mademoiselle2308

I will chime in on this thread too. I am starting grad school (PhD) this fall, so I cannot comment on what grad school is like, but I was a low GPA applicant and can offer insight into applying with a low GPA. I have worked in a lab post-undergrad for 3 years doing cancer genetics and can also answer questions about working before graduate school. I am planning to attend my top choice graduate school this fall and couldn't be more excited!
 
This website is great for tips and advice. There are a lot of wonderful people on this site more than willing to help.
 
Feel free to message me with questions!

Why don't you apply for MSTP (MD/PhD) programs at institutes that have strong virology components?

Have to admit I'm a bit confused...are you applying as a backup in case you don't get into medical school (adcoms can see right through this by the way..), MD/PhD? 

agreed totally.
1. most grad school application requires CV instead of resume. CV requires nn description of what you have done/learned during a specific work/research. In other words, under your research experience, it should just be 1 line with the information of: name of PI, name of department, time, and your title in the lab/at work.
 
2. As a result, OP will need to elaborate on the research experience, typically in an essay that elaborates what you have accomplished as a researcher and why are you applying grad school for a virology program, and/or why that specific school.
 
I'm unsure how admission committee view when your CV has a bunch of med school-oriented experience listed in the CV. you definitely need to tailor it so that they don't think you are applying the program because you cannot get into med school -- this is what I have been told once by a professor friend of mine, who was the head of the admission committee for years.

Go online to the website of the program you're applying for. Look for their 'people' tab and find the students, preferably the first-year students. Some will have their own websites. Use their CVs as your example. They will be the closest to what you want to have.
 
In the meanwhile, run a search on CVs on here, there have been a lot of discussions about how to structure a CV.

So first - enjoy the starstruck-ness for a moment, but then get over it. Prestige is great, but reputation is better - and Wisconsin is a powerhouse in several fields. In my field, Yale and UW are both top 10 programs and really selection would be about fit. (in a lot of humanities fields, though, Ivies do still hold a lot of prestige and power behind them). What are placements like coming out of each program? Where do students end up afterwards?
 
Can you arrange a visit? If you can, I would visit the department (ask if they can assist you with funding, and in a hurry, since they accepted you so late). Since you've already visited UW you want to be sure you are comparing apples to apples. At the very least, I would arrange Skype meetings with faculty and some current graduate students to get a feel for the department.
 
Surely you must have mind-ranked them before you applied - which one was more appealing to you beforehand?

If you do your due diligence and discover that you would really rather go to Yale, technically UW is supposed to formally release you from your decision to attend. In practice, very few PhD programs want to force a student to attend who clearly doesn't want to be there, and the contract isn't legally binding on you if I recall correctly (although you should check to be sure). Worst case scenario you do some light bridge-burning - UW might not be happy that you are backing out of the agreement, but in the long run you need to do what's best for you and your career.

It's certainly not ideal to take back your acceptance, but I say do it. Finances matter. I think you could even say something to them to the effect of 'After reexamining my financial situation I regret to say that I will not be able to attend next year. I am deeply sorry, but I wish to withdraw from your program.'

I don't see where he is upset? Seems like a pretty normal case of a prof wanting you to attend his institution and trying to persuade you...

I don't have anything very helpful to say about the decision process, but I would suggest the possibility that your interests in English can remain a passionate hobby, even if it is not your profession. Since the job prospects are really, really bleak, I would consider that. But, if you absolutely want to do the PhD, it could be a great experience, even if it does not advance your career. Of course, it is a huge time commitment, so you have to decide if that is worth it.

One place you can start at is by typing "stem cell" into pubmed and reading some recent articles about research being conducted in that area and check out which schools the authors writing those articles are from. 

Well comrades, it's over. Or maybe I should say it's just beginning...
I've accepted an offer - Biological Physics, Structure, and Design at the University of Washington in Seattle !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

They rejected me (without interview) two years ago - but I'm back, baby. 

Have. Never. Been. More. Excited. About. Anything. In. My. Life. 

 

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!

Have you looked at where graduates of each program go when they leave the university?

I am a little disappointed, but the expectations are pretty high. I'm trying again next year and can hopefully build from their feedback

Getting two interviews is a good sign, so I'd say probably send out more applications next year as it is somewhat of a numbers game. I don't really know how focused you were, but the program is going to want to know that there are faculty who are searching for a graduate student that you want to work with. So, let's say you want to work on how toxic compounds travel through the brain, but the two faculty members who do that have had bad luck with grants, you're not likely to get accepted. Whereas, if you are interested in ion channel regulation and they have six faculty who do that and are graduating two students from those labs you're probably desirable.

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!

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!

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!

I agree with this point. Every single interview I went to had at least one interviewer who had not read my application before they met me. I assume this was done on purpose (not b/c the professor was too lazy) but after you get to the interview, no one cares about your paper stats, but rather who you are as a person and your passion/enthusiasm for not only being AT the school you're interviewing at, but also for the field in general.
 
Addressing acetycholine directly, I remember a thread earlier in the season where you rubbed a lot of people the wrong way, and from that thread I formed an impression that you're very self-centered. Your first impression to the people you interviewed with may have come across in a negative light and it could be something to work on. As someone recommended earlier in the thread, it may be a good idea to schedule a mock interview with someone you don't know personally and get feedback from them. If you've been through 6 interviews and haven't gotten a single acceptance, then there is something about the interview that rubbed adcoms the wrong way.

First admit! What a relief!

Like Vene said, there must have been some red flags during your interviews. You're shy, but not socially awkward enough to warrant a rejection. That's good. Those professors meet with a lot of people, and if they're not on the adcom, they're probably more concerned with recruitment than with trying to pick apart your application. If you want an answer, you need to speak to someone who has been looking at your profile and your character critically, i.e. someone on the admissions committee.
 
Let's just assume you're reasonably likeable and that you communicate your science well such that you are not being rejected for issues with your resume or personality. The only thing I can imagine that would earn you these rejections is your niche research interest. If it's so specific that there are only a couple faculty that have the expertise to advise you, that might be the problem. In fact, if that's clearly your passion and it's not something you'll be able to work on at the schools you're interviewing with, you will get rejected as a bad fit for the program. Having a narrow or extremely well-defined research interest is a red flag to a lot of professors from what I've been told during my interviews.
 
It's also possible that you make a poor first impression. People who know you well probably think you're fantastic. People you meet for a first time might think something else. My impression is that you're judgmental, entitled and self-centered. Obviously, your friends know you well enough to see beyond that and this probably isn't who you really are with people you like. However, this is the sense I get having read several of your posts. This is my honest feedback that you asked for, albeit with a very limited sample size, so take it with a grain of salt. I hope you can read through your past posts and figure out why I think this (hint: look at how frequently you make yourself out as a victim and how much you shit on other people).
 
My suggestion is that you apply to programs that don't do interviews. Your profile is strong enough to get you in somewhere and your recs were clearly good if they got you six interviews.
 
Edit: For the record, starting research in your junior year is not late. I didn't start until after my sophomore year. Your academic record looks OK for middle of the pack schools; you got interviews so you passed the "written" portion of the application process.

I know you're frustrated, but this is a tantrum. On paper, you're honestly a good candidate. On paper, you're actually a stronger candidate than I was. (3.5 GPA, BA from an open enrollment regional state university, 161V/161Q/3.5AW, 1 semester senior research project, 1 year as a formulation chemist, applied for 5 programs, got 2 interviews, 1 acceptance) Getting 6 interviews should be enough so that even by dumb luck you'll get an admit. Graduate programs aren't going to the expense to bringing you there to jerk you around. To put it bluntly, you fucked up. The simplest explanation is that during the interview process you said or did something that raised alarms. One post-interview rejection is bad luck, 6 is a pattern.

1. Congrats!

2. As others have advised in various forums, keep it short and sweet. Here is my minimum form letter:

Dear [so-and-so],
I am writing in response to my offer of admission to the [blah department / program] at [blah university]. I appreciate the committee’s interest in me, but I regret to inform you that I will not be accepting the offer of admission. I have found a better personal fit at another university. My thanks go out to the committee, my interviewers, and the current grad students for their time and consideration.
Sincerely,
[elkheart]


 

I think what I meant by "deserve" is that the experience that I have had and all the effort that I have put into these four years should get me into a better school and I don't know if I should just settle down when I could've gone to a better program with more opportunities for jobs and research.