bsharpe269

Congrats!! I assumed that interview invites would come over email. On the results pages though it looks most people get phone calls. Can someone elaborate on who calls you and what this conversation entails? Is it my POI or the admissions office? Should I be ready to confirm interview dates or anything?

How do they determine who is likely to attend? School rankings? Research fit? For example, of the schools that I am applying to, some of the lower ranked programs (which are still amazing, just ranked around 30 instead of 10) are the best fits for what I want to study and have some of the strongest professors in my subfield. If I get into a program ranked around 30 with the very top professors in my particular research area then I am much more likely to accept that offer than a top 10 school with slightly weaker research. Any idea how they determine who is likely to attend? I am basically applying to the 10 strongest programs in the country for the subfield I want to research. They are all amazing fits for my research intersts which are clearly laid out in my SOP. Would a program reject me because they think that I will get into a "higher ranked" program even if their program is a better research fit than the higher ranked one?

People make jumps way bigger than this between undergrad and grad fields. I switched from mathematics as an undergrad to bioinformatics masters and am now applying to biophysics PhD programs. Plenty of people do even more drastic things like go from a science to humanities. There is no need to take extra undergrad classes. The masters program will provide the preparation you need. If you are nervous about preparation then I would just do some reading on your own time instead of paying for classes.

You're interested in genomics/bioinformatics right? I am interested in protein folding, structure/function, dynamics so my interests are more towards biophysics than bioinformatics (but sort of at a cross between the two really). All of the deadlines that I have left are very biophysics focused, not genomics focused really. In case you're interested in looking at them though, Rice Unviersity (physical biology program), JHU (biophysics), and Stony Brook (Applied Math and Stat - they have actually have a lot of protein stuff going on there) all have later deadlines. Of the bioinformatics programs I know of, I think that NC-State and Virignia Tech both have later deadlines and good genomics/systems bio related research.

Wow thats great! I wish my apps had something like that. Ive only officially submitted half of my applications. Ill submit the other half this weekend since they are all nearly ready to go (January deadlines). The waiting is driving me crazy already and so many people are getting interviews! I might hear back from 2 of my programs before Christmas but the rest will be in January or even February.

Juggling research and class work is tough. I have been trying to do the same and it can be hard to balance. My uGPA was also not great because I focused only on resaerch. I am working on my MS now and am currently applying to PhD programs. I have focused on getting very high grades while also getting outstanding LORs from my PI. It is really tough... My advice is that you cant always juggle everything and research is never the thing to drop. Sure, there may be 1-2 weeks out of the semester that you are too busy to do much research but other weeks should make up for it. I do at least 20 hours a week, in addition to getting As in classes and PhD applications. For class work, you probalby need to figure out which classes should get your focus and which you can afford to slack a little. If a potenital PI or a professor you really respect is teaching then give it everything you have. This semester I took 3 classes, my PI taught 1, one of my favorite professors who is one of my LOR writers taught another, and the third class was only tangently related to my research interests. I totally slacked in the 3rd class and used that time to do research. I somehow still barely scraped by with an A. This isnt necesarily always the best method but I got my research done and my PI really likes me so I do think it is worth it... As far as figuring out which PI might be the best for you, I would speak to teh professors about your interest and try to sit in a couple lab meetings to see if the advising styles are a good fit. Getting dropped from the other PI will not look good but if they give you a chance and you work hard then I am sure you can prove yourself.

I am of the mindset that it is almost always better to go elsewhere for your PhD. For example,assume that you are at the number 1 ranked school in your subfield for undergrad, working with a nobel prize winner on the exact research that you want to do for grad school. Wonderful... you do research under the PI for a few years and then apply to grad school. You could stay and work for him for your PhD or go work for the number 2 guy in the field. I am of the mindset that you will learn alot more from 3 years with the number 1 PI and 4-5 years year with the number 2 PI than you will from 8 years with number 1 guy. Even if there are 2 great professors at your undergrad school and you switch labs, I still think that you are limiting yourself since you could learn from both of them as an undergrad and switch for PhD. In my field, it is frowned upon to stay at the same school for undergrad and PhD and I think it could negatively impact your career.

I agree with Cookie completely. Theres nothing you can do but hope for the best.

Wow... Im sorry. I think that having a disorganized, wait til the last minute sort of advisor would be really rough. I don't have all that much to offer other than you seem to be doing the right thing to me by not spending your thanksgiving break doing the work she forgot to mention. I mean if this was a one time thing then I would go to great lengths to help out a metor who I respect. If this is regular behavoir then I would quickly become frustrated and less accommodating. If you decide to stay with this advisor and/or dont have other options then I think that setting boundries (like you seem to already be doing) is important. For example, be willing to help if you have no other plans but committ to not canceling evening plans or weekend trips due to her behavior.

Most fields (ecology could be different... I have no idea) want someone who fits well with the department overall, not just with one advisor. It seems like the department is just overall a great place to be and you have two potential advisors. That should definitely be an advantage! I would talk about the research of both and about how the focus of this department lines with your itnerests.

Most of my December 1st applications are due at 11:59 tonight. As great as it would be if they look at them right away, I bet a lot of schools will wait until after finals and Christmas. Who knows I guess... I hope I hear back from some of them soon!

Hi everyone, On most of my applications, they mention diversity and ask you share anything in your background that will contribute to diversity. For example, the prompt on the Stanford application is: "Stanford University regards the diversity of its graduate student body as an important factor in serving the educational mission of the university. We encourage you to share unique, personally important, and/or challenging factors in your background, such as work and life experiences, special interests, culture, socioeconomic status, the quality of your early!educational environment, gender, sexual orientation, race or ethnicity. Please discuss how such factors would contribute to the diversity of the entering class, and hence to the experience of your Stanford classmates. If I had a rough start financially (lived in subsidized housing as a kid, foot stamps, etc) then do you think that this something that I should share or is it better to just skip this optional prompt? Thanks!

Do you really think it is OK to call the last 2 years of the classes the major GPA? I did pretty poorly my first year (but did take a lot of major GPA classes then). I never considered using just the last 2 years and am not sure if it would be a legitamate thing to do. How did you guys calculate major GPA?

I am the first person in my family to attend grad school and among the first few to attend college. No one in my family gets the process at all. With divorced parents, I am currently trying to juggle 2x the amout of family holiday stuff with finals coming up, an RA position that I am trying to keep up with, and 6 PhD apps due next week. There is a family event going on tomorrow night that I just cant go to. It will a 45 min drive each way plus a few hours there and with PhD apps and a final next week, I just cant do it. When I tell my aunt this, she gets upset with me and says that I am going way too overboard with PhD applications and I am applying to too many schools and "wasting" all of my money. She asks why I dont just apply to my favorite couple. I try to explain that they all are great fits and have low admission and I want to make sure I get into some great fit schools. In return, I just get a lecture that I am taking all of this way too seriously. Dude, I want this applicaiton process to speed along just like you do! This is among the most important things that I have done up to this point though and will have a huge impact on my future. Do I really need a lecture for not being able to hangout the night before the first applications are due??

Oh man, I feel like I'm the only one out there still working on mine. I have been making slow progress throughout the summer and semester but I still have some essay editing and all that I want to do before hitting submit. Did you guys have your current PI edit all of your personal statements or just one? Mine read the longest of my statements (one of my schools requires 2 seperate essays so he edited those) and then I have condensed them on my own for the other schools. He is a great writer and I am so used to having him edit my conference abstracts and posters and everything that Im a bit nervous to put the other 9 together without him looking over them! I just need the confidence to hit submit... once I hit submit on one then im sure the others will be easier!

I agree that it might depend on your other letters. It would be helpful I have at least one established, known researcher. At the same time, a "he did well in my class" letter might not help much. If one of your other letter writers is at all well known then I would definitely go with A.

Thanks for the advice! My goal in discussing the field stuff is that I think my description makes it really clear that I have done a very thorough lit review of the subfield and know what I am talking about. I will definitely think about this advice though and see if I can acheive the same goal while cutting some out... any other opinions?

Hi all, I am finishing up SOPs for my Decmeber deadlines. They are currently around 2 pages long. I cant decide if it is worth it to try to shorten to around a page and a half or if they are fine as they are. Anyone care to share the length of theirs for comparison? Also, can anyone tell me how much they discuss past research vs future plans. These are very connected for me since I want to do PhD research very similar to my current MS work. I currently have a fairly detailed description of my current research project which should show how well I understand the subfield that I hope to go into. The flow of my SOP is the following: I cite a couple of the big founding papers and discuss the big picture of where my subfield is and why it is important, then go into my specific research experience which connects to that, then finish with discussion on the professors at that school that work in line with this area. I also include a discussion on how my intersciplinary background fits well with the intersciplinary nature of my research area and the programs I am applying to. One thing that I want to include but dont have space for is a paragraph about my NSF proposal which is a cool area in the subfield that remains fairly unresearched. Should I try to include this? Is it worth cutting back on my previous experience to do it? Any thoughts on this difficult balance between explaining work you have done vs work you want to do? Thanks so much!

My grad classes are at least as hard as my undergrad ones. Every grad class I have taken has had lots of tests, weekly problem sets, etc.

Go to school!!!!! I was in your situation a couple years ago. I met the most amazing man on the planet and eneded up giving up a pretty big opportunity that would have put us in different countries for a few years. Very similar situation as you... he was amazing, perfect, he proposed to me after 9 months. Im just going to say that people change, things change. I am very happy with where I am and made things work but if he truly is the perfect guy for you then he will support the fact that you need to chase after your dreams. I think you should go to school. If after being there for over a year, things are still just as perfect with the guy then you can take your masters from there and you can apply to schools in cities that are better for his career.

I guess this is all field dependent... ETH Zurich is huge in my field at least. When I read the school name in your post, in my head I thought "Oh wow, great school." In my field at least, there are only a few schools that are held to the Stanford, UWashington level. ETH Zurich is one of those schools.

Honestly, I would just not stress about this. Alot of applications ask that question but my PI has told me multiple times that if you have a solid application and mention specific people in your SOP then they will see your application. He finds it annoying to get emails from prospective students unless they actually ahve a genuine question about the program. If you actually have a question then you can contact professors to ask but otherwise, I would not contact just for the sake of contacting. You really dont need to ask whether a professor is still working on a specific project or not in my opinion. I mean look at a number of his applications from the last 10 or years. Are they in line with what you want to do? Can you see youreself building off of it or doing related stuff? If you are only interested in a professor related to 1 specific project tha tthey have done some work on then they probably arent a good fit anyway. I would just not stress...work on your applicaitons, and if you have a genuine question then feel free to email them to ask.

The important idea here in my opinion is that this is your opportunity to introduce the adcom to a bit of your personality. You want them to get to know you and your interests. You do want to sound professional but you don't want your essay to sound fake. If you use large words every few lines like you did above then It will be harder for the adcom To become absorbed in your story because it will sound unnatural. I would personally rather the adcom become absorbed in my story and sound passionate about my subject area than use a lot if big words.

I think i would be less specific than what you have above. I get what you mean about mental illness and wanting to make it clear that it isnt related to that... I think I would just stick with saying that you needed surgery and had to recover from it. That makes it clear that you arent discussing mental illness without giving too much detail.

Based on my experience (I am finishing up my MS and applying for PhD), MS is much much easier to get into. The main difference here is that you are paying to get a masters (school makes money) and you are being paid to get a PhD (school looses money). That makes masters much more forgiving.