itscontrary

For those who went during the Feb. 26-28 weekend, can you give a brief overview of what you felt during your visit? Did you feel comfortable during the visit? Satisfied by the responses given by graduate students and/or faculty? Pleased by the environment of the school?

Thank you for the suggestions/criticisms as directed toward this post. I know gifts are usually not necessary, but it's something to show my appreciation that they have gone above and beyond in terms my expected standards for them. I mean, why do we tip waitresses, delivery people, taxi drivers, etc etc tips - isn't in their job description to serve us when we ask, deliver an item within an expected time frame and bring us from point A to point B, respectively? While I may not be correct, I believe we tip them outside of what they're originally being paid because we feel they have gone above and beyond what was expected of them. Perhaps the waiter/waitress greeted you warmly when you going through a rough day. Maybe the delivery person got a package to you 2 days ahead of schedule. Or even the taxi driver managed to save you from being late for your meeting by getting you there with 10 minutes to spare when you know you left late. It's the extra effort these people have put in above their routine tasks that makes it worthwhile to give them something more than what is typically expected. In this case, I would apply it to my professor. It's expected my professor would receive a thanks for his efforts and for what he has done for me. However, because he's done so much more besides writing me that letter of recommendation for graduate school and helping me with my research, it's something I want to show my appreciation with a gift. Just my two cents as to why I believe a gift is necessary in this particular case. But again, you all have your opinions regarding gifts, and I'm more than happy to respect your opinions.

When I got my first acceptance, I was hanging out with friends since it was winter break. We just ordered some food and then I saw an email notification come in. I swiftly opened it and started bouncing up and down in my seat. When I was accepted into my top school (Caltech), I was in one of my chemistry classes. It was the last school I was waiting to hear back from and everyone in my lab was waiting to hear back from Caltech. I'm a bad student who checks their phone in class. So when I felt a buzz on my phone, I had to look. It was an email from Caltech and I quickly opened the email. Upon reading the email, I was shaking in my seat rather uncontrollably. Luckily there was only 5 minutes of class left, but I quickly bolted once class was over. I rushed quickly to my lab, sat next to one of my friends, and started crying/blubbering. Everyone in the other room heard and thought something terrible happened to me. My friend then told them about my acceptance to calm everyone's nerves and a wave of congratulations then came in. (I was happy my PI didn't walk in at that moment - have never cried in front of him and I wasn't planning on doing so anytime soon).

I've seen a number of threads regarding what to get for your LoR writers but I've been having an extremely hard time deciding what to get for my writer. I know what to get for my other 2 letter writers, but this last one has me pulling my hair. He's essentially been there for me since the day I joined his lab... he actually reached out to me and asked if I wanted to join his lab. Long story short, he's done a lot for me from letter writing, mentoring... in essence, being the role model that I needed throughout my undergraduate career. ANYWAY why he's so picky. He's... very plain. -Chocolates? Coffee? No can do - he has a heart condition is sensitive to caffeine (never really knew the exact details but he mentions it). -Alcohol? Not an alcohol drinker. -Dairy based products? Lactose intolerant. -Gift card? From the older students in his lab, he doesn't really use the gift cards other students have given him unless they're actually useful. They said that his favorite gift card was a gas gift card (which I really don't want to get unless that's the case). -Mug/something related to the school I go to? He kinda just sets them aside... literally. I nominated him as Honorary Member for an org and he got a gift bag. He couldn't attend, so I picked up the goodie bag he was supposed to receive and delivered it to his office (contained a mug, shirt, and other goodies). He's set the mug on his cabinet and left the other things in the bag (he did say it was a nice bag though -__-). Every time I visit his office now, I see the bag sitting there (it's been 10 months and counting from the time he's received the bag) I really want to get him a gift that he can use and not just set it aside (it would mean a lot more to me than to him considering how much he's done for me). The older students said to get him a bag of cashews (specifically cashews - he hates other kinds of nuts). Then one of my friends said to get him a fountain pen (which doesn't sound bad). I've been thinking of getting a movie/dinner combo for himself and his wife. (He's also kinda high end, if that helps any). Suggestions?

I feel the same (this school for me was UC Berkeley). I applied initially during my senior year of high school as a math major. Rejection. With time, my interests changed and I soon became a chemistry major. During my sophomore year in college, I applied to transfer to UC Berkeley along with 2 other schools. I got into those 2 other schools, but I was rejected by UC Berkeley once again. (I ended up staying my current university in the end) Now during my senior year of college, I applied to UC Berkeley in addition to my other 4 schools for my PhD in Chemistry... and what do you know, I got in! It only took 2 rejections before getting in (I guess the 3rd time really is the charm) What surprises me is that despite the fact that UC Berkeley is one of the top programs for Chemistry, I'm feeling reluctant to attend. This grudge against them just built up over the past 4 years for rejecting me twice (which shouldn't be the case, but I'm feeling it!).

Congrats! I personally felt the same about the Chem GRE, but I guess we can proudly tell future applicants that there's more important matters than the Chem GRE (from personal experience, too!) I absolutely know how you feel right now. Making the decision is going be the toughest call right now. Ideally, I would like to stay in California, especially Southern California. I literally live 35-40 minutes away from Caltech (assuming no traffic on freeways) and I enjoy just about everything regarding Southern California and Caltech. Unfortunately, my #1 POIs are at Michigan and UNC-Chapel Hill. I really feel like visitation weekends will make or break a school for me... or even worse, put me in an even larger dilemma about what school to attend for the next 5 years of my life.

AHHH got an email from a prof. on the Caltech chem admission committee accepting me into their program! Finally done with all my admissions! Somewhat regretting I didn't apply to more schools.

I wonder what became of those two students who were dismissed. I really hoped they managed to find other labs to complete their degrees - it would be highly disappointing (and perhaps even more damaging to the school) if these two were forced to leave because of failed replications that weren't even their fault. I'm still surprised that Sezen still has her second PhD, but I guess the other school can't really do much as long as she didn't fabricate her data for that PhD. What astonishes me is that Sames was not only able to keep his tenure, but also did not receive any repercussions as a result of this. Sure, life as an assistant prof must be stressful since one needs to obtain tenure, but he should be the least bit suspicious of his researcher's results, especially in a field like C-H activation. I mean, it's amazing if a grad student was able to actually achieve something great in that field, but before publishing it, it wouldn't hurt to look at their notebooks to see how it was carried out and if it was carried out in a reasonable manner. I know profs have a busy schedule, but a couple of minutes at examining the student's experimental data could prevent incidents like this from occurring. (Sidenote - it reminds me of a story one of my chem profs told us about regarding how this one grad researcher managed to start off with an achiral compound and made it chiral. Long story short, he spiked his reagent bottle with the desired product so it would show up in the NMR spectrum)

Congrats on the recent Princeton, MIT and Caltech acceptances! The countdown on the number of days for acceptance into Caltech has begun. Best of luck, Caltech applicants!

As a fellow analytical chem applicant, let me contribute my two cents. GPA is important, but only to the extent that you are able to maintain a good enough GPA while focusing on everything else, especially your research. If you can keep a 3.3 by the time you apply, I believe you should be fine during applications. Albeit GPA was never a main concern for me, I did have some rather low GRE scores (52% percentile in Verbal for the GRE and 42% percentile for the Chem GRE). I was concerned these would play a large factor in my applications and I took the risk of submitting my Chem GRE score, despite the fact they weren't required for my applications as an American applicant (however, seeing the words "highly recommended" terrified me, which drove me to submit my Chem GRE score). Even though I submitted such a bad Chem GRE score and a GRE score that could have been better, I was able to gain admission to 4 of my 5 schools so far- UMich, UNC-Chapel Hill, Purdue and UC Berkeley, all of which have very strong analytical programs (currently waiting to hear back from Caltech). But I feel I had a number of other factors going for me - my research experience + publications, my LoRs, my SoP, awards and honors, and other misc. items. Aside from your GPA and GREs, your LoRs and research experience look pretty good. Just make your SoP is strong (and personal statements, too, if your schools require them) and keep up your GPA until you apply. You should be able to get accepted to most, if not all, of your schools listed.

Same. I started losing hope a couple of days ago after I saw a number of people getting into Berkeley but I kept refreshing my email only to see no replies... until now. Congrats! ^__^ Nothing better than scaring my lab because of this. I freaked out a couple of people because our school wifi was too slow in loading my Berkeley email. LOL.

Phew, Berkeley admissions are still coming out. It freaked me out when I didn't see many Berkeley admissions this week... But just got accepted into Berkeley!!

Hahaha soon. We'll be in grad school very very soon. Patience, young grasshopper.

I would if it wasn't the weekend before finals (quarter system)... So the March 27th weekend it is!

Also, I just received a fellowship from Purdue but not acceptance letter yet They're probably waiting on my last letter of rec writer to submit his letter (whom I've been constantly bugging him about), but I'll take it as an "acceptance" for now