pterosaur

I took a single practice test (last fall, I think?) and got a 164 Q / 166 V. I didn't do any prep, though, and I really have no idea how accurately this reflects how I'll do in an actual test setting.

I procrastinated on signing up for the GRE, and now I'm stuck with limited options and not sure what the best course of action is. I could take it 9/27, but I have a ton of stuff due right beforehand and wouldn't have any time to prep. I could wait and take it 11/1, but I'm concerned that's too close to the application deadlines (12/1 and 12/15), especially if something goes horribly wrong and I want/need to retake it. I could take time off of work (currently on co-op) to take it on a weekday sometime in between there. What's my best course of action?

Not sure I can help, but - there are graduate courses on Matlab??

Thanks for the info, marty3. Puts me at ease a little bit. Also, I'd never heard of the NDSEG before. I'm looking into that now, as well!

I'm already feeling behind... I haven't started on the materials for the GRFP yet since I'm pretty caught up right now with Fulbright/Rhodes/Marshall/etc. application materials. For those who went through it before, what kind of timeline did you follow? Also, (for applying as an undergrad) who did you go to most for advice? Your research advisor at the time? The challenge for me is that the PI I work with is on sabbatical right now - not uncontactable, but it makes things more challenging.

Hello, fellow applicants. I'm applying for a Fulbright for a MSc in biomedical engineering at Imperial College London. Also, deadlines sneak up amazingly fast. My university's internal deadline is coming up in about a week, and I've still got plenty of work to do before then.

Thanks for the suggestions! Yeah, I've been looking at both. Most of the professors whose research interests me are connected to their universities' BME and neuroscience programs, but in most cases the course work related to the bioengineering programs looked more relevant/interesting than that in the neuroscience programs.

I will be applying for PhD programs this fall and am trying to figure out exactly where to apply. I'm getting my degree in neuroscience (with a CS minor), but my research interests have gone more in the direction of bioengineering, specifically neuroengineering. I have been doing research on human motor learning/control but am interested in moving more in the direction of neuroprosthetics and/or human/robot coordination. (I will occasionally tell people that my goal is to create cyborgs, which actually isn't that far off the mark.) I have a 3.98 GPA, 4 years research experience (including 1.5 years full time on co-ops), Goldwater Scholarship, and got 164Q/166V on GRE practice test without any prep yet. Here are some schools that I have started to look at, but I'd like any other suggestions, or what you think of these options! MIT Northwestern Northeastern USC Johns Hopkins Stanford CMU/UPitt (joint program, not sure which I'd formally apply to)

Thanks for the response! That's kind of a relief. I have a CS minor and have taken/am taking all the math classes that you mention. My first practice GRE quant score was also 164, so I'll probably be OK on that front. It seems like more of a challenge is deciding whether I want to go for bioengineering or neuroscience... The thing that concerns me, though, is something like this (from the Tufts BME admissions page): Requirements include a basic knowledge of biology, math through ordinary differential equations, and some basic engineering courses (for example, fluid mechanics, properties of materials, thermodynamics, circuit theory). I don't have that sort of background, and I'm worried it will put me at a disadvantage. I am also looking at doing an engineering (mechE or BME) type co-op for my third and final co-op in the fall. Do you think that would help fill in any perceived gaps?

I am currently a junior studying neuroscience, and the focus of my research - which I would like to continue in graduate school - is motor neuroscience (human motor learning and control). I was looking at just PhD programs in neuroscience, but my undergrad research advisor suggested that I also consider bioengineering/biomedical engineering programs as well. After having done some research, it looks like there are a lot of BME programs that would be a good fit in terms of the research I would like to do. However, I am concerned about coming from a non-engineering background. I feel that with my background, I am a very strong applicant for neuroscience programs, but I am less certain about BME programs. Does anyone have any suggestions about how I could make myself a strong applicant without having an engineering degree? Also, more generally, what do such programs look for? The websites only seem to provide a vague sense of this (i.e. have an engineering degree or "engineering background").

For my CV, my professor/advisor told me to put amounts of scholarships and grants.

Thanks for your input!

My reason for interest in the robotics class is that I am currently working in a robotics lab and my research interests include some of this human/computer/robot interface. For database design, I didn't originally think it would be useful, but an advisor recommended to my boyfriend that he take it, and he is going into computational biology.

I plan to apply for a PhD in neuroscience next year, specifically in the area of motor neuroscience, hopefully with a computational focus. In the meantime, I still have 2 slots left in my schedule for computer science courses to complete my CS minor. Does anyone have any suggestions for what would be good courses to take to prepare me for my intended path? Right now I am looking at taking "Algorithms and Data" and "Robotic Science and Systems". Some of the other courses being offered that I thought might be useful instead are: Logic and Computations, Computer Organization, Database Design, and Theory of Computation. Any suggestions?

I have heard that it it best to ask for a letter of recommendation in person rather than via email, but socially awkward me isn't entirely sure how to do that in at least one instance. There's a professor who I worked with previously quite extensively, but I don't have a class with him now, he's quite busy, and he was just recently made chair of the math department. Do I just show up at his office sometime and hope that he's available to talk? Do I send a really awkward email along the lines of "I want to ask you to write a letter of recommendation but can I meet you in person to actually ask?" I'm probably overthinking this, but I would like to know what the proper way to go about this is.

Last weekend I was talking to a couple of professors and grad students on admissions committees about this. They said that a publication is the icing on the cake. It generally won't make or break an application, in part because they don't see it as the best way to show research skills/potential. They can't tell from a publication, for example, what YOU as the applicant did. They said that the most important way for them to assess your skills/potential is from the letters of recommendation, especially if it's from someone well known and trustworthy in the field. (They explicitly told me not to worry too much about publication at all, because with a strong letter from my current advisor, I will be in a really good position. I was actually pretty surprised by that.)

Are you referring specifically to astrobiology, to this case, or more generally? Because other advice I've heard said that although publications (especially first author) are great, there are other ways to demonstrate your research, and you can still get into great programs without publications, if you are a well qualified candidate.

It means they don't want to count out qualified applicants based on one factor. They aren't probably going to go for a student with a 2.0 GPA, minimal research experience, and 33rd percentile GRE. But they don't want to set a GRE cutoff and miss a potential applicant who has a great mind for research but isn't a good test taker, for example. My guess is that at some point, yes, scores may be unretrievably low, but it's all fuzzy in such a wholistic decision process, and they don't want to try and make it a black and white line. I think how low of scores you can "get away with" depends a lot on how all the other factors come in.

This is a debate I've seen come up elsewhere and I was wondering what opinions are from people with some grad school experience: As a US student with a bachelor's degree from a US institution, is there an advantage or disadvantage to obtaining a PhD abroad (in say, Europe or Australia)? I have had professors tell me that with a US bachelor's it's better to get a PhD in the US because there is a course component that would already have been obtained before starting a PhD if you were entirely within the European system, for example. One professor specifically told me that for US undergrads, having a US PhD is more valuable than an overseas one because of this difference. I have had other people who vehemently disagreed with this perspective. I am not suggesting that there is anything wrong with international PhDs in general, but from the perspective of an American student in the biological sciences, what are your thoughts?

I use the app Notability on my iPad mini. It syncs everything to my computer through Dropbox, as well. It has pretty good organization (categories plus folders within that), and lots of different ways to take notes. I can annotate PDFs, type notes, draw figures (which are movable and rescalable). It was about $3-4 in the appstore, and it's the only app I've ever paid for. It's definitely been worth it, though. I take all of my class notes and do some scratch work in it. If you plan to do a lot of precise note-taking, I'd look into a tablet with a digitizer. This means the kind with the pointy-tip styli instead of the blob-headed ones for tablets like the iPad, Nexus, etc.

I'd look on NewEgg. They have a good variety and price range, and they also often have good sales. I got a 1 TB drive this summer for ~$60 and it came with a free pair of headphones that have actually turned out to be quite nice.

I don't know about how it handles really large files, but I've always used OpenShot for video editing with great success. It's free/open source and way better than the windows movie maker crap (or whatever they're calling it now).

I've heard psychology is one of the easier ones. I'm going for neuroscience, so I will probably end up taking biology. I should probably try a practice test and see how it goes.

A lot of the schools I am looking at list the GRE subject test as "recommended," which seems terrifyingly vague to me. What does this actually mean? I'm guessing it can vary a lot between schools. What's the best way to find out how important the subject test is to particular program? And is there any sort of guideline on a cutoff as to when it's good vs. bad to send a subject test score?

I will be graduating in 2015 from a 5-year undergraduate program at Northeastern University with a major in behavioral neuroscience and computer science minor. I am looking at PhD programs in motor neuroscience, if possible in a program that would also allow me to do some work with robotics. I was hoping someone could give me some suggestions on which schools to look at, as well as what I can do in my remaining time in undergrad to strengthen my application. Also, should I take the GRE subject test? If so, in what subject? Sorry for the long post, and thanks for your help! Here are my stats: GPA: 3.97/4.0 GRE: haven't taken it yet Research experience: Volunteering (15-20 hours/week) in research lab on campus studying human motor control for 2 years so far (will continue when I return to the US) 6-month full time co-op in that lab 6-month full time co-op at Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Germany (a robotics lab) Will complete another co-op next fall (Thoughts on what type of co-op in would be good to do?) Planning Honors thesis for Junior/Senior year Publications: None yet, but professor hopes 2 of my projects will get there before I am applying Presented posters at Northeastern research expo and Northeast Undergraduate Research Symposium Attended Neuroscience 2012 conference Other possibly relevant experience: Mentor for undergraduate math/science research program, including teaching Matlab TA/tutor for introductory computer science course LOR: Pretty sure they will be quite strong. (Planning to use 2 of the recommenders who wrote letters for Goldwater scholarship.) Scholarships/Awards: Goldwater scholarship, university provost research grant, travel funding for Neuroscience conference Possible weaknesses: So far for math, I've only completed Calc 1-3 and “statistics in psychological research,” but I plan to take Linear Algebra and Differential Equations I have limited robotics experience (this is a new interest). I plan on taking robotics courses, but I won't be able to until my last semester (spring 2015). I've just started to look at schools, but here are a few I've found so far of interest: Northwestern USC MIT University of Chicago Washington University in St. Louis (WashU) Carnegie Mellon Current professor at Northeastern also said she would fund me if I wanted to stay for graduate school, but I think I would like to go somewhere else and get a different prespective.