Eigen

Who was the e-mail from? In general, I wouldn't say "you're no longer in the program", but that you won't be back in next semester. So that gives you some time to appeal, talk to your PI, etc. You can also talk to the visiting prof, and see what they say.

I shouldn't have laughed as hard as I did, but this is exactly right. And quite honestly, it's really not that hard to calculate. When I was on committees looking at transcripts in undergrad, most of the faculty could take a quick look over the transcript and calculate the major GPA in their head. It's not like you need calculations accurate to 6 places- generally, there are a very few quantities (hours) and a relatively small number of qualities for each (1-4).

Barely ranked regional state school here. About half of the people in my program came from similar institutions.

So to get the thread back on topic, since everyone seems to be feeding the trolls (c'mon guys, you all know better).... My PI has recommended to me that my wife and I have kids now, in the last few years of our PhD. He and his wife had their children when they were early TT, and he says looking back the last few years of graduate school would have been by far the easiest, assuming you have a good PI. I have friends that have done both during grad school and just after grad school, and all of them have had things work out just fine. At some point, there's a difference between unexpected and unwanted pregnancies, and from what you say, this wasn't planned, but you look like you're in a good situation to handle it. So, congratulations! Definitely look into child care options through your school, as well as paternity leave policies- or talk to your PI, especially if they have children. If you have a good relationship with them, you're likely to get good advice as well as some support and help throughout.

I don't think it would be inappropriate. But then I got beer and cake for my advisors birthday for the group. When you're in grad school, you start having more peer like relationships with your advisor. Holiday presents are a fine part of that. If you're really unsure, ask some of his/her other advisees.

It seems like to me you're still way to focused on a very rankings heavy view of graduate education. As asked, what was it about the other schools that makes you think you'd have been happier there? Also, I'm a bit confused about your first few paragraphs- you went to a smaller, less well known school that didn't have a graduate program. But then you say you had no research experience, and then go on to list several research experiences? In general, even at top programs, it's not impossible to get in coming from very unknown schools, so I wouldn't say it's where you went that held you back. Did you not apply to your top 3 choices thinking you wouldn't get in? Or you applied and didn't get in? Going to a "Top 10" school (however you define that) doesn't suddenly put you in a different bracket than a "Top 20" school as far as your career. Just go do a post-doc at one of your dream schools when you finish up. Make connections, initiate research collaborations.

This strongly depends on what "kind" of BioChem PhD you want, as well. For instance, my school has two BioChem PhD programs, in different departments and schools- we have one in our Chemistry program, and one at the Medical school. Even then, we've had bio majors enter our Chem PhD program. The main hangups they had were not enough background in instrumental chemistry, and a distinct lack of upper level math. I would think if you could take the Calc series and at least one PChem/Analytical Chem course you'd be pretty well prepared.

Even if she doesn't have weight, the visiting prof might be able to help advise you, or know who you should talk to.

Also remember that this isn't just app season- it's also finals season, and everyone is scrambling to either make and grade tests, or help their majors get ducks in a row to graduate mid-year. It will take longer to reach them in that time.

That's a ..... productive reply. I'd guess that the professor thought you were someone else- it's one of the reasons a lot of professors ask students to provide materials before they write. It's also possible you misunderstood her saying she would write you a letter for her second statement, which is that she can't write you a strong letter. The difference in phrasing, to me, indicates that she was willing, but on review of your materials she realized it could not be a strong one. That's probably a better situation for her to tell you up front, then for her to not tell you and just write you a moderate or borderline letter.

If it were me, I would go to your PI. They're the ones that are most likely to be able to help you with this. I've seen students at my program in similar situations get saved by their PI's intervention, if they are behind the student 100% and want them to stay. Waiting to tell them will probably make it harder, not easier- I think proactivity is better than waiting, personally.

I don't recall having given a long explanation of why I'm justified previously for this to be an "again", but sure, lets roll with it. I find it interesting that you assume so much about me. You assume my primary goal is to be an academic, that I do what I'm told, and even that I have no real world experience. I'm not exactly a traditional grad student. That said, I'm also surprised to see that I'm apparently a member of a clique, or a cohort here. Who'd've thought. Either way, I obviously inspire great rage in you. I can't remember the last time someone got so personally offended at me and everything I stand for in a post, and I think that one was about religion or politics.

In all my years here, I have yet to see such consistently bad information come from one applicant, over and over. I've also noted in past years that it's always interesting to see significant and consistent differences in opinions between applicants, and current senior grad students. I would say that when people further along in a career path consistently and (unusually) are fairly united in disagreement with your advice, that you consider it strongly. They're likely more aware of norms in the field you may not yet know of. Lying to your letter writers is (i) an indication of the fact that you don't have a great working relationship with them, and (ii) a really bad idea, that has a fairly decent chance to backfire. Arguing that it's not unethical if the person who you're doing it to might be going to do something unethical/unprofessional is the old "two wrongs make a right" argument. In general, if you have to write long explanations of why what you're doing is "justified", I'd think it's a good indication that what you're doing would not widely be considered ethical or acceptable. If you have a letter writer that is bad with deadlines, I'd hope you have a good enough relationship with them to be honest. I have people I would/will tell that I'm worried about everything being in on time, and I'd appreciate it if they could get it done a few days/ a week early, as I know they're quite busy. No one that I would ask this of would bat an eye at it, they know they're busy and shouldn't put it off until the last minute too. And as to "not having a good relationship with your letter writers" having any bearing on getting into graduate school- i'd say it definitely says something about your academic/professional socialization, how good you are at networking, and accordingly how well you'll likely fit in at a graduate school, as a professional in the field, or in academia in the future. "Fit", "collegiality" and "networking" are usually one of the top reasons people do or don't get jobs, in academia or elsewhere. I don't think it's wrong for people to draw a correlative relationship between an applicants ability to do those things now and in the future.

We've definitely had issues that I've helped grad students in other departments mediate. Thankfully, our senior administration is pretty supportive of the fact that a TAship here is supposed to average 20 hours or less, and that students putting in significantly more than that are being done a disservice. Always a really tentative line to walk though- there are are some situations where it's taking more time for a grad student, but shouldn't necessarily be taking that much time- they need more than "average" time to prep for a course, or are a really slow grader, etc.

From the professors standpoint, I'd imagine the pushback about an extension is that you could have had the project/assignment done before you got sick- ie, it wasn't a test that you *had* to miss because you were sick. I think TakeruK's advice is very good, but I just wanted to give you the other perspective. From a professional work perspective, it's why we always shoot for hard deadlines earlier than needed. It's not possible to take, say, an NSF progress report for a grant, and say you need a few extra days because you were sick right at the end, and need a bit more time to work on it. You also wouldn't tell a client that you don't have x, y or z done on a major project by the deadline because you were sick the last couple of days before they needed it- you're expected to plan in some portion of a "life happens" delay in there, or at least I think it's wise to do so.

Traditionally, a full TAship is supposed to average ~20 hours per week most places in the US. Practically, some weeks will be heavier than others. Some assignments will also be a bit heavier or lighter than others.

And just curious, you say this out of your personal experience on admissions committees? Or your past experience as a letter writer? Or....? Please support your hypothesis.

Not sure what bearing this (or the previous comment) really have on this discussion, but it doesn't make you a jerk to have high standards for letters. Writing letters is an optional part of the job, it's something that professors do as an extension of their professional reputation.

I'm going to agree with most other people that she likely didn't write you a letter because you (i) got a low grade, and (ii) got a low grade because you were slacking off. I wouldn't write a letter under those conditions. Writing a letter is an extension of your reputation.

Pertinent: http://www.slate.com/articles/life/education/2013/10/teach_for_america_recommendations_i_stopped_writing_them_and_my_colleague.html

Depends on the PI and department. That said, I strongly advise you to look at undergrad researchers as a service to the field (from you), rather than something that will yield enhanced productivity. It will make your life much more pleasant moving forward. I usually try to find a piece of my current project that would be mildly interesting, but isn't crucial to my work moving forward. That, then, becomes their project. It then insulates me from either (i) their data being unusable for some reason or another, or (ii) from them not coming in frequently enough/not being efficient enough to yield said data in a reasonable amount of time.

Finding someone that will marry you isn't necessarily hard. Finding someone with which you will have a good, stable marriage and lifelong relationship, on the other hand, isn't. You seem to be conflating the two. And avoiding the people who might talk to you about some of those issues, since you don't want to hear about "relationship stuff".

In the STEM fields, its funded, usually up to a certain amount. From the humanities fields I know, the case is usually the same, but I'm not sure how universal it is.

In my experience, there's a modulating effect: when you're in a relationship and you mention anything about a relationship, people tend to remember it as "all you talked about".

Honestly, it sounds like you probably weren't that good of friends to begin with, then. You don't want to hear them talk about issues they're facing because you're uninterested, even if they need a friend to help them through it. Whether the issue is due to a relationship, a job, kids, etc., it's something they feel the need to talk out with a friend. If you're only going to listen to them because they're talking about things you're interested in, that's probably more of an acquaintance than a friend. When I got married, pretty much all of my single (or unmarried, dating) friends stopped hanging out with me. It was a good time to learn who really thought of me as a friend, and who just hung out with me because were similar. Now, the vast majority of my friends are unmarried, some single some in relationships, and it's never mattered to them a bit that I'm married. I think it's a maturity thing.