Eigen

, and or . And clicking on the folder takes you to the most recent post, as opposed to clicking the title of the thread.

Yes, yes it does. For the most part. Sadly, we have *no* natural products synthesis groups currently. We have a nice slice of drug design/medicinal chemistry groups, and one very interesting "unnatural synthesis" group, but no natural products work.

The iPad I have is one of the refurbs from apple- it works great for me. New battery/case (as mentioned), and I really didn't need the camera... And honestly, the faster processor wasn't needed for reading and annotating papers. It's a big heavier, but I actually prefer the extra bulk, as it feels a lot more durable- in fact, the second gens have been shown to break more easily on flexing. I have a hard case for it, but I still want it to be very portable, which requires it being very durable.

Skimming in the sciences usually involves generally looking over the equations, and then deciding later whether you need to go back and work through them or not. Not all equations, derivations or proofs are things you need to know intimately- sometimes it's more important to note that someone has proven something, or derived something, and know where you can go back and find that proof/derivation later if needed. Unless you're trying to practice your general math skills, working painfully through every mechanism, diagram, derivation or proof really isn't necessary, especially not on your first brush. You do the fine reading/work through when you're trying to design experiments based on the work done in the paper, expand on the work in some way, or apply a similar process to a new system.

I think the question revolves around adding an actual custom field/reference type, such that you can code automatic citations to take advantage of it. Sadly, I'm not familiar enough with either program to help- I know how to do it in Endnote, but not the others.

The most common cutoffs I've seen are the 1000/1100/1200 cutoffs from various schools- but I'd say a score lower than 500 in either are will probably hurt your application. GRE scores (imo) aren't weighted that heavily, but they are definitely used as a cutoff metric. It's not so much about whether the skills are directly applicable to your graduate program (that's what your transcripts, etc. show) but that you have a general level of background knowledge and retention of basic math and basic language skills. I think it's the idea that whether applicable to your area or not, pursuing a post-graduate education requires some degree of general knowledge above the general population- and the GRE is a standardized way of working with that. I suggest trying not to focus on whether or not it's "right" to use the tests cores, and simply accept them as a hoop necessary to jump through in order to gain admission- sadly there are plenty of hoops to jump through at all stages of your academic career, and most you just have to grit your teeth and get through.

I'd say it's a polite response, weighted slightly on the side of a good sign. It means you have someone potentially interested in you (assuming someone they like better doesn't contact them/apply later), and that they think your application is generally on par with what they'd look to accept. I don't gather from the response it's strong enough that they're saying they'll go to bat for you during the applications, although they may mention that you're interested and have contacted her, which will give you at least some recognition past a file on the table. As Strangefox mentioned, department politics, funding, and the demographics of the entering cohort that the department is trying to put together matters a lot- and while a professor being interested in you can help, unless they're really willing to go to bat for you it's more a small vote of confidence than a real tipping factor towards admission.

See, I have no dots or stars- just folders. A blue folder for new posts (but that you haven't posted in) and a blue folder with a document in front if there are new posts and you've posted in it... A light gray folder with the same document/no document system if there are no new posts.

There were several mentioned earlier in this thread. I'll re-recommend Garret and Grisham- it's thorough and complete, and I don't think it's overly complex. It's one of the standard chemistry-biochem texts out there.

I think you're a bit off on your process, Strangefox: I'd suggest it like this- Do the research, do the analysis... Then pick a journal, then write the paper. You need to have a journal in mind when you write, since most look for slightly different styles in the writing, manuscript, order of sections, etc. It also helps to target your writing to the "most likely" audience of that journal, which can help it get accepted. The research is the same, it's just about how you organize it and spin it.

I also err on the side of being a bit overdressed- I usually do slacks/sports coat/shirt and tie for conferences. As mentioned, it has the side benefit of being able to take off the blazer and go down a notch (or take off the tie and leave the blazer on) if it seems like everyone else is less dressed than you are.

I find 24" monitors to be about the limit of what I can stand- 27" or higher is just a bit much on my desk. I have two Dell Ultasharps that I got on Craigslist (for way, way, less than their list value), one's a 20" 4:3 that I use at work, and the other is a 24" 16:9 that I use at home, where I watch more movies. The benefits of an IPS panel over TN panels are huge, though, especially if you're using them a lot (I think most of them are).

Just like any program (MS Office, Adobe Illustrator, etc) you have to pay to upgrade to a more recent version (Office 2000 to 2003 to 2007, etc). You usually can get the upgrade cheaper than the base price of the new program, however. Exactly. My Endnote library currently "lives" in Dropbox, and I also back it up several other places. Losing it would be horrible! Its one of the reasons I'm so happy about Endnote Web now including syncing for all attached documents, and not just the citations.

I'm going to second this, except I'd recommend X5 as opposed to X3 (updated for this year). Endnote seems to be by far the most widely used and robust reference manager- it has a good web-access component, gives you web-space to backup your full texts attached to their respective references, and gives a wealth of customization options. Citations are easy to download, and easy to edit- you can simply write new citation styles and reference styles in addition to the thousands that are already out there- most journals even provide "endnote" reference styles for use with their submissions (at least in the fields I'm familiar with). The newest version (X5) even supports viewing/editing/annotating PDF documents within the program, so you don't have to use anything else to manage your references. While I'm not directly recommending it, the other program that is relatively frequently used (along with Mendeley and Zotero) is Refworks. There's also Scrivener and Papers for macs, iirc.

In the sciences (as mentioned above) it's more a master/apprentice or boss/worker relationship. While a good advisor leaves a lot of the research direction up to the graduate students, they are the one who gets the final say on a projects direction or continued existence. They decide where money gets spent, and how much, and at least in my discipline, they do most of the work on deciding when and where to submit papers or who should attend conferences, and what they should talk on. For Chemistry (at least), the PIs are all the last author on every paper that comes out of their lab, and I wouldn't think of giving a presentation without having them OK it first. Before any of us give presentations anywhere, we run it by our PI/the whole group as a practice session- sometimes we have to redo it if they don't think it's up to par. The PIs connections are usually what helps you get post-doctoral positions and job interviews, or at least help you find where you can apply, and look over your application materials. They find/help you get funding, approve what courses you can/can't take, etc. For most of the sciences, it's their reputation as much as yours that rides on the quality of your work, so I think our PIs are much more tied up in their students academic lives than in other areas. I think the concept of a close knit "research group" is also unique to the sciences, and it acts very much like a small company- you get funding together, you work together, socialize together, with distinct levels of management (undergrads, grad students, post-docs, PI).

In direct contrast to this, the only ASUS laptop that I've had experience with was really, really unreliable.... And the two dell laptops I've had have each lasted 3-4 years of hard use with ease. My first one still works fine, really, the screen is just broken... And it was time to upgrade, so I got a new one instead of replacing the screen. I haven't bought a Dell for the last 3 years (mine is still running fine) but I had a friend who bought one this spring that he really likes- it was about $500 for an Inspiron 15, which did more than everything he needed to allow him to work on the road. If you do go with Dell, I'd suggest watching the sales for a bit- they cycle through what models they have on sale, but they usually offer really good discounts if you aren't in a rush.

On the teaching requirement bit: Our program is lower ranked, at what would be considered a private SLAC, with high research aspirations- definitely not R1. When I asked about recent faculty hires in our department, they said that they didn't even ask about teaching experience of the applicants, that it wasn't a deciding factor at all. Just something to think about.

Or even sometimes without an official revise and resubmit. Usually (in my field) a "revise and resubmit" implies that if you revise as has been suggested, it will be accepted. But if the reviewers have consistent comments about some areas that need to be touched up, it's possible to revise according to the comments (or run a few more experiments) and resubmit to the same journal. Or, you could go with what you have and submit to a lower tier journal. At least that's how it's worked in my experience.

The difference is in what you put before it, in my field- but you are right, my last post was a bit incomplete. A researcher would be a "Research Fellow" of some institute, a graduate student on fellowship would be a "Graduate Research Fellow". I just assumed the first part was a given, and went from there. Similarly, you don't put "Research Assistant", as that can be anyone from a lab tech to a post-doctoral researcher- it's a "Graduate Research Assistant". That graduate part is necessary, imo.

I think the other thing that is field dependent is how many articles your dissertation encompasses- in my field, you don't put anything in your dissertation unless it's already been published, while in some of the social sciences/humanities, it seems like people get articles out of their dissertation after they write up.

On the second part of your question: None of the departments I applied to would allow more than the specified number of letters of rec- if you sent more than they asked for, they would either choose 3 at random, or use the first 3 submitted- which can sometimes work against you. Contact the departments and ask, but you're probably better off choosing your "best" 3 for each program.

Look up the professors group, and see what students are listed as working for them- many universities have "group pages" or listings of graduate students/advisor affiliations on their websites. Then e-mail one (or several) of those students. I know most of us will take the time to respond to prospective students who contact us directly.

I'm not sure how this applies to the discussion at hand... The original post was discussing GPAs given on the 4.0 scale, in the US. Your post seems to mostly concern the differences in grading scales between countries, which has been discussed here many times in the past. Would you mind elaborating on your post?

Yeah, I do the "Research Fellow" as opposed to "Research Assistant" thing as well. I don't do enough regular formal correspondence that I see the need for as long of a signature as you have- but I certainly use something similar when I'm communicating with collaborators. Many people upthread have mentioned that a name/institution are enough to have someone google you... But that requires them taking the time to do so. I find if the information is easily accessible (at the end, in list form) as opposed to buried within the introductory paragraph, the responses come faster and with much less confusion.

Thankfully, this hasn't happened to me yet. It's more common in my field for results to be "scooped"... The area is pretty competitive, with lots of groups working on very similar work, so it's the "first one to publish gets the paper" type of situation.