Jump to content

Kinetic Isotope Defect

Members
  • Posts

    40
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Profile Information

  • Gender
    Male
  • Location
    United States
  • Application Season
    Already Attending
  • Program
    Chemical Biology PhD

Recent Profile Visitors

2,556 profile views

Kinetic Isotope Defect's Achievements

Caffeinated

Caffeinated (3/10)

10

Reputation

  1. Yeah, the Wisconsin governor cut state support to the UW system pretty significantly, and has been trying to remove certain tenure protections, so many professors are leaving. It's really unfortunate, UW Madison is such a great research university.
  2. Yes, they just lost two of their biggest Chem Bio professors (Ron Raines/Laura Kiessling) and they're set to lose more from what I have heard (a previous member of my lab is a post doc in Kiessling's lab). I would advise looking elsewhere for a PhD.
  3. I'm a current student at UMich (chemical biology, which is a similar program to biological chemistry). Which professors are you interested in? I know most of the enzymology professors here so I can give you an idea of who has productive/good labs, who isn't taking students, etc. IDK about how the admissions committee for biological chemistry looks at applications, but you would be a very competitive applicant for my program.
  4. You should really just choose the three letter writers that will give you the best recommendation imo. If you send in more than that, the adcom will likely either 1) read all of them less carefully or 2) just read three of them anyways. They have a lot of applications to get through, so that limits the amount of time they can spend on a given application. The goal is then being able to convince them that you are going to be a successful student in their program within a short timespan, and that means focusing on quality over quantity.
  5. I agree. In the laboratory sciences, it's imperative for new grad students to hear about the negative sides of working with certain professors, since we essentially put our future careers in their hands (an advisor's recommendation is required for a large majority of research jobs). While trash talking for petty reasons is obviously wrong, my decisions for lab rotations and my final lab were influenced by what was essentially gossip about professors - who doesn't have grant money, who is never around, etc. There's a very famous professor here who literally will not write recommendation letters for any of his students (grads or post docs)! Thank god I heard about that before I considered working with him.
  6. "After reading (and re-reading) the research section, it's not clear how this project will broadly impact science, society, human health, or otherwise be significant beyond journal articles." A direct quote from my third review. I actually outlined exactly how my project would do all of these things (and put it under a big, bold "Broader Impacts" section header so it couldn't be missed), but apparently this reviewer didn't believe a word I wrote!
  7. First year grad student, didn't get it. E/VG, VG/E, G/F. Last reviewer was really harsh (I got dinged for changing fields ffs), but the other two reviewers had some incredibly nice and positive things to say.
  8. Okay, I looked back at last year's solicitation (link here) and it also asks for "separate" statements on Intellectual Merit and Broader Impacts, using pretty much the exact same wording as this year's. The only difference is the extra statement "Applicants should include headings for Intellectual Merit and Broader Impacts in their statements." I definitely don't think ignoring the heading suggestion will end with the applications being returned without review, and I doubt most reviewers will even notice that the NSF is now asking for these specific headings unless they are specifically told to look for them this year. In my case, I have a Broader Impacts section in both of my statements, but I didn't make explicit Intellectual Merits sections because that seemed clunky. Hopefully the people who review my proposal will not be sticklers about that, it would be really annoying if I got dinged for not putting a stupid heading in my statements.
  9. They don't care, its just to save themselves money. Every grad program I visited last year put prospectives up in really nice (and expensive!) hotels, which is probably preferable to sleeping on a couch in a current grad student's apartment.
  10. I'm still in a bit of shock in regards to how well this semester went. I haven't gotten my grades back yet, but the evaluation from my rotation advisor was full marks for everything, I got nothing but positive feedback in my grant-writing course, and haven't scored below a 90% in the intro course they make everyone in my program take. And just now, I got an email from the professor for my one elective class, which was a very difficult class conceptually (most of my cohort thought I was crazy for taking it), and apparently I have done better than any other student in any of the graduate courses he has taught before. I hope this doesn't come across as bragging, I'm mostly just surprised at myself for doing so well! Hopefully this continues into next semester, I'm taking a course that my next rotation advisor described to me as "legendary" for its difficulty.
  11. I had a 2.9 when I applied. I'm currently a first year at the University of Michigan.
  12. See my quote above. Good grades aren't a prerequisite to getting into top programs. I know you think you're being objective and looking at "the facts" or whatever, but the truth is admissions committees do look at applications holistically, and grades aren't everything. My current rotation advisor told me that she looks favorably upon students who overcame some sort of struggle (in my case, which led to poor grades in my first 2 years of undergrad), because it shows you have what it takes to come back after failure and succeed. This is immensely important for success in graduate school and should not be discounted.
  13. I was admitted to Cornell (and other top programs) last application cycle with a 2.9 GPA straight from undergrad. It is by no means an automatic disqualification, and great research experience and letters of recommendation can overcome it.
  14. I'm a first year PhD student in the ChemBio program at UMich. Feel free to pm me if you have questions about the program or the interview process.
  15. Before spending (wasting) money on retaking the GRE, ask the programs you're applying to if they have cutoffs for the GRE and how much the admissions committee cares about them. The chemistry department at my university (top 15) doesn't even bother to open the score reports they get sent (although for international students it's a different story), so unless one or more of the programs really cares about them, it may not be worth it to retake.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. See our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use