Science_Nerd
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Posts posted by Science_Nerd
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Congrats Science_Nerd!
Can't help you out with early IBGP starters, but my first rotation starts June 2 (so earlyyyy...) according to what I was told over email/phone. I can't move up until June 1 so that will be interesting.
Wow that's indeed super early.
For my IBGP, I have to attend the orientation before starting lab rotation...
so you might want to talk to them, just in case your program requires orientation attendance as well.
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I think that's a question you should ask each program since many have two starting times: early summer start and fall start.
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For those of you who have accepted the offer from University of Pittsburgh (whether it's a program through School of Medicine or UPitt Graduate School), Marisa.UVA kindly started a forum if you are interested.
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It's been a while since the director of IBGP called me for an acceptance, so I called the office and I was told that the official acceptance letter and the paperwork packet have been shipped and actually been "delivered" to my address already.
I almost freaked out because I haven't received anything, but then I remembered that my apartment has a front office for UPS/FedEx delivery. whew!
anyways,
I just signed and returned the mail today.
I chose to attend the orientation on June to start the lab rotation on June 26th.
Is there anyone else in IBGP starting early as well?
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Baylor Immunology!!!!! So ecstatic.
Congrats!
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I see that you are interested in psychology. I think Detroit offers you a more diverse population than Seattle, in my opinion, that would enrich your research subject, if you were to do populational study.
To be honest, I was really busy at work most of the time, so I didn't get to explore much.
But I enjoyed the International Motor Show that Detroit hosts every year around New Year season.
Once my boss invited me and other coworkers to join him and his colleagues fishing on his boat on the Lake St Clair. It was indeed so much fun.
Like I said earlier, Detroit is trying to revitalize the city. As you remember a year or two ago when they tried to file a bankruptcy, it did hit the bottom finally very recently. But that means, it just going to go up and up from now on. In the Midtown are and some part of Downtown area, I saw new apartments being built here and there. With the brand new Whole Food Store right at the center of Medical Center/ Campus area will encourage more students and professionals to live close to the area.
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I think negotiating for stipend and asking for an opportunity of getting fellowships are completely different things.
To receive fellowships, it's either you have to apply for that or they will nominate you automatically. If you qualify for it then you will get it. But that is not getting extra money for stipend.
So again, don't negotiate for higher stipend. If anything, negotiate for the fellowships.
And if you bring some external grant or funding with you, then they will add some extra money to the stipend in the form of Dean's Award or some kind of fellowship/scholarship, so that the base price of the stipend wouldn't change.
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I don't think negotiating for better stipend is a good idea.
Sure, we all want more money. But the amount of stipend is decided based on the budget that the graduate school or department has to do what they do. Stipend isn't the only money that comes from it. If they agreed to raise your stipend, then they have to raise stipend for all the other students in the same class as well, if not all the classes. That would mean a significant readjustment of the entire budget.
Usually, I mean "usually", stipend is set so that we can live a reasonable life as a graduate student in that particular area the school happens to be in.
Also, many graduate schools have current students as part of steering committee or similar organization. And determining whether the current stipend is really reasonable at current economy is one of many things that they do.
So.... I don't know... I just don't feel like stipend negotiation is a wise thing to do.
But like others said already, they might provide housing or whatever to compensate for lower stipend. And I know many programs will award you extra money (like 3-5k/year) if you get external fellowship or grant awarded. So there are ways to improve your stipend.
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I just sent a decline-email to one of two schools to which I need to say no.
I know it has to be done, especially for the sake of other applicants on the wait-list. But it just isn't an easy thing to do....
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I'm planning to start in the summer so I should move by June I think.
I just need the official letter with detailed information about these things.
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So, how are you guys doing in terms of housing?
I just started looking for 1 bedroom apartment within like 30min bus ride vicinity from the BST building area, but most of them are more than $7-800/mo....
oh well, I will keep looking!
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Hey guys, I will be attending UPitt IBGP as well. Interviewed on Mar 7th and got an acceptance phone call on 14th (Fri) morning, just as tnc0419 above did.
I already decided to attend, but I haven't receive the official acceptance letter from the graduate study office yet. I just know that they were preparing it when the program director called me.
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Well, since my family back in Japan is asking me to visit them before my grad school starts, so I guess I just might as well renew my visa then.
Short vacation in Tokyo sounds sweet before stressful life in the laboratory.
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2. OPT limited to 1 year. Finding a company that's willing to hire and sponsor you on an H1B within 12 months of graduating is easier said than done (particularly when the odds are stacked against you and the company can easily bypass this hassle and simply hire a perm resident/citizen). Which brings me to my 3rd point...
OPT is not that bad if you really look into it.
First of all, there is also other thing called CPT that you can use as many times as you want, not like OPT. So we, international students, should pay more attention to this CPT.
And OPT is very interesting system. If you attend schools in the US from community college or undergrad level, then you have theoretically 3 times you can use OPT.
First, you can use OPT during or after completing undergrad, and you can extend it for another 17 months.
Then you get in Master's degree program. Then suddenly, you will be given another OPT available. and do the same thing.
And then, you go to PhD program, and you will have another OPT again.
So its not really the end of the world.
Plus, if you really really really carefully look for them, there are scholarships and fellowships for foreign students studying in US. Maybe your school itself might have something for international students too. (i.e. my undergrad school had $3000/yr scholarship for international students).
I know that not everyone can pull it off, but.... it can be doable....
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Hi!
I am a Japanese student, going to be taking the GRE next week.
I've been studying for it almost everyday, but the score is not improving, especially verbal. I think I can get around 160 on math but I'm about 150 on verbal right now.
I'm really worried because I'm going for around top 20 art history programs which would probably require around 160 in verbal.
Does anyone have any idea how universities look at GRE for international non-native speakers?
I feel like it should be unfair if the scores were considered equally with the native scores?
I am Japanese Phd applicant too!
Since I'm applying to biomedical science programs, it can be quite different from your art history program applications.
But after having a chance to speak with the head of Admissions Committee at one of the programs I got accepted, I am pretty certain that GRE is not as greatly important as we think. I mean, sure it is important and required but just not sooooooo much.
This is her exact words: ".....we always look TOEFL and Verbal GRE together anyways....."
Also, as long as other components of your application is competitive, you will be invited for interviews. And there, they can interact with you in person to see what your actual English proficiency is. (Because, as you all can agree, there are international students who can score very high on Verbal GRE but do horribly in real-life communications, which is very critical in Academia).
So I don't think you should be really stressed out just because your GRE is not as high as you want it to be.
I mean, luckily, being Japanese, GRE math section is almost equivalent to Japanese high school math level, so as long as you can understand the questions in English, you can really great on Quantitative section. So the overall percentile can be higher than you'd think with your high Q section score.
As long as you have a well-written personal statement (or statement of purpose, depending on school), strong letters of recommendation, and good extracurricular activities, you should be good to go
(assuming your TOEFL score is >100 and close to 110) -
Why did they have to go back to their country?
For what I understand, if you have F-1, you can still stay in the US just fine even after the F-1 visa expires as long as you maintain the full-time student requirement, and also you can still take a short leave, like for international conference or what not, and be able to return as long as you have the signed I-20 and such.
Idk, maybe my information is out-of-date.
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My bus ride is about 25-30min each day. As long as you're not switching buses downtown, you should be fine. We have people in our department that have much longer commutes than that, and they seem to get along just fine.
The only really issue would be if you're switching buses downtown, but that isn't even that big of a headache. The buses in Pittsburgh are pretty easy to use; most of the major bus lines pass through campus, and you just have to scan your ID and you're all set.
Thanks for the information!!
Also since, as others have said, busses seem to be operating from very early morning till super late at night, I wouldnt have to worry about not being able to catch the bus after working late in the lab.
I will then look for apartment that doesn't require connections.
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I did not apply to WSU but I did live in Detroit very close to WSU campus for 2.5 years till last year so I just wanted to share some information about living in Detroit.
Personally, if you can afford, I strongly recommend to find a place to live where you don't have to take a freeway for school-commute.
First of all, Detroit is NOT cycling friendly AT ALL. So you might want to live close enough that you can take a bus or walk to school.
Because the main WSU campus is in the middle of office and medical center area, when the school is open, student traffic will be added on top of these workers. Trust me, its really bad. Also, because there are Lions, Tigers, and Red Wing stadiums so close to WSU campus, when games are in Detroit, the freeway traffic is worse than hell.
In addition, if you are employed in Detroit, which you will be as a graduate student (getting paid in stipend format or TA or whatever), then there may be financial support given if you decide to live in Midtown (I did not live in Midtown so I did not pay much attention to it . I dont have detailed information about it. I just know such thing existed. So please check this with WSU. Wouldnt hurt to ask
). Detroit is in the middle of revitalization effort and trying to collect as much "professional, educated" population as possible to the center of Detroit. So there are many brand new apartments and condos in Midtown area.If you don't mind living in an older apartment, you don't have to live in expensive Midtown apartments.
Take a look in Google Map where New Center One or Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit is at. It's about 5 mins from WSU campus, considering all the signal-stops and speed limits. Anyways, all I want to say is that it's very close to the campus that you could just take a bus if you wanted to. (I believe students would still have to pay to park in the parking garages. Undergrads I met were complaining about it. So it might be slightly different for grad students.) In New Center One area just behind Fisher Building (active musical theater if you are interested), there are 1-bedroom apartments under $500/mo available, and still super easy to access major freeways + $45-55/mo parking in the secured parking garage that is adjacent to the Fisher Building. It does cost money, but I think being able to park your car in a secured parking garage during a night is very important in Detroit....just my opinion.
In the downtown~midtown Detroit area, the most decent grocery store is an expensive Whole Food Store, which just opened in 2013. There are few small local grocery stores around, but if you don't mind driving 10-15 mins on freeway from main WSU campus, there are Kroger and Meijer stores all over the place.
As for safety, there are some isolated areas that you wouldn't want to go, but if you look for apartments above locations, it's never as bad as people think.
Just one thing to keep in mind is that most of on-campus crimes are reported on Cass avenue that crosses in the middle of the campus. So you might have to avoid walking alone around Cass ave when it's dark.
Of course, if you don't mind dealing with freeway traffic in the morning and afternoon, there are much more options for you.
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Hi folks.
I just decided to accept the offer from UPitt and now it's time for me to look for place to live.
During my undergrad and also my research-tech life, I lived only 5 mins away from my school or work, so this would be my first time to use public transportation like buses for my daily commute.
I was just curious what a general rule of thumb regarding using bus is.
20 mins? 30 mins? 40 mins?
For those of you who use bus everyday, how long is your bus ride each trip?
I found a really nice apartment, but according to Google Map, its about 40 mins away by bus from Biomedical Science Tower (BST) area, and I just wanted to know if you guys think this is normal.
thanks.
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I'll be attending Pittsburgh IBGP and planning to start early.
Anyone else?
Now grad school hunting is over.
And let the apartment hunting begin... hooray another frustration lol
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Hey I interviewed there on the same weekend too. It sure was really a good experience. Really nice program.
I just heard back from them yesterday (03/14 Fri) by phone call.
I hope you did or will soon too!
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Just got into MIT Biology
Congrats!
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University of Pittsburgh 2014
in Meet and Greet
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I'm looking for efficiency or 1-bedroom apartment under like 650 within 30-min bus ride, and I haven't had much luck so far...
I know the UPitt offers apartment-style housing for students (both undergrad and grad students), but what do you think?
I'm just curious.