bsharpe269

Thanks for the info guys! Is the area really THAT unsafe? I would be moving there with my husband and we would possibly we looking to start a family at some point. We would be willing to commute up to 30 min or so to live in a nice place.

I am a masters student, applying for phd admission for next fall. I havent been through the whole phd process yet but here is my opinion: I think it is absolutely fine for you to bring him and have him stay with you. Remember that these schools are trying to convince you to come as much as you are trying to get accepted. If he will be moving to the new location with you then he also needs to checkout the area. I will bring my husband to some interviews with me next year.

I want to be a research scientist too... that why it is important that I get the perfect training for my field, which would come from only around 15 people.

Is anyone from the northeast familiar with this school? I had never heard of it but there is an professor there doing some awesome research in my area. Id like to get some more info on the school's reputation. The other schools I am interest in include places like Umaryland, rutgers, rice, stanford, UCSF, etc. I would be looking at the BME program or biophysics... my research area is pretty interdisciplinary so I could apply to either department.

Taking the math subject test could be a great way to show that you havent forgetten your math! Since you have been out of school for a while, I think that schools would understand if you have to get one of letters from a work advisor... preferably someone who can comment on both drive and inteligence. I dont think its work taking another class just for a LOR.

Can someone please explain how I should be expected to contact 2-3 POIs at each school I want to apply to?? There are about 10-15 professors who study exactly what I want to study.... I'm pretty positive similar numbers would be true of any focused research interest. I will contact those professors and make sure they have funding before I apply to their programs. If they dont, then I wont apply. I dont get at all how emailing 3 professors at the same school would be beneficial. If anything, it shows that all you care about is getting into the school, not researching your passion.

I took the GRE 2-3 years ago (before my master's program) and scored 157V, 161Q, 4.5. I took a practice test on ETS last week and scored 154V, 163Q. This is not suprising since im in a bioinformatics masters so I am doing more of that sort of thinking and less writing over the past year. I would like to retake the GRE this summer and am aiming for scores around 160V, 165Q. So far, I have signed up for kaplan's GRE question of the day and have been using http://gre.tyrannosaurusprep.com/Vocabulary/Quiz-Games to learn GRE words. Any one else have a specific site or study method that worked particularly well? Since I am working on my masters and studying for a subject test, I dont have tons of time to devote but my current plan is to dedicate 20mins (10min/section) every morning before class and then take a practice test once a month. Input on this plan and further suggestions are appreciated. I think my older score is good enough that if I end up having to submit that, it will be fairy neutral to my application. Of course I would like to raise it so it can potentially help my application! Goal schools are places like Umaryland, rutgers, UCSF, etc.

It sounds like a great sign to me! Good luck!

No problem, definitely ask other opinions but thats just mine! If you are worried then you could always do 1 or 2 programming/stat classes to prove you can get As. I think most bioinformatics programs look for either a strong bio or a strong programming background though and then some evidence of interest in the other, which can come out in research, classes, GRE Q, SOP etc.

Thanks for the input... so the reason I mention the postdoc quesiton is because it is really common for someone to do a phd with one and postdoc with another. By looking at the current/past students on their website it actually seems that this is more of the norm for them than unusual. I just dont want to mess up my postdoc chances by turning them down for undergrad. Some of these guys are the BIG names in my subfield.

I am currently doing a masters in bioinformatics and am really enjoying it... I plan to apply to biophysics phd programs. I dont think that an online masters will help you for a phd program really... research is what gets you into a phd program and it will be hard to find that in an online program. You dont need a strong background in computer science or math to do a masters (or probably a phd) since you can take those programming classes as part of the mastesr degree. I think that showing the potential to do well in those classes will be the importatnt thing (so a strong GRE Q score could be really helpful). Showing potential for the programming and math + some research experience should get you into a phd program in my opinion.

Wow, this is a great method. I should try setting aside an hour a day or so to focus on an article or two. I generally go a few days without reading anything and then curiosity takes over and I pretty much binge on articles for a day. With this method, I probably do a detailed skim on around 10-15 a week but it would definitely be better time wise to distribute it out more!

I dont think that grad schools really care about GRE scores. If they are really low (think 150s on each section) then it will be a red flag, otherwise they are much more concerned with your knowedge on your research field and research experience.

Alot of posts I see imply that the writer isnt that familiar with articles/professors in their field which i feel is probably equally if not more imporatant than class work. To see whats normal, Im curious how many journal articles would you say you average a day/week/month? Also, how do you choose which artcles to read.. do you follow specific journals, professrs etc. thanks!

I doubt that when you read research articles in your field you understand 100% of what is discuessed? Generally when I go to speak to my professors, i dont do it for class questions. I can usually find that information from the book. I generally go because I read an interesting article and want the opinion of a professor or I have trouble understanding one so I go for clarification. I also doubt you understand all of the research that your professors are publishing. There should at least be a few professors at the school whose research interests you and you have been following (if not atively helping with). Do you not ever have questions about their personal publications? I am generally a shy person too but without help from professors, I dont think I would understand all of the major articles that are being published in my field nearly as well as I do with their help.

I think getting this question during an interview would be great. It gives you a chance to highlight anything about yourself that you think the committee should know when making a decision. So if you are passionate about research or a certain subject area then its a great chance to talk about your passions and goals. Any qualitites you have that can benefit the university can also be mentioned. I would focus less on what they want to hear and more on what you want to share. I think that your best fit school will be looking for the things that you would want to share here so it could be a great chance to filter out schools that you dont match well too.

Thanks for the opinions on bolding. Does any have any opinions on the second question? If I turn down a professor for phd then does it hurt my chance of doing a postdoc with him in the future?

My opinion here: shit happens and people make mistakes. If a school really likes your application and thinks you can offer the school a lot then they will overlook a few errors. Schools are trying to recruit you ask much as you are them. Chill out and spend your time reading publications to be knowledgable for interviews. That knowledge is going to carry for more weight than little mistakes that everyone makes.

I will apply next year. Here is my opinion: I will be contacting professors this summer. I know what type of project I want to do for my phd and I know what professors are well known in that line of work. The reason I want to contact them though is to make sure they will be taking students, they will be continuing the projects that interest me most in their publications, and that have the lab environment that I am looking for. I want to have a phone call with the professors to gauge whether they have the type of mentor style that I will excel with. Based on this information, I will narrow down my lists of schools that are a perfect fit (There are about 20 professors who I am interested in talking to). I think that contacting professors is very important, more for the student's info than anything admission related. You basically interview the professor before putting time into applying. How else do you know if the lab will be a good fit or not? At this point though, I think that emailing professors will be a bit pointless. You already spent the time/money applying so learning whether they are taking students now and have a good lab fit wont help you. You can gather this information just as easily after being admitted or at the interviews.

Your stats look great to me then! It definitely wouldnt be negative to get another MA but I think that you are qualified to get into a PhD program now, without the additional MA. In general, masters degrees are expensive while PhDs are funded.

Thanks for the informative response. It makes sense that each grad program has a mentorship philosophy. Just curious, how did you get that info on those programs and is that true across all departments or only in anthropology? I do not know too many people working on phds right now to get this sort of information but I am definitely interested in working with professors who do things like weekly group meetings and are very available to students. I do like some independence but I like them to be available for questions.

I would do the 2 professors + the volunteer coordinator

I am confused by the schools that advise you not to contact professors and professors who dont respond. I will be applying to departments because I want to work with someone specific who works there, not because of the department itself. If I am not able to speak to the professors to make sure that our personalities match up, that the lab is taking students, and that their future projects are in line with what I want to do then why would I apply to the program? Also, I wouldnt want to dedicicate 5+ years working with someone who cant take the time to answer some questions for me about their research. That gives me a very negative view of how they treat their students. I mean my contact emails arent generalized spam, they will detail my experience and how that experience is completely relevent to their lab. Any advice/opinions on this? DId you guys apply to programs if your POI didnt respond?

I posted a similar question in applicaitons but am not getting much feedback so I am hoping to get more here. Here is my situation. 3 of the professors who I would be interested in working with for Phd (I have a very specific research interest) are conected. Ill call them Professors X, Y, and Z and they work at universities X, Y, and Z respectively. Professors X and Y have sort of a joint research group, but each work at different universities. They even call their lab X/Y lab. Professor Y also calloborates, it seems, with Professor Z and a 3rd university. They publish together frequently and often grad students from one do their postdoc with the other. Professors X and Y and both at the top of the field while professor Z is a bit newer. If I get into all 3 universities though then I would go to Z because of location and lab size(I perfer a smaller group). Can I contact all 3 professors and apply to all 3 universities? They are my 3 top choices. How would it look though if I get into all 3 labs and then I choose Z. I wouldnt want to jeporize my change of doing a post doc with X and Y since they are the top of the field. Any advice for this weird situation?

It is hard to judge the scores for your grades because in our system both of those percents would be failing and would result in no chance of admission. SInce you say that they are decent grades though, I assume the scaling is way different. Assuming that your MA grades are good then I think you should be in good shape regardless of your undergraduate. I cant help you with which schools to apply because that will entirely be decided by you looking at the strength of every school you are interested for what exactly you want to do research in. I think that you should go ahead and apply to programs rather than doing another MA though.