Vene

You email or call and state that you would like to withdraw your application. It's better to do such than to go there for the interview if you know you don't want to attend the university.

As far as relevance I can say that I know professors in departments other than neuroscience who do neuroscience work. Off hand, I can think of pharmacology and biophysics professors who would qualify. So, even if the degree isn't in neuroscience, if the work is relevant to neuroscience I don't see a real problem.

If you have already received your degree and they have your final transcripts you should contact the office to let them know. Otherwise, just finish the degree and submit the final transcripts when you're done.

From this very thread, actually. You brought up a women manipulating a male TA using her looks. Prior to that there was discussion about a male student wanting to talk to a particular TA because she's attractive. This is the dynamic seen. Surely you don't believe these two events are equivalent to each other, do you?

Speaking in generalities here: When a male student flirts with a female TA, he's doing it because he is attracted to her. She is an object of his desire. Emphasis on her being an object. When a female student flirts with a male TA, it's because he's in a position of authority and she wants favor. It is not because she desires him, instead she is trying to use her body as currency. There is a world of difference between these two events.

Were you thinking academic research or have you considered industrial? There is a huge bias in the academic world about staying there, but I've had good experiences going the industrial route. I'm actually really glad I spend some time doing industrial R&D as until then I didn't really know much about what options there are outside of school. I think that's honestly the biggest advantage of taking some time off is it shows you there is an entire world you haven't experienced.

I don't think it's worthwhile to do a masters unless you either want a terminal masters or you're trying to make up for shortcomings in undergrad. A gap year (or two) can be very good if you can get research experience, if you're not sure what you want to do, or if you need a break from school. On one hand, when you return you're more focused, on the other hand it can be hard to decide to take the pay cut. So, if you know you want a PhD and you know what kind of research you want to do it's not a bad idea to go for it. All that said, do think about why you want a PhD. If I were to ask you why you wanted one would you be able to give a good answer? Ideally, it should further career goals.

Some reading for you: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/oliver-burkemans-blog/2012/dec/12/stereotypes-bad-even-when-good (cited experiment if you prefer) https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/ulterior-motives/201302/the-pain-positive-stereotypes (cited experiment if you prefer)

I'm a little impressed by that one. Mostly by how terrible and nasty that is.

*bolded for emphasis* It can actually be really hard to notice implicit bias when you're not the target of it. But, talk to most any woman and you'll hear plenty of stories.

Wow, that's a little rough. When I flew out for an interview it got taken care of in a couple of days. Now, that didn't mean I knew the schedule for when I was there, but that's a different issue entirely.

A piece of advice, when you're searching for apartments plug in their addresses on google maps and check out what it gives you for traffic, especially if you can check out the traffic around rush hour. It can help you compare different apartments.

$1200 for a two bedroom should be very much in the realm of possibility and I always had a good impression of Uptown. Do you plan on driving to the campus? If so, Roseville has always struck me as a decent place and has a lot of shopping on Snelling. But, St Louis Park is just west of Minneapolis and is good, it's also got a major highway that runs through it making it easy to drive into the city. But, I don't think there's really anywhere that has a shortage of bars, restaurants, shopping, or parks. Pretty much every lake has a park attached and outside of the downtown region there's a lot of greenery. Dinkytown is very much undergrad students, but that's about the only place I can think of that is primarily students, Como may be the other. The thing is even though UMN is a huge university there's so many other people in the city that you don't have to travel very far before you run into other demographics. Mind you, this is my impression prior to moving east for graduate school and I spent most of my time in the suburbs (northern, followed by western) working as a technician.

Here is what I'd do. I'd continue with the process as normal and if/when accepted, then I'd contact the graduate office to tell them that there was a paperwork hiccup and you'll get the degree during the summer prior to enrolling. I truly doubt they'll care as long as you have the degree in hand when you start. Alternatively, you can still probably get the degree on time, if you're willing to miss out on the ceremony associated with it. You can always talk to the people at your university who handle awarding degrees as to your options.

I was in a similar situation, although we did do the courthouse wedding (it really was all about getting the paperwork signed). The tax breaks are wonderful and those alone made it worthwhile.

I didn't ask much for questions about their research, I focused more on the program and mentorship style as that is what mattered most to me. I've found that I'm content to work on a wide variety of different scientific questions and it didn't matter much to me if somebody's interest in a protein was in its expression or its function. What did matter to me is that I'd have somebody I'd be happy working under and that the program was a fit for my career goals. I wanted to get a feel for the program and the university, not just an individual. Naturally, you are free to ask about their research, but every professor I talked to was perfectly content to just talk at great length on their current projects and I found I got better information if I could delay that for as long as I could.

I've not experienced it, but I've heard of it where one program thinks that your research interests sound more in line with a similar department they'll give them your application instead. Say, you apply for a cancer PhD program when you say you're interested in epigenetics, but they know there are several people over in the developmental biology program who do that they may think that they're a better fit.

I've never heard of them doing an employment verification. I think they care far more about your LORs and transcripts and will take you at face value when you say you've been working at xyz incorporated. If you've published something as a result of your employment (say in a trade journal or as a patent), they may hunt that down, but such is easily verifiable without ever contacting your current employer.

Pretty much this. My program does rotations so contacting professors beforehand isn't really that important. However, talking to people in the biology PhD program it is effectively mandatory to form a working relationship with a professor prior to getting admitted. Anecdotally, I applied to 5 programs at 4 universities last year, didn't make contact with professors prior to interviewing, and I'm working on a PhD now.

Generally, I work under the assumption that whenever I'm being asked to waive a right that it's not a good thing. I did for my application season as it does me no good to fight it. But, it just strikes me as skeevy that in order to obtain higher education you functionally have to discard a right provided to you by law.

This is kind of focused on the sciences and I know isn't about coming in with a mental health issue, but still may be interesting. Mental illness really is a major issue in graduate education. http://sciencecareers.sciencemag.org/career_magazine/previous_issues/articles/2014_02_04/caredit.a1400031

What is your career goal? If it is to teach, TA. Otherwise, an RA is probably better for you.

I'm going to say that, since you need the time for making ends meet, if you're absolutely certain you won't be attending the program go ahead and cancel. Be polite when speaking to the program and just explain that you have been accepted elsewhere, have made your decision, and would like to withdraw your application. I'm assuming you made the arrangements in good faith, but now that you know you won't be attending there's no reason to continue with their recruitment process. That said, you must be absolutely sure, perceptions of the programs do change after the interview and I'm not sure you should cancel all of them.

That's what I think is the right idea. Talk with people who have been a member of an admission committee. At minimum, talk to people who have been through the process recently including current grad students and post-docs.

So terrible. Straight out of undergrad I lived a few states over from my family. Four hours means you can visit on long weekends pretty easily,