rockbender

Hey everybody, I was just wondering if anyone had any advice about transferring? Many people have told me that it is ok/acceptable to transfer to a new program after finishing a masters, but I have doubts that it is really that easy. How do you go about the process? At what point do you discuss it with your current advisor? Are you expected to get a recommendation letter from your current advisor (that seems awkward)? I am a first year grad student (been at my university for 6 months, i.e. longer than the fall semester) and I just don't feel like it's working out. I'm not making any decision now, because I know it is still too early. But when the time comes, I would like to be able to make an informed decision. I haven't found that much information about the transfer process online, especially for the Earth Sciences. I feel like subspecialties are so small, that it would difficult to transfer without burning bridges. Would it be advisable to only transfer if switching to a new field (like ocean chemistry to atmospheric chemistry, or something like that)? Thanks, and Happy New Year!

I hate to be a downer, but I'm actually having a really hard time adjusting to the program... I keep telling myself to "give it some time" but I started in June and things haven't improved all that much. My dept has some "Brilliant Scientists", but the teaching quality is incredibly poor! It's mostly old men rambling incoherently about whatever they feel like discussing. I feel like I am not getting much out of this semester at all. Maybe I just came in with too high expectations…? My relationship with my advisor is awkward. He's a nice guy and everything, but I just don't know what he expects from me. I'm pretty sure that whenever we meet I just sound like a buffoon… My research (what little I get to do) is basically adding a few more data points to something that someone else has already done (and published). I have a hard time justifying the work to myself. What is the new insight that my data will actually add? It doesn't help that one of the "Brilliant Scientists", when told what I was working on, told me that he had solved that problem 20 years ago and I was wasting my time. My advisor will talk about a bunch of projects that I "could" do, but when it comes to making decisions or plans or anything, really, he just leaves me hanging. I've thought about maybe switching advisors, but from what I hear, the other options aren't much better... Beyond that… there is a lab group and a focus group and a division etc, circles upon circles of people that theoretically I should be able to connect with and learn from … but I don't feel part of the community at all. Maybe part of the problem is that the first-years are sequestered in a separate (dilapidated) building from EVERYONE ELSE. Maybe it's an institutional thing, in which all the "Brilliant Scientists" don't want to waste time on the new people (one older grad student told me not to expect any attention from anyone until my master's defense, and he seemed to think it was a right/fair policy). And yes, admittedly part of the problem is that I am just not the most talkative/extroverted kind of person… but other students in my cohort have noticed the stand-offish-ness of the dept as well. The one saving grace is that my cohort is amazing. I'm really grateful that we have gotten to be good friends. Well, sorry again to be so negative. It seems like people are generally enjoying their first years! But I am having a very different experience, and I thought I would reach out to see if there were other people out there who were feeling the same way...

Hey everyone, I recently started a PhD program (2 months ago). Just like everyone told me, my advisor is very nice... However his incredibly busy schedule took me by surprise (he was very attentive during the recruiting process, go figure). Now that I am in the program, he is gone for weeks at a time - at conferences, workshops, visiting collaborators. I meet with (/see) him once or twice a month, usually very briefly. He is also not very good with emails. Sending him an email is sometimes like sending an email into a black hole. I know this is not a very special situation, as a lot of people have this absent-advisor kind of experience... I am having a hard time adjusting to it, though, because my relationship with my last advisor was almost the exact opposite. We would meet frequently, multiple times a day. Just casual brief chats. I felt like I could always drop by his office to ask him 1 or 2 random questions, even if they weren't very important. I liked being able to check in with him to make sure I wasn't putzing around wasting time in the lab. I liked being able to talk about perhaps wacky ideas that ended up being cool mini-projects. He was also extremely good about responding to emails, at least within the day, and usually within an hour or 2. I find myself frustrated at times. I miss the more "collegial" relationship that I had with my old advisor, but I know that waxing nostalgic about it is not going to help me move forward. And I know that a PhD program is about being an independent researcher and all that, but I feel like I've been tossed overboard before I knew how to swim. Any advice about how to adjust to an absent advisor? How did you make it work for you? And... how did you reason with yourself to not take it personally? Thanks!

Ok, wow, much shorter than I was thinking. Thanks fuzzylogician!

Hey all, I am about to submit my FIRST PAPER EVER (so exciting!) in the next week or so. My advisor wanted to see a copy of my cover letter to the editor, but I have no clue what/how to write this letter! I know it is very important and should basically say things like "Here is my paper blah blah blah" "I'm not sending this to anyone else" "Please publish!!!!" Howeber I am not the greatest at writing charming, persuasive letters/emails... Does anyone have any advice or resources that could help steer me in the right direction? E.G. how long is it supposed to be, how detailed it should be, etc etc? I usually check out FemaleScienceProf's blog for these kinds of things, but I didn't see anything about journal cover letters there... Thanks!

Wow this thread is kind of depressing with all the talk about roaches and mice and other critters... How about... what are you most looking forward to at Columbia this fall?

Nice! Are you planning on going to Columbia, or are you still deciding?

When people say they got good and or helpful comments, what exactly does that mean? Paragraphs of specific advice? One reviewer wrote 2 sentences for each section. The other wrote a little more, but only because s/he added a few sentences "summarizing" what I wrote. Their comments were pretty generic (do more on broader impacts, etc)... me either...

Didn't get it. Like budgie it was my first year applying as an UG. Hopefully better luck next year! VG/G E/VG Out of curiosity - did anyone else get called out for having their references all from the same institution? I just thought that was weird... I mean I know some people outside of my UG institution, but yes, the 3 people who know me best are all at the same place!

THIS IS IT!!!! AHHH! *pulls hair*

Hmm where did you hear this? Everyone I talked to told me that undergrads rarely get them and I shouldn't get my hopes up

Accepted to MIT/WHOI! I wasn't really expecting that since I kind of messed up the app, so I guess that's even more exciting! I got an email from the associate dean and she said one of the scientists would contact me soon MIT open house Mon Mar 18 WHOI open house Tues Mar 19

thanks Queen of Kale!!!

I just heard from my contact at Columbia that I was recommended for admission!

Oh and for those waiting on Columbia, my contact there said they started discussing the individual applicants today, and we should hear in the next few weeks (I'm hoping by the end of next week!!!)

POI from Stanford emailed me this afternoon offering a phone interview. If it goes well, I could have a campus interview after that...

My prospective advisor wants to have a chat too... He said he wants to talk about CalTech in general and how the program works and some potential projects etc. I was going to read up on his research and prepare a few questions about it + program. I wouldn't stress too much about it - remember you've already been accepted!!!!

Got into CalTech! Prof said they finished going over the applications today and the official emails will be sent out soon. Visiting weekend is Feb 28-Mar3.

I'll be there! First time and I'm super excited!

yes! 2 have submitted, 1 (my thesis advisor) has not! I've sent him a bunch of reminders. it is completely freaking me out. it would almost be better if they didn't let us monitor when the recs were submitted... I mean, he has recommended me before, so presumably he WILL get around to it... just... not yet. i think i'll send one last reminder an hour before the deadline if it is still not up, but hopefully by then it will be!!!

Well my thesis did not, but this manuscript does. My school did not have all of the necessary experimental set-ups/machines to run the project, so I went to 4 other schools/institutions in order to collect all the data that I needed. The authors are: me my PI another prof at my school was a thesis reader a prof at a nearby school who was also a thesis reader and who runs an analytical lab I used a scientist at a nearby institution who runs an analytical lab I used a prof (international) who helped us collect samples at our field site a prof (international) who runs an experimental lab I used I guess another question would be: is there difference to how US and European scientists approach publishing manuscripts? Could that be a factor?

I have a manuscript draft for my undergraduate senior thesis, and I am trying to submit the darn thing before I have to submit graduate applications (I was hoping before NSF GRF, but that now seems unlikely). I am planning on going into a different subfield for graduate school, and my current research is on a different project with a different PI. Ideally, I would like to wrap up my undergraduate thesis as soon as possible, so I can fully dedicate myself to the new field and not have this one thing still dangling over my head (but don't get me wrong, I know that publishing a paper can take a year or more!) My problem is that my ornery co-authors keep delaying submission of the manuscript. Every time I send out an email saying that I will be submitting in 1 week, one or two of them will suddenly respond with a slew of comments on my work. Generally these comments are not very helpful, things like "this is wrong", "fix this", etc. So I make the edits as best I can, send out the revised manuscript, and this time a different co-author will send back curt comments. Between the 6 co-authors, this has dragged on for almost 2 months! Also - I am kind of getting the feeling that they have little respect for this work since it was done by an undergrad... They sometimes send their edits to my PI instead of me, even though I am first author. My PI is very supportive, and he thought the manuscript could have been submitted at the end of the summer as it was. Unfortunately he is on sabbatical this semester and can't really prod the co-authors into being more cooperative. I expected that I would make a lot of revisions and that the process would take a long time, but I am frustrated that my co-authors seem to have little interest in moving this process along. Does anyone have any experience dealing with obstructive or curt co-authors? Is this just a combination of unfortunate circumstances (undergrad work + co-author personalities), or is this something that I should expect for every future publication? I have a feeling it is the latter, so any advice on how deal with them graciously would be much appreciated!

What???? Sounds like a myth. I can't see how applying to a school in your birth city would translate into better funding. Who did you hear that from?

What is your field?

I would rethink your introduction. The story about the vaccines in Cabantuan City, though compelling, does not relate well to the rest of your statement. If your interest lies in developing vaccines and administering them to underserved communities, it would be perfect, but your interests are in "Regenerative and Reproductive Medicine, Complement, and Immunology". Secondly, I'm not sure that your interpretation of Poul (Paul?) Anderson's quote is correct To me, that quote says that complicated things only get more complicated the more you know about them. As in, once you start researching something, you realize it is way more complicated than you originally thought. Anderson is not saying that any problem can be solved if you try hard enough. If that is the kind of quote you are looking for, you will have to find another one. Finally, it's not clear that the story is really relevant to how you became interested in the field. It's something you witnessed, presumably at an age where you were old enough to understand the consequences of something like the unavailability of a vaccine. You then go on to say So what was the "realization" that you had in the Philippines? You already knew that you wanted to pursue a career in research. It might be worthwhile to start with a different story, something that explains how you got to be interested in Complement and it's impact on regenerative and reproductive medicine. For example, this story: which would provide a more cohesive backdrop for your graduate school interests. I hope that helps a little!