bsharpe269

I agree with fuzzy logician that you are majorly reading into everything. However, I admittedly do the same and I think a lot of academics do. That is what makes me good at my research... I analyze all of the little details of something until I fully understand it in my head. That being said, it sounds like your meeting today went well. If you make the changes that she wants from you (which it sounds like you are willing to make) then I think you guys can have a good working relationship going forward.

There is a pretty wide range in expectations from supervisors from what I have seen. For example, my advisor doesn't care when/where I work as long as I show up to the meeting with sufficient results. It sounds like you would work very well with this kind of supervisor. You seem motivated to do your work but not a fan of having to adhere to a rigid schedule. Some people work better with the rigid schedule. Your advisor clearly wants you to stick to the sort of schedule that you would have in a non academic job. For you to work well with this boss then you will have to be willing to stick to a traditional work schedule. She wants you to treat this position as you would any other job... that means getting into the lab on time and being there Mon-Fri. If you feel ill or can't come into work for some reason then you should contact her immediately like you would any other boss. I agree with random_grad that the easy solution to the tardiness problem is to get to the lab around 9:30. That seems like a reasonable time to start the work day and you should always beat your advisor in. I definitely understand why your boss would be upset about you skipping out on work without telling her. I think she actually took it rather well. In many jobs you would get fired without a second chance for skipping out on work without calling or at least emailing. From what you have written, those seem to be the two main issues. I agree with others that I don't think your advisor waited until the Friday after your vacation to mean. It sounds like she was upset that you skipped out on work and never said anything to her about it and after a few days, called you into her office to talk about it. That seems reasonable to me. Her expectations do seem pretty intense to me compared to advisors that I have worked with. They don't seem unreasonable though. I think you just need to view your work like you would a non academic if you want to be successful with her.

I think you need to take some time off school to figure out your interests. You should have done your research on the field of political science before getting into your current program. If you had been reading papers in the field and were familiar with the research of the PIs in your program then you would know what your school specialized in. Don't make the same mistake again. In my opinion, you shouldn't jump into another PhD program that you know so little about. Why are you in graduate school.. what are your goals? Have you extensively read current CS literature? Are there specific subfields that interest you enough to spend 5+ years on a problem in one? Also, do you have research experience in CS already? If you don't have a couple years worth of CS research experience and if you aren't familiar with the literature then I think you should take some time off school and gain experience and explore you interest before starting a new program. Alot of what you will have to learn for CS is highly theoretical too. You will learn math, algorithms, logic.

I think that most of the people on here make a really good point. MS programs aren't that hard to get into in general. If this area is that short on funding that you can't get a funded MS position despite your great stats and experience then I would run! This is the easiest step. It sounds like it isn't a good time to get into this area. Are you interested in any related areas with more funding? You could shoot for a PhD position in a similar/ better funded area and skip the MS completely. If you don't want to completely give up your main area of interest then you could try to work your it into your PhD through side projects or internships.

Is your goal an industry job? If so then bioinformatics skills are pretty in demand at the moment. If you put effort into your program, learn to program very well, and do an internship then I think you will be marketable with a degree from either school. My guess is that Hopkins is very expensive and I don't think its work the extra money.

So glad I found this! I was so excited for about a month after accepting my offer but the closer I get to the move, the sadder I get. I currently live near family, including my adorable 2 year old niece. I've seen her once a week at least since she was born and now I'm moving from the east coast to the he Midwest. It's not as far away as some of you guys are moving but it's a 12 hour drive. Part of the reason I chose my new program is because of the awesome department environment. I really click with my new potential advisors and with of the current students in the program. It is the absolute perfect program for me in every way. I am still sad to leave though! Thank goodness my dogs are coming with me. I couldn't handle leaving them too.

You need to stop thinking about switching to school A. Going to a great, equally ranked school (school B is not going to hurt your academic career. Being unable to make decisions for yourself, burning bridges in the field, etc will hurt your academic career though. You will be do more damage by switching than you will by sticking with the decision you made to go to school B. You don't need to work for an allstar PI during your PhD. In fact, I think its better you don't. It can be hard to get great training from someone who is already that famous since they probably have very busy schedules. I had the opportunity to go to a higher ranked school than the one I chose. I also had the opportunity to work for the top PI in the field. I declined both of the opportunities for the school I liked the best, would be happiest at, and would give me terrific training. I am very happy with my decision. I don't spend my days questioning myself. I spend my days reading literature and planning rotation project ideas. You (and only you) will decide if you do your best work at school B or not. You're not going to better work at A than B just the PI is more famous. If you want to do great work then go do great work at the school you chose. You're creating alot of stress for yourself for absolutely no reason. If you love the work of the profs at school A then you can do your postdoc with them. You didn't make a wrong decision. When choosing between 2 great schools, there is no wrong decision. You made a great decision and need to make the most of it.

The graduate advisor suggested that you only take 2 because at the PhD level, your focus shouldn't be on course work anymore. Taking too much won't make you look impressive, it will make you look like you don't understand the focus of grad school. I suggest you take the least amount of coursework you can while meeting your requirements so that you can impress your advisor with your research.

I would email the director of your program to clear up the requirements. I will probably take 2 courses is the fall (the first semester of my PhD program). I think that 2 courses is probably normal for the first semester of PhD. The director of the program can give you more info on what is normal for your program. Maybe you can comprise on taking biotech and endocrinology in the fall and review undergrad biochem on your own. Then in the spring you can take biochem and will feel more prepared for it. I'm surprised that this info isn't in the handbook. You should definitely get info from the director on the specific course requirements.

I am not in education so others can probably give better advice but I do have an undergrad degree in math so I am familiar with the area. I don't think the lack of a math degree needs to hold you back at all. You have experience in this area and can bring some unique perspectives. I am pursing a PhD in biophysics and have only taken 1 physics class ever (and I got a C in it). I have a strong quantitative background through and my interests and experience perfectly line up with my PhD program. When talking to schools, I never mentioned my lack of physics. I instead focused on the knowledge and experience I have. I would change the way you approach this with schools. Make sure you sell your background. If you bring it up to schools in a way that makes it seem like a flaw then it is more likely to be viewed by them as one. You may be able to gauge their opinion on it by saying that you are interested in taking X and Y math class during your PhD and asking if you could use that to fill elective requirements. Outside of that, I don't think I would mention the lack of math degree. I would instead focus on discussing your research interests and how perfectly they fit with the program.

From my experience, the school you get your MS from matters little in PhD admissions. The program I attended is ranked between 150 and 200 for biomed sciences (it might be higher for my specific discipline but its hard to find rankings on those). I was admitted to top programs for my PhD. Schools will care way more about what you did during your MS than where you went. I would look for any funded programs with PIs in your interest area and go to whichever you can get funding for. I do think that you have a shot at getting funding for middle tier schools but I would also apply to some lower ranked schools, just to make sure you can get a funded offer. If you are in a lab currently then it might be worth trying to stay at your current school for your MS. It might be easier to get a funded offer there since they are familiar with your research skills already. I ended up taking an unfunded offer at the school near my parents so that I could live them to cut down on expenses. It worked out for me and I got funding after my first semester but I think I was the only one in my cohort to get funding so I wouldn't recommend this plan in general.

I think she'll do well in the application process. Like you said, law school is much more of a numbers game than PhD programs. To succeed in law school you need to be able to learns tons of information quickly and be able to critically think about it. Your GPA and LSAT are probably the best indicators of your ability to do this. To succeed in grad school you need to be a great researcher. LORs from other researchers and your research experience are the best indicators of this. Many of us on here got into great schools with low GPAs. I had a 3.45 from a state school and am headed to WUSTL this fall. Like your SO, I had tons of research experience and great LORs. Her main barrier in admission will be the committee's fear that she can't keep a 3.0 in the graduate course work during her first year or get through the qualifying exam. If one of her LOR writers is willing to address the family issues she dealt with and how they will no longer affect her then I that would lessen the admissions committee's worry. To increase the odds of you guys ending up together, I agree that you should consider applying to WashU since they have a great law school. University of Washington and Cornell might worth considering for you guys as well. I also think its worth applying to NC schools since UNC and Duke both have great biomed sciences and Duke has a good law school. All of this of course depends on her ability to find advisors at these schools who are doing research she is interested in.

I'm in a completely different field but I think that you should be very certain that it's worth it before jumping into a ton of doubt. This isn't a now or never decision... If you aren't certain that you want to do the MA then I would keep doing what you're doing which you seem to enjoy and apply again in the future if you decide you want the MA. Maybe with the additional experience you'll be able to land a funded offer in a few years.

Have you taken a practice test to see where your scores stand now? They might help you figure out how much prep you need. I think taking 2 classes is going a bit overboard. I would take the cheaper class and if you still need extra prep then I would sign up for magoosh. Its $100 and improved my score quite a bit.

Thanks guys... this is exactly the sort of information I was looking for. I will be trying out alot of advice and looking at a lot of the software mentioned to see what fits best with my needs. I've never heard of many of the tools mentioned so getting this list of options is really useful as a starting point to figure out what I like.

Apply to whichever program is he best fit for you. Fit is the most important factor in admissions. For what it's worth, I got into JHU biophysics with much lower stats. Speaking to them at the interview weekend, they actually seem to take a very holistic approach to admissions, more so than other schools. I was told their grad school admissions values LORs more than anything else.

That post is definitely full of useful information that I will keep in mind. Most of the info in there falls under the general information that I mentioned in my first sentence. In addition to keeping in mind the general info, I am interested in whether anyone can offer some specifics... less along the lines of "you will feel like an imposter"and "personality fit is more important than research fit in an advisor" and more along the lines of "this particular calender software has been perfect for organizing my research and has helped me stay productive." The specifics will of course be highly variable for each person but I have started reading some books like Getting What You Came For and have been looking into various to do list apps and calendar apps. I haven't found any that I like yet. I am interested in forming habits when I start like reading at least 1 paper a day and writing small summaries of my work as I go along. Hearing details of what others found helpful would be great.

I've seen a lot of great advice on this forum already for incoming PhD students but most of it is fairly general: choose an advisor who is a good personality fit, balance school and life, publish a lot, network at conferences, etc. I will be keeping all of this advice in mind as I start my PhD this fall. I have seen much less on specific things that have positively impacted your productivity that incoming students can try as well. For example, specific books you wish you had read a couple years earlier, specific practices that have really helped you (for example, reading a paper every morning or starting work by X time). I am also interested in things like methods for tracking your time and tasks like todo list apps that help you stay organized. What would be the one specific thing that has really helped you that you would recommend to others? Thanks to any current PhD students who are willing to share!

Just saw what you added about finding it humiliating to stay home ... No one said you have to stay home! Go do your year off in a research lab at an ivy league if you'd like.

Sorry, I didn't mean that you didn't have a goal. I meant that if you get a masters then it should be an important step in achieving your goal. I didn't phrase that well though. I get where you are coming from... I think that most academics really enjoy learning and being in school. Loving learning and education like we do, it is easy to stay in school just for the sake of doing so. Keep in mind though that you will learn just as much (way more actually) in full time research. It is really fun and given your interests and your desire to go to grad school, You'll probably really enjoy it. You'll also get paid for full time work which is great! If you have a dream school where you would like do your PhD then you could apply for positions in research groups there and use the year off as a way to get to know the profs who will make admission decisions! Alternatively, you could do your gap year at a school other than you want go to for your PhD, which will enable you to really spread your network in the field. You would position yourself really well in the field with that sort of experience since you will have worked with professors at 3 different institutions. I wouldn't view the year off as a set back, where you will be sitting around bored, waiting to apply. I would do something really cool with it and put yourself in a position where you are moving up in your chosen field. If you decide that you really want to keep taking classes during your year off then you could always take a grad level psych class a semester as a non degree student. That could be a reasonable way to let you keep taking classes while also moving towards your career goal.

I agree. I wouldn't keep getting degrees without a very clear career goal in mind. You already have way more music coursework then you need for psych grad school so the masters will not improve your application much. On the other hand, you lack research so full time research will improve your application a ton. If you want a PhD in psych then I would think that you would be excited to do research full time anyway. You would get a preview of what the next 5+ years of your life will entail. Also, throughout the masters you probably wont have as much time to do psych research as you think. Your degree will be demanding without research in a different field. I also think that psych admissions committees would think that you didn't have a clear goal so you were just trying to stay in school.

If your uGPA is bad then getting As in courses would help. I don't think the prestige of the university you get them from matters much though so it probably isn't worth it to spend a ton of money to get the courses from Stanford. GPA/course work is just one small part of the application so your internships and research experience will be considered more seriously than a couple classes as a non degree student.

You definitely want more research experience before applying to a PhD programs. A PhD is a research degree so there is no way of knowing that you want to do a 5+ year research degree before even trying research. I think a gap year would be very useful, both in improving your qualifications and also in seeing how much you like research. If you get a PhD then you will spend 5 years of your life (or much more if you get I to academia) focused on research so you probably want a couple years of research experience on your CV before applying.

omg that is great.

I understand your desire to stay in academia. I feel similarly about academia and would prefer to spend 10+ years in grad school than leave to industry... I love it that much too! If it is your dream then I don't see why you shouldn't keep pushing for it. Since your advisor wrote a negative review and no one in your committee is standing up for you then that of course raises some eyebrows. Do you feel that you have been on track with your research progress? I would think having 1 middle author paper at this point would be on the very low end but I do realize that different subfields of bio differ a lot in frequency of publication so it may be completely normal for your area. Do you have some conference talks/posters as well on your CV so that you have some tangible results for your 4 years of work? Also of major importance is your relationship with profs in your department (including with those outside your committee). Are there people you have done side projects with or impressed in other ways who can write great LORs? I would try anything I could to stay in my current program if I were you. If funding is the issue then are TA positions available or can you take a year off and apply like crazy for outside funding and come back to your current program in a year? At 4 years in (I assume you have 1-2 years left?) then I think I would even settle for doing part time work with the university or in industry and then finishing your dissertation part time. This might still be faster and less confusing on your resume than leaving after 4 years, especially since you already have another masters. If you don't think there is any way to make your current program work and you do think you can get a couple good LORs for applying to your next program then I agree with fuzzylogician that you should take the masters and explain that your professor left and no one in your research area had funding. Good luck!