ion_exchanger

I'm trying to make my moving load as light as possible, as well as leave nothing behind at my old house. I have a huge set of old edition textbooks not related to my major that I cannot sell online, but don't want to just throw away. Is there a better way to dispose of my books? A place to donate them or recycle them? Any advice is appreciated.

For most of my applications, I had to submit only a personal statement, where I listed research experience as well as future plans and what I wanted to study in school. For my UPenn app, there was a research statement, and a personal statement. I wrote both, and then the schools where they were combined I submitted a mixture of the two. If you write both now, you will be prepared. You should have some sort of research statement prepared anyway.

Jeffster is right, you don't want to drive in Georgetown. Even the shuttles to campus are stuck in traffic, which of course is worse during rush hour. Allow a good amount of time to get to class each day. For those going to American, and even Georgetown, if you are not opposed to less traditional housing, i.e renting a room in someone's house, or someone's basement, Bethesda is a good place to do that. Because of the amount of interns, postbacs, grad students, and postdocs that work in NIH, there are many opportunities for house sharing in Bethesda. Obviously the more people, the lower the rent. An intern I know is paying $750 with all utilities included for her room. Just another idea if you are in to that. The commute is not bad at all on the metro from Bethesda to tenleytown.

If you are commuting to Georgetown, look for places in or around Rosslyn Virginia. A shuttle goes to campus from the Rosslyn station. If you live a little further in Virginia maybe you'll get lucky and only have to take a short bus ride. I forget how much a bus ride costs, $1.50 or &1.75 with a smart trip card each trip. $3 to $3.50 a day is not so bad. Definitely agree with thewb, consider living further and commuting, could turn out to be much cheaper.

Aww!! That was the first thing that I thought of when I first read this, because that's what I would have done, and that's what the lab next door often does! I was thinking about this question for a while. Nice to see you solved your problem. Pesky proteins.

As a person who works on protein structure, I completely understand how time consuming protein structure can be, and am sorry to hear this. I can't believe they asked you to continue the project! This is infuriating! Gosh, how do you even trust your PI anymore. I agree with fuzzylogician, it's a slippery slope. I can only offer my sympathy. Feel free to vent more, or even PM me to vent.

The school that I looked at offered 23k, and the cost of living in that area was not low. I would say moderate. Immediately you subtract the amount of money that you should spend on taxes. In this school's area, a one bedroom near campus will run someone 1K. A two bedroom on campus will run them 1400. The area around campus is not the safest, so they may want to live a little further out. The average cost for a 2br in a decent neighborhood is around 1400 not including utilities. This may be more expensive if they move towards the city, or less expensive if they move futher into the suburbs. With moving towards the suburbs, it is less expensive, but now you have to worry about commuting costs. If you are commuting from the suburbs, are you driving? Add gas and car insurance. Are you taking public transportation? Add those fees if your school doesn't reimburse you. In this area, the closer you live to public transportation, the more expensive it is due to convenience. This doesn't even include utilities, renter's insurance, and your own personal bills (i.e. cell phone) The bottom line is that the stipend can be made to work, but you also may want to have a cushion to save money, or to not feel stressed if something major happens like your car breaks down or you (or your roommate) uses utilities outrageously one month. Obviously the area is matters when considering the stipend. Different areas will stretch a stipend further. In that particular area, financially things will be tighter. I asked the students about the stipend, and if they were happy with it. I got mixed answers when I asked the students. Some lived with spouses or significant others, and others lived with roommates but expressed that they wished they could live alone or with less people. The fact of the matter is, you have to look carefully at the stipend amount vs. the cost of living in that area. In this area, where I have lived all of my life, I know what it would take to live somewhat comfortably. During my postbac appointment, my stipend was higher than what the school offered, and my postbac stipend allowed me to live in the area comfortably, pay taxes, pay my bills, and save money for emergencies. My personal feelings for that stipend amount come from my experience of living in that area on my own with my postbac stipend. From my personal experience, I encourage prospective students to really think about the stipend vs. cost of living. As far as how it will work in other areas, students have to do their research and make an informed decision. Prosepctive students should be honest with themselves about how they wish to live. Are you someone who desires to live alone or with as few people as possible? You might want to make sure you can afford to live that way. If you don't care, then you will be happier in a 3br apartment or maybe a house share. Bottom line, at that particular school for 23K you COULD make it work, you have to decide what you are willing to do to make it work.

Agreed. The right advisor makes all the difference in graduate school. It can be the difference between doing really well or leaving the program due to unhappiness. Stipend levels absolutely matter. While we are all thankful and grateful that we have funded offers, they mean nothing if the stipend doesn't cover the cost of living for that area. There were schools that I was interested in but could not see myself being able to attend due to the cost of living and the stipend offered. For the record, I've seen stipends from 23K to 34K, the lower end a state school, the higher end a school in new york. The administrative support issue is also important. You can tell a lot about the efficiency of the administrative office by the level of ease of the application and interview process. If you have everything detailed and structured for you by the time you arrive at the interview and the interview runs relatively smoothly, then the administrative office is pretty on point. Pay attention to this, as this actually will relieve some of the stress you may encounter when you are ready to enroll. I would also add to pay attention to how the students interact with each other. That is very telling.

Same for me. I've learned a lot throughout the process, and there are so many little things that you don't think about that really matter during the process. Like Biotechie, I would be happy to help in any way that I can. Especially since a lot of us will see you guys at interviews, only this time we will be student hosts!

I recently attended a graduate school transitioning seminar where the speaker not only encouraged but demanded that we have one or two main hobbies/interests in grad school and that we hold onto these interests no matter what. Graduate school is already stressful enough without having something to do to destress and take your mind off of school for a while. She explained that it's crucial to your sanity and you will end up being more relaxed than if you just abandoned all interests and focused solely on work. She also suggested that these activities would be great if they were group activities. For example, if you like to read to destress, you should consider joining a book club. I also think that faculty would agree that you should have a hobby/life outside of graduate school for the sake of sanity. If you are the one paying for it, I say go for it. I love music and playing my instrument, and have been toying around with the idea of joing a community band, but I really don't think I'll have time for that. I really like arts and crafts so I'll continue to sew and craft during school. I also like the suggestions that I see here that say to treat school like a full time job and take weekends. I had planned on putting in 10 hours a day mon-fri, resting saturday, and working on sunday. Hopefully this will work for me. Good luck to you all.

The math score on the old scale is a 790, and the percentile is 90%. Again, who is this person advising you to retake it? The decision is ultimately up to you, but I would worry about potentially scoring lower on a retake. It does happen, sometimes. Fortunately for you, if you do decide to retake it and score lower, you can choose which score you would like to send now, thanks ETS. Yes, I applied to NIH during my second year. I started in January of 2011, and applied last fall for graduate school.

Who advised you to retake the GRE? Did they do so because your writing score was low? If your writing score is at least a 4 then I wouldn't retake your GRE. Extra money and you don't need it. I would say that overall, your stats are pretty strong, and you should definitely be able to get into graduate school, provided the research interests of you and the faculty match up. An NIH postbac will enchance your file significantly, and the connections that you make with PI's/staff scientists/postdocs/grad students can help tremendously. They will also come from a wide variety of graduate schools and can recommend specific programs and PI's for you to look for, and PI's that can potentially help you. I just wrapped up a two year postbac at NIH, so if you have any additional questions, just let me know!

I got the idea to start a blog after reading a topic on here somewhere where someone suggested writing everyday as a way to get in the habit of writing for the times when writer's block creeps up on you. I have started a blog on blogspot that I will post in my signature once I get it up and running the way I would like. I would love to read up on others' experience. I am very interested to read my posts from 4-7 years from now once I finish. My only wish is that I had started back when I first started my applications, although the process was so long and stressful that I don't believe that I will ever forget it!

Thanks, this is much appreciated! I have been excited throughout the entire process, however the reality that I will be a graduate student in just a month has started to set in, and I am facing serious anxiety. I have to remind myself that they chose me for a reason right? There's no way I could fool 18 PI's and ad com members at three schools right? I can do this. We can do this!

I've lived in the Maryland area all of my life, but am less familiar with complexes in Montgomery county. I'm beginning to visit the complexes that I am interested in. Does anyone know of any complexes in the silver spring/Bethesda/Rockville area that should be avoided like the plague? I've already heard of some from friends and a few hidden gems, but new opinions are always welcome. If you don't feel as comfortable posting here, feel free to PM me. Hope everyone's housing search is going great!

I have definitely been thinking about this. I have decided to rotate in the lab that I like most. This way, if the lab is as great as I think it is, I will be able to compare my other rotations to this lab. If the lab turns out not to be what I thought it would be, then I have ruled out that lab and can focus on other rotations. If my best lab is last and I end up not liking it, I may be less enthused to choose another one of the labs that I rotated in because I had been holding out for the last one. A bonus I believe would be if you rotate in the first lab and you love it, then you can tailor your rotations around labs that are doing things that can help you in your research in the lab you wish to join, like certain techniques. I hope I make sense.

I like buying my books early. I plan on purchasing some of my grad school books in June. I understand that you want to make sure they are in stock, but you may want to wait just a little bit. Are you going to buy used books? I ask because the semester isn't over for current students, so they may still be using their books. Usually the more books that are available, the lower the prices will be as everyone will try to be lower than their competition. That's usually what I wait for, of course the choice is ultimately yours.