insaneinthemembrane

Hello everyone! I just went through the application process last year, if anyone has any questions about any of the schools I visited or my current institution, feel free to ask me! Best of luck to everyone applying!!

Thanks for the advice everyone! I will try and incorporate it into my readings now.

Hello everyone I'm a first year graduate student in the biosciences coming directly from undergraduate. I'm struggling with learning how to really read the amount of papers that are required weekly for class on top of reading for my rotation lab to develop an NSF proposal. I was wondering if any senior grad students or postdocs had any advice on how to read through large volumes of papers while still coming away with lots of knowledge. Currently, it take me anywhere between an hour to 1 1/2 hours to fully read and annotate a paper. Any tips on how to do it faster?

Hey everyone, checking in here. I'm also working on drafts for the life sciences so a little more than 2 weeks left until this is due. I'm on the quarter system so I pretty much just joined a lab and started working on an idea. The NSF deadline seems to be pushing itself up more and more each year. I remember student had until November last year

Wow, best of luck getting in!! Hopefully, I'll see you there!!!!

So, I finally made a decision everyone. I'm officially going to be a grad student at Stanford University!!!

Ahh, I don't know anyone who applied to that program. Sorry but good luck getting in!!

A friend of mine got an acceptance from MCB, I don't know if that's the same program you applied to

I'm trying to decide between UChicago and Stanford. Both have good programs for me I think, it's just very difficult to decide where to go since both are top schools.

Thanks for the feedback everyone. I'm leaning a bit more towards taking the fellowship offer since I think it will be a valuable experience and I personally feel that a month and a half of doing nothing will definitely recharge me before graduate school!

I've gotten a lot of advice suggesting I take some time off before graduate school (I'm going straight from undergrad) but both of my top choices have offered me a summer fellowship program. I know someone at one institution was really happy that he did it (he also came straight from undergrad) and at the other institution, the faculty seemed to push the program but the students didn't as much. I would have about a month and a half off between graduation and the start of the first rotation for the school I'm leaning towards more (the one where the student was happy he did it). Does anyone think I might need more time off than that and I should take the whole summer or would gaining new skills and getting better preparation for grad school while taking a small break help more?

Congrats!

I definitely really liked Stanford (which I thought was a reach for me) and UChicago as my favorites. I feel like I'm going to end up leaving home regardless, I just can't decide where I'll thrive more.

My parents have no idea about any of the schools on my list other than the ones in NYC since that's where we live so here are some of their best reactions so far: "Where are you going to analyze DNA next?" (I think they thought that there was a practical component to the interview) "oo that's nice, you seem to have quite a few of them" "I have to get on a plane for how many hours to visit you?" (my mom is afraid of flying) They continuously confuse Stanford, the university with Stamford, a town in Conneticut "Can you just tell me when you decide where you're going?"

Thanks! I feel like I'm coming down to either UChicago, Stanford, Cornell and UW. I would love to make my decision by next week but let's see how realistic of a goal that is. It's really strange because 3/4 are outside NYC which I thought I didn't want to leave but it's funny how life works I guess

I've been addicted to this thread. At one point during the application season, I would check the thread before brushing my teeth in the morning.

Congrats!!

That moment when you find out that you rank in 3rd on the amount of comments made on this thread.... Shoutout to Vene and expandyourmind for being 1st and 2nd on the list and thanks to everyone for making this chat such an awesome part of the application season

I really enjoyed everything they had to offer. I interviewed for Immunology and I think they really had a strong showing. I got a lot of opportunities to meet with faculty members and students across all years (one of the few schools where I met 6th years). Faculty there are really great, there seems to be alot of collaboration across the department and across Stanford as well. Most people I asked only had good things to say about it and when I asked what the worst thing about it was, someone said that it's sometimes pretty difficult to get ahold of PI's because they're often quite busy giving talks

I got an offer today from Stanford Immunology!!! Super excited!!!

Yea, I'm sure the criteria I'm using for selecting my schools are probably different than yours because we care about different things so you should always make it personal in terms of what you care about most. I also have a category for my gut feeling indicating how I feel when I think about myself in that school because to some extent, it does factor in during the decision

Tell me about it, I really want to hear from them also

Actually, I know it's a really late point but to offer the opposite viewpoint, my PI actually did the same ranking system and it turned out to be the school that he had less of a gut feeling for (he was deciding between Stanford and UCSF and he wanted to go to UCSF). He actually chose to go to Stanford because it won out on the list, which is a very logical viewpoint and very opposite the emotional response. He hasn't regretted going to Stanford over UCSF but the point of this I feel is that it's very hard to make a wrong decision when you're comparing schools of this caliber essentially. There's a good choice and a better choice but it's a personal decision as to why one school is better, resources or environment or some combination of the two.

Yes, thats what I meant. I'm already accepted and it's one of my top choices. By relaxed I mean am I allowed to be a bit more myself and not be worried about them rescinding the offer?

So I'm going for my first revisit next week. My PI has suggested I use this time to talk to faculty I'm interested in rotating with and making sure I get a great feel for the university. I wanted to know if this will be much more different than the interview weekend in terms of pressure. I know I'm already in but should I still be on interview mode or is it ok to be a bit more relaxed?