gliaful

This was the only interview weekend. They didn't talk about turnaround time, but I did ask my last interviewer when decisions would likely be made, and he said he had no idea and wasn't part of the process. It was confusing because my earlier interviewers had warned me specifically that "your last interview today is your most important one". I don't know what to think -- I thought the process would be more transparent.

I would like to think that a faculty wouldn't say something untrue to get someone's hopes up, so perhaps the committee is just being a bit slow about churning out the official acceptances. Does anyone know, in general, what the turnaround time is for an acceptance/rejection following an interview? The waiting game has multiple stages, each more anxiety-laden than the previous.

I just met a guy (I'm at an interview right now) who is going to a UCLA neuro interview next weekend. I don't know if it's the only weekend, though.

I'm on the plane flying to Nashville for my first interview and I have yet another question. One of my longtime friends lives in Nashville and I've only seen him twice in the last 5 years. I told him that I was interviewing at Vanderbilt and now he really wants to meet up. Do you think I could tell him to meet me at whatever bar we end up at (night out with grad students)? Or would this be too distracting/ detract from the goal of getting to know current grads? What have you done when visiting a city where you have family/close friends who are (understandably) pushy about seeing you during your visit?

When I applied to Brandeis, I'm pretty sure I saw that they have a masters in Neuroscience that has rolling admissions, though I think the priority deadline was January 15th.

Unfortunately, a lot of grad programs have to follow the minimum requirements of the overseeing Graduate College, and most schools won't accept a GPA less than 3.0. I can't imagine anything else (presented here) that could be responsible for leaving you with no invites. Did you reach out to any of these programs before applying to ask about your uGPA? I'm not sure what one can do to get around this, but hopefully someone can suggest something. What about your statement of purpose, your letters of recommendation? Any chance any of these would have contained a kiss of death? As for things to do other than grad school, I think the post-bacc research opportunities through NIH or some schools (I know OHSU has a program) would be a good choice.

I didn't sign any documents...unless "Thanks for inviting me, yeah I'll be there!" is somehow legally binding. If so, I'm suing all the flakes I know. I could see this -- maybe -- with the programs that make you arrange your own flight through a travel agent. The travel agents all warned me about the flights being nonrefundable. It's still ill-advised to not show up when they've made these accommodations for you, out of courtesy (or out of care for your future connections in your field).

Maybe no one (important) seriously knew. Or maybe current grads get a kick out of it. In any case, this makes me feel better -- although I don't plan on running around naked or puking, it's nice to know that there's at least a little wiggle room. I fly out for my first interview Thursday and I need to know: what do I need to print off to board my flight? Is it just the itinerary? Or do I just need a number printed on my itinerary? I haven't flown in a long time and I don't remember.

You could just cancel on the one that hasn't bought your ticket yet...I mean, if you're canceling because you don't want to take off so much time from school/work, canceling one of them is better than attending all of them. I wouldn't cancel on anyone who has bought you a ticket, though, unless you're willing to offer reimbursement for the cost of the ticket.

If I only had to pick one, I'd pick the 3rd one. The 2nd one does have that 4.0 on AW, but 3.5 isn't much different compared to the huge increase in your verbal score 140--> 153. In your 3rd attempt, all of your scores are above the 50th percentile -- so I'd go with that.

If the department has obtained funding for its own fellowships (and doesn't share with other departments) it's probably less competitive than it sounds (unless your entering class has a ton of nominated people). I think this is something that is decided by the time you are made an offer, though, as it is something that might shape your decision.

My friend just went there last Thursday-Saturday (for the neuro program) and she told me that it was all very relaxed and that her interviews were more like conversations. She did say that she partied with the current grad students until 4 am Saturday morning. Also, there's a dinner with faculty and she said that the dinner almost felt like a big group interview -- but was just as much of a laid back conversation as the actual interviews were.

Healthy fats -- like the omega 3's you mentioned -- but also think about avocados, nuts (walnuts have an insane amount of omega 3's), ground flax (cheap to buy in bulk -- I put it in smoothies, baked goods, etc), hummus. Cook with extra virgin olive oil when you can. Some antioxidants are known to be helpful: I make blueberries and dark chocolate (greater than 60%) a part of my day, every day. I take a green tea extract supplement daily for my acne, but I know its benefits are widespread -- and the l-theanine found in both supplements and tea is relaxing.

My fiance has type 1 bipolar disorder (the most severe type -- features an episode of psychosis) and he's in his last semester of grad school. It did take him awhile to find a medication regimen that was right for him, but his advisor and instructors have been understanding and accommodating the whole way through. Grad students (and faculty!) are only human -- we all have our individual needs. I think the best thing you can do is to communicate/ be upfront with anyone who needs to know about these issues. I'm sure they would rather be aware on the days you might need to take it easy/go to doctor appointments/etc tending to your needs than to be in the dark and wonder where their grad student has disappeared to that day.

The email attached to this schedule said that a final schedule would be given to me during orientation (which is from 9-10am...right before my first interview). I guess I won't get to prep as much for the other interviews. Maybe one (or both) of the blank spots is with a member of the admissions committee, since these are the only 4 time slots on the entire schedule. I did ask to meet with Dr. X, but I hadn't even heard of Dr. Y before he appeared on my schedule.

I don't know exactly how you worded your emails, but this sounds fair and thoughtful to me. Hopefully it works out for you. Where are you interviewing?

I just got my interview schedule for my first interview (6 days from now at Vanderbilt). It appears I'm only meeting with TWO professors for interviews. On the schedule, there are four 40-minute slots, but only two of them have the name of an interviewer next to them. The other two are blank and follow the scheduled slots, like this: 10-10:40am: Dr. X 11-11:40am: Lunch 2-2:40: Dr. Y 3-3:40: Am I meeting with these two profs for two time-slots (1hr40) each? Or am I doing nothing in between interviews? Isn't two interviews a really low number of interviews? I don't understand.

I think it might be becoming increasingly common, but I don't know either. I noticed that one of the programs I applied to (Vanderbilt) offers a JD/PhD program in "Law and Neuroscience". Going to law school after getting a PhD in biochemistry, to my ears, sounds like spending a lot of days either arguing about drug regulations or environmental laws. It almost seems like, at that point, you'd mostly be a lawyer who could back-up anything sciency you said with, "I have a PhD in biochemistry". So perhaps this new wave of law+science education represents our lack of scientifically informed lawyers and politicians, who currently make laws governing things that they don't know anything about.

I use Mendeley, and I have all of my papers organized into folders (...maybe too many folders) by project, month/other time chunk, etc. Also, when I "Save to Mendeley", I write in a lot of unique tags that will help me remember the particular paper. I used to type things in the "notes" box but I could never find these notes anywhere when I looked at the papers in My Library. With the tags, however, all tags appear on the left sidebar and you can just click on them to find your paper or papers tagged with a particular tag. I haven't explored the other pdf organizers, though, so if there's something better than Mendeley I wouldn't know. I've just found ways to get around the things I initially disliked about Mendeley.

I wonder if this panel thing is common in interviews? Can anyone else comment on this? I would guess -- please correct me if I'm wrong -- that physically being able to schedule a "panel interview" for everybody would require there to be very few interviewees. I've already gotten the feeling that some schools intend to accept (almost) everyone they interview, so I can see where you're coming from. An adcom chair called me to chat about a program and said that they were interviewing 20 people to anticipate a class of 10. Provided that most schools offer admission to twice as many people as they actually want, and the fact that this program -- although a great match for my interests -- is not as "highly ranked" as the similar programs that students apply to, I feel like they might be planning on accepting just about everybody to meet their entering class size goal of 10 students. Is anyone on here going to the Vanderbilt NGP interview a week from now?

With professors, I go with "Hello Dr. X", or, if they have signed off using their first name only, I will say "Hello A". A couple of the profs who have written to me have been informal and more personal, and I have felt comfortable beginning those emails with "Hi A". If your content is professional and you don't start off your email with "hey" or skip the "hello part" entirely, I imagine their eyes don't linger too long on whether you chose Dear/Hello/HI/Salutations/etc. With coordinators, I have used "Hello/Hi firstname". I use Hello in the first instance and Hi thereafter, if they write to me beginning with "Hi". All of the coordinators I've emailed with have been friendly, informal, and accommodating, and I have felt no weirdness using "Hi".

I'm getting so nervous about these interviews. I leave for my first interview in 10 days. Here's a couple more questions for you seasoned interviewees: -Can I take pictures during the campus tours/city tours/facilities/events/etc? Not only will these help jog my memory when I'm done with interviews, but I thought it would be fun to share with friends/family/LOR writers I am eternally grateful for. -I am working in the lab full-time right now, and although my PI knows about and is supportive of me going to these interviews, I'm wondering what my work-interview balance will look like in the middle of interview season. I have interviews for 5 consecutive weekends and the 6th interview is 2 days after the one before it. Basically, I'll only be able to work Monday-Wednesday during the weeks I'm interviewing -- I go into lab whenever I want, so I was hoping to clock at least 20 hours during these 3-day weeks as I'm really trying to complete a couple projects. Did you experience burnout? Or is the interview circuit exciting the whole way through?

Did you check the results page for those programs? http://www.thegradcafe.com/survey/ Just type in the program name (less specific catches more results: eg, type "cornell pharmacology" instead of "weill cornell pharmacology") and look for results posted for F15. Hope that helps you find what you're looking for!

How soon before the interview weekend did you two hear from your programs about specific details (like whether to bring transcripts and who you'll be interviewing with)? I'm flying out for my first interview in 12 days (1/29) and I feel like I should be preparing.

For you people who just had your first interview, did you take copies of your CV/pubs/transcripts? If so, did you find these necessary? My printer is broken and I can't print from the school anymore since I've graduated. I'm sure I could find a way to print off this stuff but I'd like to know.