bsharpe269

I don't mean that I B or two is bad all and a 3.8 is obviously awesome! Honestly if you put effort into school and into relationships with professors then I'm sure that will be obvious to professors. I've definitely noticed a benefit in doing really well in classes but other people may have noticed a benefit from the extra sleep or research time. Most people on here have been successful and all with different approaches. I guess you just have to find the one that works best for you.

Also consider what types of classes you're taking and how well you know the field. Actually, you should probably get advice from the class ahead of you because it think it might just vary per program. For example, one of my bio classes first semester took me around 10-15 hours a week just on that one class and everyone else in class said that it took them a similar amount of time. My programming class first semester had us write 1 program a week but it was always pretty involved and would take about 5 hours a week and then I had a third, easier class. Also, I would rather take less classes and do very well in them than be average in more classes. Many people on here say that classes don't matter as much in grad school but I put a lot of effort into mine (as in want >97% in each class, not just want an A) and it has payed off. I have had multiple teachers approach my advisor to tell him how impressed they are with me, offered to write recommendation letters, nominate me for fellowships, and also ask me to be on advisory panels and stuff, just from teaching me in class. I'm not trying to say this stuff in a snobby way, but just in a "I really don't agree that you should slack in classes and shoot for a B+ average" sort of way. I'm also not suggesting that geodude did at all, just making the point that if less classes means you can put more effort in then I might be worth it in the long run to get your professors to be really impressed with you.

I actually like the GRE and think it can be useful information to grad schools. Here is why: I think that if everyone took the GRE without studying then the quant would give a rough measure your natural strength in working through logical problems and the verbal would give a rough measure of reading comprehension mixed with vocab knowedge. Some people do amazing at one or both of the sections without studying which is great for them and might mean that they can also get away with less studying in school than other people in similar areas. If you do not naturally do great at the GRE then it is completely in your power to study your butt off, memorize vocab and work through problems until you do well on it. In summary, in my opinion, to do well on the GRE you need some balance of 1) awesome natural intelligence or 2) great work ethic I think that these same skills are transferable to grad school. There are some very intelligent people who can learn things very fast and may have an easier time in school and there are others who will have to spend twice as long on the same problem but with hard work can be just as successful. I dont think grad schools care which category you fall into, as long as you are willing to put in the time that you you personally need to do well. I do think that GRE gives some rough measure that you fall into one of these categories.

People don't normally get a second masters just to do different research. If you are interested in gaining reserach expeirence in a different area then it would be much more efficient to work as a reserach tech in that area. I would say that yes, you definitely need to explain and it should probably be a pretty good reason since you could alternatively just get reserach experience while getting paid instead of paying to get it.

Having a first author paper in PLOS one is amazing for someone who hasn't even started grad school!

Will you be TAing? I like to stick to 10 hours (3 classes + seminar) as a MS student with no TA responsibilities even. I am a research assistant which usually ends up being at minimum a 20 hour a week commitment. I advice you stick with 3 classes for now so you have time for research as well and then add more in the spring if you find yourself too bored (which you won't!)

My PI is seriously amazing! I brought a condensed version of our coorespondance with all of the worst moments and he was very troubled and took this very seriously. He said that on the scale of benign annoying crush to full blown assult that this is much closer to the assult side that he is playing on the borderline of expulsion. He said that putting that aside, he is unsure of whether he will be able continue working with the harrasser since he does not want anyone with that sort of character in his lab and making other students nervous. That really made me feel great. Especially since the harrasser if by far, the smartest, most knowledgeable guy in the lab and I know he is a huge asset to my PI. Also, he is a PhD student while I am an MS student so part of me worried that if my PI had to choose, the choice would be obvious. He said that legally he must involve his supervisor which he thinks needs to be done anyway to make sure this situation is handled properly. Since my PI will be out of town for the next couple weeks, he asked that I work from home during that time and that I forward him any correspondance that I get from the guy. He even told me that he didn't sleep at all last night out of worry about this situation and that he has been wondering why I seemed more reserved than usual over the past few weeks. I feel so supported by people on here, my family, my department and especially my PI. I know that alot of women feel alone in these situations and I feel so lucky that I have had the exact opposite experience, with everyone in my life jumping my side to protect me.

Thanks so much for all of the support on here guys! It helps to get others perspective because when you are in the situation, it is really easy to feel like you are being too dramatic. After talking to my fiance and family some more about this, in addition to all of your comments, I decided to reach out to my PI. HR may have been a better choice but since I know him and trust him, I felt safest going to him. I emailed him, without details, just letting him know that I was dealing with a harressment issue in the lab and would like to set up a confidential meeting. He responded back very quickly that he was very glad that I contacted him and had no idea that anything was going on and that this would not be tolerated in the program and especially not in the lab. We have a meeting set up for tomorrow morning and he is encouraging me to loop in someone else in the deparment who knows alot about HR policies. Whew, I feel so much better, like a huge weight has been lifted off. Thanks so much and I will keep you guys updated!

Well, I know that I started a thread about being stalked by another lab member today so that would not send the signal that I love grad school but actually, aside from the stalker, it is really great! I enjoy research more than anything else but my classes are great too since I am studying someone slightly different than undergrad so I feel like I am learning a lot. Also, I am surrounded by people with similar interests, motivation, and intelligence which is a lot of fun! In the normal world, people have no desire to sit around and talk about science all day but in my little academic world, everyone does!

I get your point victorydance. It is a really blurry line. At what point is it too far? I don't think there is a right answer to that really. It has been around a month since the weekend that we talked alot. I have not initiated contact with him a single time since then (obviously!) and he sends me about 3 emails a week now. Usually one is something like "hey, can I get that book back that I let you use a long time ago", one is angry, and one is basically him saying that he cannot possibly move on until I at least just answer this one thing for him. For the first type, I ignore them or answer with something very short like "I'll bring it tomorrow." For the angry emails, I either send no response or respond by telling him to stop sending me nasty emails. For the third type, I guess my response depends on what it is. If he says that I have been playing him that he thinks its ridiculus that I havent even apologized then I'll say something like "Look, we talked for 3 days. Please stop emailing me about your feelings." Sometimes he isn't as creepy and just seems genuinely sad which makes me feel bad and I will give a short answer. I agree with everyone above that I probably just need to ignore ALL emails, no matter the content and see if he gets the hint after a few weeks (though its doubtful, since my ignoring them seems to make him more angry). The only real threat that he has given was over the weekend. His words: "if I hear you talk about this stuff with anyone in the biophysics department, he will be getting an earful as well as many other people." By "he", he was refering to my fiance. I am not that concerned about his threat... my fiance knows whats going on. He has not given any threats about my safety. In that same email he said "What do you think? 2-3 years before you fuck some other guy behind his back??? Don't ever talk to me again." I have not seen him since this email but it was angry enough that I honestly feel at least slightly worried to go to lab meeting tomorrow.

Thanks for the advice guys. At the beginning, I tried to be nice and would reply with something like "Your intensity is makng me uncomfortable. Please do not discuss your feelings with me." and have moved to "Stop sending me nasty emails." On the most recent email I replied with "Do not contact me again." I ignored one of his emails last week which resulted in a very nasty email 2 days later, saying that I lacked decency as a human being. I will not reply to his emails at all in the future and do have all emails saved. You guys do think that it is time to bring this to my advisor? Or in a few weeks if it doesn't stop? I keep saying to myself, if this is still happening next week then it is time to loop in someone in the department but then next week comes and I still feel dramatic for bringing in someone else. I am not a confrontational person. My advisor is a great guy and is academically very supportive. I am a MS student though and the guy in question is his best PhD student. I guess that does not matter at all in terms of this behavoir though. If he is doing this to me then he could do it to the next female student in the lab too. Edit: I am not sure if it matters or not but my adviser is head of the department and also dean of whole college of computing so he is a pretty high up person to go to. I am close to enough to him and 1 other professor in the department to discuss this with. Both are male but both are very supportive. There are not many females in the department.

Hey guys, I just mentioned in another forum that I was dealing with this which made me realize that this would be a great thing to post about and get some more input on. Sorry in advance that this will be a very long story. First of all, I'll start by saying that I am engaged. A man in my lab (20 years older than me) who I have been sort of friends/aquaintances with for a year told me that he was very interested in me about month ago. At first I was very flattered and enjoyed the attention. This comment came at an all time low in my relationship since my fiance and I were having huge problems with his family hating me and his dog attacked mine => $2k vet bill for us in addition to facing the fact that his dog who he is in love with can't live with us. These are of course things that we are working on together. Anyway the comment came right in the middle of all of this and frankly, I felt really emotionally distant from my fiance and am lonely anyway from working from home and being a shy person without many friends. I fell into the habit talking to this guy alot online throughout the day while working. It was fun to have someone to talk to and he is an intelligent guy with interesting stuff to say. I will admit that talking to the guy this much was inapproriate given my relationship status. I did tell him daily that despite talking this much, I had no plans of leaving my fiance and that we were just friends. Anyway, this only lasted for 3 days before stuff started getting weird... One evening, I was at my fiance's friend's house and told him. He got really jealous that I was with them and had to go take an hour long walk to cool off. He came back and told me that this was killing him and that I need to make a decision sooner than later because he can't deal with this. **I had made it clear multiple times that I was NOT leaving my fiance** I didn't respond until the next morning and when I did, I told him that we needed to stop talking, even as friends because he was getting the wrong idea. Then he started freaking out, telling me he was in love in me, that he was losing the most important thing in his entire life, etc. He said that he wanted to marry me and would make a great father and wanted to spend him entire life making me happy. The next day emails and in person comments starting getting creepier... For example, I received a multi page long email from him about how much he loves me and hopes we will one day work out. He said that he had experienced love at first site with me, that I was the most beautiful person he had ever seen and even signed the email with "I will love you forever." I hardly know this guy!? He also sat outside the lab for hours trying to wait for me, hoping to get a ride home even though he lives in walking distance from the lab. My responses have been nice but very assertive that he needs to stop contacting me. Now, a few weeks later, he still emails me a few times a week, either about how he loves me and needs an apology for talking to him for a few days AS FRIENDS and leading him on, or angry emails like "Stay the fuck away from me in the lab - no work, not friends. You are an ugly person and I have zero respect for you as a human. The percise definition of a careless girl." (direct quote from an email). I am at a loss for what to do. I admitted to my fiance that we talked alot (too much) online for a weekend and have been showing him all of the recent emails. How long do I let these emails go on before getting someone else involved? Is there a certain point that the police should get involved and a restraining order is needed. I am not sure what point that is compared to where we are now. I don't want to create unnecesary drama in my lab but I am not confident that this guy won't freak out and hurt me or my fiance either... He has some sort of very obsessive love for me that really creeps me out. Thoughts?

I want to point out that I called the problems "deal with it problems", not because I was trying to be nasty and saying suck it up, but because they are things that I have dealt with in my own life (some on multiple occasions) and these types of problems will continue to occur your entire life. There will almost always be people who don't get along with around and it is really likely that you could have another awkward situation with an ex. Hell, at the moment I am dealing with a guy in my own lab who is stalkerish and is seriously sending me multiple harressing emails a week. I will not let him force me out of a lab I love though. I want to be in control of my future and happiness and will not let someone else control it. These problems will keep coming though! No matter where you are you will run into these things and I think that it really important to learn how to deal with them instead of throwing away a great situation. In my opinion, you would be throwing away something really really great due to an issue that you should learn to deal with. Why not go to the counsling center and get some advice for dealing with these types of issues? Getting someone else invovled might help you figure out coping mechanisms that can benefit you for the rest of your life. Good luck with this situation. I bet that most people in this forum have dealt with something similar at some point. Everyone recognizes how bad these situations suck and how hard they can be emotionally but if you push through then I think that you will come out stronger on the other side AND will have a phd in a couple years!

It is hard to give advice without knowing what your problem is. There may be options other than leaving the program that should be considered. I want to point out that finding a school that you really love with an advisor that you work well with is very hard to do and if you do want to transfer then you should realize that you may not end up in a situation that you like as much. In any work situation, it is ilkely that you will run into personal problems and you can't necesarily leave every time you run into one. Again, without knowing your situation its impossible to tell whether yours falls under the 'normal personal problem that you need to learn how to deal with' or '1 time only extreme situation'. Things like dealing with an ex in the department, being mugged and feeling unsafe in the building now, being the social outcast of your cohort all fall under the 'learn how to deal with it' category in my opinion. I agree that you should talk to your advisor about this since that you guys seems get along well. Even if the issue is completely unrelated to the department or professors, they may be able to suggest things that can help. They can possibly move your office to a location you prefer or suggest alternate lab hours for you that allow you to avoid someone who makes you uncomfortable. It may also help them understand why you are leaving which can make the process more uncomfortable and result in better LORs since they understand your situation.

It is pretty funny that everyone who is currently applying (like me) is saying yes to this and everyone who has already gone through process is giving a big no. It makes me excited and curious to visit schools and see if my top choices change alot like everyone keeps suggesting they might.

You guys make a good point that they really are both parts of the same thing. I guess one big difference I see is that doing research tends to be one or two big projects that can drag on a bit but when I read papers in my subfield, I feel like there is a lot more variation in topic. Roll Right, you are probably right that the computational work might not be exactly what I want to do. I am definitely more interested in theory than the computational stuff but typically, the theory isnt worth as much if it can't be implemented into something useful. I think that it is pretty common in my field for professors and higher level grad students to focus on theory and improving models and people like me (entry grad students) do more implementation and analysis of data related to the models. This makes me think that I am on the right track to do what I love but I think I might have to endure some of the repetitive stuff to get there.

I have a big dry erase calender in my kitchen that I use for organizing things between my and my fiance's schedules. For dates far in the future, like a fellowship application or something, I put them on my computer calander. Other than that, I dont really use planners.

I definitely wouldn't try to view the letters right now. Why are you so anxious to see them? Do you not trust your LOR writers to say positive things? If you are really curious in the future then you can ask to see your academic file, including the letters. I think that asking to see these before you even begin the program will be an aboslutely horrible first impression.

I was thinking this morning about how I would much rather spend all day reading papers than actually doing my own research. I dont dislike my research at all. I actually find the theory behind it really interesting but since my work is computational, alot of times I spend an entire day trying to find bugs in my code or just run stuff on the cluster. I imagine that expermental work can be equally tedious, in its own way. I completely realize that these sorts of issues are just normal parts of research and I still perfer to do research over any other job out there. I actually hear alot of people complain about having to read papers and these people seem to prefer doing the hands own work for their own research. I wonder if this could just be a difference in learning styles? For example, I learn best by sitting down with a book and staring at it until everything clicks. Others may be more hands on learners and prefer to do experiments rather than read about them. Does anyone have any thoughts on this? What do you prefer? Since professors assign most work out to grad students and spend days reading and thinking about research (and grants and teaching), I would like to think that I will love being a professor!

If you are seriously interested in these areas then you should be reading papers daily to learn more and focus your interests. Lacking experience in a particular area is not a big deal if you are actively learning about the area on your own by reading papers.

I hate to give the "it depends" answer but I think it's true here. For example, if you are applying to professionally oriented programs then I doubt they care. They will be more interested in internships and other experience. For research oriented programs, they probably care more but not as much as phd programs. This also really depends on your other stats. If you have >3.5 GPA and >320 GRE score then the research may not be as necessary as someone applying with a 3.0 and average GRE scores. It also depends on how highly of a ranked school you want to go to... Harvard might care more than your state school.

In the US, advisor determines your career way more than rank of the school so I would try to get the "top 10" mindset out of your head and instead focus on finding the schools with the well known researchers in your field. For my sub field for example, there is only 1 "top 10" school with strong researchers and schools ranked in the 20-50 range have many more great researchers and will be much more beneficial for my career. That being said, I do think that you have a shot at top 50 US schools. It looks like it will be a tough decision for you but if you think that you might always wonder what could have happened if you had tried for top schools then maybe it is worth trying!

I just finished the 1st year of my masters so there are probably others on here who know much more and can answer this better. From my (limited) experience, I dont think that you should ask them to supervise your idea. For one thing, since they have a phd and you are just starting your masters, honestly, any ideas they have are likely better. If you are interested in a related area to theirs then you could start on their work and then ask for help developing your idea. Also, what if your idea isnt as great as you think? Since you don't know the field as well as they do, I think you risk saying something sort of dumb and coming off like you think you have this amazing idea. I'm not trying to be mean to you specifically! I just think that at the masters level, we are only just learning about the field. Another important point to consider is that If you want them to supervise your specific project then you decrease the chance that they can use their grant money to pay you. For example, I would love to work on a different protein then the one I current work with but my PI has lots of grant money for this protein and it is totally worth it to work on what he wants since he can pay me well in exchange! The asnwer to your question probably varies by professor. I recommend playing it safe and just talking about their research and then if your projects fits in nicely, you could add a line like "I really liked our paper on blah blah. Do you think similar results would hold for specific blah that youre interested in." You might be able to guage their interest in your question in that method. I think that it would be safer to go with that route and then once you get to know their mentor style, you could ask more specific questions about your idea. I hope that helps!

I did the same thing but even worse, the first time I took the GRE. Nervousness can majorly influence your scores so just accept that this is actually very very common and you will retake it and do much better. I have taken the GRE 3 times now, twice a few years ago, before my masters and then again a month ago since I will be applying to Phd programs this fall. Here are my 3 scores: Take 1: 150V, 151Q (a few years ago) Take 2: 157V, 161Q (1 month after take 1 and there was little studying between the two) Take 3: 162Q, 168Q (recently, after studying with Magoosh) My recent score is obviously much better than my others but look at the difference between Take 1 and Take 2! I only studied maybe 3 hours total between the two tests. The difference in scores was entirely due to nervousness the first time. Instead of freaking out, just realize that this score does not reflect your true ability and retake. You need to figure out how to get yourself to relax during the test. You need to realize that you can take this test up to 5 times this year if you need to to get the score you want so there is no reason to pressure yourself next time. You can even tell yourself that you probably will not get the score you want next time so just relax and get used to the testing environment and plan on taking it again the next month. Telling myself that and actually planning on taking it again as I was walking into the room took all of the pressure off. I jsut treated it like a practice "real" test. Some other ideas that I used to relax: Do not study the night before or morning of the test. You cant cram for the GRE so just watch a movie, drink some wine etc and relax. Schedule the GRE for whatever time of day you are used to studying or working so that it can feel like just another normal day. Keep a fairly normal morning routine. Definitely take the test next time at the same testing center that you did last time. You will go in knowing what to expect already which will take you way more confident. If you have a comfort food or favorite soda or coffee, etc then have one in your car before you go into the test. Arrive early enough that you can listen to music and drink it for 10 mins or so before going in. Lastly, I definitely recommend bringing an engery drink and candy or whatever you like to energize yourself half way through. It will give you the edge you need to come back from break ready to go again. As you can see by my large score increase, these methods worked very well for me! Good luck!

I would at Rice. The PIs there are absolutely amazing!