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docholliday

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  • Location
    USA
  • Application Season
    2013 Fall
  • Program
    Comp Bio

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  1. I am a first year PhD student and am failing a course. The course was too advanced for me to be honest. In the third week of the course, I was just understanding what happened the first week. Right now, I have only covered probably fifty percent of the material. One primary reason is because I didn't have enough background. I should have taken the graduate Intro Stats course but I skipped it thinking my undergrad stats would be enough. During the beginning of the week, I got distracted by family issues for 2 weeks, and this really put me even more behind. Every week we have assignments, and I have been reading the book to no avail. However, I have not been able to complete any of them on time. No late homework allowed so I haven't turned in a single assignment after the first one. In retrospect, it seems like I should have attended office hours, but I didn't even know what to ask because I was so lost. I kept thinking I just need to keep reading and I'll catch up. Now it's the end and I haven't caught up. All we have left is a final project which is 35 percent of the grade. I can manage to do the project, since I have been reading the book and I have tailored my project to cover to draw from the topics I know. Out of 8 homeworks, I have done 2. The first one and the last one which was a project proposal. The midterm, I had no idea how to solve so I didn't turn in anything. This sounds so ridiculous, I don't know how I could do such a thing, but after looking at the homework I'm still pretty lost. There's a course withdrawal form, but I have no idea how to even go about asking the professor if she would consider signing it. Every morning I wake up thinking I might just get kicked out of grad school and my life is doomed because I took the wrong course. I should have just taken the Intro Stats course. Any advice? This isn't a required course, but it will doom my GPA, since we need a minimum of 3.0 The course withdrawal form requires an instructor signature and the website says you can withdraw for a justified reason. Is it even worth asking her about this? I don't want to mention my personal reason for falling behind but maybe telling her I didn't have the background for the course would work....
  2. Thanks you guys, for all your advice and posts. I've spent many a nervous day on here.
  3. If you've been waitlisted after visiting then your chances are pretty high still, if not I'd say it's a lost cause. Duke and Penn State have great programs. There's students at Duke who declined their CMU offer to attend Duke.
  4. School: State university Major: Math Minor: Biology GPA: on the lower end but above the minimum required by grad programs. GRE: 92% Quant Research Experience: 1 REU, 1 project at school, 2 wet lab projects in the beginning of college but no publications yet Misc: Had great LORs from 3 research mentors, and SOP was framed using my research experiences, bringing out my interest specifically in comp bio. My GPA was my biggest worry during the waiting process. Applied: Duke Computational Biology and Bioinformatics and CMU-Pitt Computational Biology Joint Program Accepted: Duke Computational Biology and Bioinformatics and CMU-Pitt Computational Biology Joint Program Attending: Undecided
  5. A lot of professors are very open to meeting and speaking with you in person or via Skype (Skype is often more convenient for them so you should suggest this option when shooting them an email). When emailing them say your interests and you are looking to get a better understanding of CS or Comp Bio grad school. They don't have to be profs at your school. They can be profs at any programs you are potentially interested in. I would attach a resume and mention your experience in the email. I also think you should see where you want to be five to ten years from now, academia or industry. I was pretty undecided the summer before junior but after doing a REU and meeting with a number of professors there, I realized what I wanted to do. Even if you're undecided I would suggest going through the app process and apply to a few reach schools. This way when you apply next time, you will know what you need to work on and will have something to start from. The negative side you drop a few hundred dollars. The positive you may get an invite to visit meet profs and through the process you may change your mind. Apps are due in late November, and you don't have to decide till mid April which is plenty of time to figure yourself out. I know alot of people here are suggesting to get a Master's but personally I think it is a waste of money, unless money isn't a concern. Master's programs are two years and most aren't funded. Most profs will agree with me. Grad school isn't about grades it's about research experience. In any of these science fields, you can get paid to work in a research lab for a year and it will look just as good. You may only need one year to figure out your interests vs. the 2 for Masters. The best would be to work either in industry or in a lab for a year after undergrad and then pursue a PhD. Of course some may argue, if you do a master's you can finish your PhD faster, but at the end of the day at least the extra year you spent in your PhD you got funding for.
  6. How much gap do programs usually leave between interview invites and rejection letters? I saw some people receive invites two weeks ago, and someone received one yesterday. However, in past years rejections start going out at this time. I wonder if there's any hope for me. ok sorry for the rant guys. I'll go back to stalking the results page.
  7. Just got an interview invite from Duke's Computational Biology. I already counted it as a rejection after seeing people receive interviews on January 9th. That was the best anti-depressant. I guess no news is sometimes just no news, especially if you turn in the application right at the deadline. If anybody has an opinion on the strength or weakness of the program, I'd appreciate it.
  8. I have a little hope but I guess it's time to prepare for the worst case scenario. Do you remember if you sent in your app before December 1 or did you wait it out until the second deadline December 16? By the way, your stats are amazing.
  9. I already cried. I only applied to two programs. Both already sent invites. I want to email them and just ask them to reject me already. Then, I can go live like a bum here: http://opensourceecology.org/wiki/WWOOF. Hopefully the will take me at least.
  10. I only applied to two computational biology programs, Duke and CMU/Pitt. It was my own stupid fault for not writing my SOP earlier. I just wish they would reject me, since they have both already sent invites. This way I at least I can wholeheartedly cogitate my failure in life.
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