bsharpe269

I would definitely not consider this debt personally! I am getting a masters with the hope of moving into a phd from there. For my 2 year masters, I am taking out 20k total. I think much more than this would make me nervous. Also consider what the MS is in. For example, with my bioinformatics masters I will be able to pay back the 20k within 5ish years if I don't get into a phd program. Will you make enough money with your masters to justify 70k in loans if you don't get in to a phd program? Also, what if you don't finish your thesis in time and take an extra semester? Would you feel comfortable with having 100k in debt? Sorry to bring up only negatives but I feel like the MS has the potential to leave you in a pretty horrible financial situation. It's probably not too lake to apply to local state schools masters programs. I would apply to a couple of those, especially if there are any decent ones near family so that you can live with them instead of paying living expenses. When applying to phd programs, the name on a MS degree seems to have less importance then the research you do and concepts you learn during the degree. Also, a one year masters probably won't ell much with phd programs because you won't be able to get to know faculty well enough for great LORs and won't have any grades to show yet (or 1 semester depending on the deadline).

I am a masters student in bioinformatics who is part of a lab. I can share how I found my current position. I tried to set up opportunities with labs before staring my first semester but didn't have any luck. Once I got to campus, I met with the professor who I was most interested in working with and asked of I could volunteer in his lab. I think that starting with pay would have been much harder to find since most professors prefer to put this money towards phd students. After a few months of working my butt off in the lab and getting getting fall grades in (straight As), my department offered to start giving me a "teaching assistant" stipend for the work. That pay will continue until the end of this semester. The professor has offered to pay me to stay and work for him over the summer, once the department money ends. In my department, only a few masters students are involved with labs at the level that phd students are. Most other masters students sort of slack off in the lab or do it only when they have time. From what I've seen, professors want to see that you are one of the few really serious students before offering you a paid position.

All of those schools are well regarded and I think that coming from any of them, you will be in a great place for postdocs/jobs. When you come from schools as good as all of those, publications and performance matter most. I better reseracher from UMN will get the job over an average research from UCSB any day. Go where you think you will do with the best work and work with the best advisors! I would say that ranking mattered if you were comparing Harvard to U of nowhere but all of the schools you mentioned are great.

The problem with switching areas is that you may not have the skills necesary to do research in your area if your phd is with a different focus. This is why it is SO important to apply to schools that have professors doing what you want to do. It sort of sounds like you didnt research well enough before hand or ended up with an unfortunate situation where all of the professors who you wanted to work with left the school or dont have funding. I think that the best thing that you can do at this point is it get involved with whichever lab can give you the skillset that you need to do your future research. Then when applying for postdocs you can get involved with something closer to your interests. Like everyone else said, You dont have to stay 100% in the same area for your entire career. The important thing at this time is that you are developing the skills you need to a researcher in your area.

Looking for a roomate is a great suggestion. If you are unable to find one then I would talk to friends/family. Maybe someone is willing to take the cats for a couple years so that you can have them back when you are done.

The name recognition at both schools is decent in my opinion. Definitely follow the funding.

ehh I wouldn't read into it. It is hard to know what she means but I wouldn't assume that its a bad sign.

I am absolutely shocked that people talk about humanies/social sciences like this. I hope to get a phd in biophysics and do research related to drug delevelopment. Theres tons of important important research going on in the sciences AND humanities and also tons of seemingly worthless research in both (though as someone pointed out earlier, worthless research often stumbles upon important stuff, making it also important). I get that engineering can be important. Sure, we want more technology and want to optimize traffic patterns and all the other stuff that engineers do. Is a student studying the history of our relationship with the middle east who can give advice on how to avoid confilict and prevent a war less important? Without that humanities student, your road plans would be useless. What about anthropology students who are helping us understand a culture in Africa. What if we learn new amazing ideas from that culture or learn of a plant over there that cures cancer based on that anthropologist's connection with the culture. I think that a cancer cure is just as/more important than whatever technology you are working on. People enjoy the technology you make but people equally enjoy theater, books, movies also. The TVs you design arent going to do much good without people in theater and film making the moves. ALL fields are important and should be funded.

The "Shound you get a phd" post got me wondering why people in various fields want to pursue a phd. I wonder if motivation is similar across the board or if it will be very different between fields. If you had to sum up in a couple sentances the main reason why you want a phd, what would it be? Also, what field are you in? I will start: I am working on a MS in bioinformatics and plan on getting a phd in biophysics. I want to a phd so that I can become a researcher with the hope of eventually producing research that can make a positive impact in the field of drug development, specifically related to developing protein based drugs like monoclonal antibodies. Also, I honestly just have a drive to do research. I love it and it is the only work that seems to fufil me. Anyone else want to share your motivation?

haha I understand this. I think I would be dead in my faimly if I went to michigan.

I won't be applying to any ivy schools because none of then have strong faculty in my field. Program ranking and faculty fit are important. The athletic conference that the school is in has zero importance.

Hmm I am in bioinformatics/biopysics and will be applying to 9 programs. I actual have very specific research interests too since I will be applying with a masters but there are that many programs in the country who are very strong in my specific subfield so I will be applying to all 9. I don't see any reason to limit myself to only a few when all of those schools have very strong departments in my specific interests and multiple PIs who are doing exactly what I want to do. Any of those 9 would give me perfect education for my future plans.

It sounds like you would much prefer to go to fancy school. Go there!

1) Are you the first in your family to pursue graduate education? Are you the first to pursue higher education in general? My dad is very smart but going to college in his family wasnt the norm so when he graduated, he went the military route. My parents had me at 20 and my sister a year later and my mom became a stay at home. My parents got divorced when I was in elementry school and a few years later my mom decided to go back to our local state school so that she could get a decent job and support us. She graduated with a degree in social work when I was in 9th grade. I found watching her struggles inspiring... I saw how difficult it is to juggle school, work, and kids. Since I didnt want those same difficulties, I never considered not going to college right after high school. My younger sister did not find the same inspiration in my moms struggles I guess because she went down the exact same route... married a military man at 18, had a baby at 21, and now at 22 she is trying to figure out how to juggle her baby, work, and online community college classes. Some people in my extended family have college degrees in things like teaching, no gradute degrees. 2) What struggles have you faced as a first-generation applicant? I am lucky compared to many people on here. Since my mom had gone to school recently, she was tons of help with things like fasfa, college aps, etc. The biggest struggle was probably money. Once my mom graduated, she had a hard time finding a job in her field. She ended up nannying and serving tables for all of my high school and college years. I had to figure out how to afford my college application fees from the money I made hosting in the evenings so I could only apply to 2 schools. Luckily, I got into both and attended the cheaper. I also worked throughout all of high school and college so that I could take out less loans. 3) What have you accomplished as a first-generation applicant? I think I have been fairly successful so far! I graduated high school with an IB diploma and got into a decent state school for college. I got a degree in applied math with an average gpa of 3.3 but did tons of reseach throughout all four years. As an undergrad, I did a presentation and published a paper. I also won a very competitive award for my research at graduation and did a REU at a top school. I am currently working on my masters and am again doing tons of research. My gpa is a 4.0 now since my work ethic has drastically increased. I plan to apply to phd programs in the fall! 4) What has helped you to reach your educational goals? My parent's support has been incredible. I actually took a year off between undergrad and masters and I thought my dad was going flip out. Ever since I mentioned the phd, he has been majorly pushing me towards it. They dont understand the whole reserach thing and my mom doesnt understand anything related to math/science at all but it doesnt matter, they want me to do it because they know that I really want it and that I can! They are awesome. My fiance is also great since we totally understand eachother. He is in international business and working on his mba. He as as passionate about his field as I am for for reserach. We both freak out together if one of us gets a low grade! His ability to relate to me this way and his encouragement makes a huge difference!

I also think you'll be fine with those scores

It is mentioned on here a lot but do not apply to schools based on rank and prestige. Apply based on which schools have the research that you would be interested in doing as a graduate student. Figuring this out takes a lot of work and will require that basically look through the faculty research at every university you are interested in. You sound like a great candidate but top 20 schools can be a lottery at times. It will depend on who has funding, needs students etc and you may be rejected even though you are a great candidate. If I were in your schoes, I would apply to around 10 schools and would apply to half in the top 20 ranking and half in the 20-50 range, assuming that you can find great research fits at universities in those ranges. Good luck!

I think that you are thinking too much into the # of masters thing. Plenty of people take a while to figure out their interests or are interested in a couple areas. The important thing is that you have figured it out by the time you apply and will be able to write a clear SOP on your interests and goals. Your masters GPA should make up for your ugpa. They want to see they you can handle the coursework of the program and strong masters gpas will show that.

Sure, if you can afford it then do it. If you already have a great gpa though ( I think i remember reading that you did) then you probably dont really need more courses, there are probably other parts of your application that need work instead. I would say that it is more beneficial to focus on those other parts of your application. If definitely wont hurt to take the classes though.

I agree with this even though everyone seems to be disagreeing. Obviously Harvard is better ranked then OSU/MSU/etc but those are all great schools so no one would think "oh OSU and not harvard means poor prep for grad school". I think everyone views all of those state schools as nearly as good/equally as good of prep for a top 20 grad school as the ivy leauge. When we are talking undergrad classes from good schools (like all of those above) then linear algebra from harvard vs linear algebra from OSU is the exact same class. I wouldnt worry about being judged. Whether you are at a no name school, large state school, or whatever, keep in mind that you admitted above many ivy league applciants who were regected.Your education and experience are just as good as everyone elses in the program. Honestly, I wouldnt be conscious of a difference at all. If an ivy league undergrad student wants to judge you for your school name then you probably dont really care to get to know this person well anyway!

I also recommmend magoosh for the V and Q sections. For the essays, I will just be reading tips online about patterns in the high scoring essays and also reading examples of high scoring essays to get an idea of what the scorers are looking for. Outside of that, I think that actually practicing writing the essays more than once of twice (to get a sense for time) would be a waste of time.

I am actually going to give opposite advice from above. I am also a female and I think it is good that you are being cautious. Not trying to completely freak out people here but while traveling in South America with two friends (one male, one female) last summer, we were mugged at knife point buy a group of 5 men. It is scary to think of the different ways that this situation could have gone if the male friend had not been there. If you want to go to Charleston or the beach then sure, go alone... though that doesnt sounds like any fun to me. If you want to travel to unfamiliar place though then try to fine a group of friends and I personally think that it is important to have at least one guy in the group. Luckily, one of my best friends is as big of a traveler as I am! I definitely wish I had more travel buddies though. My fiance is a banker and his schedule makes traveling with him difficult at times.

Most people applying to grad school will never have failed a course in their life. Many, have never earned a C in their life and some (the ones getting into top 10 schools) have mostly straight As. Failing only 2 courses is really really bad.

Exercising doesn't have to take much time. I try to do a 30 min jog, 3x a week. That's about the lowest I can go and still feel healthy and reasonably in shape. Go right before you would normally shower so that you don't even have to take time to do it again. For me, that means waking up a bit early. Also, many people at my school, both professors and students, go for runs on campus in the middle of the day when they start to feel burnt out. It can be great for recharging and often you are more productive after so you don't really even lose much time. Also, on those days that I really dont have the engery to get myself out the door for a run (like this morning... my dog was sad that i was leaving and looked pathetic, its raining, i feel super tired and have a headache... )instead of completely blowing off my workout, I do a 15 min youtube video. I chose pilates today but there are tons of options, both cardio adn body weight. I do make sure that I get out and get 30 min of cardio in regularly also but these are great fillers to keep you active as well. You can do them right when you wake up in PJs even!

Can you apply to that program in addition to a bunch of others that way he will write good letters? You can say you want to apply to lots of schools but that one is high up on your list too?

I would go to cornell personally. For one, you will graduate faster and begin working. Also, in industry the name of the school matters and regardless of program ranking, the name cornell carries much more weight to it IMO. Georgia Tech is an awesome school of course but I don't think that the name carries the power that Cornell's would in industry. Also, if it takes you 2 years to finish at GT then it will be quite a bit more expensive.