Huw
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Posts
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Posts posted by Huw
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If you want the chance to mentor a PI, choose school B.
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South east
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I just wrote that email a few days ago. I thanked them so much for accepting me, but have decided to attend at another school. Then I listed some things that impressed me about their program and recruitment event. They were very happy for me and thanked me for the compliments. It was pretty easy actually.
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Moon cake
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I don't know much about either, but I would say Duke. This is only based on who has the best old-looking pointy tower-like structure on campus.
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pink bean
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I think GPA and course grades don't really matter much. Mine suck and I have had really good response this year. I have five Cs on my transcript, most are from the last year or so.
From my experience, the only thing important is some real world experience. That's basically the only thing good about my application (and it's not even all that impressive itself). If you don't get in, just take a year and do some serious exp hunting. Then apply to >5 schools next time and watch the invites roll in.
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Good call
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My girlfriend got hired at her first nursing position, so I was waiting in the HR office for her while she did some computer tests. I pulled out her laptop and checked my email, and there it was. Couldn't tell anyone at the moment, so I just had to settle for one of those suppressed internal celebrations with just a smile on my face to show it. Then she came out and I told her about it. We also got engaged the evening before that, so it was a pretty nice weekend.
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Haha...I have lived in ABQ my whole life. In short, the land of manana thing is true. The hookers and very scary areas...hmmmm...not so much. Like ANYWHERE, not just cities, if you go looking for problems (and hookers) you can find them, but they are not on every street corner.
Let me know if you have any other questions.
Are you saying I go looking for hookers??
Shh
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I know you are not trying to be a wet blanket, but could you explain? What advice do you have for incoming students?
Sorry for bashing D:
OK so, the New Mexico vibe is great at first. I even felt it when I went back to Abq to interview last month. Warm weather, very sunny, beautiful mountains closeby, lots of history, unique architecture, really awesome food. But then I started to remember my other opinions about it. It is known as "the land of mañana" which means most things are put off till tomorrow. I can't really explain why I don't care for NM very much, but some people do very well there. It has definite pluses but more unforgivable minuses in my own experiences (which might not apply to everyone, so no point in making too much generalization). It's mostly just that I can't stand being there anymore and it was easy for me to get tired of it and hate it.
Advice for people moving there: just be patient when you don't get helped by a government employee or even someone at the university. They will put you off until tomorrow, usually.
If you are used to big cities, Abq should be no problem. It has extremely rude drivers, very scary areas, lots of hookers, etc. but it's more weird being part of a more rural setting than a true big city. But like I said, the food can be amazing, and you can PM me if you want to know my favorite restaurants (most of which aren't even in the city).
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Med school applicants cannot survive in graduate school, let alone one of your "dream schools." Do you even know anything about those schools, besides them being highly ranked? You sound like someone who just wants a way to get famous and/or rich.
But I want to give you some serious advice if you are willing to get real. First, to completely switch from medicine to research, you surely as hell need to spend time in the lab away from patients and anything clinical. This will help you see if you actually like research or if it's just some mildly interesting rabbit you are chasing at the moment. Do this for at least one year. Second, you need to get real and look at specific programs that fit into your interests from your experience. The school itself has nothing to do with your future compared to the individual projects going on and the PIs you might work under. Third, stop viewing the world as one fancy buffet all reserved for you. You can't just decide to get research experience. You have to work your butt off to find opportunities for it. If you somehow land a research experience position with some potential, but your motivation is getting into a "top tier program," then your research will be crap and your LOR will also be crap.
So the bottom line is, get serious about research or go back and try becoming a silly doctor again.
- omoplata, jayelko and mrmolecularbiology
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I grew up near Albuquerque and applied as a backup school, but definitely won't be moving back there... I miss the food, but that's about it.
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I heard that sometimes big companies hire entire graduating classes of Texas A&M engineering students.
But I would definitely choose A&M anyway. That is an uncommon offer, and you should really be proud of it. College Station is a big city full of undergrads, which might be the only negative in my opinion, unless you like partying (probably not since you're chemE). Otherwise Texas is a fantastic place to start a career and to live.
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I wouldn't mind being super poor for a few years if it meant getting on the right track with interesting projects.
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OP's name reminds me of that asian girl on the first season of Zoom.
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primordial soup
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"Oh wow, you must be one of those smart kids."
Thank you for boiling down my whole life into one dismissive phrase.
- oopalfrootz and Emdave
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All day I have been thinking that I wished I believed everything happened for a reason. Unfortunately, I don't because I am an atheist and everything happening for a reason implies that there is some greater plan for my life.
I just keep telling myself I will eventually look back on this and see it as a good thing because most people don't have counterfactuals that leave them feeling negative for the long term (social cog for the win).
So I know it will get better, and there is nothing I can do now, so I just have to move on.
That is unfortunate. I got rejected from everything last year, but I am soooo happy about it because now I actually know what my real interests are, and have much better opportunities this year as a result. Besides, you don't have to believe everything happens for a reason, even if you aren't atheist.
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I had an interview a few weekends ago. It was a nice school, very small though, and not too many projects that were in my interest range. I applied for the flexibility of the molecular medicine pathway. I don't think I will accept if they offer though.
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I don't know anything about Dartmouth, but Vanderbilt IGP is as good a choice as you can ask for. Now if you add the fact that Vandy is highly ranked in pharm, and that your dream PI is there, it seems like a no-brainer to me. I would accept that offer in a heartbeat. Not many people get an offer from Vandy, trust me. Plus Nashville is pretty nice too.
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I am guessing that you shot way too high your first time. If that is the case, you should have done a few crappy backup schools for the second time, with some nice schools. If that's also the case, you should have done about 15 crappy backup schools the third time.
If you shot too high with no net all three times, then I think you have learned the lesson very well. I would immediately look for some March deadline schools (perhaps even later) in order to salvage your PhD dream.
In the end, it's not only about the school, but about the project you end up working with. Find a good PI, not a good school.
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Union break
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My experience with the schools that wait forever to tell you anything is that they just haven't gotten around to rejecting you. In fact I emailed a few schools last year for updates after months, and they responded with the link to the regret letter.
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