nermah1

hey Spike! I didn't expect this quick response. You've applied to many same schools of my lists!! Nice to meet you and good luck for you and I together

Undergrad Institution: Located in East Asia Major(s): Applied Chemistry(nominally. almost like life science and biochemistry) Minor(s): none GPA in Major: a little less than overall GPA Overall GPA: 3.6/4.3. that would be US 3.3/4.0 or less Position in Class: I remember I was more than average. something like 60~80% high. Type of Student: Male International Asian. Not sort of minority I think GRE Scores (revised/old version): Q: 159 V: 167 W: 3.0 I insist my writing was not that terrible...:'( B: 790(83%) TOEFL Total: 108(R30 L28 S22 W28) Research Experience: 0.5 yr as a undergraduate in plant biology lab(nominally 1 yr but actually it was worth of 0.5 yr) 1 yr and 3 months as a master's student in the same lab Awards/Honors/Recognitions: cum laude for my GPA, government scholarship for PhD program(I will receive this only if I'm admitted to the US grad school) Pertinent Activities or Jobs: not really.....but i was an army officer first lieutenant and there I was a kind of tutor for NBC Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help: nothing Special Bonus Points: maybe my army service? Applying to Where: all PhD 1 Stanford - Biology - Plant BIology(Carnegie) 2 Berkeley - PMB - Plant Biology 3 WASHU - Plant and Microbial Biosciences 4 Cornell - Plant Biology 5 Penn State - Plant Biology already f**cked with interview 6 Washington State - Molecular Plant Biology 7 UW Madison - Plant breedings and genetics 8 UT Austin - Plant Biology 9 UC Davis - Plant Biology 10 UC Riverside - Plant Biology I won't be surprised to receive all rejections regarding there are so many competitive applicants and my experience is not enough for PhD. Also, I applied to too many top tiers. Too late to regret. But now what........nothing but wait and wait and wait......!!! I'm trying not to waste the next interview chance......

I don't know about CMU but I had an interview with Penn State...and I applied to plant biology. I hope this could help you a little.

* I'm not sure this post fits for this forum. I'm applying to PhD program of biology field. Some of schools urge me to contact POI, because POIs might have limited RA available and limited seat in the lab for upcoming students (like me). This does make sense and I understand the situation. But even if you can get some information about your POI in internet, you never know how the lab environment is, or, that is, whether it really fits for me. The research subject is the most important for choosing the laboratory, of course. But once I start to attend the school, I might wanna change my research advisor for any reason. <That's why I want to get an admission first, then pinpoint the research advisor after experiencing one year of lab rotation. (If you rotate 3 labs for a year, then you might be sure about something)> Does <this> make sense?? or Should I determine the research advisor through internet and phone because of available RA even before I see him in real world? Or is it common to change research advisor during grad school after your decision for first advisor has been made?

That exactly what I wanna say..... They'd rather send me the rejection as soon as possible if the decision has been already made.

※ I am a non-English speaker. Sorry for my awkward grammar. Recently I had an interview from Penn State Plant Biology Ph.D. program. It was my first English interview and two professors were on Skype. They were very kind and tried to make me relaxed all the time. Questions were quite common like other postings already posted here. -Most questions : Mainly about my (incomplete) research. They asked me about detail of my SOP. If you feel there is something vague in your SOP, you should prepare for the detailed answers. -What are you doing right now? -What is genomics? What does the genomics contribute in science? (I didn't fully understand this question.) -What skill will you learn from the course? I understood this as "What do you want to learn from Ph.D. course? " or "What is your goal for Ph.D. course?" -What do you want to do after Ph.D?(What is your final goal?) -What do you think is the way to become a professor? (This question is up because I said and wrote in SOP that I wanna be a professor someday) -What other schools do you apply? Which one will you attend if you got admissions from all the schools? -Tell me the one professor in plant biology field, whom you are most interested in. I was so tense and could not answer even about the elementary experimental procedure and method. Consequently, I messed up answering most of questions. So I think this is a failed interview. I hope you guys prepare well for the upcoming interview. Please share any information about plant science field.