gliaful

It's a good idea but who knows if it's normal. I've always heard that it's a good thing to do, but whether most people actually do it is unknown to me.

I spent most of my time studying how the "e-rater" grades GRE essays. I found this interesting tidbit about how 90% of essays that score a 6.0 exceed 600 words in length. Of course, this isn't to say that 90% of essays that exceed 600 words score a 6.0, but I practiced writing as much as I could in 30 minutes (using the issue pool on the GRE website for topics). I was lucky enough to be given topics that I had written practice essays for beforehand, and I did end up scoring a 6.0 on the AW section. So, ZebraFinch's advice is perfect.

What if it's because you were wait-listed, though? Now that we're at the tail-end of rejection season (not for ecology programs, but almost everyone else) and the beginning of rejection season, I would say that not receiving a letter of invitation or rejection means you either accidentally didn't complete the app or you've been waitlisted.

I wondered about this when scoping out faculty at the beginning of this process. Would you think that MD/PhDs who are faculty would be even more likely to have prioritized research over clinical work? At the time, I tended to think they would be even busier people than the average busy faculty member because I assumed they all balanced both jobs. Totally unrelated PS: Anyone and everyone, take this waste-of-time "What kind of protein are you?" quiz, just because: http://www.cellsignal.com/contents/resources/what-kind-of-protein-are-you/protein-personality-quiz Also, it can waste even more of your anxiety-laden time if you treat it like a puzzle by taking it additional times and trying to work out what answers would correspond to each possible result.

Is it just the program titles that are diverse, or are the actual programs diverse in content? If you're interviewing with biophysicists at Berkeley who are working on neuro-oriented topics, I don't think it should cause any problems to say that you're interviewing at neuro programs elsewhere. You may seem to them to be an applicant who looked specifically at the research being done within each program you applied to -- quite the opposite of giving the impression of being misguided. Is the Stanford psychology program neuro-oriented? I can't envision it being heavy on biophysics, but I don't know anything about the program. "When in doubt, leave it out". You could tell Stanford about everyone except Berkeley, and you could tell Berkeley about everyone except Stanford. Then you could avoid the biophysics-psychology "clash". Or, if you feel like you're given sufficient time to explain the "common research thread underlying", I think you should do that instead of omitting.

In addition to giving a university logo coffee mug, I was wondering -- as a sort of mini-gift -- about taking pictures of the university/facilities/cool city stuff and sending a few photos to LOR writers, as a "Look at all the cool stuff I got to see and experience because YOU helped me out!" It sounds good in my head, but I was thinking it might get annoying to get an email each week (my interviews are all consecutive weekends) with a bunch of pictures. Maybe it would be better to send fewer emails with multiple visits represented in the pics. Additionally, I don't know what the attitude is toward taking pictures during the interview weekends. Can someone chime in on this? Otherwise I'm going to go bug the "seasoned interviewees" AGAIN.

Thank you! I knew asking about stats would either be awkward or reflect shallowly on me, but asking about personal/departmental reasons for dropping out seems like a good way to get the answers I'm looking for.

Thanks (as always ) for all the great advice, peachypie. I have a long question about the controversial topic of rankings. I did not choose my programs based on rankings -- I just wanted neuroscience programs that emphasized molecular, rather than systems/cognitive/psych neuroscience, that had a number of faculty involved in research that I thought was cool. I am familiar with how my programs are ranked by the National Research Council (NRC). (If curious, you can find these NRC rankings here: http://http://chronicle.com/article/NRC-Rankings-Overview-/124747/(raw numbers only) OR here: http://www.phds.org/rankings/neuroscience (more user-friendly; gives explanations and additional survey info for individual programs -- not just neuro)). I have become concerned with the "Students" ranking of two schools that I am interviewing at; although strong in every other component of evaluation, these schools scored poorly relative to the others (in the bottom 15 of all schools evaluated) in the "Students" category. Further investigation on the phds.org site has shown me that these schools offer all and almost all (17/18), respectively, of the resources linked by the survey to student success. The other programs, which had higher "Students" rankings, did NOT have as many resources offered to students (range 14-17). This leads me to wonder whether students must have reported other data, which I have not yet found, that would merit low scores in the "Students" category for the two schools that I am currently investigating. I know this ranking stuff is hooey, and the NRC stats are nearly 5 years old, but it's getting to me. So here's a few REAL questions that I would appreciate thoughts on/ an answer to: 1) Are current students ACTUALLY forthcoming about how much they like their program? In other words, when I ask them this at interviews, is EVERYONE going to smile big and nod and assure me that they wouldn't have had it any other way? 2) Is it ever appropriate to ask about a questionable statistic? A stat that I have not mentioned, but is also of concern, is that phds.org shows that only 33% of grad students graduate in 6 years at these two institutions, while the average time to completion is 5.8 and 6 years. Surely this means that either the stats are incorrect OR enough students drop out that these stats are actually correct (OR some students graduate extremely early while a larger number take longer than 6 years, pulling the average down to ~6 years while satisfying the 33% stat). Although it would be nice to have this resolved, I am apprehensive about mentioning a stat directly during an interview. 3) What are some other reasons that you can think of that may contribute to a low "Students" ranking? Keep in mind that "Diversity" is a separate category. Sorry for the long post! This has been bugging me for a week and I hadn't taken the time to ask you wonderful people for your thoughts.

There is a delightful article published in Neuron called "How to be a Graduate Advisee" -- it's a thoughtful flip-side of the coin to "How to Pick a Graduate Advisor", recently mentioned by PeterPanComplex in the Neuro Applicants forum. Although both papers were published in Neuron, the advice given seems applicable to all of the fields represented in this forum. While interview invites continue to trickle in, and some of us are soon to begin or have already begun interview season, both of these papers may be helpful and I have linked them below: How to be a Graduate Advisee, http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0896627313011914 How to Pick a Graduate Advisor, http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0896627313009070 Both are open-access to my knowledge.

Thanks for the experiential input future.grad.student! And yeah, isilya, I'm in the same boat. I have a nice sweater-dress, leggings, and boots that I was planning on wearing during my flight to stay warm and cozy (and wearing boots means not packing the boots!). Sounds like the first night is kind of informal anyway so we'll probably be okay.

Generally, should we also be concerned about dressing up for dinners? Or is the level of attire that is suitable for non-interview days also fine for dinner?

I bought boots by Naturalizer that are comfortable on the inside but look uncomfortable and dressy on the outside.

3) How did you feel answering the second professor's question? Did it start a conversation or did you just answer his/her question and then move on to talking about other stuff? I ask because this isn't the first time I've heard about being questioned during interviews but I've heard that generally questions aren't asked. 4) ??????? How was it clear?

Welcome! See you on February 5th!

New Year Resolutions! Perhaps cheesy, perhaps so cheesy that they grow a little mold and disintegrate after 2 weeks, but whatever. I'm making resolutions almost 10 days late and I want to hear yours. By the end of 2015, I plan to be living in a new city starting a new chapter of my life. So, in line with that, I'm resolving to speak up more. I'm a shy person and I often don't ask for help when I need it -- I just get stressed out and internalize that stress. Also, I'm excited to get to meet so many future students at these interviews I'm going to (first one is in 19 days, AHHH!) and I want to make the most of it. I go to a barely-known state commuter school that essentially functions as a community college and I haven't really had the opportunity (or maybe I haven't put forth the effort) to meet people with similar interests and ambitions. I am excited to meet these elusive people both during interviews and also when (if?) I start grad school. I also got this rad cookbook as a gift recently and I'm going to set aside time to cook something new each week. So far, so good. Does anyone still make New Year Resolutions? If so, what are yours?

If you want a second pair of eyes on anything, feel free to PM me.

No problem! I hope it works out for you. Talking to people who potentially have your delicate future in their hands is intimidating. I think I spent an hour writing that email.

This happened to me, somewhat, with a school (we'll say A). However, A first told me that the interview was optional, but then said an in-person interview was mandatory...so it may sound a little confusing. I was very straightforward (except the part about the schools I "preferred" -- this wasn't written to my top choice) and this made me anxious, but it was met with a warm, thoughtful response wishing me well. Details aside, here's basically what I said: So, instead of my last sentence, you could say that you will be unable to visit on the dates listed, but you would like to know if there are alternate dates or if Skyping is possible. You may borrow my structure or my wording of certain things. I would advise against copying large chunks but nobody would know even if you did.

Those are adorable. They have osteocytes! I work with osteoblasts... This is cute for neuro folk: http://www.giantmicrobes.com/us/products/braincell-grad.html

I didn't even think about that -- their visit is on an odd set of days. Well, I wouldn't mind enjoying Portland for an extra day

I'm not sure. An earlier email said that all interviews would be conducted on the 2nd day of the visit, and this email just asked about arriving a day earlier than the official visit starts. Maybe it's intended for east coast interviewees/ anyone who might be especially exhausted after a long flight. My flight is less than an hour long... Thanks for the input though -- maybe you're right and arriving early means leaving early. EDIT: Just checked the email and it doesn't say anywhere that interviews are on the 2nd day, so nevermind that.

OHSU asked me if I wanted to fly in a day early, so I said yes -- an extra day in my hometown! But now I see it as an extra day of scrutiny. Does anyone have any ideas as to why a school would offer to fly an applicant in a day early?

"Your strong background in chocolatiness is a perfect fit for our chocolate-loving stomachs." "Your garlicness, while tasty, is not a strong fit for our PhD program in Eating Chocolate." Was it like that? I find this idea hilarious.

I was going to buy coffee mugs from the school I choose to attend and put a thank you note inside with some chocolates or something.

My situation differs from yours in that my fiance is finishing up his last semester of his MS in mathematics (i.e., he has no compelling reason to stay behind) and we'll be set to move in the summer; however, similar to your situation, he'll need to find work. I don't know where I'll be in seven months, which puts a lot of undue pressure on him -- and even if I did know where we were headed, it's difficult to truly explore a city's opportunities from the view of the internet alone. All of my potential programs provide a stipend, and we've agreed that I will support us both while he searches for employment (if he hasn't found employment by the time we move). This honestly makes me quite nervous, but we're both trying to save a lot of money right now to buffer the financial impact of moving. In your wife's situation, I would tend to believe that most middle- to large-sized cities have public and private non-profit opportunities in the arts -- however, I don't know how specific or translatable her current skills are to other positions. Of course, it's difficult be uprooted from a position where one is established and comfortable. Perhaps she works with someone who has connections in the place you choose to move?