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Teaching Faculty Wannabe

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Everything posted by Teaching Faculty Wannabe

  1. Teaching Faculty Wannabe
    I literally have to hold my last LOR writer's hand for every deadline. I told them in September about the deadlines. I give them a two days heads up and sometimes even have to reminde them the day of the deadline. I have three more schools they need to write letters to. I already applied to all of my schools, and I am only waiting on them. I know letter writers are being nice offering to write recommendations on our behalf, but this sort of situation is still aggravating.
  2. Teaching Faculty Wannabe
    Oh my goodness. I can relate to this so much.
  3. Teaching Faculty Wannabe
    If it makes you feel better, all your GRE scores are higher than mine. I only have a little over one year of research experience during my undergraduate. I definitely feel inadequate when I compare myself to others on here. I also haven't done any work related to my research interests. But I am trying to stay confident anyway. It's hard, but I am hoping at least one school will see my potential. The fact that you are doing a Master's is good! I think you should be proud of getting that experience.
  4. Teaching Faculty Wannabe
    Thanks! I have heard of FermiLab. The work they do is a bit too physic-y for me, but it is pretty amazing what they do there. Accelerators are super cool!
  5. Teaching Faculty Wannabe
    Thank you! Existential crisis averted!
  6. Teaching Faculty Wannabe
    @cf6049 Ohhh wait, I am dumb. I know what ppt you are talking about. I guess my anxiety is causing me to panic a bit. Sorry about that! Also, silly question for anyone to answer: do your GRE scores appear red under the GRE Information section for the GEM homepage? I was hoping it is like that for everyone instead of it meaning my scores are really bad.
  7. Teaching Faculty Wannabe
    @cf6049 When did they send out that email? I never got one with a PowerPoint attached :(.
  8. Teaching Faculty Wannabe
    @650wordsorless Thanks! I am going to keep this just in case I don't get into any grad schools this year.
  9. Teaching Faculty Wannabe
    Also, have you all being getting emails from schools because you are a GEM applicant? I've gotten a few this week and I wish they had sent these out a little earlier. I would apply to more schools for free if it wasn't the middle of December already.
  10. Teaching Faculty Wannabe
    Thanks! I hope so! Working in a national lab is my dream job! And yeah, I am applying for a PhD! Also, congrats on being selected. I also didn't get an email like the others.
  11. Teaching Faculty Wannabe
    @ray92 Thanks! Hopefully this is good news! The companies were: 1. Lawrence Livermore National Lab 2. The Charles Stark Draper Lab 3. I can't remember the last one (is that bad??). I had a hard time choosing, but it was either the Oak Ridge National Lab, United Technologies Research Center, or Sandia National Lab.
  12. Teaching Faculty Wannabe
    My status just changed to held! (Trying to not get my hopes up too much, though.)
  13. Teaching Faculty Wannabe
    Thank you! I actually forgot about it until I saw this!
  14. Teaching Faculty Wannabe
    Oh my goodness, I relate to all of this so much. You are not alone in thinking these things. I can definitely relate to worrying about grad school making my mental health worse. I guess with that you just have to make sure that you get enough sleep, take breaks when doing research, hang out with friends, and have some "me-time" among all the chaos.
  15. Teaching Faculty Wannabe
    Hi all! I am sure I am not alone when it comes to feeling super anxious about waiting to hear back from schools after pressing that submit button. I know there is a Venting Thread, but I thought it would be nice to have a specific forum where people can talk about their worries while they wait. So, I am going to first talk about what I am worried about and then talk about what I am excited about if I get accepted in grad school. Worries: I feel like I don't have enough research experience under my belt, especially since I haven't done any research in the fields that I want do pursue my graduate degree in. My GRE scores are mediocre, so that scares me as well. I think the fact that I am taking a gap year and I am not currently doing anything "resume/cv worthy" right now will make me look lazy to the admission committees. I am also worried about paying for moving to grad school. I really hope I can get a retail job next year so I can start saving money for that. Also, I want to pay off my loans during grad school, even though I know I can defer them while in school. I just am tired of my interest accumulating. Excitement: Even though grad school will have plenty of hellish moments where I probably won't get enough sleep and be able to make meals for myself, I am ready to be back in school again. Despite the homework and stressful tests, I oddly like taking classes. I am even more excited to take graduate-level classes because I feel like I will be able to focus more on learning and less on getting an A on every single assignment. After doing that in undergrad and pretty much destroying my mental health, I am never going back to putting myself through that again. I am also ready to move to a new place and explore the area. Additionally, I can't wait to start researching something I am interested in. I am nervous that I might find out that I might not like it, but at least it will still be interesting enough that I can do it for 5-7 years. So, go ahead and just type away your worries about waiting, grad school, and anything else. Also, talk about what your excited about when it comes to grad school. I feel like doing both will make you feel slightly better.
  16. Teaching Faculty Wannabe
    If a school asked for an optional statement, like a Diversity Statement, I wrote it. I think it shows that you really care about the program because you are putting time towards the application and doing something that isn't required. I was kind of specific about my research interests, but not to the point where they were super narrow. So, for example, I was want to develop and characterize biomaterials for tissue engineering applications. So, I talked about liking polymers as a biomaterial and why they are important to tissue engineering. I then discussed the research of professors that were conducting research on polymers for specific tissue engineering applications, such as bone regeneration or scaffolds for ovarian growth. I got more specific when it came to talking about the schools in my SOPs because I wanted to show that I could easily fit into their program by being able to work with multiple professors. So, for each your SOP, talk about your interests in a more broad way, but with some detail. So, for me, I didn't just say "I like biomaterials". I stated that I like polymers and I want to research them in tissue engineering applications. Earlier on in my essay, I also talked about how I became interested in polymers and tissue engineering (classes, mainly, for me). You can maybe go a little bit more specific than that, but not too much. Then, when you talk about schools, go specific as you can. I hope that makes sense and helps. This is just the way I wrote my SOPs, so I am not sure if it will work for you exactly.
  17. Teaching Faculty Wannabe
    Thanks! These are good points. Even if don't end up liking TAing, I figured it would be good to at least have that experience because it will teach me something no matter what. That's a good suggestion, thank you! I am have not yet been admitted into a program, but I think I will ask grad students once I hopefully start visiting schools their thoughts on it. You also made a really good point about training on how to support students. That is really important to know. I honestly think more professors should get trained on this. Haha, "Power That Be". But yeah, this is very true. Expectations from the higher-ups in grad school seem like no joke and should be discussed/established early on, which I hope happens when (if) I get admitted into a program. Thanks for your advice!
  18. Teaching Faculty Wannabe
    Hi all! Do you suggesting trying out TAing even if it is not required? As of right now, I don't want to be a teacher in the future, but I am still curious about it. What do you all suggest?
  19. Teaching Faculty Wannabe
    I am not entirely sure, but I think if you don't the internship sadly if you don't get into a graduate program.
  20. Teaching Faculty Wannabe
    Yep, I saw the email now. Good times. Sorry you left work early for that :(. Also, if you still need someone to still look at your SOP, I can take a look. Just PM me a link to a google doc, if that's alright. I already turned in my applications, so I don't need you to look at my SOPs.
  21. Teaching Faculty Wannabe
    I went to school at North Carolina State University, which is located in Raleigh, NC. Raleigh is a very LGBT+ friendly city and so is NC State, and it is only thirty or forty minutes away from Chapel Hill. I wish I knew more about Chapel Hill, but I only went there once while I was in school.
  22. Teaching Faculty Wannabe
    Did anyone else have trouble joining the GEM webinar today? I tried to join like 13 minutes before and it already said it was too full.
  23. Teaching Faculty Wannabe
    Each application opens at different times. Some are really late. For example, Cal Tech's application for Fall 2019 did not open until October 1st, 2018 and their deadline was December 1st, 2018. Applications usually open a couple of months before their deadline (usually around late August or September). As @tashaonthemoon said, universities typically say on their websites when applications will open. If not, and you don't feel like checking every day, I would contact the Graduate Admissions for that school.
  24. Teaching Faculty Wannabe
    I am kind of in the same situation, but I didn't contact anyone before applying but I plan on contacting the professors that I mentioned in my SOPs. I don't think you should ask about chatting with them. I think they should initiate that. If they want to talk, they will ask, but you don't want to pressure them in something. I would say that you applied and you find their research interesting. Explain what you find interesting about it and if you read any of their papers. If you already contacted them, you can say that you applied. Good luck!
  25. Teaching Faculty Wannabe
    I think your undergraduate GPA will be okay, especially with all the other aspects of your application. I think GPA is important, but not nearly as important as your SOP (and other essays), your research experiences, and your references. You also have great GRE scores, so I think you will be good. The most important thing is that you establish a good fit with the university and the department. If you don't do that, then even an application with perfect scores, a perfect GPA, and tons of research experience is pretty useless. I hope that reassures you! Good luck with all of your applications!
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