UnlikelyGrad

The one school I bought lots of 'school merchandise' from I dropped out of. Now I'm superstitious: I've told myself I can buy MyU goodies once I've passed my qualifying exams (at which point I'll pretty much be guaranteed a master's, at least). It's too bad, though;I love the T-shirts here. Our mascot has such a kick-ass attitude. Literally. (see below)

If you were in my department, it would mean you were in...but as others have said, it depends how departments work.

I used to check the school websites and wait for them to show up. Most of the schools I applied to were clearly set up for electronic score reporting--the scores showed up within 2 days of my request.

My name is somewhat gender-neutral. Based on my experiences, if I were in the prof's position I would probably roll my eyes and think, "Jeez. Another one." But the mistake wouldn't bias me against you.

YES THEY WILL!!! You will be surprised. Laughing until crying--my first draft was the exact same way. And, I should add, it was much longer than the subsequent "reasons to accept me" versions.

For me: (1) Moving where I got in. But that was because of a husband, soon to be ex-husband, who insisted on making everything a pain in the butt. I usually enjoy moving. (2) Waiting for replies. (I don't like waiting for anything. Uncertainty = UGH.) (3) Preparing to apply (non-traditional student: I had to do a lot of preparation that others don't need to worry about) (4) Deciding where to go (4 acceptances: each had distinct pluses and minuses. My gut knew where to go as soon as I'd visited, but my mind didn't agree.) (5) Sending in the applications. Yeah, there were some hassles, but nothing compared to the rest of the process.

Go to the biogeoscience reception. Look around for a tallish guy (~6'3"?) with dark hair, ~50yo, named John Spear. Tell him you have an online friend named Robin who said he was really cool. John is very friendly (and funny) and will put you right at ease. He'll tell you some really cool stories and talk about his awesome research, and very likely he'll introduce you the other people swarming around him...he seems to attract people like honey attracts flies. I wouldn't have minded working for him...

But see, the inherent problem is that you can't change your style for "one essay"--this is a timed test, and so you have to practice over and over until you can whip out the requisite style without thinking about it. If I had unlimited time to write and could consult a "cheat sheet" of tips, I would also, like you, have no problem with adjusting to the appropriate format. Scientists have to do this anyway, when submitting a paper to journals with different article guidelines. I like to think that I'm a pretty good writer precisely because I can strike a good balance between "formulaic" and "interesting." This is an inherent part of the way I write--it takes energy for me to overcome it. Needless to say, I didn't want to invest too much effort into changing myself for a one-time test. My compromise? Before taking the GRE, I read tip sheets for the AW section, then tried to incorporate them into my essays when I was taking the test. But I didn't spend hundreds of hours trying to prep myself to get a perfect score. I ended up getting a 5: not as good a score as I thought I deserved, but not terrible, either. P.S. I fixed the title for the OP--apostrophe errors bug the heck out of me.

Welcome, all chem applicants! You all seem very ambitious. Doesn't anyone here have a "safety school"? Or are you just a really different bunch than the last 2 groups (2009, 2010) of applicants here at GradCafe?

Are you close enough to drop by in person? If you can, do so, offering the excuse that you were afraid the email might have ended up in her spam box (which is a valid concern...) If not, I would wait a couple more days, and then call her. (If the first email didn't get through, after all, the second isn't likely to either.)

I have to disagree with rising_star. I used to work for a theoretical biochemist and happen to know that biomodeling can tie in very closely with theoretical statistical mechanics. (My former advisor's PhD work was in statistical mechanics--he just found a way to apply it to drug design.) Also, I have heard that it doesn't matter what project you propose in your research proposal--you can research anything you want for your thesis. The point of writing the fellowship proposal is so people can evaluate your knowledge of literature and critical thinking skills. I say go with what you know. Just call it "biophysics"...

This might vary by school, but my sister (who won a fellowship but was required by her department to TA) said the school just reduced her TA stipend by the fellowship amount. I think the fellowship didn't quite cover tuition, so the school handled that.

See, this is why I am not a big fan of the hyphenated-name thing (for kids, anyway). What happens when they grow up and get married themselves? If Jennifer Smith-Johnson marries Scott Jones-Taylor, will their daughter be Mary Smith-Johnson-Jones-Taylor? (BTW, I, too, think it's very important to have the kids have the same last name as their parents. The fact that I got many jokes about my maiden name was only a secondary reason to change my name at marriage.) I think the invented surname is a good idea, BUT I would still recommend keeping your maiden name as a middle name of sorts (for publication search reasons).

Are you considering transferring schools or just departments within the school? The latter is actually a lot easier, I think, as long as you can find a professor to take you on. I know a couple of people who started with me and then switched departments.

I would definitely mention it and--if possible--explain how your experiences in that lab led you to the path you want to follow. This may not always have happened in a positive way, of course. For example, I used to work for a theoretical biochemist, and doing that for a few months reminded me of how much I really needed to do hands-on work.

A lot of profs I've met with large labs have one or more postdocs working for them. In this case, the postdocs handle a lot of the day-to-day interaction with the grad students. Some of the profs here with large groups do weekly group meetings, but only meet with individual students once a month or so--the rest of the time, they get by with email and/or 5-minute conversations when they pass in the hall...

I was in your situation a couple of years ago, except my undergrad GPA was lower and it had been 3x as many years. I took a couple of classes at a local school to get the LoRs I needed. The Cal State system offers "Open University" in which you can enroll in any open class (assuming you have the prerequisites). It was pricey--I paid over $200/unit for lecture classes, and it was almost $300/unit for my lab class--but I figured that was the price of getting an academic LoR. I ended up getting one good, one stellar LoR out of those classes. Totally worth it!

This was a dilemma for me...I like small towns, but on the other hand, my family needs the resources offered by a big city. The school I ended up choosing was in a small town within reasonable driving distance of a large city. This has turned out to be a fantastic compromise for us. We actually live just outside of the town, in a very quiet area, but also just a few blocks from the freeway leading to downtown (~15 min drive). I LOVE IT!!!

You can't really walk into a professor's office and just flat out ask him to do research. Well you can, but you probably won't get very far... First, build a relationship with each professor. Maybe not all of your professors, but the ones whose personalities you like. Go into office hours--for tough questions if you need to, but definitely for "little things"--things you almost understood (but not quite) in lecture, questions that go one step beyond the lecture, etc. The reason you have to go in for little things is that they don't take much time and--if your prof is like most profs--he's tethered to his office for the rest of his office hours. If no one else is there, he may well strike up a conversation about other things, like your career goals. As long as you're talking, ask him about his research... Do this two or three times, THEN (if you're interested in what he does), ask if you could do some research with him. If you're willing to do it for research credit only, not money, he'll probably be happy to take you. (Money is nice to have, but most profs don't have enough to pay their undergrads.)

Generally speaking, it's good to have a grad-level class on your undergraduate transcript. Does it have to be this one? If you're going into geobiology, I might try something different, if possible, something more related to geobiology. My school offers a grad-level ecological microbiology class which dabbles in geobiology, for example. I agree that for general geology, optical mineralogy is a good choice. (In fact, as I mentioned earlier, it's considered undergrad level here--all geology majors are required to take both regular and optical mineralogy. Geological engineers only have to take the former.) But you're hardly doing general geology, are you?

UCLA is a great place to go if you're going to go into academia. But if you're just shooting for an industry job, I'd recommend trying Colorado School of Mines. The petroleum companies know and loooooove it, because they have the #1 petroleum engineering program in the world. And while they may come for the pet eng students, the same companies also advertise for geoscience majors at career fairs there. To help you further--what is your area of specialization? Mineral exploration? Geophysics?

Hmmm...at MyU, optical mineralogy is an undergrad class... Would you be using optical mineralogy in your grad work? If so, it's a good idea to get it out of the way now.

I second this.

Oh wow, sounds like fun! Maybe I can just go for the weekend. I wonder if who else in my program is going?

I keep telling myself that I should go to GSA, which is in Denver this year--just a hop, skip, and a jump (~20 min bus ride) from my home. But alas, I have nothing to present and I'm pulling my hair out trying to get everything else in my life done.