Tsujiru

Just so people don't worry, it seems like the first wave offered the evening of the 15th was just for Japan, and then some offers went out for NZ on Friday the 17th. Yes, the acceptances are tentative, but I've heard that the confirmation from the host country isn't usually the step where students are culled. It makes sense at least for Japan that we'd hear early, since there are more EAPSI spots for Japan than for any other country so they could accept a higher percentage of applicants. I also have a question: In my tentative offer I was told I had 24hrs to reply (kind of ironic after they kept us waiting for months), and to write to three people at the NSF by 5pm Thurs. Feb. 16 with my answer. I wrote back well before then, but never got a confirmation of my response from anyone. Is this the same for others? I'm slightly paranoid my "yes, I would love to participate" email didn't make it through.

Tentative offer! Check your inboxes, as mine just arrived tonight. Very much looking forward to this!

Yes, typically I would say stipends are paid monthly. Depending on the arrangement though, that first month with moving costs might be financially tight.

If you're under a certain threshold you can file completely for free using Turbotax federal free edition. I did it my first year of grad school and it was very simple. I guess I would ask your parents if they are planning on claiming you as a dependent first though.

It might also be good to keep in mind that some programs may not be as familiar with these benefits. One of my cohort was ex-military and entitled to the GI benefits (and also really needed them to help support his family with 4 kids all under 10). However, because our program was small and they'd never dealt with this before and were not registered with the program. My classmate spent almost half a year (while also keeping up with classwork) petitioning the governor to get our program listed so he could receive his benefits. Personally, I thought it was ridiculous that the responsibility to do this fell to him rather than some administrator, but it is also something to keep in mind as you deciding on your program.

Believe me coonskee, you got off easy with 10 interviews at Cold Spring Harbor. I had 14

I would echo what Eigen suggests - take the subjects that she feels most passionate about. Half way through college I found the subject that I wanted to devote myself to (in my case developmental biology, which I'm now doing in my PhD). If I'd just wanted to boost my GPA I would have stuck with math and physics courses which I tended to do well in. At least at the beginning, molecular biology was much harder for me and I actually received my lowest mark in college in my developmental biology course, and I worried that this might make it more difficult for me to argue that this was what I wanted to do in graduate school. Fortunately this was not the case, and in fact it helped me to differentiate between the kind of work within the field that I find fascinating and the kind of work that puts me right to sleep (oh no, please no more about mouse renal development...). In the end, yes what appears on your transcript matters to a certain extent, but having an area you care deeply about and can discuss intelligently in interviews as well as having strong letters of recommendation from research mentors will matter more.

To reassure people, last year they still evaluated people who submitted up to a half hour late. Now convincing them to review you in the right category after you erroneously put the start of your grad program a year early, that was more difficult... Good luck all!

I just submitted last week too! Fingers crossed for Japan 2012

Hello Ayeriaz, I think you look like a great candidate! My recommendations for genetics in the states you mention (though I'm sure there are many other great programs as well!) would be: NY: Columbia, Rockefeller, Watson School of Biological Sciences, NYU, Cornell, Sloan-Kettering Michigan: University of Michigan at Ann Arbor Pennsylvania: UPenn Ohio: Case Western These are top-notch programs though, so you might want a few so-called "safety schools" to round out the list. Though, part of me also feels like if you're going to go for it you might as well aim high. Good luck!

Zilch. I'm guessing a lot of us rejectees might be feeling not so hot about ourselves right now, but that is just ridiculous. The fact that we get paid to do what is most likely our passion anyway is amazing. I'm good at what I do and people in general like me, so in my book I've already won. (Oh, and did I mention that I'm incredibly humble too... ). Goodnight all and see a bunch of you here next year.

Personally, after meeting with my academic advisor I've decided to stay put. He stressed that I'm in good academic standing (which is kind of a catch-22, if I weren't then I would have almost no hope of being able to transfer, but that's a whole other kettle of fish...) and that ultimately all that matters is how well I do in the lab from this point forward. I agree, and think that I can work out a good lab situation. I think it may just be time to work on growing a thicker skin, since undoubtably there will be trials and tribulations in grad school. I think the most successful graduate students aren't necessarily those who don't experience any setbacks but those who when they do don't let the setbacks get to them.

Thanks Eigen, I am certainly being careful that I talk things over with my advisor here before moving ahead. I think the prospect that they may start losing students unless they attend a little better to our needs might be enough for the situation to improve, but I'm not making an empty threat either. It was a really close call for me between these two programs and I honestly feel that I could end up happily in either, I just would need reassurance from the one I'm currently in that they won't keep yanking us around unnecessarily past the first year. Uncle Ernie, you might look into a few of the "research scholars" PhD programs. These are targeted at more advanced scientists, and let you largely skip the coursework. Here is one example: http://biolchem.bs.jhmi.edu/bcmb/Pages/researchscholars/index.aspx

Hi Ernie, I'm thinking along similar lines of transferring bio PhD programs. In my case, I like the location and the people, but the Dean seems to not approve of my work thus far. On the one hand I've heard the Dean is not as involved in students' lives after the first year. On the other I'd like to be in a program where the administration felt I would succeed and motivated me to do so. I'm thinking of reaching out to the programs that already offered me acceptances last year. A couple of them explicitly say that such and such coursework is required unless students prove proficiency so I'm hoping that the coursework I have already done will demonstrate proficiency to them. I think the most prestigious program I was accepted to is the one I'm attending, but that doesn't mean it is necessarily the best fit (though I haven't entirely given up on it quite yet). If I do end up contacting these other programs it will likely be in the next week or so and I will let you know how it goes. Best of luck to you!

Yeah, Krypton has it right. We start off as "fully funded" by the program so 10% of the value of the fellowship plus what we already earn typically puts us over the total value of the fellowship.

I think it depends on the program. At mine, for any fellowship you win you get 10% of its value on top of what you earned from internal funding. It's basically an incentive to apply.

Hi Anthro14, I both emailed and called. I just checked what my original email had said, and technically I guess they had marked my application as "incomplete". It did take a few days for them to get it sorted out and put me in the system correctly, but it did eventually. I would say to just wait a few days to see what they say in response to your email and also keep checking the status of your application on fastlane. I'm guessing the most common reason students are disqualified is because it appears like they have more than 2 years of graduate education. Might this be the case for you?

I got a message saying I'd been disqualified but fortunately was able to refute it. The reason was that I'd accidentally marked myself as a 2nd year when I'm really a first year, so they thought I'd neglected to send in my grad school transcript. Also, I was unable to get a transcript from studying abroad. However, when I talked it over with someone at the NSF by telephone, they corrected the first error and decided neither it nor the lack of a transcript from an international institution should disqualify me. Whew, what a relief!

Yes, you can and should use your image. Grey should not be an issue, they only mean to say that they won't be printing anything in color so make sure your image works in greyscale. Two of my friends who have won these in past years sent me their proposals, and one had an image that really clarified her research methodology. It is tough to give up that space in 2 pages (probably why I won't) but when it is worth it, go for it. Good luck!

Decisions, decisions.... So since it seems like many people here have heard/are hearing back from places, what criteria are helping you pick a program? It looks like my choices are going to end up being Johns Hopkins BCMB, Watson School of Biological Sciences, WashU, and NIH-JHU graduate partnership program. There were elements I liked about each, and it bothers me a little when people who don't know anything about the type of biology I want to do say what they think the top school is. Thoughts?

Hello MarA, I don't recognize very many of the faculty but I can say a little about some of them. Fred Ausubel does really excellent microbiology work (I reference many of his papers for my thesis) and is an excellent collaborator and so has fostered a lot of good will. Craig Hunter is deservedly famous, and supposedly a good guy as well. Catherine Dulac is again quite famous for her circadian rhythms work but also good with students. Kevin Eggan is one of the up-and-coming people to know in the stem cell field. Richard Losick is a huge figure in molecular bio, and can really make a lot happen for you if he's on your side (and he tends to be very pro-student). Andrew McMahon is also both brilliant and kind to students in developmental biology. Doug Melton, when he has the time (he has a lot on his plate, pretty much running the new stem cell institute), is very good. I've also heard good things about Rachel Wilson, though she has gotten so much press lately between and HHMI award and a MacArthur that she may be especially in demand. Sorry to not know more, but I would be very excited if I were in your shoes!

Yes, that is exactly how it works. Since the number of students admitted to the Watson School is typically so small, quite a number of the students doing their PhD's there are actually from Stony Brook. The only difference is in the coursework you do those first two years.

Kind of late to the forum but I have found it useful reading the information others have posted and thought I ought to share as well. GRE: 1st try: 660Q, 710V, 4.5A 2nd try: 730Q, 690V, 4A Research: 2 years in C. elegans neuro lab, summer researching drosophila memory, summer researching effects of inhalational anesthetics on spatial reference memory in rats Publications: None to date, but rat research was presented at an anesthesiology conference and will be published sometime this spring Applied: Johns Hopkins, WUSTL , Tufts, Rockefeller, Columbia, UCSF, Stanford , Berkeley , Caltech Interviews: Hopkins, WUSTL, Tufts, WSBS Rejections: UCSF First to everyone hating on Harvard, yes it can be an extremely stressful place but I don't think it is especially cut-throat. In fact, for those of you applying to OEB there are some truly wonderful faculty members that you should not miss. Hopi Hoekstra who just had another publication in Nature is a rising star in the department and an incredibly friendly and nice person to boot. Naomi Pierce was the youngest tenured female professor in Harvard's history, a MacArthur "genius" fellow (seriously brilliant), and looks out for her graduate students for the rest of their careers. David Haig is a genius theoretician who is very good-hearted and who students adore. Yun Zhang is also very intelligent and ambitious scientist who is also very good to her grad students. Similarly I have heard good things about Scott Edwards and Farish Jenkins (a really entertaining lecturer if you have the chance to hear him). On the neuro-side, Nao Uchida of MCB does incredible research (he's best known for mapping the olfactory region of the brain in rats) and is very generous with his time. Josh Sanes of MCB loves what he does and that comes across in the way he teaches and the numerous and varied subjects he and his students are studying. I'm sure there are ways that someone could have a less than stellar experience at Harvard, but I honestly believe that with the right advisor that frankly wouldn't be the case! I suspect that by now I've already heard from the places that are planning to offer me interviews, but I'm OK with that. After all, you only really need to get into one good place

Hello Arseus, Sorry if this reply is a little late to be helpful, but I spent a summer doing research at CSHL as an undergraduate and can personally vouch that it is an incredible place to do biology. It is small (8-12 grad students accepted a year) and you only know about it if you do biology, but within the biological community is is VERY well thought of. I graduated from an ivy league institution in biology, but I swear it has been even more valuable to my biology career to be linked to CSHL. If you did decide to apply and got an interview offer for February 18-21 I look forward to meeting you there.