bsharpe269

I've traveled all around the US. I'm from the east coast but have been on road trips out west and to the west coast and have been to most of the major cities expect San Francisco. I've also been to Hawaii. Outside the US I've traveled to Guatemala, Puerto Rico, Bahamas, Colombia, and Peru. I have a major travel bug but my mom doesn't at all so I never left the US until study abroad in college. I'm 24 now so I have been trying to slowly accumulate cool travel experiences! My favorite place was probably Guatemala and least favorite was definitely Colombia. I felt very very unsafe there and had a couple bad incidents.

Hi all, I am a masters student who will be applying for phd programs in the fall. As an undergrad, I did one undergrad research symposium at my school and have a seperate conference paper (this is not an abstract, its an actual multipage paper) but did not go to the conference (my PI did). Now as a MS student, I have done one school poster session so far. I hope to work towards publishing an actual paper this summer or fall (im starting to get close!) and my PI has also mentioned sending us to larger conferences this fall. I will also definitely do at least a couple more small school things. So how do I list all of this on my CV for phd applications? Can I put the school symposium stuff on there or does that look silly since it isnt a large conference? Also, would you put the conference paper in the presentation or papers section of the CV? Thanks for any advice!

Yeah I completely agree that sometimes it would be suggested by advisor and if so, then you should definitely take it. I am more refering to the situations like: 1) someone hasnt had organic chem but needs the knowedge. At my school, instead of taking the class, my PI would just advise us to save some time and read a textbook. 2) Someone wants to take a class that isnt completely relevent to research but would be interesting. In this case, I guess it would depend on how busy of a semester it is (and it would be different if it was done on your own time as a hoby like TakeruK mentions) but I think in general, this wouldnt be recommended at my school until after the first year or two. It seems like the way this is viewed might completely vary by department. If I needed electives and one in another department was a better fit then I would certainly take it as the elective but if I couldnt count it for one of my electives then I wouldnt take it just to learn. I think people would wonder why that extra free time wasnt going into research or reading journal articles, which would be condered a better source of knowedge than the class. Edit: OP, I wouldnt panic about this and I'm sure you can work out with your advisor what is best. I had to have this advice given to me as well because in undergrad the midset is basically, more classes = more knowedge so more classes = better. She might not care at all and you might be able to count them as electives for your own degree.

Taking extra class, just for the sake of taking them (if they wont replace a requirement) is frowned upon (at my school at least). This was exaplained to me by an older grad student my first semester when I wanted to take an extra class for fun/knowedge. Taking extra classes isnt really the "grad school" way of doing things, buying the text book and learning the material on your own is a more respected way to pick up extra knowedge. In gernal, extra classes means less time for research which comes off as not really knowing what grad school is about. This was advice given to me so I figured I'd pass it on. If you are trying to replace some of your requiremenst with classes in other departments then that would be completely different and would depend on the department's policies.

I often bring my computer in the bathroom to continue reading or analyzing data. Nothing breaks my focus!

I'll start, I'm applying for a mix of biophysics and computational/quantitative bio programs in the fall. My research interest is in computational approaches to studying protein dynamics and drug design. I have a list of 8 schools that I will definitely apply to and have a few more that id still like to go to but not as much as the top 8 so still deciding if I should apply to those. I took the GRE before my masters but will be retaking in June and have been studying since January. I also plan on taking the biochem GRE in September. I haven't asked for LORs but have some great relationships with professors and know who I will ask.

Hi everyone, It's about to be our turn to apply... The thought makes me nervous! For those applying in the fall, have you started asking for LORs, taken the GRE, finalized your list of school? What are your plans this preparation plans summer?

Congrats!!! As far as preparing goes, if you know who you'll be working with or what project you'll be on then I would start reading relevant publications. Other than that, you shouldn't need much preparation. If they didn't think you were well prepared already then you wouldn't have been chosen!

What would be your reason for sharing? Will you be missing important department events or something that you need an explanation for? If that is the case then I would be more generic and say that you have a medical appointment.

Maybe it would be worth asking advice from your future advisor too? idk I totally understand where you are coming from but wonder if you might be getting in over your head and end up with a REALLY stressful semester. Maybe finding a saturday morning job for 5 hours or something would be better for the first semester and then if you find that you have extra time you can take on the teaching for the spring semester? I've found that babysitting and tutoring can both be great since I can get homework done after kids go to sleep and you could tutor in the library and charge a nice price per hour. You could easily do 3-4 hours of that a week and make at least $100. Just some other ideas... good luck with whatever you decide!

Thanks for your input! I definitely will keep up the work. The amount I have studied has really varied week to week but I probably review vocab for an hour a week (15-20 per sitting) and then spend a whole afternoon every other week on practice problems. I will at least keep up this routine but will try to more like double it.

Hi guys, I took the GRE a few years ago, during undergrad (working on MS now) and scored decently, not awesome (157V, 161Q). I am applying for phd programs this fall and want to retake it and improve. I took ETS powerprep 1 practice test 4 months ago and scored 154V, 163Q. Since then I have memorized 200 common words and done around 300 of magoosh's verbal practice questions and around 200 quant questions. Today I took ETS powerprep 2 and scored 161V, 169Q. For those of you who experienced a decent sized jump in scores from before and after studying, did the scores say high on test day? I am taking the GRE in 6 weks and the goal I set for myself when I started studying was >160V, 165Q. I'm nervous the practice test might be too good to be true! Thanks!

I don't think its that bad of a thing to do but in line with what pears said, I think having a family member do it for you is a great way for you to come off a bit less selfish about it (not that it seems that selfish to begin with). You could have a parent of sibling send an email to family members, detailing the hard work you put into the application process and how excited they are for you but that you are nervous about affording the items on the wish list. I would just be careful not to include things like movies and stuff on it. I would limit it to backpack, printer, computer case, etc... Things that you truely do need for school.

I think jenste makes great points. Your POI doesnt sound like the sort of person who I would want to work for. If I were in your situation, I would probably start readings tons of publications from the other PIs at the school. If there are a couple that you think that you could really enjoy working with then I would contact them and their students and get some more information (if you dont think this could be viewed as you going behing your PIs back). I think you might have to decide if you would rather work with a different PI or wait a year adn reapply to schools. This would probalby just depend on whether you can find a couple people there who are doing work that you could enjoy adn that would give you enough experience in your area to get a strong post doc.

Honestly, practice for a few days and you'll be fine. I doubt they expect you to come in on day one as an absolute computer master. They probably just want to see that you know the basics of navigating around. I'm no expert but since starting my masters in bioinformatics, I do use unix commands daily so if you have any questions, feel free to ask.

Alright well this school has a lot of pros it seems. You say that the cons are that you don't really like/feel comfortable with yout POI and and that there were complaints on the quals and some courses. So I think that before we can give specific advice, you should expand on this a bit more. What are your hestiations with your PI? What specific things do you think could be an issue? Also, have you discussed with current grad students how common it is to transfer PIs and if you were to transfer, is there anyone else you would be interested in working with? As far as courses go, I think its pretty normal for students to complain about courses. In genernal, phd students want to spend there time on research, not course work. If you give more info on some of the specific issues though we might be able to help out!

I agree that it is a bad idea. If your advisor was open to it then id say go for it but his opinion of you is going to completely shape your future because it will affect the effort he puts into mentoring you and making sure you publish. Also, his recommendation is probably one of the most important aspects of future post docs. You dont really mention your class load but I am a masters student and cannot imagine taking on a job like that. I do what would probably be considered an average amount of research for a first year phd student (around 30 hours a week) + 3 classes. I am usually working from the time I wake up until I go to bed Mon-Fri and then from 10-5 on Sat-Sun. I imagine that your work load would be similar. If so, I dont know how you could possibly fit adjunt teaching into that schedule.

I use mendeley for citations and organizing papers and really love it. Also, using just numbers for citations like (1) after the text, instead of a long citation makes the text much easier to read. Maybe these things can help in future! I agree with others that at this point, you should just be honest with your professor.

Why not apply for a mix of phd and masters programs?

Well since I am into computational biophysics, I can tell you where not to apply better than where to apply. The following are definitely known for being computational: Stony Brook, Johns Hopkins, Maryland, Stanford, Chicago, Rice, UNC, GMU, VCU. I definitely know that Harvard, WUSTL, and Rutgers are big experimental schools. Rutgers seriously has an entire building and program for experimental proteomics. I would talk to past advisors about this as well. When I started talking to my PI about phd programs, he immediately gave me 8 schools that would be perfect fits with my interests.

Did you get funding at GT? How would the prices of the two compare?

I normally majorly look down on people accepting an offer and then rejecting it but I don't think this school is giving you another option...

I only had to do 3 days last semester and it actually made a big difference in the amount it wore me out. If you can limit the drive to 2-3 days a week than I don't think it'll be a big deal at all.

I commute 45-75 min each way depending on traffic. Most days it takes right around an hour each way. I don't go to school on days that I don't have class or meetings that I must go to. Usually that means I make the commute 4 days a week. Honestly, it does wear me out but I make it work and my living situation is great and worth it. I'm in a masters program. I honestly don't think I could handle it for more than the two years but for two years I can manage.

If you don't have luck with your final few than it may be worth contacting a few professors who are a great research fit to see if they are looking for some summer help. I have never done this but I have heard of others having luck with it. Maybe someone on here knows more and can give inforamtion. This would basically be an informal sort of REU but I think that it would look similar on a resume for grad school.