biotechie

I'd say your aim is fine, however, you're also missing out on lots of great faculty that are at great schools elsewhere. I recommend looking up some of the institutions in Texas Medical Center; I know there are several PIs working on learning and memory related areas at University of Houston and Baylor College of Medicine (both neuroscience and BCM's interdisciplinary programs). TMC is a really great place to be as a grad student (or postdoc or PI, for that matter) as you can find just about anyone doing anything. This is particularly beneficial if you're working on interdisciplinary projects. Message me if you would like to know more! I don't know about UH, but I know BCM has a FREE application.

I wholeheartedly second this. I wanted to go into immunology and epigenetics, maybe with some cancer biology. I joined a lab where now I work on metabolism and heart disease, and I'm so glad I did. I focused on my fit with the school as a whole when I applied an interviewed, and then in rotations I focused on my fit in the lab and how well I thought the PI would mentor me. My dream project? Last thing on my list. Now I can't believe I ever wanted to limit myself to just immunology and I plan to stay in metabolism when I graduate, but I think I'll grab some epigenetics when I go to post doc. Please message me if you want to talk more one-on-one about it.

The more, the better! But also never limit yourself to your "PI list." I ended up going the lab of a PI that was nowhere near on my radar; in fact, he wasn't even a PI at the school yet when I applied.

You should NEVER apply to a school just because you're interested in a single PI, especially in biomed-related fields. They may not even be taking students into their lab next year, and then you're out of luck! You want there to be at least 5 PIs that you're interested in at a school. In addition, don't go to grad school to work on your dream project. Go to grad school to learn how to be a great scientist, and then you can make a career out of your dream projects later on if you're lucky. Pick a PI based on your rotation and how they teach you, how you get along with everyone, and the prospect of being able to generate publishable data. The project should be one of the last reasons you pick a lab! I joined a lab doing something completely different than what I wanted to do, and I love it. While I don't recommend going as far out of your comfort zone as I did, it helps you in the long run to do something a little different. The PI I thought I would want to join wasn't that nice and wouldn't have given me good guidance. Instead I joined someone who does, and I may even graduate early. That said, I had a slightly higher GPA than you when I applied (3.69), and 6 years of research experience, all of it greater than 30 hours a week. I would say 2 years is average for most schools, but probably the minimum you need for a school like Harvard. Consider some other schools as well. Don't limit yourself just to that one or you may be disappointed and not have anywhere to go to grad school next year!

I second everyone here with the umbrella programs! I applied to half interdisciplinary programs, and then the others were molecular biology and immunology. Long story short, I ended up working on metabolism with some immunology aspects, and I love this field. I wouldn't have gotten into this if I'd joined an immunology only program, and I've had way more opportunities in this interdisciplinary program. The other ones I know about allowed us to rotate in labs of faculty across different departments, meaning you could access faculty in both immunology and cancer bio. Feel free to message me about them.

I did NOT contact PIs before I was admitted, but I made some areas I was interested in clear. Most schools also ask you to mention some PIs you'd be interested in, and they often try and see if they're available to interview with if you are awarded an interview spot. This can lead to rotations later on if you go to that school. So study up on PIs! Your study should include searching for them on NIH to see if they're well funded and looking at their PubMed publications (not on school websites because those rarely update) I know others do contact PIs and have had positive results, but often PIs are so busy they won't spend much time on students not yet enrolled or interviewing. I would not say they don't care for personal narratives. I think they don't want to hear sob stories or listen to poor excuses for previous failure, which this is not. One important part of your application and ultimately YOU as a scientist is going to be what makes you tick, and they need to see that. You should absolutely discuss it. Feel free to PM me if you want to discuss further.

My experience is that most adcomms DO actually look at your whole application, assuming that they're not filtering them in a major way. Thus, if you have something that isn't great, you may make up for it with something else that you did awesome in. For example, I made up for what I through was a sub-par GPA with 6 years of research experience and showed them why I'm motivated to do science independent of my love of the discipline. Some people think that explaining a large amount of time out of school or alternative careers before the PhD application are something that they can skip, but they actually are pretty important. Think about it this way: For a PhD in the biological or biomed sciences, you're not interviewing to go to school. You're really interviewing for a 5+ year salaried job where you're expected to produce meaningful data, and you get the added bonus of a degree at the end. They want to know that you're serious about this, and that you're not going to change your mind and quit mid-way through, causing them to lose the return on their investment. So naturally, they're going to want to know why you're leaving another field or what caused you to take time off from undergrad. They also highly value honesty. If you summarize something like this, "I made some mistakes my first year of college, had too much fun, and my grades suffered. However, every term following the lessons of my first year, I maintained greater than a 3.75 GPA," they're going to appreciate that you explained why your grades were as they were. I don't think I can tell you what a truly good application is because everyone is different. Someone can have great research experience and GPA, but still get rejected for lots of reasons. So here is the list of things I personally value for applications in order to get interviews. This is my OPINION but I've yet to see this steer someone wrong: 1. Research Experience: This is the most important thing in my opinion. By this I mean true research experience where you can talk about what you did and the impact on knowledge of that specific pathway, phenomena, etc. Give enough in your research statement that they know you're excited about it and can discuss it. This establishes a track record in the field, showing you might know what you're in for as a biomed PhD student (60-hour weeks, classes, all the science all the time). Some schools are okay if you've only done REUs, but I really think being in a lab at least a full academic year at 20 or so hours a week is what it really takes to learn the science of doing research. A 2-month summer research experience is barely long enough to learn a technique well, let alone do a whole project. Thus, I personally rank long experiences over REUs, but any research experience is going to be positive points for your application. Publications are WAY less important to getting into grad school than people think. When I got in, I didn't have any, and that is not uncommon. However, my 6 years of research experience is less common. Most people I know had around 2 years, and I don't know anyone with less than 6 months. 2. Letters of Recommendation: Depending on who you talk to, this might be even more important than research. You need to get these from people who can speak for your contribution to science so far, and also how you worked with them as well as others. While it feels nice to get someone well-known to write you a letter, someone less well-known who knows you more personally and worked with you is even better. This is like buying a used car: You want to know what issues it has or had in the past before you agree to test drive it and buy it. A good, personalized letter from a former PI or supervisor can really help you get an interview. 3. Your personal statement needs to say most of the things they would learn in a job interview, but more. You need to make your strengths and passion for science obvious to the committee, and your personality should also peek through. This means not waiting until the end of a personal statement to give the big punchline for why you want to do science and why they should invite you to join their program. I said this previously when I myself was interviewing, but I've found it to be true: If you can't show enough passion in your first paragraph of your personal statement to get them to keep reading, you've done it wrong. You have to pretend the adcom are distracted and in desperate need of a cigarette (even though they're not, but they have to look at a lot of these); then write your essay to gain their attention and keep it. (Note: The research statement that some schools as for is different and should speak to what you've done in science so far. This is something you want to spend considerable time on and have your current PI check so you can be ready to discuss at interviews.) 4. GPA, GRE, and everything else: Some schools use filters and go ahead and reject you if you're not at a certain level (and thus miss out on lots of great applicants). However, so long as you don't have an extremely low GPA, you can make up for it with a lot of the stuff above for schools that don't. If your GPA is below about 3.25, I would consider doing a year of post-bacc or a MS degree to raise it. Most schools look for GRE scores at least in the 70th percentile, but will sometimes forgive lower scores. Also, remember that science, particularly research, is a team sport. If you go into an interview and you only say, "I did," I have a problem with this. You can say, "I designed PCR primers in order to interrogate the genes in the pathway we're studying," but saying, "I studied this pathway and my results are," makes me wonder and doubt how much you really did! TL;DR: Talk about your research, get good letters, and make the important parts of your personal statement obvious to the reader before you get to the end of it. These can make up for a lower GPA or GRE score.

It is great that you guys are doing this! I'll pop in periodically and help out, too, if that's okay; I normally try and do this on the applicant profiles page, but that place gets a little crazy. I'm a 4th year who applied to 6 schools, but I also got the opportunity to serve on the AdComm for my school last year! It provided me with some great insight as to what ways my own application had been good and also where it was bad. I also have some useful advice for interviews once applicants get to that point. It is in my GradCafe Blog: http://forum.thegradcafe.com/blogs/blog/53-musings-of-a-biotech-babe/

Also, if you need citation software, I still love Mendeley. You can annotate your sources as you read them, and it also acts as a citation manager like Endnote, only it is free!

The best thing that I did was to get ahold of a successful proposal that was unrelated to my project. For example, I looked at a immunology related proposal, but I wrote about metabolism. This way, while I got some tips about organization and building aims, I still had to exercise my brain and really come up with everything. It made me feel like I actually did the thing at the end. In reality, I didn't use the sample proposal that much, but it kept me from forgetting some important parts and gave me something to refer to. I also spent a lot of time having what we call intellectual combat with my boss before and during writing. I would come up with aims, and then he would do his best to shoot them down. Once I was happy with that, I wrote my aims page, and we talked again. Then I wrote my proposal, and we debated once more. Then at the end of all of that, I put together my significance and innovation sections. Only after I wrote and debated the whole thing did I have some friends look at it. Doing it this way was perhaps a little stressful, but I was really happy with my proposal when I finished. I highly recommend setting "due dates" with friends that are also writing and trade your proposals back and forth. You get to learn from theirs, and everyone gets some editing done. I also had my committee review my fellowship proposal before I submitted it. I wish that this was the method I had followed for my dissertation proposal, but alas, I didn't learn to do this until I was submitting national fellowship applications. I highly recommend it. Something about talking it out really solidifies the good ideas and washes the bad ones out.

Getting into graduate school is competitive, so it is good that you're thinking of this, now! If you go into a truly neuroscience program, more in biomedical sciences/ genetics/ molecular biology side of things, you're nearly certain to be funded. It is common for non-science programs to require you to pay your way, and in those programs, you can also have outside jobs. This is not so in the life science (and other sciences, too). Since our thesis and graduation is contingent on a body of research that we generate, we are paid a living stipend and have our tuition waived to complete our degree. This is because doing research (not even counting class and time) is a full time job in itself, so we cannot hold other jobs at the same time as we need to be in the lab working on experiments. However, I find my lab work, which now includes mentoring undergraduates such as yourself, highly rewarding. A word of advice from someone who has been there and started doing research as a freshman: Do your best in school, and keep your grades up as high as you can. The closer you can get to that elusive 4.0 GPA, the better. Make sure you take organic chemistry, molecular biology, physiology, statistics, calculus, and any research "methods" classes your school offers. In addition, since you're still a freshman, you have time to really make sure you will be ready. Volunteer in a lab a few hours per week to see if you can get some research experience, and then try to get hired as a technician. Having research experience, especially throughout your undergraduate career, will help make you a stronger applicant later on, and it will help you really decide if a career in research, medicine, teaching, etc. is what you want.

I also live about 1.5 miles from my school, and I nearly always ride the bus or walk in. The only times I drive are to get groceries, go to rehearsals for my community band, and occasionally somewhere fun on the weekends. I currently have a 2002 Saturn that I bought in 2011 at 97,000 miles, and have barely put 20k miles on it since. I keep the maintenance up on it, getting oil changed, etc. My city also requires a yearly safety inspection, and my mechanic doesn't think it is in any danger of not passing if I keep it up. Right now, my opinion is not to buy a new car, but that's because I myself don't want to buy a car. I'm at a point where I have no car payment, and I'm making enough that I'm able to put some back each month. I would rather save that money for when I move in a couple of years, to put toward my wedding, for a down-payment on a newer car when this one finally dies, and as a "just in case" for if I have some emergency. Graduate school also tends to include the age where many people start to see medical problems start to arise, from simple things like requiring new glasses when you don't have optical insurance to more severe things. I think it would be wise to save your nest egg in case of emergency. That way, you won't have the added stress of worrying about money on top of your coursework. Just keep up the maintenance on your car, and then if it comes down to it, you may be able to swing something later if your car dies.

As I've gotten further into my graduate career, I've realized that many students come into their PhD studies with the expectation that they'll work on their dream project. Very few do, and those that do choose the lab for the project rather than the PI or lab environment. You should definitely choose a lab in the field you're interested in, but save your dream project for the future, especially if you want to go into academia. Focus on learning the skills you will need to be successful: techniques, writing, presentations, teaching, etc. I joined a lab by choosing the PI for their mentoring style and the lab environment (and ability to fund me) rather than by the project though a rotations program. Rotations are common in biomed, but I don't know if they work out that way in plant sciences. To be honest, this was a field I didn't even want to be in. However, now as a new fourth year, I'm in love with the field, have learned a ton of skills, and have completed all graduation requirements except my dissertation. I have an incredible PI to credit for pushing me and teaching me. I have become an interdisciplinary student, and will be able to take these skills with me into a post-doc, hopefully hitting the ground running and propelling me into my own funded research, and maybe a dream project. I'm about as happy as I think a graduate student working insane hours can be because I let myself be passionate about the science and all of the skills I'm learning and I have a great environment to do so. Is this my dream project? No. But I'm helping people and I'm adding knowledge to the database. And I have hope that one day, I'll have even more exciting things to be passionate about (and hopefully a better funding climate). My peers that were not so careful in choosing a lab are struggling a little bit. Some have dropped out, some have changed labs, and others are just hanging in there. Dream project or no, not having a good environment to learn science in will break even those with the highest potential. Now I see how important it was that I came into my PhD knowing what I needed to look for in a lab, and I see that I am very lucky. I'm telling you all of this because, as a masters student who claims they want to be passionate about their research, I can see you going for a PhD. When you do so, make sure you take what @Eigen, @fuzzylogician, and @TakeruK said to heart. Choose the lab that you think will provide the best learning environment for you. Make sure that you can have the guidance you need, learn many skills that will be useful, and do what it takes to turn yourself into the best scientist you can become. For now, find a way to finish your MS or start a PhD program if that is what you really feel you should do. Once you decide, be passionate about learning until you find your research niche. It is hard at first, but it pays off.

It is not absolutely essential to have a co-mentor that is not your PI if your PI is still junior faculty. However, working closely with someone well-known can be beneficial. I will have a co-mentor for my fellowship proposal. The PI I chose is a well-known guy in the field, but I also directly collaborate with his lab and placed him on my thesis committee. He knows me, and my projects, really well. Our research is related, but independent from his, and his lab has skills and equipment that we use, and we have things that his lab uses. I'm probably over in their lab at least once a week. I think if you're going to find a co-mentor, this sort of situation is ideal. What I would NOT do is pick someone that your lab doesn't work with or that your PI does not know well. If the labs are not already working together to some degree, this person is going to have a hard time writing a training plan for you, and your application will actually be considered much weaker for it.

@Diapers, I sent you a private message as I'm not in that program, but I can assure you that my experience at BCM has been incredible. I work with lots of people in different programs, and have not had any bad experiences. The collaborative research environment is great! The website for the Immunology program in the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences is here: https://www.bcm.edu/education/schools/graduate-school-of-biomedical-sciences/programs/immunology Faculty are here: https://www.bcm.edu/education/schools/graduate-school-of-biomedical-sciences/programs/immunology/faculty All Graduate Programs: https://www.bcm.edu/education/schools/graduate-school-of-biomedical-sciences/programs Note that some faculty who do immune-related things are actually in other departments depending on what they're working on. Lots of people working with viruses are in MVM.

I think that depends a lot on you as a person and where your priorities lie. Right now, given my own current circumstances, I would probably go for option 3, provided that the big city was where my fiance is. Five years would be long enough for me to get some decent experience or complete my whole postdoc (obviously for lower) and hopefully decide where I need to end up, next and get there. However, if I could go anywhere I wanted and he could follow to also get a job, I would probably pick option number one. I'd rather have job security with guaranteed income, and, having grown up in the middle of nowhere, I'm totally okay with that. For me, that would be the most comfortable of those options. What you don't mention is how fulfilling those jobs will be. Will you be happiest going to the 45k job? If so, that's the one I would consider. I want projects that challenge me, but don't overwork me. Right now, I'm happy to work 60 hours a week, but I won't always be that way, I'm sure. I want the opportunity to mentor and teach others as well, and I won't get that everywhere. Does that make sense?

You will probably be able to do that if you have a roommate, but decent one-bedroom apartments near the med center tend to run at least $850+, and that is not including utilities like water and electric. I lived outside the 610 loop for a while paying about $850 a month, but that is also a 45 minute bus ride. Parking at the med center can also be expensive, but you can park for $50 or so a month in the remote lots and ride a shuttle in. I recommend living close enough that you can bus into the med center in less than 30 minutes. I moved so my ride in is very short and so I can walk in. You will want the car for getting groceries, etc. Houston is a driving city, though there are good places to get out and play.

Definitely stay off of Holly Hall as sometimes those are a little sketchy. If you live in one of the condos on Cambridge St. on the Med Center side of Holly Hall (close to the Kroger), the 60 bus goes straight into the middle of the Med Center and then to the Med Center Transit Center. Depending on where you live, walking in could be about 30 minutes or so, which on nice days is really fun to do. PM me if you have specific questions about the area and which condos are good or bad. El Paseo street also has some decent ones, but you'll have a longer walk to the med center or to the bus. I don't want to give away where I lived on here! As you may have noticed, Houston had a bit of an apocalyptic day. Check out places carefully when you move and try to get places that don't flood or upstairs apartments. Also try to find places with parking areas known not to flood. This is the third time Houston has flooded since I moved there, and the second time it has done so badly. Several of my friends have lost their cars that way, and a few have had major apartment damage!

It would be very rude, and they will very likely tell you no! They likely have other very willing and just as qualified applicants waiting for admission.

I actually didn't get paid the first time for nearly 3 weeks after I started, and it was a little tough. Build yourself a little cushion in your funds to tide you over in case you don't get paid right away!

Congratulations! Don't schedule them all before you get there, though! It is a good idea to schedule just the first, maybe the second, and then wait until you get there to learn what the environments will be before you pick the rest. We had to do four rotations, and they told us to only schedule the first before we got there, and I was very happy that I didn't schedule more as I found awesome faculty I hadn't even known about before I got there. This is personal preference, but it has also served myself and others I know well: Don't pick the lab you think you want to join for your very first rotation. This is because your first term/semester/rotation, you're adjusting to your new school and life. At least for me, it meant that I wasn't as efficient or able to participate as much as I normally would, resulting in a less than optimal impression in my opinion. I could have ultimately joined that lab, but I was really happy that the lab I ultimately joined was one of my later rotations as I had everything figured out, organized, and was able to devote the right amount of effort to lab to get my project started and make what I felt was a true impression of how I work in lab!

I disagree! If you are asked, tell them! Yes there are some programs that will assume you won't come or that you'll be less interested in them if you have an offer at a more prestigious school, but in my case, that's not what happened. At my second interview, I was asked where I'd applied, where I was interviewing, and if I'd gotten any offers. When I told one of my interviewers where I'd gotten an offer from, he told me, "Oh. You definitely need to go there as they are a better school for what you want to do, but if you like it here, you can come." Another professor at the same school told me, "We might not be able to compete with everything that that school can offer you, but we would love to have you attend here." They expedited my acceptance to the second school; I actually had an offer when I stepped off of my flight 2 hours later heading home! If you take the interviews at each school seriously, it isn't likely to bite you in the butt unless you're on the lower half of their ranked interviewees from the start.

I'm an example of a student that got into her top choice school after doing a research-based masters! Even without publications, your application will be stronger than many undergrads with pubs simply due to two years of full-time research experience as a MS student. It is a good time to prove to yourself that you want to do graduate school. It will also set you ahead of some of the other students in both lab and coursework. Speaking of UIUC, my ug institution used to have a not-so-nice song they sang about them. Being unwilling to retain students for a PhD program is not uncommon, and it IS good for you to expand your horizons and go somewhere new!

If you talked to anyone for more than just a few minutes, you should drop them a quick note thanking them for their help, expressing interest (if you want to go there), and maybe asking a follow-up question. This is mostly limited to faculty and perhaps the administrative assistant that got you to and from your interview, but you can also send one to the student who hosted/toured you around if you had one. You'll totally make their day, and if it is a school that takes reviews from its current students, it may help you. It definitely does help for you to at the very least email the professors you talked with at interviews. Those are often used as a final measure of true interest, and schools want to offer to the students that are qualified, but also likely to come to their program. I toured several students around, this year. I heard from 2 of them post-interview, and I let the adcom know how nice those applicants were.

You should definitely reply to them. If at all possible, also let them know when you think you will make a decision. For example, "I will let you know my decision after March 16," if your last interview is early march. This will keep check-in emails to a minimum. Yes, most schools have to abide by the April 15 deadline, but it isn't very nice to other waitlisted students to wait that long. Remember that these schools can only have so many offers out at a time as they have limits to class size, so if you really are thinking you won't go there and have other offers, let them know so they can give an offer to another student. Also note that even though you have an offer, it is still possible to be denied admission in the end, either through a graduate school admissions process or through others accepting offers earlier than you (though this second one is rare).