lab ratta-tat-tat

I keep saying this over and over, but where you do your PhD doesn't matter as much as where you do your post-doc studies and who you post-doc under. What matters is that you get into a program where you feel you fit well and under a professor who is going to work well with you and push you. A surprising number of the professors that are leaders in their field aren't even at these institutions, and most of them didn't study at top institutions, either. You need to be aiming for decent laboratory groups, specifically schools which have at least 3-4 professors you would be interested in working under as well (and who are likely to take students) as well as a program structure that you like. What will matter will be the work that you turn out as a student.
 
That said, my opinion is that you DO need to have your feet wet in research if a research-related PhD is what you're after. The adcoms want to know that you have an idea of what you're getting into by going to graduate school, and they also want to know that you're a little experienced in the process. People who don't know what the true research experience entails sometimes wash out really quickly. They want you to be making and informed decision... graduate school, especially in the sciences, is not easy. It is difficult, and sometimes impossible to maintain a schedule like our normal, 9-5 friends do. I'm telling you this as I'm sitting in my lab, on a Saturday, waiting for samples.
 
Honestly, any research experience is important. Anything that puts you into a wet lab (if that's your interest) and has you working with samples, running experiments, and most importantly, troubleshooting and being able to go down an altered path without going crazy when things don't work, is going to help you. You say that there are no labs doing things you're interested in... but maybe they're doing things you're slightly interested in. Perhaps one of the neuroscience labs is doing something with genetic markers for neurodegenerative disease or obesity... Both of those are huge disease where we know little about the biomarkers involved. You may surprise yourself and really love your project. I came from a cancer/epigenetics research background and joined a metabolism/neuro lab, and I love it. I thought I had a specific area I wanted to work in. Be willing to try new things!
 
I'm not sure what you are thinking of when you say "significant" research experience. For me, that is amount of time and productivity. I had 4 years undergrad lab experience, 2 years masters, with publications in prep, but 90% of applicants aren't going to have that. If you just want to get your feet wet, I'd say minimum 6 months to 1 year working on a defined project in a single lab. Many of the applicants I interviewed with (at universities considered top 25) had at least 2 years, or at least a year and a summer REU. For a graduate school application in the top 50, I would aim for a minimum of a year if you can get it. If you can't get into a lab or get a summer research opportunity elsewhere, I would consider taking a year break to work in a lab as a technician before applying to graduate school.
 
Keep in mind this is my personal opinion that research is absolutely required for admission. However, I don't know any students in the programs I interviewed at who had no lab research experience. I did not interview at top 5 institutions, but I did interview at top 25 and one top 50 institution.

Guess here:
 
It sounds safe to say something along the lines of "among other things, I am interested in the work that has resulted from the collaboration between Prof. X and Profs Y and Z (or vice versa, when applying to Univ Y)." That shows that you know what's going on and you give it as one of many reasons why school X/Y is great for you. 
 
It may be presumptuous to assume that you would be included in that collaboration, so I would not say anything about "looking forward to collaborating with Prof Y+Z at Univ Y" unless it is somehow very clear that it's something students can expect to do while at school X (and vice versa, again), and for the same reason I would avoid giving it as a main reason why school X is a good fit or emphasizing it too much. If the main reason you can think of is a collaboration with Y, then (an adcom would reason) you should go study there. 

If a school wants to pressure you to make a response to them prior the april 15th deadline I'd highly question their motive.
For many of my interviews (even the ones that had multiple weekends) I received an offer of acceptance within maybe 1-2 weeks.  
i waited to finish all my interviews before I made my decision, but was prioritizing and ranking as I went.  
I still made my final decision about a month before the April 15th deadline.
 
every school would love to know prior to april 15th, if they signed the resolution that is about where it stops in what they can do.  If they didn't then I guess they can do whatever they want but again, why?

One thing that constantly comes up is all of the applicants applying to "top" schools, then freaking out.
Are you sure a"top" school is the right fit for you? have you considered other schools not on the ivy league radar???
Some of the "mid level" or middle of the road programs have the most funding per PI and in their departments. Their students end up in top notch labs for their post doc and eventually end up being faculty members them selves. I am so f***ing tired of hearing everyone whine around about "top" programs. Maybe its not the best fit for you, look around, you will be devoting the next 7 years of your life to the program, you better like it, all of it, regardless of status.

One thing that constantly comes up is all of the applicants applying to "top" schools, then freaking out.
Are you sure a"top" school is the right fit for you? have you considered other schools not on the ivy league radar???
Some of the "mid level" or middle of the road programs have the most funding per PI and in their departments. Their students end up in top notch labs for their post doc and eventually end up being faculty members them selves. I am so f***ing tired of hearing everyone whine around about "top" programs. Maybe its not the best fit for you, look around, you will be devoting the next 7 years of your life to the program, you better like it, all of it, regardless of status.

Like I said, a dress is fine in that it is not inappropriate and if it makes YOU feel confident, then go for it. I just saw only one or two people in dresses across all of my interviews and if being dressed differently would make you feel uncomfortable, then you may want to wear slacks. I've heard professors say they find skirts or slacks more professional but I don't think that would impact your acceptance and obviously varies between interviewers. 
 
Also, please take my temperature suggestions with a grain of salt. I'm from the Bahamas and the worst thing I can imagine is being cold all day. I was pretty darn freezing in my pants and jacket and couldn't really imagine doing it all in a dress or skirt...but then again I'm always cold. 

I think glow gene is just saying you may feel out of place- since other female applicants will wear a skirt, or pants of some type. It is cold, you will be walking around all day. You can wear a dress if you want, it doesn't differ from a skirt that much. In my experience, I saw more women wearing pants than dress/skirts because of the weather and not all buildings are heated to what you may be comfortable in. Additionally, women in skirts/dresses screams "I'm an applicant" and thats fine. If you are more comfortable wearing a dress, wear it. I love dresses- I wear them with tights in the winter, love them. I also am honest with my self and realize sometimes, it's cold and I know when I am cold i am uncomfortable and not my normal chatty and focused self. At this late stage in the game, there is no room for error and i wasn't ready to let temperature stand between me being myself and me looking nice but being cold and coming off aloof.
 
Also, I know several male professors who keep their offices extremely cold! Not because they are jerks but honestly, they swear it makes them more productive. You will be entering other peoples workspaces and you should just be comfortable in what you are wearing all day.
 
Good luck!

It's going to be tough to find any programs which haven't passed their deadline yet. 
 
My advice is to find a backup option. Look for a job. See how you do this year, I think you have a decent mix of programs. If you do find one with a later deadline, you can get the materials together, and you are interested in the research they do by all means apply. But, the approach of applying everywhere is generally not the best. PhD programs are looking for who will be a good fit, not just who has been a good student in the past.
I'm a first year PhD student at the University of Vermont. I'm still working on rotations. But, our deadline has passed.

Much of this was learned when I returned to finish my undergrad degree when I was in my mid 40's 
  #1 - the school let you in, that means that they think you will succeed, if they believe in you, believe in yourself #2 - talk to your advisor early & often #3 - check out whatever services your school has for non traditional students #4 - learn to adjust #5 - create a work area for yourself    most important - remember to have fun

I think there's a bit of selection bias here. Those who are more likely to apply for a large number of programs are likely the same type of person who will sign up for a graduate student forum. Personally, when I applied the cost scared me off. Hell, I applied to 4 universities because that's the number of free scores I could send when I did the GRE.

I am a current student at NYU Sackler. For anyone anxious about getting an interview invite, the invites are sent out in waves. I received my invite last year on January 5th or 6th I think. First wave went out around Christmas.
Good luck to everyone!

Thanks to TedBlinsky for reminding that there are people who haven't had a single invite yet. I happen to have applied unsuccessfully for 2 seasons now, and am still waiting for a single interview invite on this current 3rd attempt.
 
It's rough seeing too much about those first world too many interview problems.

Think this is a really good point.  I have my figners crossed for you this year!

i see what you're saying but i think you have to understand that a large amount of people that come here are nuts about applying to graduate school and they signed up because they really really want it (me included). so when you read about other people complaining about overlaps or interviews i sort of feel like this is a problem most people wish they had (again, myself included) and that maybe they should enjoy the burden of having the choice rather than not getting interviews at all.

january 5th the adcoms come back and have a meeting, and anything after january 6th is the approximate time you will hear back.
It is really annoying how much time people take off for the holidays.

Playing video games is a surefire way of keeping you busy enough. Especially in single-player campaigns where the estimated completion time is around ~40 hours or so... Or is that too childish for a sophisticated young adult who has aspirations about going to graduate school and changing the way we look at a particular field?

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.

books, lots of books!
I read books for leisure and did not allow myself to read one scientific book... although I broke the rules by reading the madam curie complex.... but that was not on par with the typical scientific papers I read.
 
read books, read the new york times. I read how different hard ciders were made, like different hard apple ciders and pear ciders, just for fun. I still have the knowledge today but it was a fun and interesting way to pass the time. I also learned how different roasts of coffee were made and how the caffeine content varies between dark and light roasts. 
 
At first I thought " I am going to exercise a lot" then a month in I did nothing, because I was afraid I would miss a phone call from an adcom member. I gained about 15 pounds doing nothing. Then i started working out and was like "I am going to get in the best shape of my life" and I did! 
 
Enjoy the limbo time in between, you won't have many more opportunities like this in life.

My current PI went to a community college for the first 2 years of undergrad and then an unknown school for the rest of undergrad and ended up a top 10 grad school in his field. He's in his late 30s so it wasn't that long ago. I don't think that transfer students are a disadvantage at all, as long as you did well at the university after transferring and found research opportunities and all.

I know I'm alive cause I'm anxious.  

OK. So I finally broke down and went to the local bookstore and bought Murakami's Strange Library and Tartt's Goldfinch. I almost added Catton's The Luminaries to the pile as well. I think these two should keep me occupied for a bit...if I finish them within a week or two, there's always War and Peace. 

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.

I have to agree with the other replies...what is your goal here?
 
If you want to do research, you don't need a PhD, plenty of foreign MDs do research in the US. What you should apply for is a post-doc, fellowship, or even a staff scientist position somewhere to gain experience and then use that to apply for faculty positions.
 
If you want to practice medicine in the US, you obviously need to do residency here. My fear is that you're trying to use the PhD to establish yourself in the US as a springboard to a residency application. If that's your ultimate goal, don't waste a school's time as it will be obvious you don't care about the degree and they won't want to deal with you. I worked with a fair number of IMGs at my old job and ALL of them were just in the lab to polish their CV for residency; it was clear they didn't give two shits about our experiments or the conclusions. Don't be that person.

First of all, I am sorry you are going through this.
I had a close friend go through this recently and he told his advisor (who is also the director of the program) about his divorce because he was married to another student in the program and they worked on the same floor, and he wanted to be upfront about the issue.
If your divorcing someone who happens to be in your program I would let your advisor know. Also, when my friend went through this, his advisor was super supportive and another student in the same lab (Female) was also going through a divorce (not to someone married in the program) and the advisor (male) knew about that as well and asked each of them what type of mentorship they thought they might need during this stressful time. They both said they would need their PI to be more hands on an continue to push them (as they were both 6th year grad students) and he did help them out with no judgement.
bottom line- 
it depends on your specific situation.
it depends on your relationship with your mentor.
 
Good luck and focus on your goals!

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.