SyntheticOrganiker

As I reach the denouement of my grad school tours, I just wanted to provide a quick recap for future applicants. 1. Don't get stressed out about not getting into a summer research program. I had an immensely dififcult time in getting into one, but got into all of the graduate schools I applied to. 2. As expressed exhaustively, you can get into any graduate (and medical/law/whatever) school from not the greatest undergraduate institution. I was really concerned about not having connections to the synthetic community, but it has apparently not mattered too much (however, connections will not hurt). 3. While tons of visitation weekends may sound fun (and are fun), they can be quite exhausting (the traveling, discussing science, and literally constantly being asked if you have any more questions) and if you procrastinate (like me), final school work can pile up. Therefore, be careful about how many you plan to go to.. 4. Don't be concerned when you get PIs you didn't sign up for on visitation and others you wanted to meet with are not on your schedule, it could just be too many people wanted to meet them (and often you will be allowed to meet with them if you just ask the coordinator). I found that I had the most interesting conversations with people that I didn't initially think about talking to. On a totally unrelated topic: Chaospaladin, the forum is an excellent resource for getting questions answered. That being said, constantly asking questions that can be easily answered through google, or common sense in some cases, and then acting as if people should be constantly answering your questions, is annoying. It is also concerning because in graduate school you will be expected to find the answers mostly for yourself. While other people will help you, you need to learn how to answer these questions yourself. Good luck.

No, any top program (and most all programs for chemistry) will put money forward for visitation. Yale actually is providing funds for travel, they were just later in indicating so.

I too am confused about the lack of information from Yale about any reimbursement. It's already a hassle for me to go, so if they aren't paying, I won't be attending.

My advice (from someone who knows nothing about the process): Retake classes if and only if they don't interrupt the MUCH more important weakness in your profile - lack of research experience. You should spend your time getting more research, whether it's in inorganic/organic/bio chemistry...whatever, just get research. Any incremental increase in your GPA will be meaningless if you don't have the research experience to demonstrate to the better PhD programs that you won't just waste their money and fail out. How do you even know you want to pursue a PhD if you only have 1 month of research experience (you could end up hating the stuff after 2 months, and you literally have about 5 years of research, so you should probably know if you enjoy it for an extended period of time)? You could easily teach highschool chemistry/biology/whatever with just a bachelors and a teaching certificate, and I think community college with only a masters (although I have no idea about this one). Either way,main point: RESEARCH.

I'm fully considering all 5 that I'm visiting, but 2 are ahead of the others with a 3rd coming up. For me, I think it'd be disingenuous to go visit a school when I had my mind pretty much already made up (if they were paying for the transportation), but I guess one never knows until the program is actually checked out.

@luce373 I'm also planning on visiting 5 schools (out of 7 total) and will also be attending the ACS meeting. It'll be stressful (especially due to my strong distaste for traveling), but I think it's worth meeting the professors leading the field and seeing if my decision becomes obvious (although I doubt it will). We shall see if it is worth it.

@ michaelangelo Not to sound trite, but you wait. Take your second choice acceptance and wait until the April 15th deadline (but certainly submit if you haven't heard back yet). Hopefully, if you applied, the NSF GRFP will be out by then and if you get one you can contact Harvard and see if they will then accept you. I don't know how many people turn down Harvard, so can't say what chance there is you will get in. Just get excited about the other top programs you've gotten accepted to and hope.

Don't try to get over the feeling, your students are constantly judging and evaluating you. I think people are quite correct, and so are you, about not doing your own work during the lab period. I know that if I had a TA and they were not actively involved in coming around and asking if everything was going well, I would assume they really didn't want to be there.

@ organicnerd Please go be bitter/ a troll someplace else. Do not try to diminish the accomplishment of the people on this forum, we have all worked our butts off for this. The US's policy towards international students may not be fair, but that's certainly no one's fault on this forum.

Got the Columbia Email and the Harvard snailmail.....now what's Yale up to?

This doesn't seem like a real thing, but anyways, the stipend from Berkeley is really not on par with other offers from other schools. Berkeley is an expensive place to live and I don't want to join the throngs of hobos

It's great to take advice from people, but always remember that some people have vendettas against others (not suggesting that any of the cases mentioned here are due to that, but it's good to realize that scientists are people too)

For the sciences, I think it's also important to ask how often they meet with their students? Once a week, once a month, once? How much time are you expected to spend in lab? (just don't ask it in such a way that a 40hr work week will be a hardship) If there aren't teaching requirements but there are teaching options that you want to pursue, you could ask how they view students who teach one or two semesters. Some of the more sensitive info may best be asked of graduate students if you visit (they probably won't respond in a documented way) Edit: Also, if they are a big deal, then you may want to ask how often they are away for conferences, talks, etc.

What are Columbia's visitation days if they sent that information? Thanks. (This information may already be in the thread but I'm too lazy to try and find that)

Those are the same three I'm waiting for.

Knowing what I know now,. I would've applied to fewer places.

Heard from MIT early in the week (called by some1 not on my SOP, although I did know who they were, so that was good). For Scripps Cali, I'm going to the second of the two dates since Berkeley is trying to get the organic students to come out the week before. I'm hoping next week Harvard will send something out, but perhaps blizzards delay admission decisions. Edit: It seems Harvard may have already sent out some invitations for the chemical biology program as per the results page, and discussions on other forums. It could've been for the more biological focused individuals since biology programs seem to be sending out their information recently. Perhaps it'll be like MIT and remaining invitations will come out Tuesday-Friday.........exciting...and stressful

People: So what are you doing with your life? Me: Well I'm going to get a PhD in chemistry. People: What type of Chemistry? Me: Organic Synthesis. People then experience a moment where they look like they are experiencing bad gas. Me: It's like making drugs (it is, not, in fact like this, but whatever lets me get away from these conversations faster).

For me, I would not go anywhere that I did not first go and discuss with PI's how they run their lab. Graduate school visits > any remaining coursework and if your professors cannot appreciate that by assisting you in making up the work, then you should go to the department head and explain your situation. All of my professors have been quite understanding in the work I'll miss for graduate school visits, but they are just too important to miss

I also had a problem with one of my recommenders, thank god I had another one that had already written letters to other places and was able to upload his letter on the due date. I understand that professors are busy, but really, if they agree to write a letter (and it is just 1 letter, it's not like they often take the time to personalize it for every department) and they don't send it in on time, assuming you gave them ample time, it's just trashy. While I would love to send the prof who didn't send the letter a nasty email, I will refrain, but I will continue to glare at him every time I see him.

Just to add, at least in Chemistry, the interview isn't just about you wanting to get into a school, but you actually trying to figure out if you even want to go there. Don't let the professor get away with just gabbing about everything under the sun, ask some real questions probing to see what type of PI they would be for you. It's 4+ years of your life, you deserve some answers.

Accepted to UCB. Sami, what subfield of chemistry did you apply to MIT for?

So what people may be referring to in the results section, or at least what I was referring to, when I put in interview, was that I got a phone call from the school inviting me to an interview weekend (not a direct phone interview). I'm sure any reputable school that does phone interviews will contact you first (either by phone call or email) to set up an appointment for the interview.

As per my account name, you can probably tell I'm interested in total synthesis, so in my SOP I listed the three big tot. syn people specifically (although I left other options as well since I'm interested in chemical biology). I don't want to be too specific, as anonymity is important, but I was not in contact with anyone at scripps before I was called.

I was first called by one of the profs I want to work with on Dec 28th, then got an email later that day with the invitation to the "interview." They have two choices: the last Thursday-Saturday of Feb or the first Thurs-Sat of March.