laminator

Congratulations everyone who's received it! Honored to say I got it as well. E/VG, E/E, E/E. Now to see if I can transfer it from neuroscience to psychology, else one of you HMs might be getting a bump on me...

Thanks, best of luck to you too!

Here's an interesting question I hadn't really thought about. If I were lucky enough to be awarded the fellowship, I'd heard before that changing among related fields of study wasn't hard. However, while procrastinating today by reading the FAQ, I noticed that they don't seem to look too kindly on changes of major field of study. Unfortunately, I applied in Neuroscience (which falls under biology) and will be attending a Psychology program, so even though the programs are similar, they are under different NSF categories. Anybody heard stories of successful or unsuccessful changes of this sort? May not be worth me stressing and staying up tonight if I couldn't use the fellowship anyway...

Since I've decided to go psychology, thought I'd copy over here from the Neuro thread. It's possible to get in with limited psych experience, especially if you're heading for the more quantitative areas! Undergrad Institution: One of the better known UCs Major(s): Math, physics Minor(s): GPA in Major: 4.0, 3.8 Overall GPA: 3.9 Position in Class: Not sure exactly, but pretty high. Type of Student: DWM GRE Scores (revised/old version): Q: 170 V: 170 W: 5.0 Subject: Did not take. Research Experience: 1 year at DOE Lab in particle physics (computational & experimental), summer at another public university in (loosely biophysics), summer internship in another country in computational physics, currently employed in a career-track job at a research institute associated with another well known university, doing some modeling & simulation work (a little in systems biology), and a lot of machine learning. No publications yet, sadly. Awards/Honors/Recognitions: High honors overall, highest honors in math, award for excellence in scholarship in math, a couple of minor physics scholarships for research and stuff. Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Three semesters teaching math (UGSI, basically a TA but I was leading 3 hours of class per week per section I taught), TA for under-resourced high school outreach program for a summer. For jobs see research. Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help: Might be clear already, but I have a substantial amount of CS experience, a few classes but mostly hands on. Special Bonus Points: Contact with professors at Stanford, U Penn, Berkeley, and Princeton. (more than just an email exchange) Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter: Currently taking neural networks and a physiology-neurophysiology sequence. Background is a little broader than my majors would indicate, with some small number of psychology courses thrown in. Applying to Where: Cognitive Psych/Neuroscience Rejected: UCSD - Neuroscience - Computational Duke - CNAP Accepted: Princeton - Neuroscience U Penn - Neuroscience - Computational Stanford - Psychology - Cognitive Berkeley - Biophysics - Neuroscience

Stanford post is correct, that's what I was offered as well, so I didn't bother adding another duplicate.

@Monochrome Spring: Please see a therapist. Or you're welcome to message me. I've been there, and it really helps talking to someone. Venting: Just had to tell all my POIs at n-1 of the schools that I wouldn't be joining them. At the one other program I was really interested in my POI said "wow that is a HUGE bummer" and told me he thought their research was the best in the world in the area... Nothing like making a hard decision even harder. Ugh.

Thanks, both of you. That's the way I was leaning, but it's nice to hear your opinions.

I actually already left the bay area, I am trying to decide between Princeton and Stanford myself, but I also left the physics field, so it's a slightly different problem. I'm not sure yet where I will go.

I can't speak specifically to the ability to be dual-advised, but that might be a good thing to ask Feng about while you are deciding. One of my potential Ph.D. advisors suggested I could do a masters in CS along the way, so it seems like some advisors are open to it, but this is in a different field. I do know that most the grad students I knew took some courses outside physics to broaden their skill set, and you will probably require those skills for your research anyway. I learned about everything from EE to CS in the process of doing my research. I do think that Berkeley is a good place in that sense, our EE/CS department is probably top 3, and pretty much any other engineering area is top 5.

I think the bay area is a good place to find jobs in general, but it depends what you want to do after your ph.d. I certainly didn't have trouble finding jobs with a physics undergrad from Berkeley, but I was trying to leave the bay for a little while, so I don't know about the specifics there. I can't imagine having a ph.d. from either of these schools will be bad for your job prospects, but I would recommend keeping up your CS or engineering skills or something, both because they're useful for physics researchers, and because they offer a graceful exit option if there aren't enough physics jobs.

The schools where I had substantial contact with professors I got in. The schools where I didn't, I didn't. Reach out to people in the summer or spring before you apply, if you know who you're interested in that far in advance.

Did my undergrad at Berkeley. I think it's one of the most awesome places to live in California, and that's saying something. (Also took a class with Feng Wang, he was a pretty good professor, no idea how he'd be for an advisor though, my research was in particle.)

So I've got a tough decision to make, I'd like to hear your thoughts. I've narrowed it down to these two options. Princeton Neuroscience: + Program is more computational and provides more technical training, especially with its Quant. & Comp. Neuro track. + >4 professors I'd like to work with, seem to get along with well, and the students I've talked to say they're great. + Neuroscience degree possibly more employable + Extremely collaborative department, almost all students are dual-advised, and the professors all publish papers with many of their colleagues + Faculty seem younger and more vibrant + I felt slightly more excited about the department when I was there. + Fellowship, higher stipend, 37-39k + Gorgeous facilities. + Only teach 2 semesters +/- Rotations = More chance to explore what I want to research, but possibly longer time to graduation +/- Less coursework, 2 required classes, or 5 for the QCN track = more time in research, but less training in my new field. - Princeton isn't the most exciting place, but is close to NY - Probably worse connections, especially outside academia - Students seemed slightly unhappy, not with the program, but just overall Stanford Psychology: + Working with a quite well-known professor. Major connections both in academia and out. (e.g. advised one of the major faculty members at Princeton) + All his/her students say (s)he's a great mentor, and he doesn't seem to micro-manage too much, which I prefer. + (S)he just started a research project in a pretty cool area which I'm definitely interested in. + Center for Mind, Brain and Computation offers a dual-advisorship program where I could do basically a minor with a professor from computer science, math, or engineering, to increase my technical abilities. + Generally Stanford has lots of convenient silicon valley connections, which could make great networking opportunities if I choose to leave academia post-Ph.D. + Probably slightly more prestige, (and maybe that's what really matters? http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/1/1/e1400005) + Department funding for full degree, instead of funding off grants like most schools do (even Princeton with fellowship doesn't cover everything, some is paid by your advisor once you choose one). This means I could change advisors if I so choose without financial difficulty. + More excited about the student cohort (both applying and current) at Stanford + Students seemed very happy. + Talked to several current students who came from backgrounds similar to my own, and they all love the program. +/- Much more coursework, 7-11 classes, at least 5 of which are pure Psych classes, so more training in field, but way more time in class +/- Start immediately in lab, so faster to research, but no chance to explore different topics, and switching advisors isn't especially encouraged. - Have to teach 5 semesters, way more work. - Probably higher cost of living, and slightly lower stipend, 34.5k (+1.5k for travel/etc.) - Psych degree less employable? - Palo alto isn't the most exciting place, but is close to SF (sorry for the wall of text.)

Actually I'm pretty sure they did the rankings in a random sampling way, where they took a bunch (hundreds) of subsets of responses and used those to rank, then compared them. The S-rank high would be based on the top rankings that school received using the S metric, and the S-rank low would be the lowest. (Or actually 95th and 5th percentiles it looks like.) Basically it gives you an idea of the range that school would be ranked in. See http://chronicle.com/article/New-Doctoral-Program/124634/for more info.

I would suggest going to the visit at A with an open mind, they're reimbursing you so it costs you nothing. Maybe you won't get a good financial offer from B, or maybe the visit to A will convince you your assessment was wrong. Even if you are pretty certain you're going to attend B, there can be value in visiting A simply for networking, you'll probably get the chance to talk to a few professors and many students who might be the ones hiring you in the future.