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mrmolecularbiology

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Everything posted by mrmolecularbiology

  1. Anyone interested in learning more information about UTSW or particular PIs here message me and I'll give you an honest answer.
  2. Unless you have already signed the paperwork, I think it is fine to go to other interviews for a few reasons. It gives you a forum to practice talking about science and with interviewing in general. It will also help you make sure you have made the right decision by seeing what else is out there.
  3. Having pubs as an undergrad is incredibly helpful. It certainly helped me stand out.
  4. Yes. A few adcoms looked at my social media sites. Linkedin outed them though.
  5. I brought a notepad. I used it twice over five interview weekends. You could bring notes I suppose, but are you going to look at them while you're talking to an interviewer? Copy of your poster is not a bad idea it will make talking about your research easier.
  6. I no longer interact with "normal people". I go to lab and then I hang out with people in my program. We talk about science 24/7. That in itself is not a problem (I'm having a blast) but I think I have now drastically limited the pool of people I can look for a mate in. Oh well
  7. You don't need to know every detail of the research you have been doing, but you should be able to talk about it intelligently. The structure of most interviews is several (5 or so) one on one interviews, where half the time they talk about their research and half you talk about yours. I don't know why you have a summary from the program website that will not help you in anyway. As for reading papers: skim them so you are able to ask intelligent questions when you are interviewing, but the questions need to be pertinent to what the interviewer has been talking about. Memorizing something and then spouting it randomly is not impressive.
  8. I got my invitation the 13th of december last year. And in case you wanted to know Invite for Hopkins biophysics was received on january 8th.
  9. I meant to check this forum more frequently, so I could offer advise and encouragement to this year's applicant pool, as many grad students did for me last year. If anyone has any questions about UTSW (interviews etc) or grad school in general I'd be glad to answer them. I also interviewed at UCSF IPQB (accepted) Duke SSB (accepted) Cornell biophysics (accepted) and Johns Hopkins Molecular biophysics (rejected post interview). And can comment somewhat on what to do (and not do haha) when interviewing and what it is like.
  10. That's awesome! I bet being persistent in addition to exceeding the cutoff will make you a strong candidate in this cycle. Good luck!
  11. Consider adding University of texas southwestern medical center to your list of schools. 40% of my incoming class is international students.
  12. Is there anything keeping you in San Diego or is that just a preference?
  13. Consider University of Texas southwestern medical center over Texas A&M. I think it's a better program. (although I'm biased because I go there )
  14. Lol your complaining about a two hour drive? All of your own feelings about the programs point to UCSD.
  15. I had to make a decision between similar choices for similar reasons I turned down UCSF to go to UTSW, for one additional reason ( knew I wouldn't be very "mentored" by PI's at UCSF at least in my subfield). The fact that students (as well as faculty) seemed super happy and enthusiastic at UTSW was a super plus for me. The faculty and students were super welcoming, and faculty had projects that they wanted me to come work on. At UCSF it was like, you could rotate/join my lab but I don't personally care if you do kind of vibe.I guess it really depends on what you think you want/need. I did not get the "competitive" vibe from students while I was at UCSF but that was my experience. I just didn't think the large labs were a place I would flourish. Do you think you would do just as well in both places? For me I knew I could survive UCSF, but I would be less productive overall because they seem to demand more independence that I'm just not up for yet.
  16. Well good news is you already sound like a politician.
  17. Rejected from Johns Hopkins program in molecular biophysics. Have officially heard back from every school.
  18. I turned down a top 5 institution for a top 20 I liked better. Did I just make a horrible Career limiting move?
  19. Acceptances : UCSF (unexpected), UTSW (expected), Cornell (expected), Duke (expected) Rejected: Stanford (totally expected) UC Berkeley (thought I had a shot) I expected to be rejected from UCSF but thought I had a shot at UCB. I have a former lab mate at UTSW and I have "better" credentials then he did so I assumed I would get in. I have another lab mate at JHU, same deal but have still not heard back from them post-interview (presumed rejection). Also pre-interview I was totally planning to go to UCSF but I felt like UTSW was a better fit for me.
  20. The best way to become a better writer is through reading and writing in the style/genre (try to emulate good writing). A masters in writing would be more of a self development (as opposed to an instructed style of learning) I'd go with A and learn publishing skills but then again This is beyond my realm of knowledge.
  21. At many of my interviews I got comments about how positive my LORs were and I want to get a small gift for each of my recommenders. (even if I had not been told my letters were positive I would still want to give some kind of thank you). So Anyone who has given a gift, what type of gift is appropriate? One of my LOR writers is a coffee enthusiast, so If anyone knows a place to get speciality coffee blends that would be cool I think. Another writer really likes classical music and science literature, but I'm afraid whatever I pick he will already have. My boss is the third writer and I'll probably just get him a bottle of scotch before I head off to grad school. Thoughts on these ideas? Anyone else giving a small token of their appreciation? or is this a bad idea altogether?
  22. My three LORs were from a) THe PI I did research for My academic advisor (he is familiar with my research and work ethic though) c) A professor I had 1 class with ( I set up multiple meetings and presented my research and just had conversations so he could get to know me as a person) Whoever you pick to write your letters, try to find people who are willing to meet with you so you they can get to know your aspirations, your accomplishments and who you are as a person.
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