Faraday

Graduate recruitment weekends as a graduate student: mmmmm... free cookies!

16.9k would be pretty difficult to live on, especially if that is before taxes. You would definately want to have aat least one roommate, and know how much you would be paying for utilities. Comcast has an iron grip on Boulder so you'll have to step up and pay their absurd prices if you want TV or internet. The public transit system (RTD) is fantastic; among the best in the country. There are busses going to virtually everywhere you might need to go, including Broomfield and Westminster. The BV would get you from the Broomfield Park and Ride to campus and back, and that's probably a half hour trip when it's not rush hour. The BV would also get you to campus from Westminster and that would probably take about 40 minuntes. If you go to google you can type in CU-Boulder and then your other locaton and it is connected to the RTD's schedule and it can predict the best way for you to get where you want to go by bus. You will ge a student bus pass that will let you ride the bus for free and this includes the DIA bus which normally costs ~$13.

Do you really want to spend the next ~5 years working on the same stuff you have been working on in your ungergraduate training? This is a serious question to consider, as a lot of people like to try something at least a little different, or at least have plenty of room to chose. You ultimately need to ask yourself if the reputation of the professor you work with is your main motivating factor, or if a broad potential research fit (three professors you would like to work with) is more important. As for the stipend I imagine they will be relatively equivalent when cost of living is factored in and you'll be able to live reasonably comfortably at both schools so you shouldn't consider that a huge factor.

I did research right up until I moved to grad school. I saw all the advice that said, "Don't work, take it easy" and scoffed it off, but they were right. I wouldn't reccomend it. In my case I got paid quite well for my summer research which helped mitigate the lack of a break somewhat but if I could go back I would still do it differently. Enjoy every single moment you an while you have almost no cares in the world! If you really want to make money work somewhere fun.

Thanks for all of the feedback. Unfortunately I do know the comments should not be taken with quite as large grain as some of you are suggesting. I'm very good at reading people and the attude this students has I can tell is shared in at least a handful of other students based on their attitudes and body language, or the one student who didn't realize I was walking behind them in the hall and made an offhand remark suggesting this. I think the majority of students in the lab (especially those not in the post-bac program) don't feel this way but the elitism and superiority is definately not isolated with this one student. Furthermore I don't think you realize how close this group is. They have 3 classes together every day, and labs all week long together. This is the second year of this program so they do virtually everything together. While he might be exaggerating in light of the assignment that was late to vent on me I know there is definately some truth in what he says. Considering this I thanked him for telling me his concerns and then I politely dismissed his rude criticism by mentioning how I was planning to do mid-semester evaluations and I would use opinions from the class as a whole to framing future pedagogy this semester. The harsh response suggested above would certainly exasserbate the problem due to how close these students are (as mentoned previously) and how they immidiately go talk to other students about things these things. Handing back papers becomes a class-wide whisperfest to see who was graded fairly and unfairly and what criticisms I am worthy of... I still don't plan to become their friends, that doesn't see right, and I'll make more of an effort to highlight when they can come to me for help outside of the class. As for addressing them as professionals instead of students, that's not going to happen but I will try to include some useful medical applications to the lab work we are doing on a weekly basis to cater to things they will find interesting and hopefully help in the learning process (since they are students) while creating a seemingly more professional environment. The survey will mainly be a way to gauge the exact number of students who feel the same way he does (I have around a handful in my mind) to make sure it is a small contingent. I'll report back as to how the mid-semester evaluations look. I was pretty bummed out about this before but I've moved on and I am not really phased by it anymore. My recitation stidents always say they enjoy haivng me as their TA so I know it's not a problem with me. EDIT: For the record this is not a female TA problem.

A little late to the party but we looked at a lot of computer models and such in my class, and while I wouldn't really consider any part of Pchem particuarilly interesing it was at least nice to see the connection between all of the math into something a little more concrete. Most students are not there to learn because they like accumulating knowledge, they are always wondering how something might be useful. If I ever teach organic chemistry I would have a weekly "drug of the week" and we'd talk about the functional groups we have learned in the molecule and how they are important. I remember how my organic professor had a fascinating bulletin board outside of her office showing structures of over a dozen progressively more powerful painkillers, and you could see the patterns in the functional groups as you went down the line. That's the kind of thing that helps a lot of people become interested in chemistry.

Am I the only one who has pushed this to the back of my mind and I never even really think abou it? Someone asked me about it today so I checked in but otherwise I just tell myself there is nothing I can do right now so why worry? You guys are stressing me out!

Hello everyone, I am a TA for a lab course in which most of the enrolled students are part of my school's post-bac pre-med program. The other day a student forgot to turn in something after class and he submitted in my mailox the next day, sending me an email explaining he did it but just forgot to turn it it. I responded saying how I beleived it was a simple mistake but the late policy is what it is and he'd have to loose 10% for being 1 day late. He responded with a lengthy email detailing a few things, one being that I apparently refer to the rules as laid out in the lab handbook and on the official lab course website (he claims I'm the first TA to ever refer to them) a lot and it seems out of touch. He told me some students in the lab feel that by going by the rules all the time I am simply being dismissive. Should I be making exceptions because a student has a good excuse for not doing something? Thats seems unreasonbale. His second point was that because this is a post-bac pre-med program most of the students are former professionals with highly respectable careers (Army special forces, Wall Street investment banker, and people with other advanced degrees, etc.) he said I shouldn't be treating everyone like students, but in the laboratory classroom they are students, they are learning nw things they don't understand as opposed to talking and interacting with them on a profesisonal level from their former professional careers. In the end the most disheartening part was they overall they feel like I don't respect them. This has never been a problem in previous course evaluations (excellent scores on that question) so do they have unrealistic expectations? He made another comment about how it sometimes takes me 24-48 hours to respod to emails which is an understandable gripe but I hardly have time to eat meals so I do the best I can with responding and when there has been a time sensitive matter I've always given them an extra day or two since I took so long to respond. Still he says students see this as being unavailable and unreachable for help. This is a contrast to previous sections I TA'd for last semester who always said I was very avaialable and helpful whenever they needed it... His last comment was that in the past the TA's this post-bac -pre-med group (they take all classes together so they are close) have had have all been very close to them on a personal and friendly level and it seems like I dont' take an effort to get to know them and become friendly on that level. I realize these students are closer in both age and current life-state than your typical sphopmore undergrad, but this is still a job and it doesn't seem right for me to be best friends with these students like he seems to be suggesting was previously the case. Any suggestions for moving forward? I suspect this is a combination of the natural problems that come from working with very serious and dedicated future medical doctors and their personality which seeks excellence and perfection in everything they do, etc. but I would be open to trying to meet them halfway. I know I plan to hand out a mid-semester evaluation next week to try and get some more comments rather than lots of he said she said stories and since I am apparently unapproachable with the problems in person...

You should consider this a blessing as now you don't need to stress out about hearing the results right away, and you'll get to it when you hae time.

The visiting weekends are March 6-8 and 13-15, so the first round of notices should have already been sent out. Not to burst your bubble but having an answer is better than none I hope.

Interesting news for you folks, and reading between the lines might give some answers as to exactly what happened. http://www.colorado.edu/news/features/chancellors-corner-philosophy-department-culture-change-starts-naming-new-chair

Under no circumstances should the words suit and chemistry be connected unless you are receiving your Nobel Prize.

There is no Hospital near the Table Mesa area, the main "hospital" in Boulder is actually located in northern Boulder (Boulder Community Hospital). I'm not sure Table Mesa is one of the more "funky" areas of the city, in fact I find it to be more plain. Northern Boulder and anywhere near downtown would be quite "funky" and have lots of culture. Be aware that houses are very hard to come by, especially if you are only looking to rent so be sure to start early. I've seen some posted on craigslist but being a college town the market is mostly Apartments. That said, Table Mesa is a fairly "residential" part of boulder with a good many homes and renting (with at least one roommate) would be doable. Also consider west of campus, but make sure you are west of 9th street or you will be mixed in with all the crazy frat and sorority houses and other shenanigans on the hill. In terms of cost of living, I don't think it is way cheaper than Vancouver. I pay 700 for an apartment 3 miles from campus and I have one roommate, and that was one of the more reasonable deals (the only utilities I pay for is electricity and cable). Food in Boulder tends to be expensive, I shopped at Safeway for a while but then I ventured to the Walmart in Lafayette and was shocked to see how much cheaper things are there. I switched to shopping at Costco and Walmart and I have saved about 50-70 dollars a month on food now, so it's cheaper to buy food elsewhere I find.

I usually wore khakis and a nice polo shirt, and I was more well dressed than most. There is always that one person who wears a suit; don't be that guy/gal. I imagine a nice shirt and jeans would be perfectly fine but something more business casual certainly wouldn't be out of place either.

Eigen, I recall you previously making a long post on the pros and cons of younger PI's vs older PI's (in another forum I think). What made you decide now that personality is more important than considering the young vs. old debate?

This was the first weekend since the undergrads returned, and I must say I was nostalgic today of how peaceful campus was over winter break with nobody around.

Hello! I don't have any personal experience with the off-campus university housing, but from looking at the website and hearing from a few other people, it seems pretty nice. Of course this means you will still have a "dorm feeling" to your hosing though, but if fully-furnished is what you are looking for then that is probably your best bet. I don't know of many other places that would be fully-furnished. If that sounds like something you would be interested in then you need to start the process ASAP, as that housing is very difficult to get into and the waiting list is usually a few months long. If you don't decide to live in the off-campus university housing, then look for anywhere East, North, and South of campus, and avoid "The Hill". That is where lots of noisy undergrads live and there are plenty of loud sorority and fraternity houses.I would look along Baseline Rd. or in the visciniy East, or down along Broadway southeast, to the Table Mesa area. There are also a lot os places between Arapahoe Ave. and Baseline, directly east of the main campus. Any of these areas will still be convient if you get a bus pass, and you can ride for free virtually anywhere in the city so a car is definately not necessary. The public transport here is top notch. If you will officially be a student, the bus pass is free, but if not you can buy an "Eco Pass" that will be well worth you money if you use the bus system even semi-regularly.

UCLA tricked acceptances all the way into March last year (I know someone who heard then), so there is reason to remain hopeful even if you don't hear back right away!

A ne wstudy was just published in Nature Neuroscience that found a 200mg dose of caffeine (about a mug of coffe) helped participants recognize target images 24hr after the inital viewing when compared to a placebo. I'm curious if any other grad students have found this to be the case when studying for your courses. Obviously recognition is different than more complex textbook reading, but certainly prehaps there is some connection with more complicated studying.

Five first author pubs? They must be going the RB Woodward approach. they'll walk into grad school and walk out a few months later with their PhD. Five pubs total is crazy but not impossible. I've seen some profs who write all the pubs themselves, so if they have worked for 3+ years on a number of different projects with others in their lab it could happen.

I was talking to an organic professor at my school today and he said he alone was charged with reviewing all of the organic applicants! Any other attending students have insight on how common this is? I was always under the impression that a comittee sat around a table and went through applicants. Congrats to those who have heard back thus far and good luck to those still waiting, this time can be stessfull but you'll get through.

It's not uncommon for schools with later application dates to get their feet in the door early per say. I got an unofficial acceptance around this time from one of my "safety schools", and three others by Christmas. The earlier the better, as long as you don't sacrifice quality.

70th percentile for a domestic student is close to a perfect score. Foreigners from China, India, etc. take the exam after having learned college level chemistry from middle school-age onward, and a good many of them already have a masters as well. They ace the Chemistry GRE and throw the percentiles way off. As was previously mentioned, if the average score for Harvard is 70%, that would make since since they are top students in the nation (and a few foreigners who scored 99%) to get that average. Northwestern is a respectable program and you can see their percentile is much lower than that. I imagine the same would be true of any school other than Berkeley/Caltech/MIT/Harvard/Stanford/Scripps (for organic) and even those schools would accept a domestic with a low score provided there were very strong credentials elsewhere in the application.

I hope so. Otherwise the reviewers will be having some serious neck pain.

Argh... For some reason every time I upload my unofficial transcript the uploader changes it to landscape format and everything is rotated sideways even though it is normal in the original format. I hope this doesn't doom me.