BiochemMom
-
Posts
162 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
1
Posts posted by BiochemMom
-
-
You don't know the sheer number of classes I and other students in my MS program missed simply because a research experiment was still in progress when the class started.
Never for a concert though. But frequently for research. It's the nature of the beast I think.
-
As a comment on parenting in grad school:
Let's say a woman does every thing traditionally, by the book, and gets lucky and into grad school, post doc, and tenure track position on schedule without delays.
18 when graduating high school.
22 when graduating college.
27 when finishing PhD
30 when completing post doc
36-37 when eligible for tenure.
So at what point in a biological time period should a woman have a child? If our own peers don't think we should have a family, not even factoring in everyone in positions above us, why does it not scream to people loud and clear why the difference in the amount of women completing a PhD vs holding a tenured position is staggering?
This isn't even regarding a stipend or subsidy. This is just referencing the people who feel grad school isn't the time to have kids.
And that age is just assuming you get in first try, only do one post doc, etc. There are those of us who serve in the military prior to college (and in my case also have spouses in the military which caused it to take six years and five colleges to get my bachelors). I'm in my thirties starting graduate school (well PhD, I have an MS)--I already have one child and my husband and I will have another while I'm in school.
Thankfully, the school I'm attending has a large amount of parents and older students, and all of my rotation PIs are not only aware of my desire to have another after oral candidacy, are fully supportive of it. Hopefully if any of my peers feel the way as some of the posters here, they'll keep their mouths shut. Either way, it's no ones business but mine and my husband's when and if I have children.
- RunnerGrad, TakeruK, knp and 5 others
-
8
-
My situation is really strange, grade wise.
I'm prior military and so is my husband so due to moving, I have five undergraduate institutions for my total transcript.
When my cumulative GPA from all institutions (the total 135 credit hours for my BS) is calculated as though I attended only one institution, my uGPA is 3.24.
However, if you look at them individually, my degree granting institution GPA is abysmal. 2.56.
I had a 4.0 until my last two years of college. I gave birth mid semester my last semester as a junior (my second semester at my final institution) and did not take incompletes but rather self studied and took two exams and the finals for 18 credit hours of major courses in a three day period, while sleep deprived and seven weeks after having a c section. I made all C's and a D.
My final year, it was almost impossible. I still don't know how I finished my bs. My husband attempted suicide in the middle of a 21 credit hour semester (my last semester--and I had my core completed so I was taking p chem 2, biochem 2, differential equations, analytical chemistry, inorganic and the labs for all but the math), I had a child under one who I breastfed so I was up all night if she was up, and I lived 70 miles from my institution so I commuted 4 hours a day total to go to my classes while so stressed I'm still unsure how I didn't have a complete meltdown. All C's and a d that semester too except biochem where I got an A.
I didn't attend an MS program as a way to improve my transcript (because to an outsider who didn't know what was going on, it looks like I was a great student until the classes got hard) but because I wanted higher pay in industry since my husband is disabled and my income will always be the primary source of income. I overloaded myself to graduate quickly out of guilt of leaving the workforce and financially strapping my family.
I only applied to the MS program at my final undergrad institution. The profs there all knew my situation--every person on the committee had been an instructor of mine during this time period. They all knew I was capable and were "floored by my dedication to complete my degree" (words they said).
Once my MS started, my kid was sleeping fully through the night, my husband was finally receiving disability from the VA (after a 29 month wait), and was being treated for his TBI. My stipend was generous for an MS program and we weren't quite as strapped any longer with me bringing in an income again and the VA paying him for his service related injuries. I took all of my courses in my first two semesters (14 hours each so I could do nothing but research my last three including the summer--when you live as far away as I do and have to be home to pick up a kid from daycare because your husband works night shifts, this was the only way I could focus on research during the limited time I had on campus). I had a 4.0 in my MS even though it was a LOT of work to teach myself the background I didn't grasp from my undergrad in order to do it.
My MS is why I fell in love with research and decided to do PhD. I don't think I would have been able to do the PhD straight from undergrad because I wouldn't have the evidence of my MS GPA and publications to show my grades for my last 3 semesters of undergrad were circumstantial.
Write a killer SOP and don't be afraid to discuss your grades. I did it for the PhD too to explain the 3 semester straight c and d anomaly in my uGPA. I focused on it as a way to prove my dedication to my degree--I kept going no matter what. My letter writers discussed it as well.
Pick great letter writers and knock your GRE out of the park. You can get in. Terminal MS programs are easier than PhD programs to enter and with strong support from your current advisor as well as a willingness to own up to your weaknesses and portray them as strengths could get you there.
Good luck!
-
Is she not interested in UVa? They have some cool stuff going on. Also (this might not mean much coming from a stranger on the internet), but I interviewed at Duke and UNC for immunology and they were both awesome! There was a lot to do in the area at a very reasonable cost of living.
RTP is an awesome place to live. It's in the foothills of the mountains so there are some hills. 3 hours from the beach. Tons of local culture in Chapel Hill. Easy to commute between the three schools (avoid nc state for biological sciences. They just got rid of a bunch of departments to fire non performing tenure track people--their chemistry is still fine, but I'd keep far away from biology related fields for a couple of years)
That said, Duke and UNC are really competitive. UNC is amazing though. It was my last choice when I applied--and I only applied because six of the tenured faculty from my MS institution got their chemistry degrees from UNC and pressured me swearing I'd love it. I did it under their recommendation and an hour before the deadline (I'd had everything done just had to wait til I got paid to pay for it).
Then I went to the interview. UNC was definitely my home. I love it here. I'm a mom and my husband is disabled from an IED in Afghanistan. Because of this, we need my income. None of the faculty I wanted to research with could do a summer research position (short sebaticles etc) but my first fall rotation PI went above and beyond and arranged for me to complete my TA requirement prior to entering this fall (since I did it for 2 years in my MS) so I could get my stipend.
UNC is also family friendly should you guys be going that route. After my quals are over and I'm officially a candidate, my husband and I are going to try for child #2. I know it's not recommended but I don't care--I blatantly said in my SOP that I have a young child and told each person I wanted to rotate with I wanted one while in the program and if they weren't okay with that to let me know and I'd rotate with someone else to not waste either of our time. They were all fine with it. More than fine--the three I picked told me I needed to finish having them before my post doc and tenure track (I'm in my 30s so I'd have to immediately have another kid upon graduating if I didn't do it during or risk not having another) and encouraged me to enjoy my PhD program and that it wouldn't be an issue.
Point is, she may think she'll hate it but fall in love with it.
-
I am wondering as to whether or not he falsified his dissertation data as well--if this paper was a portion of it, he might lose his PhD for this. If he blatantly falsified his CV and this large paper, it's likely there is falsification in his dissertation. I'm curious to see what ucla will do.
-
If you have high grades in your MS, it can. Check out the sub 3.0 GPA thread (I think it's in the waiting it out section?)
The two programs I got in only wanted my ms transcript upon acceptance and didn't want my bs official transcript.
- I_am_Ahab and shinigamiasuka
-
2
-
I plan to employ the same tactic I used for my MS. My MS PI required me to write up my data and results every single week in journal article style and turn them in to him on Fridays. If an experiment hadn't been completed that week, I had to write a two page review of one or two articles related to my background. He would send me feedback (but not require revisions) every Monday.
The first year I hated him. The second year, writing a publication was easy. My thesis was done in three days from simply copy pasting all my previous writing and editing for cohesion. I was the only one to defend on time for a may graduation. I loved him for it by the end and it became a habit that made me a much better writer.
It made my life so much easier and forced me to think critically about why I was doing an experiment and helped me plan the next one. It provided a clear line to follow to fully flesh out my project. At the end, I knew how to turn my MS project into a PhD dissertation should I have had the time to continue on it.
It's a lot of self effort (since my PI most likely won't want to do this in my PhD) but I know from experience this was one of the best things I learned in my MS.
-
I got my MS PI a stainless steel travel mug with a leather wrap. One of my friends does embossing, and she embossed the leather for me with the ribbon diagram of the protein he got his current grant for that I worked on with him.
-
I do biophysics which really similar. I am definitely not a biologist (I've had 2 bio classes ever...) but physicists definitely don't accept me as one of them. To make it more confusing, my undergrad is in applied math. My current advisor is a physical chemist. I don't belong in any field! The department I am going into is a biochemistry and biophysics department so all of us fieldless people are put together!
My advisor for my MS is a biophysical chemist who does solid state NMR of amyloid proteins.
My PhD rotations will be in an in cell NMR lab, an X-ray crystallography lab, and my last one in an NMR and X-ray lab all for protein structure. My MS thesis project was NMR metabolomics.
I was originally a physics major, chemistry minor, with all electives in biology for med school. Then I realized I didn't want to do med school, didn't love upper level physics classes (did fine in them--I'm good at calculus, just didn't care about learning about space enough or string theory) so I switched to biochem. I'm not a traditional biochemist in the sense I'm interested in mechanisms in the body of organisms--I like using chemistry to learn more about biological organisms. So apparently I still want to do it all with protein structure.
-
My MS is chemistry with a biochemistry concentration. Chemists tell me all the time I'm not a chemist I'm a biologists, and biologists tell me I'm not a biologists I'm a chemist.Sometimes I wish I could just tell people that I'm a chemist instead of I'm a _____ (insert your division or specialty) chemist
I still think I'm halfway in between and appreciate PhD programs that classify it as its on department. I get irritated in biology talks when they gloss over instrumentation and I get irritated when chemists gloss over organism's systems. You need both to fully explain the topics!
-
I too believe he's not interested in anything more. My husband and I are 30 and 31 and the (hypothetical if we were single) idea of coupling up with someone a decade younger than us is not one we'd take seriously. While a ten year age gap is doable (my own parents were 22 years apart and married 36 years before my dad passed) it's amazing how much growing you do between 18 and 25. No matter how mature you are for your age (and I graduated at 17, lived alone, raised my nephew for three years from age 18-21 and then joined the Air Force at 21 so I "grew up quickly" in that time) it's really not the same as someone who has already lived the life experiences you currently are gaining.
I'm sorry your first time was with someone who so callously disregarded you after. My advice is just to put him behind you or you're going to get your heart broken.
- brown_eyed_girl, TMP and MastersHoping
-
3
-
What program are you entering? What country are you from? I just finished my MS Chemistry there, but commuted a very long distance to do it so while I'm very familiar with ECU, I couldn't help with the housing. I could introduce you to people by email if you are in chemistry or biology (or the IDPBS PhD)
-
I defended my MS thesis April 17, and I'm dying to be back in the lab. Two weeks was enough. I'm ready for August! (Though I'm in talks to do a paid summer internship at a nonprofit R&D for June-July so I'm really hoping that comes through)
-
You want a spider horror story? Approximately 2 nights ago:
I had just turned off the lights and slipped into bed, excited that I was going to get a whole 8 hours of sleep before work. My sleep habits are pretty awful (thanks college) and thus I usually don't get that much sleep. To celebrate, I decided to sing a song that's been stuck in my head recently - You and Me (but mostly me) from The Book of Mormon (I just saw it, would highly recommend!).
As I stared into the blackness singing about something "incredible" (listen to the song), I noticed a part of my eyesight that was *darker* than the surrounding area. As the words "what in the hell...?" came to my lips, I felt... wait... is that... A SPIDER ON MY LIPS?!?!
Commence Freak Out in 3...2...1...
Immediate Spitting Start.
I sprinted to the light switch, crammed my glasses onto my panicked face and went to survey the damage. Besides all the spit everywhere, I noticed not one... not two... but three giant ass spiders on my pillow + surrounding area. Based on this, I surmised that the three spiders were descending together, trying to land gracefully. One was positioned directly above my eye, another my mouth, and the third... I didn't care to find out.
Needless to say, I didn't feel very comfortable sleeping in that same spot and spent the next 30 minutes moving my bed to the middle of the room under solid ceiling.
How many hours of sleep did I get that night, you ask? Let's not talk about that...
I'm honestly not that afraid of spiders (I put the three spiders on a piece of paper and released them outside), but that legitimately scared the hell out of me.
As a teenager, I was convinced if a spider crawled on my face while I was sleeping, its leg would get stuck in my braces and I'd have a flailing, pissed off, injured spider stuck to my teeth.
It was so bad I would wake up panicking that I had drifted off. My mother is a nurse and she brilliantly solved the problem--she brought home surgical masks and I slept wearing one every single night I had braces on after that.
You pretty much just validated my entire teenaged fear of a spider even making it to my braces in my sleep.
-
I'm heart broken over Mad Men only having two episodes left. Also love Game of Thrones, Outlander, and even light shows like shark tank.
Used to love walking dead. This season is awful and I stopped watching/caring around episode four which is a shame because the opener was amazing.
-
Invite friends and bribe them with Beer and Pizza!
Haha, I'm saving that for uhaul packing day!
The hard part is deciding what to take now and what to leave. The more I take now the easier, but stuff like the washer and dryer--which of us has to use the laundry mat for six weeks and which can take the washer dryer. Do I take the guest bed and our bed now and he use an air mattress for six weeks or so we rent two uhauls?
It's aggravating. He has to come later because he put in the transfer date for his job two months ago and can't bump it up with so little notice and I got the job offer for the summer internship at a pharmaceutical r&d co last week and I'd be insane not to take it.
-
Can someone just pack my house for me? Cause this blows. I'm moving ahead of my husband by six weeks and half packing is no fun.
-
Personally, my MS advisor was the very best I could ever ask for. We synced in research fit and personality. He has a knack for being able to change his style of advising depending on his students. I'm praying my PhD advisor lives up to my expectations set by my PI. Ahh, I'm going to cry again. Leaving is bittersweet. My office is cleared out and tomorrow I'm proctoring my last exam as a TA and turning in my keys. I already defended and submitted my revisions.
-
The idea of someone who is employed by a university to teach and do research homeschooling their children is completely bizarre to me.
Several of the profs in my chemistry and biochemistry departments homeschooled as well. They're all still married and both themselves and their respective spouse teach their children. I've had long conversations with each parent due to me being older in the program and seeking advice on work life balance. Trust me, it's doable. It's hard to figure out how initially, but very doable.
-
People in academia have fucked up priorities. I shouldn't be expected to skip important family events.
This is every job.
-
This sounds more like me. I always feel ashamed about not being a morning person. My natural waking time this year is about 9:30 and I need about 8-9 hours of sleep. I always imagine eventually becoming that person who does yoga in front of the sunrise and then starts working nice and early. So far that hasn't happened...
I naturally am a night owl but having a preschooler who has woken me up every morning at sunrise changed that slowly. Now I wake up easily in the am and spend my weekends bemoaning the fact I'm up at 5 instead of 10. And I can't stay awake past 8:30pm to save my life anymore. I feel old.
-
Mine is crazy because I commute 70 miles each way and my husband works nights so we don't have daycare which means I have to be home by 4 pm.
For my MS, I front loaded and took 12 credit hours and only did literature research and minimal lab work my first year.
Semesters with classes
Wake up at 3 AM
Arrive in campus at 5.
Do homework and study
Classes 9-12
Grade
Leave at 2.
Beginning summer after classes were over:
Wake up at 3am
Get to campus at 5
Run experiments until 2 with a break for lunch (teach 2x a week and grade while NMR was running)
Leave at 2.
Wash rinse repeat daily for two years. I just defended Friday and was unanimously approved. Now onto a phd program where thank god we'll be 3 miles away so I won't have to rush out every day at 2. I loved coming in early cause I got so much shit done before other people began trickling in at 9-10. I'm most likely going to continue early mornings for my phd. I love feeling so productive and having the lab to myself for hours when everyone else was staying late nights.
-
Haha, I also have scoliosis, and I just wanted to say I don't think you really "gave it to yourself" by using a one shoulder book bag. It might have made it worse, but scoliosis in itself is genetic.
I know it normally is. It doesn't run in my family--out of the five of us, my parents and both grandparents only I have it. I started carrying my book bag on one shoulder at ten all the way til I was 18, no lockers, all textbooks and notebooks so at least forty pounds every day. I only have a ten percent curve and it stopped worsening once I realized my back was more important than being in fashion. It's possibly recessive and I just happen to be the one it manifested in but I'm still convinced carrying my bag like that during puberty did it considering the minor curvature.
-
Backpack because I don't want to worsen my scoliosis I gave myself because I was in school when it was cool to do one shoulder for book bags.
I use a canvas tote for most days now that I'm done with classes and just have paperwork keys and my access card to carry around
Does visitng before applying make any difference? (MS courses)
in Interviews and Visits
Posted
I just graduated from an ms program. The chair of my department has explicitly told me in the past they selected one student for the program specifically because he came to visit on his own and showed initiative and interest in the program. My alma mater does not do interview rounds for ms program, only for PhD.