Eigen

Simple question: Do you guys have journal clubs in your departments, and if so, how are they run? I'm trying to start one in my department, and the more I can find out about how they are done elsewhere, the better.

Somehow, some of the potential advisers at one of my schools all got my phone number, so I got to do a string of interviews completely cold and unprepared for it... One called from Princeton (he was moving) one Saturday morning at like 9am, another one called at 10pm one night. Just be yourself, act interested, and don't sweat it too much. There will be chances to throw in some of your knowledge to impress them, but you can also usually get most faculty talking about their research pretty intensively. Remember, if you choose to go there and work with this person, you will be forming a very close relationship- try to be as natural and as at ease as possible from the start.

Mine were identical, if that helps.

I'll go ahead and throw it out there, but to me a personal statement is, well, personal. It shows a lot of who you are and where you're at in life by how it's written. It's always seemed kind of, well, off to me to get someone (especially payed) to do more than a quick read over of it. But that's just my opinion.

Also, schools like it when you're particularly applying to them because you really like the school/faculty, and have put the time in to research it. It's hard convincing them in SoPs and when you visit that you're genuinely interested in them, when you're also saying the same thing about 20 other schools. Several of my schools even asked where else I was applying on the application.

I'm going to disagree with Tskinner on this. I sent 4 letters to one of my institutions, and they were fine with it- they even had to wait to review the application a few weeks for it, and it didn't effect things. If you have 4 really good LoRs, I think the extra will do nothing but help your application. If you're not sure, you can always ask the graduate coordinator at the school if it's a problem to send extra LoRs.... Most require 3 as a minimum, some of my online applications had places to attach more than three.

I went with the "be selective" route. I applied to three schools, spent about a month on each application, and got into all three. I spent a lot of time research schools, and was very exacting in my criteria for where I applied- somewhere I wanted to live, at least three professors I'd be happy working with, good reputation, good "supporting" departments, competitive stipends/available fellowships, etc. The undergrad in our lab last year, however, went the complete opposite- he applied to every top 20 chemistry school (of course, he also got into all but one). Each way has its benefits, and I'd say it also depends on how strong your application is. If you know you stand a very good chance at getting into all the schools you apply to, there's no need to choose a bunch of different ones. It also saves quite a bit of money. I didn't have to pay anything in application fees, I know others that have payed over $ 1,000 in application fees alone.

I started asking in July, when I was doing my first application, and then gave the prof's as much notice as possible with each successive school. But then I asked slightly different people for each school, depending on what concentration I was most interested in at that university. The more notice you give, the more sure you are that letters will not hold up your application. The better you know the professors, the easier it is to ask way in advance, and then update them along. The "general rule" I've been told is to allow 4-6 weeks between when you ask and when the letter will be finished, at least. And to remind the writers along.

I sent 4 letters to one of my universities.... It didn't seem to upset the adcoms. If it's a letter that helps your application, I see no reason not to send it.

The parts about making friends (colleagues) and leaning on them for support is quite important. I have a couple of close friends that I started with, and we've gotten each other through numerous times when we wanted to quit. Also, the often repeated advice about taking time off, and keeping up your life outside grad school. Your work is important, but if it's all you do you rarely have the necessary perspective to really focus on it and do well. Work hard while you're at work, and then enjoy your time off is great advice. You'll be at this for a long time, if you push too hard and burn out it won't help anyone.

What Rising_Star says is quite true. I visited one school (Vanderbilt) in the summer just before I applied, and the other two (Penn State and Tulane) in December, after I'd been accepted. The difference in the visits was quite large- while they set everything up for me at Vanderbilt, it was out of pocket expenses. Penn State, on the other hand, flew both myself and my wife up, put us up in a hotel for 3 days, etc. The professors were quite different as well, changing from the "you should apply here" mentality to the "I'd really like you to work in my group" mentality.

Personally, I spent a full day at the shortest when I visited grad schools. Will you have applied already when you visit? Or is this prior to any application at all? Usually, if you schedule a visit through the department graduate coordinator, they can get you a good itinerary with most of the professors you want to visit- it's much easier than scheduling them yourself. It's a matter of course after acceptance, but most will also do it even prior to admission. I found 2 days visiting worked much better, although (like I said) you can do it in one if you're pressed for time.

Given as much as most departments care about the score (very little), unless otherwise specified, the only times you *might* need fresh scores would be for fellowships. And then, it will either be specified as required, or will just be something that will help. I don't think you should have a problem taking the GRE now and using the same scores next fall.

My point wasn't about 10 student groups- most advisers can get all of them positions. My point was more about 60+ person groups, where there's no way an adviser can get all of them desirable positions. When you have people graduating staggered semesters, they aren't all competing for the same jobs. When you have 4 graduating in the same semester in the same subdiscipline, the situation is a bit different.

Good luck! A few things to remember: If you take the GRE in January, the next application season for most science and engineering programs will be in Fall '11. It's not common for them to admit students mid-year. Also, if you head over to the PhDcomics forum, there have been several threads on mistakes students often make when contacting professors, mostly pet peeves from professors that cause them to ignore the e-mail: 1) Make sure you get the professors gender right. 2) A common form of address would be either Dr. So-and-So or Professor So-and-So.... Dr. So-and-So is more formal. 3) Be familiar enough with their research and recent publications that you can cite specifically what interested you about their work, as well as possible examples of further developments you would be interested in working on with them. 4) Be relatively concise. Most faculty are quite busy, and are more likely to respond to a short, well written letter than a longer one. 5) A CV does not need to be attached to the first e-mail, a "CV available on request" note in the e-mail suffices, and makes the initial contact take less of the prof's time. I hope the next application season goes well for you, and be sure to post if you have any other questions.

I chose the less prestigious of my options for similar reasons to Rising_star. I found the potential advisers to be very passionate (and thought they would make good mentors), the department was laid back enough to be socially comfortable and close knit (a good community of scholars as opposed to intense competition), and I will likely have the chance to teach or co-teach lecture courses before I finish. In addition, due to the fact that it's a smaller program, I know *all* of the faculty, not just the few directly in my discipline. And knowing a wider ranger of faculty well nets me a larger ranger of network opportunities. As my adviser recently told me: It's better to be the best graduate student at a smaller university than simply one of the best at a larger one, because when it comes time to write rec letters for post-doc positions, each PI is still just going to pick their best to back for the good positions. And from what I've seen, there's something to be said for that. All of our decent students are going to what I would consider top-notch post doc, and many have met or been introduced to the top people in their field.

You really need to take the GRE. With a low GPA, it's often possible to convince people you're a decent student with a very high GRE score. In your case, I'd think 1400+, and being that it's engineering 780+ (really, 800) quantitative. Also, have you taken the ToEFL? I know you took the IELTS, do all the schools you're interested in accept it? I know some schools only accept the TOEFL.

Either that, or do what I do and keep a change of clothes at school. If I bike to school in what I'm wearing, the sauna that is a New Orleans morning renders it completely unwearable until it dries out. So I bike to school in gym shorts and a workout shirt, and either use the change I keep in my desk or bring a fresh one in my backpack. If you need recommendations of fun stuff to do in the area, btw, feel free to PM me. Uptown can take a bit of work to find the fun spots, but there are lots of them around.

As ours is a "beers in the ice chest" orientation/social, I'm not sure I can comment much on proper attire. Shorts and t-shirts do it for us. For a wine and cheese + presentations night, I'd say something along the lines of slacks/shirt/jacket (tie optional) for guys, and either skirt/nice blouse or slacks/nice blouse for girls. Something along the lines of business casual.

::shrugs:: That's just not the case in any university I'm familiar with. If you can contact a faculty member and get them on your side first, it makes the application process easier.... But most faculty members, in my experience, are only mildly interested in talking to someone that hasn't even started the application process. Because they know that unless you're one of their top (or rather, their top picks) for the year, AND they have the funding to support you without the department's help, you'll have to pass muster with both the entrance committee and the dean to get in, anyway.

Hmm, we're a quite rural area as well. And I would say at my 4-year college, the professors (not instructors, professors) spent maybe 10-20% of their time on research, and the rest teaching/working with students. Also, wouldn't you spend an average of closer to 2.5 times per week? Most classes are either 2 day or 3 day-per-week, with one day per week being much rarer, in my experience. Most of the time, you're also required to keep a decent section of office hours, and even at my current college (where most faculty teach around 1 class per semester), the amount of time they have to devote to office hours is quite large. I had some teachers that spent 3-4 hours per day (in addition to classes) working with students- sometimes the same student every single day. Quite honestly, it's my personal opinion that if you want to get a PhD and go into academia, being interested in teaching is by far the most important qualification, a sentiment echoed by both my current and past professors. Research is important, and you won't get through your PhD unless you are decently interested and talented in research. That said, people in academia that are good researchers and poor teachers have, in my opinion, a much more deleterious effect on their field than those that are good teachers and poor researchers. All of my current and past professors consider teaching and advising students to be one of their most pivotal roles as faculty. If you just want to do research, there are many places to work- government facilities, private research institutions, etc. If you go back to work at a university, you are there because you want to teach as well.

Yeah, it's a range. And then there are the organic "total synth" groups that can expect, if anything, one paper from their PhD.... Often, however, it takes several PhD students for the PI to get one full paper.

I'm not sure what the community colleges are like where you are, but around here you can't teach at all with a BS/BA, and you are quite limited in what you can teach (primarily adjunct teaching) with an MS/MA. The vast majority of the faculty has a PhD. In addition, a great many professors at lower tier 4 year colleges focus on teaching predominantly, with little focus on research. And outside of *some* of those classified as instructors, a PhD is traditionally required. I would say if you want to go by numbers, there are more PhD's who are primarily teachers than primarily researchers in academic institutions in the US.

Also, you mention experience in industry... was it research related? If not, you might need to shore up your application with some more R&D related experience.

You say you sent your CV to professors.... but have you tried actually applying to grad school? You will need to take the GRE, but you should try actually going through the application process. At most institutions, a professor would have to go far out of his way (ie, you are an ideal/excellent candidate) to get you accepted without you applying through the normal process.