gliaful

I'm going 2/5-2/8. I'm really interested in some of the pharmacology faculty too -- but luckily all of the people I took interest in participate in the neuroscience program. I was emailed within 30 minutes of my phone call, but we were probably contacted by different people. Gidon Felsen of the neuroscience admissions committee called and emailed me.

Is this for Neuro or for the Biomedical Sciences umbrella? If Neuro, I will see you there!

Invites from Vanderbilt NGP, Utah, OHSU, and Pittsburgh (all neuro) today. Busy day for invites!

Haha I gave you an upvote anyway Thank you!

OHSU NGP just emailed me for an interview! And Utah did a bit earlier too. Four interview invites today + graduation = too much to handle! Sounds like it's a great day for everyone!

I just got Vanderbilt NGP (Jan 29-30) and Pittsburgh CNUP (date to be determined - odd). Vanderbilt conflicts with Iowa, so I emailed Iowa and asked if I could be switched to their other interview weekend. Hopefully they haven't bought my plane ticket yet. I feel awful about this, but I feel that I fit better with Vanderbilt's research than I do with Iowa's.

I like peachypie's advice -- it's on the previous page (or maybe even two pages back) -- that you should email programs that don't typically reply until January and ask when their interview weekend is. Then you can plan.

I graduate tomorrow! And it's payday! Tomorrow has GOT to be a good day.

I would wait until just after break for Dec 1 deadline schools. Except for maybe UTSW -- those invites were some of the first to roll out this season if I remember correctly.

Oh man, I'm sorry. This is your second pair of overlapping interviews, huh? I didn't think the overlap problem would be so significant this early in the process

I just rejected an interview offer from UW (long story). Maybe this means another invite will be made.

LOL. University of Pittsburgh, see here: http://www.cnn.com/2014/11/08/justice/pennsylvania-doctor-cyanide-poisoning/ His info was still on the department website when I applied! I almost hope I don't get an interview there because I might die of awkwardness.

When you write in your SOP about how you think Prof X's research is so cool, and then after submitting your application you see Prof X on CNN for killing his wife with cyanide...

Thank you! I will email them and ask about a skype interview. It's UW...I feel like they won't appreciate feeling back-burnered...but I've got nothing to lose by trying.

I need to turn down an interview invite and I am crumbling. I really don't want to turn it down, but it's back-to-back with another school and I am much more enthusiastic about the second school. In this moment of heightened anxiety and tearfulness, could somebody please tell me how to reject an interview? I can't reason with myself right now, I feel awful and I might hurl. Sorry for how emotional this sounds. I just didn't envision this happening.

I submitted all of my apps between Oct 19-31.

Just got UW...both choices overlap with Denver...

EEEEEEEEK I just got a call too! So whoever you are, see you there!

Who got a call from CU Denver?

FYI, I emailed OHSU about the post-bacc research rumor and asked them if I would still be encouraged to apply. This was the response I received: We do admit students without post-baccalaureate research experience but the admissions committee is going to want to see solid undergraduate research experience which it sounds like you have. Your GRE scores and GPA will be competitive. Please be sure to procure stong letters of recommendation from the PI you did your undergraduate research experience with an others who can attest to your skills and committment to obtaining your PhD in Neuroscience.

Me too... But you have some post-bacc work, right? If I remember correctly, you said you graduated in May? You'd be at over a year by Aug 2015 -- if you're still working now -- and they only want a year. I'll have 8 months post-bacc full-time after I graduate, but I didn't mention this in my SOP (I wasn't hired yet). Maybe my PI mentioned it, but she probably didn't. OHSU isn't my top-choice, but I do wish I saved myself $70 at this point and applied somewhere else instead.

They contacted me and said review would begin the 15th with invites being sent a few days later.

I really appreciate your openness to discussing this. What are your flaws? It is certainly hard to tell from a distance whether we "measure up" well, or what the "ideal" matriculant looks like. Of course, as I have been reminded at the lows of my anxiety, graduate education IS education, and even the "perfect" applicant has many things to learn. I am insecure about my quietness. I fear that I'll appear empty-headed while interviewing. I fear that I won't seem sociable enough; that I'll be deemed a "poor fit" simply because I'll be nervous to bits. Substance-wise, I feel like my research experience has been different than that of the average applicant -- and perhaps for the worse. I was tossed into a lab with no formal guidance or training and I've learned most of what I know from youtube videos, protocols posted on the websites of other universities, and "experimentation" in the crazed, laymen's sense of the term. I did come up with a new way of transfecting cells, and I'm first-author on a paper, and for those things I'm proud, but I wish someone bossed me around when I started so I would at least have a technical background. There are two other students in my lab, both busy PhD students, and my PI's approach is hands-off. I feel like she's used to independent students, so I have been treated as such. Of course, this resulted in a great letter of recommendation, but I still feel like I missed out and I'm insecure about what grad schools WANT in terms of "research experience". YES, I know how frustrating it is when things don't work out and there's nobody to turn to. YES, I know how to troubleshoot like hell. YES, I know how to plan my next steps. YES, I know what most techniques are used for. But NO, I don't know how to do a lot of them, but YES, I know I can figure it out.

Has anyone heard from UW? I thought they were going to send invites yesterday, but I see nothing in the results. However, it seems like not everyone updates the results when they get news.

I love the positivity here. I wish this for all of us. I guess my question was whether breaks do exist at all (I'm aware summer doesn't, but that's fine). I don't take a lot of time off, but if I'm moving across the country it would be nice to know if once or twice a year I could have 2-4 days off to visit my family. Do you think the average PI would see this as reasonable? I know that's an ill-posed question, but I don't have a gauge for "reasonable" as of yet.