dobzhansky
-
Posts
30 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Posts posted by dobzhansky
-
-
On 2/17/2021 at 3:32 AM, abay91 said:
Reviving this chain -- would anyone have any thoughts on grad housing (I see Jackson, Manville apts, and garden village) and as someone who will be moving countries if this is a feasible option for year 1?
If I go to UCB, my first choice would be the graduate housing at University Village. Does anyone have any idea on how availability is? I'd be moving in with a spouse and I have "priority" through a Berkeley fellowship.
-
1 hour ago, flyinginsect said:
I'm planning to apply to molecular biology/biomedical type Ph.D. programs this upcoming fall. I think I have a solid list of programs to apply to, but I'm worried I don't have a good balance of safety, target, and reach schools. Can someone help me figure this out?
So I'm a domestic student, 3.9 GPA from a well-respected college, several years of research (both in undergrad and in my lab tech job post-college), no publications or conferences (yet; I could feasibly get published this year, maybe, if I'm lucky). I feel confident that I can get 3 strong LORs. I'm not taking the GRE (all these programs are GRE-optional)
Here's my (tentative) list:
Harvard BBS, UPenn CAMB, Johns Hopkins BCMB, Cornell GGD, Temple Lewis Katz Biomed, Rutgers Molecular Bioscience, Albert Einstein Med School, Penn State Biomed, and Pitt IBGP
Does this seem too ambitious? Am I playing it too safe? Is this a well-balanced list?
What about leadership and honors? Do you think you could do well on the GRE? What coursework have you done? How well respected is your college? Top 10, 50, 100? Are your letter writers prominent in your area of interest?
Without knowing more, I would say that this is not too bad of a list, although obviously the first 4 are reaches. Realistically, your GPA and research experience will pass muster, but pretty much every competitive applicant will have similar stats + papers + awards + recs from famous advisors. Your way into those institutions will be to find a really good research match, read all their papers in the last 5 years, and contact them ASAP to start a conversation.
While @rainestormis right that prestige/ranking is overblown, it still matters. Prestige exists because the school has top tier faculty, resources, and networking opportunities. Remember, one of the main factors that go into grad school rankings is the number and impact of publications coming out of a department. That's something that directly impacts you, as a grad student.
-
2 minutes ago, Gabs3 said:
I did my undergraduate work there and they offer was better for me than UT.
oh cool! are you a recent graduate? I'm a graduating senior. maybe we know each other.
-
Just now, Gabs3 said:
Derr Lab and Hamer Lab. Did you apply to TAMU?
No, I'm currently at TAMU. My advisor is in EEB (not Derr or Hamer though). Why TAMU over UT?
-
15 hours ago, Gabs3 said:
Admitted TAMU and UT will be accepting TAMU
Which labs at TAMU are you interested in?
-
what are everyone's admits so far? EEB is a small community and i'm interested to see if i might bump into any of you.
-
4 hours ago, raptorsfan said:
@Ryuk Thank you for the advice! I haven't specifically asked any professors, but there are four who know me very well (two are well-known academics with Wikipedia pages and two are in their early 30s). In terms of research, I hope to publish a paper in deep learning/CS by the end of the summer (it's more on the applied side unfortunately). Also, I am working with two professors on statistics research. The work is highly theoretical, and I think I can publish results within the next 18 months.
@dobzhanskyThank you for your feedback! In terms of fellowships, other than Knight-Hennessy, my understanding is that they are only available for US citizens/permanent residents (I'm international). Will it be held against me if I do not have any prestigious fellowships?
As an international student, it won't really be held against you. But if you can, visit your school's fellowship office and see what might be on offer for international students. Anything that indicates your dedication to research counts. Like others have said, you're competitive for top 10 schools as it is; this would just be an extra leg up.
-
Research/Internships:
Make sure you have something to show for your research; if necessary, take on smaller, more manageable projects that can be feasibly wrapped up by the end of this year and published. Apply broadly for internships and REUs; target universities or national labs to stand out from the "I interned at google analytics" crowd. This will also help net you better recs (a rec from a well-known prof or researcher is better than a rec from your team leader at some FAANG internship).
Awards:
Work on narrowing down your research interests and apply for more fellowships. You should specifically target the Goldwater and Astronaut (if offered at your institution). Fulbright or Knight-Hennessy also good. These are not only good exercises in writing about your research interests, but will hopefully help you get a better sense of the type of research you want to pursue.
Otherwise, your academics seem pretty stellar and you should be competitive at basically every top 10 stats program. The differentiating factor will likely be how coherently and engagingly you can talk about your research interests and projects. Start following big-wig academics now and get a sense of their research so you can hold an intellectual conversation with them if they happen to interview you.
-
On 2/8/2021 at 7:55 AM, WaywardVulcan said:
I am an international student considering applying to a PhD to start on the fall of 2022. I am at the first step (selecting universities) and I was wondering what criteria did you guys use to choose which universities/programs to apply.
Did you narrow your focus at the beggining of the process or did you choose schools that had several research lines that might be interesting to you? In other words did you start your applications with a broad interest such as "genetics and genomic medicine", or did you narrow it down at the start to something like "understanding the RAS-MAPkinase pathway"?
I didn't start looking at places until the end of summer, which was a bad move, imo. So it's good that you're starting now. Start by asking your advisor what the top programs for your interests are; you can use USWNR or similar as a rough guideline. Don't take the rankings as gospel. Consider what locations you want to live in too.
Once you have a list of ~20 programs, start looking at faculty you'd be interested in working with and make sure to note which ones have rotations vs direct admission. Take your time with this. Open up google scholar and check out their rate of publication and h-index. Look through their lab page and see how lab alumni are doing. Use ProQuest if lab website doesn't list alumni; you can also use ProQuest to check out who your prospective advisor's advisor was. Finally, ask around about quality of life factors - stipend, insurance, RA funding availability, advisor's mentorship style, etc.
Now make sure that these programs are realistic for you. Ask your advisor's opinion, look at previous year's results, etc. Narrow your list down to ~7-8 programs with 2 "safeties", 3 "targets", and 2 "reaches" and start applying.
-
1 hour ago, dressedtoimpress said:
Hello,
I checked my application status this evening after interviewing about two weeks ago and it said the following:
"You have been recommended for admission to the Graduate College for the program in Counseling (MA) for the Fall 2021 semester.
Please be advised that this is not a final admission. A Graduate College evaluation and review is required to finalize admissibility.
Once this process is complete and all requirements are met, your status will be updated."
I haven't received any emails from the department or graduate college yet, though they said during the interview that admissions decisions should be made the first week of March. Does this mean I am in as long as my credentials check out with the graduate college? Is anyone able to lend some insight? Thank you in advance and good luck to everyone else applying this cycle.
I think many grad programs have to phrase it this way because after applications are approved by departmental adcoms, they have to be signed off on by the dean of the graduate division (or equivalent). I've received several such emails and they've invariably resulted in official letters a few days later.
-
Just now, gradhelp said:
Everywhere I'm applying is mid tier and none of them require the gre aside from one ? maybe I messed up sending them, I can retake though!
If you already sent, don't sweat it. Adcoms are paying less and less attention to the GRE. Unless you're confident that you can raise your score by 10+ points, I'd focus on other aspects of your package and potentially getting in contact with advisors.
-
Just now, gradhelp said:
I am a bit confused though, is that not a decent verbal score?
No offense but it's right around average. And your quant is significantly below average. Are average scores available for the programs you're applying to? If you scored higher than average then go ahead but otherwise I wouldn't risk it. It's doubtful that submitting would have anything better than a neutral impact on your app, imo.
-
My main interests are in computational and theoretical eco-evo. I could be more specific but I'm just looking for general perspectives. Hoping to go into academia. Thanks all!
-
are you all sure this isn't just standard form for every year? it sounds like a "let people down easy" tactic...no offense to anyone.
-
i voted for berkeley because bay area > boston in terms of industry opportunities. also, and this is anecdotal, life sciences culture at MIT is way different from other institutions, from my advisor and others - one of the reasons I didn't apply. i think it's better to explore heterodox approaches during postdoc rather than as a PhD student. my 2c.
-
On 1/19/2021 at 11:38 AM, behavioral_ecology said:
I'm not sure if UT has a recruitment weekend or not.
I'm also waiting to hear back from U of Minnesota, U of Oklahoma, UCLA, UC Davis, UIUC, and Stanford* if anyone has any news on those programs!
*I have seen interview requests for Stanford Biology so I'm assuming it's a No for me.
btw if anyone is still wondering about UT EEB, i believe recruitment was feb 5th (I had to reschedule due to a conflict).
-
1 hour ago, sn_ said:
I don't see very many confirmed rejections or acceptances from Brown EEB, I don't see any update in my applicant portal either, is anyone else in the same boat?
I was contacted directly by my potential advisor along with the adcom chairs.
-
28 minutes ago, jmillar said:
Is this for Bioinformatics or EEB? I'm a little surprised about the funding distinction as I didn't think Bioinformatics did that. Maybe it's new?
as a current student at UMich what do you think about their biology department? strengths? weaknesses? have you taken classes with CCS?
-
11 minutes ago, jmillar said:
Is this for Bioinformatics or EEB? I'm a little surprised about the funding distinction as I didn't think Bioinformatics did that. Maybe it's new?
it's for EEB.
-
2 minutes ago, ChagyrskayaNeanderthal said:
I reeeeally loved Berkeley but would be nervous to choose the west coast since I’ve only been there once. The others I’m really strongly considering are UPenn (they have a young but large and supportive evo/pop gen community) and Harvard. UChicago is also really great for it but I didn’t get as good of a vibe from them at the interview (which is completely personal opinion and possibly just who I happened to speak with). How about you?
my top 4 are berkeley, UW, UMich, and Brown atm, and I'm waiting on Davis and UT Austin. i've never been to any of those places except Brown. i'm having a really difficult time deciding since they all seem to have their strengths;
- berkeley has the best reputation for EEB (imo) and a good mix of people working on systems i'm interested in and theoretical topics i'm interested in but also has the worst stipend to cost of living ratio. also, i'm not super psyched about rotations since i more or less know what topic i want to pursue and want to start cranking out publications asap.
- UW has a ridiculous reputation for bioinformatics but everything seems really anthropocentric, more so than Berkeley even. on the other hand, only 2 quarters of GSI, decent stipend and benefits, a dedicated building and rising stars in pop gen. also does rotations though.
- UMich has an advisor i'm really enthusiastic about, plus a lot of other faculty that would work perfectly as committee members; they also have their center for complex systems which has an awesome course selection. but they only guarantee 4 semesters of RA/fellowship support; the other 6 semesters are guaranteed GSI support only. i'm not good at task switching so i think this would be bad for my research productivity.
- Brown also has a really cool advisor whose project I can probably jump into right away, basically no course requirements, only 2 semesters of GSI, and by far the best stipend to cost of living ratio. on the other hand, it's a comparatively small department with few other people working in my areas of interest.
-
4 minutes ago, ChagyrskayaNeanderthal said:
I am also pop gen / evo (and also was admitted to Berkeley!!?). I get the sense (and have heard from several trusted advisors) that Berkeley is one of the best places for that. It seemed like so many students and faculty there were in that area.
cool! we probably interviewed together then. yeah, bay area's pop gen game is strong. it skews anthropocentric for me, if we're talking downsides though. of course, UW is no less anthropocentric, so ?♂️
are you leaning towards accepting? what's your opinion on Berkeley vs other top schools for EEB?
-
Schools are putting less and less emphasis on GRE scores, if they're even considered at all. I earned scores that would be above average at pretty much any program (337/5) but they never came up once during my interviews. Poor GRE scores will close doors at more rigorous programs, but good scores will almost never open doors. This has been attested to by my advisor and most professors I've spoken to.
-
I would definitely not submit those scores. Most programs no longer require scores anyways.
-
I'm not in economics but I have a hard time imagining how real analysis would be applicable. Calculus, yes, but real analysis is more of a rigorous proof-based logic course than an applied computation course. I have never run into a practical situation where I thought "hmm, a delta-epsilon proof would really elucidate things here".
That being said, real analysis is not a difficult course, and it's great training for logical thinking. Even if I don't directly apply knowledge from that class to my research, it's been useful in structuring my thoughts and making my logic more rigorous. I think of it as pushups for the brain.
Anyways, take my opinion with a grain of salt as I'm not in economics.
NSF GRFP 2020-2021
in The Bank
Posted
I would've had no idea that results were released today had someone not texted me. Email went to the "promotions" folder in my inbox (gmail); didn't even know that folder contained separate emails. E/E, E/E, VG/VG, awarded.