charmquarkz

Can you send me some more details in a private message? I want to help out as much as I can since it really disadvantages you to not have these connections. We have whole workshops and such to help us prepare at my PhD school and several people win each year in Planetary Science. So if you are interested, let's talk more offline?
(But if you are happy with the feedback you already have and don't want/need further feedback, then please don't feel like you need to talk to me about it! Just offering in case you want it)

I held one for the last two years of grad school. There are no published successful examples that I know of. Mostly because this is a real proposal with our actual research plans, so it's not really a good idea to put that out publicly. However, I highly recommend speaking to students in your program that have one in the past and asking if they would be willing to share their proposal. I always share my proposal with other students at my program because I knew them and trusted them to keep it safe. I also had a former student share theirs with me and it was helpful.
I'd be happy to discuss tips/strategies and share what info I knew from my application years etc. but unfortunately, I am not quite comfortable sharing my materials on an internet forum! Hope you understand!
Which program are you applying to?

I was right when I thought there was a chance of results being announced today from my earlier post!
More excited that I received an offer! E/E E/VG VG/E

Just got into UCI Cell and Molecular Biosciences!

I tuned into a webinar from the AAAS shortly after the election where they put together a panel which included Celeste Rohlfing (was a deputy assistant director at the NSF) to discuss the future of R&D funding under the new administration (you can watch it here: http://view6.workcast.net/AuditoriumAuthenticator.aspx?pak=2704109997656236). Some of the most asked questions had to do graduate/post-doctoral funding initiatives by government agencies like the NIH, NSF, etc... Honestly, their answer was neither comforting nor discouraging because it was so vague! Probably because there is still a lot of uncertainty surrounding R&D budget cuts (and still no science advisor on the horizon). They said something along the lines of "funding allocated to those programs will depend on how much money there is left over"....... I interpret that to mean that it depends entirely on whether the federal budgets are indeed slashed and to what extent. I think what is certain though is that if you are awarded the fellowship this year, your 3 years of support are locked in.  But there's no guarantee that those opportunities will exist in the coming years. At this point though, it doesn't even seem like the federal agencies know the answer to that themselves.

Does anyone know what will happen if Federal budgets get slashed in the future what happens to the 3 years of funding for NSF fellows? Like what if you were to get awarded a GRFP this year, it would probably be fine because budgets are set, but what about year 2 and 3 where the Trump administration may have gutted NSF? Thoughts? Ideas? 

I hope we both hear something back! Good luck!!

Accepted to University at Buffalo Biological Science. This is my first acceptance and it feels so surreal 

My international student office held a meeting for all international students after the election to address some of these issues. Of course, nothing is certain and especially since the Trump administration isn't very forthcoming with concrete plans/details. However, some takeaway points:
- F-1/J-1 immigration is not one of the Trump administration's main concerns. Their election platform was about removing undocumented immigration and protecting US jobs.
- Law changes take some time to take effect. For example, recently, the F-1 OPT time increase from 27 months to 36 months for STEM majors took about 5 years to go through the whole cycle and that was supposedly a "fast-tracked" change. 
- Basically, things that can be put into effect quickly (e.g. executive orders) can be taken away quickly too but law changes are slow.
Overall, the first/biggest changes are likely to be:
- An executive action to counteract Obama's "DACA" (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals).
- Reduction in number of H1-Bs (or increased requirements). I've heard that they are considering a plan to make the minimum wage for H1-Bs to be $100,000 (i.e. effectively discouraging many companies/universities to hire H1-Bs at lower level positions).
These things definitely affect academics! But to answer your specific Q on F-1 visas specifically, I don't think there is any reason to expect changes on that soon. F-1 / student visas did not seem to be on their platform and it is not expected that they will focus their early energies on this. Of course, as new students you would be concerned about what happens 4-5 years from now, but many things are uncertain that far out. Things are just a little more uncertain right now due to who's in the White House! We don't know what Congress and Senate will look like after the midterm elections in 2 years and there could be a new President in 4 years. 
I'm not trying to make it sound like everything will be okay. Personally, my biggest worry would be the possibility that Trump issues an executive order halting all immigration of all statuses from certain countries. It doesn't seem likely he'll do this for no reason, but perhaps something might happen that causes him to react in this way. This could happen while you are already in the US, which means if you are from one of these countries, you can't leave the US or you won't be able to come back in.
So, there are certainly lots of valid concerns. But at this point, there seems to be no planned changes to F-1 and J-1 foreign student status. And my personal philosophy is to not make big life decisions based on what might happen in the long run. 
(Finally, note to Beals and other Canadians: We don't have/require visas to enter the US, we just need status instead).

So I'm sure this would be more appropriate in a thread dedicated to interview prep, but because there has been a lot of very useful advice here on the subject (I myself being on the receiving end) I thought I would share something I just discovered. I searched for my interviewers on YouTube to see if they had any publicly available seminars, and turns out most of them do! I watched the most recent for each faculty and I found it extremely helpful for the ones I'm really interested in working with. I also feel like I almost know them a little better and don't feel as nervous about talking to them in person??? I guess I'll know for sure whether it helped tomorrow after my first interview takes place, but just thought I would share in case anyone is feeling a little stressed about reading and not processing very well!

So I'm sure this would be more appropriate in a thread dedicated to interview prep, but because there has been a lot of very useful advice here on the subject (I myself being on the receiving end) I thought I would share something I just discovered. I searched for my interviewers on YouTube to see if they had any publicly available seminars, and turns out most of them do! I watched the most recent for each faculty and I found it extremely helpful for the ones I'm really interested in working with. I also feel like I almost know them a little better and don't feel as nervous about talking to them in person??? I guess I'll know for sure whether it helped tomorrow after my first interview takes place, but just thought I would share in case anyone is feeling a little stressed about reading and not processing very well!

Thank you very much charmquarkz!  That is very helpful.  The interviewer is a member of the adcom as well as a faculty member that I am interested in working with.  I imagine that the interview will consist of a mix of the more general interview topics as well as research topics.  I will have to come up with a plan for questions to ask / avenues of thought for the interviewer to expand upon.  

So I'm sure this would be more appropriate in a thread dedicated to interview prep, but because there has been a lot of very useful advice here on the subject (I myself being on the receiving end) I thought I would share something I just discovered. I searched for my interviewers on YouTube to see if they had any publicly available seminars, and turns out most of them do! I watched the most recent for each faculty and I found it extremely helpful for the ones I'm really interested in working with. I also feel like I almost know them a little better and don't feel as nervous about talking to them in person??? I guess I'll know for sure whether it helped tomorrow after my first interview takes place, but just thought I would share in case anyone is feeling a little stressed about reading and not processing very well!

So I'm sure this would be more appropriate in a thread dedicated to interview prep, but because there has been a lot of very useful advice here on the subject (I myself being on the receiving end) I thought I would share something I just discovered. I searched for my interviewers on YouTube to see if they had any publicly available seminars, and turns out most of them do! I watched the most recent for each faculty and I found it extremely helpful for the ones I'm really interested in working with. I also feel like I almost know them a little better and don't feel as nervous about talking to them in person??? I guess I'll know for sure whether it helped tomorrow after my first interview takes place, but just thought I would share in case anyone is feeling a little stressed about reading and not processing very well!

So I'm sure this would be more appropriate in a thread dedicated to interview prep, but because there has been a lot of very useful advice here on the subject (I myself being on the receiving end) I thought I would share something I just discovered. I searched for my interviewers on YouTube to see if they had any publicly available seminars, and turns out most of them do! I watched the most recent for each faculty and I found it extremely helpful for the ones I'm really interested in working with. I also feel like I almost know them a little better and don't feel as nervous about talking to them in person??? I guess I'll know for sure whether it helped tomorrow after my first interview takes place, but just thought I would share in case anyone is feeling a little stressed about reading and not processing very well!

So I'm sure this would be more appropriate in a thread dedicated to interview prep, but because there has been a lot of very useful advice here on the subject (I myself being on the receiving end) I thought I would share something I just discovered. I searched for my interviewers on YouTube to see if they had any publicly available seminars, and turns out most of them do! I watched the most recent for each faculty and I found it extremely helpful for the ones I'm really interested in working with. I also feel like I almost know them a little better and don't feel as nervous about talking to them in person??? I guess I'll know for sure whether it helped tomorrow after my first interview takes place, but just thought I would share in case anyone is feeling a little stressed about reading and not processing very well!

So I'm sure this would be more appropriate in a thread dedicated to interview prep, but because there has been a lot of very useful advice here on the subject (I myself being on the receiving end) I thought I would share something I just discovered. I searched for my interviewers on YouTube to see if they had any publicly available seminars, and turns out most of them do! I watched the most recent for each faculty and I found it extremely helpful for the ones I'm really interested in working with. I also feel like I almost know them a little better and don't feel as nervous about talking to them in person??? I guess I'll know for sure whether it helped tomorrow after my first interview takes place, but just thought I would share in case anyone is feeling a little stressed about reading and not processing very well!

So I'm sure this would be more appropriate in a thread dedicated to interview prep, but because there has been a lot of very useful advice here on the subject (I myself being on the receiving end) I thought I would share something I just discovered. I searched for my interviewers on YouTube to see if they had any publicly available seminars, and turns out most of them do! I watched the most recent for each faculty and I found it extremely helpful for the ones I'm really interested in working with. I also feel like I almost know them a little better and don't feel as nervous about talking to them in person??? I guess I'll know for sure whether it helped tomorrow after my first interview takes place, but just thought I would share in case anyone is feeling a little stressed about reading and not processing very well!

So I'm sure this would be more appropriate in a thread dedicated to interview prep, but because there has been a lot of very useful advice here on the subject (I myself being on the receiving end) I thought I would share something I just discovered. I searched for my interviewers on YouTube to see if they had any publicly available seminars, and turns out most of them do! I watched the most recent for each faculty and I found it extremely helpful for the ones I'm really interested in working with. I also feel like I almost know them a little better and don't feel as nervous about talking to them in person??? I guess I'll know for sure whether it helped tomorrow after my first interview takes place, but just thought I would share in case anyone is feeling a little stressed about reading and not processing very well!

I have one that starts tomorrow and I only received my itinerary last night so I wouldn't be too worried, but I do find it odd that they wait so long to let students know what their schedule is!!!

Yeah, I think my strategy for it would be to read their websites and understand generally what they are doing and from what angle they are approaching big questions from.  Then I would read abstracts from their 2 or 3 most recent/ most impactful papers and try to think of some good broad questions to ask.   haha sorry for all the unsolicited advice, I just thought maybe this would be helpful for anyone else reading too! I thought 40 minutes would be a hard block of time to fill--but it passed super fast and over half of my interviews ended up going over time (but in a good way)

While it's definitely not necessary or expected of interviewees to intensely read up on the recent work of their interviewers, I think that doing so can demonstrate specific interest and can help facilitate great discussions about their research. Here's one approach I've been coached on for developing tailored questions to ask POI interviewers: read 1-3 of their recent pubs in depth, then come up with questions that would be good follow up projects for the study, or alternative approaches/applications they could try out. A great question about their work, not just a question for the sake of asking one, will catch their attention really quickly. They want thinkers and being able to ask a great question that pertains to the immediate discussion will only draw positive attention to you. Another strategy you can take is to look up their recent NIH grant proposals to get a pre-glimpse at where some of their research might be heading. https://grants.nih.gov/grants/oer.htm

Anyone else going to UCI CMB recruiting event on Thursday? I'm surprised they only sent our schedules out tonight, I was hoping we would have them sooner. I feel like I don't have much time to prepare!

I'm glad you said that because it's my first interview and I definitely panicked when I saw the list of people I'd be meeting with and have been frantically looking up papers. It sounds like it's not going to be particularly helpful to do that! Thanks.

Oops, I'm not sure if I offended with this post (I see the negative mark; Sorry, I'm new to this!); in re-reading I see how it could be off-putting... I was hoping to see some other members from here there, and also express surprise at how little notice we seem to be getting compared to the experience of previous posters on this thread. Sorry!