Victorious Secret

If they drug tested grad students it would really reduce the workload for professors. There wouldn't be anymore pesky grad students to mentor. I have never heard of drug testing in grad school and would be stunned if it existed at any significant level, even outside the US.

I'm planning to accept my offer from Stanford. Thank you for sharing this journey with me and good luck with all of your interviews and decisions. You're all amazing!

Has anyone who interviewed with Stanford heard back yet? On my application portal, there is a request to do a CertiFile transcript for my home institution, but I don't know if they have done that for everyone.

Yes, the government shutdown has led to budget constraints at a number of schools because of uncertainty about NSF grants. I discussed something about this a couple weeks back. I am hoping that those stresses may be diminishing now.

Master's programs are quite expensive, especially since you won't be receiving Pell grants, etc. You might want to go with a BS-level analyst position in consulting and then try to get one of them to finance the MS. But those positions are still challenging to find, especially for top firms. Keep in mind that technical consulting often looks for different credentials than management consulting (also, many MBA students from top-10 programs end up interning with, or working for McKinsey straight after graduation).

I'm doing an internship at Genentech. I want to work for them after PhD so it is a good way to squirrel away some money, survey the lay of the land and network for the future. I think that academic research makes people well qualified for certain industry internships, especially in biotech. But feel yourself out now. If you are burned out already you may need a couple months to decompress before school. Also, be mindful of internship deadlines, many of them have passed (Novartis NIBR, Genentech, DOE SULI, and Illumina, for example). Good luck!

I got my Stanford invite email last night. The deadline to make flight arrangements is February 5.

Same.

No =(

I PM'ed you that info.

To be very honest I had a hard time hearing the call. It may have been. I thought it was a call from Genentech because of the 650 area code. So so happy!!!! Shaking. But anyways, yeah, they're definitely still making interview calls.

I just got the invite call from Stanford!!!!!!!!!!!!

Seems to early to assume that now. Also the invites were not on the same day.

I have now heard from two professors at separate schools that budgets are tight now due to grants being held up with the government shutdown. I know of one UC chemE program that has slashed admissions by 50% this year because of funding issues (and the UC system has particular funding issues due to the budget impasse https://diverseeducation.com/article/135304/). Has anyone else heard words to the effect of graduate admissions being reduced due to funding?

No that is fine, mine did that too. If you email them about it you will get back an FAQ indicating that it is meaningless and if they need anything from you they will ask.