ERR_Alpha

She wants to be the only girl in the group... Well that's a disturbing statement. I feel like any woman who tries to join she'll just magically happen to not like... Women like this realllyyyyy bug me. Normally you don't find too many in academia but there's always a few bad apples.

Oh gender roles. My boyfriend and I frequently get "oh so she's the man in the relationship!" No, I'm the bread winner and he's much better at cooking and cleaning(and enjoys it more). People's simple dichotomy brains infuriate me.

By far the best way I've seen someone deal with a rejection.

I'm teaching a 400 level lab course. Grading labs should not be this painful. Is it that hard to agree verb tenses or run spell check??

Emailing programs and PIs directly may be your best shot. Explain your situation and ask what they think your chances are. Some may give you the song and dance of "oh we look at the entire app" but others may be straight forward and say they have a minimum GPA or that they're more willing to look around that. Also having a PI of interest pulling for you may help pull your app out of the pile of those rejected.

My dad got me the swine flu one after I got over that... I also have sperm and egg

Honesty if a program was that rude and minded about visiting a friend I wouldn't want to be there anyway...

I think that would be fine. The night out is supposed to be for you to relax a bit and get to know people. I don't think anyone would mind.

Unless that's a typo the 2.3 undergraduate GPA is probably what is holding you back. Especially since it seems like neuroscience programs are especially competitive. The 3.3 in post bac is an improvement but may not be enough to convince AdCom.

Hm... I guess this is the potential for lake effect. I went to undergrad in part of the shaded NY area and we had two snow days in four years

Being from NY I'm used to snow... Here in central PA we get a few inches and everyone loses their minds. Although I do dislike snow after living my whole life in the Northeast

Unless you punched a grad student or something of that caliber I wouldnt. My program actually likes when people aren't afraid to drink and have fun.. As long as nothing catastrophic happens.

I'm a younger student, but I had some health issues so I had to face this situation. My advice: ALWAYS eat breakfast, pack a nutritious lunch with plenty of healthy snacks. For me, if I want to eat crappy, I do it at night or on weekends when I'm not in lab. Taking iron pills also helped me immensely. (I'm not a big green veggie fan)

Feeling the need to remind everyone of this again: what is seen on GradCafe is just a small sample of people applying, typically skewed higher. The results section is supposed to give you a general idea, but it's not including every single person who got in or didn't get it.

My boyfriend and I take things one step at a time... Try not to worry about post docs, jobs, and relocating until we know exactly what we're dealing with.

The speaker worked on patent law, actually. Basically translated the science into lawyer speak. It must take a special kind of person to be able to get a research based science PhD and then get through a law degree. I also wonder how his work/life balance was... It seemed dismal.

We had a speaker yesterday who ever so casually said that we should consider getting a law degree after we get our PhD (we're all biochemists)... It got me thinking about how common this is... does anyone on here have experience getting multiple degrees? What motivated you to do so? I'm only a first year PhD so going to MORE school after this seems insane. He also mentioned getting an MBA... although the only other degree I would ever possibly consider was an MPH.

I was the same, turned 22 in November. My biggest piece of advice: don't compare yourself to your older, perhaps more experienced peers. Most of my cohort had already been in industry and therefore had a bit more of a skill set that I lacked. Also don't let people age shame you. There's an a**hole in my cohort who always makes sure I remember he's six years old than me... And I want to respond I WILL BE YOUR AGE WHEN I GET MY PHD!! (Which I know is mean and people of any age can be successful... But this guy is mean!) Most people will be perfectly fine with it.

We could be twins... The feeling of inadequacy is real in grad school. I just do as much as possible without sacrificing my mental health. I also don't compare myself to others. My boyfriend chose to follow me here to a college town with not a lot of options... I feel like he could resent me someday. They key to keeping relationships alive is just to communicate. If you're feeling overwhelmed or guilty, speak up. I made the mistake of letting my anxiety build and build.

Ah yes, my boyfriend frequently does not realize how our plans can get me through a rough lab day. I got really aggrevated because I had to work a Sunday and we had made dinner plans. As soon as I come home and ask where he wants to go, he keeps responding to my questions with more questions. (What do you feel like? No, what do YOU feel like?) I eventually got so frustrated we didn't go out at all. Relationship problems...

I've been called abrasive so many times I've lost count... My male boss when I was an RA would always tell me I had to watch my tone of voice and that I frequently came off negatively. I've stopped caring. I really paid attention to how departments treated their female graduate students and profs. No women in high positions is usually a bad sign.

They're too busy putting out all of the fires and celebrating the national championship win

I only match a few of those- I wouldn't call myself an intense person by any means. But I feel like any onlooker into the world of academia thinks we're intense because likely, our studies are literally all we talk about. My boyfriend can't stand being around my grad school friends because we talk about lab all of the time. That kind of passion for the field is what motivates people to go to school in the first place. I've met people with personalities all over the board in terms of introvert/extrovert, shy/outgoing, funny/serious, etc. Although I would say academia may favor introverts, I believe any combination can be successful coupled with that intense passion for the field.

Something to keep in mind is that every school or department is going to carry its own faults/drama/issues. There's no such thing as a perfect problem free program. Try to decide what is most important to you and focus on that. @pastel- instead of asking about stats, try asking some of the grad students about people making it through the program. Are students dropping out for personal reasons or departmental reasons? I found most people are very candid about discussing this. We've had a few leave grad school simply because it wasn't for them, but this invariably makes the stats look worse.

I agree with Yolk- I largely believe Dartmouth had a pretty good idea who they wanted prior to interview. The interview is an opportunity for someone like me, lower on the totem pole to wow them (I didnt...) or for a top choice to show they're insane/terrible/not capable.