newms

business school

modern dance

medical records

criminal neglect

Thanks for sharing - it looks very useful.

It could unfortunately. It is generally not wise to date within your department or office since it could be *very* awkward if you breakup, but there are a few cases where it works out, so who's to say?

Google Calendar

population density

You can have a research career without having a Phd. Look at the researchers at this institute: http://singinst.org/research/residentfaculty. They (at least not all of them) don't appear to have PhDs. However, if you want to have a better chance at finding a research job, and one at a prestigious institution, then you will almost certainly need a PhD.

A lot of people I've spoken with (fellow applicants and my PI at the school I'm going to attend) have encouraged people who are coming straight out of undergrad to relax and enjoy the summer, since it'll be the last time for a while that they'll have an extended downtime. In my case (someone who's been out of undergrad for a while), I was encouraged to use the summer to do relevant work/readings. So if you're straight out of undergrad, taking the easy job might be the better option. If not, then consider the harder, more relevant job. You might also want to consider which will pay more, since there'll likely be significant initial costs involved with moving to a new city and starting grad school.

This is definitely not a weakness and there is no need to justify your current job. You could however, just note that you wanted to pursue a research opportunity in neuroscience but one wasn't available at the time. I think that even though this position is in a different field, it will still help you because much of STEM fields tend to be interdisciplinary nowadays so your pharmaceutical chemistry research may even be positive for your application. In your SoP, you should probably focus on more relevant research experiences that you have had, but you can still mention this current position - just try to tie it in to the narrative of what you want to research in grad school and why.

You should definitely follow up. It took about 5 weeks to get my I-20 after I accepted the school's offer of admission, but since I had accepted in March, I got my I-20 about a month ago. So perhaps they are still working on it, but I would definitely follow up with them to check if they need anything more from you. You still have time to get your visa processed, but that time is running out.

respiratory system

Are you referring to the OP that has a 3.5 GPA from UCLA?

behavior disorder

Nice. They were very well done.

Thanks. I'll have to look into it. My funding offer covers 'mandatory registration fees', so I'll have to check if there are any other fees I'd have to budget for.

What fees are you referring to?

World Series

Disney World

cruel joke

I read somewhere that someone recommended $4000 but I think that would be more than enough. Keep in mind that you could possibly pay two months rent before you get your first pay check (which is usually at the end of September) and you will need living expenses (groceries and maybe utilities) for the month of September and for the part of August that you are there. Plus book costs, and furniture costs, and transportation costs and you could be looking at $2000 to $3000 easy. If you want to open a bank account, you'll likely need an initial deposit (which varies) as well. And if you need a cell phone, that will likely be another deposit in addition to the cost of the phone. So initial costs can be high unfortunately

I think you're underselling yourself. Research experience is the most important part of you application and it seems that you have solid research experience. It would be really helpful if you could get good letters from the profs you worked with on research courses and with the REU this summer - so do your best to impress at the REU this summer. I think you'd have a good shot at top 20 schools, so I would encourage you to apply to a few top 20 schools as well as some lower ranked ones that would be good fits for you.

Wisconsin Badger

This is true unfortunately - when I was applying I was considering applying to a school outside the top 50 and I had emailed them a few questions and they told me that GRE scores were one of the more important things they considered and they said that they didn't get many applicants with my verbal score (>700). So while it doesn't have much importance to top schools, some lower ranked schools seem to consider GRE scores more than one would think. I ended up not applying to that school. To the OP, I think your scores are perfectly fine if the rest of your application is strong, ie your GPA, your research experience, your SoP and your letters of recommendation.