ndufour

MS in CS. Very very excited. Currently thinking about living in Rains; while EV is cheaper (in some cases...suspiciously cheaper...), I've heard it's primarily married couples, very quite, and not very social, whereas Rains is very social. Which is what I want.

Albert Einstein Systems & Theoretical Biology hopefully under Aviv Bergman!

You got a fulbright? congrats! congrats to both of you interviewing/getting into/attending caltech!

Hey there Morrius, I'm at WPI right now--first time ever encountering another WPI student (former or otherwise) on these forums. Just like to add to anyone still waiting on UCSD, I called there admissions office (again) and was told that my application (which I submitted within the deadline) is STILL under review...it's been four months, and I'm going stir-crazy. Arrrrg.

Astaroth- When did you get your rejection from UCSD and why haven't I heard anything yet? gwarg!!!

UPDATE I got sick of waiting, so I called them. They're only reviewing my application next week. Seriously. There's another interview weekend, and it looks like they may decide to schedule one after that, too!

Both my parents are highly supportive. Indeed, my mom forces anyone who will listen to hear my application, test scores, goals, life story, etc. despite her pretending as if she only tells people who ask.

haha i know. Goddamn U of Wash Seattle should get back to me! I can't wait forever!!! grrrr

There's so much in neuroimmunology that's fascinating to study! For instance, in the seizure-related disease Rasmussen's, it is believed that it is caused by autoantibody attack on glutamate receptors. The crazy thing is that it's the result of molecular mimicry...you get a bacterial infection with bugs that use similar glutamate uptake channel proteins, and your body then starts to attack yours. the real question is, how do they they get around the BBB?

Erin- Looks like you have a very strong application. Unlike my shitty GPA, yours complements your GRE scores nicely (well done on verbal, by the way--unfortunately for me I think verbal speaks more than the other two scores do since it stresses formulated interpretation rather than computaton or an articulated, and hence more abstract, interpretation like the quantitative and writing sections). Good luck!

Don't watch nor do I own a television. I do watch TV shows from time to time though (always online). I've been known to watch: Futurama LOST Family Guy The Simpsons Mad Men Weeds King of the Hill The Daily Show The Sopranos The IT Crowd (there may only be 18 episodes over 3 seasons, and it may be British, but by god it's amazing, please check it out)

Why haven't I heard anything from WashU yet? The researchers there are doing such kickass stuff, I'd love to get a chance there...

No idea, I assume email however. I don't fully understand why they don't send out interview requests simultaneously with rejection letters. From what I've read online, not getting an interview for a PhD program always indicates rejection. I just want to get it soon so I can get on with things...

I haven't heard, and I'm fairly certain that they are not still sending out requests, but I can't find that information anywhere. I would love to go to either of those schools, but at this point things look grim.

I suppose my interest would most readily align with that of the topic creator. What I want to study can be summed up as any property of a biological system that cannot or will not be observed when the small constitutive agent is observed. I feel that these phenomena represent a new fundamental level in biology; that is to say, they are not readily described by the context (like so much else in biology) but rely on the nature of the interaction between the agents rather than the proteins involved. While I do think it's important to study such proteins, so much in biology (as I said in another topic) has become "what protein binds to that? oh, protein Z? alright. What protein binds to this? ah, protein L. What protein binds to..." etc etc, essentially characterizing organisms rather than elucidating anything that can be called paradigmatic. Certain things, (neurons being the canonical example) like the microorganisms in the Dictiostelida and Myxococcus genuses exhibit astonishing self-organization that results in new behavior that can't be easily explained by looking at a single agent (i.e., a single bacterium). This of course goes far beyond biology and has pretty big implications for stuff like information, systems, and control theory but is probably best exemplified by biology. I'm also really interested in the reform of evolutionary theory and how it applies to the philosophy of science. You may have guessed already that I'm anti-reductionist, and I think the current "levels of selection" framework is silly and dated, and has to struggle to explain green-beard genes or altruism. Anyway, that's my 2 cents, as worthless as they may be haha.

I applied to micro, yeah, but not that exactly speciality you're considering. It's somewhat tangentally related, I hope to work in self-organization and complex phenomena in microorganisms, like Myxococcus or Dictiostelida, where simple cell/cell communication results in highly complex novel phenotypes thanks to group phenomena. I made a resolution not to study some protein, as I feel that too much of biology has become relegated to just sort of cataloging this-protein-does-that type stuff. While important, it tends not to vary in an informational sense, rather it's just the context that's changing. I'd like to do some work in fundamental properties of evolutionary / complex systems, and microbiology tends to yield the best models.

to topic creator- I gotta say, accepting an offer from my dream school and then regretting it later is so far away from my current concerns on just getting in is almost comical. However, I see you applied to UCSD... I did too. Have you heard anything yet? Do they let us know through email or some kind of archaic snail mail? thanks

GOOD LORD I can sympathize more than you know! My emails get forwarded as text messages to my phone, but only the first 160 characters. And my school sends an enormous amount of emails. I'm nearly ready to start just redirecting it to spam. I'm in a class, i hear that ba-duh-BA! of my phone and jump a little with an accompanying yelp. The subject is something like "Please Join Us..." followed by "The faculty would like to invite you to-- 160 CHARACTER LIMIT ERROR NUMBER DHC100991UAz" only to open it later, after dashing out of class and running to a computer, knocking over innocent students as I jostle for the nearest outlet of the internet, to find it says "you to take our internet survey for student satisfaction of the pizza sauce at the campus center! Help settle the oregano debate forever!" (commence screaming and an unending tirade of profanity aimed against my current school: j**** f****** c***** do you think any F******* f***tard on the planet gives a flying f*** about the tiniest F****** MINUTIA YOU COME UP WITH? I DON'T GIVE A F**** MAYBE YOU COULD JUST F****** INVEST MORE TIME IN OUR HIGHER EDUCATION YOU F****** C**** A******* WHO THE F*** SENDS SO MANY F**** EMAILS WHAT THE F***** S******* YOU ******** *** ******** *** ****** ********** PIZZA ********* ****** *** ******** ******* **** PAPA JOHNS ***************** ************ ************ OREGANO D********!). Yeah, I'm on something of a hair-trigger these days.

Hello All- Yeah, I'm imploding from anxiety. But we all are. I have a few interviews, but my top choice (MIT. Yes, I know name isn't everything. I also know it's terribly easy for someone with a cutesy rhyming screen name that includes "MIT" to be magnanimous and state "don't worry there are lots of good programs" but everyone wanted to get into into big name schools for undergrad and damn little has changed) hasn't requested an interview yet, and hence, since they're apparently done with interviews, probably won't. Thus I ask if anyone knows what action to take should you not be granted an interview (if any) and what that means for one's chances. Does it mean you're just done, throw in the towel, etc? That's the impression I've got but I have been unable to locate any information specifically concerning "life after being denied an interview and your acceptance chances," and was thus wondering if anyone knew anything in regards to that specific eventuality.

I'd appreciate any comments on my profile, especially as to what role people think my GPA (which is low) will play in it. I'm applying to systems biology programs to focus on understanding the role of self organization in biological structures. GPA: 3.3 (Biology w/ focus in cell bio / genetics) GRE: Q: 800 (94%), V: 640 (91%), W: 6.0 (97%) Research Experience: 4 years in medical school lab. Half year in pharmaceutical bioresearch lab (corporate). Half year in biofuels research lab. (I worked in more than one lab at a time in some cases). Papers: 1 published, 2 in manuscript form (under review) Awards: Two fellowships. Working on an NSF grant. Applied: MIT UCSD WashU Emory Albert Einstein UMass Medical School University of Washington Seattle Interviews: Albert Einstein UMass Medical School Accepted: None Rejected: None