AllieKat

I am tired.
I know it won't change anything to the situation. I know it's hard for everyone. But I need to vent/rant.
I live on my own, two hours away from my hometown. I had moved for my first year of university and had always planned to move back to my hometown afterwards.
But because of COVID-19, I have not seen my family and friends in person since March.
I am quite an independant woman, and it was okay at the beginning (the first two months). But now, I am fed up to be honest. It impacts my motivation re: my comprehensive exam as well. I have low energy and feel like I'm stuck between my four walls. I can't even do the things I enjoy doing on my own (going to music concerts, watch independant movies at the local movie theater, going to music concerts, etc.). I can't study at the local library or café. I'm at home all day long. All my activities entails going to the grocery store, talking walks with music, and watching some webinars. And cleaning up my appartement. That's it. 
I speak with my friends and family through Zoom, phonecalls, Messenger, texts daily. But it is not the same thing has having a real human being in front of you or to get a hug.
Plus, to my surprise, I fell in love with a man that loves me back during the pandemic (we knew each other for multiple years). He made a love declaration to me and I've responded back positively to it. But he's in my hometown. We speak over the phone daily, but we cannot see or touch each other. Falling in love has impacted my level of concentration. It,s a bit better now, but I still feel like my head is up in the clouds. And I am notorious for how focused I am. But I just can't focus.
I think travelling is now allowed between Canadian provinces. I am going to take a shot at taking the train next week to go back to my hometown. Because I am going crazy and feel bored. 
 
 

Early: during interview weekend.

Sorry, I'm a dumbass and clicked on the wrong subgroup! Carry on!

I used an Amazon Fire for a few years, and I did not like it for reading papers. It was somewhat usable for videos and internet surfing, but it was generally not a pleasant experience.
 
I bit the bullet about a year ago and bought an iPad. It is phenomenal. It is very easy to read papers, and things just work and work quickly.
 
They are cheaper than they used to be. I got mine for $310 (https://www.apple.com/us-hed/shop/buy-ipad/ipad-9-7/32gb-silver-wifi), though the pen was an extra $100. 
 
It's definitely not cheap but, if you can't afford it, I would probably recommend reading on your computer or on paper rather than getting a cheap tablet. Just my two cents, though. Good luck!

Your stats are great, and it seems like you have good research experience, so maybe you should take a look at your SOP(s) and evaluate your fit to the PIs you were interested in. I would talk to a prof/post-doc who helped you out with your apps about how to improve them if you plan on reapplying in the next cycle, and make the next year count.
Honestly, you also have to consider that those are all 5 extremely competitive and selective programs. They probably have hundreds of applicants with scores and CVs just as good as yours, and not everyone thats qualified can get an offer. Maybe think about applying to other top public R1 schools where your creds and research will stand out more (if they're a good fit for you).  In the meantime, I hope you find something else that works out!

I'd recommend heading over to reddit for this one! Try r/eatcheapandhealthy and r/mealprepsunday

I'd recommend heading over to reddit for this one! Try r/eatcheapandhealthy and r/mealprepsunday

In my year, three of my seven invitations to interview came after this date. My last invitation to interview came on February 18. It's still early.
 
The competitiveness of the interview process varies widely from program to program. Some places I interviewed stated (when asked) that they had a post-interview acceptance rate of less than 50%. Others stated (unprompted) that the interview was basically a formality. I just want to put this out there now to encourage people to temper their expectations about what getting an interview might actually mean.

Agreed on this generally, except that I know some people are just really set on starting next year. If you just really want/need to get into grad school, nothing wrong with applying to some schools you might not have otherwise considered. I ended up loving my initial least favorite schools and hating my initial tops. You get a different view after interviews. One of my "safeties" ended up being the main contender to the program I ended up choosing because at interviews I learned that they had some of the biggest names in a specialized subfield I was interested in, even though they didn't generally have as good a reputation as some other schools I got into.
Moral of the story: focus on schools with faculty doing stuff you're interested in, not well known schools. Don't Google schools and check their faculty lists, Google people and check where they are. Ultimately the research you do is most important (not that institutions reputations don't matter, but if you can be successful in a lab matters more). 

I remembered that Hamilton exists. This was my writing music back for my capstone in undergrad and also seems like perfect "angry about relationships" music. Thank you, Lin Manuel Miranda. You've made and PhD student sing while writing in lab. 

i asked IT if they had some leftover electronics (monitor/keyboard/etc) I could borrow and now I have some fancy ass big screen ❤️

Interview went pretty well! Not sure if the lab will be the best fit for me, but he's doing some interesting work and I feel like we had a good conversation. 

Generally speaking, this is a bad idea. If you're applying to the same schools, it is possible that the same professors will be reading your application. Whether they will remember it after reading dozens of other SOPs is another question, though some schools may have a procedure in place for tracking repeat applicants.. More to the point, if you want to be successful with your second round of applications when you weren't in your first, there should be major differences between your first and second applications, and those differences should manifest as more than two new paragraphs in your SOP. You should take the opportunity of applying a second time to do a serious, critical review of all aspects of your application, including the SOP. For starters, you should have some other qualified people read your SOP and give their comments on it , and you should definitely give how you can improve your SOP some serious thought yourself.

I'd add Colorado (if you're talking about Denver, they're known quite well for immunology in particular, but they're technically an R2, I believe. All I know about UC Boulder is that it's an R1 that ranks much higher generally). Another "second tier" school might be Vanderbilt. Perhaps look into Notre Dame if you're okay with living in the sticks (but hella $$$). And, of course, if you want the hook up for someone in the immunology department at Baylor, I'd be happy to give you some student contact info.

For note-taking (not so great for writing papers, since you don't have the full version of word), I've loved my chromebook. I got a lenovo for about $160 two years ago, and it's holding up fine. The battery life is about 7-8 hours. 

For note-taking (not so great for writing papers, since you don't have the full version of word), I've loved my chromebook. I got a lenovo for about $160 two years ago, and it's holding up fine. The battery life is about 7-8 hours. 

Don't do this.
If I was reading a candidate's diversity statement and read what you described, it would seem that you are being dismissive of the real struggles people from under-represented backgrounds actually face. At best, you would seem naive and uninformed, and at worst, it would appear that you are co-opting a space that is not meant for you. To me, this would be like showing up to a campus support group for people struggling with X and telling everyone about how great you are instead of sharing relevant experiences.
And if the reader doesn't actually care about diversity in their student population, then it is unlikely that being quirky here will help you anyhow. They might not even read that essay.
---
Now hopefully something more useful/helpful. Have you done any work towards increasing diversity in your undergraduate student groups or overall population? Generally, an undergraduate may not have much influence on the admissions process at their school, but there are smaller scale things that might be relevant. For example, if you were part of the leadership team of a student organization, did you do work towards ensuring your organization reflects the population you were representing/advocating/supporting etc.? Did you actively seek diversity in recruiting new members and/or new directors? Just an example.
Someone who is serious about increasing the diversity of their student body will value these attributes because it is not very effective to simply increase diversity for the sake of being able to say there are X people from underrepresented groups. It is important to cultivate a culture that values diversity and build support infrastructure that allows everyone to thrive, not just be present. So, people from majority/overrepresented populations in their fields can be very valuable in terms of diversity if they will be good allies and advocates.

Seeing as no one on the internet is privy to your fulfillment of graduation requirements and the logistics of fulfilling the outstanding ones, I don't see how anyone on the internet can help with this. You should probably speak to your adviser.


then the student group would seem to be a bad idea.
look, grad school, especially a master's, isn't really a place you should hang out for a while in. Go in, get the credential, get out. It's nice to try to improve the culture of the department if you have the inclination and time, but I doubt it'll do anything for your employability or whatever you hope to use this credential for, and if you have to take an extra unfunded year just to do it, it seems not worth it. You're going to leave this department as soon as you graduate. (also, if I may butt in, it seems weird that the usually token position of student body president should take up this much emotional energy and time - sounds like your faculty is trying to pawn off their service responsibilities on the grad students).


If you're going to do something with the credential, probably not. If you want to marry your boyfriend and aren't going to use the degree, probably yes. Either way, the right answer is logically apparent.

Early: during interview weekend.

Early: during interview weekend.

Early: during interview weekend.

Late: after orientation. 

@Daenerys are your children who I think they are, Khaleesi?

Mattress: I would STRONGLY suggest getting a new one, not used. You can get inexpensive but good new mattresses at Macy's and Sears. I highly recommend Sears; my husband and I got a great, comfortable queen-sized mattress + boxspring from them for ~$700. We still have it in our guest room! They do have cheaper models, but they tend to be more uncomfortable. (My first mattress + boxspring set was $250 from a mattress store in Manhattan; I think I lasted about 6 months before I broke down and bought a new one. I could feel the springs!)
Bed frame: I bought a metal bed frame from Amazon for $30. (I didn't want my mattress and boxspring on the floor. They last longer in a frame.)
I too thought about asking my parents to give me my old bedroom furniture including mattress, but when I looked into it it was cheaper for me to buy new stuff than it was for them to ship it to me (they are in Atlanta and I was in New York).
Other stuff: Mix of IKEA, Target, Wayfair, and Walmart. Target and Wayfair both have things that look nicer and quite frankly are sometimes better quality than IKEA and Walmart.
I would also recommend getting a new couch (bedbugs can live there, too) and you can get an inexpensive one from IKEA or Wayfair. Target sells nice accent chairs.
IKEAs in cities often contract with local delivery companies to get the delivery to you faster, but only if you order in person. So yeah, if you order online it may take weeks via UPS; if you go in person, often they will have same-day or next-day delivery for MUCH cheaper.

So I think @TakeruK covered a lot of what I was going to contribute (their point about microaggressions really hit home for me as a woman in STEM) but I also wanted to say that these statements above don't really match up with what I and other women in STEM have experienced, especially the latter statement about sexist behavior being constrained to the older generations. I actually experienced behavior by male graduate students that are approximately my age (mid 20s-ish) during one of my prospective school visits that frankly can be considered sexual harassment, and unfortunately this experience made my school choice for me. If I experienced the type of behavior I did during a short visit, that made me highly concerned on the type of environment I would be in for my time as a doctoral student. I was so surprised and disappointed by this because luckily in biology I don't experience a ton of sexism and never before from peers my own age. The experience left me drained and feeling like I was treated as so much less than a colleague. It was unprofessional and extremely insulting to me as a highly qualified prospective student.
Before this experience I was always aware of possible sexism from the older men in my field, but now I realize that it unfortunately is still found in younger men. And I also realize how being treated as less than a colleague can make you feel worthless and can make you feel like the science that you do doesn't matter one bit.
Also I would like to add that even if there isn't "active discrimination" occurring, the passive and unconscious discrimination that women often experience can itself make you question whether or not you belong in the field or make you feel very frustrated that others still see you and your work differently because you are a woman. One example I heard from a colleague was that after her presentation a male professor came up to her and complimented her on the fact that she didn't do several things he was on the lookout for (such as not using the word "like" too much). While she wasn't completely sure that this was said because she was a woman, it did make her feel that the only reason he felt he had a right to say this was because she was a woman and the presentation behaviors he was on the lookout for were generally associated with feminine mannerisms. This, I think, relates back to the statement you previously made that "masculine qualities" are preferred in STEM. So just because a woman presents in a fashion that may have some uniquely feminine mannerisms/speech patterns, that makes her presentation less than (at least in this example)? That is sexist - even if it isn't "active discrimination."