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If this happened to me I honestly think I would either come close to or actually piss myself

I find this to be one of the most amusing yet true analogies when it comes to seminar talks in general.

How ridiculous of a punishment was handed down to Tom Brady.

The slow cooker has been quite a nice investment. Also the fact that I cut my own hair.

This has become one of the longest chains about spiders. Personally as long as they aren't poisonous or in my food - I leave them alone since they keep the flies away. Overall ignorance is bliss - I know they're around but as long as I don't see them I assume they aren't there.

This is absolutely true. You have a solid GPA and it seems like you'll be able to get some strong letters of rec. Make sure that you aim for the 85-90+ percentile when you take your GRE. No matter how impressive one's credentials are it boils down to research fit at the PhD level, especially at top programs that receive ~1000 applications. This will be conveyed in your statement of purpose, followed by your LORs. GPA and GRE scores provide a measure of some standardization but they are not the most important components of your application package. Keep your grades up, do good research/science and present your work. Apply to a good spread of programs (7-10) where you can realistically see yourself attending and where at least 3-5 PI's are doing research that you find interesting. Make sure to show your PI and other profs your SoP and don't overstress - the application cycle is quite a long process .

Not necessarily. PhD programs understand that not all applicants would have the opportunities or resources to conduct neurobio research. Now if one is able to do so it's definitely seen as a plus but not as a requirement. As long as your research experience allows you to gain transferable skills that would pair well once you start your doctoral training you should be fine. Just be able to understand the direction that research is going in the field (i.e. through the reading of current literature) and be able to speak intelligently on the subject. Then when it comes to putting together your SoP, you will be able to state how your experiences will help you be successful in PhD program X. If you are planning on taking a gap year, I would definitely look at some of the options MidwesternAloha mentioned. Good luck and don't stress over the process too much since anxiety rarely does anything to solve future issues.

The NIH has a pretty interesting postbacc program. Also many major universities tend to have some sort of postbacc program. If it would be funded, pursuing a master's degree in something related (does not necessarily have to be in nuero) would be useful in bolstering your research experience. I know a few people who got jobs as research techs at either a university, a biotech company, etc for 2 yrs or so and were fine when they applied to PhD programs.

3.5 at the end of your first year of college is nothing to worry about. You still have at least another year to ramp up your GPA before you start to get diminishing returns on getting A's. Just focus on passing your required courses with high grades (A/A-/B+) and taking some challenging electives. You should also start doing research during your sophomore year because your research experience will outweigh your GPA once it reaches a minimum threshold (~3.6-3.8).

lottery winner

With your GPA and if you do well on your GRE you can actually get into plenty of great programs. It comes down to how you present yourself in your SoP and "research fit". Research fit is kind of esoteric but it basically comes down to whether or not you would make a good fit at the program: get along with your cohort, do 'good' science and contribute to the field, etc. For now I would suggest that you begin reading into the programs you listed above. Visit the research portals of several PI's at each school and go on PubMed and read some of their articles. This will give you a better idea of the research going on there and if you could seriously see yourself attending that program. My advice is to never apply to a program that you could not see yourself attending (due to research fit, location, department environment, etc) even if it's a fancy name since a PhD is 4-6 years of your life and a 'big' name quickly loses it's appeal if your are a miserable student.

What I mean to say is stay open to the different programs out there - there may be some awesome research going on at a place, but they aren't labeling it as strictly microbio, genetics or whatnot.

Newegg.com and Amazon are pretty solid choices

I stand by the CW - they make quite a few decent shows

Also I am getting sick of how TV portrays 22-28 young adults. I get it we're millennials but that doesn't mean that everyone of us can't think of outside of the box/know about the past or are slaves to our smartphones & social media.

We could list programs but not all programs are the 'same'. What I mean is - are you interested in large programs? small programs? well funded individual programs? umbrella programs? big city? small city? east coast? midwest? the south? the west coast? Basically there are a lot of programs out there and you're not giving a lot for us to go on. There are good neuroscience programs in the south such as UT Southwestern or on the west coast such as UCSF or in the east such as Harvard and Cornell.

That sucks - I've worked in a few group projects with "bad" teammates. Yet, the goal is to find a positive spin on every situation. For example, working in the group taught you that you need careful planning and delegating of the tasks at hand and you personally know the consequences of what can happen if this is not done at the beginning and throughout the project's lifetime. Or something to that effect. Unfortunately, you cannot redo the project so you have to be able to move on and make the best of your situation.

thesis writing sucks . I'll definitely be starting way early during my PhD.

True. Also I would suggest that you get more research experience, neuroscience is notoriously quite competitive (not to say that other branches of the biomedical sciences are not but just saying). This means summer research and continuing research into your senior year.

Your GPA is over 3.0 and you seem to have decent research exposure. I suggest you apply to 8-10 programs across the spectrum but still programs you can realistically see yourself attending. You do want to get your GRE into the 85-90 percentile range to offset your GPA a bit. Also I wouldn't look strictly at microbio programs, try looking at some of the umbrella programs out there - you may be pleasantly surprised. Begin working on your statement of purpose over the summer because that is one of the most important parts of your application package. Also start looking for recommenders (you'll need 3-4) that can attest to your research ability.

Every engineering major usually has to complete a capstone design project. What I did for my capstone project has nothing to do with what I'm doing for my master's or PhD. Basically you learn to work with a team and an industrial contact - those are transferable skills that can work both at the grad and professional levels. A design project is viewed slightly differently than regular coursework since it's more akin to what you would encounter in the work force. How poorly did you do on the project? I wouldn't stress too much over it, just be able to explain what you did and learned from the project and how does skills would benefit you in grad school.

Politely tell her that you are still exploring possible research projects going on in the department and that you will definitely consider her project but you have made no final decisions yet.

Why not attend Duke then. Also there are plenty of programs that are MD/MPH which may be easier to navigate.

Don't take it that personally. You have an opportunity, don't squander it - show the PI that your initiative doesn't just stop at finding the project. The better you do, the more the PI will notice and give you more responsibilities. Overall, he could have just given the project to some other student, regardless of your efforts. Good luck!

Honestly you've already done linear algebra, so DE is the next logical step. As long as you get a good textbook (or use the internet - it's a pretty well defined math branch, especially at the sophomore/junior level) then you should be fine.