Vene

You can't let that situation hurt your confidence. It's all too common these days for people to be forced into shitty temporary jobs. Actually, last year I was in a situation similar to yours, I worked as a formulation chemist for a large company for about a year, but my contract ended November 2013 as I was in the middle of applying to PhD programs. I'm now in my second semester. You're above the minimums, I agree that your GPA is not stellar, but there's ways around that and I've known of people with lower GPAs who do great work. The year as an R&D chemist will be looked at very favorably. The position as an analytical chemist is also a positive, I think, as it still demonstrates bench skills and you do say there was some R&D. The lack of publications isn't a great hit, after all, industrial chemists don't publish nearly as often, there's the desire to keep everything in house instead of public. As for the recommendation, a manager is a good one to get. Academics are preferred, but at the same time one from an industrial scientist does carry a fair bit of weight and it is good to have one from your time in industry. I just wouldn't recommend more than the one unless you are several years out of undergrad. I can't help you there, sorry. I think at this point if you've already applied just doing something to keep you busy is sufficient. If you haven't applied yet another R&D or analytical job should be enough. There are some open-access journals such as PloSOne, otherwise patents are free to view. Google scholar will also point to free pdfs when one is available. Industrial research is seen as a positive, and you appear to have it. Non-research jobs are a step down, but if you're still doing something science related they're a net positive. I don't think your path will hurt you.

From this, it does sound like you may want to start a conversation with the PIs to try and find one who will fund you. At least, that's the next step I'd take.

Your GRE seems a little bit low for a PhD, if your GPA is also on the low side that's where you may benefit from a masters. Otherwise, an unfunded graduate degree is kind of questionable in terms of value. I'm sure the degree is fine, but it's just that the cost of such is high and biology, even microbiology, doesn't have strikingly high earning potential. If you have no debt from undergrad and a way to support yourself, it could be valuable, but if you need to go into significant debt I'd think long and hard. I would honestly take the words of the coordinator with a grain of salt. Is there an interview or any current students you can talk to? They're the ones who are most able to tell you how the program works on an individual level.

Well, I'm not in a masters program and I'm not going to get a masters, however I am in my first year of a PhD program and am currently 27.

You still gotta pass. And, more likely than not, the grad school is going to expect you to remember what you learned from undergrad, so those classes can still matter.

You are 99% accepted. It means the program wants to accept you, but need the graduate college to process everything. In rare cases a candidate is denied admission, typically because they don't meet some minimum requirement (such as too low of a TOEFL score or below minimum GPA). Even then, the program could argue on the candidate's behalf to get the requirement waived. So, basically, you're in. Congratulations.

Once you've gotten an interview your stats are far less important. Don't worry about it.

I've worked with PhD chemists with MBAs and I know of PhD scientists who do work on patents (note sure if a law degree is required or desirable). So, I think it is a feasible outcome if you want a specific type of career. But, don't do it for the sake of collecting degrees.

As long as you're actually doing some form of research during it, yes, it counts. Also, very few US grad schools admit in the spring. A MS is a lower degree and is treated like one. PhDs are paid more and given more demanding responsibilities. To simplify, a PhD is to a MS what a MS is to a BS.

Well, when asked about the program I was honest about it. I'll admit that there may be some implicit pressure to talk the university up, but as long as we don't get the reputation of that guy who scares away the recruits we don't really have anything to lose by telling somebody to run. Also, it really is easy to tell the difference between somebody who is putting on a song and dance versus somebody who genuinely likes what they do. That's doubly true when we're drinking and we are going to be doing just that. Do ask us about what it is like to live in the area. We can tell you if you're going to have to expect to live in campus housing, if you're going to need a roommate, or if you can actually pay bills on your own. We can also tell you what sort of time commitment you're going to be expected to make. FYI, if current grad students can't tell you where there are fun things to do you're looking at a program where you're expected to spend nights and weekends in the lab. That's a really tricky one as nobody you'll be talking to will know the stats off the top of their head. I think it can be appropriate to talk a professor during an interview what they expect in terms of time to graduation in their lab. I also think it can be appropriate to ask current students about their impression of time to degree. But, either way you'll really just get general impressions more than anything concrete. Just, don't quote the site's statistics and make it an accusing tone, more ask it as an inquiry as such a thing is important for a recruit to know. Also, once the formal interviews are done with the professors you can honestly breathe a sigh of relief. At that point it is still possible for you to do something that blacklists you, but it's going to be hard as you'll have to act very inappropriately. Remember, it's okay to drink, it's not okay to get shitfaced.

At least where I'm studying we don't expect incoming students to have publications to their name, although it certainly helps. That said, research experience is essential (industry is just as good as academia). I was assuming this is for a PhD, as it's pretty common for people in biology to go from a bachelors to a doctorate. My program doesn't take applications to its masters, it is only given out if a PhD student leaves prior to completing a doctorate.

I think that procedures are likely to vary so much across different departments and universities that'll you'll drive yourself crazy trying to analyze this question.

I imagine this depends on the field you're in. In my field it's an interview. The university I'm at brings in x number of students for a few days where they interview with professors, are shown the university's facilities, we host a poster session for them, and they go out for dinner. The following day they're taken for something fun to show them the area and then there's dinner with current students and faculty.

You have 8 interviews to stellar universities, don't worry about Stanford at this point. You're looking at a lot of traveling in the upcoming months, which is a lot more exhausting than you realize. Last year there were several posters here in situations like yours who ended up turning down their later interviews after the first few because of that exhaustion.

It means that even if you have the minimum background, you're a high risk hire. A PhD is a bad match for an admin assistant because they suspect you'll get bored with the job and leave at the first opportunity, thereby wasting the time they spent training you. Additionally, overqualified candidates are often low-morale, which interferes with performance, and feel that their current tasks are beneath them, which also interferes with performance.

I think they don't realize that even though we're skilled and intelligent that we're competing against so many other skilled and intelligent people. During Thanksgiving break my parents outright told me that they thought the idea of me being a professor at a community college was a waste of my talents, never mind that any academic job is incredibly hard to get. I wasn't even proposing it as a serious thing, just making light talk about how they'd like it if I got a job at the local college because it would mean I live nearby (I've been living in a different state than them for the last 5-ish years and it's not likely to change in the future) and got such a visceral negative response.

I fully agree that writing is important in every field, but I disagree on the utility of AW for every field. The kind of writing I do is very different from the AW portion of the test and if I were to follow scientific writing conventions I'd get a terrible score on it. Likewise, if I followed AW conventions when doing scientific writing I'd be told it needs a massive rewrite. I honestly believe the Verbal portion is a better indicator for us as that has a lot more to do with logic and analyzing arguments.

There's an old thread filled with stuff like this: It's really hard to understand what the process is like unless you're actually going through it. I'm sure your mother means well, but that doesn't make it any less annoying.

If events start at 5:30 it's probably a welcome dinner, I can't imagine there being anything too intense. Friday should be the real interviews.

You could always do the GRE during the summer break or schedule it so that you take the exam soon after the fall semester starts. With the GRE I honestly most prepared for the quantitative section and it was just by doing sample math problems so I could get the feel for what kind of math it expected me to know. None of the questions were terrible difficult and the verbal section was mostly a lot of reading comprehension and logic based questions.

Having it in writing helps immensely, but yes, do talk to the university's disability office and be prepared to get a lawyer. A lawyer can be a drastic step, but such an act can also open avenues that were previously completely shut off.

I have heard of a few cases of students being recommended for admission to the graduate college and getting rejected, but those were cases when the student doesn't meet something like a minimum GPA. So, as long as there isn't something like that going on I'd treat it as an admission.

It sounds like to me that if you were going to cancel on a school UCSC is least likely to hold a grudge against you for doing so as they haven't paid a significant sum of money on tickets for you.

I don't think anybody will look down on you if you decline to drink. Personally, when I interviewed, I just had one drink during when they were offered and stopped after that.

I agree 100% with this, so much research today requires a solid understanding of proteins and genes, biochemistry gives your the foundation necessary. In modern biomedical research you can't skimp out on the chemistry.