TheCakeIsALie

Can't really contribute much about economics PhD in particular. Went to Cornell for undergrad - why I didn't apply there for grad school. I loved it because I had really good friends and fun extracurricular activities. All of my grad student friends were miserable though (across all schools) and spent whatever time they weren't working drinking themselves into oblivion. I majored in multipe subjects including economics so I got to meet many of the professors. The economics professors are stellar - my favorite class was Game Theory...the professor is now the Ben Bernanke of India. Interviewed and ended up withdrawing from UCSD - the campus itself is beautiful and they actually have a surprisingly academically motivated campus for a California school (not to be offensive, it's just a different mentality from the Northeast). It's not the cutthroat atmosphere of some of the Eastern schools (which is good and bad) and I don't know about the economic professors, but wow it was beautiful! Everybody there seems genuinely happy. I only picked a different school because they had stronger PI's in my particular field of interest. UCSD is in La Jolla, which is on the beach. Downtown is like a 20 minute drive away and there is a lot of good food and things to do. LA is 2 hours away, Vegas 4. But I don't know if that really matters to you. Coming from Cornell, where the most exciting thing was Dinosaur BBQ/Syracuse mall an hour + away, this was something important to me.

I'm pretty sure what OP is saying is that he/she is getting negative results...This is very different from getting no data at all. As long as you can explain potential reasons why your results are different, I don't think it's that huge of an issue. Also, how does this reshape the original hypotheses formed by your mentor. If you're literally repeating a protocol that your mentor has optimized and just can't get the same results, you should be actively troubleshooting right now and figuring out what your possible sources of error are. It could be as simple as a single reagent gone bad...

Very possible. Results are not what's important when you're applying to PhD Programs. What's more important is that you can show to schools that you can think like a scientist.

I sent you a message because I didn't want to instigate a spirited discussion. The sum all is that I think Weill "may" take longer but offers more opportunities than GSK, which can allow you (if you're motivated enough) to have more thesis options.

I'll be at Weill in the fall :-).

Anybody interview at UCSD - Bio Sciences that hasn't heard back yet? I see acceptances up on the list and I feel like it was some sort of automated acceptance. Super stressed x.x

He actually gave me the ultimatum of moving to him or breaking up. Who knows, we may end up in the same city next year. The long-distance for the past 2-years was very difficult.

Crap, I broke up with my bf of 4.5 years so that I could pursue my PhD. This post is stressing me out :|