jaxzwolf

Got one! This was my FOURTH time applying, and my last year of eligibility, since I'm a second-year grad student. Here's how all four of my applications played out: 2010: Just out of undergrad. Applied for kicks. VG/G, VG/G, VG/F. Honorable mention. 2011: Second gap year. One of my references didn't submit an application on time, and my proposal was not reviewed. 2012: First year of grad school. E/VG, E/G, E/E. Honorable mention. I was really disappointed about this one. Thought I had it! 2013: Second year of grad school. E/E, E/VG, E/E. Award offered. Phew! I'm so relieved! My graduate department only offers funding through the first two years of the program, so I was sunk for next year if I didn't get this. Very grateful and excited. Congrats to all the other awardees, and those who recevied honorable mentions (although I understand from personal experience how frustrating it is to receive one, and not an actual award). For those of you that didn't get one and will still be eligible next year, keep trying! It took me four rounds...Blarg. Mostly I'm just happy I won't have to apply again next year!

It's easy to get discouraged early on, especially considering that often times the courses first-year grad students face are core or required courses for the program, and thus may fall outside of your intended area of specialization or interests. Once you get through the required classes you'll likely have greater flexibility in pursuing your personal research goals (e.g. physics) within the scope of the biology department at your school. From what I know about the two subjects, there is some exciting stuff going on right now will applied physics under the context of biological principles. I am an advocate of interdisciplinary work, and I think learning to collaborate in grad school will go a long way toward preparing you for a career in industry, NGO, or governmental work. I'd say give it some time, try to incorporate your interests in physics whenever possible, and see how you feel a year from now.

I decided to come in and update this topic since things for me have changed. I moved into the place I chose that was around 15 miles from campus. I had taken it sight-unseen since I didn't have time with my work schedule this summer to make a trip out to the area and look for housing. That was a mistake. The place was in terrible condition, and had some serious structural issues. Also, the 'half-hour drive' to campus the landlords promised was more like 45 minutes to an hour, and was not an easy drive. Luckily, the landlords were extremely understanding, realized that their location was not the best for everyone, admitted that the house wasn't in great shape, and hadn't made me pay any money upfront, so when I realized those issues I was able to look for another place immediately. It made for an extremely stressful first week for me, trying to get started on campus, learn a new city, AND look for someplace to live. I ended up finding someplace more expensive, but only about a mile from campus, and it has been wonderful. Lessons learned: DO make the effort, it at all possible, to look for housing in person before moving. DON'T accept anything sight-unseen unless you don't have to sign or pay for anything until you get there and check it out for yourself. DON'T expect that a 15 mile drive where you live will equate with a 15 mile drive somewhere else. DO thank your lucky stars when you find someplace new quickly and are able to settle down without a major meltdown in your first week.

I, too, have a WD 1 TB for my Mac. I reformatted it with disk utility to Mac's native file format and set it up to work with Time Machine, and I've yet to have any problems with it.

Thank you all for your input. I decided to go with the place farther from campus, and thus I will have about a half-hour commute in the fall. I decided since 1. I already have a car, 2. I'm already accustomed to commuting, and 3. I desperately need to save money on housing, that the place farther away would be worth the inconvenience of driving back and forth to campus every day. Hopefully this will remain true once I actually start in the fall!

Thank you all for the responses thus far. Eigen-- I'm in the field sciences (ecology) so most of my work will be tailored to field work during warmer months, although I do imagine that at some point in the future I may end up in the lab for periods of time. But I don't necessarily expect that to happen during my first year. It's so hard for me now to try and extrapolate my lifestyle now and attempt to meld it with so many unknown factors-- what my program will be like, what sorts of opportunities for socialization with arise and when, how often I'll be expected to be on campus, whether I should be there all the time or try and treat it like a job with regular hours, etc. I emailed the grad secretary in my department and asked if she knew if/how many students commute from outside the city. Hoping that 1) she was the correct person to ask and 2) she'll know if it's common practice to live close to campus or if more students save money and drive in. Lots to think about... Anyone else have any experience with commuting in grad school? I'd really appreciate any opinions!

I know there are a couple other threads here about commuting to campus, as well as the fairly active thread on how far most people live from campus, but I was hoping some of you could speak to actually living a good distance from campus and commuting, and how you feel it affects your life as a graduate student. I'm entering a program in the fall in an area where housing is outrageously expensive. I would prefer to live in a studio apartment, but in this particular city even studio apartments will be beyond my means living on a grad student's stipend. I could elect to rent a room in shared housing within walking/biking distance to campus. The outlying communities in the area, however, are much more reasonably priced, and I could easily afford a studio apartment outside the city. In some cases, the cost of a studio in the outlying area is actually less than the cost of a room in shared housing close to campus. But, of course, I would have to commute. Right now, I'm looking at 15 miles/30 minutes by car. Even factoring in the added expense of a parking permit and gas money, it looks as if I'll still spend less on housing living outside the city than if I rented someplace near campus. I'll get more space for my money, but at the cost convenience and being close to campus. Right now I commute 19 miles/40 minutes to my job, so I'm no stranger to driving the distance every day. I'm just not sure how my schedule will differ as a grad student, and whether I'll potentially miss out on some opportunities by living farther away. For those of you that do commute, do you think it would be worth living farther away for affordable housing? Is 30 minutes too long for a grad student schedule?

I made campus visits before applying and I found them to be very beneficial. I am nearly 100% certain that I would not have been accepted to the program I'll be attending in the fall were it not for visiting, so it can make a difference. Other posters will tell you that it's not worth visiting before applying as, typically, if you're a top-choice candidate then you'll be invited to visit campus, expenses paid, after having been admitted. This is true, and is something to keep in mind. You can choose schools to which to apply based on websites, current research, and interaction with prospective advisers via email and phone. Then, after you're admitted you'll have the opportunity to visit the various programs and your travel costs will likely be reimbursed. That being said, I did find my pre-application visits beneficial. First, if you visit after having been admitted, you'll likely be invited for some sort of recruitment weekend, where the department is geared up to wow you into choosing their school. Grad students and profs will be on their best behavior, and you'll be wined and dined. They'll want to show you the best aspects of the program. If you visit before applying, you'll have a better opportunity to see what the department/students/faculty are liked on a day to day basis, and in most cases that will be far more telling. You'll get a better feel for what it will really be like to be a grad student at the program. Second, there might be increased opportunity for personalized attention if you visit before applying. If you wait to visit until after having been accepted (e.g. you attend a recruitment weekend) you'll likely often be in groups of other admits, and may have fewer opportunities for speaking with professors and students individually. Lastly, if you're looking into programs where students are admitted directly into specific professor's labs, then visiting before applying may ensure your application is looked over when the time comes for review. Even if you're not looking to work with a specific professor, and are instead applying to programs where students do rotations or do not choose their advisers until the end of the first year, if you visit before applying and make a good impression, then your application will be much more likely to be pulled out in committee and looked over. I visited schools that were all in the same region of the country, to minimize travel costs. I made the shortest flights possible between schools, and used buses when I could. I spoke with some POIs and grad students directly to set up meetings. At other schools, I contacted the department grad secretaries, who were able to facilitate arrangements of meetings, tours, etc. I spent an average of two days at each school, which seemed to be a decent amount of time. I was able to meet with prospective advisers and their grad students, tour the campus, check out the department, and get a bit of a feel for the city. There were certainly places I would have liked to spend more time, but on the whole the trips went extremely quickly. Keep in mind that, even if you are meeting with faculty, etc. these meetings will likely not last longer than an hour on average. My best advice would be to make sure you spend some time off campus and in the city, and to make sure you meet with grad students individually. The latter, in particular, will get you the best information about what it's really like to be a student in the department.

Do you mean, is this specific sequence of events/list of things I've done relatively common? As for that, I'm not sure. I would imagine that each person's experience is unique, to the point that, if someone is not accepted to graduate schools after applying the first time, he/she would likely go about addressing potential weaknesses in his/her applications. Since each individual may have different strengths and weaknesses, the list of 'things to do' will differ for everyone. Perhaps someone already has a publication in the works, but has never presented at a conference. Or perhaps someone else has done both, but hasn't made strong enough connections with potential advisers. I think there are likely some commonalities in attempting to strengthen applications for the next season, but every person will go about things differently. Many people contact the programs to which they applied to ask for possible feedback on applying again. Since I applied to programs where students are immediately placed with advisers, I contacted POIs directly to inquire about my applications, and was able to get some good advice on how to change/improve my applications for upcoming rounds. I do know people, however, who have done little to alter their applications and instead have spent a year in an entirely unrelated field, or traveling abroad, and ended up getting accepted during a second go-round. It's not something I'd personally recommend, but honestly I think that sometimes grad school admissions really are a crap shoot. So I suppose the best advice I can give is not to get too down on yourself for not having gotten in this year, try and address any gaps/weakness in your applications, if possible, and have some fun while you're still relatively free from ties.

Here is a brief overview of the things I did during my 'failed application year': Revised and submitted a manuscript for publicationAttended and presented said paper at a conferenceVisited the schools in which I was most interested in attending, before applying, to meet prospective advisers face to faceRevised my SOPRevised my NSF GRF proposalTook a short-term career-relevant job over the winterTutored and worked in an unrelated field otherwise to pay the billsNothing much exciting, but the sum of the parts added to a greater whole, and, I think, helped make my application much stronger the second time around. My extra year off helped me narrow down my interests even farther, to the point where my SOP and research ideas were much more focused than they had been the previous year. This allowed me to really start narrowing down potential thesis topics, and I think that will be beneficial when I start. I also did a little bit of traveling. No where spectacular, but I'm taking my opportunities to get a way while my workload is still confined in the hours from 9 to 5.

Even if you're a good candidate for admission, have good credentials and experience, know what you want to study, you still might get rejected. It's not uncommon to have to apply multiple times to secure a spot. So don't get discouraged if you're rejected your first time applying. Many have to try again a second (or sometimes third) year. If you really want to go to grad school, it will be worth waiting an additional year.

You may have a case of buyer's remorse-- now that you've finally chosen a school you start thinking about the good qualities of all the other programs and the potential negative aspects of your selected program, and end up worrying that you've made the wrong decision. Don't worry! This is completely normal. Before you make a decision the possibilities are endless, and that lends itself to excitement, but now that you've selected things suddenly become concrete. Perhaps the reality of having made a decision is more intimidating than you thought it might be. It seems as if you had a lot of offers. I'd say, as long as you spent time thoughtfully reviewing your choices before selecting a school, you should be fine. Am I correct in assuming you chose Berkeley? Berkeley is a GREAT school, the #1 public university in the nation. Cal will give you wonderful resources and a prestigious name on your degree, and should provide you every opportunity you need to succeed. I wouldn't fret now about having made the wrong decision. Own your decision! You got in! You're going to grad school! You're going to Berkeley! It's incredible there! Remember that everyone has some reservations about their graduate programs. No program is perfect, and most people will likely question their decision at some point or another.

I love this thread. As in LOVE. It has made me smile so many times over the last couple months-- it's so heartening to read other people's stories of success and happiness. I feel as if I get to share a little bit in every celebration. So I'm a little sad that it likely won't be updated much anymore (although I'm holding out hope for those of you on waitlists!). My acceptance was nothing as I'd imagined it would be. This was my second time applying. So after two years, I'd envisioned every form of celebration from grandiose nights on the town with family and friends to quite, secret dances after receiving an email on my phone. In the end, all my dreams about acceptance ended up being a little self-defeating. The actuality was much less exciting than my imagination thought it would be, and I think that, after two years, I was so relieved to finally be accepted somewhere that I forgot about it being an actual accomplishment. This fall I received an email from a POI in which I was interested informing me of a potential job opportunity. I took the brief job over the winter at his recommendation. The supervisor for the position is good friends with the POI, and I knew that the combination of the recommendation for the position and the feedback the POI would get from my supervisor would likely go a long way towards an acceptance at this particular school. So I was pleased, but not particularly surprised, when the POI emailed me in early January and informed me that he liked the looks of my application. It was the middle of February before I heard from him again. I received the email while at work. It was pretty straightforward, and just said he'd recommended me to the graduate school for admission. I read it briefly and cannot honestly remember doing anything other than breathing a sigh of relief before immediately returning to the job at hand. I didn't want to tell anyone because I knew until I got the official letter it was just that-- unofficial. So I kept it to myself. It was two weeks before I received the official offer from the graduate school and details on funding. At the time, I was sitting in my favorite pizza place waiting for my order to go. I had made a deal with myself that I wouldn't get a pizza (a special treat for me) until I received official notification, but that day I'd had to have my pet rat euthanized unexpectedly for an aggressive tumor that I never saw coming. I was depressed and unhappy, and decided to screw the deal with myself and get pizza anyway. Ironic, then, that I should receive the official offer right then. I sent a text message to my mom and went home and ate my pizza. It was all a little anticlimactic, but I'm sure dealing with the fallout of sudden-loss-of-pet didn't help matters. I didn't really celebrate at all afterward. I kept waiting to hear back from other schools, and was disappointed not to have received an offer from my top choice school after having interviewed and having become emotionally invested in the program. When people asked about the offer I'd received, I'd brush it off. "Yeah, I got in there. Still waiting to hear back from other schools." It took accepting the offer on April 15th to finally make it real for me. Everything now is concrete-- I can start making plans and moving on. Last night I went out to a nice restaurant and celebrated with my family. This morning I updated my Facebook status for the first time ever, and called all of my closest friends to tell them the good news. Now I'm pleasantly surfing the internet looking at housing options and thinking about moving to a new place. Intimidating, but exciting! So I certainly don't have the best or most memorable acceptance story, but it's interesting nonetheless. For me, it was accepting an offer, rather than receiving an acceptance, that was the most meaningful!