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threading_the_neidl

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Everything posted by threading_the_neidl

  1. I'm surprised that a school is offering money for early responses. Isn't the whole point of the April 15th agreement to stop that kind of competition which might move toward intimidation? Is this something other schools have been doing recently, too?
  2. Use this as motivation to finish your work fast and well. Don't rush things so much that your methods fall apart, but you already have a 6 month head start + probably a lot more a grounding in the literature since it seems obvious this person is poaching from your ideas, not independently thinking things up. Don't say a word to them about your work anymore, but get your stuff done and published.
  3. At this point you need to decide what's the best fit for you, which no one here can help you with. Which school has the best potential advisors (you want 2+ that you can see yourself working with)? Which school had the atmosphere that best fits your needs? Which city is the most appealing? Which school tends to place its graduates in positions that you'd like to be in the future?
  4. In my experience in biomedical science doctoral programs, that would be a pretty big faux pas, unless you have extraordinary circumstances. For instance, if you have a fellowship that covers you 3 years and pays more than the stipend offered to other students, you might want to ask if they will meet the fellowship salary for the last year or two. In general, programs have designated stipends based on their own funding (training grants, departmental resources), the cost of living in that area, and other similar programs. If you got an offer for 32k in NYC, but only 22k in Omaha, it'd be insulting to ask the Omaha school to up match the 32k - that's just not the cost of living and it would make the program advisor think twice about you.
  5. I live in a neighborhood where there are a lot of NEU students, and it's definitely the "crazy expensive around Sept. 1" option. Honestly, there is no non-competitive/horrible time of year to rent, it's all awful, just some times are more awful than others.
  6. Don't automatically think that you have to go into academic programs. Getting a solid two years of lab experience will be just as useful for later admissions with the added bonus of being paid.
  7. Sciences Po is a recognized as a very good school and you will have no trouble with anyone questioning its credibility in the US.
  8. BU PiBS final interview is this Monday. Other than that, I have no special insight to how they selected interviewees or admits, though I will say that current students definitely have a voice in who's picked. So be nice!
  9. As a west coaster, I also knew RPI had a good reputation, so it's safe to say that it will be a well recognized degree most anywhere.
  10. Have you considered taking few years off between undergrad and grad school to move in and do work in your field for the remaining years it will take him to graduate? Then, when you apply to schools, you guys can aggressively pursue a few regions together. There's always a give and take with two body problems, so you'd "sacrifice" a few years now, but maybe for your next move, you go to the school that's the best fit for you, and he may have to settle with a less perfect post-doc. Also, I say "sacrifice" because I actually think taking some time off to work is a really good idea for almost anyone. First, it solidifies for you that this is a field you can see yourself in for the long haul, and also that its an appropriate field for your interests. Second, you make MONEY. Real money! None of this shoestring stipend junk. You get healthcare and dental (imagine! a dentist!) and can get all of those pesky lingering cavities filled and ailments diagnosed before heading into a 5-7 year blackhole where real money and good healthcare may never be seen. With this Real Money, you can live on the cheap (pretend you're a grad student!) and you can save up one hell of a nest egg in just a couple years. It helps tremendously during grad years to have a solid bank account to fall back on when you need to spend $$$ for stress shopping/eating. Also, it looks good on your CV! You get solid letters of rec, and your experience seems more diverse and adult-y for when it's time to look for a post-doc. That'd be my advice, and I'm sure others will delineate different paths you could choose. Good luck! *Edited because I misread him as being a 3rd year, not a 1st year. Advice still stands!
  11. While I can certainly understand both sides of the argument, I don't actually find it unethical to attend other interviews. There's always a chance that you visit a program and it surprises you by feeling like a perfect fit. Keeping all your options open is important for you at this stage. You've already done the work to EARN those interviews, so take advantage of them by keeping an open mind and really trying to connect with faculty and students, you never know what you'll discover.
  12. Again, ombuds. They may seem "high up," but they are there as an independent entity from the university. The ombuds will be a lawyer and you speak to them in complete, LEGAL confidentiality. They can give you advice on how to protect yourself and how to start the official process of having the PI investigated. They absolutely will not do anything without your full consent. I've been in a somewhat similar situation and the ombuds was absolutely my best friend.
  13. Not much new info for BU. The interviews are this Friday and Feb. 10. We were told to tell recruits that (very) roughly 50% will be accepted after interviews and they're aiming for ~20 people to matriculate. I have no idea if late interview offers will be sent out. I do know that I'm getting free sushi and lunches for awhile thanks to you guys, though. Yay recruitment!
  14. Ombuds ombuds ombuds. You're the most vulnerable person in the lab, and there's nothing wrong with looking out for yourself first. Start strongly pushing a quick dissertation and graduation to your committee, secure a new position, and then have your ombuds help you disseminate what you know to right people.
  15. USC is probably a bit of a formal outlier as far as west coast style goes.
  16. Having been on the otherside of interviews, yes, more people than you might imagine make egregious mistakes and say things that are just terrible and leave an awful impression. More often, though, is the problem when an interviewee comes in with a nice CV, but it becomes apparent that they never really thought through their work, criticially questioned or designed things, only have an "in-class" understanding of the subject matter, etc. That's ok to a certain extent, you cultivate that perspective in grad school, but if your CV says one thing about you, but your ability to ask and answer questions gives a different impression, it's a bad sign.
  17. A lot of these answers are great - when you're in a 1-on-1, do avoid the more program oriented fact questions like attrition, time to grad, etc. A great question would be to ask what they have coming up. Almost all PIs are thinking way ahead and will have 1 or 2 grant proposals that may be related to their current work or may be pie in the sky ideas. They like to talk about those, because they're still excited about the prospect of money and new data and happiness, and aren't yet jaded by the actual work part. Try to bring those up and be a really active listener. If you can add an interesting perspective or experiment, it will leave a great impression.
  18. For you guys waiting on BU PIBS, we got an email today indicating that 150 interviews have been sent out thus far, which tells me that they've already deviated from last year's pattern (like I said, they're still figuring it out), so it's possible that invites might still come out. All bets are off.
  19. Oh god. No. Avoid any hot button-type issues, even if directly asked, do your best to worm your way out of a direct answer. No one should ask you that and if it's from a chair or someone you want to work with, you may want to reconsider if the working environment there is okay. Sure you might agree on one issue, but what happens next time? Also, we had a candidate make a racist joke once during the student-only lunch. Don't do that. Or, actually, definitely do that if that's your normal thing, because we definitely want to know ahead of time. Needless to say, she was not granted acceptance.
  20. Like I said, it's only the second year of this system, so it's a lot less predictable than it was when I applied. There is no chair of PiBS, only departmental chairs, so maybe one of those numbers games I mentioned before came into play with your application. For instance, maybe you were highly competitive in one department, but not others, or maybe the department that you fit very well has very little space/money this year. As far as that stuff goes, I'm only familiar with my own department, and even then, there's plenty of stuff that they don't deign to tell the grad students. Alternately, maybe your invite is still coming! It's all still quite nebulous, even to us! What I can definitely attest to, though, is that you didn't get dinged at all by having trouble with your official GRE score. Everyone knows that stupid stuff happens with that all the time, and so they trust your self-reported score and just make sure you get them an official one if you're admitted for your record. Clearly if someone lied about it, it would be obvious then and I'm guessing the offer would be repealed, so it's not something that they worry about.
  21. Maybe? This is only the 2nd year we've had the umbrella program, so not only am I more removed from the group of people who make the decisions, but admissions methods are still being optimized. Part of the difficulty in giving a useful percentage is that they do their best to make sure each program in the umbrella gets an appropriate number of admits who show interest in the field. For instance, if biochem labs suddenly have a huge influx in funding, they'll get more students who seem interested in it (and are qualified!) admitted, but if they had absolutely no money and no open labs, the number of biochem-type admits is going to go down. That said, it IS an umbrella program and there is a fair amount of overlap even within labs, so it's not a definite determining factor. I know that some programs tend to get the most qualified applicants and they still admit them, so just pretending you like a low-interest field isn't going to help much. So, with that caveat (excluding any information about various programs funding levels, number of open labs, etc), they interview ~100. I think (this is only a vague memory so don't quote me on it) they aim for a class of 20-25. They didn't tell us how many admits they sent out last year, but I'd personally estimate it at about double that, so roughly a 50% admit rate. One cool thing is that there are a few international students in this year's class, so I guess we have more funding for internationals than normal. I have no idea where it comes from, but I like it. So for prospective students next year, give us a go! I guess we have money?
  22. Or an avid TWIV fan. But yes, somehow you managed to find me out. I didn't ask our advisor or anyone on the adcom, so I don't know if it's all done, but we got an email saying that 100 invites were out, which is what we had last year. I also have no idea if or how people who pass on the invite play into the numbers game here.
  23. For you guys asking about BU PiBS, while I can't say with certainty that every interview is out, I know that there's already as many invites out as were given last year. As to not responding, there was a pretty large nor'easter last week that caused a snow emergency and most non-critical employees stayed home Thursday and Friday.
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