UnlikelyGrad

Great cartoon! (The talent I see expressed on this forum never ceases to amaze me.)

Nope. First was last month. There will be one, maybe two in the spring. The summer one will be 3-4 weeks, so probably worth more than the others combined in terms of research data. I've taken a course (not a summer course) from one of the instructors on this one. Knowing his personality, I can guarantee that you will have lots of fun.

I have a friend who sells plasma twice a week (which is as often as they'll let you sell). I think he makes about $400/mo this way--not bad for 2 hrs/week of work.

Have you done any bioinformatics? There's a lot of environmental microbiologists who could use a bioinformaticist in the lab.

Yeah. I figure I'd learn more from the cruise, anyway. (We're collaborating with various C-MORE people, anyway, so it wouldn't be unthinkable for me to get one-on-one instruction from several of the course organizers.) Some do, some don't. At MyU, the grad advisor tends to pay summer tuition anyway (though it's all research credits for me), so it's conceivable that I could convince Dr. Hand-Waver to pay an equivalent amount towards a summer course at UH instead.

Sure. One of the profs in my department does work on algal fuel production (hydrogen, biofuels) and gets most of his money from a petroleum company. Any smart petroleum company is going to think about what the future holds...and it isn't petroleum, at least not forever!

Maybe, maybe not. That's definitely the case at my school--there are lecture TAs, but they usually do lecture + lab. If you are at a school with a lot of funding you might be teaching recitation sections. Wish I could have done that; the students really need recitation time. But alas, the department only has enough funding for lab TAs.

I've heard of earth science students getting fellowships from NSF, DoD, DoE, EPA, and NASA. In terms of profs getting funding, I've heard of people getting money from all of the above, plus USGS and petroleum companies (of course).

I SOOOO want to do that. But don't think I'd be able to (see below). UH also has a summer program in marine microbiology, if I remember correctly. I have connections there, but since I'm going to be at sea much of the summer I don't think I can squeeze it in.

Good grief...you mean people in the workforce never have to eat a fair amount of humble pie and crow? My favorite fellow grad student here is a couple of years younger than me (mid-30's) and has 10+ years work experience. I love her because it's clear that she's learned to be self-directed, to do things without someone constantly hanging over her shoulder. She also landed her own funding before starting and therefore created her very own project (which does dovetail nicely with her advisor's work; he knew this when he took her on.) Best of all, she's driven to help others become as competent as her. I wish there were more people like her in my cohort! Non-traditional students rock.

I agree with whoever said tutoring--even if you do a part-time crap job for more regular income, there will be enough intellectual stuff that hopefully you won't go insane.

Just out of curiosity, is this for a UC diversity essay? I think the answer to your question is definitely yes, but if you included the information, you'd have to phrase the essay very, very carefully. Otherwise some adcomm members might say, "YIKES!! TMI!!"

I relocated. I agree with ktel that it isn't easy to rebuild your network. However, I made a conscious decision to do so and now, 2.5 years into my Ph.D., I have friends who are almost as close as those I had before moving here. (I lived in the previous area ~13 years!) Also, I really enjoyed moving somewhere with 4 seasons. I do miss the growing climate in California but am happy to see fall color and SNOW!! Also, the part of CA I was in was starting to get very built up; I now live in an area with lots of open space, which is necessary for my mental health. So I think the move was a good choice on my part. There would be many good things about moving to Chicago. It's a neat metropolitan area--my sis who used to live there has also lived in the Bay Area, LA, Seattle, and DC and she thought Chicago was awesome. There are lots of things to do, and even a fair number of "outdoorsy" places to go if you like to be outdoors. (But buy some good winter clothing so you can go outside year round.)

Read papers in your field of interest.

Actually, "research fit" refers to the research you WANT to do. If you say, for example, that you're interested in creating polymers for biomedical research, but the polymer chemists at a particular school are busy making polymers for fuel cells, they may pass you by. Basically, you should look for a school where people are doing what you want to do.

My department offers a MS, and we do have a few synthetic organic chemists. However, given a choice, the profs will choose PhD students over MS students.

Yeah. That's basically what she said. She only had me present at ACS this year because it was local and so there were basically no travel costs--normally she has people present at smaller conferences.

Not this year. I hope to go next year though--I think it would be cool to share a room with my sister (who almost always attends, but is skipping this year). We'll see what my advisor says about that though: she's not too keen on AGU.

In my (geochemistry) program most everyone comes in with either a geology or a chemistry background...the people with no geology background are usually required to take mineralogy and petrology as remedial courses. I had a general geology class as an undergrad, which definitely gave me a leg up over my fellow chemists...it's kind of hard to understand petrology without the context of an intro geology class.

No one cares what you did in high school. They generally don't care for copies of certificates either. I recommend submitting a resume or CV with your application; this will have info on the projects you worked on. I applied to nine schools, and everything that was submitted online was available not only to the main graduate admissions office, but also the department as well. In some schools they printed these things and passed them around; in others, it was all available electronically. So don't worry about sending in anything you've already given them. You'll be fine.

I heard (maybe here?) that you should shoot for 70th percentile or above. I got 67%. When I went in to talk to profs at a Well Known University, one of them looked at my file and said, "Hmmm. Your Chem GRE score is a little on the low side." So it sounds like the 70% rule is probably about right.

When my advisor was away on sabbatical, she also had an auto-reply set up on her email. But she still answered every one of the emails I sent her; and she also responded to my friends for whom she serves as a committee member. I think she primarily wanted to warn people on campus who wanted her for silly things that she would not respond to them...and she didn't. (She's normally the department grad admissions chair and in charge of one of the required undergrad classes so she gets lots of trivial emails.) So...wait a few days, try again, and if that fails then give up.

Wow. And I thought 5 was bad.

Q: Are you planning to go into theoretical chemistry? It wasn't clear from reading your post. Also: why in the world would you say that your projects in chem eng "wouldn't count"? Most profs are looking for research experience in general, rather than specific sorts of research experience. (It's different if you're applying for a post-doc. But they tend to expect a first-year grad student to have general research experience.) I think the inherent problem with getting answers to your post is that most of us are American, and therefore unfamiliar with most of the schools you hope to apply to. I'm familiar with ETH, which is my advisor's alma mater--she has lots of ties there, so I've met some profs/grad students from that school. I know it's a pretty hard school to be admitted to, but I don't know how it compares with various American universities.

Just out of curiosity, did you visit your program at all before attending? Did you not notice this? I turned down my "best" offer because it came from a school that was clearly too competitive/non-collaborative. At another school everyone was very disconnected from each other. I loved the camaraderie I felt at MyU, between both students and professors and even support staff. It's one of the primary reasons I came here.