biotechie

I love how passionate your two posts are; that says a ton about you right there, and I'm positive that there is a program for a student like you. You remind me of other students I've seen, just in your writing. They were always able to make an impact and somehow be successful in the lab and in classes no matter what, even when they seemed destined to fail. The kind of determination and workmanship those students displayed is welcome in just about every program. You just have to make them see it in your essays and interviews. Letters of rec are going to also play a huge role. If you find yourself needing to apply for a second round, really try and emphasize your research experience and what you learned from it. Show them how human you are. Make sure they know that not only do you have an impact on research but that it has an impact on you. Let them know why it is important and why it is important to you. Make your essay pull them in and show them who you are. Your interest in infectious disease suggests that you wouldn't be unhappy in a medical based program. Maybe broadening your applications out to different but related programs will help. Try applying to some interdisciplinary programs; Baylor College of Medicine's Interdepartmental Cell and Molecular Biology Program has faculty from Microbiology, Virology, Immunology, etc... all of whom are doing really cool stuff. They are also contributing the the microbiome project, which I think is really neat. You can also apply into any of the departments, there. University of Florida has all of this as well!

That sounds about right; matriculation occurs after offers are accepted and you start attending. They'll invite more than that, and several will take other offers. The schools I went to always accepted 50% more than they could take... So, for example, if 30 students are accepted, 15-17 end up attending... Those 30 selected came from an interview pool of 45-50 people, though it seems interview pools vary like crazy.

VBD is right; you may be able to adjust your coursework. However, I took a full course load, did rotations, and TA'd a lab section with no problems. VBD mentioned something very important, and that is time management. It depends on you as a student, but I had a set time to do my grading and a set time to do lab setup, so I wasn't spending forever preparing for the lab. Most of the time, there will be a course coordinator that already has the labs designed and you will just need to set up and run the class. For me, this takes less than 30 minutes. Grading/prepping for my lecture takes roughly 2-3 hours of my week once you do the first couple of classes. Even if you can't adjust your coursework, it is doable.

I have to go to these all the time in our department. You have their CV. That is really helpful! Go online to pubmed and look up their papers. Look over their abstracts to find out what they're up to for the past 5 or so years. Find the things that correlate to your research or that you just find interesting, and learn about them. Come up with questions about their research and questions based on their studies that they can answer to help you with your research questions. Maybe they do a protocol like Chromatin IP or RNA isolation that you are struggling with, so they might be able to help. Take notes during their lecture and take those questions into the lunch. These questions will probably actually open up more conversation, and you may be able to learn from this person in ways that will help your own project. I'm serious; this is how I learned of a decent antibody to a protein I am working on. I have data that I might not have gotten had I not asked this professor about a figure in one of their papers!

That sounds like the class I TA. I teach an introductory physiology lab for nonscience majors... I thought that I would hate it, but I actually love it. There will be a student every once in a while that drives you crazy, but the others make up for it. One of the most amazing things as a TA is when you see the students finally make the connections and get excited about the labs. I don't mind staying until the end of class when they are actually interested in exploring the frog or are asking me questions about the rats and mice. These are undergrads just out of high school... so there are going to be those that try to walk all over you and will cause issues, but as long as you make your expectations clear at the beginning and stick to them, you will not have many issues. Even if you won't be teaching later in life, they're right that this will help you show mastery of the subject. I've given presentations to the faculty and other students in my department, which is fairly easy. It can be much more difficult to simplify the subject for high school and freshman undergrads once you've progressed to graduate level classes; you have to simplify things so much and be so concise with the information that you give the students that it really requires a ton of background knowledge. I don't know if you're going into industry or not, but there will be times when you have to talk to non-science people or the general public about what you do. This experience is really going to help you be able to converse with them about your research and what you do. Honestly, I couldn't talk to my grandparents about my research until after I'd TAd for a couple semesters. Now it is so much easier for me to adjust my explanations depending on my audience.

For those of you who have not been there, the campus is gorgeous, and you don't feel overcrowded anywhere except one spot in the middle of campus, but this is near the medical buildings, so I don't think you guys will be there. I was impressed by the whole campus, minus parking, but that sucks pretty much everywhere. I hope all of your interviews are going well!

I think it depends on the university here in the USA; the grad students who have had babies at my current school have either just been gone about 6 weeks or have taken an entire (unpaid) semester off. Definitely check with your programs. Also, in the sciences, where we need to be in the lab 40-60, even 80 hours per week... and many programs have a cutoff for funding after 6 or 7 years. I would imagine it would be very difficult to have and care for a baby in this situation. Even after exams and proposal defense, you still spend this time in the lab doing experiments, and if you're in a lab like mine, you work (safely) with things that can be extremely toxic that you wouldn't want to be around. They do have ways that pregnant women can work safely, but sometimes the result is just not doing the experiment, something that most cannot afford to do because they need the data. Just a thought...

Ion_exchanger is right; it does vary by program. Some programs want to wait until they interview all applicants, and other accept a certain number from each interview date. Some others accept only a top percentage at first to try and catch the applicants before they go to other programs, and then the rest have to wait until they finish all interviews. If you interview, I feel like the worst you can get, unless you're completely crazy and incompatible with the program, is to get waitlisted, so there will be hope for an acceptance no matter what. As far as my programs, the first one, I got home on a Monday and was notified on Thursday, and the second I got home Wednesday morning and they notified me on Thursday. The first one was sent around 4 pm, and the second e-mail was sent around 9:45 pm... so that varies as well. Both programs still had interviews to conduct; I think they both accept a certain percentage of each interview weekend. I'm sure you did great and that your programs are the ones who wait until they interview everyone. Good luck!

That's true for some, but the ones I have been involved with only offer additional funding to their students that bring in outside funding... Hence the "some programs" in my previous comment. This is why it is really important to research the program before trying to get more funding.

I think the only thing you really need to look for is if you can survive in that location on their offer. UCSD's offer makes it difficult to survive in that area unless you live in their housing, while schools like Baylor and UF have similar stipends that allow a much more comfortable apartment living with room to visit a restaurant or go to the movies on occasion. That would be what I looked for, rather than a general number. Have a look around at other programs; many have their stipends posted online.

It depends on the school... do they have posted somewhere what each of their students gets? All of my programs had these numbers readily available on their website, so the students knew what would be awarded to them before they applied. There is no way to "sweeten the pot" unless you come in with your own funding for some types of programs... For the programs I applied to, you don't really need more than the stipend they offer, though. What I would do is check online. If they have a listed value that each student gets, I don't think you'll be able to negotiate; it might even be seen as a little crazy. Edit: It should be noted that most programs will have a set amount for student stipends that they know is survivable for that area... so make sure your'e also checking how much it costs to live there. UCSD has a stipend that is the same at UF for my program... but it is nearly impossible to live in California in that area on that stipend. Don't just try to get more cash simply because one program offers more than another. They may be doing so just because cost of living is higher. Be really careful in trying to get more funding; the "crazy" part is because I've seen it happen in the department I am at now. An incoming student wanted the school to match an offer from another program. It didn't happen, and that student wasn't awarded additional funding the second year though they had accomplished more than the students who were awarded it.

Is the problem that you are unsure of what your future plans are? If it is a PhD that you want, definitely go for one of the PhD programs. Otherwise, you may end up spending a couple of extra years studying because you decided to get your masters and then PhD. I am getting my masters right now (because I changed fields) and will pursue a PhD starting this fall. I'm only two years behind other students my age, but I won't be done with post-docs until in my 30s.

Thanks both of you! I've been TAing for two years, and I've never had a student like this. I pulled her outside before lab on Tuesday and explained that other students had complained to me and that if she paid close attention, she would find most of her questions answered in my lecture. I told her I was happy to answer any questions once lab had actually started. Lo and behold, no questions! I asked her to observe the other students in her group this week rather than do the pipetting. They also had perfect results. I think the issue is that she either stops paying attention or gets stuck on thinking about a concept that she stops paying attention. I take the time to show each group of students how to handle and use the pipets and equipment, and then I watch them use it. It seems that my sub for that week while I was at interviews may not have been so stringent with the training, so I made up for it this week. She doesn't seem to be very excited, however. This is a lab for non-science majors to get a general credit, and she claims to be premed, so she shouldn't even be in this lab. She keeps asking me when we will get into "real" science and away from this "stupid chemistry." I'm thinking she doesn't realize what the biggest component of medicine is. I have a feeling my semester will improve from here; they took their first quiz this week where I expected them to explain some of the concepts they learned in their labs. They aren't great, but on par with previous semesters, and I think they will do a better job paying attention to what each member of their group is doing. We also had a much more fun lab experience this week with more people participating and asking questions related, but beyond the scope of the lab... until one of my students suddenly passed out in class. So THAT is why they make us get first aid certified! Poor kid had been sick the day before and was incredibly dehydrated... and hadn't checked her e-mail to see my reply telling her not to come to class sick. Ugh. As far as scary looks go, I'm a tiny girl with a tiny voice most of the time. However, disrupting my classroom and making it impossible for others to hear my lecture results in me using my "Marching Band" voice. It is big, loud, and deeper than my normal voice, and it works. Hopefully process chemist showed their students who the boss is!

Thanks. I should have clarified that I was accepted to Baylor College of Medicine, which is in Houston where there are 4 million people, not Waco. Waco should have lots of younger students around since that is where the undergrad institution is. I learned a bunch about Houston, but nothing really about Waco since the schools aren't that much associated with each other. I definitely visited; since most biomed programs pay to fly you out for an interview, you don't really get a chance for admission unless you attend. That might not be as true for other fields where I see people getting to choose. However, I currently go to a school out in the middle of nowhere (not in Texas) and grew up in a really rural areas. If it is a college town, you can be pretty sure it will have a mall, places shop, little cafes, movie theatre, etc. There will be things to do and people to hang out with, though as a grad student, we won't get much time. I'm a masters student, now, and by the weekend, I would rather sleep than go out! I can probably answer general rural school questions, but I'm sorry I don't know about Waco specifically. >.<

I'm 23, just finishing up a Masters and will pursue a PhD. I'm one of the youngest people in my program here, but I interviewed with someone at another school who was only 19. She was insanely smart!

One program told us, and at the other one, they were more cryptic, but the grad students told us how it would be... and so far, they were right.

I don't think it will hurt to find out the itinerary before you go. My interviews were an evening dinner with students, a full day of 5, one-on-one interviews with faculty, and then a day to explore the city with current students. I probably wouldn't be willing to go if I was just going to to a 30 minute interview and a 30 minute tour. If they're wanting you to do at least a whole day of things, then it sounds worth it for me, especially if you get one-on-one time to interview with faculty and to meet current students to get their input on the program. Those are actually really fun (though I'm in science and I find odd things to be fun). Somehow, all of my interviews were funded by the department... not sure how that happened. There might be travel grants/scholarships you can apply for, but I don't think you'd get them until you get back. I am a bad person because I don't know where to find these, but I have heard of students getting scholarships (not from the department) to travel to interview. You're not the only one in her first year of interviews.

I can't imagine getting the same experience I got at my in-person interview on Skype. If you're serious about this program and can swing the travel fees, go for the in-person; I felt like they really got to see me in ways they would not have via the internet. If not, and if there are no possible ways of getting funding to travel, then obviously you have to go for the Skype interview.

Both of my acceptances came within two days of my interview weekend. The first I got back on a Monday night and knew my Wednesday, and the second I got back on Tuesday night and knew by Thursday. Take is as a positive thing if you hear quickly.

Now I'm having post-acceptance nightmares... I had a dream the other night that my current advisors called my new school and told them they were taking me back... mid-project. Then last night, I had a dream that when I got to my new school, they told me that it was going to be my PhD dissertation project to try and disprove my current research. They would refuse to let me complete a PhD unless I did it. I woke up extremely freaked out. Luckily nobody there works with my current projects in any way, shape, or form! Not as crazy as the original dream I had on pg 1, at least!

I would probably let them know that you are very excited about their program, but that you have other interviews scheduled and you would like to have them completed before you make your final decision. You can definitely mention that their school is your top choice if it really is. Most of the time they will understand. When the schools contacted me about admission, they stated in the e-mail that they understood that I would have additional interviews and that they didn't expect a decision before they are completed. They did ask when they could expect a decision, but I think that is an acceptable question for them to ask; it determines how many students they can accept from later interviews.

I'm not interviewing there and I'm all done with my season, but I wore grey slacks, a cute (not low cut) blouse, and a 3/4 sleeve black blazer jacket with black boots. That way you're dressed very professionally, but you can be a lot more comfortable than you would be in a suit. I didn't even need to have my jacket buttoned. Some girls wore knee-length dresses, but I think they are too much hassle when you are more focused on selling yourself.

I just started writing mine; I defend in early June and want to have a thesis draft to my advisor by May 1, earlier if I get it done. I'm going to annotate two papers every other day and add that info to my thesis draft. I figure I'll get my lit review out of the way and then piece it all together. Take the time to download a nice organizational and bibliography program line Mendeley (FREE). I've been using it, and it is amazing. It stores 2 gb of my papers online so I can access it anywhere. It allows me to group my papers into folders, highlight, make notes, and insert citations into word documents. I love it, and it has reduced my stress level tons. www.mendeley.com My stress level is probably about a 2.5.

Wow! You are a nice TA! If mine are more than 10 minutes late, they get counted as absent. I only teach a 2 hour lab, and if they show up an hour late, there is no reason for them to even be there. At the beginning of each semester, I give them a sheet other than the course syllabus of what I expect of them and what they can expect of me. I clearly state that lateness will not be tolerated, cell phones are not allowed out and are not acceptable calculators, and that lack of participation, not following lab protocol (food/drinks/unsafe behavior) allows me to subtract from their grades. I am rigid with my grading, and what I say goes. Usually scores are poor the first two weeks as they try to get me to bend, but they quickly go up after that. If they follow my rules, I'm really fun and they'll get to do extra little fun things- I.E. explore the rest of the frog after successful sciatic nerve dissection and stimulation or do a gram stain AND a methylene blue stain on a cheek swab. Control is definitely key, and I haven't had an issue for two years.... until now. >.< I have quite the odd problem, this semester. I have a student who asks about a million questions during my lecture (most of which I am about to cover) and then wants to participate in every lab group and do everything herself. In a group of 16 with 4 lab groups, obviously this does not work. I finally had to ask her last class to hold her questions until the end of my lecture to see if I answered her questions during lecture (I did, but she still asked them again after). It is great that she wants to participate so much in the lab part, but getting her to tone it down and stay in her group has not worked. It would also help if she would take the time to pay attention to my lab demonstrations so things would get done correctly... not to mention when she gets her way and does the measurements, she gives her group mates each different, highly inaccurate numbers. I've asked my course coordinator to sit in on my class this week and to sit in on a meeting with this student so we can get her on the right page... but if she doesn't listen to the course coordinator, I too am at risk of not getting anything accomplished with this class. She just confuses the hell out of the other students, meaning that my office hours are full up, which has NEVER happened before!

The 20% number you found online really is for ALL applicants to the program, not just the ones invited to interview. For example, a program that has 20 spots will interview 40-50 applicants. Of those, they'll accept over 50% to the program because a few will drop and choose not to attend. So if 25-30 applicants out of 40 that were interviewed are offered acceptance and you've been offered an interview, you've got a great chance. No worries! I feel like the interview process is mostly to make sure you're the same person that you were in your application and to make sure you're not crazy.