lab ratta-tat-tat

About UW-
I actually inquired about their program this time last year. They told me they get about 900 applications every year, and they are lucky if they can even get through half of them. They were pretty curt with me, telling me they know of students who have published in Neuron and been rejected from their program. The additional response I got was "Seattle is a desirable place to live, attracting many people form all over the world, therefore we have to be incredibly selective and can't possibly get through all the applications".
 
My Spouse and I considered moving there for postdoctoral opportunities and the students I met hated the program and were very unhappy with their projects/mentorship. They LOVED the area but hated going to work. We knew faculty members who had gone there for postdoctoral opportunities and felt the same.
 
BTW- not sure if you know this but University of Wisconsin poached a lot of UW's faculty, 4 of them have moved there in the past 4 years and they just keep poaching. So you can always apply to UW. 
 
PM me about your Utah interviews, I was there for 5 -6years and my spouse graduated from that program.
Good luck!

My day today consisted of an important experiment- 
Hypothesis: Investigating the inverse relationship between optimal tasting dipping sauce for tater tots and least soggy-ness
Prep time: 5 minutes- experimental design
5 minutes- deciding which sauces to try
25 minutes for the damn tater tots to cook
15 minutes to eat all tater tots with different sauces
20 minutes to write this post
 
Experimental design:
Sriacha
Chili garlic sauce
Jack daniels BBQ sauce
 
Results:
Sriacha, sweetest of the 3, made tater tots most soggy over all taste ranking 2/3
Chili garlic sauce, best flavor, least sogginess, over all taste ranking 1/3
BBQ sauce, its just damn BBQ sauce...sigh.... smoky flavoring though. overall taste ranking 3/3
 
OK thats how I deal with anxiety after submitting my applications.

@ Elk Heart-
Same thing happened to me 4 years ago. I wasn't accepted anywhere. I watched people get into the program I applied to with worse test scores than mine, no research experience, or worse- I watched people with better scores than me be accepted purely because of grades/gre scores then drop out of the program or slack off to an insulting level.
 
I worked for someone for 4 years, got 3 publications, my own project, mentored graduate students, reapplied to new and better programs and I'm now in a field/program I absolutely love and could not have gotten here without what i perceived was a "setback" at the time. It turned out to be the best thing and made me an awesome and extremely competitive applicant.

Good stuff! If you're seriously considering them as a mentor, ABSOLUTELY ask about funding. You can phrase it as "Would you be able to support students for 5 years if they joined the lab?" as opposed to "LET ME SEE DEM GRANTS YO".

I got my LOR writers a starbucks gift card, they were obsessed with coffee and a starbucks was right next to where we worked. For the PI who i worked with for years I bought him a nice bottle of scotch as a thank you for the years he mentored me and for the letter, but I knew him very well so it was appropriate.
 
Make sure you hand write the letter. I was also told that if you get into graduate school, to update your LOR writers about your acceptance so they know their letter helped you reach that milestone in your career trajectory.

Sloan-Kettering, Weill Cornell, Rockefeller, NYU, Mt. Sinai, and Columbia are all fantastic schools and you will be in a great position either way.
 
No need to split hairs and become Paris Geller.
 

I know some programs will start reviewing applications after the priority deadline and transition to rolling admissions until the official deadline. I don't know about yours in particular, but I wouldn't ask until a good while after the official deadline.

This pretty much sounds like my life right now—broke, working, finishing school, boyfriend works second shift at a hospital and is often gone weekends until at least midnight... I don't really have many friends in my MA program, but the two people I did things with outside of school fairly regularly are on vacation during the break. I work at the office of communications at my school editing copy, so I still go to work, but there isn't anything to do while classes aren't in session. Mostly I just look at my half-written thesis and want to cry.
 
I feel sort of silly talking about it, but I have been doing the Blogilates calendars (well, the January beginners' calendar and 30 days to flat abs challenge, going to upgrade to the regular January calendar starting tomorrow). I'm starting a dance class on Monday that I tried to do last session but had to stop because I got too busy with finals. I have also been eating a low-carb diet and cooking a lot (also saves money and fills my time). I am in some kind of insane brain world where being 110 lbs with a flat stomach is about as likely as my getting into Stanford—but getting fit is the only one I can do anything about. If one of those two things happens, I will feel very accomplished. If both happen, I won't have to be a fatass in California where it is warm and people wear shorts all the time.
 
So...the waiting interim is the perfect time to get some sexy abs (or arms, or legs).

My day today consisted of an important experiment- 
Hypothesis: Investigating the inverse relationship between optimal tasting dipping sauce for tater tots and least soggy-ness
Prep time: 5 minutes- experimental design
5 minutes- deciding which sauces to try
25 minutes for the damn tater tots to cook
15 minutes to eat all tater tots with different sauces
20 minutes to write this post
 
Experimental design:
Sriacha
Chili garlic sauce
Jack daniels BBQ sauce
 
Results:
Sriacha, sweetest of the 3, made tater tots most soggy over all taste ranking 2/3
Chili garlic sauce, best flavor, least sogginess, over all taste ranking 1/3
BBQ sauce, its just damn BBQ sauce...sigh.... smoky flavoring though. overall taste ranking 3/3
 
OK thats how I deal with anxiety after submitting my applications.

The anxiety is the worst part. I was never an anxious person before the waiting. Something productive to do would be to start composing thanks you notes to those who wrote you a LOR and if you planned on purchasing a small gift for them (starbucks gift card or something more personal) you can spend your time doing that.
 
The boomed. programs typically hear back sooner because the applicant pool is relatively large and they have to accommodate for about 3 different interview weekends so they have to plan early. Also because of the push for STEM education recently, a lot of those students are reaching graduate school age and those programs are busting at the seams. So I wouldn't feel like this is an accurate reflection of all programs.
 
Take time to read. I read a bunch of random stuff on how wine was made, how gin is made, how coffee is made, I read all about apple orchards in upstate new york and vermont and all about hiking new places, etc. Things I had always been interested in I read about. To keep me sane, but I was also genuinely interested in it for a long time and wanted to know more. 
 
Good luck!

Your definition of "embarrassing" is very skewed. 

For sure.  One of my letter writers actually told me that very few of her students ever got back to her with results after her letter was submitted.  I'm actually really looking forward to letting my letter writers know about my results.  I want them to know that both their letters and their mentorship helped me reach my goals

When I applied 2 years ago, I made some fudge for my LOR writers as a gift... I have two absolutely delicious recipes that everyone loves. One is a half peanut butter, half chocolate fudge and the other is pumpkin. I put the fudge in a nice wintery-themed tin that I found in the Christmas section at Walmart and gave them to my writers after all the letters were in. Well, almost. It was after I thought all the letters were in, but then I applied to some masters programs in February after I got a rejected from almost everywhere I applied. I also ended up giving them gifts when I graduated, but not just because they wrote me letters, but because they were some of the most influential and helpful people during my undergraduate career. They were actually pretty amusing gifts. I gave my advisor a book called "The very best totally wrong test answers" because he had the misfortune of having freshman repeatedly give him completely weird answers on exams (such as people inventing protons and Darwin being gay). To another, I gave a book with pictures of funny signs because he was always playing Weird Al music videos at the start of class and telling us goofy science jokes. I gave my third writer a somewhat serious gift of plush bird toys. He had some ratty old ones that he used to demonstrate how bird banding worked and get kids excited about birds when they came on field trips to the nature preserve he worked at, so I gave him new ones. Plus they sang when you squeezed them!
 
I'm not sure what I'll get them this time around. I like the idea of getting a mug from where I choose to go (assuming I get accepted!), and I could always fill it with something fun. I'm thinking of also getting something for my thesis committee members at the end of the year as well.

Yep. I'm getting a lot of "CONGRATULATIONS YOU'VE BEEN.... invited to an online open house session!" emails. How cruel....

I just wanted to throw something out there...it seems like a lot of people are "giving up" on schools because they didn't make the first round of interview invites. Unless you or someone you trust has called the school and the school has said, "That's it, there are no more invites to give!" then don't give up. Some schools don't send out rejections until later because they're waiting to see how the first round of interviews go and will send out interviews later.
 
I received an invite in March for a program that started sending invites in January. Don't give up hope!

Ugh the suspense is awful.... **Glimmer of hope still there**

You can use NIH reporter to look up PI's to determine how much funding they have from NIH grants. This is again, only specific to NIH grants and not private funding, departmental funding, etc.
 
I tell students this all the time, always ask future PI's "are you taking students" and when you get into the program and you are considering rotating ask what the current funding situation is, how many RO1's, do they currently have, are they applying for more RO1's, have previous students applied for pre-doctoral fellowships (NRSA's), is this encouraged in their lab, if so- are they willing to help you with this goal?
 
Lastly, it is terrifying how many students programs are taking without having enough funding. I worked at a large university where the program took 14 students one year and a lot of them had no where to go. They ended up in labs that were just starting up that had only startup funding and several of them dropped out. We also had a newer faculty member promise 2 students a spot in his lab but asked them to keep it a secret and he let other students rotate through thinking they had a spot available and he didn't. Always ask the PI how many students they are considering taking, are those spots actively available, etc. 
 
If you can, reach out to older students in the program who have rotated in the labs you are interested in (once you get in, you can ask around) ask them for their candid advice and set up rotations early. Nothing is more frustrating than a student walking into your office a week before or after rotations are to/were to begin needing a spot because they didn't think ahead.

I literally just asked this question and then got a call from them for an interview.

I sought PIs at some institutions, not all (I applied to 13), and have gotten invites to interview from institutions in both categories. I did not ask about their funding directly but did ask if they were considering taking graduate students in the upcoming year or two. I am unsure of what I want to study specifically (or what level) so I only applied to programs with mandatory lab rotations, however, with or without them I would have contacted some people. Hope this helps and good luck!!!

FWIW:
 
I only applied to institutions that had a PI that I established a rapport with (meaning that I had successful phone conversations with them). I did not ask directly about funding either--if PIs can't fund you, they cannot take in grad students. So I just asked if they were taking in students. I just feel weird mentioning a PI that I did not talk to beforehand.

I too have applied to some programs that require rotations, but most of mine admit students directly to a PI's lab and would therefore be funded under the PI from the get go.  I can see great value in the rotation system, but fear too much that I'll find a PI I want that, come to find out 1-2 years later, do not actually have sufficient funding.
 
 
I think there's no question that this is the best way to go.  I too have established rapport with all of my desired PIs short of a couple in the schools requiring rotations.  
 
Re: Funding - I currently work in a department that is a part of a rotation system for a biomed PhD program. It is shocking how many people find out after one year of rotations that there's not actually enough money to cover a student.  Furthermore, I've heard from numerous sources, including from programs at institutions more prestigious than my own, that it is important that before you start rotations or even when you interview that you be sure your POI can support you when the time comes. Beware of those PIs that are just looking to get a rotation's worth of free work out of you only to reject you later on the basis of limited funding.  Even with this said, I've also asked one potential PI (to whose lab I ended up not applying to) who said playfully, "That's in two years? How can I know if I can afford you then."  
 
Thanks for the replies... I'm interested in the mindset/"research-fit" element of the field

Thanks for all your answers!!
I finally plucked up the courage to ask. They quickly replied it would not be a problem, and in fact, that they have lots of vegetarians and vegans. 

It's way too early in the game to feel like this. I'm in a different field, but last year I heard of my first admission on Jan 25th. Be zen.

Your definition of "embarrassing" is very skewed. 

Hey guys, I took the GRE general test a couple of months ago, and got 160 on verbal and 167 on quantitive. Since I am an international student and hadn't taken any writing class by the time of the test, I got a pretty bad score, 3.0 on writing...  I am applying for the neuroscience phd program, I was wondering if the universities would really care about this because I am not applying for something like literature. Do I need to retake the test? I am applying for 2016 fall. Thanks!