elem3nt

Mostly graduate students: Duke Dartmouth Johns Hopkins Mostly post-docs: OHSU NIH Yale Harvard Scripps

A single-malt scotch, preferably Balvenie or Highland Park

You're getting way ahead of yourself if you're already thinking about grad school. Don't. You'll change by the time you graduate. The job market will be very different in 10 years, so speculating about job prospects now is an exercise in futility. If you want to get a Ph.D. to get a job, don't. The only reason to get a Ph.D. is because you love the subject.

Yes. Everyone in lab/my department already has friends/SOs/family. Social circles are already well established and I've had no luck breaking into any. I'm looking outside with groups/clubs run by students and having a little better luck. You're not alone.

What about working on a paper with complex features like citations, auto-numbered, tables, figures, table of contents, etc.? Also, has anyone used the iPad for a math/physics course with a lot of equations? From my limited experience the iPad's capacitive screen is too clunky and insensitive for something like this, especially compared to pen + paper and scanning it in.

For current grad students (especially life science): do you have any free time during the week or on the weekends? Or are you in lab all the time? What is it like compared to undergrad? I'm doing a Ph.D. in biophysics next year. My free time has eroded to nothing over the course of my undergrad, and I've gradually given up my social life, hobbies, and most recently, adequate sleep. You know the feeling of having something always looming over your head. More practically, I have a lot of money invested in a hobby (cycling) but haven't even touched my bikes for the last semester (I've been busy with an UG thesis, research, tutoring, grad school interviews, writing intensive classes, blah blah blah... the typical undergrad BS). I'm wondering whether it'll always be this way from now on, in which case I should just accept the fact, sell everything, and move on.

Thanks for the advice. I have been finding out the hard way about this stuff and have the following advice for anyone out there: Thoroughly know the rules concerning class attendance and read everything on your syllabus about the make-up policy before talking with your prof. Have a copy of both when you go to discuss your absence/rescheduling assignments, and be prepared to argue them like a lawyer. Additionally, get a letter from your dean (again, before talking with your prof) explaining your absence. You want as much firepower as possible on your side. Not everyone is as thrilled as you about missing class to go interview.

Even though they are official/excused absences, has anyone had conflicts with professors over absences for graduate school recruiting visits? I.e. being pressured to cancel interviews? I have 7 interviews and will miss a LOT of class. Should I inform my profs of the interviews all at once or gradually, a week before each interview?

Me too! I'm super pumped!

People tend to be very negative about job prospects, especially on the internet. I have heard a mix of opinions IRL, with postdocs generally being the most negative and professors (any rank) being the most positive. From what I have gathered, your job prospects are highly influenced by whose lab you worked in and what connections your PI has - thus, things are probably very different for the PhD who got his degree from a no-name lab at Big State U and goes around trolling the internet on how bad the job situation is than for someone who got his degree in a trendy/hot topic lab at a top university.

Columbia (Pathobiology & Molecular Medicine): Feb 3-5 Harvard (Neuro): Jan 19-22 Northwestern (Neuro: NUIN): Jan 19-20, Feb 2-3, Feb 23-24 University of Chicago (BSG): Feb 23-25 UCLA ACCESS (Molecular and Medical Pharmacology): Dec 22 UPenn (Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics): Jan 19-21, Feb 9-11 UPenn (Neuro): Jan 20, Feb 10 U Wisconsin - Madison (Biophysics): Mar 1-3

No no no - you are getting this completely wrong! Although your research interests are the most interesting thing in the world to you, the adcom is looking for evidence through your past experiences that you are prepared for grad school and couldn't care less about your research interests (as long as they broadly fit the research at the school). Ditto on what others have said about shortening the personal statement.

In my personal statements I kept the balance 2/3-3/4 past research experiences that prepared me for grad school, 1/3-1/4 future research interests. I am just an undergrad in the sciences, but my professor told me that research interests often change during grad school (even among those who were certain of what they wanted to do) and thus you should keep the research interests section short. Therefore, you are getting it wrong. Shorten your research interests and integrate that with why you want to study there. Expand the section on your background - remember, background is definite and concrete, and you want to demonstrate that you will do well and not fail or flunk out of grad school. Harsh as it may seem, what you are interested in has little bearing on this.

Some of the applications also include "Is there any pending charge against you?" in which case you would need to answer "Yes."

That makes sense. Most grad students at my institution (Big state U) put out 3-4 papers in their PhDs, and an entire lab might get 2-3 science/nature/cell papers in a decade (i.e. it is a really big deal). I did summer research at a top 10 institution and was amazed at the difference in lab climate - papers were flying off the press straight to Science and Cell. I guess I should just get used to the dominant role of chance in determining who is successful in science, and start looking for those kind of "hot topic" labs.