NutsaN

For example?

Hey Just_Alice, so sad to hear that you had to go through that painful situation, if you'll ever need a place to rant about that person (or anything in general), you're always welcome in my DMs. If you have to go through the application cycle again next year, look up "Project SHORT" - it's mostly ivy league students helping those in need craft their applications and do the mock interviews. Also if you want to message me and I'll share any tips and trick that I've learned over this fall (both the season and the fact that universities rejected me) Anyway, let me know if I can be any kind of help!

I never thought that being a RA was a possibility, this is so cool! I'm gonna defo dm you one of these days and thank u ❤️

Hey, I'm from Georgia! The situation is same here regarding physics and math, we have schools dedicated to these two only and many people who want to go on that path are kinda easily accepted into the top universities, however biology and chemistry is completely disregarded, no international contests or anything like that and neuroscience is almost nonexistent (especially what i'm interested in - molecular bio crossed with cognitive neuro) since funding is always scarce and as an undergrad I can't work at a lab and get paid well, so I have to balance myself with a different part-time jobs. I had some figuring out to do too. At first I started studying at a medical university (I was fascinated by psychiatry, university was totally shitty though) and after three years I've changed my major, started from the scratch and finally I'm graduating so don't worry, it took me 7 years to get a bachelors degree as u see. Also I think that Georgia is an unknow country in the US scientific-wise, especially when I'm studying at the university that was created only 7 years ago. I wish you all the luck and hope you get accepted to the program of your desire, thank you for your response ❤️

Thank you so much! I knew that I had a little chance but I still wanted to try it and since I have had conversations with program heads and they've encouraged me to apply I thought I might have a chance but we'll see what other opportunities are coming on my way ❤️ Hey, I think you're from my neighboring country! Hint: I'm from the wine homeland Yes, I only applied to 4 programs since it was super expensive and most of them said I couldn't get the fee waiver, so I was pretty limited finance-wise. To be honest, in the summer I haven't had many hopes of getting into a top universities but as I went to their annual gradschool meetings and heard different inspiring stories from people I felt I had a shot. The program director at WUSTL even said that a person with my background would be a good fit for their program but now I think all of that was said solely out of politeness. It's especially hard for me because no one from my college program had gotten into a US PhD program before and from my generation (late gen-z/young millennials) only one girl managed to get into a UC PhD program and that was only after completing a masters degree in US. I have never thought about RA positions in US, any guides or tips and tricks? Thank you so much for your detailed answer, I wish you all the luck!

Thank you so much! I'm getting doubts though, there are few professors who are doing the research that I'm interested in but I'm not sure about the program itself. I've seen very few people applying to this program and I wonder is it because that this is a public, non ivy school or is there something else ? I'm not trying to be ungrateful I swear, it's just very hard to figure out from the other side of the ocean ?

At least UPenn was honest and they said: hey you know what you can apply of course but we're accepting only very small number of international applicants this year so don't get your hopes up if you'll apply

I'm gonna rant here if it's not a problem as I saw international applicant getting rejected. I myself am an international undergrad applicant from a small post-soviet country and small, new (but the best) college from my country. My major GPA is 3.96 (Biology), my minor GPA (in chemistry) is 4.0, I have three different research experience - two of them at my university labs and one of them at the most prominent research center in my country. Before applying I've contacted every school I was interested in to see what the international applicant situation was, explained my situation (new college, my country's scientific situation not being great because we have trouble recovering from post soviet environment and stuff) and all of them seemed very excited about me applying and all of them said that they don't discriminate between international and local applicants. My LoRs were pretty strong (2 from the lab heads where I worked, one from the head of my faculty). My SoPs were looked at and corrected by current Ivy neuro students. Also I've published conference speech in a national scientific journal. However, I've already received rejection from WashU and UCSF and something is telling my that NYU is not gonna accept me either. I've got interview from PennState, but I doubt whether the neuro program there is a strong one. I've also applied for 2 masters degree scholarships in Europe and waiting for their results. It's just kinda sad, how every university during the graduate fairs and stuff like that goes on and on about how they want to diversify their environment and give everyone a chance and in reality good schools accept grads from other good schools and it's a closed circle. Like how am I gonna get a LoR from a Nobel laureate if my country never had a nobel laureate or from a top field scientist if in my country the field is represented by only like 5 scientists? Sorry for the long comment, my romantic Hollywood movie-watching self really thought she had a chance at the grown ups table.