kimmibeans

I discovered today that my department at my undergrad school made a facebook page about a year ago (which I was invited to like at some point but never saw it). While browsing through some of the photos, I discovered that a picture of me doing a titration was the cover photo for the entire past year up until a week ago. And I didn't get to see it, darn it! Well, at least they love me, anyway (or something like that).

I never thought I would be the one writing this but.....
I GOT OFF THE WAITLIST!!!!
I am still in shock, all systems are currently down...

I'm not an international student, so I could be wrong on this, but from what I understand the GRE is probably the least important part of your application. It seems to work like this-- a very low score could keep you out of a school, but a great score will not get you in alone. So while it is important to retake the GRE and show some improvement, I think that putting all of your energy into making it "perfect" may be less worthy of your time then securing a tech position. You need to show the admissions committees that you've tried to address all weaknesses in your application to the best of your ability, but outside of showing effort and some improvement I'm not sure that the GRE will be that important. Definitely get yourself a tech position, preferably in a decent lab where you can get LORs from people who carry weight if possible. While getting tech jobs are tough straight out of uni, you seem to have a decent resume that most PIs would gravitate towards. At the end of the day all they want is a good technician, so I think that as long as there aren't too many hoops to jump through they would be ok with your international status. HOWEVER, I would strongly suggest considering taking two years off instead of applying for the next season. PIs strongly prefer a candidate that will guarantee 2 years, and based on what I've seen from the hiring process of technicians this is a deal breaker. Also, the best way to overcome low GREs and no publications is by getting some solid full time research experience, so taking the two years will work very much to your advantage. It will also show commitment to the admissions committees. I would also work on strengthening your personal statement and think about the people you've asked to submit LORs for you. If you think any of them may be a bit weak, try to swap it out for a better one next season.

For those international students who will be moving to New York and can't visit, I strongly suggest that if you don't have a friend in the city who can visit apartments for you AND you can't afford, or don't want, to pay for a broker, that you arrange a short-term rental/sublet - like a month or two - and then use that time to find something more permanent in the city. It's generally a bad idea no matter where you go to sign a year's lease sight unseen, but I think it's especially a bad idea in New York's market because there are so many terrible situations you can get yourself into. It's not like a lot of American suburbs where most of the apartments are pretty similar to each other.
As for the question about broker's fees, there are two amounts that I have seen most frequently: 1) the equivalent of one month's rent; or 2) 12-15% of the first year's rent. The amount seems to depend on the kind of broker you get.

Well comrades, it's over. Or maybe I should say it's just beginning...
I've accepted an offer - Biological Physics, Structure, and Design at the University of Washington in Seattle !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

They rejected me (without interview) two years ago - but I'm back, baby. 

Have. Never. Been. More. Excited. About. Anything. In. My. Life. 

 

So happy that this process is over and done with! I never expected it to be so stressful. I experienced all types of emotions throughout. I was already formulating a plan B at the end of December as I didn't receive my first interview invite until January. Phew, I'm so glad to have that stress behind me and to have been accepted to a couple of my top schools. I got so many great tips from this forum and it was always comforting knowing that I wasn't the only neurotic one going through this crazy process.
 
Duke, here I come!!!

Following suit, because I wish I had this sort of information going in to the process.
 
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Undergrad Institution: State school
Major(s): Molecular biology
Minor(s): Pure mathematics (abandoned 2nd major -- 6 credits short of major)
GPA in Major: 3.88
Overall GPA: 3.85/4.00
Position in Class: Top 5% (the university provided this info, but a lot of schools don't)
Type of Student: Domestic female 
 
GRE Scores (revised/old version):
Q: 168, 95th %ile
V: 164, 93rd %ile
W: 6.0, 99th %ile

Research Experience: When I applied I had 1 year of experience, in one lab, and I was working 30-40 hours/week. I had a first-author pub at the time of application. The lab I'm in is not neuroscience-related and the only neuro background I had was a course in neurobiology (using Kandel's Principles of Neural Science). 
Awards/Honors/Recognition: 2 state-specific research fellowships and 1 outside grant (Sigma Xi GIAR). Nominated graduation speaker, nominated "top 10 scholar" for the graduating year of 2014. Various scholarships throughout my earlier years.

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Until I started research, I worked part-time as a pharmacy tech in a hospital for 3.5 years. I compounded oral and IV drugs. I had to earn continuing education (CE) credits to maintain certification. I don't know if this actually counts for anything but I'm permanently crazy about aseptic technique now.

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help: I'm an adjunct lecturer in the math dept at my undergrad institution and I had one semester of teaching "freshman algebra" at the time of application. Also TA'ed for 2nd semester organic chemistry, calc III (for 3 semesters), and calc II throughout my undergrad years.

Special Bonus Points: I finished all of my applications before November. This shouldn't technically matter unless a school has rolling admissions, but I was told by students at my first interview (Vanderbilt) that it "matters a lot", because applications are generally reviewed in some semblance of the order in which they were received.
 
Applied to: (all neuroscience)
University of Utah
University of Colorado AMC
Vanderbilt NGP
University of Pittsburgh CNUP
Brandeis University
Oregon Health & Science University
University of Washington
University of Iowa
 
--Results --
 
Rejections :
None
 
Interviews:
All, but I declined invites to interview at UW, Brandeis, and Iowa. I was invited to interview at UW's pharmacology program a couple weeks after I declined the neuro invite.   Acceptances:
Colorado, Vanderbilt, Utah, Pittsburgh, OHSU.
 
Other things I want to say to future applicants:
-OHSU has a reputation on gradcafe for only accepting people with "1 year of post-bacc research experience" (see the results search for examples of this). Their rejection letters do routinely claim this line, but some of the students I met (as well as myself) were accepted without a full year of post-bacc research. Don't let it stop you from applying if you're interested.
-Interviews aren't scary! Please don't be as anxious as I was. It's so much fun to meet people in the same boat.
-All of the GRE essay topics are on the GRE website (the issue & argument pools). There are hundreds of them, but there are common themes you can be prepared for.
-At one of my interviews, we were told that we were selected to interview because our SOPs described a time that we overcame a setback in the lab.

I figured I'd also chime in on my background for future applicants following @ballwera's example since I found this thread a bit late in the application season. I learned quite a lot from this tread and hope for future applicants to do the same. 
 
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Undergrad Institution: Top 5 Private Engineering School
Major(s): Chemical Engineering, Chemistry 
Minor(s): Statistics, Biology 
GPA in Major: 3.82/4.00
Overall GPA: 3.68/4.00
Position in Class: No Idea, somewhere in the top 50 most likely
Type of Student: Immigrant (domestic applicant though), Underrepresented, Male  
 
Master's Institution: Top 5 Private Engineering School (same school)
Major(s): Analytical Chemistry 
Minor(s): N/A 
GPA in Major: 4.00/4.00
Overall GPA: 4.00/4.00
Position in Class: Top 3  
 
GRE Scores (revised/old version):
Q: 165/170
V: 167/170
W: 4.5/6.0

Research Experience: 4.5 years total working on various projects spanning from electrochemistry, process/control engineering, and inorganic biochemistry. Also spent 4 months working as an ChE intern in industry

Awards/Honors/Recognition: Dean’s List, ChE Honor Society, Bio Honor Society

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: President of AIChE chapter, Community Outreach & tutoring for underprivileged students

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help: Presented work at 2 conferences

Special Bonus Points: Letter of Rec. from a mentor who is a director at a fortune 500 pharmaceutical company and did his PhD and postdoc at 2 of the institutes I applied to.
 
Applied to:
UNC-Chapel Hill, Eshelmann School of Pharmacy, Division of Pharmacotherapy and Experimental Therapeutics
Duke University, School of Medicine, Pharmacology & Cancer Biology
Baylor College of Medicine, Integrative Molecular Biomedical Sciences
Case Western Reserve University, School of Medicine, Molecular Therapeutics Training Program
Purdue University, School of Pharmacy, Medicinal Chemistry & Molecular Pharmacology
Indiana University, School of Medicine, BioMedical Gateway Program
Ohio State University, School of Medicine, Integrated Biomedical Sciences
 
--Results --
 
Rejections :
UNC-Chapel Hill, Eshelmann School of Pharmacy, Division of Pharmacotherapy and Experimental Therapeutics
 
Interviews:
Purdue University, School of Pharmacy, Medicinal Chemistry & Molecular Pharmacology
UNC-Chapel Hill, Eshelmann School of Pharmacy, Division of Pharmacotherapy and Experimental Therapeutics
Ohio State University, School of Medicine, Integrated Biomedical Sciences
Indiana University, School of Medicine, BioMedical Gateway Program
Duke University, School of Medicine, Pharmacology & Cancer Biology
Baylor College of Medicine, Integrative Molecular Biomedical Sciences
Case Western Reserve University, School of Medicine, Molecular Therapeutics Training Program
  Acceptances:
Purdue University, School of Pharmacy, Medicinal Chemistry & Molecular Pharmacology
Ohio State University, School of Medicine, Integrated Biomedical Sciences
Duke University, School of Medicine, Pharmacology & Cancer Biology  <---- Attending
Baylor College of Medicine, Integrative Molecular Biomedical Sciences
Case Western Reserve University, School of Medicine, Molecular Therapeutics Training Program
Indiana University, School of Medicine, BioMedical Gateway Program
 
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Hopefully this helps with any applicants who aren't coming from traditional bio-backgrounds going to bio heavy grad programs 

I have officially accepted my offer to The University of Texas Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at Houston (MD Anderson)!! I am so excited!! :-) Time to kick cancer's butt!

I have accepted my offer to join the immunology training program at the University of Washington-Seattle!

So, I finally made a decision everyone. I'm officially going to be a grad student at Stanford University!!! 

Congratulations! Sackler is a great school and their research is awesome. Good luck with your studies!

First admit! What a relief!

Made my decision! This is so UNREAL. 
 
Thank you to all of you posting on this forum. It's been a long struggle full of doubt and awkwardness and lurking here has really been helpful for advice and also just to know that we're all going through this together. And best of luck to those of you still waiting!!!! 
 
Now to turn down my other offers... any tips on how to do this gracefully? 

My long term goal is to study how neuroendocrinological changes may affect behaviour and cognition. As a child I felt fell in love in idea of a “small thingy thing that changes everything” - endocrinology as my mother and I often visited clinical endocrinologist due to her illness- Addisson's Disease.  when I would go with my mother to her endocrinologist to help with her Addisson's Disease. Over the year that I went with her to the doctor I begun began to observe the psychological and cognition changes developing in patients with endocrinological diseases. In search for responses of answers, I decided to try studying Medicine first, but as my interest in research grow, I transferred to studying Biomedical Sciences. Seeking Aadditional experiences and elucidation to some of my childhood questions, I stumbled upon the studies of Professor m and it pounded hit me that neuroendocrinology is what I have been looking for. My driving motivation in pursuing a career in research is passion for science amd and teaching, and the transition of “bench science” to clinical practice.
The words of Alfred Albert Einstein's famous words “If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough,” inspired me to challenge myself by teaching some lay- back audiences neuroscientific concepts in the Famelab competition, where I became a Scottish laureate (Ed Note: I'm not exactly sure what you mean by this. Did you win a prize?). It was a great joy to fascinate public with neuroscience and possibly implant future passion into some of them. Althouht Although the road to Aacademia is often long and rocky, I would like to eventually become in future become a good professor with who gains equal as much pleasure from teaching as from he/she does from research. In order to pursue these long term goals, I have decided to contact with professor M in order to strengthen my lab skills and knowledge irreplaceable gain irreplaceable knowledge in pursuing a PhD and later post-doc under his/her mentorship.
This research grant would allow me to gain essential experience in a lab setting among magnificent faculty, which is necessary to pursue a future career in academia. This experience will teach me various scientific techniques, in practice such as immunochemistry, wWestern blotting, data collection, and analysis, which will be substantially benefiting beneficial to me in my future research career. 

Besides being exciting, it made me feel that the year's gone by so fast! Four of us who volunteered to be "guides" at our recruitment dinner last night met each other for the first time at the same dinner a year ago...thinking about that is just crazy!

Same here! I'm helping with the events for our visit day next week and I am stoked! It is going to be awesome.

It's so exciting hosting recruits! I really want to know who I'll be seeing again in the fall now!

It depends on the school. I know that at least my school doesn't send many acceptances over what they expect, and they definitely pull off the waitlist. Most of the time the waitlist is because they liked you as an applicant and think that you are a good fit, but there were people who were a better fit who they want to make an offer to first.

expandyourmind,
 
I am so sorry to hear that. If I could, I would reach through the screen and give you a hug right now and not let go. Thinking "what if?" won't change anything, and it definitely won't help. It sounds like your ex was on a downward trajectory, and it has nothing to do with you. You're going to hurt for a while, but that's okay. Grief is good, but don't let it overtake your life. You're going to be pursuing your dream come the Fall, which is amazing! Grad school is going to be a clean slate, where you'll have lots of new experiences and meet plenty of new people. I don't want to ramble, but if you need to just talk feel free to PM me. I wish you luck.

SOS Brigade

expandyourmind,
 
I am so sorry to hear that. If I could, I would reach through the screen and give you a hug right now and not let go. Thinking "what if?" won't change anything, and it definitely won't help. It sounds like your ex was on a downward trajectory, and it has nothing to do with you. You're going to hurt for a while, but that's okay. Grief is good, but don't let it overtake your life. You're going to be pursuing your dream come the Fall, which is amazing! Grad school is going to be a clean slate, where you'll have lots of new experiences and meet plenty of new people. I don't want to ramble, but if you need to just talk feel free to PM me. I wish you luck.

Thanks! I'll be heading to UMass Med Worcester!

People who smoke in front of entryways and bus stops. Look, I don't care about your health. I really don't. I do unhealthy things too, so you can smoke away. But my unhealthy habits don't make people walk through clouds of crappy smelling smoke, making them cough and their eyes water when it's particularly heavy, just to get to class, or just when waiting for the bus. You're not meant to smoke within 25 feet of entrances or at bus stops anyway. :\

Officially going to MIT Biology, most amazing place in the world!!!!!! :-)  :] :3 :c) :> =] 8) =) :} :^) :っ) ＼(~o~)／ ＼(^o^)／ ＼(-o-)／ ヽ(^。^)ノ ヽ(^o^)丿 (*^0^*)(✿◠‿◠) d(*⌒▽⌒*)b ♪┏(・o･)┛♪┗ ( ･o･) ┓♪┏ ( ) ┛♪┗ (･o･ ) ┓♪