rexzeppelin

Can I get in on this?

Well, since you guys showed me yours... hope this season gets everyone what they want! Undergrad Institution: top 15 liberal arts w/ little research clout Major(s): Biology Minor(s) : n/a GPA in Major: 3.75 Overall GPA: 3.73 Position in Class: top 20%, cum laude Type of Student: Domestic male GRE Scores (revised version): Q: 162 V: 168 W: 5.0 Bio: 850 (93rd) Research Experience: 2 years in molecular ecology lab working on phylogeographic DNA markers for bats. No pubs. Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Full merit scholarship for four years; Dean's List all semesters; Scholar-Athlete Award Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Founded Beta Beta Beta Biology Honor Society chapter at my school: organized lectures with visiting scholars, recruited students etc Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help: Spent last year in China with Princeton in Asia teaching, fluent Mandarin Applying to Where: Stanford Biosciences - Chemical and Systems Biology UW-Madison CMB Berkeley MCB Harvard MCO MIT Biology Biology@Princeton - QCB/MolBio UCSF iPQB Yale BBS UPenn BMB Minnesota BMBB Duke SSB

Thanks for the advice! Without Gradcafe I'd be completely neurotic. I'm leaning towards the job, the current limbo I'm in at home will drive me crazy soon anyway. I'm hoping that grad programs will be accommodating scheduling interviews if I can't take time off during the week, otherwise I'll have some tough decisions to make. Rising_star, I'm seriously considering deferring applications, but after getting all my LoR writers on point and everything else ready I'm not so willing to put it off. I'm thinking if I like the project I'm working on in the lab I could defer an acceptance, but PhD is still my #1 priority.

I'm getting applications ready for PhD programs to start next fall, currently living at home unemployed. I got a full-time job offer today from a biotech lab to start in a couple weeks. It's with a cool company that I'd love to get experience with, to help figure out if industry is something I'd like to do after school. However in my job interview I mentioned nothing about my grad school plans, fearing it would be the kiss of death. Now I realize if I took the job I don't know how I'd ask for vacation time to attend interviews in only 3 months time, and would then leave 9 months after starting (assuming I get in somewhere). I really don't know what to do here, I don't want to burn bridges with this company that I genuinely like, but if I decline the job, apply and get rejected everywhere I'll feel like a complete idiot. Any advice here? Honesty with my employer?

Yeah I loaded a vpn and then could get on no problem

That's annoying, but at least you found out now and you still have 3 weeks, which isn't a polite window to give a rec writer, but still way better than say one week or less (which I've done) . I'd contact the professor and just say that your first writer recently contacted you saying she's unable to write a letter. You don't have to explain why. Then apologize profusely and ask if they could write you one. As bad as you feel doing this you need to do it ASAP, so your prof won't have to rush to an even greater extent.

Thanks, I figured as much It's weird though, I can't load it in safari either. I'll try your suggestions and see if that works

Is anyone else having this problem??? Everytime I follow the link from the duke website to the graduate division (http://www.gradschool.duke.edu/admissions/) my browser says it can't find the url. This is driving me nuts!

I think there are some generalizations being made about life outside academia, and no one should be going to grad school smugly satisfied that they're escaping some cradle-to-grave careerist drudgery. If you want a secure career and being able to provide for your family, then you should weigh that against your degree, I'm a dreamer as much as anyone, but no one should end up as one of those poor PhDs earning nothing as an adjunct faculty somewhere. It seems like OP is mostly concerned with his current status relative to his peer group, but I'd wager that over time your degree will help you in ways you can't quantify at the moment. I agree with Takeruk that PhD students should be better compensated for the work they do, i.e. earn at least enough to put away a little for retirement, and it seems like some people stay in the poorly compensated post-doc limbo too long. At the same time, having no debt is nice, I mean compare with a student taking on $50k a year at a lowly-ranked law school (eeek!). At the moment I'm talking to any PhD I can find while applying to schools, trying to collate and distill all of their collective hindsight. So far this is what I've learned: 1. (from PhD guy running massively successful healthcare startup): during grad school try to develop yourself outside of your niche, (ex. management skills, technical, interpersonal, etc). It's difficult but by balancing this you can prepare for a move out of academia should your plans change. Along with this you should try to network throughout your degree, so you have something you can build on following graduation. 2. Don't work for a bastard PI: One of my chemistry professors did his PhD at Caltech, and he said there was one prof who refused to write LORs for any of his students for top 20 schools, in order to stop them competing with him for grants! Anyone have any others?

I have no clue either. I was considering attaching a review paper I wrote for a class I took, but I feel like it's better to focus on the SOP and research statement and not overwhelm them with material.

Waive, though I can understand the desire to really know what a prof thought of you

I don't know, but since it seems the subject GRE's aren't required I can see no good reason to send a crappy score. That said, since you're not a biology/biochem major they might look at your scores more leniently, and appreciate that you were able to obtain an average score in a cohort of specialists. For me, I feel more pressure to 'know my shit' since I have been taking this stuff all through college, hence why I'd like to only send it if it makes me look competent. I think you should send your scores, unless they're really low. Only two weeks til scores now!

Phew! Reading some posts on Quora of self-proclaimed "Definitive guide to PhD admissions," it seemed if I hadn't published, I might as well forget about getting into decent schools. Thanks for the helpful replies, though I'm slightly skeptical being reassured of normality by Nic Cage. Pterosaur - that's a great perspective, good to hear LeventeL- good idea for the convention! As for me, getting back to campus and tracking down all the data in time for app deadlines is not worth it to me, haha though I feel I can definitely speak to the 'challenges of research' with conviction now. My advisor should vouch for them in my LOR.

Physwimic, thank you so much for that! I've been going crazy trying to narrow down biology research interests solely from skimming papers and reading blurbs, the scope of choice is paralyzing! I think it's much more realistic to have broad interests (though I'm sure some people know the niche they want to pursue from the get-go).

Hey hivemind, I've got a question. Not looking for a pity fest here comforting me on application weaknesses, when I start getting that kind of mopey feeling I just go slick my hair back in the mirror and remind myself how awesome I look. Anyway, I'm applying to PhD programs in molecular biology to start fall 2014. My GPA/GRE's are where they should be, I went to a decent LAC (hence the insecurities vis a vis research), LOR's will be positive, I did two years of research with my advisor in molecular genetics, made some good progress, but we had issues (DNA from Mexico didn't arrive until I'd already graduated, advisor decided to go adopt a child in China for 6 months, etc.) and so nothing was published while I was there, and even after it seems the project's now in limbo. Question is: does a lack of publications make this experience meaningless, like I was twiddling my thumbs or whatnot? Will this preclude me from being a competitive candidate at tier 1 programs?

I also took the biology GRE on the 19th. I was originally signed up for Biochem, but after bombing the practice exam I realized it'd be pointless to take it, because if the result wasn't stellar I figured it would only hurt my application. I took the biology exam on standby, and as expected it was much easier. Now I'm on the fence about sending the score. I figured I would send it to schools if I broke the 85th percentile, what about you guys?