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scientific

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Posts posted by scientific

  1. On 1/10/2018 at 12:46 AM, rwoodward said:

    If it's any help, for organic they CC'ed the same professor for everyone who organises all the visit weekends etc. Might be the same for you!

    congrats on berkeley by the way!! out of curiosity, can I ask what the stipend looks like out there?

    On 1/10/2018 at 5:14 AM, rw16202 said:

    I think she might be the pchem program coordinator? they told me to contact her re: visiting details. and I'm sure they'll let you come to an admitted students weekend! it'll def be a totally different experience, plus you'll get to meet potential classmates! maybe I'll see ya there! 

    ahh that makes sense! I'm glad then.

     

    On 1/10/2018 at 10:27 AM, cater99 said:

    Congrats again! May I ask what's ur undergrad school? 

    I went to one of the UCs ^^

  2. 4 minutes ago, rw16202 said:

    your signature said accepted to UIUC lol, so I figured that must be it! 

    I didn't accept because I'm still waiting to hear from 6 more places, but I'm def going to visit. They cc'd one professor (van der Veen) who I mentioned in my SoP, what about you? and yeah mine says that too, I guess the graduate college moves slow. I'm sure it'll update soon! obviously I'm worrying about that too lol

    I wonder if I can visit again even if I've accepted? I love it out there.  :lol:

     

    Oh that's who was CC'd on mine too! I did mention her but there's another professor i would like to work with. I wonder if that's an issue? Aaah, here I am getting bogged down in the details already...

  3. I just got my first acceptance!! I thought I had months more to wait out, but wow!! I'm walking on air. I'm stunned. I'm alternating between crying and screaming. It was my top choice too!

     

    Of course, there's the details... A different professor than my top choice to work for was CC'd, and my status on the site is different... but I'm assuming the email supersedes all that. Right...? Right?

  4. 49 minutes ago, rw16202 said:

    Congrats! I just got in to UIUC also, literally don't believe it. My jaw dropped when I saw the email. Pretty good Tuesday to say the least :) 

    thank you and congrats to you too!! haha how did you know it was UIUC? but yes!! I haven't stopped smiling all day.

     

    Did you accept? Did they CC anyone on your email? I'm worried it's too early; my  application status on the site says "awaiting decision," but I suppose I'm just being a worrywart now!

  5. On 12/15/2017 at 11:14 PM, cater99 said:

    Hi! I actually explained in my post that I did not like research so I wanna get a coursework master to teach chemistry at community colleges maybe. And you are right, not many schools offer master in chemistry let alone coursework degrees. I tried really hard finding these, like reading over 30 pages on Google lol. I feel like I'm an unconventional applicant here since everyone else is going for a PhD.

    I think my GPA is still OK just because I did not complete many upper division courses before I changed my major. That could be one major problem but I will catch up soon, finishing up pchem and take some advanced ochem before I graduate this year, as I'm almost done with math :D. 

    Ah I must've missed that. I definitely understand about the difficulty of finding a US masters program; I considered doing a masters to make up for my embarrassingly weak GPA, but I'd heard mixed things about having a masters as a domestic applicant to a doctoral program after,  so decided against it.

    I do think it's unconventional, but I think it's a plus you know what you're looking for! I know some people who went for a PhD, ended up hating research and left. And maybe the major outside of chemistry won't be an issue in that case. Best of luck!

  6. 20 hours ago, TakeruK said:

    However, for better or for worse, professors have told me that they read letters of reference to get another scholar's opinion of a candidate. They then try to calibrate that opinion with what they know about the person. For example, if there's a letter writer that consistently writes letters that say "The candidate is the best student in 20 years" then the program might change how they interpret letters from the same person in the future. Or, if the letter writer is well known to the evaluation committee, they might use their knowledge of that person to calibrate the letter. So, if the letter writer is a recent PhD from the school, (some of) the profs there might still remember them and/or might have still been there when your letter writer was a student there.

     

    20 hours ago, fuzzylogician said:

    Another advantage this kind of letter has is that when a former student writes "I think X is a good fit with the department", they really know what they're talking about, not just from the perspective of research fit (which you can get from others) but also in the sense that they understand the culture of the department.

     

    That makes a lot of sense!

     That part about how a recent PhD from the school may be remembered is essentially in line with what I've been told. I suppose my next question is... how much does culture of a graduate program change over time? If a professor got his PhD from a program 40 years ago but is established now, will his perspective on fit no longer be true? I obviously have no idea what goes into a LOR of this type and I'm curious about the process. I was under the impression they only talked about a candidate's qualities?

  7. Best of luck. I would maybe ask one of your current letter writers for advice, since I know nothing about your intended/past fields, if you feel comfortable doing so.

    What I also think helps, is if you are ABLE to, ask to meet in person to chat... I wrote to a teacher I had in classes 5 years ago, asking to meet for graduate school advice (I asked his opinion on some programs, but that may not be as helpful here since it'll be in a different field for you... maybe they will know reputation stuff, though), and then asked about letters. We met, chatted and he was very candid, and it also belayed any concerns I had about tone.

     

    I definitely do relate about the communication stuff; it always feels very odd and  I put it off because it seemed awkward. But now we know better and can learn from our mistakes!

     

  8. So professors generally do expect to get requests not immediately after they have had a student. It helps to keep in touch, but I do have some questions...

    Is the person who did the BFA thesis advising within the field of your MFA? Are your former employers related to this MFA? I'm not in the arts, but I've been told that in my area (chemistry), when applying for a PhD, you don't want to have more employers than professor writing your letters... But I don't know at all if that's true for the arts.

    I think in general, if a professor has shown hesitation, that's not a good sign. One tip I had was to specifically ask if professors would write you a strong LOR. If you think that this person is still the best choice you have (i.e., they are within the field for your MFA whereas a recent teacher is not, they're famous, idk, maybe it's preferred to have university letter writers than community college letter writers) , you can ask if there's anything you can provide (transcript, maybe write a summary on what you've been up to the last decade, etc) that might help them. Otherwise, I think your best option would be the ask another former teacher with fewer classes.

     

    EDIT: to say that again, take my advice with a grain of salt as I am in a completely different field from you. Hopefully you will get some more specific to you advice.

  9. 18 hours ago, lemma said:

    Something I would recommend is organizing something that makes you feel accomplished, useful - or even simply good. That means that bad news one day is partially offset by something positive. A few years ago, when I was going through a very hard time (where there were definitely more negatives than positives), I forced myself to write down three positive things about each day before I went to sleep. It helped to remember that even when bad things kept on happening, I was still lucky in many respects. 

    More specifically to graduate schools - the best outcome from graduate school admissions isn't necessarily getting into a particular school, but is getting into a program where you can thrive, feel supported and feel like you belong. During applications for graduate school (and a few years earlier when I was looking for jobs), I kept on telling myself that if I wasn't accepted or hired, it didn't necessarily mean I wasn't capable. It just meant that I wasn't a good fit. Fit can be research interests, preparation, culture, expectations coming into the program... ultimately, even if a program sounds awesome on paper, if it's not a good fit, it's not somewhere you want to be. 

    This is some nice advice! I'll try to keep to it; I think it's probably a nice exercise to try to get more positive, too! And I guess if I'm honest, my coping mechanisms tend to be.....nonexistant :lol:

    I suppose it's extra hard since I visited my top choice for a conference; the campus, the research--i fell in love with it all, despite knowing it was pretty high out of my reach.

    9 hours ago, pataka said:

    I looked up the acceptance rates for my programs (which are obnoxiously low) and that made me feel a little better, honestly. Knowing how much of a crap shoot it is will lessen the blow if/when I get rejections. Until then, I'm going to try my hardest to be prepared to give great interviews and stay positive about the process - if I do everything I can do to reach the goal, then I know I'm an excellent candidate and if I get rejected, it's not because I didn't try hard enough.

    I tried this immediately and it doesn't seem like there's any information on my program :unsure: but I do know that it's low

    7 hours ago, LolJustAdmitMe said:

    ^^Same. The way I manage it is to reason through it all. I’ve looked at stats and even their past acceptance and rejections of each of the schools I applied to on the results page and then I tell myself “It happens”. Lots of great candidates get rejected/passed up and you can see that on the results page (some ppl post their stats and grades). It’s a humbling experience, truly. That in itself and reading articles about how difficult it is to get into PhD programs helps remind me of how BLESSED I would be if I got in but not necessarily worthless  bc a lot of articles drive home that sometimes accomplished folks get passed up. One article gave a story about a candidate who was rejected after doing “everything right” and being “exceptional” in her studies and scores but when she called to ask the department and her Potential advisor why she was passed up, no one could tell after reviewing her file. Ultimately her potential advisor thought her file was great and urged her to reapply bc he just wasn’t sure why she wasn’t accepted. It’s a f***ing crap shoot. Try to find (discomforting) comfort in that!

    I hope that'll help later, but for now it just feels awful to hear that :P I have no idea why I'm counting myself out already since my writers seem to have faith in me but who knows

     

     

    4 hours ago, Jacklynnve said:

    I was told to become very comfortable with my plan B. To be honest, at first I thought that sounded stupid, but once I thought realistically about what my backup plan is and how I can improve in between cycles if I don't get in, I became comfortable with the fact that I may not get accepted to grad school. Fingers crossed for your success, I am also anxiously waiting for an interview invite.

    ah... plan B......... yes, I should probably.... have one of those.............

    but I do have some plans if I don't get in at all. It comes at a slight "damn, I should've done this BEFORE applying this cycle" but I can take that advice and do it as a plan B!

  10. 5 minutes ago, Carly Rae Jepsen said:

    I'm planning on sending thank you cards with a written message and maybe a Starbucks gift card or chocolate. You can't almost ever go wrong with either one, professors love caffeine as much as students and I've met like two people in my life who don't like chocolate :) 

    Oh gift cards are a great idea! Our campus has some great coffee places and I definitely have grabbed coffee with them all.

    BTW, who knew CRJ was such an ambitious graduate student? ;)

  11. 11 hours ago, cater99 said:

    Undergrad Institution: One of the UCs (Not UCB/UCLA)
    Major(s): Mathematics (I changed from chemistry to math as I did not like labs, now I apply for coursework Masters to prepare myself for a teaching career :D) 
    Minor(s): Chemistry 
    GPA in Major: 3.867 (Mathematics), 3.675 (Not official major GPA, I calculated this myself from my upper division chem classes) 
    Overall GPA: ~3.67
    Position in Class: N/A (as I'm not a chemistry major anymore) 
    Type of Student: International Student, Asian/Chinese, Male

    GRE Scores (revised): I think GRE might be my only strength :( 
    Q: 170 (97%)
    V: 160 (86%)
    W: 4.5 (82%)
    SUB: None. 


    Research Experience: Only in math. 

    Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Provost Honor (Dean's List), A project certificate from local AIChE chapter. 
    Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Math TA. I don't know how much that helps, maybe shows my English skill as an international student. 

    Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help: Served as board members of local ACS chapter, had some volunteering experience at ACS National and Regional conferences. 

    Special Bonus Points: 

    Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter: I apply for coursework masters to prepare my career in teaching. I think knowing "I'm not using the master as a pathway to a PhD" might put Admission Committee on ease? 

    Applying to Where:
     

    Cornell (Top Choice)                                              MS in Chemistry & Chemical Biology (CCB) (Rolling Admission, will catch priority deadline 1/1) 

    NYU Main Campus                                                 MS in Chemistry 

    NYU Tandon School of Engineering                    MS in Chemistry 

    Georgia Tech                                                           MS in Chemistry (caught priority deadline 12/1) 

    Tufts                                                                         MS in Chemistry 

    U of Virginia                                                            MA in Chemistry 

    UC San Diego                                                         MS in Chemistry 

    San Diego State U                                                 MA in Chemistry (I feel like I'm revealing something LOL) 

    I am not familiar with all those schools, but I was under the impression that a lot of these didn't have terminal MS's and usually only accepted for PhD route. Can I ask why you're going for a master's instead of a PhD?

     

    I actually think your stats are quite good, especially with the  chem classes not too bad. UCs are mostly well known research schools, so I imagine you'll be fine.

  12. 2 hours ago, TheHessianHistorian said:

    The advice my advisor gave me was to apply to 10-20 programs, with several of them being programs you could be really excited about. That way, you're bound to get into at least one of your favorites, and you won't have to deal with crushed expectations. :) 

    That's very reasonable advice, and I'm certainly excited at my schools, but I've totally fallen in love with one! :( It's UIUC, which I see is on your list as well! It's just hugely out of range for me which is a hard pill to swallow and realize :wacko:

     

  13. I'm not  sure that there's hard data on this, especially if you're taking the electronic test. As I understand it, the electronic test has "levels" so if you do poorly in say algebra 2 questions, it puts you into a lower level with algebra 1 questions, but you won't be able to get a top score.... each level has a "capped" max score. I'm not sure if that's still true, but that's what I read (I don't have the books I used so I can't verify that's what it said).

     

    I think there's lots of data about what's on the test in general (ie., basic stats is on there, lots of percents stuff, and basic geometry) and the best thing you can do is just practice, unfortunately. If you are particularly struggling with time, I thought the official guides were good with little tricks and tips.

  14. Undergrad Institution: Top 50 in the US, big state school
    Major(s): environmental chemistry
    Minor(s):
    GPA in Major: ~3.15 :( the environmental classes were not my thing
    Overall GPA: 3.22
    Position in Class: 
    Type of Student: domestic

    GRE Scores (revised/old version):
    Q: 162
    V: 162
    W: 5.0
    S: N/A


    Research Experience: 3.5+ years; two research pubs in ochem (second and third authors), one poster in analytical, one international conference presentation in inorganic. Currently in a physical chemistry lab

    Awards/Honors/Recognitions: international scholarship

    Pertinent Activities or Jobs: TA'd introductory science class for nonscience majors, private tutor

    Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help: Did both study and research abroad; speak 3 languages; lots of outreach activities for underprivileged communities

    Special Bonus Points: I graduated in 2014, and have been working in an unrelated field, so hoping time away from school will make my GPA less of a big deal.

    Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter: I signed up for classes at the local community college after graduating but before my full-time job got crazy,  and dropped one but forgot to drop the other so it's an F =/

    Applying to Where: I got several fee waivers so it's a bit much to list, but it's a range of schools in the midwest/east coast from UIUC to University of Pittsburgh. All for physical chemistry.

  15.  

    I have some topics written down for my SOP, but am looking for a way to organize it. I am applying for PhD programs in physical chemistry, and will pursue research careers after graduation.

    background: I graduated in 2014 in chemistry. a time line is something like:

    • undergrad 1st year - community volunteer outreach
    • undergrad 2nd year - underprivileged community outreach, elementary school teaching aide, 2 part-time job, research internship
    • undergrad 3rd year - research internship, 2 part-time jobs
    • undergrad 4th year - community arts program participant, college-level science TA,, private tutoring
    • undergrad 5th year - part time jobs, research internship, research internship abroad
    • post-grad 1 - unrelated full-time job
    • post-grad 2 - unrelated work, volunteer science outreach assistant/teaching aide
    • post-grad 3 - 3 part-time jobs, volunteer research

     

    other stats: 1 conference presentation, 2 publications, 1 other poster, 162/162/5 GRE, taking subject test later this year

     

    1. I think that my paper will be organized by year, since I think doing it by "type" of extracurricular could be confusing. So, if roughly one paragraph per year, would it be better to discuss my research experiences in the beginning of each paragraph, then outreach, then part-time work, or is it better to end each paragraph with the research experience? 

    2.  My undergrad GPA is subpar (below 3.3), mostly because I was doing a lot and had kind of a naive attitude towards grades. Time after graduation gave me perspective and time to consider what i wanted to do and essentially mature. Is it a bad idea to talk about this? How else would I talk about the gap since graduation and the poor GPA? 

    3. Are there different "rules" when writing SOP for science programs? I.e., keep it short and to the point, etc? 

     

    Thanks. I know these are nit-picky details but trying to make sure everything is as close to perfect as I can make it.

  16. Well, I think it's a bit complicated, so I'm going to describe more in-depth the situation, but still try to keep it vague since I'm personally uncomfortable with revealing the project itself.

    A professor I took a class from has a long-term goal of creating an "online textbook." The goal is to make this field more accessible and to reduce textbook costs in the future. A group of us wrote "pages" on specific topics that were either accepted and edited, or taken out. I wrote the original page and practice questions on one specific topic, but it has since been edited by others, including the professor himself. On the page, I am listed as the original writer. 

    It is an NSF-funded project that has become open to many other universities and predominantly professor write the chapters now. I know that the professor who started the project does currently use it as his course's textbook (for teaching both lower and upper div courses; my topic woul be an upper div page). I hesitate to call it a publication since when I wrote it, it seemed more like a simplified and shortened way to describe this topic (subtopic--it'd be similar to if I wrote a page on adding exponents in the section of exponent math). It's now been edited to a more "textbook" quality by the professor after I graduated, however.

     

     

    In short, I wrote the original overview of a topic with practice questions, and it has since been edited by one other person (undergrad at the time as well) and added to by the professor. I did not do any editing myself, but the page was edited by others and is currently used as a part of upper div curriculum.

    So, would this still be a publication? It feels important enough to add to a CV, considering that it is NSF-funded and teaching/writing oriented, unless it's not really worthwhile to mention. 

     

    FUTHERMORE, would a poster someone else presented but that I am listed as a third author on be mentioned on my cv, or is that a faux paus? What's the difference when discussing poster/journal publications? 

    edit: clarifications and typos

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