Tall Chai Latte

I like my rejection letter in email format... Haha I like to delete rejection emails, bad feeling *puff* gone when you click "delete".

Yes second to fuzzy. I haven't run into this situation yet, so I don't know how is it going to affect my decision. But based on what I experienced at work, it's important to make sure that your adviser will keep in touch, whether via email/phone/skype, on various aspect of your graduate career. You might need him to read over your candidacy paper, or might need answers to your questions. I've seen how the grad students in my lab started to panic when my boss went out of contact on his sabbatical leave (one needed to pass candidacy, one needed to get his dissertation in)... not a good feeling at all. In fact, I had personal experience with it when I was doing my honors thesis during last year of undergrad. I had to email/skype my boss like a stalker to make sure he edit my draft. It turned out that he took a little vacation to Australia (TallChai I'm petting koalas and kangaroos... It's hard to edit your thesis at the same time) while I got very, very antsy as defense day drew closer.... I did my undergrad in biochemistry. In science, I think sabbatical leave occurs every 7 years. Other science folks can correct me on that.

Thanks Genomic Repairman, I had the science field in mind when I asked this question. It sounds pretty cool to be able to get away for a short period of time, is this offered at most Universities? Perspectives from the humanities major are also welcome!

So I recalled, back in my undergrad days, that my physical chemistry lab TA was a visiting grad student from Berkeley. Although I'm still in the nicer stage of grad school (still deciding and yet to start!), I'm curious what a visiting grad student could do and what can you gain from this experience. It sounds like a short getaway or a change of scene from your home grad institute. Thanks in advance you guys!

At one of my interviews, I saw/heard different things on this matter. I've met some faculty members who returned to their PhD alma mater as professors (I suppose this is okay?), and there was one who even stayed at the same place to do her MS, PhD, post-doc, and now a professor at that very same place. I've chatted with them about their research, and all of them appear to be doing quite well academically. Some told me that it's important to branch out, broaden your horizon, expose to new thought patterns etc, so I don't know -- this school I visited is a top-20 school in my field. Maybe that offsets the effect of "academic incest stigma" somewhat? Thanks for asking this question, I'm having the same concern too. Oh, I just remembered one of my interviewers told me: If a person stays at the same place and do well, it's likely to be the place. If a person moves around and do well, it's likely to be the person.

haha, i've been sitting at home for a couple days because of this blizzard -- more time to hang out on thegradcafe forum/facebook i suppose... no reply so far from my east coast schools...

I'm pursuing a PhD in Pharmacology. Because my undergrad research background was in structural biology, through coincidence I had a chance to utilize NMR spectroscopy and X-ray crystallography for my projects, and I really loved my work. From there I'm interested in structure-based drug design by NMR and/or X-ray crystallography (or any other method, I'm keeping my mind very open), instead of studying protein structures in solution, I'd like to take a more practical approach and make good use of structural information of proteins in biomedical research. How I ended up with this field took me totally by surprise. I loved biochemistry/biology as an undergrad but was never quite the math/physics person, so I didn't think of structural biology at all. During the summer of my second year, I sent out mass emails to faculty members asking for an undergrad research position in their labs. The PI I worked with (and am still working with) replied me, that was how I started working with NMR and structural biology. Interesting eh? It wasn't like "I want to be a research scientist when I was in 2nd grade" for me, and the decision to grad school was even more recent. I haven't come to any decision as to where I'm gonna make this happen. It's still early Feb!

There are many Michigan acceptances actually. Which Mich program are you applying to?

i did something similar after my interview, which is not a bad idea!

that's before i got in. ok, sorry about that... maybe i commented on the wrong entry.

that's before i got in.

Yes. I currently work as a research assistant at my alma mater during application cycle of Fall 2010 admission, everyone in the lab is either in their 3rd-5th year of grad school or already is a post doc, so this process is already far away from them. My boss was (half jokingly) pointing out that he was paying me to do research, not to apply to grad school when I expressed my intention to give out some of my workload to another coworker, who desperately needed for something to work on. It's great to know that there are people applying to grad schools with you in the cyber world, and can offer you helpful hints or share the worries from time to time.

congratulations!!! it feels great to finally have a definitive option in hand right?

Following my post on "How to build a motivated research group", the same author, Uri Alon, has compiled a list of useful readings in many, if not all, aspects of being a scientist. Though not everything is directed to graduate students. I find it useful when I read through some of them (particularly the one titled "how to give a good talk" since I get intimidated on stage...). Materials of Nurturing Scientists I hope you all find this useful too!

Although it is only early February, I have two choices at hand and trying to learn the prospects of each choices. It is still quite early to make any definitive decision because I haven't heard back from every school.... I read on this forum that a lot of people talk about fit. What exactly does it mean? Research interest, the atmosphere of the department, people, or location? Thank you guys for answering!

Hi all, In the academic food chain, I am considered to be at the lowest level -- I'm a grad student wanna-be. But since my junior year in college, I started working on research projects, both with a senior grad student or my own independent projects, up till now I've got a pretty good grasp of what grad school might be like. My previous projects have been working out for me (I was very lucky indeed), but lately a train of setbacks just hit me right on. It's been very.... frustrating. Is feeling frustrated normal?

My coworker got this article from her collaborator. She decided to share this with everyone (except the boss) in the group, I found this article an interesting read, so I'm posting it here: Alon, U. (2009). Mol. Cell 35, 726–728. You can see if your PI is motivating you..

agreeing with armadillo here, professors do like to talk a lot about their research! to start with, most of my interviewers asked me about my research, and some asked me questions regarding to that. to my surprise, some of the questions were actually good ideas to push my research along. you can ask them questions like: how big is your group, how do you keep track of everyone's work (if the group is big), what's the main technique that you use in the lab, what was your area of training etc. one interviewer and i were chatting about basketball and how bad both of our teams are. they just want to see how well you can think on your feet and how you handle questions. you really don't have to talk a lot, just ask questions here and there to keep the conversation flowing.