chemist242

Hey everybody, sorry for not being more clear. They still want to offer the interviewees the opportunity to visit. This issue has come up more recently after most of the invitations were sent out. The graduate program has had some funding sources fall through (most of TSRI is privately funded and TSRI has no endowment unlike most research institutions). At TSRI, the graduate program funds all graduate students through their first year and then the PIs must pay their students or the students will have a fellowship. This is where the problem lies. Each year there are about 30-40 new graduate students that come to Scripps (~32,000 X 40 students = 1.28 million dollars), but because of budget concerns the class size will have to be more like 10-15 students (~10% of ~120 interviewees). Again, sorry to be the bearer of bad news but I thought it wasn't fair for the interviewees not to know ahead of time. Best of luck with your grad school visists. Chemist242

Hey everybody, I just thought I'd let everyone here know, but Scripps CA and FL are only going to be accepting ~10% of all applicants selected for "interviews" this year. In previous years they have accepeted closer to 90% of applicants invited out for interviews. There have been severe budget cuts at both institutions this year and this is the reason for the stringent acceptance requirements. If you ask they will probably deny it, but this is the case. I know because I go to TSRI and am on the graduate student recruiting committee. I asked them why thet wouldn't tell the recruits this but they didn't want to give TSRI a bad name, but frankly that isn't fair to the recruits. Believe me, we are disappointed with this as graduate students, but there is not that can be done if the budget is not there. You may want to set your sights on other graduate programs if you were invited out to visit TSRI this week or in 2 weeks. I Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. Chemist 242