AlkaKadri

I also got this email! It's almost too good to be true. Are we 100% sure it's not a glitch? And what does it mean that the award starts on May 1st 2020? Will they have to retroactively pay us for the past year?

Congrats @procrastinator1!!! Top choice school with a prestigious fellowship is the definition of living the dream. Best of luck in grad school

@quantso Did you get a Berkeley fellowship? I also received an award with exactly those stats on the application portal, but didn't get any emails or phone calls about it.

Hey friends, So I've been fortunate enough to receive a few offers of admission to PhD programs, and each school has offered to fly me out for a visitation weekend (like the usual). My top choice has already offered me admission, and I'm almost certain I'll be turning down these other offers since my prof of interest there has projects that appeal far more greatly to my interests than anywhere else. When I spoke to one of my professors/LOR writers at my university, he strongly recommended that I take all the visits that I can so that I can to make faculty connections (I've expressed to him that I'm interested in remaining in academia). The issue for me though is that it feels inappropriate accepting the all these school's generous offers to fly me out just for personal gain like that.. On top of that, I'd be missing a whole lot of school to go on these trips (and this last semester's shaping out to be no joke). At the same time, however, I'm afraid of making a big career mistake here by missing out on a bunch of opportunities to gain insight into other people's labs and such. I'm just wanting to hear someone else's thoughts on this. What do you guys/gals think? Anyone have experience with this kind of thing?

Thanks for the encouragement! I’m just not sure how much of a reach/waste of time it is applying to all those schools... But I’m thinking I have an okay chance. Good luck with all your applications as well!

Undergrad Institution (approx. rank/reputation in STEM): Average Canadian School, but decently well-known for research Major(s): (Combined Degree) BSc in Chemical Engineering with a Biomedical Engineering Specialization BSc in Pure & Applied Mathematics Minor(s): N/A GPA in Major: 3.92/4.00 (Chem Engg) 3.99/4.00 (Math) Overall GPA: 3.94/4.00 Demographics/Background: 1st Gen Middle Eastern, but I guess that makes me white according to the Americans lol GRE Scores: Q: 169 (96%) V: 164 (94%) W: 5.5 (98%) LOR: 1 from a well-known prof I did a summer studentship with, 1 from a chem engg prof I've gotten to know very well over 3 courses, and 1 from a math prof I took 3 courses with and TA'd with. Considering replacing one of the latter two with my boss from my 16 month R&D internship? Research Experience: 4 months at a Bioprocessing Lab that ended in a conference poster, 16 month R&D internship for a polymers company, and final year thesis in biomedical engineering. Publications/Abstracts/Presentations: 1 poster presentation at a conference. Is it worth mentioning technical memos published internally within the R&D company I worked for? Awards/Honors/Recognitions: A great deal of undergraduate scholarships (around 6, none of which were particularly huge in payout) and a summer studentship award. Fellowships/Funding: Applying to some in Canada, but I don't think those are available for me in the US... Pertinent Activities or Jobs: TA'ing for the math department this year, and tutored at the student success centre for my Uni for a year. Other Miscellaneous Accomplishments: I did both of the above degrees in a matter of 4 years by taking 7 courses most semesters, and 8 courses one summer. Will graduate with 84 courses of credit. Anything else in your application that might matter (faculty connections, etc.): Not as of yet.. Will reach out to faculty this week. Research Interests: Simulation and modelling of clinically relevant problems - computational medicine, computational biology, and transport phenomena. Institutions/Programs: Applying to "reasonable" schools within Canada, and all of my "dream" schools in the US: Johns Hopkins Caltech Stanford UCB UCSB UCLA MIT GA Tech UPenn UT Austin Minnesota CMU Comments: Looking for an honest evaluation of my chance at a PhD admittance at these schools.. I'm kinda worried about the lack of research experience in using computational tools in biomed. My summer studentship was in stem cell culture scale up and my senior thesis is on biomaterials and iPSC maturation. The R&D job did involve a great deal of Python programming and simulation, but it was all plastics related. Thoughts, suggestions, feedback??

So I'm doing a double degree between Chemical Engineering and Pure & Applied Mathematics, and while I have 3 LOR writers from my Chem Engg department in mind, there's a prof in the Math department at my school that I feel could write a strong LOR for me. I'm planning to apply to apply to chem engg graduate programs, but I'm wondering what they'd think of getting an LOR from someone not in the field? I've not done research for this professor, but I'm confident that he can attest to my critical thinking abilities through the many proofs I've had to write in his upper year classes. We also get along quite well on a personal level, so I'm confident that this one would be one of the more enthusiastic letters. Thoughts?

Just stay focused the entire time. The minute you lose focus, time seems to just run away from you. For example, I finished section 1 of my writing with 6 minutes left, and decided to casually review it. Not even halfway through, I suddenly saw that there were 10 seconds remaining... It sounds silly, but don't allow yourself a single moment where you're not focused. Also, use up as much of the 1 minute breaks and 10 minute break as you can. The rest truly helps you focus. Lastly, pace yourself appropriately for each section. I didn't find time to be an issue in the verbal sections, but I knew I had to be lightening quick on each quant question. Best of luck!