Anxiously Hopeful

Hey!
To all those (masters and Ph.D. applicants) who have been accepted to the BME program at JHU, have you all received the welcome/funding letter? I am waiting for mine. I applied to the MSE program and desperately hope to get some financial aid. 
 

Anyone know anything about what's going on with UCLA? Got an acceptance from Virginia Tech and really want to accept, just waiting to hear back from UCLA before I do.
 
P.S. Was not invited for an interview. Have heard nothing since Dec. 1

I emailed them for a second update and they replied with that ambiguous response a week later. Seems to imply the possibility of a waitlist. All rejections seem to come out in mid-March based on last year's results.

I reached out to my contact in the UCLA neuroscience graduate department again and asked if the January 18th interview invitation deadline has been extended. I will update here if they reply.

Also, here are the compiled UC Neuro acceptance stats from the last 3 years if anyone is interested and has not seen them yet:

Hey fellow neuroscience applicants!
Has anyone received any information about the schedule for the 2-day virtual interview event at Johns Hopkins University next week?
Also, are people still expecting to hear back from NYU and UCLA neuroscience graduate programs??

@Adelaide9216 First things first, I am really proud of the person you are right now; independent, knowledgeable, confident and humble. I think not fitting in is what distinguishes you and will also distinguish your partner from all the other men out there whom you will definitely find in the future. Don't beat yourself for not yet finding a partner and continue to do what you love doing. I have realized after being in a relationship that self-love is so much more important than loving your significant other. Also, don't consider love and career as mutually exclusive. Keep patience and you will not have to give up on either one of them.   

Enlist me as well. I would be happy to vent and share all the struggles along with some useful tips I learned along the way. 

My guess is that they have x amount of scholarships and someone who was offered that one declined, so you were next on the list. That is great news though for if you do decide on that program. 

I think in academia, people feel like they have to constantly be spewing ideas because then they get left behind. Research can be so demanding and competitive, and people who like to listen can be at a disadvantage in those sorts of environments because they don't feel the need to express their opinions, ideas, and such all the time. It's kind like how people who are night owls are at a disadvantage to the 8 to 5 work hours. It doesn't usually work well for them, but you have to learn to either adapt to it or change it so everyone feels comfortable. It is difficult.
Also, people can feel awkward in silence and feel the need to talk so they don't seem boring to another person. I have felt this pressure myself. I have started conversations about things I could care less about because I felt like I had to talk in order to get rid of the awkwardness. Now that I am older, I think a little bit of awkwardness is good.

I just cannot wrap my head around the fact that why staying quiet is so stigmatized. Since childhood, I have been hearing words like shy, quiet, and timid to describe my personality. Even in college, while participating in my group research projects, I was considered to be a listener and not a contributor. Why is it so troublesome for people to understand that quietness does not mean a person is uninterested or afraid of presenting his/her own ideas but instead trying to make sense of what others are suggesting and not just mindlessly blabbering away. 
I think it is important to remember that everyone cannot be impressed. I have tried being an extrovert and within an hour I was mentally drained. The best in me came out when I was being me and worthy people- like my thesis advisor and not that one classmate who is not even in touch with me today- noticed and appreciated it and that meant the most to me.
 

I will be living with a roommate next year. It'll also my first appartement (I still live with my family). At first, I was thinking of moving out on my own, but one of my friends introduced me to this girl who will also be starting her PhD in the same university as me (but in another program). I also googled her and found that that she wrote op-eds for newspaper, did humanitarian work in Africa, considers herself to be a feminist, anti-racist researcher. I met her a few weeks ago at a café, and she also doesn't drink, doesn't smoke, doesn't party much (just like me). I think my friend did a good job in thinking we would be a good fit. Plus, we're going to support each other during the first year of PhD studies.
 

Anxiety is what kills me. It cripples me and saps the fun and excitement out of everything. When I was not hearing from any universities, I felt low and had a throbbing head and now when I have acceptances from two universities, I still feel the same. The questions in my mind that drive anxiety keeps changing as I face new situations. I think spending a lot of time alone might be the problem since I do a lot of over-thinking. Hopefully, when I will join grad school, most of my mental energy will be utilized in studies and enjoying the company of friends and that would be good for my mental health.  ?

I think both schools are great. Rankings are usually for people who need that kind of confirmation. I personally believe UF is growing a lot, and that now it is in an exciting stage. My recommendation would be to think of the research and if you’ll be happy. The weather in Florida is awesome and Baltimore sucks, but that’s my opinion. Lastly, no program will create your success - only you can.

I also have to disagree with NicholasCage's comment.  90-95 percent of academic institutions in the United States are teaching-focused institutions; therefore, most of us will end up there.  Your teaching skills are going to be an important part of the hiring process at those places.  Plus, even research-intensive institutions would rather have a professor who can connect well with students AND is a great researcher than a professor who is a terrible teacher (unless that second research has mad money).

My advice:

1. Don't spend an inordinate amount of hours preparing...well, anything for class.  Learn to limit your prep time.  Part of that is because the students are going to ignore a lot of it anyway, but most of it is because you need to learn balance early in your career.  For example, I have a tendency to do line edits on students' papers, so I try to limit myself to editing only the first page to a page and a half and then add a comment like "You have errors like this throughout your paper; please proofread and fix."

2. Related to #1, learn to wing it.  I create slides for my lectures but I no longer write extensive notes.  I actually find I lecture better when I don't have notes, because then I'm more free-form.  And I don't just mean talking extemporaneously - I mean switching gears when your students look bored or aren't getting it.  As you get more experience this will become easier.  

3. Create an organizational system for grading.  Buy folders or binders or trays or whatever you want to organize 1) graded papers 2) to-be-graded papers for different classes.  This way you won't have paper all over the apartment, which drove me absolutely nuts.  You also will be better able to keep up with assignments, lowering the risk of losing one.  If you have a choice, absolutely collect everything electronically through the course management system.  Forget all that paper.

4. Totally agree with not assuming that upper-level students know how to write properly.  If you are at an elite university, do not assume that your students are automatically good at whatever it is you're teaching them.  I was kind of shocked my first semester TAing at the quality of work I got from students at my elite university - I went to a not-elite place and assumed that the students at the elite place would be simply amazing, since the students at my not-elite place were great.  And they are amazing...in different ways...in the typical way that college students are amazing in their ingenuity and creativity (both for good and evil).  But they're not substantially smarter or better than students from other, less elite institutions. They're just richer and better prepared (on average).

A few years ago my younger sister asked me to help her with a paper that was very similar to a paper I was currently grading for a class very similar to the one she was taking at her regional public college, to which she commuted from home.  My family is blue-collar; she went to a regular public high school and was a slightly above-average student.  Her paper was better written than MOST of the students' papers in my class.

5. If you are TAing for a professor and it gets down to 2 weeks before the class starts and you haven't heard from them, contact them yourself.  Most times you will get an apologetic "Oh yeah, I'm teaching a class!"  If you get a brush-off equivalent to "Mmm, I'll think about it in two weeks," prepare for an interesting semester.

I think the most important to remember is similar to what hashslinger said.  Remember that we were the nerds in high school and college - we showed up shiny and excited to learn.  Particularly if you are teaching an intro class, your students will not be as excited as you, and some of them will never get excited.  They may be taking it because it's an easy GE requirement, or they need some extra credits, or they heard it was an easy A.  Perhaps 10% of your class will decide to major in the field; maybe another 10-20% will not but will be genuinely interested.  The rest will be some varying levels of "whatever." Visualize that 20-30% when you are preparing lectures, but realize that not even close to everyone is in that area and some people will be grubbing for grades.

Oh, also, don't be afraid to indulge in geekery, as long as you don't go down the rabbit hole too deeply.  One of the things that has reached my students is how geeked and enthusiastic I am about my interest area.  Even when they think I'm silly and uncool, they still appreciate my passion, and in some of them it has led to really productive curiosity.
 
ALSO.  I lurk on the "In the Classroom" threads on Chronicle of Higher Education's forum.  There are lots of experienced professors there and they have AWESOME advice (and really funny stories).

Hi! I'm the same boat as you but I've found tons of info in this post. I hope it helps!
 

Seconded. However, keep your eyes open to the fact that JHU is milking you for money. There are a lot of other MS students who are also going to join you at JHU and are expecting to pick up funding ASAP as well. 

You'd be doing yourself an incredible disservice by not attending Hopkins. 

Most of us are often humbled by our shortcomings during a graduate school application cycle.  We often learn a lot about the weaknesses of our applications that we never saw when applied back in December with stars in our eyes.  So, to your future self and the future applicants, what have you learned?  What more could you have done to make yourself more competitive aside from the usual "I should have gotten a 4.0," "I should have gotten a LOR from Obama (Thanks, Obama!)," etc. etc..  What are some realistic things you could do to make your application more competitive if you apply again next year?  What things did you do that you feel helped?
I'll start:
1. I learned that my SOP spent too much time making excuses for my shortcomings than focusing on my strengths.  After rewriting my SOP, toward the end of my application cycle, the universities I applied to started interviewing me.
2. I think I need to work a bit harder on raising my Quantitative score over 160-165.  It looks like the quantitative score is seemingly much more important than I gave it credit for.  Which seems obvious now, but at the time I was more concerned about the Subject GRE, spending my whole year raising my Subject GRE score 110 pts, which didn't make a significant difference.
3. I learned that if you have spent too much time out of academic work, simply having a job in your field doesn't help you.  You need to consider jobs that can expand your research interests and searching for R&D positions is a good start.  Though, I acknowledge avoiding living out of your car is important, too. 
4. On a closer note to #3, if you feel your application is a bit weak and you aren't able find work in your field, I learned that applying to and doing a Master's program may help your application (plus they're easier to get into).  Why?  Expand your research and you are able to prove to grad committees that you can succeed in a graduate environment.
 
I'm sure I'll think of more, but I'll add them later, as I do.  ?

Ouch.  That's rough.  No, that hasn't happened to me, but thank you for making me self-conscious about it, now.

If it happens rarely as you mentioned, then maybe the more important factor to take into consideration is your audience. Questions are asked by the audience only when they can relate sufficiently with what you are trying to say. Maybe this time you and your audience were not on the same page. 

You could always email the department to ask about next steps or when you will receive the letter.

Universities aren't always ready to commit to a relationship and like to keep their options open.

Sometimes schools have unofficial waitlists that they use incase their first round acceptances reject them. I suggest you reach out to the admissions team and ask if there is any update on your application. They may be able to tell you more. 

You can politely let her know her via email that you have submitted the application and that you are looking forward to working with her. 

I am sick of being patient all the time. I have to be patient for hearing back from the universities, I have to be patient in my relationship, I have to patient to see how life unfolds......... At this point, it is driving me nuts. I am just tired of holding back my thoughts for so long and controlling my impulsiveness just to take pride in the fact that I am a mature adult with a lot of patience.
I AM STILL A KID AND I NEED A BREAK!!!!!!!!!