ss2player

So glad we have ClickHole now.

Great tips, thank you! It's something I'll have to be more aware of going forward, as post-PhD I may be forced into situations where I HAVE to work with a set of people and there's no way around it, especially if I go into a managerial role. I'm naturally very extroverted and I often forget that most people in this field (again, generalizing) are not so outgoing. I like a "noisy" lab as it helps energize me, as well as lots of joking to keep the mood light while we wait on our experiments/do menial analysis. New lab has lots of this so I feel comfortable, while the old one seemed much more like "show up, do your work, go home, talk only if necessary" which was a turn-off. The biggest issue was they didn't try to help train me; I'm fairly independent but if it's a struggle to just get basic supplies from you, it's not going to be a good environment for a PhD student.

Good point, julliet! I could just have easily encountered an exclusionary attitude among native English speakers as well, so I can't pin it primarily on the language barrier. Seems like they had their little clique set and didn't want to train or interact with anyone really, which is a pretty bad sign for a student. New lab is SO MUCH BETTER, just finished my first week. The senior student I'm paired with was away this week; he's interviewing for postdocs/jobs and is defending in the next couple months...the idea being that I would continue his work and take his spot if I join the lab. Despite this, I've been shadowing other folks and getting the lay of the land so we can jump into the meat of things from next week on to the end of my rotation.

Talked to some of the admissions people at UT GSBS: Last admissions committee meeting is the 22nd, they will send out last round of invites then. They plan to interview 120 people over 3 weekends, aiming for an incoming class of 45-50. I'd estimate they'd be accepting ~2/3 of people post-interview. Good luck everyone!

Fantastic! I'm not in BMB but Dr. Wagner (the director) is one of my favourite people. Can't wait to meet!

PSA: I'm a first year student at this program and will be involved in recruitment. Can't wait to see you new hopefuls!

Good stuff! If you're seriously considering them as a mentor, ABSOLUTELY ask about funding. You can phrase it as "Would you be able to support students for 5 years if they joined the lab?" as opposed to "LET ME SEE DEM GRANTS YO".

Sloan-Kettering, Weill Cornell, Rockefeller, NYU, Mt. Sinai, and Columbia are all fantastic schools and you will be in a great position either way. No need to split hairs and become Paris Geller.

I appreciate the advice/solidarity guys, it means a lot! So I ended up switching my rotation to another lab. It was one I had been looking at before, and they recently published a Nature paper dealing with a field I want to get involved in! The lab has folks from India, Vietnam, China, Italy, Mexico, and the US, so it feels much more balanced and we all speak English to one another. I think the lesson I've learned is trust your gut...if you feel you'd be unhappy in a lab after only a few days, you're probably right!

Hey y'all, So I just started my second rotation, and it's very different from my first. That one was ~25 people, mostly post-docs and clinicians, so super translation-y and cool research. I got along with folks in the lab once I figured out everyone's role, and although my PI was hardly around, I did get to know a "sub-PI" assistant professor quite well. This one is almost the mirror image: very available PI that I get along with smashing-ly, but her lab is 2 new post-docs and a tech, all of whom are Chinese. Based on what I've seen, they rarely socialize and when they do, it's in Mandarin. If I need to ask for something it's like pulling teeth and they don't acknowledge me unless I address them first. Basically, I don't feel super welcome. The research here is neat and I have great ideas for where to take a project (PI has told me so), but I know I would be almost entirely on my own if I were to do this. On the plus side, she just graduated a student whom had to leave his previous lab and start over; he was finished in 2 years! I'd love to be done so quickly. Any thoughts on making the lab more interactive? Am I stuck being the outsider here? Should I seek socialization elsewhere and channel my energy into writing myself out of grad school? I can just imagine when classes are over how lonely I'd feel slaving away at a project with only my advisor to lean on. My previous labs had a lot of ping-pong science where we would bounce ideas off one another, but that doesn't seem to happen here (unless I pick up Mandarin?). Any and all thoughts welcome.

Michigan has one too; a friend I made on interviews last year didn't get in anywhere so she did that this past year and is applying again this season.

Well, glad to hear that! No, I don't think it's necessary, but if you REALLY want to, you can. There are a couple of folks like this in my cohort: an MBBS from India and an MD from Egypt. Both are smart and motivated and have enthusiasm for the research, so I like having their expertise on the pathology side of things. I still think working as a researcher but not in a degree program will help you accomplish your goals in a faster, more efficient manner. My previous PI is an MD from Turkey and he worked at Sloan-Kettering for ~6 years to get research experience as a staff scientist, then did residency at Yale, and is now an associate professor and clinician.

I have to agree with the other replies...what is your goal here? If you want to do research, you don't need a PhD, plenty of foreign MDs do research in the US. What you should apply for is a post-doc, fellowship, or even a staff scientist position somewhere to gain experience and then use that to apply for faculty positions. If you want to practice medicine in the US, you obviously need to do residency here. My fear is that you're trying to use the PhD to establish yourself in the US as a springboard to a residency application. If that's your ultimate goal, don't waste a school's time as it will be obvious you don't care about the degree and they won't want to deal with you. I worked with a fair number of IMGs at my old job and ALL of them were just in the lab to polish their CV for residency; it was clear they didn't give two shits about our experiments or the conclusions. Don't be that person.

Talks at my school generally provide at the very least coffee+cookies+fruit, but at some of the larger events there will be more substantial food you could eat for a meal. Plus different programs or departments will have events and journal clubs you can attend; my department usually has awesome Indian or Mexican food which I really enjoy. I think us not having any undergrads makes this easier though; no scavengers in sweats and Uggs trying to jack our shit.

Great post! I feel the same, I enjoy having a safe space to come home to that I KNOW is free of drama and (mostly) under my control. Plus I had gotten used to living by myself in my previous city and I'm a little too old to be having roommates and not look awkward (I'm 28). Which leads me to ask OP: have you lived alone before? Have you ever lived away from family at all? If no, it might be easier to get a roommate your first year to ease the transition. A new city, starting school, AND having to adjust to living alone might make your first year pretty intense. After that, you can make a change as you see fit depending on how you feel. I almost did that coming to Houston but my SO decided to move with me so we ended up getting a place for ourselves; if I had moved single I'd have liked the buffer to help me integrate my new life.

Airbnb.com Couchsurfing.com Way cheaper than hotels and get to meet cool people! Or try local hostels if you really want to save money. It's not all that different from tourists coming to Taiwan really. Good luck on your interviews!

Well said, thank you! Yes, I was comparing having your own place. I'm with Vene and like having the ability to live on my own if I so choose; we shouldn't be forced into undergrad-like situations just to go to a great school/live in a great city, but of course for some folks it's not an issue. I think I'm just sad some cities are pricing out a large portion of their residents. I come from the East Coast and NYC is doing the same thing; Manhattan is now just an amusement park for the rich for the most part, no working class people can afford to live there anymore. But this is a topic for the sociology forum.

Soooo, is this wrong? http://campuslifeservices.ucsf.edu/upload/housing/files/WEBrates2014-15.pdf Honestly curious.

I looked up UCSF's housing: 1BDRM is a range of 1600-2200 in Mission Bay. It might be doable but that's still insane. I pay less than half that for a huge 1BDRM in Houston, can bike to lab in 10 mins, and our stipend is 29K v. 32.5K for them. Also no state income tax here. Let's just say my savings and retirement accounts are much happier. The Bay Area is quickly becoming a plutocratic metropolis.

Agreed, the Research Triangle is a pretty active area, don't knock it! Low cost of living makes a huge difference; I ended up getting a raise AND a cheaper/better apartment here compared to my previous job in a major East Coast city. Matters for postdoc too! Would I love to be at UCSF? Absolutely. Would I love living in SF on $42K? HELL NO. The NIH scale is not cost of living adjusted, so I plan to target places like UNC, WUSTL, and UMN if I go the academia route. No need to be poor while doing good science.

I suggest doing the quick weight loss program of losing ~200 lbs of boyfriend. Works miracles!

Thought this was funny and pretty useful: http://notthelab.blogspot.com/2013/01/tips-for-grad-school-recruiting-weekends.html Edit: oops, this is for chemistry, so not so useful. Still amusing, though.

I think they're similar to Sloan-Kettering/Weill Cornell: 34-35K, based on what a friend told me last season. Anyone who interviewed there last year can maybe confirm this?

That's rough, my sympathies. I'm not offended by this, but maybe think of it this way: if the situation were reversed and you were studying at a Chinese university, wouldn't you naturally seek out other Americans and converse in English with them? You'd be in a very different culture and cling to whatever familiarity you could find. Doesn't make it any easier on you, but remember how fortunate you are to be surrounded by relatable people every time you're in public, as opposed to the opposite, which is what these people are feeling ALL THE TIME.

Great advice from Vene. I would add once you actually start: show up consistently, be engaged, take notes. You'd be surprised how many visiting students fail at all 3 of these.