braindump

Hm. That's a good question (I think you meant it rhetorically, but I see it as an actual question). He's very well connected, but I feel like most of his connections are academic. The "prestigious school," on the other hand, I think is well connected to industry and in a concentrated biotech/tech area. I'd been told before that the name of the school itself opens many doors. I guess I'm just stuck deciding which name (his, or the uni's) will open more doors for me, so to speak. There's also a chance that, at the better-known school, I'd have a chance to work with another very well known professor, but that isn't a given and not something I want to rely on.

I feel like I have a bit of an "impossible decision" between two great programs, and thought I'd see if anyone here had any insight/thoughts/opinions to offer. If you had the option between a very prestigious program/school, and a very prestigious professor at a lesser-known school (though still great program), which would you choose? I think if I was planning on going into academia after my degree, the second option would be the obvious choice. But I'm interested in industry, and for this reason I think the choice is less obvious. Many people in my field would recognize the professor (he's practically the father of the field), though probably not everyone. But I think that virtually everyone would recognize the degree from the first school. Which would you say is more important?

Oh no That ALMOST happened to me, but I managed to get on the last (overbooked) flight available. Not a good time for flying right now.

BU is my last visit (two weeks from now), so I'll likely know by then what my decision will be, if that helps at all. That's also their last visit weekend, so I'm sure some spots will open up soon. Best of luck.

It's also hard to do if tickets have already been purchased..

How do you know you're unofficially accepted? Was it a professor or the committee that told you this? I was unofficially accepted to a program, but within the next day I was officially accepted. I guess they just needed the official stamp of approval from the department head or something like that, but I didn't get invited to a visit weekend until after official acceptance. If it's been a while since they informed you of the unofficial acceptance, I would just call/email and ask. That way you'll know what position you're in. I wouldn't assume you're accepted until you get the official notification, so don't show up for the visit weekend and get hammered (though I wouldn't do that even if you are accepted, you still want to make a good impression). As for the visit weekend, it really depends a lot on whether or not you're actually accepted. If you haven't been officially accepted by the time you visit, I would treat it as an interview weekend, where you're still trying to win over the school (for the most part, though they also try to win you over a bit, since they're obviously going to want a good portion of those visiting to attend their program). If you have been officially accepted, then I would treat it as a visit, where the school is basically just trying to win you over. I've had both types of visits, but the format has been generally the same. The interview weekend interviews actually felt like interviews, with professors asking me about my research, why I was interested in them, etc. Just be comfortable with what you've done in the past and what you'd like to do in the future; know what the professors are working on and how it relates to you. Generally speaking, I don't think they're expecting you to have an in-depth knowledge of their work, and I found that asking questions really got them going (i.e., made the interview go by very quickly). No one made me feel stupid when I asked questions, even if they probably were stupid, especially if it was in a topic I don't have a lot of experience in. I think it's also good to show curiosity in their work. Some of the interviews were more of a casual chat about my past work, what I'm interested in, and occasionally completely unrelated stuff. Visit weekend "interviews" felt less like interviews, and the professors mostly talked about upcoming projects and I had the chance to ask them questions about their lab, the program, etc. The rest of the weekend, we had a poster session, lab tours, campus tours, lunch/dinners with faculty and current students, and the last evening the grad students took us out to bars so we could see the nightlife. It was a bit hectic, but pretty fun meeting new people and getting to know the university/program. Just be yourself, be confident, don't drink too much, and try to enjoy yourself.

I just got back from a bioengineering interview weekend, and honestly, it depends a lot on who your interviewer is. I interviewed with three professors. The first was a very casual chat; I just talked about my interests, etc., and half of the conversation wasn't even research related. My next two were more interview-style, so I had to go a bit more in depth with my work and what exactly I was interested in, why, etc. If you're comfortable with your work then you should be fine. The most technical questions I've gotten involved something like "how exactly did you test for this property of the samples?" or maybe just a detailed explanation of the kind of data processing I was doing. One professor explained a project goal and asked me how I would design a material to fulfill both of its needs; that involved a bit more thought, but it was rather fun, and I think she was just trying to see my brainstorming process. Really, it's nothing you need to sit down and study for; just be comfortable/confident in your past work, what you want to do, and what the professors are doing. If you worked on a project a long time ago and you think it'll come up, maybe just refresh with the paper or procedure a bit. Asking good questions about their research definitely makes the interview go by much faster. Though I did hear of a few people getting some more technical/unexpected questions in their interviews, so, again, it depends a lot on who is interviewing you. But if you're confident in your work then you have nothing to worry about.

I do remember a few people from my recent interview weekend (not at UPenn) talking about UPenn interviews, but I can't remember if they'd already gone or if they were about to go. Not sure if that helps at all. At this point, if a program interviews and I haven't heard back, I've assumed that I'm not in. It's already March, so it seems a bit late for interview invites. There's still 3 schools that haven't said a single thing to me, even though I know they've sent out rejections/interview invites/acceptances. Not sure what to make of that, but I guess I'm just going to count those as rejections.

Interviewing with Stanford and I haven't heard anything yet. I don't really expect anything more than a week in advance.

I don't know if this helps but I know UMich has sent out at least a few interview invites (March 12-14). Not sure if they do waves or not.

Again, so helpful! I really don't find this overbearing at all, because this is the sort of organization I know I need to function well, but have been too all over the place to try to begin. I've never heard of systems thinking but it sounds very interesting, I'll see if that perspective helps me at all. Sometimes I wake up and think, "today I'm going to get my life together!" before promptly falling back asleep, sleeping in, and being too tired/wasting too much of the rest of the day to get much done. Maybe my lack of successes in getting stuff done (or my lack of stuff to do) is what's stripping my motivation to do anything, but I'll start today by making a nice, organized To-Do list. Thanks for reminding me how important this is.

This is very very helpful - thank you so much for writing it all up!! This is something along the lines of what I've been trying to do, but just making these regular habits means changing everything and that's hard. I try to keep up with to-do lists but they're all over the place so they're only moderately helpful. But I've found Mendeley infinitely helpful so far; somehow I feel like I can get through papers much faster using it. Hopefully I'll have your organizational skills soon. Maybe once I watch that lecture, heh.

I feel like that's something you should be able to take to the department...

I'm not a full-time student this semester, so I can't really imagine having double the stress I do now, but about a week or so ago I spoke with both of my professors and explained that I have interviews/graduate visits every weekend for a while, and will basically be missing over a month of Thursdays in a row, plus a Wednesday or two (I have no class on Fridays). They were both very accommodating and said the same thing: "interviews are the priority!" Which, if you think about it, is very true. At this point, as long as you pass your last few classes, the interviews/visits are the most important factor affecting your immediate future right now. I'm sure your professors would be willing to reschedule exams or give a makeup. I'm going to make up the labs I miss on Mondays or Tuesdays, and I'll just try my best to keep up with lectures I miss (lots of down time on planes/in airports!). At first I thought it was stressful, but now I think it's exciting. You get to travel and see new places, meet new people! Try to make the most out of it and maybe fall into a rigid schedule for keeping up with classwork. Congrats on so many visits.

I think I waited 0.3 seconds to tell my SO/family - I was way too excited to wait. It involved a lot of hopping up and down. Also: congrats! If you want to be more creative about it, I'd order them something from the school, like a mug, and let them be pleasantly surprised once they get it.

Noo, they said I pay out of pocket only for traveling to/from the airport. So plane tickets are covered (or however else you choose to get there, train, car, whatever).

I was told I'd only have to pay for bus/train/cab to and from the airport. Or wait.. what kind of travel expenses? For the visit?

I feel like 50% are pretty good odds considering the odds you had to beat just to get that interview! (Though as someone about to be in a similar position, I completely understand why 50% is still pretty nerve-wracking.)

I got invited to the weekend of Feb 26-28 but I had a conflict and they said they have three Open Houses, including Mar 5-7 and Mar 19-21. So there's still time! I'll be there March 19th!

Thanks fuzzylogician! That's actually a really good point.. maybe I'll find a balance myself and just put in a small stud for interviews. The Boulder comment I found interesting though. For some reason that was the one uni I thought for sure I should just leave it in.

I'm just curious to see if anyone has any opinions regarding piercings during interviews/visits. I know it probably varies per program, but I was hoping some people could offer insight from experience. I'll be attending several post-acceptance invites and two interviews, kind of all over the place, most of whom have specified 'casual' or 'business casual.' I have a nose ring in (actually kind of a cross between a hoop and a stud - it mostly just looks like I have 2 studs in but it's a circular barbell, hard to explain w/o an image), and a few in my ears/cartilage but I was going to leave those in. Should I take it out for interviews (say.. at a place like Stanford) and leave it in for visits? Does anyone even care? I know I should go and "be myself," but I feel like some people are likely to judge me for something so silly. I also feel weird about interviewing without it and then showing up the first day of class/lab with a hoop on my face.

Yeah in Florida we don't have that option.

This was immensely helpful - thank you!! I will actually be attending the Michigan interview session in March (hopefully.. just emailed them and today was the deadline ). I applied for tissue engineering/biomaterials track, but I saw someone last year say they got rejected from UMich because there was no tissue engineering funding. Since you go there, do you know anything about this? Would this have any impact on this year's funding?

Well, pretty much all the programs, interview or no interview, still have some sort of recruitment or visit weekend. But I guess since they don't have to continue the admissions process after the visit, like schools with interviews do, they're not really in a rush to do it asap. Also just got my first rejection. Sigh.