bsharpe269

I've been a mess. I am 99% sure that I know which school I want to go but this hasn't stopped me from seeking advice from every single person I can on what they think I should do. It's pointless though because when they say something in favor of a school Other than the one I want to go to, then I just argue with them. Sometimes I feel so happy that my dreams are coming true and other times, it hits me that I am leaving all of my friends and family (including my 2 year old niece). Sometimes I feel motivated to crank out the publications that I am super close to asap and other times I just stop caring. I'm a mess!

I would also appreciate thoughts on this. Would a school ranked 5th offer much better opportunities than one ranked 15th?

A couple of the schools I visited had students/professors contact me to answer questions. When I responded to the emails with questions, they went out of they way to send long, thoughtful responses. The additional info has been very helpful in making a decision. Another school has had no contact at all other than the official email from the secretary. I like it when the programs go out of their way to recruit me because I think it can be indicative of the attention that I might get as a grad student in the department.

I don't think these are good enough reason... I get that you are excited to get started at your new program and see some advantages to going early but these aren't huge reasons. Many students start in the fall and do very well. The tiny advantage that might come with starting early is not enough to offset the negatives that could result from ditching out of your current lab early. Keep in mind that academia is a small and political world and gaining a poor reputation could hurt you in the future.

Congrats! I'm 99+% sure I'll accept WashU's offer! What program will you be in? Does your program offer a revisit weekend at the end of the month?

I am a woman in science from a low income background. I do not want preference in admissions based on these factors at all. I want my application to be considered against a white wealthy male from a long line of academics and if admitted, I want it to be because my application is better than his. Giving me an advantage because I am female is no better than giving white males an advantage. In either case, you discriminate against a specific group based on factors that are out of their control. I find the concept of admitting less qualified students based on gender, ethnicity, etc insulting and discriminatory and I would never accept an offer if I thought these factors contributed to my acceptance. By not holding me to the same admission standards as males, you imply that I am not as capable as they are. You lower the bar for me and only perpetuate the gap between performance.

I got "off" feelings about schools that others seemed to love. It could just be that the environment at Yale doesn't click at all with him/her even though it clicks perfectly with you.

I have a similar spreadsheet. I am also considering how close the profs I might want to work with fit my interests vs being a stretch, how well my personality clicks with profs, do I see myself enjoying hanging out with current students? What about the other prospectives?

My goal was: Quant: 165+ Verbal: 160+ Writing: 4.5+ The GRE does not seem to be one of the top factors considered by schools. I ended up with very good GRE scores and they were not commented on at all at interviews. My LORs were commented on at almost every interview though... So study for the GRE but don't stress yourself out too bad. I used Magoosh to study which helped me a lot.

If the fit and location aren't good then I think I would decline the offer. I was accepted to a handful of schools that I would probably decline if they were my only offer.... not related to rank but related to fit or environment. Schools that seems like a great fit on paper can seem like not such great fits after visiting in person. Honestly after all of my visits, there is only 1 school that I am super, over the top excited about. The environment and research fit are perfect there. If I wasn't accepted to that school, especially for something like funding, then I think I would try again next year instead of settling.

In general, I've told them as I've run into them around campus. Though I emailed them, excitedly, at some of the bigger moments.... When I got my first interview and first offer for example. Now that all of the decisions have come in, I've been emailing/ meeting with them them for advice on where to go. I don't think there is a right or wrong way to handle it. If you're excited and want to tell them then do it. If you want to wait until you know more info then that's fine too.

Waiting a year is WAY better than working for this guy. I would have no desire to work for someone who acted like that.

Thanks for the opinion! I redid rankings yesterday in a more detailed way. The first time I did rankings, it was more of just a pro and con list and totaled the number of positives and negatives. When I redid the rankings and weighted the categories by their importance to me, WashU flew to the top of the list, way above any others. Now WashU wins in rankings and gut feeling... I'm super excited to go there! Turing down their offer and accepting another would leave me feeling pretty upset and I feel that if I accept WashU, Ill be grinning from ear to ear all day. I like your advice that there is no wrong decision at this level... there are many good options that will all result in great career opportunities!

Sigh... ok. I know I should. I'm just so excited. WashU!

I am jumping out my skin to accept my top choice... as in, I want to do it today! I am going out to visit again in a few weeks though and feel that it is more responsible to wait until I go out again to basically double check my decision. I already visited once and feel 100% certain but since it was one of my earlier visits, the back of my mind wonders if I remember it better than it is. Everyone around me knows that I want to go there, I have already told everyone at school that I will be accepting their offer. My PI confirmed that it was a good decision. I did an objective ranking system and no other school even came close. My gut says that this is the one. Accept today or wait until I visit again to double check my decision?

They are of course useful but I think that amazing LORs stating you are passionate about research and work independently are MUCH more important. I had some papers and no one commented on them. My LORs were commented on at every school.

yayy my last decision came in this morning! It feels great to be officially done with interviewing and applications!

Thanks so much for this advice! This is exactly what I needed/wanted to hear. I know where I want to go to school and I get along with the profs there so well. I have a ton of respect for them, both in research and otherwise. They all seem like genuinely kind people who love science and want their students to succeed. ALL of the profs I am interested in are taking students! They seem just as enthusiastic about recruiting me as I am about the possibility of going there... mainly becaucause it is absolutely a terrific fit. I think I needed to hear that I wasn't going to be making a bad career move by turning down the possibility of working with the famous professors. It sounds like it might be better to pursue opportunities in those labs as a post doc.

Haha I completely relate to this! I keep coming back to WUSTL as my top choice but my interest is mostly emotional... I loved the environment, clicked with professors and students... I want to go to this school really bad. I was excited when I received all of my offers but I was actually so happy that I cried when I got this one. I was way more excited when I got WashU's offer than when I got my first offer even... It is a great research fit but others are even better research fits. The top "famous" professors in my field who I have always dreamed of working with at are a different school (and I was also accepted to that school - so I have the option of working with these guys). I clicked with professors and students at that school too but I don't feel emotionally attached to it like I do WashU. I made a pro/con list and WashU came in 3rd. When this happened I found myself wanting to rearrange weightings so that they would come out on top. What do you guys think? Do I let instints or logic win? Do I go to the school that would give me the best job opportunities (I dream of tenure track...) or the one that I really want to go to, even if I cant articulate exactly why?

Let me know how they respond please! I think I'll start declining next week and am not looking forward to it.

Best: WashU Worst: Stony Brook. I've been accepted to their program and still can't get email responses to my questions.

You're not stealing someone's chances. This is how the process works and universities expect this. If you are certain that you will not go to a school then you should certainly decline the offer as soon as you can. If you need some time to think through your options then you should take it though. It is a very important decision that could have a large effect on your career.

I will most likely be going there too for the biophysics program! I still have a couple more interviews but am very heavily leaning towards there so far!

There are many different opinions on this... For what its worth, I have pretty bad ADHD which resulted in poor undergrad grades. I did not mention the ADHD in my SOP and actually didn't even mention the undergrad grades at all. Instead of writing about how my grades are not reflective of my abilities, I showed this through terrific GRE scores, LORs, and experience. I am in a different field but this method worked very well for me. I don't think mentioning these things will add much and I think it could potenitally raise worries about issues in the future. Instead, I would focus your SOP on why you love your subfield and your goals. Just my opinion... Good luck!

I asked for advice on PhD applicaitons from my PI over the summer before app season. In that conversation, I mentioned something like "Any advice on who to ask for letters? You and X are my obvious ones... Should I use Y or Z for the other." He said that one of the letters would be much better than the other because they are more known in the field so the advice was very helpful. I guess that is how I asked my PI but honestly, they know they will be writing a letter and would probably even be insulted if you dont ask. For Prof X who I am very close to, he was a very obvious LOR writer for me and he had previously offered. I think I brought him all of the info in September/October. He knew I would be asking though. For the final LOR writer (Prof Y), I never actually got a chance to ask him. After that conversation with my PI, he told prof Y that I would be asking and Prof Y approached me in the hall to tell me that he would be happy to. That was around September I think too. I gave Profs official lists of schools/deadlines in October and then sent out all of the emails to upload letters about 3 weeks before the first deadline.