babybird

I actually attend UCSF, and live only on my 36k stipend. (AKA, no moonlighting another job). It's totally doable with roommates. I max out a Roth IRA every year, so it's not like I'm scraping by not planning for the future.

BMS hosts ~80 interviewees, and ~50-60 are accepted.

I saw that no-one replied to your post... BMS sends out just a few offers directly after the first interview weekend. They do the majority of offers after their second weekend! Nothing to worry about yet. (:

Have you looked at the PIBS program at Michigan? Despite being highly ranked, they seem to invite tons of candidates without being sticklers on the uGPA front...

I have a friend who rents from MSC Apartments, and she has a pet. Lots of grad students/professionals live in the various MSC buildings.

Yeah, it is. There's a difference between confidence and entitlement.

Is there a lab manager or someone you could email to see if he is out of town or something? Assuming this school has a deadline on the 15th, I also think it'd be permitted to give him a call.

Hi, hopefully this isn't too late. I'm in Cville right now. It's hard for me to guess not knowing how you and your spouse prefer to budget, of course. But here's some of my info to help. My husband and I pay $775/mo for rent (water included), plus ~$60 for electric and trash. (We don't have internet at home.) My husband and I live in a 1BR/1BA in the greater downtown area. We bus/walk/bike 2.5mi to UVa for work. Honestly, that's as cheap as you're going to get without additional roommates or moving further out and needed to drive + pay to park.

Ugh my fat finger hit the down arrow when I met to up vote this. Sorry! Anyway, I agree with you and the other posters who have echoed this.

I'm fine with the opportunity to TA. I absolutely will for at least one semester, for that valuable experience you mention... I just prefer programs that actually fund through an RA, and thought that if OP had similar feelings, it might be a consideration for them.

My PI (top 20 school where I am a lab tech) says that once you hit the top 50s, it's more the reputation of the PI and their work rather than just the school. Rather than rankings, I would decide based on funding and research fit. I personally wouldn't go somewhere that required me to TA for my funding, because that's just time spent away from research. If you want to end up teaching, then you won't be as opposed to the TA experiences as I am. I would also go where there are more professors in whose work I am interested.

Oh man, I had this whole post typed up and then deleted it.... fhjdiasopugd*()A&$*#( So, I come from a (weird) liberal arts undergrad background, and I had a pretty low quant GRE - thought my stats might be interesting for those in a similar position. (: Undergrad Institution: liberal arts, private evangelical university with a really small biology presence Major(s): Molecular Biology Minor(s): Chemistry GPA in Major: 3.93 Overall GPA: 3.92 Position in Class: not sure, but likely in top 5 Type of Student: domestic, female GRE Scores (revised): Q: 154, 52% V: 165, 95% W: 4.5, 80% Subject: n/a Research Experience: Three years as a full-time research/lab technician at a top 20s research university in a developmental/genetics lab. Presented posters at three major conferences, x2 papers in progress. Three years as an undergrad in an epigenetics lab. Presented x2 posters, 1 paper published. Awards/Honors/Recognitions: x2 poster awards x1 conference award for best paper x1 university-wide outstanding senior honors thesis award Pertinent Activities/Jobs: Besides my work as a lab tech... I TA'd for courses all through my undergrad: Genetics, Biochem I&II, Microbiologyy Special Bonus Points: I write a pretty mean SOP. Applied to: (Oh gosh, I applied to tons of places because I wasn't sure of my application, and my husband and I are also doing the whole two-body-job-hunt.) Boston College Duke (CMB) Harvard (Immunology) MIT (Biology) Northeastern (Biology) Northwestern (IBiS) Stanford (Immunology) UC Berkeley (CMB) UC San Francisco (BMS) UC Santa Cruz (PBSE) University of Chicago (Immunology) University of Illinois at Urbana/Champagne (MCB) University of Illinois Chicago (GEMS) University of Massachusetts at Worcester (BBS) University of Michigan (PIBS) University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (BBSP) University of Wisconson-Madison (CMB) --Results -- Rejections : Duke (CMB) Harvard (Immunology) MIT (Biology) Stanford (Immunology) UC Berkeley (CMB) Interviews: Boston College Northeastern (Biology) Northwestern (IBiS) UC San Francisco (BMS) UC Santa Cruz (PBSE) University of Chicago (Immunology) University of Illinois at Urbana/Champagne (MCB) declined University of Illinois Chicago (GEMS) declined University of Massachusetts at Worcester (BBS) University of Michigan (PIBS) University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (BBSP) University of Wisconson-Madison (CMB) declined Acceptances: Boston College Northeastern (Biology) Northwestern (IBiS) UC San Francisco (BMS) <----------------------------- attending! :D :D University of Massachusetts at Worcester (BBS) University of Michigan (PIBS) University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (BBSP) Advice: Anyone with the two-body problem? Find schools you like in university-dense areas. My schools were (mostly) centered around the Research Triangle in NC, the Bay Area, the Boston Area, and the Chicago Area. This will help my husband as he seeks a postdoc. Coming from a tiny undergrad with a unknown bio program? Tech for a few years to gain experience. Some schools definitely have a GRE cutoff, I don't care what they say. I'm 90% sure that's why I got a few of my outright rejections.

University Of Wisconsin Madison Mathematics, PhD, PhD (F15) "Hi everyone. Could applicants that have been accepted into more prestigious programs please consider informing the Director of Grad Studies promptly. We (the wait-listed) are depending on you. Thank you for your understanding." Maybe the wait-list should have bolstered parts of their application to prevent this dependance on the rest of the application pool?

My favorite schools are the ones who tell you you're rejected online, but also note that a rejection letter is coming in the mail as well. Why waste the envelope?

Fabulous advice! I've been struggling with good, constructive phrasing in addition to trying to decide if I should say anything at all, so this is a really helpful comment. Thanks!

See, that kind of additional contact/communication is something that I appreciate but would never expect. My school sent out stuff that felt more like college recruitment/advertising, and it was a waste of time rather than address the pertinent things like research interests, fit of program, additional questions, etc.

I'm just curious... what more would you like to see departments do? Thanks for your perspective as well! It's helpful to get outside of my feelings of being annoyed.

Thanks so much for your perspective! It's really helpful for me to consider. Clearly, they can't cater to every prospective student, and I don't want to needlessly bash a school just because I don't prefer their approach. (:

I interviewed with a school January 29th-31st. I received an acceptance a week after my interview. I enjoyed the program and the school, but had a few thoughts on the way they kept in contact over the next few weeks. Two weeks after my interview, they sent an email with a link to a video promotion of "what it's like to be a part of their program." Three weeks (Feb 20th, no-where near the April 15th) after my interview, they sent out a pushy email reminding me that they had a waitlist, and while they would love to have me join their program, they appreciated my decision as soon as possible as many people on the waitlist had indicated that this school was their first choice. Four weeks after my interview, they sent an email stating that "decision time can be overwhelming, and we want to help you decide! Here is a link to a blog written by a current student at our program on how she decided where to go to graduate school. Also, have more links to videos about our school!" Five weeks after my interview, they sent an email to "provide certain consumer information about the university to prospective students." The constant, weekly contact by this school was a HUGE turn-off to me. Getting tons of emails with promotional videos random blogs posts... Ain't no-body got time for that. And, I understand that you're required to provide financial information, but why not wait and spam people with that after they've accepted? The only email I can accept was the pushy email, but I did feel that it came WAY too early in the process. I still had interviews to attend at that point! There was no way I could make a decision for this school. It felt like the school was pushing themselves down my throat, sending one email a week to keep their school on the forefront of my mind. This is the ONLY school that has kept in constant contact like this - very disparate compared to the other schools (n=9) with whom I have interviewed. Due to a number of other reasons (research fit, location preference, job for my husband), today I declined my offer at this university. The program directed sent me an email asking for any feedback I may have about the application process. Is it petty of me to mention this unnecessary level of contact? I would phrase it in a more neutral way than I have spoken here... perhaps pointing out that their school was the only one to send me one email a week, and it seems like that level of contact is not how other schools operate and maybe they should consider their practices. Just wanted some feedback over whether this is worth mentioning. Thanks!

Amen! (Ps sorry for my fat fingers - I meant to vote your post up, not down!)

UCL Economics, PhD (F15) Rejected via E-mail on 16 Mar 2015 I 16 Mar 2015 Whatever, lek. Not worth wasting my time with this after so many acceptances from top schools. It's their loss. --- Probably the kind of recruit who bragged about all those interviews with top universities while they were visiting their safety schools... "I'm interviewing with Harvard and Stanford, but I had already accepted this interview so I figured I'd better come anyway..."

Have you taken a Statistic course in which you did really well? Have you had any hands-on, quantitative analysis practice in any of your research experiences? If so, address these things in your SoP. That's what my advisor told me to do - show that you can compensate for the lower maths score in other areas. It was too late for me to retake it if I wanted to make my deadlines this winter, but you could always retake the GRE if that's an option fiscally.

"Those accepted but not intending to attend please decline your offers" Everyone is making decisions as best and as quickly as they can. The entitlement in this kind of post annoys me.

I was in a pretty similar position to you, even a little lower: V 165 Q 153 A 4.5 Yeah, our Quant score is a little low. But what does the rest of your application look like? If you can round out the rest of your application, these GRE scores shouldn't hold you back. My collage GPA was 3.92, 3.93 in major. I have 3 years of undergrad experience, 3 years experiences as a research technician. I got plenty of interviews, and plenty of offers. I'd say those GRE scores might hold you back from schools that do a GRE cutoff (they do, even if they say they don't on their website), but plenty of good schools will look past a low Quant if the rest of the application is sound.

I just wanted to echo what nns91 has said, as it's really sound advice. The Immuno group at Berkeley is much smaller, and I've heard they spend a lot of time collaborating with bigger departments in the Bay Area.