gliaful

I haven't thanked my recommenders yet, but I heard somebody on here say that they bought mugs from the school they decided to attend and gave those with thank you notes inside to each recommender. I like that idea and will probably do something similar. It probably depends on your relationship with your recommenders. I think a nice email would be okay. I would probably tell them in whatever way you contacted them initially for a letter. Like, I see my PI a couple times a week. I've been telling her about interviews/other procedural stuff along the way. My other recommenders I see less frequently, so I will probably email them.

Although it's kind of difficult to make generalizations about the attitudes of academics toward anything, I think the one thing that we CAN safely assume about academics is that they are all educated. I can further make the generalization that educated people are more likely to be aware, informed, and accepting of people identifying as LGBTQIA. My field is different than yours, but I've always felt like fields within the physical sciences (and especially biology) are very accepting -- perhaps because we see our differences as ingrained/innate, and nobody has any "precious worldviews" that might be crushed by other people living their lives. A prof at Oregon State underwent surgery for reassignment a couple years ago and the university went out of their way to protect this individual's identity during the change -- they deleted/changed old records showing the prof's old first name, replaced all pictures of this person with their new pictures, etc. This prof is a friend of my parents, so that's how I know. But I do know Oregon State is very accepting in general -- I had started applying to one of their programs and I remember being asked for both my gender and my "gender identity", with options to be put in contact with LGBT support.

I dreamed that there was a gradcafe used by all of the adcoms at various schools/programs, and they were talking about us (the applicants) and their chances of getting us to accept their admissions offers. My top choice school called me their "safety".

Thanks! Sounds like I should be able to fit my basics in a bag, especially since I really only need 2-3 days worth of stuff.

I don't know why they don't state these things. Perhaps they hadn't figured out the weekend prior to the deadline? Of the schools I applied to, only OHSU, UW, and Iowa had dates posted on their websites...and Iowa's dates weren't even correct! Overlap was a big problem for me: For the Jan 29-31 weekend, Iowa, Vanderbilt, Pittsburgh, and Brandeis had interview weekends (luckily, all except Vanderbilt had multiple options) For Feb 5-8, CU Denver, Brandeis, Pittsburgh, and UW (Feb 3-5 or 4-6 only). Feb 12-15, Utah, Pittsburgh, Brandeis Feb 19-22, nobody (I thought this was going to be the most popular weekend based on previous years...) March 1-3, only OHSU -- only weekend available March 5-7, Iowa's alternative weekend I only had to decline UW. Pittsburgh offers 3 weekends, but they are flying me out at a separate time that works for me. The Brandeis interview is "optional" (email said it was a chance to "kick the tires") but I already committed to 6 interviews so I'm not going. I suppose there are only so many weekends in late January, February, and early March, so overlap isn't entirely avoidable...However, it would still be really helpful to know these dates in advance!

Yeah, I don't know either. I've speculated that competitive programs know that they're desirable, so they are probably less inclined to (pay the big airfare/hotel bucks to) accommodate applicants with more than one weekend -- an "if you really want us, you'll show up on this date" sort of attitude. Maybe it won't necessarily hurt the program...what if competitive programs send out more invites (than otherwise expected) to match a historical, predicted 75% (or whatever %) RSVP rate?

I have a question about flights. I've been on a plane once in my life, but it was 6 years ago and I checked my bag. I've got 6 flights lined up, and I've decided I don't want to deal with checked luggage. I don't want to show up to an interview weekend with lost/destroyed luggage. So, I'm looking at the TSA regulations for carry-on liquids, and I'm wondering if one can feasibly fit all necessary liquid toiletries into a single quart-sized bag. I have four 3 oz travel containers and it appears that this is all a quart-sized bag can hold. Today I decided to buy a dozen 1 oz containers from Amazon in hopes that these would free up some space in the bag. Of course, they haven't arrived yet, but now I'm just antsy about making sure I can get this stuff to fit in a bag. I knew that I would need shampoo, conditioner, face wash, lotion, etc, but I didn't realize that semi-solid items such as deodorant and lipstick were also regulated as liquids! Does anyone have any tips for getting a whole buncha stuff to fit in a Ziploc bag? Can I heat the bag over my stove and stretch it out a little? Are there any liquid items that I can "sneak" into my carry-on without putting them in my quart bag? How do they know I'm carrying liquids anyway? Other related question: can I take prescription meds in my carry-on? They are all properly labeled, but I was thinking about transporting just what I would need for the trip (as opposed to the whole bottles) -- so for this I am unsure.

What Geodude said, but also because that's what you paid $130 for.

UW didn't review all of their applications, no. But they DID NOT say that the those which were not reviewed belonged to international students. They said they were lucky to review half of the applications that come in. International students have an earlier deadline than domestic students: November 1st vs December 1st. If applications are reviewed in the order in which they are submitted, then the applications submitted last (in the interval of Nov 1 - Dec 1) likely comprise those applications that weren't reviewed. And who did those applications come from? Domestic students.

Two situations and the emails I used. The first is my decline to invite at UW. The second was my attempt to move a school's interview to another date. I knew that there were two weekends available, but in your case you could ask about a Skype interview in place of the second weekend I mentioned. I don't know if they bought the work excuse, but they did accommodate me.

I lived alone for awhile, but I lucked out in that I made friends with my neighbors (who went to the same school). On a few nights out of the week, either they or I would cook and we'd all have dinner together. It was nice because at the end of it all I had my own place to go back to, and it was only a few steps away. So perhaps there are particular apartment complexes that many students in your future department live in, and something similar could work for you. The advantage of this situation is that it's as social as you want it to be, but you can always hermit up if you want time alone. I've lived with friends from school, but this was only difficult because we had similar schedules. There were passive-aggressive attempts to steal the bathroom in the morning -- on one occasion, the bathroom door was shut and I could hear the shower running inside...but my roommate was in the kitchen, trying to prevent me from taking the shower so that she could shower when she wanted to. The first time I lived on my own, my roommate became psychotic and was diagnosed with schizophrenia 1 month after moving in. He turned all of the furniture in the house upside-down and started screaming from underneath the upside-down couch at 2am. His parents took him back to their house and I had to pay rent alone while I found a new roommate. I doubt that this is a common problem, but I would make sure that your potential roommate is stable and reliable (kinda goes without saying, but I learned it the hard way).

But what's P(A)? It's not 1.0! Otherwise I wouldn't be asked for my TOEFL scores. Otherwise programs wouldn't be boasting about their 30% international student population.

Yes, I recommend it. I think it would be looked at if your science background had some deficiencies. Touch up on neuro in any way you can, but especially the areas related to what you want to study. It'll help you in your interviews if you feel fluent-ish in your field.

Igotnothin, I am not sure what you are seeking to accomplish. It is evident that you firmly believe that there exists years in which the international stack is thrown out. I don't know where you are getting this from -- yougotnothin, evidence-wise -- but I promise you that everybody on this topic is fully aware that you believe this. Nobody pays "$130 for an automatic rejection", because even if there were years that the international stack was fated to the round file, this is unknown to both the applicants AND the admissions committee at the time of application. Many domestic applicants also have their applications disregarded entirely. This has been said before many times in the last few pages of this topic alone. I'm not sure what you want to hear from us. I think you're alone in believing that all int'l apps get trashed. It's unfounded and yet you redundantly cite it without evidence -- the burden of proof is on you, not us. However, you're not alone in believing that the system could benefit from being changed. TakeruK explored alternative methods and concluded that the current system, while imperfect, is still much better for both applicants and departments than the alternatives. And yeah, contacting departments is always a good idea. It's not a secret and it won't get you in for sure, but at least it's proactive.

I think someone should make a spreadsheet. That's what I think. Like, gradcafe should have a post-interview poll where attire standard, number of interviews, presence/absence of a social activity, presence/absence of a city tour, and admittance/rejection are collected for each school a user interviews at. Maybe different categories than those that I mentioned, but the idea would be cool. I do not plan on wearing a suit. I will wear a blouse and dress pants, and I might consider a blazer, but no full suit for me. I've heard from previous applicants that asking about attire is the norm if the school doesn't mention what you should wear. I've asked everywhere that I'm interviewing and the answer has always been business casual. One contact even said, "I don't know why people show up looking like bank tellers. We don't want bank tellers, we want students...who look like students. Wear your normal clothes." I'd like to talk about clothes for the non-interview days, if that's something you're open to. I was planning on nice sweaters (sweaters that I already own) with dark, "nice" jeans or slacks, and weather-appropriate shoes. What do you think?

No, I'm sorry -- I'm not trying to argue that determining that an app is from an international student constitutes a review. I meant to say: how are you sure that these schools didn't give you a full evaluation? I don't know how one would obtain that information, so I'm curious.

I'm still not sure where you're getting the idea that schools didn't review your application.

I have never seen a program report that it has a student body containing 0% international students. Typically the value is much higher than 0% (anywhere from 5-30%). Therefore, at least one international student has been admitted to every school, within the last 5 years. So, it follows that the international stack of applications is not just "thrown away", because somebody gets in. You always have the option of emailing a school (before paying $130) to ask about your chances as an international applicant. Some schools, like UW, require internationals to establish a relationship with a faculty sponsor, who will support their application/logistics of bringing you to the US to interview. Some schools might hold this policy even if it isn't stated upfront. Emailing and asking for information might save you $130, but you do have to remember that paying $130 doesn't buy you (or anyone) an interview.

Reiterating what peachypie said...they would HAVE to review your file to figure out you were an international applicant. Did you read/consider this, or anything else peachypie said? If I applied to a school in a country that isn't my home country, I would assume that my app would be looked at following the domestic applicants. Especially in schools that are state-, province-, or country-funded. I don't pay taxes in any country other than my home country; the fact that the institution would be even WILLING to look at my app would be meaningful to me. Yeah, it's the way the cookie crumbles, even for domestic applicants. The neuro department at University of Washington said they fully reviewed less than half of all submitted applications, which includes many domestic applicants. Some schools use filters, such as GPA and GRE scores, to "review" (filter out) a large number of applications, because admissions committees are comprised of humans. In the interests of inviting applicants in a reasonable time period, not all applications can be fully reviewed. Sorry, it's unfortunate. I understand where you are coming from -- but it's the nature of the beast.

I asked the same question in another topic, because I also had 8 invites and wasn't sure what to do about it. I was told to go to as many as I felt comfortable going to. If you have schools that you aren't that interested in, I would turn those down. I didn't pay attention to rankings so much as I did the research faculty and curriculum, and I decided to accept invitations to interview at 6 of my 8 schools. My interviews are consecutive weekends, except for the 1 day gap between OHSU and Iowa. However, I've already graduated so I don't have school to worry about, and my PI has encouraged me to take as many interviews as I want. Everyone's situation is different, you gotta make the best choice for you.

You should post your question here: I didn't apply to NYU Sackler and every school is different (in whether there's one round of invites or several). So I'd just ask it in the Applying to Neuroscience topic that I linked above.

I know a few people got University of Colorado Denver's biomedical science program (BSP) invites last week.

I do have some stats for you: http://www.sfn.org/~/media/SfN/Documents/Professional%20Development/NDP/SurveyReportAY20102011.ashx "While the early surveys showed a steady increase in program size, this has stabilized in recent years and the average size of the graduate programs (~39 students/program; median 33) has been steady over the past few surveys." "Indeed, overall, the results of the current survey, based on data collected for AY2010-2011, are remarkably similar to the 2009 and 2007 surveys." One thing that this survey DID say has changed is the number of neuroscience programs that are actually titled "neuroscience". In the past, many neuroscience trainees were enrolled in programs called "biomedical science", "psychology", or "pharmacology". See fig 1b in the link, where "other disciplines" means neuroscience programs going under another name. The total of the blue and red bars is pretty stable, so NO, it is not actually growing in popularity, it's just that more programs these days are specifically titled. Also, something to keep in mind is that neuroscience is HIGHLY interdisciplinary and is thus a pretty large field with many sub-fields. There are neuroscience programs loaded with psychology faculty, there are neuroscience programs that emphasize pharmacology, there are neuroscience programs that essentially computational biology or biophysics programs with a focus on the properties of neurons/glia. Vanderbilt even offers a grad program called "Neuroscience and Law". So, there may be many of us, but we're diverse.

ghostoverground has, she's somewhere on this forum.

Orims and Vene, thank you for clearing these things up for me. I don't know how I got it into my head that I needed to read several papers per interviewer. I suppose I just tend to overprepare, especially for times of high anxiety. Interviews keep sounding better and better. At first I really thought it would be a massive grill-sesh. I will, of course, take the interviews seriously, but this makes me feel a lot better.