kimmibeans

Do NOT use the Princeton Review book! The biology review was horrible. They made up terms and got basic information taught to high school students wrong. I quickly switched to Kaplan and it helped a lot. One thing I recommend doing is taking a diagnostic exam to see where you are weak in. The Bio GRE asks questions from across the board, including a few areas that I never touched (they like paleobiology a lot for some reason). There is also a disproportionate amount of material on plant biology on the test. Take a diagnostic test and review, review, review! I recommend using an intro Biology textbook (my personal recommendation is Campbell's Biology) to go over areas you are not very familiar with. A review book can only do so much, and a text book will go into much more detail. I hope this helped. Good Luck!

I live in New York City, so I can talk about Columbia and NYU. NYU is located in the West Village, which is a relatively safe area. It's mostly residential and largely populated with NYU students, so it is safer than some other areas of the city. It's also a huge tourist destination, so it is usually pretty crowded and there is a strong police presence in the area. Plus, NYU doesn't have a true campus, so university police are stationed throughout the area. Columbia is way uptown, and while the area surrounding Columbia is okay, be careful stepping too far away from campus, especially if you are not familiar with the city. However, the area up there is lovely and as long as you watch where your going and pay attention to your surroundings you should be fine. The key thing to remember about going to school in any city is that it is as safe as you make it. Always be aware of your surroundings and your valuables. Use bags that close at the top with a zipper or buckled flap and keep your eyes and ears open.

One thing that helped me is that due to a mistake on my application where the system interpreted me as an international student, I was asked to start filling out immigration papers for one of my schools. I'm not an international student, but I'm taking it as a good sign! But to help not think about waiting I've been watching a lot of horrible TV shows to distract me.

Every time I tell somebody I am applying for a PhD, I get Person: "Don't you need a Master's for that?" Me: "No, not necessarily. I just need research experience." Person:"How long does it take?" Me: "4-6 years." Person: "It takes 4-6 Years? Who's paying for that?" Me: "The school." Person: "Oh yeah? What's the catch? There's always a catch. Don't trust them!" Me: "The catch is I sell my soul to them for 6 years." or I get "You are? That's great! Don't worry, you'll get in everywhere; you're so smart!" That one really kills me.