bsharpe269

I think that the big thing to remember is that everyone has different teaching styles and being friends with your students is not necesary or recommended to be a successful teacher. Your job is not to get these students to want to hangout with you, your job is to teach them. They dont need to feel like youre a cool person to hang with, they need to be learning the material they need for med school. I would have done the same thing in taking off points. If an assignment is due on a certain date and turning it in late only results in 10 point reduction, then I think you are being easy going if anything. Many teachers would have given a 0 on the assignment. As far as the emails go, I think that it would be nice if you made more effort to repond by the end of the day. I totally get that you are busy but you should still make time to help the students. Other than that, it sounds to me that you are doing fine adn this student is mad that you reduced his grade. He is being incredibly rude and whether he likes you or not, you are his superior in this class and he has no right to critize your teaching methods. If it were me, I would not provide him with exaplantions, I would ignore an email that is that direspectful.

I am an INTJ and in a STEM field. I was always in gifted classes, as I assume everyone on this forum was!

If you get a funded offer and you like the school then I would go. Getting into programs of course has some relation to how good your application is but also is tied to what particualy universities are looking for. What I mean is that it is completely possible for you to get straight acceptances this season and next season get all rejections just because of department fit. You may end up with a great acceptance next year or may end up much worse off than if you had accepted an offer this season. Were the schools you applied for very low ranking/average or what? Your GPA is very good and GRE is slightly lower or near the average applicant I would say. It is probably the rest of your application (experience, research, interests etc) that would make or break your applications.

I have asked this question before, worded differently, but didn't get many responses. I am trying to figure out whether being accepted to a grad school with an awesome POI and rejecting it could have negative consequence on postdoc opportunities. My interests are pretty narrow and I know the top people working I my field and they are the people who I want to consider working with in grad school... But they are also the people that I will very possibly want to do a postdoc with. How would you handle this? Many of thrseprofessors collaborate so I dont think they'll necessarily forget me during grad school. It's likely I'd be working with them indirectly. I apply next year so I am trying to decide how to proceed.

Definitely B. The reputation of the professor means everything.

I think you should answer honestly. I think that faculty interests are a great reason to choose a program. I apply next season and have been doing the same as you... choosing the faculty I want to work with and then applying to those schools.

Hey guys... I didnt know that gifts to LOR writers were normal? I never thought about it but my instict tells me that it is a bit over the top? I would like some opinions on this. Also, do you give gifts for things like fellowship/schoalrship recommendation letters? I dont want to be over the top suck up. Maybe a hand written thank you card would be sweet but not quite as much? what do you think?

If it were me then I would go with business casual, no jeans, tennis shoes etc. My go to for situations like this are comfty, casual skirts with a plain top and flats or booties. You can bring a nicer scarf that can dress it up if need be. Those sorts of outfits can fit in with informal or slightly business like situations so you never feel out of place.

Since you want to go the industry route, another option would be to go with a masters program since you can probably get a great industry job with the masters degree. You can get involved with research there, see how much you like it see whether you'd be interested in doing it full time for a few years. If you decide you enjoy it and want to do a phd then you'd have lots of research experience to apply with.

Yes probably a bit. I don't think your gpa is low enough to raise red flags anyway. I'll be in the opposite situation when I apply for phd programs. I'm getting my masters at a pretty unknown school but with straight As. I'm hoping the grades make up for the fact that they may not recognize the school name.

I've always had better luck in interviews when I wear my glasses! If they perceive you as smarter then they are more likely to want you! I have long hair and like wearing it down but I like clipping back enough that it isn't in my way or falling over my face.

Your gpa is right where my undergrad gpa was. It is low but not super low. I think anything above a 3.0 can be made up for by research and SOP . I personally think your scores are right where they should be so I think that focusing energy on getting good grades this semester or getting further in your research would be more helpful. Research, SOP, and LORs get you into a program. Grades and GPA are just a cut off usually. Your numbers should definitely put you above any cut off.

I do completely agree with you here. I am not trying to insult anyone who has chosen to get a phd for a different reason but id be interested in hearing how you know you want a phd. I joined a research group freshman year of college and fell in love. I felt butterflys in my stomach on the way to my lab and meetings every week. I have changed and focused in my research efforts since then to an even better fit but reserch has long been my passion. This is how I know I want to get a phd. I dont understand how people who havent done research know that they want to do it forever. I also dont get the whole "only top X schools are good enough for me" mindset. If you love research then that really shouldnt matter. Also, I doubt that all of the top professors in your subfield are working at top 20 schools. Many of the top ones in my field are at schools ranked around 30-50. They are who I dream of working with.

Well if your goal is to study X then you probably wont reach it by studying Y in grad school, prestige or not!

Good luck! Reading forums like this have been really helpful to me in realizing how picky I need to be about the type of PI I do my phd with. I think that when I go to my interviews I am going to be more focused on finding out these sorts of details than on getting accepted to the school. For those of you struggling with your advisors, is switching an option at this point? Also, did you notice any indication that they would be like that during interviews or conversations before you started? Id like to make sure I get this sort of info before hand if possible.

Totally agree here. Asking questions is expected. If you're ready to do stuff 100% on your own then you should be a professor. Also, having a professor that discourages help within the group sounds horrible to me! I'm a masters student and regularly go to my group for help since I'm the youngest, least experienced at the moment. I have been able to learn so much through a mix of their help and my own reading. I contribute original thoughts, present the ideas to my PI, and then he builds on that and we create an idea. That's grad school. Post docs should be even more independent and then professors mostly on their own but of course still get input from others.

I took a year and half off before starting my masters and it has made a HUGE difference in my maturity and work ethic. Workign a 40 hour week completely changed my perspective and my dedication to school. I am applying to phd programs and think that the break really benefitted me.

I think the problem is that the knowledge that you are gaining now is probably important for graduate school so you may want to really focus in to get ready. You should be reading extra papers in your field right now so that you can get working right away and not waste time catching up knowedlge wise. I think that in general, this is why time off is recommended. If you are feeling burnt our already than are you up for 6 more years?

I recommend looking over the subjects that are on the test. I think that with proper studying that you may even be ready without those 2 courses, depending on what was covered in your first semester of each course. I plan on taking it with only 1 semester of biochem and 1 semester of cell bio. Both courses went into quite a bit of detail though. If you know the material already, then I say get it over with while its fresh in your mind.

Biochem

I plan on taking the subject gre. If you study properly then it should only benefit your application!

I think you did the right thing by asking your advisor and would consider her opinion highly. My personal opinion is that schools could have an issue with this since you would be dropping some of the things that may have led to their consideration of you to begin with. Do you have an advisor at your phd program who you could reach out to for advice? They might be helpful.

Im using magoosh right now because I plan to retake the GRE before phd applications. I absolutely love it. There are videos that give tips, tons of practice questions, and there are practice tests. For each practice question (math or verbal) there is a video explanation that walks you through the problem if you need help. If you have any questions about any of the info then you can send an email from the site. I have not yet had to do this but I read reviews before buying it and people all said that they got responses within 24 hours and usually within a few hours. I got mine when it was onsale for $100 (I think it is still on sale for a few more days). I personally think it has totally been worth the money. Other people may have other programs that they recommend more. I havent tried others so I can only speak for this one.

I dont think GRE scores can compensate for GPA since its just one test but I think those scores will be on the same level as the other competetive applicants at good schools. Congrats on the good scores!

Do you have time to retake it still? You have an awesome application. I think that GRE score could possibily keep you out of otherwise successful applications. I am not suggesting that it defintely will, just that it possibility could. Also, retaking it can make a HUGE difference. I took it twice before my masters. The first time I was so nervous that I got straight 50% in everything (which makes no sense since I am a huge math person who should have blown that part away). I retook and was more relaxed about it and scored in 75-95% in everything. The tests were a month a part so it was purely a difference in stress level.