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It probably depends on your long term career goals. If you want to run a lab, you will need a PhD. If you want to teach it may help too. If you just want to work in a lab as you are doing now, it may be fine. I would talk to people in your field about this

second this. email him or interview and talk to students at the school. Students can typically give you an idea about certain labs

If you are still extremely interested in them, it could not hurt to mail the second program and tell them that. It probably depends on the school and the program, if you will be considered by the other program. It can't hurt to tell that program you are interested though, if you are.

This is true. Schools that focus on teaching require people to have a lot of teaching experience. Faculty at my undergrad only taught and they had to have several years of experience. Students were even on faculty hiring committees to help them determine who would be the best teachers. That being said all faculty at my school had a more advanced graduate degree than a MS. A lot of the A&P type teachers had either a DVM or a PhD. The OP needs to decide about the type of schools they want to teach at. If they are happy with a 2yr school then a MS might be fine. If they want a 4yr school, then they might need a more advanced degree. If the OP is fine teaching high school and at a community college, then a MS is fine (assuming you have the teaching background). If there are PhD with teaching experience up for their position though, it may be tough to get it. A lot of PhD students seem to have an interest in this option and with the funding situation in the US more may go this way, so I do worry about not getting a PhD for job stability. Half of my friends that went to grad school were interested in this and some schools have even built more teaching curriculum to PhD programs to prepare them. Duke, UNC, and Berkeley I think are examples of these.

I think that it is easier to find a teaching job if you have a PhD. Have you considered teaching high school instead? You may be able to teach at a small community college though. There are more PhDs than positions for them though, so it may get more difficult to even get those positions with a MS. Would you consider moving? If you qualify for a post-bac program, I would consider moving to the DC area and trying to get a post-bac position for a few years while you figure things out. They even have a nursing institute, so you could learn more about other things that you can do with a nursing degree and you would get a better idea of what you would be doing in an ms/phd program before you spend time (and money for the ms) doing it.

You might try to talk to them about your chances of rescheduling. When I applied several years ago, I had one last minute one to schedule and I was booked solid. I told them I had conflicts but was extremely interested in their program. They gave me the option to go separately, but I was able to schedule it so I only missed part of the weekend. I had one interview that ended on Thursday and the other school's normally scheduled weekend started on Thursday. I arranged to leave the first one slightly early. I was allowed to fly in late Thursday night to the other and I missed some of the Thursday activities (was like an orientation, dinner, and tour or something like that). They were very nice about it, and they even had three graduate students take me out for dinner at like 9-10PM when I landed. I also got accepted there. Just make sure that you are very kind about it and express that you are very interested in the program. I would not worry about conflicts until you get them though. Letting you do it probably depends on the school. Some schools have a lot of group presentations and meals. Other places it is more individualized. The individualized ones may be more likely to do it. I would not bother with this though unless you are extremely interested in both of them. If you get a lot of interviews, I would consider dropping some of them too. They spend a lot of time and money recruiting you, and you should not waste their time if they are already out of the running. If there are safety schools that really interest you, I would note their interviews dates. I think that I wrote mapped out all the published interview dates for my schools when I was organizing it. I think that I applied to like 18 schools. If you are lucky, you will get some early January interviews. Schedule them as early as you can and avoid more popular dates. For example if they give you January 18, February 3, and february 20 dates. Ten schools have february 20 dates and 5 have January 18. 2 have February3. Schedule them on the 3rd. Avoid scheduling stuff for the date that corresponds to the 10 weekends as long as you can. I would also try to schedule a safety earlier too. Once you get an acceptance, you can be picky about other invites. I had one that I loved before the 15th of January when I applied, and it made the process a lot easier. If you are seriously interested in both schools and you cant reschedule, I would suggest that you look at the program and talk to faculty and students at both places if you can before making a decision. If you have a flight scheduled already, keep that program over the other one.

your pub may help you a lot. If your mentor is big that will also help. This process is really random. I recommend nih gpp. They have later deadlines for several programs I believe. They probably have over 1000 PIs so they will have something for you The con with this place is most faculty do not have experience working with people younger than post-docs. My former PI there had been there for 30+ years and had like 3 people my age or younger before me. They like students but they are not used to them. UT southwestern was a great program when I interviewed there several years ago too. I had a hard time declining their offer back then. They had a later deadline then. I am not sure about now. I am not sure about how they are for your particular field. Utah has a later deadline too. They have some good faculty but they are better known for genetics. unc may also have been later, but I do not remember

paradisaeidae, your position may be a little different from the op. It may be more common to get a masters degree first in more field type stuff. I am not sure about this. It is uncommon for biomedical stuff, but ms to phd is the most common route in most other areas. You may want to look at jobs in other states. I know that jobs watching wildlife and that type of thing is common in many western states. I am not sure how common they are in NC. Look at place like WY, MT, ID, AK, etc. The only science jobs in some of these states are the types of positions that you are looking for. Most of the graduate students are probably working in these areas too. My source: I have lived in some of these type of states

Most people do not contact faculties, and they do fine getting into programs. I know people that contacted faculties and had phone interviews with them and position interactions before the application deadline, but they were still not granted an interview. The process is a lot of random luck I think. I recommend that you do contact a lot of faculty during the process for your own decision making process. You may love 10 faculties at school x, but then when you get there you find out that none are taking students or they are bad graduate student mentors.

do agree with you about publishing. that is the best thing you can do for an app. I do not agree that you have to spend more money or get less pay as a MS student. It depends on the lab, but you can get a similar experience as a tech and it opens up options to work at a schools like cornell and UNC that have a good reputation but do not have MS programs. I actually do not know of any better schools that have MS options in the us: UNC, Duke, Hopkins, all the ivys, Berkeley, University of Washington (Seattle), Washington University in St. Louis, etc. MS and tech experience in certain labs I think give you an equivalent experience. Going the tech route eliminates debt and allows you to possibly get lab experience at a top school like Berkeley. One of my classmates had a first author nature pub from his tech lab at Duke as an example, this would be very hard to get as a MS student at UNC-non chapel hill school. Most faculty that publish in that type of journal get recruited a way from those smaller schools. You can probably get in either way. If the OP gets stipend and all paid for ms then it might be an ok option for him or her, but its is not useful for most of us that have to pay for a masters.

I would argue against this route if you want a PhD. Science is all about who you know. I interviewed at several top 10 US PhD programs a few years ago, and I probably got most of them because they knew my boss of that time very well (national academy of science member so fairly well known). The most well-known scientists are typically at the big schools and not your UNC-ashevilles where you can get the masters. If the OP wants to get into a good US program, he/she is better off applying for tech jobs at better schools who rarely have masters program options (hopkins, duke, unc chapel hill, university of washington, etc). They would probably do better in the PhD application process coming from a Hopkins or even UNC lab as a tech than a ms student from an unknown lab at a relatively unknown school

Unless a PhD without a masters will mess up your chances to get a faculty position in your country, I still recommend that you not try to get a MS here first. Most of the good schools in the US will not have a MS program. I still recommend contacting faculty within your field of interest about getting a tech position to work in for ~2 years. This type of position will prepare you for graduate school in the US, and it will probably give you better ties that will enable you to get into a better PhD program. I am not sure how difficult it is to get a tech position from abroad in the US though. I have seen people from all over the world in these type of positions though. The exception to my advice is if you think that you may apply to PhD programs back home or possibly in Europe where you likely need a MS before you can get into the PhD program

what country do you want to do your PhD in and work in long term? I am not familiar with the education system you are coming from. Is it like Europe and you are generally expected to get a MS before you can get the PhD?

job in biology or another field?

A lot of people do not have biology degrees and join a biology PhD program. We had math, computer science, etc. I went to grad school with a guy that had no biology background at all and had spent a long time working with microsoft. I would still seriously think about whether a masters here is the best option. Are you really getting adequate living expenses? If it will cost you at all, I would not recommend it. A lot of masters programs tend to be a stepping block for pre-meds to get into medical school, since they really have no use in the states for people interested in research. You could also work in a paid position as a tech and a lot of PIs may pay for you to take classes or you could audit classes. As for the best program, many of us here probably can not answer that. Are you planning to do a program that is all classes or one with a research component? If you are looking for one with a research component, I would pick places to apply based on the labs. If you have your own funding as you suggest, I do not think it would be that hard to get into any of them. I am not sure if this forum has a lot of biology MS students. If you do not find information here, I would maybe try student doctor network where all the pre-meds hang out. All US citizens that I know have Biology MS degrees were either premed or did it in fields like bioinformatics while doing a PhD.

I took the old format over five years ago and the new format recently. My total score went up 100 (using their published conversion to old format), and my individual verbal and quant both went up at least 10%. This is a completely different test now, and it may be more accurate of a judge of who will do well in graduate school (analogies less of an indicator than the reading comprehension focus now in verbal for example). I too strongly doubt the consistency of the current gre though, but I really do not understand their scoring system. My writing also changed very drastically between tests. Time will tell what happens with this new test lol

do not waste your time and money doing a masters program. You can gain similar experience working as a tech and you get paid for it! Check out the NIH post-bac program in addition to just applying for tech positions. Many PIs actually enjoy training pre-graduate students too.

what is a non-research lab? I would pick the lab that will better train you to work as a scientist. The research area does not matter much I think. You want a lab that allows you to use the scientific process and has mentors that will train you to work as a scientist. My pre-graduate school research was mostly in non-molecular labs, but I had great mentors that trained me to work as a scientist independently. I joined a cell and molecular biology program at a top school, and did fairly well in the application process. My background may have hurt me at some schools, but I did fine with it. Some faculty at my school did not appreciate my unusual background too, and it ruined my chances of going to some labs. Other PIs loved the unusual background (including some big named PIs). You just need to be aware of this when deciding. I also recommend doing a summer rotation where you go. I picked a lab with similar work to my prior molecular work in undergrad and a young PI. This allowed me to focus full-time on re-learning molecular work before classes started and I had some guidance by the lab/PI.

Did you get to work on a project (e.g. do real research) in your last lab? If it is a good training lab and you want to apply to graduate school, I recommend staying in that same lab again. Strong letters of rec go a long way in this field, and your letter should be stronger if you spend more time there if you have strong letters already, I would consider another program if it will allow you to work in a field that you are interested in but have no experience in.

You need to do what is best for you. If you need to go home, then you need to go home. If there are no science jobs at home, find a job and try to volunteer in a lab part time. In regards to your current position, how long have you been there? Keep in mind that it can take a long time to get adjusted to a new city and job. Every time I have started one, I hated it for the first few months but then I later adjust. Try to get out and meet people and explore the area, as this will help you get adjusted. You might consider talking to a psychologist or a support group or something about what has happened In the end, you need to decide what will be the best for you and then you can work on your grad apps later when rl has settled down

Masters programs are very rare and not really useful in the us. Ones in things like bioinformatics are more common, but still not very popular. One school I was at had the bioinformatics masters, but you had to be enrolled in the PhD program to do it. Why are you getting a masters? If you want to get a doctorate eventually, I would just apply to PhD programs now. A masters degree did not decrease the amount of course work you had to take in a doctorate program. If you want to get a PhD abroad, then you will need the masters probably. If you are not sure about getting a PhD yet and want more experience in the US to decide, just try to find a tech position in a us lab. This will also increase your chances of getting into the program at that school in most cases. Good luck

This is very true, but there are some places that really have no graduate students at all so most labs are all post-docs. My PIs at both OHSU and NIH loved graduate students, but there were none around for them to take into their labs. Other places will have a few post-doc heavy labs but tons of graduate students around so most labs have lots of graduate students. Thanks for adding Yale to the list. Any other schools that people can add?

I am looking for an environment where the labs are mostly post-docs and the school admits very few graduate students compared to the number of labs there. I know that many people here will be looking for the opposite. Hence we should make a list of these schools. Please copy and add to the list that I am starting. I prefer it if you only add schools that you are sure about (probably spent time there). Mostly graduate students: Duke Dartmouth Mostly post-docs: OHSU NIH

We already had a delay this year due to the snow. They also delayed it some the year before last. I expect to hear at least one more delay. It is the government.

Last year's thread was like 100pgs before announcements wasnt it. It was really big!