Humulus_lupulus

I've got a conference coming up at the end of may where I can either present a poster or a talk. I haven't ever been to this particular conference. I've done several posters at other conferences before, and I much prefer posters. Frankly, I'm a little nervous about getting up in front of a group of people I have no experience with. I've done it once before and it went pretty well, but I seem to end up saying something silly (wrong) at some point. So, do I stay in my comfort zone and do a poster or do I stretch myself to an uncomfortable place and give a talk? Honestly, I am assuming the group will be relatively small based on current registration numbers and the general lack of interest in biological engineering for this particular conference.

The only new advice I have is that it isn't a bad idea to start drafting something up before you even collect data. You should have a solid protocol for methods down, an intro, and even several journal articles to use for a discussion section. All you need to do once you get the data in is fill in results, and round out the discussion. It's a good use of down time between experiments.

I toured OSU and checked out apartments there and I really liked Governor's Square. I think a lot of graduate students tend to live there so it's pretty quiet. I also hear good things about the on-campus graduate student apartments.

Go for Cornell. It's best to build your network and get out of your comfort zone. Two degrees (BS to MS or MS to PhD) from one place isn't so bad, but going BS to PhD won't really help you grow professionally. You'll always have your OSU professors in your network.

Go camping or something for a few days, and just take some time off. Put it out of your mind and don't feel obligated to try to make progress. Go back to it when you feel refreshed--camping is good because there is no internet to distract you! I'd start off with just an outline, throw in as much detail as you can. I find papers basically write themselves this way.

That's good! It's taken me a while to develop a rapport with one of my advisors this year. I had him for two classes last semester, and while going to office hours was super helpful with him, I sometimes felt utterly stupid and unworthy of even being in grad school. I think I had a lot of proving myself to do, switching from life sciences to engineering. Now, though, I've found what makes him tick (talking up his classes and relating them to my research) so he's been really cool with all of that. He's also invited me and his other advisees to his house for Thanksgiving and has done a couple of other small personal favors for me as I am not geographically close to family/friends. It takes time, I suppose, and taking initiative, playing to their interests, and working hard tends to really be the key to building rapport. Good for you for not giving up!

I had a similar situation, but my Advisor A is not so hands-off. He is pretty attentive when you need him and is open to weekly meetings, but I think he prefers every other week. Advisor B is weekly, and basically any time crisis hits. I was lucky enough to be offered coadvising with both of them. Advisor B wrote the proposal and got the funding for the project, Advisor A is mainly to serve as expertise in the modeling aspect. Unfortnately, this semester, Advisor B out for a family emergency. The first week without him was kind of a whirlwind and I wasn't sure how the project would continue without his guidance. Admittedly, I've just been floating along this year and have made insignificant progress (in my opinion). I think it has really put things in perspective for me, though--sort of a kick in the pants that I really need to take the lead and push this project forward. I feel like in the past couple of weeks, things have fallen in place for me and I'm stepping up to the challenge, despite my "lead" and more hands-on advisor not being around for me. Advisor A has been great about everything, though, and has seemed more than willing to meet weekly. Same thing happened in undergrad. My first research project was prefaced with, "I'm going to be gone for 6 weeks this summer, so you're on your own." That advisor was really hands-on and is still one of my greatest friends to this day. That worked out fine, so while it really like having a hands-on and available advisor to be there for professional/personal advice, I really need to be left to my own devices to get myself motivated after some basic start-up.

Some background: Research during undergrad consisted of a bunch of work in an up-and-coming process. Senior year ended with a collaboration between myself and an expert in the topic, who is located at another university, with the project largely being led by me. For my MS, I looked at that professor's lab (Professor A) and Professor B's lab. Working with Professor A made me realize that he was not a good fit (too controlling of my project along with negative comments from his former boss) and working with Professor B was too great of an opportunity to pass up. I was hoping to get the NSF GRFP this year so I would have my final year of MS funded and first two years of PhD. That didn't pan out. So, now pressure is on to apply in the fall to try again. I have some ideas, and I could likely throw something together. Unfortunately, the process I want to work with for my PhD is not within Professor B's interests, rather, it is more within the interests of Professor A, who I could never work with again. However, there is a modeling component to my idea that Professor B could really add some great expertise to. It's entirely possible that I could work in Professor B's lab, but I feel like that is hinging on me creating a research plan and getting funding through NSF--that way, I can say that I have enough expertise in that field to lead the project, despite Professor B's lack of knowledge with the process. I can't put all my eggs in the NSF basket...so, where to go if I don't have a guaranteed source of funding? There are only three professors in the country who work with the process I want to research, and none of them really seem like an option. If I wanted to work with with this particular process, I'd have to prove myself in some way to get a professor in a related field to let me work in his/her lab.

That's kind of...odd. I can't believe they would bash you for going outside of prior experience. God forbid you learn something new. Nice job with such rapid turnaround, though!

I also got a comment on how "unexceptional" my academic record is. I had a 3.4 for undergrad (life science major, two minors) and I took four advanced classes in math which were not in my major or minors, in addition to organic chemistry! Come on....maybe when they see my nearly 4.0 in engineering for grad school, they will change their minds next year.

I applied last year as a senior and got HM with very little feedback. Took all that feedback, improved my application, and applied this year as a first year graduate student and got VG/G, G/G, G/F--not recommended. A lot more feedback this year but, of course, it would have been more helpful if I had gotten it last year... The things that really bothered me is that they weren't really all that negative but I was still scored poorly. Also, they seemed fixated on the fact that I didn't have a single publication despite having multiple (10) local, national, and international conference presentations, and a publication in progress. My research plan wasn't really "specific" with methods, which I guess I do see, but at the same time, I came to a totally new field and new university so I had a big learning curve to take care of (something that someone who knows senior year exactly what he/she is doing for research who is not switching universities or programs does not have to go through). I'll come at it from a different angle next year and hope for the best. In all, I think I have a plan to work with based on the feedback I got. So...maybe next year. Congratulations to everyone who got the award! Maybe we could start a thread with advice you have about improving applications.

Can't feel my face....

It might take a while...it's not instant and it will likely be up at times during the process.

The message is up there... You scared me for a minute.

I got a schedule for my two visits. You can probably ask the person coordinating your visit if there is a schedule. Mine had me meet grad coordinators, department chairs, professors I had contacted specifically about graduate school, and a couple of other professors that I wasn't specifically interested in their research. I also had a chance to meet with students and get a campus tour. Essentially, it's like a watered-down faculty interview and no matter what (I hadn't even applied when I went on visits) make sure you're giving them a good impression.

You may consider sending a follow up after giving it another week. You never know, something could have happened in his personal life or he could have just honestly passed over it.

I think it is pretty well established that it is going to be tonight (i.e. tomorrow in the early morning hours). One of the times I despise being on the east coast--that and late sporting events are a real drawback.

*compulsively checks this thread and fastlane instead of doing lab report* *also checks fridge for celebration/misery beer*

I've been getting that, too, and I'd like to think there is some truth to that. My application last year was HM and I threw it together in about 2 weeks with no real regard for the NSF's mission. This year, based on some reviewer feedback and really targeting the NSF's mission, I was able to really beef it up (I think). I suppose we will find out in a couple of weeks.

I could barely sleep last night. When I did fall asleep, I had two separate dreams that I got it. Good vibes, or unfortunate boost of hope?

Basically, to be safe, Tuesday should be the expectation. (But it will be tomorrow in my head because I know it will be there when I wake up.)

Second maintenance is when they put the results up.

I'm going to *try* to fall asleep but will probably check my phone every 30 seconds. Refresh, refresh, REFRESH!!!

I hope tomorrow doesn't drag on too long. I have a feeling it probably will...

Same (well, similar) time as last year...it could be that this time frame is what they use to post other awards throughout the year. Source: http://www.reddit.com/r/GradSchool/comments/21vwdz/nsf_grfp_2014_announcement_tonighttomorrow/