Tuanis

Hello everyone.
 
The rent is cheaper in Knoxville than most cities in the US, which is really nice. If you want to be really close to campus there are a lot of houses and apartments in the Fort Sanders area. From anywhere in the Fort, it is only at 5-10 minute walk to campus. There are a lot of nice houses, a lot of very livable houses, and a lot of houses that are in terrible condition. Nearly every undergraduate lives in the Fort, so it can be a loud party scene.
 
If you move out of the Fort, rent gets even cheaper. Assuming you want to be away from the undergrad party scene, a lot of people live in North/South Knoxville. There are not a lot of apartments, but you can rent multibedroom houses on the cheap. These houses tend to have yards and parking, so it is really nice. If you move west of campus, things can be pricier, but there are also a lot of nice options. In my opinion, renting a house is the best option. It can be cheap, and you get so much more than apartment for the same price. 
 
Downtown is starting to get a lot of new loft-style apartments. If you are interested in that, look at Sterchis Lofts and a few others. Downtown Knox is suprisingly fun, so living there could be nice. The 4th and Gill neighborhood just outside of the downtown area has a lot of Victorian style homes that are usually in great condition and rent for cheap. If you search craigslist for housing downtown you will get results for immediate downtown area, the Fort, North Knox, South Knox, and some West Knox. 
 
If I've repeated any information, I apologize. Just wanted to give my input. Best of luck on the search! And welcome to Knoxville. It's a great city with a fun music culture, lots of outdoor activities, and awesome people.

Thanks for the info, Tuanis. I appreciate it!

Thanks! I'm super excited about OSU, but I still need to find out about funding. The NSF GRFP notifications are likely going out tonight. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for myself and everyone else on here applying for it.

I noticed in another thread that katsharki was accepted to UNF. Congrats!

Thanks! Congrats to you too on your acceptance!
 
I'm still waiting a bit on funding too before I accept the offer at UNF. It comes with a paid TAship ($12000/yr) and partial tuition waiver, but I'm also up for another graduate scholarship from the school that would probably cover the rest. In all honesty, I'll probably take the offer either way because the research seems too good to pass up (studying hammerhead reproductive biology through the use of hormones), but I do want to wait to see just what the full package will be.

First admit! What a relief!

I didn't get in the second year in a row.
 
Fuck American science.  I'm going to Europe.
 
EDIT:  Am I just getting downvotes because you lot think I got rejected for being an idiot?  Here's my stats:
 
I have a 3.69 GPA with honors, 167V/163Q/4.0A GREs, a second-author pub, about three semesters' worth of research experience including at two prominent research stations, two and a half years spent at community college, one first abortive try at college when I was younger before the second time went through, and I'm not sure anymore what my letter writers think of me. I may not have taken enough credits each semester as I was going through undergrad.
My interests are a little niche, probably (evolutionary developmental biology with a focus on neuroscience). Evo-devo bio has only just now set up a professional society in the United States. I don't THINK I'm socially awkward, and everybody I've asked has said I have no problems, but I'm beginning to be doubtful.
I'm twenty pounds overweight, if that makes much of a difference, which according to peer-reviewed research it might. I'm just a little introverted. Not shy. Just more easily exhaustible than average when it comes to social shit.
I got three interviews each year, so the adcom clearly knew all this going in and invited me and then fucked me over.
My undergrad school was somewhere in, like, the top 250. Third-tier shit. Public institution. Yes, this matters: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/03/education/edlife/why-you-cant-catch-up.html?_r=0

Thanks sfrie! That admission in my signature is actually a professional master's degree program (that was a backup program I applied to in case if I am rejected from all the PhDs - I've been applying to various jobs as backup as well but no luck with them), but I'm okay with that too since my dream career is to work for a government agency or a company rather than to become a professor (and this 1-2 year program apparently trains their students on attaining these jobs well, seeing how most of their graduates have good stable jobs in gov't agencies as researchers afterwards - though my ultimate dream when it comes to education was obtaining a PhD, but I guess I can reapply again next year or so, if I'm rejected from the remaining four schools). 
 
The lab I applied to at my top choice school was crazily competitive - there were well over 100 potential applicants for only four PhD/MS student openings (actually, only two PhD student openings - the others were MS) in ONE lab at that university, and I had to pass through four rounds of application reviews (including two interviews - video and lab visit) to become a finalist. I definitely knew that getting through the last hurdle (final verdict on whether I'm accepted or rejected) was going to be the most difficult hurdle of all, haha... (at least it felt nice to be a finalist out of that many applicants).
 
Congrats on your amazing admissions and best of luck choosing where to attend this fall!

There are still several Phd postings everyday on the ECOLOG listserv. You should check it out!!

There are still several Phd postings everyday on the ECOLOG listserv. You should check it out!!

There are still several Phd postings everyday on the ECOLOG listserv. You should check it out!!

Hey now, questions don't kill, do they?
 
The issue is how heavily I should attempt to address this in my personal statement, and whether I should try hard to "validate" my reasons for seeking an REU or if that would be unnecessary (no research school is all-encompassing and the specific projects I can take part in at these sites aren't ones I could take part in on my home turf).
 
I hope that's fair enough

I got rejections from two of my schools with the earliest deadlines (Dec 1), but nothing from the rest. The majority of my programs had later deadlines, although I do expect invites to be sent from two of them (UT and UNC) in the next week or two, based on the limited results posted and limited info from my POIs. I know Oregon State doesn't do interviews, so I won't hear back until March or even April. Basically, my top programs shouldn't have sent out invites yet, so while I'm anxious, I don't have a sense of doom yet.

I just wanted to throw something out there...it seems like a lot of people are "giving up" on schools because they didn't make the first round of interview invites. Unless you or someone you trust has called the school and the school has said, "That's it, there are no more invites to give!" then don't give up. Some schools don't send out rejections until later because they're waiting to see how the first round of interviews go and will send out interviews later.
 
I received an invite in March for a program that started sending invites in January. Don't give up hope!

To everyone applying to Stanford Biology, I just got word that adcoms will finalize reviewing applications early this week and will probably send interview invites later this week or early next week (this is most likely true for all other biosciences home programs). Best of luck and hope to see you here in March!

Working full time takes up a lot of my time and energy.  Alcohol generally takes care of the rest.