4 years of research, 1 first author publication accepted, 1 in preparation.

OK GPA from UCLA, OK GRE scores, 3 years of experience in a synthetic organic/inorganic lab, 1.5 years in a computational organic lab, 1 publication, 2 manuscripts in progress, 2 poster presentations, undergraduate TA for organic chemistry, 3 strong LORs. They gave me a departmental fellowship, too!

Small liberal arts school, 2 REUs, no publications, a handful of presentations, and no prior contact to POI

3.93 GPA in major, 2.5 years of research in p-chem lab, 2 publications, 2 SULIs, 2 fantastic/1 good LORs, mediocre GRE

Notified by email. 4 years undergrad research, met PI of interest at a conference, 3 strong LOR.

Small liberal arts school, 2 REUs, no prior contact to POI

Expected this. One of my letter writers got their PhD at Minnesota.

3.93 GPA. Double Major in Chemistry and Statistics from a State University. 2+ Years of undergraduate research including an Honors in the Major Thesis from a well known lab in my field.

Got a phone call from POI in the morning.