LockeOak

Keep in mind the differences in percentile vs. score between the verbal and quantitative sections. In my case a 700 in verbal was still in the 96th percentile, while a 700 in the quantitative would be much lower. Therefore, unless you're applying for a literature program, there may be better uses for your time than memorizing that much vocabulary.

I believe my tax last year on a stipend of $19,800 was approximately $1600, roughly $1000 federal and $600 state after taking the standard deduction.

Seconded.

Well, when I'm in the lab (which is most of the time) I'm generally working by myself so it's whatever that won't get me hauled off as a vagrant or gives off fumes that would kill my cell cultures. I can go weeks without seeing anyone else in the lab, so grooming sometimes suffers. If I'm teaching, I try to shave occasionally and wear a clean shirt. When I'm in the field (marine ecology in the tropics) it's either a wetsuit or swim trunks, Columbia fishing shirt and a sun hat. If I'm at a conference, the uniform for coral reef biologists appears to be Hawaiian shirts and shorts. In short, at least among the ecologists, no one cares how you dress. The only times I wear a shirt with buttons is at committee meetings and (some) conferences.

I've never heard of grades on comps before, and I can't think of any reason why anyone other than yourself would know or care about how you did other than pass/fail.

PC Microsoft Office Mendeley (Free) SyncToy (Free from Microsoft) - This very simple program synchronizes files between two or more folders. If you work on multiple PCs like I do, (lab desktop, home desktop, laptop) you can keep them synchronized with a flash drive. One click and it updates all the files on the flash drive and the PC, even if some are more recent on one system and other files are more recent on the other. I carry a flashdrive with me and plug it in when I sit down at my computer, update, and do that again when I go home. A huge savings in time and confusion. SigmaStat/SigmaPlot ($$, forgot how much) - Mostly used for graphing

I ditched the papers entirely and bought a tablet PC for this purpose. That way you can write on the screen to mark up papers, and you always have your entire library with you. I travel a fair bit and it's much easier this way. I've also found Mendeley works better than EndNote in many ways (a Mac equivalent is a program called Papers).

I don't have business cards (yet) though I know many students that do. They're primarily useful at conferences, particularly international conferences. If you're going to see dozens of talks and hundreds of posters over the span of a week, you're not going to remember everyone/everything. They're great, for example, when you encounter someone engaged in similar research and you'd like to collaborate.

I would consider those scores solid for many programs (large state schools, etc.), though they won't be sufficient to get into the very top programs (I was rejected from a few very good programs with a score of 1440). It depends on your field, however. In the sciences that's a pretty good score, top science schools might want a higher Quant, as many applicants will have >760. Many humanities might want a higher Verbal. For GRE scores generally you're just trying to not fall below the program's threshold, whatever that may be. After that the other components of your application become much more important.

As the academic year in the USA begins in the fall, I think the availability of support would be greatest then. Many universities do not allow students to begin in the spring, and if they do I would not expect them to have funding available.

I will agree with the others. I can't think of any circumstances where you should pay tuition during your Ph.D. I would argue that if you're not getting a tuition waiver and a stipend of some sort (a TA at a minimum) then the program obviously doesn't care much to have you around and you should look elsewhere.

Not very many graduate students have to sacrifice lab animals, in my experience. Most of those that do are in pathology or related fields. Genetics rarely does, I know geneticists that don't work on organisms at all, purely computational. I have heard some horror stories from some of the people that work with mouse lines, though. Keep in mind the rules for working with lab animals only applies to vertebrates, no one cares what you do to invertebrates. I'm a coral biologist, we end up sacrificing quite a few. I hope there isn't a cnidarian deity and/or they don't count murders by the polyp or I'm screwed.

The number of people at my university that have been contacted, including myself, is up to three.

I lived a block away from Peter Street for 2 1/2 years. It's not the safest neighborhood in Athens by any means, but I never had any issues. That area is gentrifying pretty quickly and filling up with grad students/young professionals. Let me know if you have any questions, I still live only 4-5 blocks from there.

At my university additional TA/RA lines are not an option, as there are absolutely no extra TA positions available for doubling up. Even if they had them they wouldn't let you, if you're not teaching you should be in the lab. It's the limiting factor of how many students we can accept (typically 6-12 per year). There's no way in hell they're going to give one student a second position that would allow another student into the department. Periodically we come dangerously close to not having enough TA positions to be able to provide everyone a stipend and the administrators have to scramble. If your PI has a grant to provide an RA then you're very lucky. As for extra non-teaching jobs, it is possible to likely that we're going to have to begin laying off staff due to state budget cuts. I think grad students taking on any of that work would get their tires slashed.