peachypie

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I'll preface this that I currently go to Emory and I have not visited UCI, or Irvine for that matter but I have been to SoCal numerous times. I'm going to say that a smaller cohort is good but sometimes TOO small is not great. You have to remember this is your cohort who you will be taking some of your beginning courses with, who will be your friends and the people that will be able to most understand what you are going through. Having just one other person (hopefully you get along great!) can change that dynamic. My program is small, we have 6 total in our class but trust me, when you have a question about what the hell you are doing or someone to study with having 5 others to look for is great. I'd encourage you to really think about the research you are hoping to do and the opportunities of faculty in each scenario. Having a lot of attention being one of two students is great, but not if everyone's research isn't QUITE what you want. If you are looking for diversity, and again take this with a grain of salt but Atlanta is very diverse. I'll also encourage you to think about some of the things that Atlanta has that UCI may not have. This includes collaboration with Georgia Tech, CDC, UGA, etc. There is also the georgia research alliance which also works with biotech. As a side note, I'll assume you didn't get to see a lot of Atlanta because the dining here is crazy its a super big foodie city and there is a lot of top chefs here as well as many fine dining opportunities. One of my close friends who got her PhD from Emory has a chef as a husband who was trained in France and Germany and cooks for some of very high caliber restaurants here. I'd be willing to bet that Atlanta food scene is much more robust than Irvine. The cost of living will be lower and I'd be willing to bet your stipend is higher on top of that. Meaning your stipend + lower cost of living is going to go much further in Atlanta than California. Please feel free to message me if you have any further questions about Emory/Atlanta.

I'd expect rejected and haven't told you.

Your research (not schoolwork) is a much bigger factor in PhD acceptances than anything else. Are you working in clinical research now? If not you should be while you are in an online program. Also 1-3 pubs in 2-3 years is pretty ambitious of you especially if you haven't published before or haven't been in research already.

grad students really have no incentive in telling you a lie to get you to come to a school or program. I do agree that having a conversation may get a better feel than simply an email but also there are very few grad students who will advise you against entering a program unless there is something systemically wrong with the program itself. Generally students are pretty up front about that because a lot of times it feels like a responsibility to make sure other students do not fall into a problem that they were unaware of. think about asking students about working with specific professors. They may not walk around saying "don't work with XYZ, but if you ask them about working with prof X they would have no reason not to tell you what they know, good or bad. it is a collegial world once you are in graduate school and students are there to help one another not sabotage. if you can have phone conversations that would be better or face to face or whatnot, if not emails are great but some people if htey do have something poor to say may not want to have it written in a documented email. Maybe note, if it is easier or more comfortable to talk on the phone that you'd be available for that too.

UGA (from my recollection) pretty much gave you that information at your visit, you should know your stipend minimum at that time with only more being on top of that if you get additional funding. From what i recall UGA was about 25 or 26k/year?

Looking at your profile without any actual numbers on GRE I actually don't understand why you didnt get any offers of admission. The possibilities are: the tier of school you applied to and how many, what your actual gre is, and most importantly what your personal statement looked like. Based on the profile you outlined there is no reason for it. Many people getting into phd programs do not have publications or conferences attended that is the minority not the norm. i find it interesting that you didn't note that you should 1. talk to the schools to get feedback, many programs would be happy to give you your weak points, maybe phrase it as What would you suggest to become a stronger applicant for your program? Also you should take a good hard look at your statement to see if you could write a better and more compelling statement, also I'd suggest that places you are interested in that you reach out to specific faculty prior to applying.

either detroit, michigan or the ohio state university.

Its concerning also because it means they must not have a lot of federal grants to support grad students as well. A lot of funding for an institution for research doesn't come from state budgets.

Chill. Sometimes the better programs don't really feel the need to over compensate by walking the walk and talking the talk since the school and the research and the faculty there already did all that walking for them. I don't think it would make me change an opinion of a school if they felt that confident. I'd be more concerned about those wanting to put on a song and dance. Kind of like when a guy has a nice car, what am I supposed to look past your shitty personality?

I waited until I was done interviewing before I made anything official since I felt that would only be fair. You can have your preferences and your list set and be ready to make a decision after your last interview but I didn't feel I could be honest and true if I showed up to an interview having already accepted an offer somewhere else. What is waiting a few weeks going to do?

Sometimes you do and sometimes you don't. What I have generally seen is that the more the interviewer has questions about your ability the more technical questions can get. This is also of course not including if you interview with someone who is in a very similar if not the same research field and can really talk the nitty gritty. Generally my interviews were not very technical but I had heard of other interviewees who were being asked specific textbook questions. They also tended to be the people still in undergrad so maybe had less research to talk about. The more confident and comfortable you are in the first few minutes of the interview the easier it'll be, PIs back off when they know you know your shit.

Hey.....its like you are getting a taste of grad school early. Welcome to your new normal.

I wouldn't assume anyone HAS to wait until march unless a school explicitly told you that no offers would go out until March. I interviewed at places their "first" weekend and knew they had interviews going into March but received acceptances prior to following interview weekends. just keep busy you have done literally everything you can at this point, time to relax as much as you can.

I don't think you need to say anything unless your programs will want you to have matriculated by June and entering into their program. They'll want a copy of your official transcript and graduation before you are able to enroll officially but that usually isn't due until just about beginning classes/getting paid. You should be fine. If anyone asks I wouldn't NOT say something but at this point I don't think you need to contact adcomms to let them know about this.

No FAFSA. All your funding will come from your school based on the programs and schools you've applied to. -i get it but just try to relax and enjoy it as much as you can. if you really like talking about research and your background as well as hearing about new ideas then this shouldnt be a drag it should still be exciting. welcome to what the next few years will always be like may as well get used to asking questions and engaging. consider it an opportunity to network and meet new people. -that is HIGHLY dependent on the school maybe something to ask or take not of during your visits. My program allowed summer rotations beginning July 1st, and you get paid starting then. No school is going to easily get you to come in to start a rotation without you being a PhD student and on payroll. I'm sure you could move a month early and start reading for your classes and meeting with PIs, but unless the school offers a summer start, no dice. Some schools I interviewed at started in July with class, again all specific to the school/program. I'd honestly take the time off if you can and you don't need to work during that time. get to your new city AT LEAST a month beforehand and start settling in, getting your furniture, getting your internet etc setup and get your stuff. Everyone started studying before classes start, and once it starts you won't get a chance as much to explore your new city quite as easily. relax, you have the next few years to sell your time to the lab. - I have no idea if the first rotation is the hardest? I went with my top choice and I loved it and it depends on your program. Some programs have you do a mandatory number of rotations in your first year, others don't have a minimum. I'd say start with the one you are most interested in. it does suck to stop your research and go to the next one BUT if you figure out the one you want to start and it works out well then the rest of your rotations aren't as stressful. I had people in my program who rotated with someone and found out later that person wasnt going to have the funding. whelp, thats one rotation wasted. People right now are freaking out because they still haven't found a home or they aren't sure the PI will take them, or there is a lot of competition for the popular PIs...don't put yourself at hte back of the line for no reason.

i had one interview where i was in the city of one of my good friends. we arranged to meet according to my itinerary on the day i got in before anything started. She ended up meeting me at my hotel and we were able to catch up for about an hour. i would try to arrange it more on the travel days when you know you are officially done or haven't kind of "begun" your interview. I think it would be a bit weird to meet up with the others for recruitment and your friend. At that point i'd leave early and meet up with them. i know this is late, so hopefully you figured it out.

Anywhere from a week to 2 days.

I was responding to your response to me when I had said that I didn't get the difference between the people who are assuming rejection and want an official rejection. You responded to me explaining how it is different for you, to which I said that anyone asking for an official reject has some other reason to believe they will be rejected so those in your situation (deadlines haven't passed or just recently as well as masters applicants do not fall into the category that you were saying were those who may want an official reject or those who have not received an interview offer should not presume rejection.) I was speaking to those that have said they have all but assumed rejection (due to interviews for their program) and those that have applied to deadlines back in december. Those are the ones that if they want an official rejection soon, I don't understand. Just go a few pages back to where I replied to your response. Again you seem to be an anomaly in the process due to applying to masters and applying to programs that are not as popular (results search-wise) and also to programs that don't necessarily have interviews.

I'm going to presume you got to a CSU school system, which means its not a research university as others from california and specifically LA have pointed out. USC is a private school, how does that work into your argument about money? There are plenty great UC system schools that provide a fully funded bio PhD, these include: UC-Davis, UC-Irvine, UCSF, UCLA etc etc. Again when I went to UCLA biology faq admission page they said 10-15% of their graduate students are international. That is on the higher end. I'm going to use a website you provided to me: http://www.topuniversities.com/where-to-study/north-america/united-states/graduate-study-us-guide-international-students Here it says that around 15% of all graduate students in the US are international...not quite at the 40% you quoted. It also states there that the highest percentage go to engineering followed by business, then physical and earth sciences, mathematics and computer science for accounting for most of them...biological sciences didn't even get a nod for being a large percentage of those 15%. I don't understand where you get that I'm dense, I continue to present data and links to sites that show what your claims are that don't appear that accruate. Most people getting their PhD are going to a research institution, biological sciences are almost always some of the most well-funded programs at a research university. I can't speak to schools that aren't research, such as CSU schools since those are the exception, not the norm. I applied all over the country, and got fully funded at all of them. Public and private. Coastal and not.

I don't think vene ever said they went to an LA based school that is part of the CSU system.

One masters applicant posting many times in the last few pages doesn't mean there are tons of masters students. I don't check results thread, unfunded phds in bio are rare in many of the top schools. Top 30-50 would be all pretty much 100% funded. Also your is possessive, "you're incorrect" is what you meant to say. I don't know your state school. I never said I was from california. I'm not an LA native, so I don't know why you are faulting me for that or how it factors into your argument. There have been aarticles from UC system schools in bio that show they post about 10-15% international students, so I haven't found any at about 40% as you had mentioned. You must be basing your whole understanding of graduate schools on UC system which isn't fair to assess all the programs in the country off of the public system in california which probably is working with a tighter budget for all of its schools in the system that are working at full capacity. I'm not choosing to ignore reality, but I don't think that your initial comment that international applicants actually give school money is an approrpriate assessment for many PhD in biology graduate programs, at least at the more well-funded schools.

Your article is for undergraduate admissions in the UC system, not graduate...which is an entirely different bag.

The problem is we are talking about funded programs. Not unfudned or masters programs. A competitive program in the biological sciences will 100% fund its applicants. If you are comparing paying domestic to paying international then it doesn't make a difference, but most people in the thread, are applying to programs who fund their students fully.

Please source your "many articles" that show otherwise. I'm sorry you feel forced to have to migrate to GOD FORBID inland america where clearly life sucks. You know its risky to take a student on that A. requires additional government visas....as well as has agreed to PAY because that money isnt actually guaranteed. Also diversity is different than you think it is. When the government may give you additional funding its for diversity of domestic applicants from classicly underrepresesnted groups in the field, not from international necessarily. I haven't seen any schools that take more international that domestic applicants, though I'd be happy to look at the stats you reference. Endowments in the billions do not come from tuition or what they are charging in excess of international applicants. endowments come from notable alumni and faculty who have profited from the education they received there and have decided to show the importance of education at that school or program through financial donations. It also benefits alumni to help make sure their insitutions remain top notch in the field since it means their degree is maintaining its value.