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Brazzers

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  1. Hey, i'm going into organic chemistry at NU. Are you doing materials science from the engineering or chemistry department? I've noticed there are a number of professors in both departments. I'm from California and i'm prob not gonna move down until August.
  2. Undergrad Institution: No-name California state universityMajor(s): Biochemistry and cell biology double majorGPA in Major: 3.3/ 4 Overall GPA: 3.3/4, 3.85 upper divisionPosition in Class: n/aType of Student: Domestic, male, minority GRE Scores (revised/old version): 156(61st) quant 153(61st) verbal 3.5 AW (41st) GRE chemistry: 67th, 750Research Experience: 1 yr independent undergrad research and 1.5 yrs R&D in industryAwards/Honors/Recognitions: ACS award, department award for research, scholarshipPertinent Activities or Jobs: 1.5 yrs R&D in industryAny Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter: Senior thesis, a manuscript in preparation (based solely on my research), 4 letters of rec.Applied to: UCI, UCSD, UCLA, Northwestern, UChicago, Stanford, MIT, Scripps, Caltech. So far accepted to: Northwestern and UCLA Declined by: UCSD, Uchicago, Stanford, MIT, Scripps, Caltech. Never heard from UCI, but it was one of my backup schools. My gpa and gre scores are bad, but my research is very good. I applied to a lot of schools with the assumption most of them aren't going to read my application, because of my low scores. The few that read my research summary would likely accept me. My undergraduate advisor was adamant that I should be going to a top program despite my low scores. I mentioned wanting to continue working in industry in my SOP which probably hurt. DECISION MAKING: Probably going to go to Northwestern. Stipend at NU is 32.8k which is excellent considering the medium cost of living in Evanston. That said LA seemed like a nicer place to live, however I feel like more financially secure living in a cheaper area. Public transportation is decent so I wouldn't need to have a car. Most students I spoke to don't have a car or mentioned getting rid of it. The facilities were excellent and the chemistry department recently had hundreds of millions reinvested, which was generated from Lyrica royalties. Most of the research groups I looked at appeared to be very well funded. There are many more grad students than undergrads. I felt as though the school was much more focused on research and less focused on teaching. Job opportunities are arguably better here since many large corporations (Abbvie, 3M, Dow, Exon mobil, etc.) all recruit from Northwestern. There is also a strong alumni network surrounding NU. That said, job placement at UCLA was also great. I felt like the research fit was also better at Northwestern, but there are still plenty of interesting groups at UCLA. Students at NU were very encouraging and excited about their research. The stipend at UCLA is 32k with a two time 2k payment at the first and second year. I feel like this really the bare minimum for living in LA. I could potentially make it work, however I would be living paycheck to paycheck. Transportation is horrendous so I would need a car which would be an additional huge expense. The facilities at UCLA are much older. Funding seemed to be an issue, some students I spoke to are funded by teaching all 4-5 years. Realistically its a public school focused more on teaching than research. That said most of the groups had great job placement for their graduates. Something to keep in mind is the funding situation may change in a few years at UCLA since they've made billions of dollars from Xtandi royalties, which was developed there. Personally I didn't see anywhere near the investment Northwestern made into its chemistry department. It's a public school so how they deal with profits from royalties is complicated. This may just be my impression, but students in general seemed more stressed out at UCLA. Based off that I end up with primarily a list of cons for UCLA and mainly pros for NU. So I don't see any reason to go to UCLA.
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