Chai_latte

I really wouldn't switch into bio. It's oversaturated. Job prospects for them are even worse (thanks to an extreme glut of PhDs). And what makes you think that bio TAs aren't abused or that bio profs aren't gossipy? I'm sorry that you're dissatisfied w/ your program and I agree that med chem is on its way out, I just don't think bio is the solution. Before jumping ship, be sure to explore the other chem subfields.
Also, do your homework on the PharmD. Make sure it really appeals to you/meets your needs. You don't want any unpleasant surprises should you decide to attend.

medChem is pretty narrow. the problem is that it prepares you for a single career in a single industry: synthetic organic chemist in the pharmaceutical industry. if this single industry has trouble, you're also in trouble.

have you thought about switching to a general organic synthesis or inorganic synthesis program especially in things like polymer or inorganic materials synthesis? these are broader and let you work in more traditional chemical industries with a very similar set of skills to medicinal chem. I don't think you'll be interested in analytical or physical but just letting you know, at my school the analytical/physical guys all found jobs on graduation (in companies like Nanomix, Agilent and Intel) and only very few had to get a postdoc. These require a totally different skillset though.

Wow, you're planning on getting the MS and doing a postdoc? You'll be prepared to do almost anything! I have some MD/MPH, JD/MBA friends, and I HONESTLY don't know how you dual grad degree people do it. I can only tolerate but so much lecture/formal schooling before I pass out. I'm in my last semester of coursework now and I literally have to FORCE myself to do my problem sets (while mumbling, "I'm too old for this... ").
My hat goes off to you guys.


@katerific- please provide updates when/if you become an absinthe-drinking, greeting card writing shepherd. Grad school sure does open a lot of doors!!

http://youtu.be/XViCOAu6UC0

It's hard to remember that the adcoms are composed of people who are genuinely (and sympathetically) interested in us and not evil robots set on destroying our egos, dreams, hopes, etc.

Look, better no mistakes than 1-2 mistakes but typos of that nature really aren't going to be what keeps you out of grad school. Can you imagine anybody saying "we really liked X and her fit with our department, she has great research interests and would be an asset to have in our incoming cohort! ... but her writing sample contains two typos, so lets move on to the next candidate."

This thread has jumped topics really quickly, but I want to clarify something that is unclear to me from the series of posts:

Did the professor say that she believed this research, and that black people were less intelligent? Or did she bring it up as a point in a broader discussion?

You mention that she said it "neutrally" and you also say that she "sort of said that". I'm wondering if your other negative relations with this professor are making you see these comments with a slant that might otherwise not be there.

We had a very interesting talk recently that discussed early 20th century scientific writing and the development of medicine and one of the areas discussed was this exact topic, and how pre-existing racial biases slanted the research towards skull size/intelligence issues. Everyone seems to be jumping from the professor "sort of saying" that research existed on this point "in a neutral fashion" to saying that she never should have brought up such an insensitive topic with a black student in the class. I'm not exactly sure I follow that line of thought.

In my first day of class with a famous sociology prof as an undergrad freshman, she basically explained the breakdown of our class and what she expected our performance to be based on where we went to high school and which part of the country we were from. This professor looked at myself and another male student (out of 12 people total) and said, "You two will do worse than anyone. In all likelihood, you won't even graduate from here and if you do, it will take more than 4 years." To our faces in front of everyone in the middle of class. Why? Because we went to public high schools and were both from the US South. Was I offended? Hell yes. Even more so when she basically reiterated the statement when I met with her in office hours to discuss my paper. In my second semester at that school, a professor flat out told me that I was not and never would be capable of writing at the collegiate level. So yea, I can believe that a professor would say something about blacks and race or anything else because I've heard it happen.

But, as fuzzylogician has astutely pointed out, it isn't our place to judge the veracity of the OP's claim. For what it's worth, I think the advice to learn what you can both from the class and from your classmates and get out of there with a good grade, no negative evaluation from the professor, and with your departmental relations intact is the best thing you can do. No one is going to force you to work with this professor in the future so just avoid her if that's what you believe is necessary. That said, I will say that I have had some bizarre undergrad and grad experiences (for evidence, read my posts). I once asked a professor why I didn't get the checkmarks and comments that everyone else got on their weekly response papers. Her answer? My writing was clear and concise and she didn't write much because she didn't have as many critical comments to make. Had I never asked, I might not have known or might have assumed something that wasn't true. Just some food for thought.

Would calling the first student a muppet help?

Oh my goodness. That's what I did...right in the 3rd-4th sentence of my SOP. I was missing one of those 2 or 3 letter words. I almost died. It was my first application and my first choice school. I'm attending that school now. I didn't think to contact them, but I'm also in a different field. Whatever you decide, good luck!

I agree. I think we should always assume the OP (any poster really) is telling the truth, or as much information as they feel comfortable giving. This is a mostly-anonymous internet forum -- people with questions provide whatever facts they wish to share and the rest of community offers their helpful thoughts based on experience. Claiming that a poster is lying doesn't help anyone. If you don't think the story told is realistic or if you think a poster is trolling, then just ignore them. If you believe that someone has posted information that is incorrect or if you don't agree with their assessment/opinion/advice, then post your own thoughts.

I'm not sure why some people choose not to believe the OP - what's to be gained by lying like that on an anonymous internet forum? It'll only make the advice the OP receives all the less relevant for their situation.

OP - this is a shame but it doesn't change my opinion. We still don't know that this prof has anything against you personally; but either way, the best thing you can do for yourself is keep your interactions with her to a minimum and stop them altogether once you're no longer in her class. Sounds like you can't win this one, but the loss won't be too great either. I know it's hard to let it go but it's really the best way to help yourself through this situation.

Well anyway, I just got the sense that she found the whole post hard to believe, and yeah the prof REALLY DID SAY WHAT THEY SAID. If I came across as confrontation or "troll-ish," ... it's because I'm a little bit sensitive about the fact that I'm a black female in a predominantly white-male academic field (another reason I didn't mention the event in the intro), as well as the whole situation in general.

I understand that you feel singled out, but I want to reiterate the point that as yet, she hasn't done anything that is objectively wrong. She's done things you feel are too harsh, or might have improper underlying reasons, but she hasn't done anything "wrong", in my opinion.

I also wanted to mention that you emphasize here (and in your last post) that she isn't "constructively" criticizing you. My experience has been that the farther you go, the less this will be the case. While helpful to your self-confidence and ego, spending the extra time to compliment things isn't really the most efficient way to turn you into a better writer. Most professors I've worked with in grad school (as well as many in undergrad) work under the assumption that anything they don't point out is fine. And harsh criticism for sub-par work is quite common.

Once you start grad school, the bar is often abruptly set much higher- you aren't expected to "pass", you're expected to do excellent work.

I wonder if some of this stems from the fact that your first piece for the class was something you admittedly spent 2 hours on, and the lack of effort showed.

Also, you mention that your draft went from an A- to an A- final version... How did you respond to the comments on the draft? Did she point out that she didn't like your argument at that point? If the replies were truly "pissed off", it may be because she doesn't feel like you're responding to critiques (ie, her comments on the draft).

I think it can definitely help. What I would do is email these people and seeing if they're open to meeting you, even just for a brief, 10 minute meeting, at the conference. If you could get some of them to agree to this, it would totally be worth it. They might just say, you can come say hi after my talk, which is also another opportunity to introduce yourself. If enough of your POI's are attending and seem receptive to meeting you at the conference, I'd say its worth it. I say, to email them first, because that way they'll know beforehand to expect and remember who you are. At conferences, professors are meeting so many old and new people, they may easily forget who you are.

It sounds to me like the bridge is already burnt (or burning). I wouldn't worry too much about hurting your professional relationship at this point as he was pretty curt and unhelpful to you.

As others have said, I would probably still be polite but firm and relay the fact that he is your one and only resort for a strong writeup of your research abilities. If he's still a jerk, then let it go and assume something happened that's out of your control. Hopefully he won't be and will have some compassion and help you out considering you said he was helpful in the past.

Did she finally submit it?

Oh, no...there's nothing worse than not having support. I'm a relatively new grad student. But, I'll try to offer some advice.
1) I needed a tutor last semester. No one within my program really had time to help me. So, I got a tutor from a nearby university. She made all the difference. I don't know where your school is, but if you're in a university hub, don't forget to make use of ALL resources. Does your prof. have office hours? Is he helpful? Live in his office, if necessary. Get your questions answered. Oh, don't forget there might be a postdoc willing to tutor. Don't just limit yourself to older grad students.
2) I'm sorry your peers are so unfriendly. That must be awful. If I were you, I'd be cordial, but wouldn't keep trying to be friends (at least not right now). I'm sure ppl in other depts. are nice. After you get past the hurdles of this semester, try to meet others by choosing an extracurricular activity. Maybe there's a club you'd like to join?
3) I hate to tell you to bail, but if you're truly miserable maybe a diff grad program would be better? Or, maybe stick it out a little longer to see if things improve? Ugh, I really don't know what to say. I'm sorry you're so unhappy and that the program is so unsupportive. Good luck

I am a student at Stanford in the School of Earth Sciences (SES). There are a lot of misconceptions going on here, so allow me to clear it up.

We are 4 separate departments, not one single earth sciences department. Each department is in different (but close by) buildings. For the most part, the departments stay separate, with separate seminars, degree requirements, administrative staff, etc. However research collaboration between departments is not uncommon.

Each department has 70ish grads and 14ish faculty. A typical faculty member might have 4-6 grad students, which provides plenty of personal attention. My lab has 6 students and I think it's a good size. I would say that 90% of the people (faculty and grads) in my department know me, and large fractions of the other departments as well. I never feel like grad student #167.

I would say that our large size is because we are simply covering more research ground, with more specialties represented. If anything it's a really good thing, because for any earth sciences specialty we probably have someone who is an expert here. Overall I would say grad life here is pretty good.

I love this topic. My favorite when any academic during a lecture prefaces a question with "in my new book I have written on [insert something tangential to the actual topic of the lecture] and I would like to hear your opinion on yadda yadda..." or "in my own research on this topic I have found that [yadda yadda]. Do you agree?"

As much as I love to chuckle at self-aggrandizement, should I spend seven years of my life earning a PhD I will most certainly toot my own horn from time to time.

You hit the nail on the head. I was worried that I'd miss out on business skills. I didn't think that an MBA was necessary, but I wanted to have some background. So, I planned (and will start) to take advantage of some of the conferences/events at my university's b-school.
In my fantasy land, I'm hoping that my advisor and I can commercialize our research. Oooh, that would be a dream come true!

I had a 2.6 undergrad GPA and all my PhD acceptances last year were top 15 schools. One of them was Columbia (which I turned down). Keep in mind though that "ivy" status doesn't carry the same weight in a PhD as it does in undergrad or professional programs. Often time ivies aren't even that well ranked depending on the dept. Nobody will be impressed but your parents. Try and focus more on schools that are solid research fits, that is the most important factor, trust me.

I would apply to any school that you think is a good fit, ivy or not. Try and not classify schools as a "reach" or "safety". If you goto a "reach" school just for the name but isn't a good fit, you will hate life. If you goto a "safety" you will feel like you were so close to getting in other places and could have done better so you will be disappointed going to that school. Both cases are bad scenarios. Instead, pick schools that are all great fits and whichever ones accept you, goto the best fit of them all.

You know what? I totally misread your scores. I was thinking that the 560 was your quant score. A 750 is fine. Seriously. I know the percentile might be too low for your taste, but the score itself is A-OK! A 750 is never grounds for a rejection.
Sorry about that.
Anyway, the rest of your app looks strong. Sounds like you'll have solid LORs and a strong SOP. I like your mix of schools- just make sure they're a good fit.
Good luck with those papers!

apiso, I think it may be worth another try if you have time to study, can focus on your weaknesses, and take time to learn some quick and dirty tips/tricks of the test. GRE math is not difficult, but ETS relies on careless errors and oversights.

I recommend the Princeton Review book for their test tips and tricks, Barron's for their practice tests, and ETS's Powerprep for simulated practice.

Many people here suggest Manhattan prep to help push a decent test-taker over the 160+ threshold, but again, it seems worth it only if you have ample time to devote to it.

I was a pretty successful (in my opinion lol) tutor during the last few years of undergrad and while I did it as a MSc student as well, I just didn't have as much time as a grad student!

I think the most important aspect of being a successful tutor is connections!!

I would first find out if my fellow students are tutoring too and work with them so that you don't undercut each other. Find an agreed-upon rate. This depends by location but a number that has worked for us in multiple places is something roughly $30/hr. Next, find out if your own department posts tutor lists. My old department used to have a page listing contact information for all grad students interested in tutoring (and what courses they could tutor) and then undergrads who wanted extra help beyond office hours would contact the grad students. So you might not even have to tutor students outside of your own school. One important thing is to find out what conflict-of-interests rules might exist if you're a TA as well. The general rule is that you shouldn't privately tutor a course that you are currently TAing, but usually old courses are fine. In fact, you can be pretty successful in tutoring, e.g. PHYS 101 if you were a TA for PHYS 101 in previous years.

I say work with fellow grad students/tutors because you might want to find someone quickly to cover for you in case you get sick or have to be away for a conference etc. Or maybe you're just really busy one week. You could also cover for your friends as well if they are busy or are away. At my old department, we formed an ad-hoc tutor network where we could trade students. In addition if one of us had a full schedule but a new student wanted help, we could direct them to other tutors. This works really easily if you guys all charged the same amount.

In addition, I found that it's important to make it clear to your students what your role is. Sometimes students expect you to do their homework for them. I personally believe this is unethical tutoring. If I need to show a student how to do a question as an example, I either change the numbers or pick another question in the textbook that isn't assigned. I think it's important to make this clear on your first meeting, so that the student knows what to expect.

Student satisfaction is really important. It's far more valuable to have a repeat student schedule you every week than to do lots of one-time sessions with different people. I usually tell the student that the first session is 50% off so that we both get a feel for things. Sometimes our teaching/learning styles just don't match up. Almost every student appreciates the chance to find the best fit for tutoring and almost all of them end up paying the full rate even the first day. I think it's very important to have a good rapport and almost a partnership between tutor and student. If you treat them as purely a source of income, I don't think you will be as successful. I also find it really rewarding in non-financial ways when my students share their successes with me. From a practical point of view, it has also been beneficial since they recommend me to their friends.

Hope that is helpful!