ion_exchanger

Nooooo! Luckily for me, according to grad cafe results, only one of my programs has a history of notifying applicants via phone. I don't get the best reception at my lab bench. I could see myself now: leaving my phone by the window to receive a phone call, but running to the phone every 5 minutes to check my email. Also, congrats on your acceptances already, Faraday! We are from the same state. I applied to MCB at college park.

@ flat_rhino I applied to Upenn, 2 Hopkins programs, GWU, Sloan-Kettering (no invite, :-( so rejection) 2 UMD programs. All east coast for me.

One of my mentors suggested applying to ten schools as a rule of thumb. I think 7 is a good. I want to apply to programs that I feel I could make it to the interview phase, as that's how I see myself getting back my app fee. I don't want to have to turn down a bunch of interviews because they start to conflict. For myself, I am confident in my research experience and believe I coul get into at least a couple of my programs based on the conversations that I have had with professors at these universities.

I'll also go on every interview that I get. I think the more interviews that I get, the more confident I will feel at interviews, so it won't feel like the pressure is too much if I only have a few. I'm lucky in that I can take all the time to interview that I need, since we are expected to apply to school and I only applied to seven schools so not much time for me, but only 2 out of 7 programs have sent out invites.

I turned my push off too, but my checking y email every second probably drains the battery even faster. I have five email accounts linked up to my phone, so whenever one of them gets a new email, cue mini heart attack.

Haha! Those poor mail people. Even though they say the postal mail is suffering financially, I bet they are secretly glad that college aged kids are no longer harassing them for missing college letters! LOL! I can check my email on the hour and half hour, and I can check grad cafe on the 15 and 45. That is how I stay sane.

One of my mentors asked if I had heard from any schools, and I said no, but I'm checking my email every second. He said why can't they just send things through snail mail, so you can only check once a day. I can't decide which is worse!

You mean she corrected it on her own? That is unbelievably nice. So glad there are great people out there willing to do that. My goodness, if she said see you soon to me, I would be flipping out. I'd LOVE to see you soon!!!!!

By new years eve this december, when a new crop of grad hopefuls are blowing up this forum, we will be enjoying a much needed break after our first successful semester of graduate school. I will be so proud of us!

When I think about it that way, you are right. Out of 7 schools, I have one interview, one that I didn't received based on other postings, and the other 5 I'm expecting to start receiving next week. I think I'll check my email twice as much because I actually know that an email could come through, as opposed to during the holidays when I comforted myself thinking that if I didn't get an email, it's ok because they are on break. (well then why was I checking???) Help is what I need. I worked my tail off this application season so that I would only have to apply once. I did not expect for it to be this draining. As much as I want to attend graduate school, if I don't get in this year (ahhh!!) I don't think I will have it in me to apply again. There are people at my work that are applying to professional/medical school for the second/third time. I applaud them.

For verbal, I grabbed a verbal workbook from Kaplan. For math, I used a math GRE workbook from Mcgraw-Hill, although this book was a little on the easy side for me. I also had a Barron's general GRE book, which I highly recommend. The math in this book is a little harder than the math on the actual test, so if you can conquer the math in this book, you will be fine. About a month before the test, I also picked up Kaplan's new GRE book with the online content, which I recommend. The book contained a good amount of questions per section. The computer program was what really sold it for me. There were ten verbal sections, ten math sections, and then five full length practice tests, as well as a diagnostic test. While not identical, the online program for the Kaplan program is similar to the ETS software, so you will feel more confident on the computer come test day. The only thing I will say is that you may want to ignore the analytical writing topics on the Kaplan program or any book. ETS has so gracioulsy put up all essay topics on their website, and you should focus on those. The books are good for explaining how to write the essays, but if ETS is giving you the topics, you shoudl practice those. A lot of the essays are just variations of each other. I also took one ETS practice test before I began studying, and another when I felt I had studied enough. This is what my study schedule looked like for about 6 weeks: Monday - Math Workbook Tuesday - Verbal Workbook Wednesday - Math Barron's Thursday - Verbal Workbook Friday - AW writing, at least 5 essays Saturday - Kaplan practice test Sunday - Kaplan Verbal and Math 20 question sections I studied vocab on my commute to and from work, about an hour commute each way. Good luck to you!

Happy New Years everyone!

Glad I'm not the only one looking forward to tomorrow and schools reopening. I too have checked my email a million times since Christmas. I'm sure they needed that long break to prepare for all of the crazed grad school candidates.

Yep, I base it on the number of overall faculty in the program. At one of my prospective schools, there are about 30 faculty, and only 5 that I am interested in. I put two in my SOP, one of which I have actually met and talked to. With other small departments I listed two. If the application asked for faculty, I didn't list any in my SOP.

I'm similar in one of my prospective graduate programs but it isn't interdisciplinary or an umbrella program. There are about 80 professors in my program and I was asked to list 10. I gave 15, but it could have easily been more. For my case, there are certain techniques that I am interested in using. Many professors use one or more of them to answer different questions in different areas of science: immunology, biochemistry, physiology, etc. That's a reason why my numbers are so high.

I didn't learn of the POI mention in SOP until after I applied to my first school, but luckily I received an interview without it. Thought it was ok because the actual application says to list faculty. Outside of the sciences, I'm sure it's different. Maybe take your very top 3 or 4. I would start by saying that the whole department is outstanding and there are multiple professors who are a great fit. To name just a few... It's not much, but it's all I got :-)

You might as well. The only other alternative is to sit back and worry about it. I am cautiously optimistic for you, as I have seen this topic come up many times. I would hate that they would reject an otherwise strong candidate.

When was the deadline for this school? As terrifying as it seems, it's not super uncommon. For one of my schools, the deadline is dec 1st but don't usually send invites until the middle of January, so it may be possible that the committee hasn't met yet.

As much as I love the holidays, I'm so glad that they are ending this week so we can get back to what I keep calling "application season"!

Haha! I definitely can relate. I felt pretty confident about my research experience, but then when someone received an interview invitation to one of the programs that I applied to, I started to panic, thinking that I was silly to even apply. The next day I received an interview to that program and was relieved. The roller coaster is seriously draining.

Haha I love that, science parents. One of my mentors was my professor for 2 years, and then we worked together in the lab for another two years. I feel the same about him. I had a mini freak out when I started registering for apps, wondering if I really wanted to do this. I thought, I'm nothing like that nice collection of graduate students on everyone's website. What would my picture look like up there? I should just stay here on the ground and get a nice job. No, no, no, my younger self convinced me that I needed to go big or go home. Had to get the highest title. Shut up, younger self.

Wow, how I envy you. The essays were the hardest part for me, and usually the last thing I finished when working on an app. One of my recommenders had all of their recommendations completed and uploaded a full month before I submitted anything.

Yes. One of my mentors basically said that I wasn't the best oral communicator out of those of us in the lab applying to med/grad school and started giving me tips on the people I'll meet, how to make small talk, how to be engaging. I'm naturally shy, so the social aspect of the interviews actually gives me the most worry. I'm finished all of my apps, and I just have one letter of recommendation missing, then I can relax. Who am I kidding? I can keepy worrying. I honestly didn't expect to be this stressed out.

My thoughts exactly. I just want everything to go well. my problem is that I'm usually an introvert, so I don't want to come across as if I don't care. If I'm too aggresive, however, I run the risk of seeming fake. This is my biggest anxiety about interviews where I will have to make small talk with many people at dinners and social gatherings. The actual meetings with faculty, I'm not as nervous about. I know my research, I know I love research, that's actually the thing I am looking forward to. I have a near perfect job interview record.

I agree with your name staying fresh on their minds. When they get back from the holiday and the committee is getting ready to meet if they haven't already, they will remember you. Go for it!