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I don't know about formal allocation, but here's a table of statistics from 2007-2009: https://www.nsfgradfellows.org/about_the_program/statistics_of_past_recipients

Not at my institution, but at a prestigious neuroscience program last year, one of the recruits had sex with three guys in the program interview weekend. The three guys in the program later found out, and I don't think she was offered a position. So yeah.....do not sleep around interview weekend. People talk, and being a bicycle will not reflect well upon you.

Hello! This might be a dumb question, but I started a summer rotation June 2010. I was required to register for my institution's research credit place holder to get paid by my department, and it shows up on my transcript as a "class." The Program Solicitation says that summer rotations don't count for the August 1 cut off for one year of graduate study for eligibility. My question is, since it shows up on my transcript that I matriculated June 2010, do I need to mark the over 12 months of graduate study option and write an Eligibility Essay? Thanks!

The solicitation is posted! Happy writing!

Sorry, I don't really feel comfortable saying which program it is. But it looks like I'll be waiting to apply next cycle. The admissions director basically said a phone interview wouldn't suffice and that I have to fly out there. Thanks for the advice.

I received an e-mail yesterday saying that if I could pay all my travel expenses, the school will interview me. It would cost me about $1000 for airfare, hotel, taxi (city doesn't have too public transport), and missed work. I'd have to pull the money out of my rainy day funds which is scary. Any advice? Would it be better to just forsake this year's applications process and try again next year? Will they perceive me not going as a lack of sufficient interest in their program?

I have gotten 3 official rejections, 1 unofficial rejection, and I have gotten no interview invitations (kiss of death for neuroscience programs). It looks like I got rejected across the board. How I am dealing with it: ice cream, work, some TV (I almost never watch TV), A LOT of hiking. Just keep on going. Do the things you like and have fun with. It hurts, but life goes on. Good luck to you!

I'm domestic, and I think I'm probably just SoL. The interview weekend is a week away, and at this point, even if I get notification, airfare is becoming cost prohibitive for me. *crosses eyes* Ah well, hope the evil hope that next year is better!

One of my recommendation writers found out that my application was ranked highly at the school. However, for various reasons, I wasn't extended an invitation to interview. My letter writer said that they would offer me an interview if I would pay my own way there (airfare and hotel). I agreed to it, but this was all second hand information. No one from the school has actually made contact with me so I have no official information. I feel powerless to do anything because my recommender said I should just wait it out and see what happens, and I have mixed feelings about knowing my application was highly ranked at one of the top programs in the nation yet not getting any interviews anywhere.

I was informally offered an invitation to interview at a school, and now I haven't heard anything back for a week when the interview weekend is early February. Calling and e-mailing have not yielded any responses, and now I'm wondering if I've been pocket vetoed. I haven't been offered any other interviews so this is it for this application cycle. Any advice on what I can/should do? Or am I just SoL and being jerked around? I had pretty much accepted that I'd been denied admission everywhere this year, and this situation is just wreaking havoc on me.

I currently actually have the rare job where I have the opposite. Stranger: "So what do you do for a living?" Me: "I'm a research tech in an exotic animal reproductive physiology lab." Stranger: ..... Me: "Yes. It's everything you're thinking about and then some."

I've heard this, too. According to a grad student I worked with as an undergrad, some departments of Harvard have the attitude of "Harvard doesn't need you, but you need Harvard." This would definitely be something to investigate among current grad students. Also, a postdoc friend there said that some of the older faculty can be kind of crusty. Not sure exactly what that means, maybe that they just sit on the laurels of their old research and don't innovate anymore?

I don't want to be a downer, and this may not be true for you, but one of my rec letter writers said that if I hadn't heard anything by now, it was extremely unlikely (snow ball's chance in Hell unlikely, though she didn't put it that way) that I would get an interview. I'm not holding my breath. If I hear something, great, but I'm kind of done stressing out about it and generally feeling moody, disappointed with myself, and freaked out. I applied to Johns Hopkins University (JHU), Washington University in St. Louis, MIT BCS and Biology, University of Washington Seattle, Rockefeller, and Stanford. Have gotten official rejections from University of Washington and WUSTL. My stats are 3.89 GPA, 710 V (98%), 740 Q (80%), 5.0 A (81%), Bio GRE 760 (79%). I have 3.5 years of research experience, one publication, and another manuscript in review as well as an REU Summer Fellowship. Those aren't bad, and to clarify so that people don't panic, it's very likely that the "fit" part, not the stats, are what sank my app. I have a very strong background in neuroethology and behavior, but I want to get into a "harder" brand of neuro research that isn't quite so black box. But I didn't market myself enough that way and probably overemphasized my background.

For those that didn't get interviews, I've found that calling or e-mailing in and asking about weaknesses in your application to be extremely helpful. Not to hound about admissions, but to inquire about how a future application might be improved. Things I have learned: - Be careful about listing potential advisors in your SoP. At one school, it looks like listing faculty with only secondary appointments in neuroscience (despite those faculty being listed on the Neuroscience website) hurt my application. - Unexpressive letter writers can be misconstrued as being lukewarm. A lot of applicants have recommenders that will write effusive praise that is very clearly gushing. One of my letter writers sent me a copy (unsolicited, I waived). It was positive and used words like "impressed" and "highly recommend," but I was told in post-game analysis that the customary dryness of the recommender's writing style was unideal. Apparently, ebullience rather than clinicalness works in your favor. If you think one of your letter writers is dry, finding a fourth recommender is not a bad idea. - Contacting potential advisors gets you out of the stack, but when the app hits adcom, everyone on the committee gets a say. If your potential advisor has a lot of heft in the department, it might get you further, but for the most part, it only does you good regarding the initial step. - This year was a very difficult year for applying. While departments might normally take excellent students that don't exactly "fit"the department's major interests on potential alone, this year, things like fit were weighted more heavily than usual because of economic circumstances. This would also lead me to believe that a lot of programs plan to admit fewer students. I have pretty good stats and am 0/6 this year. It's disappointing, but being stubborn and masochistic, I'm going to reapply next year. This was for Neuroscience programs so YMMV, but hope it helps. Good luck to all!

I've only received two rejections. Haven't heard from the rest, which for neuro programs might be the kiss of death. Hang in there, it's a difficult year to apply.

Noticed typo in first sentence of SoP. *facepalm* SoP is embarrassingly and glaringly devoid of big picture discussion. Somehow it got edited out and none of my five editors caught it and pointed it out. Ugh. Possibly, one of my recommenders wrote a lukewarm letter.

Apologies for being a downer, but this happened to me. Contacted a prof, he said my application was strong and that he'd be interested in taking me as a grad student. Rejection e-mail came New Year's Eve.

Last Friday, through work, I got to play with baby otters. They are extremely curious animals and will crawl all over your body...up on your shoulders, down your shirt, on top of your head. I almost had a cuteness apoplexy. I must've been a Catholic in a past life because I feel guilty about applying to graduate school when I have such a unique job.

I am applying for neurosciences and have not gotten a single interview invitation. Based on the jamming Results Page full of neuroscience folk getting positive, I have the sinking feeling that I didn't get in anywhere. Hang in there. I'm trying to tell myself it's not the end of the world and that there's always next year. Not that that's helping terribly much. *sigh* The really horrible thing is that the pessimism is leaking into other arenas of my life.

I keep having a dream about a large sheet of paper (A1 dimensions except in feet rather than inches) with SoP written in large red letters on it with a large, gaping, jagged teeth-filled maw chasing me around in space. And then I run out of oxygen. Anxiety about the SoP much? Nah!

You might want to consider applying for summer fellowships or internships as research opportunities. Many offer research funds and stipends for few months. Dunno what your research interests are, but if they are along the lines of biomedical, here are some links: NSF REU: http://www.nsf.gov/c.../reu_search.cfm HHMI Summer Students: http://www.hhmi.org/...er_student.html NIH: http://www.training....ov/student/sip/ Many schools have SURF (Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship) Programs which a quick Google search would probably pull up. Hope that helps, and good luck!

0/5 Starting to think no schools. In retrospect, I think I probably grossly overshot and didn't apply to enough schools. While I'm genuinely happy for them, I am sooo jealous of the neuroscience folks that got first round interviews. *sigh*

Yep. Everything was sent well in advance. No response to pestering after the deadline had passed to see if I needed to resend things. Looks like it finally got entered. Still probably a waste of $125.

Sacrifice virgins? Cast serendipity spells? What more can I do? Awaiting a fate Excruciating indeed Please, God, make it end.

A. What are you blowing off or unable to do because your concentration is shot from freaking/panicking/being a neurotic maniac about waiting for decisions? B. What strange alternative hobbies or activities have you taken up to funnel the burning nervous energy into?