UnlikelyGrad

Yup, me too. And the lady at UW responded to say that the missing transcripts had, in fact, been filed under my maiden name... :?

Thanks for the post. UW is still missing the transcripts from the first two schools I attended. These were both under my maiden name, so I emailed the admissions lady and asked her to look under my maiden name. I honestly wouldn't have thought of that without this post. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

The answer.... "Jeans and a t-shirt is fine. If you want to be really suave, black slacks and a button-down shirt. It's chemistry grad school. Everyone you meet is going to be going into labs, and you don't want to feel overdressed by them too much. Wear what you'd wear on a regular day going into work, and you'll be fine." I'd decided earlier on black slacks and a button-down shirt, so I guess I wasn't too far off the mark.

I think a lot of people flunk out their freshman year. I have two siblings who did, and both went on to graduate with honors (from another school)...one got a Ph.D. and the other an M.S. & J.D. My PI did, but went to Stanford for his Ph.D. I should say that I collect stories of college drop-outs who eventually succeeded because I, too, flunked out of school...both my freshman and sophomore years!

Well, I don't know if she'll reply, but I emailed my sister to ask. She was accepted to a number of theoretical chemistry programs back in Fall '00 (Berkeley, Caltech, UCLA...) and visited them all so I bet she would know. Even if she wore the wrong things, she'd probably remember what everyone else wore.

Am I the only Chem applicant who hasn't heard anything yet? How depressing. As for what to wear: I recommend a button-down shirt and khakis. Anything grungier and they might get a bad first impression of you; anything nicer and they'll be afraid to let you tour their lab.

StudyMom, It's nice to hear that I'm not the only one. I just talked to a admissions coordinator (at the dept. level) this morning to check on transcripts status and she said she was pleased that I'd applied to their program, because I looked like a very interesting person. Needless to say, I'm feeling a bit more optimistic today.

Same here. My PI recommended that I apply to 15 schools. That probably would have been the right number from a statistical point of view, but actually applying to an extra 6 schools probably would have killed me (not to mention my bank account)!

UW was still showing that I was missing 2 transcripts, which should have been sent in late December. (Other transcripts I ordered at the same time had shown up at other schools so I knew something was awry.) Finally I emailed and asked if the transcripts had really not been received. I was told that no, they actually hadn't received them, but it didn't really matter. These were the transcripts for my freshman/sophomore years which she said were less crucial. In fact, my file was already in review. She said if those two transcripts turned out to be important in the process, she'd contact me and I could do a rush order, but it probably wouldn't matter. I wish there were an icon for breathing a HUGE sigh of relief.

I have fewer hang-ups about it than you may think. A lot of time I am joking when I talk about my old-lady status but that's not always obvious online. (I forgot to use the icon this time). I know a lot of people who have gone back to grad school in their late 30s, into their 40s, and even 50s. None of them, however, were involved in hard science. I'm taking classes (unofficially) right now and I definitely have a leg up over my younger classmates: I'm more focused, for one thing. I'm not afraid to learn things on my own. And I get along better with my professors, since I'm closer to them in age than the young'uns. (My PI is only 2-3 years older than I am.) Believe me, I am glad I took those 15 years off--I need every single one of them to grow up and figure out who I am. My real hang-up is that I wasn't taking time off to work in industry or do anything related to my field: I spent 15 years primarily homeschooling my kids (though I dabbled in other things). Like I said, I needed that time and put it to good use; I just don't know if admissions committees will agree. As a final note, age discrimination does exist in academia; my sister-the-professor says as much. She was only 38 or so when she hit the academic job market and even then she said some people were put off by her age. I figure that I'll be 45 when I go looking for a tenure-track position, so I really don't know how good my odds are. eta: I don't think I am too old. If you read my blog, you'll see that I consider my lack of research experience to be my primary reason for considering myself a dark-horse candidate. This might not be a big deal in some fields, but in chemistry it's huge...

Married. Four children, ages 7-16. My husband has been working from home for a while, which is how we manage to homeschool our children even though I'm gone during the day.

I voted for returning after a few years because it's closest to the truth, but I'm not sure that 15 years qualifies as "a few"...

I don't understand you folks. You actually give up at some point in the day?

Did someone say something about makeup? Good grief, I hope not. The last time I wore makeup was...hmmm...that would be my sister-in-law's wedding, over 5 years ago... When I say button-down shirt I mean something that's not a T-shirt. That's all. Not a dress shirt, just not a T-shirt. I have a nice plaid flannel that looks good on me. Make sure your pants look nice. If all I had were jeans I'd find my best-looking (i.e. least ratty) pair. I was raised that if you don't know how dressy you should be, err on the side of caution, and I guess that's what I'm advocating. Think about the profs you had last time you were a student: which of them was the most dressed up? I would go with that level of dressiness. FWIW, my PI wears khakis and button-down shirts on days he's lecturing but jeans and T-shirts (often of the extremely grungy variety) on non-lecture days. So I wouldn't say that you necessarily have to dress up as an academic.

Is there something wrong with a ponytail? I wear my hair long (it frizzes too much otherwise) but as a chemist, I have to keep it out of the way. Needless to say, the ponytail is my hairstyle of choice.

I would say casual pants (preferably not jeans) and a button-down shirt. If you don't have these in your wardrobe, go to Goodwill or Salvation Army on their 50% off clothing day... I just got 2 nice button-down shirts for $3. I'm a fellow mom, and I know how easy it is to succumb to the "I'm still fat, so I can't look good" mentality, but DON'T. Trust me. Dressing relatively nicely does wonders for the self-esteem. As a fairly shy person, I've found that when I dress nicely I am a lot more confident and outgoing around new people. Making a good first impression--visually and otherwise--is going to be crucial here.

Also, check individual professors' research pages--they often have info about former grad students.

for me, not necessarily in this order: ranking of school within my field how well my personality meshes with that of prospective advisors (can't find this out until I visit) how well my personality meshes with departmental culture (ditto) cost of living family-friendliness of town (not a big deal for many grads, but should count for something for t_ruth) proximity to family/friends

Personally, I would go, even if I had already been admitted to my top choice. In part this is because I'm not 100% sure that my top choice is my top choice. Sure, my top choice is the highest ranked, but does that really mean that it's the best fit for my personality? A visit to the school is the best way to assess that. But the main reason I'd go is that after grad school I'll have to do a post-doc, and after that I'd hopefully get a job in academia. So even though I didn't go to that school for grad school, there might be a chance of ending up there for a few years, or even more. Meeting the faculty in advance, and having them meet me, before the post-doc/job interview situation would be a bonus.

A timely topic! My PI changed from signing his initials on emails (when I was just a student in his class) to signing his first name after I started working for him. I was raised to call people formally until they asked me to do otherwise. But the email thing, and, later, a couple of things he's said could be construed to mean that he wouldn't mind being called by his first name. But he hasn't actually come out and said, "Just call me (FirstName)". A week or so ago I asked my friends whether I should call him by his first name or not. They said, "DUH! Ask him if it's okay!" But alas, I'm not that forward...soo....I continue to call him Dr. PI.

I check my email at the lab, but of course, the mail has to wait for later. I had a good laugh today when I got home--I walked in the door and the first words my husband said to me were, "Hi, hon. No exciting mail for you today." Yeah, he knows me, all right...

How did I get into chemistry? You might say I was dragged, kicking and screaming. My dad has a Ph.D. in chemistry. And though he has many children, I was the only one who was majorly interested in science at an early age. By the time I got to my teens, Dad was saying to me on a regular basis, "UnlikelyGrad, you want to be a chemist." My response was usually something like "No way!" (Dad strongly disapproved of swearing or there would have been some Hells, Damns, etc. tossed in there.) My high school chem teacher told me that I was a natural at chemistry and should consider majoring in it. I said, "Chemistry is all well and good, but I wouldn't want to make a career out of it." (Translation: I'm not going to be like my old man.) I went to school at a well-known institution and marked my major as astronomy. BigNameU required a year of freshman chem; I went to class and enjoyed it. My TA said, "UnlikelyGrad, are you sure you don't want to be a chemist? 'Cause you're terrific at it." I smiled at him and told him what I'd told my high school teacher. Then I pretty much failed out of BigNameU. My grades in physics and astronomy were absolutely abysmal. I knew I needed to transfer. I knew I wasn't cut out to be an astronomer. What could I major in instead? Geology, maybe? Well, how about chemistry? I figured I could give it a try... So I transferred and changed my major to chemistry. I started right into organic and absolutely loved it. Whee! I was at the top of the class. Everything came to me naturally...and then I realized that everything everyone had ever said to me was absolutely true. I really should have been a chemist all along.

I chose Western US because I like the west and because my family (and my in-laws) live there. But in retrospect, maybe I should have chosen the Eastern US because the two highest-ranked schools I'm applying to are east of the Mississippi...

Get a CD of Sousa marches from the library and march around the house. Seriously. I like cleaning to Sousa; it makes even unpleasant tasks so much better. Also, my kids have been known to put on impromptu parades when the marching music is on.

FWIW, my UM application is the same. I've kept all the 'LoR received' emails so I know they're definitely all in, but not a single one of them shows up on the Wolverine site. MisterPat, you can see what the grad office has received by logging in to Wolverine Access, clicking on 'New and Prospective Student Business', then 'Application Status', then 'View Credentials'.