Seeking advice on how to search for a Graduate School in Molecular Biology

[despues18]

Will finish B.S. in molecular biology in May. Have found asking vague questions about where to go/apply to next are pretty unhelpful.

I believe that going through indexes of interesting research is the closest I can get to finding a place to advance myself and be happy in.

here is an example for UW-Madison,

https://discoveryportal.org/default.aspx

Would you have any suggestions about approaches/resources similar to this one?

 

[HallsofIvy]

Have you already got recommendations from your teachers?

 

[jedishrfu]

Check with your profs to see what they think are good schools to try. Also check with your advisor to see where other biology students have gone.

Having said that, I can recommend Cornell, Texas A and M and UT Austin and Rice University. All have pretty good graduate programs.

 

[Dishsoap]

Haven't you missed the application deadline for most schools, or are you looking to apply for fall 2021?

 

[Choppy]

As you advance in your undergraduate studies, it's important to do your own reading. Figure out what research in your field you're interested in, or at least, what you think you might be interested in. Many students determine this based on experiences they have volunteering in labs, doing summer work, graduate thesis projects, etc. It's also important to attend departmental colloquia, and if possible any local conferences. What kinds of projects do you see yourself working on happily for the next several years of your life?

Once you have some ideas with that, then you look to the groups that are doing research in that area and investigate the schools and graduate programs associated with them. If you can, try to visit a few campuses, speak with professors and graduate students. Do some homework and learn where graduates of those programs are ending up. Then develop a list of possible programs. Speak with your current professors about those programs too and try to gauge your chances of admission. Whittle those programs down to a short-list and apply.

 

[epenguin]

You will have done a BS in molecular biology - surely there are some areas that interest or attract you more than others? Pretty different membrane protein dynamics from evolutionary relationships from photosynthesis (though some relation between them and everything else). So you can now narrow down to what most interests you, though later on don't necessarily be too rigid about it. Read it up a bit (but don't take too long). A lot of what you learn in a molecular biology course is fairly recent, the big names there still active. When you have made a preference for area, you will know which of the staff at your Uni can best know about what's going on, who's who and where, in the field.

One important thing - the area where you can find scope might not necessarily be called 'molecular biology'. 'All biology is molecular biology' is not too much of an exaggeration, so your outlet might be in what is called 'cell biology' 'developmental biology' 'biomedicine' and much else.