Faraday
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Posts posted by Faraday
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I made a bit of a list of some basic stuff I thought was important, and things that I thought I should consider.
I made a little excel spreadsheet obviously yet to be completed, and I was wondering if you guys can tell me things you guys are considering that will help be your deciding factor, as it might help us out in the decision process.
# of profs I would like to do research under
Can I start with those (^) profs over summer
# of potential/maybe profs cost of living stipend
How much tuition is covered
Medical insurance coverage
Requirements for PhD Candidacy
Requirements to receive PhD
Average Time Completion of PhD
# of Years Funded and How
There are my factors, not necessarily in order of importance.
You need to be weary of some of these official statistics. Schools will often spin them to look better than they might really be. For example, in most cases schools will define the "% of students who get a PhD" as the "% of PhD candidates (those having passed orals) who get a PhD", rather than all entering graduate students (a much uglier number). Other creative statistics which might go on would include using "average time to completion of PhD" data for the class that started ~5-6 years ago. Obviously the students in that class who are still struggling on through their 7th years are not included so the data can remain around the nice and pretty 5 year average...
On another note, I'd strongly advise against working the summer before you begin graduate school. This is the last summer you will have to devote entirely to relaxation and fun for the next 40+ years until you retire (or maybe for the rest of your life). Don't squander it in the lab.
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Atkins' books are not very good in my opinion. That's what I used for my Pchem class and I just ended up buying McQuarrie because Atkins was so bad. I should point out that I'm also not a math person and I still felt McQuarrie's book to be the best. The math chapters are really helpful for making sure you understand the relevant mathamatics. As someone above said, it's also quite readable.
For general chemistry I initially learned from Zumdahl, but I've found Brown to be the best book that I've come across.
For organic chemistry the only book I've ever used was Solomons, and I really enjoyed it. It was really readable for me and it goes into a lot of depth and a good number of details on subject without getting too complicated. As such it's probably a bit longer than most organic books.
Berg is my favorite for Biochem. It is very comprehensuve yet not too cumbersome (I'm looking at you Lehninger). I've heard good things about Voet but I haven't used it myself.
Almost all analytical books are pretty bad. Harris is the only one that's not bad.
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Was anyone else more or less disappointed by the weekend? Maybe I just got unlucky with the grad students that I spoke with, but so many of them just could not hold a conversation about anything but their research. One of them kept telling me about this one HPLC that he needed to run later that night, and I ought to have told him to leave me alone and attend to his work. TSRI grad students seemed to be under much more stress than students at all other programs I've visited. This was the first recruitment weekend that solidly sealed the deal for me, TSRI is not where I want to be.
This shouldn't really surprise anyone. The culture around the departments at Scripps and other top universities (Harvard, Berkeley, Stanford, Caltech, and MIT) is fairly well characterized...
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You should consider the possibility you may be required to list yourself as independent if you have moved to a new school for your graduate programs and you have to start the process of getting "in-state residency". For my programs if you don't file as an independent in your new state of residence is usually prevents you from applying for in-state tuition (if it's applicable) during that following year. Just something to consider.
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How bad is the commute to/from Denver?
Traffic gets pretty horrendous... But that's because they've been doing construction on 36 for what feels like forever. (36 is one of the highways that goes between Boulder and Denver). They're adding an express lane on both sides for buses, high occupancy vehicles (not sure how many people you have to have in a car for it to count, but I'm assuming at least three), and tolled single/low occupancy vehicles. For now, traffic is worse. But within a year or two, it'll probably be a bit better.
I hate driving to Denver during rush hour because it takes 2-3 times as long to get there and I have zero patience when driving in traffic. The buses are faster and easier, in my opinion.
I'd recommend either living right next to a BV/BX/BMX bus stop (those are the ones that go straight from Denver to CU Boulder) or trying to plan your schedule so you don't have to drive during rush hour.
Hey thanks for responding. Do you know anything about the suburbs in between Boulder and Denver? If I end up in Boulder, in all likelihood my SO will be working in Denver.
To offer an alternative opiniton as someone who originally lived near Washington D.C., the traffic here really isn't all that bad. It's traffic and it will slow down your commute but in the grand scheme of things it's about average for what you would expect living near any major metropolitan area. I always get a chuckle when the locals here complain about how bad their traffic is... Most people I know who commute to Boulder each day agree it's not fun (especially when it snows) but that the various reasons for living outside of Boulder (cheaper rent, SO needing to work somewhere, etc.) outweight the negatives of the commute.
As you alluded to there are some really great suburbs between Denver and Boulder that are closer to CU (less of a commute problem) but still pretty close to Denver. There are a few nice places but Broomfield is in my opinion the all around best location. It is quite literally in the middle between Denver and Boulder, and there is lots of reasonably priced housing there. As mentione above the RTD buses will go by there each morning.
it should also be noted that the RTD bus pass isn't "free". As a graduate student (at least in my experience) you'll be paying several hundred dollars in student fees (unless your department coveres these, which is rare) and if you go in and look at the itemized expenses you can see the RTD bus pass you are paying for. You don't get and option and it's a great deal but you are definately paying for it along with a number of other less useful things.
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There are no "pure biochemists" anymore. Often someone who is in the "Biochemistry Department" (at my school Chemistry & Biochemistry are one huge mega-department) is probably dipping into either molecular biology, chemitry, or physics for the main focus of their research. I don't see your background being a problem. Just make sure you show clear interest in some of the groups at the schools you are applying to and connect movitation to working with them to what you've done in the past and that should show your fit.
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So out of curiosity, if a Muslim woman were to walk around the city with a scarf on her head, how would the people react? Obviously there will be stares anywhere she goes, but would they treat her like an outcast or actually speak to her like any other woman would be treated?
Boulder is quite multicultural so I don't think many people would make a big deal out of it. As you mentioined of course some people are going to stare, but I think as far as cities in general go Boulder is very liberal and accepting of anyone and you woulnd't be treated like an outcast. You do, however have to make a strong effort to get to know people in a friendly way for that to happen as Boulderites often seem standoffish to outsiders but it's not just you, they are like that to everyone.
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Based on what you've said here I would say you have a good chance at getting in, but that's only based on raw numbers. More inmportant non-quantitative pieces of your application such as your personal statements and LORs from advisors go a lot further. It's also worth mentioning that if you are "obsessed" with going to BU then I assume you are very interested in the work professors at BU are doing. If this is the case then you should be getting in contact with them at some point and briefly introduce yourself. If they see mutual interest then they might be able to put in a good word or two in for you with the admissions comittee. Good luck!
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If you are worried about finding a place because you might be waiting too long then relax! It's certainly not too late. If you lookd on craigslist reccently there were probably a lot of movement on pre-lease places, but these are almost all undergraduate locations. You wouldn't want to live there anyway. I started looking in early June and I am pretty happy with where I ended up (found on craiglist). I know some people who flew in and started looking in mid-June and they found good places as well. The kinds of apartments you will be looking for will be completely separate from the undergratuate parts of town, and in some cases you will even find complexes that strictly prohibit undergraduates from living there (my apartment included). These places won't begin to know know until around June if they will need to find a new tennant for the following years since the leases often have a 1 or 2 month advance notice requirement for leaving.
I have been researching health insurance and was wondering if any current or past students could share any thoughts on the CU insurance or any other insurance plan in Boulder.
I've heard it's not too great, and the presentation the gave on it to all of the new graduate students back in August didn't really help that image. The main problems to me seemed to be sub-par coverage in terms of deductable and such, limited coverage areas (you pretty much have to go the to CU-health center for everything unless you get an explicit outside referal from there), and vision coverage is not included but provided as an extra package you have to tack onto the regular plan.
With the reccently signed healthcare bill I decided to stay on my parents' plan for the time being. The coverage is all around much better (except I can't go to the CU-health center...) and it is cheaper as well.
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If you arewere lookig for well-paying medical jobs in high demand then you should look to being a PA, not a dentist. PA's make around 90K per year and the demand for PAs is high as the number of doctors entering family medicine decreases and PA's essentially step in to become the primary medical caregiver for lots of people. PA school is similar in length to getting your master's degree and the tuiton you would pay is going to be about the same as you would pay as an in-state undergraduate at a public school. I don't know what PA school is like but you could probably do some part-time work (as a scribe or something) to help pay the bills and not rack up tremendous debt while in school. Obviously if you were from out of state and or it was a private school costs would be higher. Malpractice insurance for PA's is much less than for MDs/DOs so in the end their take is pretty close to the actual salary.
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Hi all! I've been admitted to UC-Boulder, and right now it's my top choice to attend in the fall! I've never been to Boulder (or Colorado), and since I'm from Rhode Island, it would be a pretty big move for me. My SO is planning to come with me, and I've started looking at apartments in the area to get an idea about prices. I was glad to see from the earlier posts that the transportation system is good, because it looks I may end up living in one of the suburbs.
Does anyone have any advice for moving to Boulder and finding an affordable apartment? I'd really like to stay under $900 a month with utilities if possible, since I only have a small stipend right now, and my SO will need to find a job. Is late May/early June too late to fly out to look at potential apartments? I see that a lot of people are already starting to lease for fall. Also, are there any areas that aren't so great to live in? I see from an earlier post that Longmont has a higher crime rate, but how bad is it?
Since my SO also needs to find a job, I was wondering if anyone could tell me how the economic situation is? Is it possible to find a job in the area? My SO is not really a school person, so he only has an associate's. He's thinking about taking online courses to earn a certificate or bachelor's.
Any advice would be appreciated!
You can definately find an apartment for that price. I pay 700/month plus internet/TV and electricity (about 50 split between the two of us) and I live on the eastern edge of the City of Boulder itself. If you were in a suburb I bet you could find better than that. Late May/June is probably a good time. I searched around then and I was told by the agent I talked to that it was still a little early. Undergrad housing is already being leased for next year but gratuate student and older professional housing only needs to be done two months in advance or so.
As is the case with anywhere there are some nicer places to live and some not-so-nice places, but on the whole Colorado is very safe so I wouldn't worry about that. I haven't know anywhere in particular to be mentioned as an "unsafe town" while I've been living here.
Sadly, the employment is not great in the Boulder area. There are lots of over-educated people looking for jobs and while maybe a bit of an exaggeration, the old tale of your cashier at the grocery store having a PhD is an apt description of the employment picture. Fortunately if he will not limit his search to the Boulder area then he should have a better employment picture in the greater denver metropolitan area.
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E/E
VG/G
I see there was no "tie-breaking" reviewer this year. One had nothing to say but great things about my application (both "excellent") and reccomended me for the fellowship while the other was extremely negative, cited a formatting error (but never elaborated), among other things, and gave "very good/good" ratings. Not even honorable mention. There must have been a lot of great applicants, congrats to the winners.
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Right now I'm imagining an intern who was assigned to update the website at 2AM having fallen asleep at his desk.
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Yeah, I agree. But I feel like 9 finally started to pick up and closing plotlines around halfway through. I didn't hate the ending, but I suspect it's because I heard rumors that turned out to be true and thus was expecting them. Gave me time to prepare. Given the development of HIMYM over the years, I felt it was actually rather fitting.
Interesting. I'll try to watch it asap, but I am thinking from what has been said the ending will turn out to be similar to LOST. At first there appears to be widespread dissatisfaction with it, but over time people will come to see it as a very fitting ending. I think with these kinds of shows we come to be very invested in we tend to set up our own expectations for how we want the show to end but we need time to digest things and realize that what we wanted or expected is not always best.
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I was disappointed. Avoiding spoilers for those who haven't seen it yet, I thought the ending cheapened a lot of the story's development.
I've watched every season except the last one (caught up on netflix but the last season was already underway). Is the season overall good? I feel like the show really went downhill in seaosn 8.
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FastLane my ass! Its more like SlowLane!
Almost the best post of the night.
Right after slowpoke.
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Over 500 viewers on the thread! This is crazy!
It seems like the server is struggling to handle the traffic. Impressive guys!
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Well that was rather anticlimactic.
- anthro.fish, troopiedoop and fosgfp
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I could be working on a problem set which is due on Wednesday but I wouln't be able to focus anyway so I have resigned to playing some video games to be just as unproductive as I would be if I actually tried to do work, but being slighty less stressed!
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My guess is the maintenance warning will come up on Monday for a Tuesday morning release. That may just be wishful thinking though...
It would be funny if the notice came out Monday and then Tuesday they sent out another message that said: April Fools! The announcement wil be Friday. Hospitals in areas with a high population of students would need to be forewarned though.
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So is the reason that TA'ing at UCSD not very common/well heard of because not many people are interested and not because it's difficult to do? One of the things I don't like about Scripps, from the little research I've done, was that I thought it would be hard to teach there, so that's why I'm asking.
I wouldn't say it's not well heard of; it was one of the first things I remember reading about Scripps Chemistry. I think the bottom line is that if you hope to end up in academia you should try to get some teaching experience on your resume. Chances are [at any large public institution] you will be teaching several hundred undergrads in some introductory couse and I imagine the hiring committe would like to see that it won't be your first rodeo. If you intend to go to a small LAC, then this is even more true.
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I would agree with the above poster in that of these three programs JHU would probably have stronger options for coordination with interdisciplinary groups (medical school and biochemistry program). Something else to consider is that Baltimore is a major city, and living there will likely be quite different from Ithaca or U-C. Depending on how much you will be concerned with the location of your studies for the next ~5 years, this might be something to consider.
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Hello everyone! I have decided to attend CU Boulder, and will be arriving in August. It looks like many people have trouble with cell phone reception and data in Boulder, no matter what cell phone provider you use. What provider do Boulder residents use, and what should I expect to pay for a moderate use plan (unlimited evenings/weekends, set day-time minutes, unlimited texts, a couple gigs of data/month)?
I don't know who's spreading this rumor as I heard the same thing when I visited CU, but I can say from my experience it is certainly not true. I have at&t and I get perfect 4G LTE coverage everywhere in Boulder as well as everywhere in the greater Denver metropolitan area. Obviously I don't get good service in some of the metal lab buildings, but otherwise it is fine. I have been told Verizon is even better than at&t so if you have one of those you will be fine. I can't speak for the other carriers or exactly how much data you might want for your own personal tastes, however there is wifi all over campus that you can connect your phone to to reduct data charges while you are at school.
What can I consider a safety, and what can I consider a reach?
in Chemistry Forum
Posted
Fair enough. A former postdoc of his said he was done with grad students. I guess if you're really promising he's willing to make exceptions!