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sciatrix

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Everything posted by sciatrix

  1. Delurking to vent... E/E, VG/VG, E/E. Third reviewer in particular wrote paragraphs of gushing praise for my proposal, for both IM and BI. Honorable Mention. And this is my last shot at it, so I'm feeling a bit sulky. I can only conclude that the second reviewer (whose comments are nearly all negative despite the VGs) hated it enough to tank my application.
  2. Hey, another EEB/behavior person! Good to see more of us around. I'm currently a first-year at UT Austin, so if you have any questions specific to that program I'd be happy to help. Zabius' advice is generally pretty much what I was going to say, so I won't repeat it again. I also didn't bother taking GRE subject tests at all, and I don't think that counted against me at any of the programs I applied to (including Cornell, UC Davis and UT), so I wouldn't worry about it. In fact, no one even asked me about it. I'm pretty sure a Master's in biology will be enough to demonstrate that you know your stuff. Your CV looks really solid aside from the GRE stuff to me, and I agree that most programs really do not care much about GRE as long as it passes a certain cutoff. When I was applying and interviewing, I really found that fit and talking to prospective PIs ahead of time about my interests and their work were the thing that either worked for me or against me. Past a baseline level of qualification, which you look like you're at to me, a lot of getting acceptances at grad school is about finding a lab that your interests and personality fit neatly into. As far as I can tell, you're not doomed at all--you're a solid candidate and well ahead of the game. Follow Zabius' advice and check in occasionally with your prospective PIs and the people who are writing you letters and you should be fine. I cannot emphasize this hard enough--getting into these programs is really all about finding a PI who is excited about your interests and who you are excited to work with. Most of them don't do rotations, so you'll be admitted to a particular lab. You want to make sure that a) the lab that you want to join wants to have you too and b ) that it's a good match for your interests. One warning about Davis--when I interviewed there, they told me the Animal Behavior graduate group cannot guarantee funding for its students and that the grad students there need to secure their own TAships through applications. They said this was because the graduate group isn't formally affiliated with a department (the way, say, the Psychology graduate group is) and so they can't set classes aside for AB TAs. That put me right off the program and immediately dropped it to last place on my priority list, personally. I don't know whether their financial situation has changed any in the intervening year, but I thought I'd pass that tidbit along in case you hadn't heard.
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