gadhelyn

I included all the time I spent working in the lab as an undergrad as well, since I haven't moved labs or anything (shows I have persistence, can stick with the same thing for awhile!)

Woohoo 25 :-D

I'd expect that from someone in math, not a poli sci! Heh So we shouldn't expect anything until the third week in February?

My wife and I both own our cars, both are fully paid off. There's no way I'm going to get rid of either until they don't drive anymore!

Here's some of my suggestions about the Triangle. I have lived here for about 12 years now and have lived in several parts of the area and went to undergrad in UNC-CH. Housing: Chapel Hill: Unless you are made of money or want to live in a dump, don't. This is very, very expensive. If you want to live near to the University but don't want the huge rent/purchase price, there are 3 possibilities: (1) Just inside Chatham County. This is just south of Southern Village and only maybe 10 minutes from campus by car. Plus there's a park and ride in Southern Village. Why do I suggest here? A postdoc at work purchased only a couple years ago a very nice, new townhouse in Chatham County for about $200k. The same place just 5 miles north would be closer to $350-400k. (2) Carrboro. This is the hippiest place in the Triangle (They have a "Really Free Market" on weekends and a coffee shop that sells only fair trade drinks). Prices here are just slightly better than Chapel Hill. There's very well priced homes in "West Carrboro", which is maybe 5-10 minutes west along Highway 54. (3) Hillsborough. This is the western tip of what you can consider the Triangle. Home prices here have always been very, very fair. It's got the nice, small town feel. There's a shuttle bus that runs between a park and ride here to UNC-CH. Otherwise you can take I-40 into the rest of the Triangle. Durham: I would only suggest someone to live in Durham if they're near I-40 (which Chapel Hillians refer to as "Near Durham"). This means near the Highway 15-501 exit of I-40 (has a lot of very nice shopping centers), near the Highway 54 exit of I-40 (fairly underdeveloped, but there are a few new constructions), and near Southpoint Mall (an absolutely beautiful location filled with lots of expensive looking houses and pretty apartments). There's the old tabacco factory and storehouse areas of Durham that have been converted to residential and office space, but the further I get from I-40, the less safe I generally feel. Durham is known for its gang activity, and I personally feel uncomfortable driving around most of Durham. But that's just my opinion. Raleigh: Don't live inside I-440. Most of it is either for the extremely rich or for someone who wants to be in a drug neighborhood. They're working on making Downtown Raleigh a 'happening' place, but they've still got awhile to go before it's there. North Raleigh (north of I-440 and south of I-540) is very pleasant, pricing is actually on the cheap side. I might not want to be near Capital Blvd or Highway 401, there's a lot of ghettoness there. Falls of Neuse, Six Forks, Creedmoar, and Leesville Rds have lots of nice neighborhoods around them. Wake Forest is about as far away from the 3 major universities as you can get, but it's a pleasant area. A lot of the houses are for the very rich, though. I never looked into apartments here. Not worth the commute, in my opinion. Cary/Apex/Holly Springs might be nice to live in, if you're going to NC State. It's a bit of a drive for UNC-CH or Duke, at least until they complete a few new sections of Highway 540. Garner would be a good place to live if you're going to NC State, it's just south of Raleigh with I-40 easily accessible. Just don't go too far and end up in Johnston County. People get in car wrecks with drunk drivers in Johnston County. Morrisville/Brier Creek is absolutely a great place to live (can you tell where I am now?). Morrisville is the center of the Triangle geographically, so you can easily get anywhere. Brier Creek is a new area, less than a decade old, with lots of nice shopping. The prices on apartments and homes are fair as well. Shopping: There are lots of malls and shopping centers throughout the area, but I'm going to just hit on the highlights: Northgate Mall: drug haven, people get shot here Southpoint Mall: My favorite mall, it's very, very new, and has lots of the shops you'd normally find in a good mall. University Mall: This place is very small, but it's saving grace is A Southern Season, which is a wonderful place to go for gourmet foods. Crabtree Valley Mall: Before the new malls were constructed, this was THE place to go. Still is a nice mall, a nightmare during Christmas though. They've got a lot of the usual stores. Girls, if you like baths, there's a Lush soap store here, just opened a couple months ago. Triangle Town Center: Another of the very new malls, has the usual shops. Of interest, they have a strict minor curfew because a few months ago there was a 200 person brawl. Cary Town Center and Crossroads at Cary: Cary Town Center is similar to Triangle Town Center, owned by the same people. Crossroads at Cary is more like a super stripmall. It takes up the space of maybe 2 malls, including parking, but it's multiple buildings. Very interesting place. North Hills: This is the newly designated "Midtown" of Raleigh. For the past 6 years it's been getting a facelift. Very posh now, lots of nice stores. They're currently working on residential and office space. New Hope Commons: One of the major Duke/UNC-CH shopping spots (it has a Walmart!). Brier Creek: Big shopping center, still being built in some spots. All it needs is an electronics store (they're currently building a Best Buy) and a hardware store, then you wouldn't have to go anywhere else. Food: You can find everything here. But I'll quickly list off my favorites in each of the areas (although you'll have to look at a blank map to get an idea of where). Chapel Hill/Carrboro: Cosmic Cantina (burrito), Carrburittos (duh), Elmo's Diner (diner food), Top of the Hill (American food and they brew their own beer, Chapel Hill staple), Breadman's (Southern), Spotted Dog (pub), El Rodeo (Mexican), Lime and Basil (Vietnamese), 35 Chinese (also duh) Durham: Carolina Ale House (American, lots of beers), Ted's Montana Grill (bison burgers), Rockfish (seafood), Maggiano's (Italian), Doc Green's (salad), Tomato Jake's (pizzeria), Moe's (burrito) Morrisville/Brier Creek: Serena's (American with a Spanish twist), Randy's (pizza), Champa's (Thai), Solomon's (Mediterranean), Trali's (Irish pub), Carolina Ale House, Moe's, Uno's (Chicago pizza), El Dorado (Mexican), Wild Wings (wings), Angus Barn (ok, I have never been, but it's the most expensive and famous steakhouse here) Downtown Raleigh: Caffe Luna (Italian (actually, we had our wedding reception here)), Tir Na Nog (Irish pub), Bogart's (really fancy American, martini bar), Mellow Mushroom (pizza) North Raleigh/Wake Forest: Ted's Montana Grill, Twisted Fork (gourmet deli), Bella Italia (pizzeria) Raleigh: State Farmer's Market Restaurant (Southern)

I met with a professor in the program to which I'm applying over at NC State back in October, she taught my sister-in-law's intro to stat class. She said that, at least for their program, they highly value people who are seasoned over someone who is just finishing up undergrad. And no worries about an essay, it's a very interesting read. my Co-PI is actually British, has been in America for 10 years, so I'm sure she went through a similar though process before coming over, although she got her PhD there. And isn't it cool what proteins can do? The protein structure and function thought that I had (and I wrote this into my SoP) came from a lab meeting. One of the postdocs was presenting on how he hypothesized one protein, when phosphorylated at a specific site, will change it shape and then will attach itself to another, and he demonstrated this with squiggles on the board. Our PI pointed out that he might be walking onto shaky ground with the drawings if he can't back it up (which would require, currently, an x-ray crystalography session). So I've been fascinated with the idea of predicting the change of shape after phosphorylation and its new functions after phosphorylation.

Why do you want to study whatever specific subfield you have chosen? I'm looking to study bioinformatics, the absolutely fun sounding combination of mathematics, biology, and computer science. It's also a good blend of both my parents. My dad's a pediatrician and my mom's a math teacher. I was into physics and math before I settled on biology. I discovered biology through my job in a Med School lab that I took as an undergrad to (barely) pay bills and get food. I'm still with the lab, having graduated 2 years ago. It has helped me find the aspects of biology that I find most interesting, specifically signal transduction and protein structure and function. But after switching to biology, I found myself longing for the...discipline of mathematics and computer science. Signal transduction is extremely complex and always fluid. There's a lot of proteins out there and without detailed knowledge of the structure and its relation to its function and how the structure changes in response to events it can be fairly difficult to be sure of what's happening. Especially when different pathways are studied in different cell types. Last year I took another comp sci course, programming for the sciences, which was basically an intro to MATLAB. I really liked it, especially when we had the assignment of making a script that would read a protein database file then draw the carbon backbones of a few proteins. That class, combined with the questions above led me to really want to help figure out computer models that would hopefully simplify all the data.

If we really want to go back, I wish I just sucked it up and moved into a dorm when I transferred to UNC, rather than moving into an apartment with someone who turned out to be unreliable. Then my financial situation might have been better and I would have been able to focus more on studies and have gotten a better GPA. If wishes were horses. Through the application process, I have no real regrets asides not having enough money to apply to more schools. That and not having known about this site sooner so I could post my SoP and get others to edit it. Although, I do think the postdocs at work helped me with it well enough.

You should see home prices in Atlanta (my #1 is Emory)! You can get a 5 bed, 3 bath place about 25 min from the university for $140k! It seems like everyone in Atlanta is going through foreclosure. I know the economy's generally not good, but I honestly hope home prices stay low until I have a down payment. I've already played with the calculators online, and with taxes and PMI and such monthly payments on some of the more modest (3 bed/2 bath homes for less than $100k) come out to at or less than my current rent! Heck, it might be cheaper even without a down payment. But I think it would be best to rent for the first year so you get an idea of which neighborhoods are best! You got any good finds?

I have read one of my LoR for two reasons: he wanted to make sure he had the details right (such as how many hours I worked with him during undergrad, how we did a project that I had suggested), and he wanted me to type in the address for each individual letter and get them printed out and put into envelopes (he's my supervisor in the lab). I have extras from my Co-PI (yes, all of mine are research-related, it's my strong point and really wanted to highlight it). I will be returning them to her soon. While I am very curious to know what my PI has said about me, I would rather not actually read it. I know it was very flattering, though, because I am good friends with his administrative assistant and she has given me a couple pep talks. But I would not read or ask to read it without him actually encouraging it.

Nor should you distract yourself by looking at rentals and real estate in your possible new cities. Really biases me towards the universities with the nice and affordable places.

No, it's not low.

Heh, I've heard different versions of those before: An underaged Pb walks into a bar. The bartender calls out to the Gold bouncer, "Au! Get the Lead out!" A mathematics grad student went insane one day and begun to believe he was a differentiation operator. He would run around all day yelling at people, "I DIFFERENTIATE YOU!" So they had the poor student locked up in a mental hospital. The student spent his time yelling the same phrase at the other patients. One day he saw a new patient reading quietly in the corner, so he walked up and yelled "I DIFFERENTIATE YOU!" The new patient did not react at all to being yelled at, so the student tried again, "I DIFFERENTIATE YOU!" Once more, no reaction, so the student tried once more, "I DIFFERENTIATE YOU!" At this point the new patient put down his book and looked up calmly and replied, "Differentiate me all you like, I'm e to the x." A quantum physicist walked into a bar, maybe. Two polypeptides are at a party. One walks up to the other and says, "Hey baby, nice acid!" And lastly: How many grad students does it take to screw in a light bulb? Two, but they have to be tiny grad students or one big light bulb.

Seriously my happiest memory of all this was right when I got the scores for the GRE. I was ecstatic with them and I had called all my family to brag about it. And the talk I had with my PI when I told him about my intentions to apply and asked him for a LoR. That was probably the most supportive he has ever been, telling me that it's great that I want to work on bioinformatics because it's still so new and needs minds like mine. As others have posted here, it is always wonderful when the best say you have great potential.

My feelings of insecurity know no days of the week. Honestly, I am usually very self-confident.

The idea that if I'm accepted I can leave this politics-ridden lab for something that I know I'll enjoy. And getting the SoPs written up in a way I found acceptable to send! Took me a good month to write it.

Congrats! Lucky. Tell us if it does make the waiting easier!

I have the perfect excuse if I don't get into my top choice. I can say I didn't like the prospect of living in Atlanta (although I'm 99% sure I'll go there anyway if they accept me!).

GAAAH! 2 people posted they got email and phone interviews the past 2 days from the department in Emory to which I applied! Including one from the same division of that department! The suspense! I might hear something soon!

Anyone know any good jokes as a distraction? I'll start: What'd the biologist mother do when she had twins? She baptized one and kept the other as a control.

As a Tar Heel, I agree

Safety school for me might be defined as the school that highly values family connections and also happens to be the school my mom got her Bach and 1st Master's from, my dad got his Bach and his MD from, 3 of my uncles and I think 4 of my aunts got their Bach from, one of my grandfathers got his Bach from, and have 2 cousins currently in attendance. So, I guess, Go Jayhawks? Heh.

Yeah, Emory sent me a "Congratulations! You have submitted...." email right after I finished up the app. But nowadays my heart races every time I get back to my desk and see I have a new email, usually only to be disappointed in seeing it's a Facebook email, Williams-Sonoma email, or my electricity bill.

Does God count if you're seeing who you're drinking with?

WOOHOO! I got an email from a professor I know over at NC State telling me that the adcomm there's just started to go over the files. She was kind enough to check that everything's there again and said she'd let me know if she hears about any news concerning decisions!