Eigen

I had similar problems. I could have been happy in any of the biological or physical sciences, math, engineering.... Medicine.. And I had the background to go to grad school in any of them. I ended up settling on chemistry because it allows me the widest range of options- I can, in the course of my work, do everything from molecular modeling and biophysics to cell biology. I second picking something that's pretty open ended, and a lot of that depends on the group you want to go into as well- some are more finely focused than others, pick one that has a multidisciplinary approach.

Not sure, I hope the archives are preserved- some stuff I posted I didn't keep backups of, for sure. I sent an e-mail to Jorge, but haven't heard anything back. The week or so before the forums were taken down was horrible, the site had somehow gotten targeted by spam bots- over 100 posts per day, made them nearly unreadable.

Putting your highest scores of the two times isn't bad... But don't combine scores from different test dates. Pick the test with the best overall scores and report that.

I'll second the "be careful biking", we had a post-doc who was hit by a car while biking and died. I've had quite a few more friends with extensive hospital stays from not being careful enough biking.

I guess what I'm asking is, do you have a specific type of program you want? You can find cognitive neuroscience in a range of programs- Cognitive Sci programs, Neuro programs, Psych programs, etc.... So do you want a PhD in experimental psychology focusing on Cognitive Neuroscience only, or are you open to other degree programs that do work in cog neuro? Some of the interdisciplinary neuro programs might have later application dates than psych departments, it might be worth checking out.

While not "interviews" as such, I just got straight up phone calls from prof's to chat, with no warning. One was about 8 am on a Saturday, and the other was like 9:30 pm one night! If they didn't give you any warning, they probably aren't expecting you to be all that prepared, and I wouldn't stress over it too much.

The typo isn't that big of a deal, I wouldn't think... Would only be confusing if they had both chemical biology and biological chemistry programs. The two areas of study themselves can be quite different, but just the typo seems minor, to me. I'm assuming the rest of the SoP confirms that you're interested in a chemical biology program (and not a biological chemistry program), they'll see it was just a typo and move on.

Quick question: Are you wanting to go into Cog Neuro, or Experimental Psych? The two aren't always the same program. You're probably after most of the deadlines, but you might contact some of the schools you're most interested in and see if they'll accept late admissions... You never know! After that, you're probably best off seeing if you can secure a research position for the next year and applying next season.

It also depends a lot on the school you're planning on attending, and the area around it- is it very walking/bike friendly? Good public transportation? I have a few friends that do 13-16 hour drives home for the holidays, and don't think it's too bad... All depends on your point of view. I find having a car very useful, even though I live in an area where I could bike/walk to everything I really "need". There are still a lot of places outside of that I want to go, and having a car gives you a lot more freedom than having to rely on public transportation schedules. Also consider, if you're living off campus, what times you'll be going home/to school... It's pretty regular for a lot of us here to be going/coming around midnight or later, and even though we're in a pretty good part of time that's not idea for walking/biking home alone. Much nicer to walk and bike during the day, and drive late night/early morning. I'll add.... I don't currently know any grad students in our department that don't have a car... Even most of the international students got a cheap one (or went in together on one) within 5-6 mos of being here.

Both, as much as we can. The department gives us money to take out the prospectives when they come through on visits, but we're a really social department... And school overall. I'm a rep for the Graduate Student Studies Association, and I know a lot of the departments are pretty big on making the new guys feel welcome. There's also a pretty strong mindset of picking one or two newbies that you click with at least somewhat, and keeping tabs on them throughout the year- reminding them of deadlines, letting them know about opportunities, etc.

I don't think not knowing a prof left will be a huge blow, especially if he was only one of the ones you mentioned in your SoP. That said, I think mentioning them in the SoP is a huge factor in admission- I know I had my application at one school forwarded to each prof I mentioned during the app process, and I have a strong feeling that one of them being interested in me played a large roll in the offer I received. If nothing else (as mentioned above) it shows that you've done your homework on the school, and it helps to show your fit with the program.

Around $185 to apply to 3 programs. The GRE, and the cost of sending an extra score report to one school (the first one got lost). All the transcripts were free... All the apps were online, so no postage costs... And either there were no application fees, or the fees were waived by the department on acceptance. Slightly cheaper for my wife, she just had the GRE test fee, so $160.

Your field would be a great help here. Otherwise, journal recommendations are going to be pretty hit-or-miss.

This is also one of the reasons that we take prospective grad students out at night... They go to dinner with a prof, then a group of grad students picks them up to show them around the town, take t hem drinking, etc... It's a nice, loose opportunity to see what the social scene is like, and what your new prospective peers are like on a social level.

It's interesting, the programs I know are so not like this. There's almost no intra-departmental competition, and most of us were the "we had no wild days as undergrads" types... But we go out drinking with our bosses/colleagues/visiting lecturers more now than we have at any prior time. There's always gossip and intrapersonal tensions, but not competition... Our program, and even the other programs at our school are in the "we're all in it together, lean on each other to get through it" grouping... I don't know how you'd make it through grad school without a close network of peers for support. Who better understands the frustrations you're experiencing than those going through it with you?

Wow, a 10 month old thread revival... that's really something I assume the situation is still the same? If so, I'll add my comment: I'm thrilled when my wife does well, and there's no one I'd prefer to outperform me. We're both working on our PhDs, and the more funding she gets the better off we are as a couple! And the more successful she is, the easier it is for us to get faculty positions somewhere, what with the whole "two body" problem.

With some of your areas of interest, you might also try applying to some Chemistry programs... I know there's one group at Penn State in Chemistry that's doing great work in simulating protein folding (as well as the dynamics of unfolded states), and it seems to be a fairly common computational interest.

It's a great question to ask- make sure to follow it up with the "why" portion- do they like it there because of their PI? Despite their PI? etc. Probe. I don't mind prospective students grilling me hard, it's what I would do in their situation. Just be careful to do it with at least some respectful distance/don't press them if they don't want to answer.

I went on one visit pre-admission, and two visits after admission- and found them very similar, but with a slight shift in focus: pre-admission, I was working to convince them they wanted me, after admission, they were working to convince me I wanted to go there. Both had the usual interviews with profs, lunch with grad students, dinner with a professor schedule- but it may be different if you're solo or with a group of potentials. Be prepared to talk about work you've done in a really detailed fashion- I had one prof who handed me a pad of paper and pen and wanted me to diagram everything I'd done for my undergraduate thesis..... Know the research of the prof's you're talking about- being able to ask one or two insightful questions can really help their opinion of you. As was mentioned, remember that the grad students can have quite an impact on your admission- don't be too cocky. We had one that was like that visit our school... And he somehow didn't get in. Current grad students are a great resource for asking those slightly touchy questions- do you like your boss, are they nice to work for, who in the dept. to avoid, etc- that's the type of question I get asked most often. That, and "do you like it here?"

I'll add that I've seen several schools which specifically ask the Rec writers to comment on the emotional stability of the student they are writing about- usually as a separate question. One even went into quite some detail. There is certainly no prohibition against writing a negative letter, or at least a letter with some negative points. It's their reputation as a recommender on the line, which will effect all future students they write for if they aren't honest. I've also heard Adcomms say that letters with no negative or contrasting points tend to come across as fake, and that they'd prefer an honest across the board appraisal of the student, both their strengths and weaknesses.

When I applied, the only "publication" I had was my BS Thesis, and I still got good offers. I did have several good conference presentations, at least. If the body of the research is there, but you just haven't gotten it published, I wouldn't worry too much. I don't think anyone in my cohort had pubs when they got in, but several were able to get pubs from their undergrad research after starting grad school. The research is important, the publications less so. If you have them, it's a huge benefit- if not, don't worry too much.

Well, to start finding a house I looked on craigslist, a lot, and also e-mailed some of the profs and grad students I'd met on my visit to get suggestions or see if they knew any open places. As to finding a job, in the sciences you usually have at least some funding, and most of the time university based funding prohibits any other job- so no comments there. I didn't really worry about meeting people all that much- I got to town a month early to start research, and mostly just hung out with the students in my group, since none of the rest of my cohort was there yet. Once everyone else showed up, it got a lot easier- I found people to study with, and we started doing regular social activities. It helps that our department sponsors at least a beginning and end of semester party every semester. Recently, I've gotten active in our Graduate Student Studies Association as a department rep, and that's really helped me meet people outside the ones in my program. Other than that, I've built up pretty good relationships with neighbors, and met people at local coffee shops, etc.

I'm similarly worried- my proposal balances between traditional organic synthesis and more detailed molecular biology- I wouldn't expect either group to understand the other end of the proposal very well. My boss doesn't even really get most of my bio work, I have a second professor at our med school I collaborate with for that. And he really doesn't understand the synthetic and design work I do. I think we have to hope that if it's well enough laid out that it will be ok- but as you said, with only two pages, there's only so much to explain!

My wife and I moved from living on a little house on a 10 acre horse farm to New Orleans for graduate school. There are some things that really frustrate me- lack of space, people around all the time- but I just try to focus on the benefits of living in a city, at least for a few years. Lots of interesting things to do, etc. I think a lot of it depends on finding an area in the city that you like- we moved to one of the older areas of New Orleans, and while it's a big city, and quite busy, it feels more like a bunch of small towns crammed together.

Just because you aren't in science doesn't mean you can't look up average publications per grad student relative to the professors. It gives you a good idea of how important publishing is to them. Might help if you posted your field, since you seem to want more specific advice.