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visiblethinking

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    United States
  • Application Season
    2015 Fall

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  1. I wasn't thinking of saving one school for my post-doc per se but I just wanted to remind myself that graduate school isn't necessarily my absolute last chance to work at whichever school I turn down! Both schools are prestigious and both schools are a great fit (for different reasons) so I'm in the fortunate position that it's a win-win scenario, I just have to decide (within the next two weeks!).
  2. Thanks for the additional responses! They're all extremely helpful. It's reassuring to know that other grad students place non-academic factors fairly high on their priority list. I have another question that is somewhat related to all of this and that I'm unclear about: is it more the lab/location of your post-doc that shapes your future career endeavors? More specifically I'm wondering whether my sights should be aimed even higher when applying for a post-doc position. This could potentially affect which school I choose for my PhD.
  3. Thanks so much for your thoughtful responses, everyone! TakeruK, could you elaborate a bit on what you mean by resources? Do you mean funding, core facilities, adequate seminars/talks, etc.? I can better compare my two options if I have a better feel for what specifically you mean. Thanks!
  4. Hi all, I'm having a very hard time choosing between 2 graduate schools at the moment and I was hoping for some input. I recognize that this is a question that every person will have a different answer to but I'm still interested in hearing people's opinions. What factors would you say are most important when selecting a graduates school? *Name/prestige *Number of labs I am interested in at the school *How established the graduate program is (i.e. how old it is/whether it has worked out all of its kinks) *Preference for location of the graduate school *Financial circumstances (i.e. stipend, cost of living in the area, extra financial perks, etc.) Both of the institutions that I am interested in are well-known. However, one is more well-known/prestigious overall, whereas the other is more well-known in regards to cancer research specifically. The latter is also a newer graduate program so less well-known/established. However, I think I MAY be interested in more labs at the newer institution. But I wonder whether mentoring would be better at the more established graduate program? I also prefer the location of the newer institution...I'm all over the place! What are people's thoughts?
  5. Just got an interview invitation from Stanford Genetics!! I'm definitely in shock at the moment.
  6. ^ Thanks for doing that! I've been waiting on WashU.
  7. Hi again all! Rejoining this conversation now that interviews are a reality...I have been out of the country during all of this so I've been a bit removed. In the last week or so I've received the following recruitment weekend invites: Penn CAMB, UCSD BMS, UCSF BMS, and Gerstner Sloan Kettering. It's so exciting and unexpected and overwhelming! Looking forward to learning more about these programs and schools, still waiting on replies from two more schools. Good luck to everyone!
  8. Alright that's great news, thanks everyone
  9. Thanks for the input, Vene! It's the Molecular Medicine & Mechanisms of Disease (M3D) program. It is supposed to be pretty interdisciplinary in nature, it is going to pull faculty from departments across the biomedical spectrum (Immunology, Genome Science, Pathology, etc.) so I'm guessing/hoping that means the professors will be well-established! The point is that it is supposed to be a translational research-focused PhD program.
  10. Hello all, This is a somewhat general question: what are your thoughts on applying to a PhD program that is just starting? Do you think this could leave me at a disadvantage when it comes time to apply for postdocs/jobs? Or does the prestige of the school itself make up for this fact? There is a new program at the University of Washington that feels like a perfect fit for me but it is brand new and I'm not sure how to feel about this. Thanks!
  11. Hi all--first off, thank you for making me feel better about this travel-focused gap year that I'm taking. Because I'm attempting to lock down the list of schools that I am applying to within the next week or so, I was hoping that I could get some opinions on how realistic my current set of schools are from those who have gone through the application process already. I've re-posted my stats below--feel free to be brutally honest.
  12. I'm not sure if anyone can speak to this but I just graduated in May and am in the midst of a gap year consisting mostly of travel; I'm spacing the travel around application season (i.e. now) and interview season and obviously I've already made my choice to postpone graduate school for a year in this way but I'm wondering if any of you know of someone who made a similar decision and, if so, how the graduate schools they applied to treated their situation. Clearly my hope is that they will be understanding and not just ask me why I didn't spend my gap year in a lab haha (which to me doesn't sound like a gap year at all). Thanks in advance!
  13. Hi everyone! It's super strange to actually be posting in this thread and not just lurking in it like I have in previous years! Undergrad Institution: Top 10 Research Institution Major(s): Biology (concentration in Genomics) Minor(s): Philosophy GPA in Major: Approximately 3.8 Overall GPA: 3.91 Position in Class: Top 5-10% Type of Student: Domestic, Female GRE Scores (revised/old version): Q: 162 (84%) V: 166 (96%) W: 5.0 (93%) Research Experience: 3 years in a yeast epigenetics lab at school (including 3 independent study semesters and a few volunteer semesters) 1 summer research experience at Memorial Sloan-Kettering in a homologous recombination lab Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Phi Beta Kappa Award for Academic Excellence in the Biomedicine Program in my study abroad program Chosen as a 1 of 4 Shaps Scholars in Sloan-Kettering's SURP program Multiple semesters on the Dean's List Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Spent one summer shadowing a genetic counselor at the University of Miami Special Bonus Points: (Such as connections, grad classes, famous recommenders, female or minority status etc...) One of my recommenders is extremely influential in the BRCA2/homologous recombination community Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter: Received a certificate in Genome Science & Policy from my school Applying to Where: Definitely: Gerstner Sloan-Kettering--Biomedical Sciences program UC San Francisco--Biomedical Science program UW Seattle--MCB or Genome Sciences or Molecular Medicine & Mechanisms of Disease program (I'm having a hard time deciding between the 3!) Stanford--Genetics Maybe: Harvard--Integrated Life Sciences program UPenn--CAMB program ***My research interests lie mainly in translational science. More specifically, I have interests in cancer genetics/biology, genomics, human genetics, epigenetics, and molecular biology.
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