ballwera

Take as much time as you can to be with friends, family ,and enjoy yourself, because once school starts it will be a grind until you graduate.

Same thing happened to me last year, only I got the e-mail while I was sitting in my 1st grad school lecture. These programs are crazy you'd think they'd be more on top of things.

If you are going to choose grad. school based on rankings with dubious methods you are going to have a bad time... You're better off looking at specific faculty ( and how productive they are), productivity and funding of dept. (again a bit hard to judge because funding situations are fluid). Look at how productive students in the program are and where their alumni have gone. Also to any future applicants reading this thread you have to take everything here with a grain of salt. Everything you see here is anecdotal based on ours and other's experiences. The only real concerns anyone should have about getting into grad. school are if your credentials are above the published cutoffs (even this is applicant dependent). Applications are holistic and everyone is usually looked at , i.e they don't throw out apps based on some arbitrary cut off. If you want real advice, talk to prof. at your home programs and many will be more than happy to help you out.

So it appears that you double majored right? Which "major" is the gpa you listed for? What is your gpa for biological coursework? I also do agree with the other posters that you need another research letter.

I was a tech for three years before I applied, and everyone I interviewed w/ said how invaluable that experience is. Don't sweat it. Also the letters you get will be light years ahead of other applicants. Get that GRE score up and you will be more than fine. I'd imagine you'd get into 75% or so of the schools you listed there. Make sure you apply to some reach schools too.

Want to start graduate school off on a bad note? That's exactly how to do it.... Tbh after taxes are taken out you are likely looking at a difference of 50 or 60 dollars a month. In the grand scheme of things it isn't much. Also have you compared other things in the package? Health insurance? Not every program covers this 100%... Also you are always allowed to apply for external funding if you want a larger stipend.

Depends on how the university handles students. In my program we are "employed" by the university for the first 2 years, so we are on the normal payroll. That meant I didn't get paid til the week after classes started because that was when the next scheduled pay day was.

If you want to do your PhD in the states, I would stay in the U.S. Bioinformatics experience is highly sought after for PhD admissions and BU and GT both have good programs. I'd pay more attention to how much it's going to cost you, whether it's research based, and where each of the programs' alumni have gone after completing the degree.

You have to remember that these adcoms look at everything. It's a very holistic process which I didn't completely realize til I was interviewing. I had a terrible gpa and was asked about it at every interview. However, adcoms look at trends and noticed that while I had a terrible gpa to begin my college career (sub 3 for the first 2 years), I had a 3.7+ gpa over the last few years. I'm just saying don't sell yourself short over the grades. I did and I regret it to some extent, yea got into most of the schools I applied to, but I didn't apply to any reach schools for me outside of Vandy. Don't get me wrong, I love the school I am at, love the program and am more than happy with my PI, but still wonder what could have been. You don't want to look back later and wonder what if. Moral of story, applying to grad. school is a crap shoot so apply where ever makes you happy.

In this vein, have you ever considered skipping grad school altogether? You're an MD grad, which makes you eligible for most post-doc positions.

Agreed, but seriously can reporters please stop saying that people inherit genes that cause disease? One of my biggest pet peeves by far.

Wish ours was that straightforward. We have 50+ affiliated faculty members in our dept. and on top of that we are allowed to rotate w/ any faculty of our choosing across the university or at an affiliated research foundation.

Don't know much about this program in particular, but if you have any questions about UC or the graduate school in general feel free to ask.

Look at State schools that have R1 status.

CRISPR at this point is just another molecular technique. Personally, I just couldn't imagine working in a lab like that as a graduate student. As a postdoc? Maybe. My PI as a tech was prominent in his field and was never around as was the first PI I rotated w/ in grad school.

I find this funny as well save the names for a postdoc (if at all) to be honest. I was surprised to see that the majority of the faculty in my dept. didn't go to "top" schools ( this is at an R1 fwiw). Everything is about finding the right project and the right PI, and as many find out, trying to work with the biggest name PI isn't always the best either. You get out of grad school what you put into it IMHO. If you are productive and doing impactful work, you'll be fine regardless of where you go to school. Just my 2 cents.

I think there is a sub 3.0 thread going in the lobby. I wouldn't take too much stock in the 3.0 or bust thing. Graduate school admissions are more holistic than Med. or Law schools. You just have to make sure that the other parts of your applications shine. Also be prepared to have an honest conversation about your GPA.

Yup I felt like I needed a shower after turning down offers.

Seriously, it might sound harsh. But what you said is exactly right. If you are taking out loans for graduate school (especially in Biomed) you are doing something wrong. Remember too, that Stipends are taxed differently, and your health insurance will either be free or heavily subsidized. For instance, I personally took ~$7500 paycut to go back to graduate school. However, my take home pay is basically identical when you account for health insurance and tax differences..

TBH I didn't know they had graduate programs. Is their any type of service requirement like the medical students have?

One of the students in my cohort had a child at the beginning of our first semester. He has definitely had a rougher go of it than the rest of us as far as course work is concerned. If children are in the future, I would wait till you have gotten through quals (that's the deal my wife and I made). After that, you will basically be working a 9-5 (depending on how efficient you are).

There are some programs that are like this though.... I'm not sure what program the OP is referring to. I know one of the programs I applied to last year interviews were only w/ potential PIs (whether chosen by me or not). Ultimately, things did not mesh with the PI that interviewed me and I chose not to attend that school. I do think that some people do fall into the trap of applying to certain programs based on potential PIs only to be disappointed later on.

My program gives us 10 days of vacation, Black Friday and the week between Christmas and New Years off ( campus is officially closed so we get off). Also depending on your program, you might get a longer winter break in your first year based on how your rotations are laid out.

Not the most popular opinion, but make sure to ask about stipends and benefits (health insurance etc.). Also make sure to ask grad students how far their stipends go.

For interviews I wore slacks, shirt, tie and sweater. For everything else I wore quarterzips and either jeans or chinos.