ilovelab

As a guy I've never experienced that while TA'ing. That being said our sections were optional. I did have more students come up to me during exams for help then my fellow TA's. They probably thought I would help them more with the exam than the other TA's. Honestly I don't think there's gender discrimination, the students may think you are the nicer TA and the students think they can get away with their lame excuses with you vs the other TA.

Undergrads in lab leaving the gas going on a bunsen burner. How on earth do you blow out the flame but LEAVE the gas on.    
Undergrads

Will these schools accept the GRE instead of GMAT? I've heard from the Dean at our Business school that the conversion isn't ideal (whatever that means), so they don't take the GRE. I assume you've checked but just be sure. I don't know a lot about B-School but if you haven't already check out this forum. gmatclub (google it) from there you can look at specific schools and see the stats of accepted applicants. The most important part I think will be the essays, everyone applying will have similar GMAT/GRE/GPA/Work Experience. So the Letter of Rec and Essays are the only things to make you stand out. You can't control the LoR but the essay's are where you really stand out. I also wouldn't worry about not working for a F500 company etc, b/c if that's all B-Schools were looking for I'm sure they could fill the incoming class with Goldman-sachs/Bain/KPMG/Pricewaterhouse etc applicants. But looking at student profiles at the schools, they clearly are not.

Your GPA isn't that abysmal. People have had similar GPA's and have been accepted to top programs. You can't do anything about the GPA now. Your GRE is what needs to improve quite a bit. Most schools have unofficial GRE cutoffs. You need to do well do ensure your app is read.
 
 Other than that you need to carefully research what programs you want to go to. Make sure that your research interests fit well with the program. Otherwise you aren't going to have a shot.
 You are not in as bad of a situation as you think you are.
 If you can't afford it don't do a masters, its not worth the money. A research tech job is far more valuable.

Will these schools accept the GRE instead of GMAT? I've heard from the Dean at our Business school that the conversion isn't ideal (whatever that means), so they don't take the GRE. I assume you've checked but just be sure. I don't know a lot about B-School but if you haven't already check out this forum. gmatclub (google it) from there you can look at specific schools and see the stats of accepted applicants. The most important part I think will be the essays, everyone applying will have similar GMAT/GRE/GPA/Work Experience. So the Letter of Rec and Essays are the only things to make you stand out. You can't control the LoR but the essay's are where you really stand out. I also wouldn't worry about not working for a F500 company etc, b/c if that's all B-Schools were looking for I'm sure they could fill the incoming class with Goldman-sachs/Bain/KPMG/Pricewaterhouse etc applicants. But looking at student profiles at the schools, they clearly are not.

Your GPA isn't that abysmal. People have had similar GPA's and have been accepted to top programs. You can't do anything about the GPA now. Your GRE is what needs to improve quite a bit. Most schools have unofficial GRE cutoffs. You need to do well do ensure your app is read.
 
 Other than that you need to carefully research what programs you want to go to. Make sure that your research interests fit well with the program. Otherwise you aren't going to have a shot.
 You are not in as bad of a situation as you think you are.
 If you can't afford it don't do a masters, its not worth the money. A research tech job is far more valuable.

Your GPA isn't that abysmal. People have had similar GPA's and have been accepted to top programs. You can't do anything about the GPA now. Your GRE is what needs to improve quite a bit. Most schools have unofficial GRE cutoffs. You need to do well do ensure your app is read.
 
 Other than that you need to carefully research what programs you want to go to. Make sure that your research interests fit well with the program. Otherwise you aren't going to have a shot.
 You are not in as bad of a situation as you think you are.
 If you can't afford it don't do a masters, its not worth the money. A research tech job is far more valuable.

Your GPA isn't that abysmal. People have had similar GPA's and have been accepted to top programs. You can't do anything about the GPA now. Your GRE is what needs to improve quite a bit. Most schools have unofficial GRE cutoffs. You need to do well do ensure your app is read.
 
 Other than that you need to carefully research what programs you want to go to. Make sure that your research interests fit well with the program. Otherwise you aren't going to have a shot.
 You are not in as bad of a situation as you think you are.
 If you can't afford it don't do a masters, its not worth the money. A research tech job is far more valuable.

Invite friends and bribe them with Beer and Pizza!

I don't know if there is anymore advice that we can give you. You know what you have to do. You say you want to be a tenure track faculty member and that you are not interested in industry. The biggest issue for you is your Undergrad GPA. You can't do anything about the GPA now so you have to do a masters or a Post-bacc. Since you've been out school for a while I don't think you will qualify for most post-baccs. That leaves a Masters. You have 2 options: a coursework based masters or a thesis based masters. The latter will help you more in grad school admissions. With your uGPA you are not getting funded for the masters unless you know the PI you want to work with. That means at least 50-60K in student loans. After you've completed your masters you are going to have to be selective to where you apply. You can't apply only to top tier schools this time. You're going to have to apply to some less competitive programs. I would also suggest applying to Umbrella programs as their admission standards seem to be less strict than straight neuro programs. All you need is one school to accept you that you are willing to go to. You have a long road ahead of you but other students have been accepted into grad programs with sub-3.0 GPA's (there's a thread on it). The other option that I suggested earlier in the thread is industry. Your uGPA won't matter as much. Med schools like Stanford/Davis/UCSF/USC/UCLA always have SRA positions open. There are more jobs in the bay area for biotech than on the east coast.

Will these schools accept the GRE instead of GMAT? I've heard from the Dean at our Business school that the conversion isn't ideal (whatever that means), so they don't take the GRE. I assume you've checked but just be sure. I don't know a lot about B-School but if you haven't already check out this forum. gmatclub (google it) from there you can look at specific schools and see the stats of accepted applicants. The most important part I think will be the essays, everyone applying will have similar GMAT/GRE/GPA/Work Experience. So the Letter of Rec and Essays are the only things to make you stand out. You can't control the LoR but the essay's are where you really stand out. I also wouldn't worry about not working for a F500 company etc, b/c if that's all B-Schools were looking for I'm sure they could fill the incoming class with Goldman-sachs/Bain/KPMG/Pricewaterhouse etc applicants. But looking at student profiles at the schools, they clearly are not.

That's not relevant. What they did in the 60-70's would not be allowed by IAUCC now. Research animals are not treated that way.

That's not relevant. What they did in the 60-70's would not be allowed by IAUCC now. Research animals are not treated that way.

Congrats!!! That's awesome. 
 Earlier in the thread you posted your story about getting rejected from grad schools and how it was the best thing that could have happened to you. Could you post that again after April 15th for all the posters who were not accepted into grad school this cycle. I think it would be good for people to see that if you don't get into your dream schools this time around its not the end of the world, there are other avenues you can take to get into you dream grad program.

CONGRATS!

Last decision is in! Thank goodness this process is finally over! I'm in a bit of shock that I will actually get a chance to choose what school I will be attending next fall. To anyone that has a low gpa ( mine was < 3.0), it is possible!

CONGRATS!

I have officially accepted my offer to The University of Texas Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at Houston (MD Anderson)!! I am so excited!! :-) Time to kick cancer's butt!

No program is going to let  you transfer. You are going to have to Master's out and then re-apply to phd programs. You can only transfer when your PI is moving institutions.

I can't speak for Stanford or Hopkins but I did my undergrad at UCLA so hopefully I can offer some helpful advice. UCLA has the same name recognition as Stanford/Hopkins. There is a reason it is the most applied to university in the country. I don't know about history, but for the sciences you don't have a problem finding jobs/getting into grad school from UCLA (obviously you have to be qualified). Bigger department and cohort sound like bonuses to me. If you don't like one POI chances are there is someone else you can work with. UCLA has a MASSIVE Graduate population. They always have mixers etc for grad students and more clubs than you know what to do with. You don't have to be great friends with people in your cohort, chances are your housemates will be some of your best friends in grad school (unless they are roommates from hell).
If your funding is guaranteed for 5 years you shouldn't worry about $$$. Unless you are worried you can't finish in 5 years. Still you can TA/apply for fellowships, I wouldn't worry about the $$$ at this point since you have 5 years guaranteed.  The quarter system can be killer if you are not on top of your stuff. It also means that you are going to have to grade essays/projects faster than if you were on the semester system. That shouldn't be a deal breaker though.

If you haven't heard about interviews at this point you are probably rejected at the schools you applied to. Some schools have already finished their interview weekends. Some schools have multiple interview weekends that last into march so there's a small chance at those schools.  How bad is your undergraduate performance? What were your GRE scores and where did you apply? I personally wouldn't go the masters route unless you can finish the degree relatively debt free. Its not worth going 100K in debt for a masters. An MBA maybe but not and science masters. I would personally look for jobs in a research lab. Either academic lab or industry is fine. Chances are you won't get an industry job with just 1 year of microbio lab experience. The MOST important thing is finding a lab that is conducting research you are interested in.
  Personally what I would do is look for PI's whose research interests are similar to yours and email them to see if they will be hiring lab tech/research assistants. A lot of job openings for lab tech/lab managers will be opening up come may/june as the current tech/managers will leave for graduate schools. Another thing I would do is ask your PI if he/she knows any new labs that are starting up. If so, they will definitely need staff and hopefully since you PI knows the new PI their word would hold more weigh if they recommend you. You are going to get a lot of PI's who don't respond to you, who say NO. All you need is one who says yes. I emailed close to 40 labs till I found a PI who wanted to interview me. Now I'm working in a lab that does research I enjoy and a PI whose one of the leaders in her field.

To quote the awesome Christina Yang “Don’t let what he wants eclipse what you need. .... but he’s not the sun. You are.”
 
If this is your dream school, you should go for it.  You mention that the other school isn't the greatest research fit, that should play a big role in your decision. You have no idea about funding/PI Personalities/Lab environment till you are at the other school. Some of the PI's you like might actually be douches, they could loose grants and not be able to support you. If those are the PI's whose research you are interested in what will you do? Would you really be happy having to settle for a lab/mentor you are kind of interested in just to live with your bf?

As a guy I've never experienced that while TA'ing. That being said our sections were optional. I did have more students come up to me during exams for help then my fellow TA's. They probably thought I would help them more with the exam than the other TA's. Honestly I don't think there's gender discrimination, the students may think you are the nicer TA and the students think they can get away with their lame excuses with you vs the other TA.

Depends on where and how far you want to live from campus. If you live in the new grad apartments (the ones on weyburn) you're going to pay 1100+ for rent and utilities. Parking is pretty expensive as well. Its cheaper to live in Santa Monica or south of Wilshire Blvd. Its obviously doable but you're going to probably have roomates unless you don't mind living in a crappy apartment.

Go with you gut.
Where do you want to live? SF and Princeton, NJ are two different places to live. Do you like living in a major city? Your stipend would go further in NJ than SF.
Name recognition between Princeton and UCSF isn't that different. Funding will depend on the lab you join. I would personally go with the school with more PI's that I want to work with.