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belevitt

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Everything posted by belevitt

  1. Maintaining journal articles had been the bane of my existence for years. I would have stacks of articles covering every square inch of my desk and half a dozen different failed filing systems in cabinets in several different spots. Recently, I found a website called labmeeting.com that was excellent and has literally transformed my work space and organizational habits. You need to be invited to join the service for free, but it is worth the hassle. You can get an invite here- http://www.phdcomics.com/proceedings/vi ... hp?t=12081 If you are in the biomedical sciences, this is a game changer.
  2. I used to commute 3 hours a day and I felt that that significantly limited everything else in my life. I made slower research progress because I could only do experiments that fit into my schedule. I also spent enormous amounts of time at work because I never had the luxury of starting something, and coming back later to take aliquots or data points or whatever. If you work in a lab, I would be cautious about having anythign more than a half hour commute as you so frequently need to come back in in the middle of the night.
  3. I guess I didn't realize how lucky I am. I work in a lab at a public university and many of the PRAs (professional research assts) leave every year for graduate or medical school. This year, I finally get to be among them. It is expected that we spend no more than two years as lab techs before moving on. Admittedly, I couldn't care less about advancing the projects that won't conclude before August.
  4. Avoid Madison Property Management. They are the singularly worst slum lords in the Madison area. Madison has a really great place called the Tenant Resource Center http://www.tenantresourcecenter.org/ There is information on landlords to avoid and practices to avoid. They also have a housing listing that is very good. Also, avoid CMT.
  5. Are you kidding??? You liked school C most, you hit it off with the faculty, it is mostly masters students (and that is what you are doing), you don't need to worry about prestige for getting into a Phd program, they fund you better. You are validated in your choice, but I suspect you figured this out after committing your thoughts to words.
  6. belevitt

    Duke

    Hi to all you fellow Dukies. Be honest, how many of you are going to Duke for the gardens?
  7. I will be attending Duke this fall in the Molecular Genetics and Microbiology program. I may start a summer rotation and be out there soon. Greetings to all.
  8. This was absolutely true for me as well. However, I doubt that this welcoming enthusiasm will persist after the recruitment phase is over.
  9. For me, the issue of location was make or break. I didn't apply to any place that was too expensive (for cost of living) and I declined interviews at places where I wouldn't absolutely love the city. I wouldn't underestimate the role of location in your grad experience.
  10. Realistically- I smoke a lot more cigarettes. Peruse grad school forum boards. Research faculty. Make halfassed attempts at maintaining friendships by hanging out with people at bars. I guess I don't really have a good strategy for dealing with stress and in hindsight, this would have been the perfect opportunity to work out and get healthy before the rush of grad school begins.
  11. Hi. I will be starting a Phd program in Micro this summer and I thought I might share some thoughts on your comments about Brown, UTSW and Cambridge for biochem/biophysics. First of all, acquaint yourself with the British education system. You don't do rotations or take courses. You begin right away on a thesis project, without comps or prelims. You stop doing your Phd based on time, not on research results. A degree from the British system will not hold as much weight in biotech as an American degree would. I don't think you could go wrong with UTSW or Brown. They both have strong reputations in the sciences and world class facilities. This is a good time to make your decision based on labs you like. The program setup is important, course offerings are valuable, degree requirements are relevant, but it ultimately boils down to finding the right lab for your thesis. There are a number of factors to consider, google it. Pick the right faculty member and you will complete your Phd with excellent publications, a great network of contacts and a firm grounding in how to plan and carryout a research proposal.
  12. Yep, I am applying for microbiology programs and biofilms/social behavior are an interest that I hold. I am keeping an open mind, within reason, about the exact labs I want to join because this way I gain a flexibility in choosing where to do my thesis. I have had seven years of research experience and found that you can be passionate about a field and not be passionate about a specific research path/question. Furthermore, you can burnout on a single topic.
  13. Ethics be damned...You don't want to read those because you don't want a festering resentment to cloud the otherwise positive relationship you ahve with your PI or professors or whomever.
  14. All of the calls I have received thus far have been in the afternoon. They have consisted of a faculty member congratulating me on my interview, telling me that more info will follow by email and offer to answer questions. I had a call on Monday that threw me for a loop. The faculty member didn't tell me which school he was calling from and so at the end of the call, I asked him for his email address and realized from the domain name, that it was one of my top three favorites.
  15. I applied to 8 and already this is presenting an issue in scheduling interviews. There are maybe six or seven weekends that all grad schools (it seems) do their interviews. If you apply to several programs, be aware that you may have to prioritize and cut a school off your list without ever even going there.
  16. Yes all biomedical programs pay for your travel costs, hotel costs, transportation costs and meal costs. I can only think of a handful of a places that don't do interviews and those ones have "recruitment weekends" which are effectively the same thing without the stress of potentially getting cut after the interview.
  17. Hola and best of luck to everyone. I am applying to grad school in the biomedical sciences for fall of 2009 in the area of Microbiology/Immunology. I have (thankfully) finished the process and have apps out to Harvard, Duke, UNC, WUSTL, Vanderbilt, Minnesota and Michigan. This was a stressful process and if I can offer any advice or answer questions, feel free to pm or post.
  18. Are you kidding? Why do you have to ask this question at all? Of course your PI is the best LOR writer you could have. He is somebody who can judge your abilities as a researcher.
  19. I am in roughly the same spot that you are. I have around 50K in student loans with 35K or so in private loans. Fortunately, I also have a wife who is a financial aid counselor at a college. My understanding of the situation is this - 1. You can choose to put your loans in forbearance (short term) or deferment (long term) if you cannot afford them 2. Subsidized federal loans will not draw interest during deferment but private loans will 3. Loan consolidations have gone the way of one dollar a gallon gas, no lending institutions still do consolidations, only the dept of ed still does. Needless to say, you can't get borrower benefits any more on consolidations. And at no point would it have been prudent to consolidate federal loans with private ones. 4. If you have Great Lakes servicing your loans (most people do) you can choose multiple different repayment plans including one that allows for three different monthly minimums spread over something like 28 years. If you are going to graduate school, this might be a good plan and you can always pay it off more quickly if you ever make more money.
  20. Optional doesn't mean expected. Recommended means expected. If you don't have anything to offer in the way of diversity, do not answer this prompt as it will just highlight that fact. However, if you do have something to offer to the cohort, by all means, trumpet it. Did you have unique work experience after college? Have you lived in different places or been at different universities? If so, you may contribute geographical diversity/academic diversity. You could provide professional diversity. You could provide diversity in your own unique career goals, surely not every program wants to spit out six post docs a year. Don't obsess about this one, but if you can make a selling point in your app, do it.
  21. There is no way that they evaluate you on this information. This has got to be for recruiting.
  22. I had a 1000 word limit and I included 1140 words. Cutting down the letter was so difficult. I had to leave out valuable examples of research experience and any mention of my advanced coursework. Frustrating.
  23. If your classmate was short sighted enough to forge letters of recommendation from better known faculty, then there is a good chance that at least someone on the admission committee would know that supposed referee. She might also find that some schools send some follow up mail to the department confirming the veracity of the reference. She may get away with this, but she will be looking over her shoulder for a long time, hoping to not get caught.
  24. It really all depends on your field. If you're in a science then a 3.1 wouldn't really be a problem (undergrad grades in sciences are usually lower than for their counterparts in the liberal arts) however if you're looking into engineering or something like that a 3.1 would be problematic.
  25. My wife is pursuing the higher ed administration path and is currently involved in student services. From my experiences and her explanation, this can lead to higher administrative positions like deans in smaller or non-research institutions, think liberal arts colleges or votechs. For provosts, chancellors or deans at larger institutions come from the ranks of the tenured faculty who excel in their service commitments (eg editor for journal, holds office in professional organization, graduates a lot of grad students). Hope this helps
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