basketballfrost

Hey Tomiwaa I will give you some of my feedback. I believe you need better GRE scores since you got not so great GPA. Do you have any accomplishments to help your application? I mean, scientific publications, honors, and whatever you might think about. Overall my opinion is: apply anyway. We never know how those applicants are actually chosen... so just do what you can to improve your stats and you are good to go! PS. My GPA is not that good either, and I ended up going there. Best of luck to you!!

Any new grad students looking for places to stay at riverside? I am trying to find a place to live, but I am getting a lot of mixed reviews. What do you guys think about sterling highlander appartents? Is it worth the price?

Do any of you know when is the interview weekend for bio at uc riverside?

easy go

I received a rejection on January. But I didn't even receive an interview invite, so I knew it was coming

I guess it depends on a lot more than that. For example maybe C&D are cheaper cities to live in, therefore the difference in funding won't necessarily mean a lot more money for you. 7,000 more per year is equal to 580 dollars more, that sounds like a lot. Research the cities and their living costs and wheather those 7,000 less will make a lot of difference. In my case I am deciding between my options by seeing a lot of factors, city it is located, research labs I would prefer, better fit for department, school prestige, funding and city cost. Make your own list of things that are a MUST and start ranking schools. Funding makes a lot of difference, but so do many other factors.

Something similar happened to me, but since I am an international student it was a skype interview with a professor out of my expertise area. This happened because it was a departmental interview, and the comittee was present there as well, and I was interviewd by four different people. They asked me about past experiences in research, etc

Here is what I wrote, should I send it like this? "Dear Prof XXXX, Thank you so much for the email and kind words. I am really excited about this opportunity. And it will be a great pleasure to accept the position when the formal invitation arrives. I have a few questions regarding scholarship/fellowship opportunities for the duration of my PhD. Are all students accepted into the program awarded to fellowships? Or should I apply for some fellowships in order to be considered for them? Again, I would like to thank you for this opportunity. Sincerely, " I am only able to accept the position if I receive a fellowship. Should I explicitly say this? Thanks!!!

Hi guys, I have just received an informal acceptance into one of my programs and am very excited. However I have no idea on how to answer the email. Any general advice on dos and don'ts?

Thanks so much for the info. Do you know anything about skype interviews as well? I got an interview invitation from this uni which I had several professors with aligned interests. Unfortunately the professor who emailed me with the interview invitation has no common ground research topic with mine. So, I have no idea on what to expect of this interview... Or how to prepare for it. Any tips?

Do any of you guys know how is Riverside for the LGBTQ community? I want to get married with my girlfriend during my PhD and being an international student it is hard to know how is the city vibe. Have you seen any same-sex couples with families around town?

Hi everyone, I am starting this thread to those applicants that haven't gotten any interview yet, what are your plans for next year? Anyone like me is re-applying for the next round? What are your guys doing to improve your application? Feel free to share anything here about your application and thoughts on why you didn't pass we are all on the same boat guys

Hey Oli150, I do understand the waiting anxiety. Unfortunately I can't tell you whether you'll be accepted or not. But if this is something you truly want try again later. Your low gpa will not be a problem if you show the admission office GRE subject tests, or at list with other great things on your application it will not have a bad weight on it. Don't worry too much on your application, whatever they decide on, does not reflect your own qualities as a person/researcher. You worked hard either way, and there is always compensation for hard work

HOW CAN I STRENGTHEN MY APPLICATION??? After reading a lot of the posts here I became inspired to apply again in the next cycle. I tried twice with no success, but since I am an international student everything can happen and it is extremelly competitive out there. I have great research experience, two first author papers, one of them at science translational medicine. I also have a great graduate GPA 3.83, and GREs 161/159. To top it off I have a lot of honors, scholarships to study abroad, research fellowships, fellowship to attend conferences, and a series of conferences presentations. My only and extremely low pitifal is my undergraduate GPA which is around 3.0, without any chemistry/physics classess. I believe this is the main reason I did not get accepted in the two times I tried. I would like to know more information on how to stregthen my application to the next round, if you guys have any. To take more classess on chemistry, calculus and physics I would have to extend my masters for another year (have been in my masters for 2 years already). Would that be a great idea? Or can that actually backfires? My second idea is to also take the GRE subject on biology, chemistry and mathematics. Trying to score into the 90% for bio/chem, and 80% for math. I am extremelly open to new ideas. I am trying to get into really competitive schools because the research I am trying to do is unfortunately only possible in places like UCSD, Berkeley, Mount Sinai.

Will definitely do that, I will wait until January though. I believe that my grades weren't good enough, specially without any chemistry courses in my curriculum. That is a very big low. Thanks for the tips