acetylcholine

We all want in grad school and we want to save our own hide first.  Is that such a bad thing?

Thank you.  This has been a message from the Still Worried Grad Applicants.

Color me cynical, but you got in the first round you tried; I didn't.  GPA is frequently used as a first-round cut.
 
I prefer to help people hedge their bets.  When I got 'go as long as you want!' advice, I came out with nowhere to go this fall, and as I said, Octopus28 does have very good research experience, but Octo's MS GPA is barely better than my undergrad GPA.
 
Let's revisit Octopus28's GPA and GREs, shall we?
 
GPA in Major (undergrad): ~2.8 (struggled when transferring from a small community college)  GPA in Major (Masters): 3.7 (Biotech MS at a small state university) Overall GPA: ~3.0 (unsure how community college fits into this)  Position in Class: Average Type of Student: Domestic Male   GRE Scores (revised version): Q: 167 V: 155 W: not yet available B: Does this look like someone who's going to get admitted to UCSF, University of Washington, Cornell, or UCLA?  Does it?  The answer is no, the 2.8-3.0 undergrad GPA, even though the MS GPA is 3.7, and the low verbal score will work against Octopus28.

I'm thinking of eliminating all the UC schools.  I hear bad things about how they treat PhD students.

It would probably have helped if I didn't spend half of the Baylor interview violently sick to my stomach due to the utter delight that is having IBS that manifests primarily in high-stress situations.  Part of their interview is taking students to the Rush Record Neuroscience Forum they hold every year, and I spent almost the entire first day running in and out of the bathroom, which might have been interpreted as inadequate enthusiasm.
 
I really have no idea what adcoms think when interviewees get sick, and I think it's a worthwhile thing to consider at least somewhere in the big Grad School Applicant Discussion because it definitely happens, and it can happen when you don't even expect it.  Maybe you don't have a chronic condition like I do, but what if you get some kind of bug or the food doesn't agree with you...

Maybe.  I have difficulties with being terribly effusive.  It seems like there's a fine line between 'this person's communicating sheer passion and drive' and 'this person is a wacko'.

We all want in grad school and we want to save our own hide first.  Is that such a bad thing?

I didn't get in the second year in a row.
 
Fuck American science.  I'm going to Europe.
 
EDIT:  Am I just getting downvotes because you lot think I got rejected for being an idiot?  Here's my stats:
 
I have a 3.69 GPA with honors, 167V/163Q/4.0A GREs, a second-author pub, about three semesters' worth of research experience including at two prominent research stations, two and a half years spent at community college, one first abortive try at college when I was younger before the second time went through, and I'm not sure anymore what my letter writers think of me. I may not have taken enough credits each semester as I was going through undergrad.
My interests are a little niche, probably (evolutionary developmental biology with a focus on neuroscience). Evo-devo bio has only just now set up a professional society in the United States. I don't THINK I'm socially awkward, and everybody I've asked has said I have no problems, but I'm beginning to be doubtful.
I'm twenty pounds overweight, if that makes much of a difference, which according to peer-reviewed research it might. I'm just a little introverted. Not shy. Just more easily exhaustible than average when it comes to social shit.
I got three interviews each year, so the adcom clearly knew all this going in and invited me and then fucked me over.
My undergrad school was somewhere in, like, the top 250. Third-tier shit. Public institution. Yes, this matters: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/03/education/edlife/why-you-cant-catch-up.html?_r=0

I didn't get in the second year in a row.
 
Fuck American science.  I'm going to Europe.
 
EDIT:  Am I just getting downvotes because you lot think I got rejected for being an idiot?  Here's my stats:
 
I have a 3.69 GPA with honors, 167V/163Q/4.0A GREs, a second-author pub, about three semesters' worth of research experience including at two prominent research stations, two and a half years spent at community college, one first abortive try at college when I was younger before the second time went through, and I'm not sure anymore what my letter writers think of me. I may not have taken enough credits each semester as I was going through undergrad.
My interests are a little niche, probably (evolutionary developmental biology with a focus on neuroscience). Evo-devo bio has only just now set up a professional society in the United States. I don't THINK I'm socially awkward, and everybody I've asked has said I have no problems, but I'm beginning to be doubtful.
I'm twenty pounds overweight, if that makes much of a difference, which according to peer-reviewed research it might. I'm just a little introverted. Not shy. Just more easily exhaustible than average when it comes to social shit.
I got three interviews each year, so the adcom clearly knew all this going in and invited me and then fucked me over.
My undergrad school was somewhere in, like, the top 250. Third-tier shit. Public institution. Yes, this matters: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/03/education/edlife/why-you-cant-catch-up.html?_r=0

And from literally EVERYBODY I asked, faculty who were and were not on the adcoms, I couldn't extract an answer from them as to what, and I have no idea what it could have possibly been.  If that was the problem, nobody's being honest with me.  I certainly wasn't the yob at my Florida interview who got so drunk that he wandered into the woods outside town, passed out, and got mugged the next morning.  (Yes, that happened to some guy at the interview.  Very weird to hear about.)
 
I have gone around asking virtually everybody I know who knows me well enough that it wouldn't be awkward if I do in fact have a problem with how I come off, and I get a 'no, you're fine, why are you so concerned?' answer.  Consistently.
 
I would be perfectly happy if someone gave me a blunt answer that maybe made me sad a bit but that I could act on rather than telling me a lie.  And I don't know if the people I'm talking to about this are being honest with me anymore.

I didn't get in the second year in a row.
 
Fuck American science.  I'm going to Europe.
 
EDIT:  Am I just getting downvotes because you lot think I got rejected for being an idiot?  Here's my stats:
 
I have a 3.69 GPA with honors, 167V/163Q/4.0A GREs, a second-author pub, about three semesters' worth of research experience including at two prominent research stations, two and a half years spent at community college, one first abortive try at college when I was younger before the second time went through, and I'm not sure anymore what my letter writers think of me. I may not have taken enough credits each semester as I was going through undergrad.
My interests are a little niche, probably (evolutionary developmental biology with a focus on neuroscience). Evo-devo bio has only just now set up a professional society in the United States. I don't THINK I'm socially awkward, and everybody I've asked has said I have no problems, but I'm beginning to be doubtful.
I'm twenty pounds overweight, if that makes much of a difference, which according to peer-reviewed research it might. I'm just a little introverted. Not shy. Just more easily exhaustible than average when it comes to social shit.
I got three interviews each year, so the adcom clearly knew all this going in and invited me and then fucked me over.
My undergrad school was somewhere in, like, the top 250. Third-tier shit. Public institution. Yes, this matters: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/03/education/edlife/why-you-cant-catch-up.html?_r=0

I didn't get in the second year in a row.
 
Fuck American science.  I'm going to Europe.
 
EDIT:  Am I just getting downvotes because you lot think I got rejected for being an idiot?  Here's my stats:
 
I have a 3.69 GPA with honors, 167V/163Q/4.0A GREs, a second-author pub, about three semesters' worth of research experience including at two prominent research stations, two and a half years spent at community college, one first abortive try at college when I was younger before the second time went through, and I'm not sure anymore what my letter writers think of me. I may not have taken enough credits each semester as I was going through undergrad.
My interests are a little niche, probably (evolutionary developmental biology with a focus on neuroscience). Evo-devo bio has only just now set up a professional society in the United States. I don't THINK I'm socially awkward, and everybody I've asked has said I have no problems, but I'm beginning to be doubtful.
I'm twenty pounds overweight, if that makes much of a difference, which according to peer-reviewed research it might. I'm just a little introverted. Not shy. Just more easily exhaustible than average when it comes to social shit.
I got three interviews each year, so the adcom clearly knew all this going in and invited me and then fucked me over.
My undergrad school was somewhere in, like, the top 250. Third-tier shit. Public institution. Yes, this matters: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/03/education/edlife/why-you-cant-catch-up.html?_r=0

I didn't get in the second year in a row.
 
Fuck American science.  I'm going to Europe.
 
EDIT:  Am I just getting downvotes because you lot think I got rejected for being an idiot?  Here's my stats:
 
I have a 3.69 GPA with honors, 167V/163Q/4.0A GREs, a second-author pub, about three semesters' worth of research experience including at two prominent research stations, two and a half years spent at community college, one first abortive try at college when I was younger before the second time went through, and I'm not sure anymore what my letter writers think of me. I may not have taken enough credits each semester as I was going through undergrad.
My interests are a little niche, probably (evolutionary developmental biology with a focus on neuroscience). Evo-devo bio has only just now set up a professional society in the United States. I don't THINK I'm socially awkward, and everybody I've asked has said I have no problems, but I'm beginning to be doubtful.
I'm twenty pounds overweight, if that makes much of a difference, which according to peer-reviewed research it might. I'm just a little introverted. Not shy. Just more easily exhaustible than average when it comes to social shit.
I got three interviews each year, so the adcom clearly knew all this going in and invited me and then fucked me over.
My undergrad school was somewhere in, like, the top 250. Third-tier shit. Public institution. Yes, this matters: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/03/education/edlife/why-you-cant-catch-up.html?_r=0

I didn't get in the second year in a row.
 
Fuck American science.  I'm going to Europe.
 
EDIT:  Am I just getting downvotes because you lot think I got rejected for being an idiot?  Here's my stats:
 
I have a 3.69 GPA with honors, 167V/163Q/4.0A GREs, a second-author pub, about three semesters' worth of research experience including at two prominent research stations, two and a half years spent at community college, one first abortive try at college when I was younger before the second time went through, and I'm not sure anymore what my letter writers think of me. I may not have taken enough credits each semester as I was going through undergrad.
My interests are a little niche, probably (evolutionary developmental biology with a focus on neuroscience). Evo-devo bio has only just now set up a professional society in the United States. I don't THINK I'm socially awkward, and everybody I've asked has said I have no problems, but I'm beginning to be doubtful.
I'm twenty pounds overweight, if that makes much of a difference, which according to peer-reviewed research it might. I'm just a little introverted. Not shy. Just more easily exhaustible than average when it comes to social shit.
I got three interviews each year, so the adcom clearly knew all this going in and invited me and then fucked me over.
My undergrad school was somewhere in, like, the top 250. Third-tier shit. Public institution. Yes, this matters: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/03/education/edlife/why-you-cant-catch-up.html?_r=0

I didn't get in the second year in a row.
 
Fuck American science.  I'm going to Europe.
 
EDIT:  Am I just getting downvotes because you lot think I got rejected for being an idiot?  Here's my stats:
 
I have a 3.69 GPA with honors, 167V/163Q/4.0A GREs, a second-author pub, about three semesters' worth of research experience including at two prominent research stations, two and a half years spent at community college, one first abortive try at college when I was younger before the second time went through, and I'm not sure anymore what my letter writers think of me. I may not have taken enough credits each semester as I was going through undergrad.
My interests are a little niche, probably (evolutionary developmental biology with a focus on neuroscience). Evo-devo bio has only just now set up a professional society in the United States. I don't THINK I'm socially awkward, and everybody I've asked has said I have no problems, but I'm beginning to be doubtful.
I'm twenty pounds overweight, if that makes much of a difference, which according to peer-reviewed research it might. I'm just a little introverted. Not shy. Just more easily exhaustible than average when it comes to social shit.
I got three interviews each year, so the adcom clearly knew all this going in and invited me and then fucked me over.
My undergrad school was somewhere in, like, the top 250. Third-tier shit. Public institution. Yes, this matters: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/03/education/edlife/why-you-cant-catch-up.html?_r=0

I didn't get in the second year in a row.
 
Fuck American science.  I'm going to Europe.
 
EDIT:  Am I just getting downvotes because you lot think I got rejected for being an idiot?  Here's my stats:
 
I have a 3.69 GPA with honors, 167V/163Q/4.0A GREs, a second-author pub, about three semesters' worth of research experience including at two prominent research stations, two and a half years spent at community college, one first abortive try at college when I was younger before the second time went through, and I'm not sure anymore what my letter writers think of me. I may not have taken enough credits each semester as I was going through undergrad.
My interests are a little niche, probably (evolutionary developmental biology with a focus on neuroscience). Evo-devo bio has only just now set up a professional society in the United States. I don't THINK I'm socially awkward, and everybody I've asked has said I have no problems, but I'm beginning to be doubtful.
I'm twenty pounds overweight, if that makes much of a difference, which according to peer-reviewed research it might. I'm just a little introverted. Not shy. Just more easily exhaustible than average when it comes to social shit.
I got three interviews each year, so the adcom clearly knew all this going in and invited me and then fucked me over.
My undergrad school was somewhere in, like, the top 250. Third-tier shit. Public institution. Yes, this matters: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/03/education/edlife/why-you-cant-catch-up.html?_r=0

I didn't get in the second year in a row.
 
Fuck American science.  I'm going to Europe.
 
EDIT:  Am I just getting downvotes because you lot think I got rejected for being an idiot?  Here's my stats:
 
I have a 3.69 GPA with honors, 167V/163Q/4.0A GREs, a second-author pub, about three semesters' worth of research experience including at two prominent research stations, two and a half years spent at community college, one first abortive try at college when I was younger before the second time went through, and I'm not sure anymore what my letter writers think of me. I may not have taken enough credits each semester as I was going through undergrad.
My interests are a little niche, probably (evolutionary developmental biology with a focus on neuroscience). Evo-devo bio has only just now set up a professional society in the United States. I don't THINK I'm socially awkward, and everybody I've asked has said I have no problems, but I'm beginning to be doubtful.
I'm twenty pounds overweight, if that makes much of a difference, which according to peer-reviewed research it might. I'm just a little introverted. Not shy. Just more easily exhaustible than average when it comes to social shit.
I got three interviews each year, so the adcom clearly knew all this going in and invited me and then fucked me over.
My undergrad school was somewhere in, like, the top 250. Third-tier shit. Public institution. Yes, this matters: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/03/education/edlife/why-you-cant-catch-up.html?_r=0

I didn't get in the second year in a row.
 
Fuck American science.  I'm going to Europe.
 
EDIT:  Am I just getting downvotes because you lot think I got rejected for being an idiot?  Here's my stats:
 
I have a 3.69 GPA with honors, 167V/163Q/4.0A GREs, a second-author pub, about three semesters' worth of research experience including at two prominent research stations, two and a half years spent at community college, one first abortive try at college when I was younger before the second time went through, and I'm not sure anymore what my letter writers think of me. I may not have taken enough credits each semester as I was going through undergrad.
My interests are a little niche, probably (evolutionary developmental biology with a focus on neuroscience). Evo-devo bio has only just now set up a professional society in the United States. I don't THINK I'm socially awkward, and everybody I've asked has said I have no problems, but I'm beginning to be doubtful.
I'm twenty pounds overweight, if that makes much of a difference, which according to peer-reviewed research it might. I'm just a little introverted. Not shy. Just more easily exhaustible than average when it comes to social shit.
I got three interviews each year, so the adcom clearly knew all this going in and invited me and then fucked me over.
My undergrad school was somewhere in, like, the top 250. Third-tier shit. Public institution. Yes, this matters: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/03/education/edlife/why-you-cant-catch-up.html?_r=0

I didn't get in the second year in a row.
 
Fuck American science.  I'm going to Europe.
 
EDIT:  Am I just getting downvotes because you lot think I got rejected for being an idiot?  Here's my stats:
 
I have a 3.69 GPA with honors, 167V/163Q/4.0A GREs, a second-author pub, about three semesters' worth of research experience including at two prominent research stations, two and a half years spent at community college, one first abortive try at college when I was younger before the second time went through, and I'm not sure anymore what my letter writers think of me. I may not have taken enough credits each semester as I was going through undergrad.
My interests are a little niche, probably (evolutionary developmental biology with a focus on neuroscience). Evo-devo bio has only just now set up a professional society in the United States. I don't THINK I'm socially awkward, and everybody I've asked has said I have no problems, but I'm beginning to be doubtful.
I'm twenty pounds overweight, if that makes much of a difference, which according to peer-reviewed research it might. I'm just a little introverted. Not shy. Just more easily exhaustible than average when it comes to social shit.
I got three interviews each year, so the adcom clearly knew all this going in and invited me and then fucked me over.
My undergrad school was somewhere in, like, the top 250. Third-tier shit. Public institution. Yes, this matters: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/03/education/edlife/why-you-cant-catch-up.html?_r=0

Shut out of Ivies?  Oh please, I don't feel sorry for you.

eteshoe, at least turn down SOME of those acceptances.  It's not polite to hold onto so many when others might want in.

We all want in grad school and we want to save our own hide first.  Is that such a bad thing?

Thank you.  This has been a message from the Still Worried Grad Applicants.

Thank you.  This has been a message from the Still Worried Grad Applicants.

Thank you.  This has been a message from the Still Worried Grad Applicants.