DropTheBase

He just sounds like a foreigner. All of my foreign PI's and bosses had similar quirks, including the winking. (I'm a guy.) Unless he does something blatantly over the line that makes you very uncomfortable, I think he's just being nice/thinks you're actually a good candidate for all these opportunities. DTB

My prayers go out to your last letter-writer, whose about to experience the worst agony of his/her life.....the wrath of an expecting mother. (Pardon my stereotype.) DTB

Which things? It's a very very new field. There are no good schools for it yet! The best thing you can do is get the best fundamental chemistry education degree you can (i.e. undergraduate schools with strong chemistry programs, in general). The process for finding those schools is the same as for any other major. After that, you will hopefully figure out which chemistry sub-field you like most, and different graduate schools are more prestigious than others for certain sub-fields than others. For example, UNC's graduate school is famous for analytical chemistry and Scripps is famous for organic chemistry. But you're still a long road from having to worry about which graduate school you want to attend. DTB

I'm not an older student, but at least three of my classmates were. They started their chemistry bachelors degrees between 24-27 and are all now in graduate school. All of them are very happy with what they're doing. From my conversations with them, they told me the second time around was easier. They weren't sure if it was because they were just older or the stress level wasn't as high as their previous jobs. So I wouldn't worry about "messing up." It's certainly a long road from where you are now to the end of your graduate studies, but I imagine most chemistry PhD students are in grad school because they genuinely want to learn more about nature. --- On a separate note, that's fantastic that you want to get into science! Astrochemistry is actually an emerging field. In an age where we will actually start landing on other planets and asteroids, someone is going to have to analyze the chemistry! The most recent rover sent to Mars, for example, possessed spectroscopy equipment. How about just getting to other places in space? A chemist has to figure out the best rocket propellant, the most efficient batteries to run space equipment on, and of course make the materials that will convert energy (i.e. solar panels, thermoelectric materials...etc.). And that's just space! Chemistry is everywhere. You can study pretty much any sub-division of chemistry and see how the knowledge concepts directly apply to your daily life. DTB

We're waiting...

How about becoming a sugar baby? The hours are very flexible. DTB

Now that is an exit!

First off, I'm talking about men hiding their prejudices. Second, if you genuinely believe that you've never been academically discriminated against, that's a good thing! The reason it's so hard to believe that you haven't been discriminated is because no one can be certain that they haven't been discriminated against. Let's say there's a visiting male professor coming to give a seminar, and a male PI can only take one person in the group to dinner and drinks with the speaker. Let's say the PI chooses a guy instead of a girl in the group. How does the girl rationalize that choice? How does she know that the PI didn't choose the guy because he thought the speaker would be more comfortable having dinner with another guy? There's no obvious discrimination there. In fact, the girl might settle to thinking that the guy: Ideally, that will actually be true, but one has no way of knowing. That's why we rely on statistics to suggest gender discrimination.The numbers indicate that there is still active gender discrimination. It's often carried out in such a way that's not at all obvious. Men have gotten so good at hiding their sexism that they might not even realize when they're discriminating. DTB

I agree with nnnnnnn. I work in a VERY male-dominate field, and if a woman doesn't see the extra challenges she faces, it's because we're better at hiding it. The prejudices can be extremely subtle. We have a long way to go before gender discrimination is effectively eliminated from the work-place. For example, this offensive monstrosity: I will bet you anything that this commercial was written by men. It's an extremely (and obviously) manipulative way to target women. What the hell does shampoo have to do with gender labels and prejudice?? --- At least in my field, many men I encounter genuinely believe they are better researchers on some level or another. They think they're more creative, more focused, more emotionally stable or some other stereotype. It's very difficult to change someone's inherent beliefs. It might be hard to see men exhibit these beliefs. Your best chance of seeing it is if you catch them under heavy stress. It's so ironic because we are training ourselves to be scientists, which are trained to see more than just what they want to see. DTB

I'm planning to eventually pick up an undergrad and I'm concerned about this exact situation. Are you not able to dismiss the undergrad? Do you have to wait until the end of the grading period? DTB

Wow, I grossly misread your original post. My sincerest apologies! I was told by some professors that in general, PI's that you mention in your app receive a copy of your application so that they can provide feedback to the adcom. In other words, the adcoms routinely talk to your POI's. And as fuzzylogician already mentioned, good words can get you noticed. I can't tell you if this applies to every school, however. DTB

The percentile gives the score meaning, since it includes the data from a lot of test-takers (nearly all of them). That information is a lot more valuable than a score from a handful of applicants. My understanding is that the score fluctuates every year because more people take the test, meaning more data, meaning a more accurate percentile. DTB

I think you have a crush on Bob.

Your contingency plan for conflict is hoping it won't happen at all? How can you be so attached to the idea of marriage and (appear to) have no concept of real-world marital problems? Maybe it's really worth considering what you want in a marriage and how you plan to deal with marriage before gambling your life away. You have plenty of time to do this. DTB

One of my PI's personally called someone on the admissions committee, a professor that I also wanted to work with. When I later contacted that POI to inquire about research, he informed me that I shouldn't worry about not getting in. It's one of the most powerful things on an application. If a PI goes above and beyond what is asked, it means he/she is betting his/her reputation on you succeeding in that POI's lab. PI's will only do that for exceptional undergraduate students. DTB

@clickclick I'm not talking about the university having a spot for you, but rather the professor! PI's don't have openings for students every year. They can only accommodate students when funds are available. If another student joins the lab this year, there might not be money for another student the following year. Even if you are accepted into the university, a different student might be more qualified and take your spot. This may not be as big of a concern for large groups, but you would be surprised. At my school's (Top 10) orientation, certain professors said they could take a large number of students. But when advisor-selection time came around, that number shrank considerably and quite a few students had to work with someone they did not want to! DTB

Yeah I don't blame you. I've become extremely boring since getting with my girlfriend. And she just talks about me all the time with her friends. I feel bad for them! It makes sense that you want to have similar goals with your spouse, but you won't know all of your spouse's goals and ideals when you get married. It's the issues that neither of you can compromise on that make marriage difficult. What will you do if you don't encounter these problems until late into your marriage? When kids are involved? If you don't have your own life/goals to rely on, that puts you in a vulnerable position, where you will have to compromise more often than your spouse. DTB

You again? Don't you remember your last post?

Serious question: When you do find a boyfriend, do you ever worry that you'll confuse liking the idea of marriage with the idea of marrying your boyfriend? Because, as any couple that's been married for a significant amount of time will tell you, it's hard work to stay married. Maybe I don't speak for everyone's parents, but once you have kids, you'll pretty much have no time for yourselves until the kids leave for college. And by then you two are just completely different people compared to who you were when you got married. DTB

@heyo For PhD programs in general, your money will come from either the university or from a federal/private grant that your PI has earned. A loan, work-study or anything else would only happen under very extreme circumstances. You really shouldn't be interested in any of those options because a PhD is almost always paid for. Also, I would say you're eligible for full-time work, since that implies that you'd be eligible for any other type of work. These questions do not make sense anyway because technically you'd be a full-time student with teaching, classes and/or research responsibilities. Hope that helps. DTB

The rest of your stats (the important ones) are great. You absolutely should apply this year. Don't let them know. Don't wait a year. Someone will take your spot. DTB

It's basically what you wrote, based on my conversations with professors from a Top 1 school. I know people with much worse scores in Top 5 schools. Keep in mind, some professors have completely different opinions. Some greatly value the Verbal scores, since it partially indicates one's ability to write. In either case, a higher score is (obviously) always better than a lower score. But in my opinion, it'd be best to strongly emphasize your enthusiasm, commitment and competence for conducting research in your SOP. The only schools you should look out for are ones that explicitly DO have a cutoff, which in my experience was more common in Top 30 schools. In that case, you'll want an additional letter from a professor to petition that rule. That's what usually is done for sub-minimum GPAs. DTB

You're doing it all wrong! Enjoy yourselves! Unless you haven't contacted your professors already, there is nothing you can do more for your application. Isn't that an amazing feeling? There's no guilt anymore. Go outside, go read a book, go make love to your significant other....etc. All of that stress and guilt comes back as soon as you get your acceptances because there's a world of shit you have to deal with once they start rolling in. You won't ever get this opportunity again. Cheers! DTB

Applicant: "Will my stats be enough for schools A, B or C?" GradCafe responses, by category!: Different applicant, same season (worse stats): "Wow! with those stats you definitely should apply!" Different applicant, same season (better stats, will certainly be admitted to schools A, B and C): "It's about fit, not ranking." Different applicant, same season, just submitted 2 applications (stats irrelevant): "It's about fit, not ranking. Your GRE scores might be a little low." Already attending: "you have a chance." Lurking professor: "I don't care about your GRE scores." What do they all have in common? None of them know what schools A, B or C look for in an applicant. DTB

You made my day, Loric. Have an upvote! @jakem While department quality is certainly a factor (as mentioned above), I believe it comes down to the PI. I was lucky to know what I wanted to do going into graduate school, and I knew which professors I wanted to work for. Each of them were doing excellent science and published in powerful journals. The range of school ranking between those professors' respective institutions was ~30! I would have been happy at either of them, and I didn't pick the highest ranking one. DTB