Vene

I think that such feelings are common. Pre-admit it's something you have to work to achieve, but once you have the offer it's easy to start to take such for granted and wonder if you could do better. No matter what when you make a decision other options are gone forever, I'm sure you made the choice you did for good reason.

You could look at some of the programs on the list to see what they say about funding opportunities. If you're lucky a decent number of them will provide funding for all their students regardless of their GRE score (or lack thereof).

I didn't recall any block saying it was the research block, but I admit I was going brain dead near the end of the test.

It's not about offense, you've gotten constructive criticism so far and your actions in this thread do make you appear to be immature. This may be a cultural difference, but what you wrote here reads as immaturity. No, you're not better than they are. You have abilities to offer and so do they, including ones which are very difficult to quantify. And if Indians know that US schools don't define applicants based on test scores alone, then why would you expect an offer based on test scores alone? Disappointment is fine and natural. You have every right to be disappointed. But, part of being mature is to accept that you didn't get what you want and move on with your life. At least, that's the attitude here. You got into good universities and will have plenty of opportunities.

1. Sounds about like how I remember the test. 2. What's your field? For some programs your quantitiative score may mean absolutely nothing. My quant score mattered so what I did was googled for some GRE math questions and did those, I didn't use any book to prepare. I imagine even SAT practice questions will help, the actual math isn't terribly difficult. It's all basically algebra I learned way back in high school, but the tricky part was figuring out what they wanted you to do with the information presented.

A 2 bedroom apartment for $1600 sounds dreadfully expensive.

I never considered the size of the program for when I sent in applications. I did think a little bit about ranking, but I was far more concerned with if I could actually see myself succeeding at the university and being able to put in the committment necessary to complete the degree. I did temper my aspirations a little bit with my academic record, but that was secondary.

Not a Canadian here, so take my opinion with a grain of salt, but I have a hard time seeing academics looking at such a letter favorably. If you want the 60% mark, do the work to earn it.

An aggravatingly common attitude.

Pretty much this, if you want to get ahead in the world sticking your nose in a book isn't the best way to do it. Everything comes down to people, even scientific work comes down to people.

Childless and child free are very different things, and I for one find it grating how you are making this thread about yourself and how a thread about people who have no desire for children has been hijacked about somebody here who is all but lamenting about not having any kids.

You might be able to talk to the disability office and see what administrative options they offer. Between having the documentation of the disorder, the professors knowing you are knowledgeable, and the turn around from the medication that there is something they can do to minimize the damage caused.

26 here and married. I've luckily been able to avoid this question so far, but I think it helps that I'm male and not as directly pressured to have kids.

I'd call them.

Regardless of how bad it is, I can't imagine pursuing an unfunded PhD is a better idea.

I imagine they only give a shit about your quantitative score and that's in the 95th percentile. I see absolutely no reason why your GRE score should be a problem.

That sounds more like he's trying to hire a research associate than that he's taking on a graduate student. I know that to some extent we need to be independent, but if you're going to effectively be a bioinformatics consultant I feel that's crossing the line from student to employee.

What kind of evolutionary research does the Virginia Tech professor do? Evolutionary biology is pretty broad and touches on all other areas of biology so I'm not seeing at as impossible that your interests mesh up, especially considering the bioinformatics program has decided he's a fit for their department. Otherwise, I'd honestly look at Iowa State for research fit. Edit: But wasn't yesterday the deadline for accepting funded PhD offers?

I've been in contact about rotations already and been met with favorable response so far. My plan is to use the time I have until the program starts to do some reading on their area of focus.

Everywhere I've worked thank you emails are common. If nothing else they're good for telling the recipient that you did receive the email and you have what you need from them.

He's referring to jumping from postdoc to postdoc, which would make starting or raising a family very difficult and pays in the neighborhood of $45k. The $80k figure is what you can expect as an entry level PhD industrial chemist.

In your shoes, I'd look at all three options. Apply for the local MS programs as well as to a few PhD programs of interest. It's far from impossible to get into a PhD with a sub 3.0 GPA. If all else fails, find a job and try again.

All I can offer is my experience. I was a biology major with a chemistry minor who did a senior research project on algae. I then worked for a year doing product development and formulation for a major chemical company. I am now heading to do a PhD in biomedical science with absolutely zero research experience in the field. Also, I wouldn't quite say your neuroscience major is completely unrelated, it's still a life science degree and to a large extent at the undergraduate level they are interchangeable. You may get a program or two wondering why you're looking at conservation biology, but I'd imagine you'd still have a solid background in general biology theories and will be able to quickly leap into the field. I also imagine that your ecology work will help you.

I'm pleasantly surprised, hopefully it's more than just California who is doing this.

Just saw this thread and want to say, as an American (damn, that sounds pretentious), what I'd do is look to see if the state you're moving to set up their own exchange and call their help number with any questions. Otherwise, check out the healhcare.gov website for a contact number and call them to see what information they can offer you. Our system is kind of a mess and I don't think anybody really knows what is going to be happening with our healthcare system for the next few years. I just wouldn't expect much when you're coming in as an international because there was a lot of political bickering over the idea of US tax dollars to fund healthcare for non-Americans.