ion_exchanger

I took 2.5 years for a postbac and I'm certainly glad I did. I also cannot say enough great things about the experience. I applied to and was accepted to programs that i would have not gotten into if it weren't for my postbac research experience. A postbac is a confidence booster both for you and admissions committees that you are serious that research is something that you truly are interested in pursuing as a career. Being in the lab full time, working on a project, you will be sure that this life is for you, or that you would rather find something else to do. For me, my postbac was at NIH. They have a graduate school where I was able to take classes, so I wasn't too shocked after so much time out of school. Some of those classes can even be paid by your lab if they are relevant to your research. The price is also extremely affordable. Another invaluable resource of a postbac experience is the networking. The people in your lab come from universities, they have connections. I went on so many pre-interviews to meet with POI's before application season was even underway. With my mentors able to vouch for me, and the POI's already having met me, I already had people on the inside looking out for my application and talking me up. When I met them for the actual interview, it was much more relaxing. Also, in your specialized research area, science is a small world. There was not a place where I interviewed that someone didn't know at least one of my mentors, and at a few places people knew many of my mentors. When they see that you had a letter of recommendation from them, they were happy. A postbac year also makes you more marketable as a graduate student. I had time to learn many techniques that would come from a rotation, both from my lab and as a result of collaborations. As a result, I am able to fit nicely in a variety of labs, and bring skills that the lab may not already have. My undergrad GPA was 3.5. I did not complete a postbac to strengthen that, or any numbers. I did that to strengthen my research resume. I highly doubt that I would have even been given a second glance if I had only applied with the research experience that I had from undergrad. I agree with some of the other posters though. In an applicant pool where everyone has tons of experience, sometimes it comes down to numbers, and then there's nothing you can do about that. For programs who are less strict with the numbers and care more about actual experience, a postbac is your best option.

I went three for three on my interviews, and did not send thank you notes.

I'm currently looking for a textbook to accompany my molecular cell biology course. The text recommended is molecular biology of the cell by alberts, but in undergrad I had cell and molec bio by Karp and enjoyed that book. Similarly, biochemistry by lehinger was preferred but I preferred berg. What book do you recommend for cell biology? Similarly, which books do you prefer for subjects?

In my interviews, an empty slot was free time for me, it happened at two of my interviews. They'll have a place for you to sit and relax.

Umd was actually my favorite interview. It's short, sweet, to the point, and fun. Michelle brooks, from what I can remember, was extremely nice and pleasant, she smiles a lot. I had no problems with anyone there, but I was a local candidate. All of the faculty were great, and the phd students are really nice. The students interviewing were also really nice. For dinner they took us to a nice restaurant downtown. Overall, a pretty nice place to be.

In regards to the umd question, I didn't know that they could choose which trip you can take based on price. Shouldn't it be that if you are granted an interview, they will pay anyway, no matter the cost? I will say that for umd, they grouped the interviews based on concentration, so not going with your concentration group is not as fun/informative.

Sorry for replying so late, just seeing this message. Yes it was just for my field, I don't know about the other departments.

Just a sidenote: It was funny and sad at the same time that I was interviewing in a pants suit with PI's who were wearing ripped jeans and no shoes.

They certainly don't, but unfortunately this still makes people nervous , and at the welcome dinners there were always a few people who were uncomfortably dressed up for pizza and beer.

I interviewed and live on the east coast. For anything other than the interview that said casual, I opted for corduroys and a simple sweater. I found that the outfit blended in either way, if people were more on the casual (jeans) side I didn't look too dressed up, and if people were still formal, at least I wasn't wearing jeans and still fit in. Worked for me, I'm a female btw.

Noooo, I'll have to wait until I leave the lab at a time where a pizza place is still open!

I want an office, I want something! I'll settle for my desk. More than anything I want to leave this lab, go home, and eat pizza.

You feel my pain. Days start waking up at 6, leaving home at 7 to be on time for class at 9. At school until 3, and then lab at 4:30 to around 8:30. At home by 9:30, passed out at 10. Repeat.

My course load is heavier than last semester even though I am taking one less credit. Then after school I travel an hour to my lab for rotations. I'm already exhausted.

Sloan Kettering's app was my favorite. Any school that used apply yourself was my least favorite. They all varied slightly in some way and I was always paranoid that I was missing something. University of Maryland at college park required you to apply to first the grad school then the grad program. That was a little extra.

She's human, she makes mistakes. We all make mistakes. I think an adcomm will understand, if they bring it up and you correct them. Did you put anything about the website that you actually did develop in your SOP? If they ask, just talk about the fact that is true, and correct them on the fact that is not.

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but I was under the impression that students are not supposed to know what is in letters of recommendation. Sure, sometimes our mentors show them to us, but we aren't "supposed" to know what they say, right? If that is true, then you say nothing, and if someone brings it up, address it. That's a tough situation, I'm sorry I don't have a better answer.

I have a love hate relationship with western blots. I think they are pretty cool and love the information they provide, but yes finding the right tricks to make them work is a little annoying. Sometimes my results are a little inconsistent. I also have a problem with developing the film. When I first started running them, I was wasting so much film because I couldn't decide how long to expose them. Everyone's film was so much prettier and cleaner than my film.

It's so hard to give someone textbook advice for interviews, because interviews at schools vary greatly. I interviewed at three different schools and had completely different interview experiences at all three. One was one on one faculty interviews, one was an admissions committee, and one involved sometimes three other students scheduled at the same time only listening to a professor talk about their research for 30 minutes and them asking you to say two sentences about yourself in the beginning to the rest of the group (my fav!). The best thing you can do is focus on your research, knowing it inside and out. Ask your mentors to practice asking you questions, or give your speech to science and non-science friends. Try to find someone on here that interviewed at the school where you are interviewing, for a more personalized answer. Also, if on the day of the interview you are still nervous, there is usually, but not always, some sort of dinner or get together before the actual interviews, so try to talk to current students and casually ask who they are currently rotating/working with, and any advice they have about that person. At one of my interviews at the dinner the night before, the students asked me who I was interviewing with and gave me a brief synopsis about the ones that they were familiar with, so i had a heads up. As far as bringing the iPad to show data, I really don't think it's necessary. Talking about it is enough. Unless you are at a completely competitive interview, or have a nutty interviewer, they will talk to you about your research for a while, then pull up their latest presentation on THEIR iMac.

That's borderline mean. I wish schools thought just a little bit more before they did things like this.

I started doing PCR regularly and for the first time this past summer during my first rotation. I was chalking my mistakes up to beginners error, but it's nice to know that there is a deeper story. I'm not the biggest screw up. Yay! To add to number 2, money is definitely a challenge I think from a materials standpoint. I was spoiled during my first research project in that I really didn't have to worry about materials/reagents, and I admit I could be a bit wasteful when I first started working in the lab full time. For example, I would throw away ion exchange columns without trying to reuse them, which makes me cringe. I've since gotten a lot better. I moved to a lab where materials were not as plentiful, and I had to be even tighter. I like to start working in the lab early, and once I came in to find that there were no blue falcon tubes to be found. I ended up having to hunt around the building to find someone that had them.

Agreed. I feel like I'm constantly wasting reagents. When I finally get PCR to work and run my experiments, I run colony PCR to confirm that the experiment worked. When it fails the first time, I have to run it a second time to make sure the reaction didn't just mess up. Oh the uncertainty.

The concept and end result of PCR and cloning are really cool. I like how useful it is. It's just so darn frustrating! Lol. I don't seem to have the magic touch that will make things work. I would have to run PCR for 3.5 hours and hope that my product was produced, and if it wasn't, have to run it again overnight, and then come in the next morning and hope it was produced again. If PCR didn't work, it would throw my experiments off by a lot.