DGChaos
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Posts posted by DGChaos
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So far, I know that east durham is not the safest place to live. What about south durham? Or those complexes between Durham and Chapel Hill? Or the research triangle area?
Yeah. I've heard the same.
lunarem, on 25 Mar 2014 - 06:32 AM, said:I am not going to Duke, but I just wanted to chime in because I grew up in Durham and am currently living here again (until I leave for my program in the fall). I know Durham can have a shady reputation, so I just wanted to let everyone know that Durham is AWESOME. Tons of amazing restaurants, breweries, parks/trails, museums, shopping, etc. It has received a great revitalization in recent years and has turned into somewhat of a hipsterish type of town (but not in a bad way). Chapel Hill and Raleigh are also a 20 minute drive away and each very cool and different in their own ways. Yes, Durham has some sketchy parts (don't all cities?), so do your research before moving. But it is not something I would be worried about, and not something I have ever had to worry about.
Just to bounce persimmony's question, which parts of Durham are sketchy or safe in your opinion? What do you think of the place north of Central Campus?
Some people have also told me that the Belmont Apartments area isn't particularly safe and keeps getting broken into.
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UC Irvine, which was one of my favorites and also one of the lower ranked among the universities I applied to rejected me for my grades. Other universities higher up admitted me. Likewise, I have been/expecting to be rejected by Maryland, Iowa, UCSB. But I think these had more to do with fit and my interactions with the faculty. But yeah, Irvine's rejection was completely unexpected as it was a great fit.
Ultimately, I was interviewed/admitted by Duke, CMU, and WashU. I chose Duke.
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badhorse, on 21 Mar 2014 - 9:56 PM, said:badhorse, on 21 Mar 2014 - 9:56 PM, said:
If anyone's looking for a roommate for a 2BR/2BA then feel free to pm me and we can see if we'd be compatible. I'll be starting my phd in Fuqua and don't know a single person in the area yet!
Same here. I'm looking for a housemate too.
I'll be going there for the first time this Fall. Check your inbox.
- hashirama and museum_geek
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persimmony, on 18 Mar 2014 - 9:12 PM, said:
Not sure if you guys have seen this but here is a great review of various apartment complexes in the Durham area, rated by current students and post docs: http://studentaffairs.duke.edu/sites/default/files/u110/2010_Apartment_Complex_Report.pdf
Thanks!
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I am planning to go there too. Never been to Durham and I have heard mixed reviews.
I'm from Bangalore, India. I love the folks at Duke, but I'll admit I am excited and a little intimidated at the thought of moving to a new continent and staying there for the next six years or so.
Would any of you be interested in a private Facebook group so we can get to know each other better?
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Hey there. Thanks got your replies. Check your inboxes. Cheers.
Anyone else going to/in Duke?
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Professor from my top choice, Irvine, said I probably won't be accepted this fall. I didn't think anything could hurt after I got into Duke, but this just reopened old wounds.
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Hmm. If WUSTL accepts me now, it will be really really hard to choose. Nevertheless, I think Duke is going to be my destination.
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Urbana Champaign's Valentine's Day gift ensured I wouldn't be leaving her side for another year.
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Well, sure UW may be miles ahead. But that doesn't necessarily mean that Harvard wouldn't be a better fit. I think it comes down to talking to faculty and figuring who are the folks you would most like to work with.
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I don't think it can hurt to contact professors. I did that after submitting my application, and professors were nice enough to get back to me. And keep in mind that they won't be receiving a deluge of mails after everyone has submitted.
If you express genuine interest, why should it come off as desperate? Everybody knows you applied because you want to get into the program. There's absolutely nothing wrong in expressing your interest.
Write a nice cover letter. Talk a bit about their research. Politely ask if it would be possible to have a quick chat over Skype. -
Yeah. I'm trying to find out about universities without actually visiting them.
Google street view is invaluable to get a feel for the place. I'm going to contact a few students too to get to know the university better. There are also student clubs that can help you, so I'll be looking into those as well.
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First acceptance to Davis! They even called to tell me in person. I'm pretty excited. They are doing a lot of research that fits my interests and all of the POIs that I met were very friendly and helpful. Man, this first acceptance really makes next year feel real now. One way or another I will be starting a PhD program. Freaking rad.
I'm feeling the exact same thing. Congrats!
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An accept from Duke! One of my top choice programs. The Duke interview was probably the worst one over Skype. I'm very pleasantly surprised. Especially since my background is in Electrical Engineering.
Hang in there folks. Good luck!
- aaabbbccc88, sunpenguin, Sylvia88 and 2 others
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I just got a HUGE heart attack, and it is the best one I've had so far. Duke sent me an accept!
Dum dee dum dee dum dee doo...
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Spatiotemporal dynamics.
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Where I'm from, 20 degrees (in Celsius) is cold!
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Ha ha. Well, you'll have to make some assumptions--and to be on the safe side, consider a bleak scenario. Also, I accounted for the correction factor zip mentioned earlier, but never pushed it past a value of 1.
Suppose you are applying to programs A, B, and C.
If your stats are similar or higher than those who got into these programs, just take probability of getting into A: prob(A) = (number of accepts in A/number of applicants). Otherwise, take half of the probability (just so you don't overestimate). If your stats are noticeably lower, don't consider the school during your calculations.
Take the probability of not getting into A as probnot(A) = 1 - prob(A).
Now, the overall probability of getting into at least one school is: 1 - probnot(A)*probnot(B )*probnot(C ).
In my case, the probability of getting into at least one school out of the three interviews I finished will be: 1 - 0.8*0.8*0.7 = 0.55. (where the probabilities of getting into A, B, and C are 0.2, 0.2, and 0.3 respectively).
Cheers. And good luck.
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BostonBio153, on 16 Feb 2014 - 11:21 PM, said:
I think that you could send a thank you note a week later, but instead of just saying thank you, you'd have to have some sort of follow-up (e.g. you talked about some paper they had recently published and read it and had some comments/questions).
Also, Science_Nerd makes a good point about the responses of the interviews as a way to gauge how well you did!
Thanks for the tip! I had a genuine question, so I did just that with on the Profs who interviewed me from my one of top-choice programs. His reply was quite encouraging. But no news about an admit yet so I'm not going to get my hopes up just yet.
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rockwell_, on 19 Feb 2014 - 4:06 PM, said:
I'm out of reach and nervous about not attending any interviews, since i'm working/living in Australia the past few years and have just applied to schools this year. I doubt I'd get anyone to foot the bill across the Pacific and back for a weekend meet and greet.
You'll just have to do it over Skype. I would have loved to go there in person, but I didn't really have a choice.
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What are my chances of getting into a funded bio phd program?
in Biology
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Hey. I applied to computational/systems biology programs and was interested in a fair amount of experimental work, so maybe I could weigh in. Besides, most of my applications were reviewed by the biology departments.
My GPA was about the same as yours when I applied (just at 3.0). Some schools don't really care about your GPA while some others compare applicant grades before they make the interview shortlist. Based on personal experience, the schools that didn't seem to care much about my low GPA were WashU, Harvard, Duke, Carnegie Mellon, and University of Pittsburgh. UC Irvine (which was one of my favorite schools and top choice) specifically mentioned low GPA when they rejected me. I suspect Columbia, Baylor College of Medicine, and University of Maryland also rejected me for similar reasons.
We can't say if these schools would be a good fit for you as you will need to figure that out by looking at faculty webpages. It's also perfectly fine if you have a broad set of interests and would like to use lab rotations in your first year as an opportunity to explore different areas (that's what I am doing!) so long as you can relate to the research in those labs in your Statement of Purpose or cover letter.
I didn't give the subject test, but many schools do recommend it. If you think you could do well, take the test.
Ultimately, the universities that are good for you will depend greatly on how you perceive the labs. You'll need to spend 30 to 60 hours (or more!) reading about the research at different labs and narrowing down your choices. There are tons of great places out there--don't let our opinion or ranks cloud yours. Well, not to a great extent anyway.
Good luck!