gliaful

I got a non-automated birthday email from one of my programs (????)...my birthday is in late November, and this particular program had a deadline of December 1st, so I spent a lot of time wondering if they had already reviewed my app. I did eventually get an interview, over the phone, but I think my over-excitement startled the prof who called me.

I just looked at the survey results: http://www.thegradcafe.com/survey/index.php?q=nyu+sackler+biomedical&t=a&o=&pp=25 Looks like last year there was only one wave of invites; however, not everyone reports their results to the survey. Hopefully you will hear from somebody who applied there or is currently attending.

I have always used Google Scholar to look at h-indices, but the article PeterPanComplex posted says that Web of Science has the h-index for ANY author. As you noticed, Google Scholar only has it for those who have created a Google profile, and authors have to manually add their papers to compute the h-index (mine is 1 haha). EDIT: I figured it out! Go here for an explanation: http://libguides.utdallas.edu/content.php?pid=77218&sid=572087 Basically, I had to connect to the Web of Science database (from MY university's library site, not UT Dallas). This is step 1. Then search by author, last name + initial(s) Then click "Create citation report" in the upper right. The h-index is shown to the right of the pub bar-charts.

This is SUCH a helpful article. Surprising to see that it was published in Neuron...but I guess it's just that good! I can't figure out how to use Web of Science to find any prof's h-index though...anyone know how to do this?

Oh man, this sounds rough. I didn't know schools arranged for red eye flights...seems like an unkind thing to do. Did you give them a list of faculty you want to interview with and they're picking faculty based on this list? Because maybe you could just print off a recent paper from each of them/familiarize yourself with all of them beforehand, and then you'd be prepared even if they give you this info with very short notice. Or maybe you could tell them that because you have a red eye flight, you would appreciate getting the list of interviewers as soon as possible...I don't know how much the coordinator can really expedite the process, but you never know.

You may have better luck here: You might be confused because non-ecology biology disciplines typically don't involve arranging an agreement with a PI prior to applying, and many of us aren't ecology applicants.

I don't know if they hurt chances of admittance, but it's the only kind of interview that international students usually get so it can't be that incomplete of a picture. I've heard some pros to Skype interviews: you can have any materials you want right in front of you, which can help you feel confident/inspire good question-asking on your part. Also, if things take a bad turn, your connection can always "fail" (pull the plug), and then you can reconnect and put things on a better track.

This is good to know, thank you! Other question about rooming with another person (I am never out of questions...): Did you ever have any troubles with your roommate? I'm imagining troubles of the sort of going to sleep at different times/waking up at different times (being noisy/being woken up by other person)/ other person uses all the shower's hot water/ etc? I've never shared a room with someone I didn't know -- I never lived in a dorm on campus or anything like this.

If you must talk about your academic performance, I would instead say: "One of the key contributors to the successful execution of this project was my strong undergraduate preparation. Having gained a firm grasp of both fundamental and advanced concepts, I was poised to understand and discuss research works to identify research problems and devise meaningful solutions." Different fields use different vernacular for discussing problems/attempts to solve them. Thus, although I said "devise meaningful solutions", you should substitute whatever phrase you think is appropriate to what you actually did. I nixed your "attempt to solve them" because it sounds like your work was incomplete or unsuccessful -- which directly contradicts your earlier statement of "successful execution of this project". Please message me if you would like to discuss this further. I am happy to help.

All 6 of my tickets are non-refundable.

Question about the first night of the interview: A few of my interviews involve 7-8 hour travel time (flight+layover(s)). I leave around 7 am (my time, MST) and arrive around 4-5 pm (eastern or central, depending). I am going to be exhausted when I finally arrive and hopefully not too intoxicated, but I am crazy scared of flying and having a drink/drinks while reading some papers sounds kinda delightful. I know that most interviews have a dinner the night everybody arrives. Do I just get dropped off at my hotel room and picked up for dinner later (i.e., can I take a big, scrumptious siesta?) Is this first dinner "dressy" -- would any potential nap time be better spent freshening up and getting settled? I just crave detail. If I could, I would bring a secret camera with me and attach it to my shirt so that I could film the entire experience and release it for all my fellow future anxious applicants.

Holy #*&% you have an interview NEXT WEEK? How are you feeling? Did they send you a "detailed" schedule for the weekend? How are you feeling? Sorry, I just feel like #*&% just got real. I guess to actually answer your question: nope, I won't be there.

I've heard that being friendly with the other interviewees is important. Everyone that we meet at those interviews is going to be very well-qualified, but being competitive/overconfident will make you stand out in the "poor fit" sort of way. Smile a lot. Ask lots of quality questions -- nothing that can (reasonably) be found on the program's website. Have fun with the grad students, but...don't get wasted and be a shitshow. Have a drink and participate, but be careful. My tolerance has been in the trash the last couple years so I'm not really sure what I'm going to do about it.

Other pros to the rotation system: Every student in the program has worked in ~3 labs, and knows the students in those labs...who have also worked in 3 different labs. The entire program will be more cohesive and collaborative. From the perspective of a PI, having students who have established relationships in other labs may promote collaboration, as students tend to pick rotations that deal with similar-ish subject matter. An incoming student might think that Prof X is a perfect fit for them (on paper), but in reality, being able to get along with other lab members and be happy in the lab is a huge productivity promoter. Rotations allow students not only the opportunity to work on different projects, but also to find the environment best suited to their work personality. Cons: Yes, iffy funding 2 years out. However, I think profs usually decide whether to take rotation students based on their projected ability to fund them. Also, most programs allow for additional rotations if a suitable lab isn't found within the normal rotation allotment. Diffused time that could have been put toward concentrated work. But, I mean, the purpose of a grad program (in my opinion), is to do a bit of exploring within a specific field, and to garner a deeper understanding of multiple current research topics. I don't see grad school in the same "get in, get out" light that undergrad is cast in.

So, I'm not "like you" (in the sense that you mentioned -- my track is molecular/cellular neuro), but I definitely encountered this overlap phenomenon when I was looking at schools. It seemed, though, that at the sample of schools I looked at, any psychology faculty who had research interests in biological psychology/neuroscience were specifically located in the neuroscience department/program. For a lot of schools, the names of faculty are listed without their research area and I had to click on all 40-100 names to see who was doing what. For some of the neuroscience programs, a LOT of the faculty are actually psychology faculty (see Univ of Iowa's neuro program, where psychology is actually a first-year required course -- I recently learned this). I would tend to believe that faculty who are only located in a school's psych program and NOT additionally in the school's neuro program are not going to be working on anything too biological/neurosciency, but this is my hardly-informed inference. After looking at enough programs and faculty, I began to quickly identify psychology faculty in neuroscience programs. They use the word "neurobiology" A LOT. "Our lab studies the neurobiology of X", etc. Are all of the programs you applied to psychology programs? I don't know when those programs send out invites. If they're neuroscience programs, then you'll probably be hearing back soon.

This is such a good idea! I think I read on last year's biology thread that people do ask -- I mean, there has got to be a reason (even if it's because they didn't review all apps -- UW as example), and it's not unreasonable to ask what that reason is. However, I think they asked later in the season, when the program administrators and admissions committees weren't as busy. I think it's fair to ask as soon as you receive a formal rejection.

I haven't seen anything about that program specifically, but I just checked the results and it seems like this might be the week invitations are sent. There aren't any interview postings from the F14 season, but all of the F13 interview invites happened between Jan 5-8.

Maybe they were going to Skype interview you, but someone dropped the ball (hence the delay), and now they're just going to let you attend the real interview as if the Skype interview went fine. I think that Skype/phone "interviews" vary a lot in their degree of interviewiness. It seems like some of them, on the less interviewy side of the spectrum, are really just informational phone calls. So perhaps the pre-interview that didn't happen would have contained the same information as the Welcome Letter. If it were me, I would respond to anything asked of you in the Welcome Letter (if you indeed want to attend), and just let the pre-interview stuff go. I'm sure if they really need to pre-interview you, they'll stop you and ensure it happens. Otherwise, it sounds like a hoop was removed. Congrats!

I was asked about it by all of my schools, and I just said something like, "I'm a vegan, thank you for your consideration/thoughtfulness/accommodation". If you aren't asked about it, maybe you could ask them if vegetarian options will be available.

Hey all, I forgot to check back on this topic until now. We appreciate the suggestions and she's trying to quit for New Year's. There's a shop nearby that has e-cigs and she says she'll look into it.

Apply to as many as you feel comfortable (time and money being the only real limitations). I think 5 sounds okay, but I understand your apprehension following a rejection. If deadlines haven't passed, applying to a few more would improve your chances and (hopefully!) lower some of your anxiety.

You can circumvent making Univ Y feel like your second choice by noting some unique aspect of Prof Z's work within the collaboration. You can still make it known that you are aware of the collaboration while making it appear that you would prefer to work on Prof's Z side of things.

I think I probably got some hearsay mixed up. Thinking about it now, I remember reading on the survey results for OHSU that an "Accepted" reporter commented that OHSU wanted a "decision within a week so that they could make more offers." Could this have actually been for an interview? It's been messing with me. EDIT: OHSU isn't on the list! So maybe OHSU will pull this, but at least they're one of my last interviews.

This brings up another question: it sounds like you see the other interviewees during the interview period of the weekend? So, I'm picturing a bunch of nervous interviewees standing together and being escorted to faculty offices by grad students. When you're finished speaking to one of your interviewers and you step outside of their office, are you led to your next interview by a grad student? Or are you on your own to find your next stop? I get lost easily. EDIT: I have another question, too. So, I have heard that April 15th is the deadline for accepting an offer of admission. However, I have also heard that some schools will give you a decision shortly after you interview and want to hear from you within a week. How are you supposed to handle this if you have more interviews planned?

This sounds great to me. I think attire really depends on the school/program...I'm not glowgene, though, so we'll see what she says. What do you mean by "flat boots"? At this point I am struggling with boots. It'll be winter everywhere I go (no California/southern schools for me), and when I think of boots, I think of those nearly knee-high boots that just about everyone in my location wears over skinny jeans or fleece tights. I always saw them as so casual, but are they really?