ion_exchanger

I'm still not sold on gre scores being a make or break. In a time where funding is limited, applicants are high, and everyone and their mom is a competitive candidate, someone will always get left out and someone will always wonder why. Big schools who receive thousands of applications seem to use the numbers to reduce their applicant pool to a manageable size. After that, then what? Ten years ago when money was more abundant, a school could rank their applicants and take the top ten. Now they can only take top five. I'm not sure that schools are debating over two applicants, and choose one over the other because this one scores 165 on their gre math and that one scores 163. I guess I'm just trying to remake my favorite point, don't let the scores stress you out too much. My gre scores were certainly nothing to shout about, but if I listened to the doubters I would have missed out on my dream program.

I was accepted to two and am currently attending one of your programs. Good luck and let me know if you have any questions!

If you really have your heart set on it, I would apply anyway. Just throw in some masters programs as well. Sometimes some of these schools will offer you admission into their masters program if you do not get selected for their phd programs. Sometimes you have to tune out the peanut gallery and do what you think is best. We have no idea what these adcoms are interested in. I was amazed to be accepted to some of my programs, and a bit puzzled by my rejection from others. You miss 100% of the shots you don't take. Insert additional Inspiratikn quote here.

I was accepted at an ivy coming from a state school that no one had heard of or could pronounce the name of, with a 3.5 GPA, and no pubs, but my research fit perfectly matched up with the department. Applying for the sake of applying and casting a wide net is physically, mentally, and financially exhausting. Make sure that the schools you apply to are those that actually have faculty that you are interested in working with and schools that you can see yourself attending. You don't want to go through the whole application process only to have one acceptance to the university of wtf and you feel you have to take it because there is nothing else. Bottom line, try to forget about numbers and stats. Apply to places that appear to be a good fit for you. You have absolutely no idea what the adcoms are looking for. I wouldn't have even thought of applying to the ivy if I hadn't been pushed by my mentor because I thought my stats weren't good enough. No one questioned the strength of my mystery state school, no one questioned my poor freshman year performance. They just looked at my research experience and interests and the recommendations from my mentors and made a decision. Please applicants, do not let the stats intimidate you.

I've noticed that people tend to not rate them unless there was something wrong with their stay. I plan in reviewing my apartment when I move out next month as I was not satisfied. I found that most complexes are on apartmentratings dot com. Have you tried this site? It was extremely helpful when I was apartment hunting.

Jumping on the band wagon, offering support and advice for future students. I chose my thesis lab today and I am over the moon excited and eager to get to work. I remember my excitement and nervousness on this forum in 2013. This forum drives you crazy but it also keeps you sane at the same time. It's crazy.

I've had a mixed bag. When I was a postbac, we never really had a formal meeting, I would just go to her when I had significant data. I guess that had to do with the kind of lab I was in, we weren't getting results weekly, it was a slower lab where you had to wait for a lot of the results. She was very accessible though, I could always go to her with ideas or problems. This was the norm for me for 2.5 years. My first rotation in graduate school was very different, the advisor wanted to meet about once a week or so to go over data and overall direction of the project. It was funny to me, sometimes she would walk past me and then double back and say, should we meet up? As if she hadn't spoken to me in a while. My second rotation, the PI met with everyone for an hour every week, there were scheduled meeting times. I feel like these two PIs are the kinds that make sure you are always doing work, all the time, you know that you have a meeting looming so you better have something to show me! My final rotation was/is a lot like my postbac experience, where there is no meeting time but I am always able to go to the PI and discuss my latest results and ideas. For me, this is the best format. I know that graduate school has definite deadlines and such, but I work a lot harder and smarter when I'm more relaxed rather than rushing to put something together just because a meeting is coming, or rushing a failed experiment only to have it fail again because a meeting is coming up. I had that problem with my first two rotations.

I'm a huge fan of messenger bags. They are more comfy than backpacks. Also I am not a fan of the way that totes need to be carried, even though I have had my eye on a few Calvin Klein and Michael Kors totes. I carry a Solo messenger bag. It's medium heavy and comfortably fits my iPad, notebook, small umbrella, and other school essentials. Plenty of pockets for everything. It even fits my big dell laptop. It has one of those shoulder pads for comfort. I love it!

Trifectase is pretty awesome!

Whatever it is should end in triase, no?

Do the functions occur at the same time? Is one reaction more favored than the others? I hope to name a novel protein/gene. I'll take into account the function(s) and name it in such a way that it has a cool acronym.

I did two and a half postbac years before grad school. There is one straight from undergrad in my cohort and the rest of them earned masters degrees from our institution. I'm really happy I decided to pursue the fourth rotation. I almost decided not to, but did not want "what if" feelings. I'm glad I did because I haven't been able to stop thinking about my potential project, and the mentor is amazing.

Oh gosh, recruitment. So much tasty free food. I'm in a special program so I actually have to do two recruitments. Yummy. I noticed a lot of applicants this year are seniors in undergrad. There is only one person fresh out of undergrad in my cohort.

My fourth rotation is the one that I'm most excited about. I can't stop thinking/reading about it, even while in my current rotation, which is terrible. If it doesn't work out, I'll be going back to my first rotation, which will be almost a year ago at that point. New students will be coming in! Wow, things just got real.

Congrats LMac! I am insisting on doing a 4th rotation and will probably be the last to join a lab. One of my fellow first years is already talking about aims! Head in hands.

For a lot of schools that I have visited, you can only rotate with one lab if you like. It's actually better, you don't waste time, can begin immediately on potential projects, and won't take space from someone who doesn't know what lab they want to join. Beware that some PI's will outright ask due to funding. They don't want to use time/resources training a student who already knows that they won't want to join their lab.

I have a degree in biology, and am in a biochem phd program. I also took a year of biochem in undergrad, but those courses weren't required for my program.

Vene, yes that was Maryland. Sys88 isn't it terrible?! You spend all that that time anxious for THEM to say yes, now YOU feel bad for saying no.

I gave my first journal club presentation for my department last week. I was feeling pretty confident until I got behind the podium and could hear my shaky voice. Of course it never goes the way you prepare. I need to get used to that spot, all of my important presentations will be there!

For those worrying about schools that don't reply within a week, try to relax. One of my schools waited five weeks until I was accepted. The only people who learned of their acceptance were those who called ahead because they were in the running for another department.