ma7eb4i

Congrats! Just out of curiosity, if you don't mind me asking, what are your research interests?

Apologies about the moaning and groaning, but.....whiskey-tango-foxtrot?! Does anyone else that applied through Stanford Biosci think that the $125 application fee was really fracking steep? On top of that, they requested two official sets of transcripts thus adding another $20 to the cost (I won't even go into a rant about class bias in having such a high fee). To add insult to injury, it took them an ENTIRE WEEK after the application deadline to update on my login page that they had, indeed, received my official transcripts and GRE scores. All the while, I was freaking out, e-mailing, and calling them. They didn't answer a single e-mail or phone call, and their voicemail for the contact number was full. Is it unreasonable for me to think that paying a $125 application fee should buy me the courtesy of some notification that there was a processing delay on their part? The website said that everything should have been entered within two business days of submission. I'm starting to get the feeling that Stanford is a school where I just won't ever hear anything from them again.....not even a gosh darn rejection e-mail. Just dreaded Limbo. Grrr....

+1, as a postdoc friend of mine at Harvard advised me: "There are going to be times in grad school where very little will be good in your life. It's going to suck, and you will be depressed. At those times, you need the city, your friends, and your hobbies to make things good. Don't apply anywhere you wouldn't want to live."

Socialpsych, you're right. Designating a single day where all announcements were made at once would be much more merciful. The waiting now is KILLING me, but I'm sure it will get worse as real dates loom nearer, and my neurotic self starts freaking out about not hearing back from that ONE school that I *really* want to know about. Arrrggh.

Elephant Reproductive Physiology!

Contrary to what people seem to have said to this, two potential advisors I contacted (one a face-to-face informational interview) advised me to apply to multiple programs at their respective universities (MIT and U Washington).

GPA: 3.88/4.0 (B.S. Bio, Neurobio option) GRE: 740 Q (81%); 710 V (98%); 5.0 A (80%) GRE Biology: 760 (79%) Research experience: 2.5 years in neuroendocrinology lab at large public university as undergrad; 1 pub in low tier journal, second author; 1 manuscript in review at PNAS 1 year in endocrinology lab as a research tech, unrelated to neuroscience Presentation: 1 poster at an undergrad forum Applying for Neuroscience Programs at (in no particular order): University of Washington, Seattle MIT Stanford University Rockefeller University Johns Hopkins University Interested in studying neuroendocrinology, learning and memory, how brains wire circuits. Birdsong seems like a good system for this. Was in Boston last month and visited/information interviewed a prof I'm interested in working with at MIT. Made a good impression? Who knows? Wondering if I should have applied to more schools, gotten 100 more people to read the SoP, spent this year working in a neuro lab, etc. etc. etc. Terrified of the future.