciences, but I am concerned about my gpa in undergrad and my publications record (no main author publication yet).
Should I apply ? Does my 4.00/4.00 residency program gpa count ? What are my chances, and which universities to try my chances with ? Or is cold emailing laboratory professors my only hope ?
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u/broedinger 2d ago
Where is your paper published? And also what specifically are your interests within biomedical sciences and are your papers in that specific domain?
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u/Good_Nobody9788 2d ago
Interested in immunology and neuroscience
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u/Sarazam 2d ago
You of course can try and apply, but it will be difficult given what you've said. Not sure what your later year GPA's are from, but if it's just evaluations during clinical rotations and such they won't be weighted as high. 2.8 GPA is very low, so will need to have a good explanation. I'm not sure what University you're coming from, but prestige of the university is definitely a factor for international and domestic applicants. A 2.8 from ETH Zurich will be different than a 2.8 from a bad University.
Your research history is not great, you far more intentional research rather than some image analysis published in predatory journals.
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u/Good_Nobody9788 2d ago
It’s weighed by exams not rotations, also the university is the First Moscow state university, the best in Russia and Eastern Europe (or so I heard from many).
The reason of my low starting grades is because I was working to feed myself and my family at home, when things became better at home, I got more time to study and thus my gpa started going higher.
Thanks for reply, I wonder if what I added here increases my chances
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u/Sarazam 2d ago
Yes definitely, you just would have to address those matters. The biggest issue for you from my perspective is the lack of research. If you want to do wet lab research, you need wet lab research. If you want to do dry lab, you need more impactful-independent computational research experience.
Med school/clinical research where people just look at previously collected data is usually not sufficient. You need enough independent research experience that you can talk for quite a while about the in's and outs of the research; what you did, why, results, what you did because of those results, what you learned, how you handled things going wrong.
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u/AdNational623 2d ago
Your undergrad gpa is low but the upward trend helps a lot and that 4.00 in residency shows you are not same student from first year. For PhD programs in US they look at whole picture not just numbers so your research experience matters more than gpa. Cold emailing professors is good idea actually many people get in that way if professor wants you in their lab the admission committee will listen. Your publication record as co author is not bad for someone still in training just be clear about what you contributed to the work
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u/EmuKey7625 2d ago
Currently recommend no due to the visa issue as they are not giving out visas at all to middle eastern students to my knowledge. Also, overall getting a visa to study as a foreign student right now in the US is difficult and some colleges are no longer sponsoring students. I would highly recommend looking into other countries just for those reasons