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Mneme

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Everything posted by Mneme

  1. Hey! Anyone attending this fall (or rotating this summer)?
  2. Statistics - 1.5 It's not a bad department...if I wanted to pursue statistics. I'm not terribly fond of my cohort.
  3. So, I'm in my 2nd of graduate school in a Statistics program and I still hate it. Background: I wanted to pursue bioinfomatics/comp bio for graduate school but none of the programs accepted me. I also applied to two graduate programs in biostatistcs because in my naivete I thought they were somewhat similar (never making that mistake again). I got into biostat oriented programs but neither offered any concrete promise of funding so I took the offer that was in my homestate due to lower in-state tutition. Luckily, I got funded my second semester. Over the summer, I had an amazing opportunity to work in bioinformatics lab and I loved it. I've always loved research but I've always worked on the wetlab side of things, so it was nice to have validation that yes, I do actually like this and I want to do research in it. Problem: My department, while trying to amp up their interdisciplinary work, is very traditional statistics. My academic advisor interests are solely statistics and nothing else (it was battle convincing her that taking analysis would be beneficial even though it's not a stat class). Her main response when I described to her the research that I did over the summer was "Did you do any statistics?", which was somewhat disheartening. That along with the fact that I honestly can't see myself working with anyone in the department on a thesis on statistics. My department, while trying to amp up their interdisciplinary work, is very traditional. That being said, the head of the department set up me up with a PI at the medical school (our dept does consulting sometimes with them) who is doing work in bioinformatics and has funding. Intially, I was thrilled and after 3 months of the PI being MIA, I finally met him this month. He is the single most flakiest individual I have ever met. He was an hour late for our meeting and during said meeting he dither about money for like 10 minutes and we didn't discuss a single things about the project. And then he tells me that he has an offer from another university that he's considering taking but he hasn't decided yet. I can't really get out of this since um, the head of the department thinks this is a done deal and quite frankly I rather not go against the head of my department... But, I'm honestly not terribly happy here. I don't like the environment. It's a bit too "purist" for me. And this PI is making worried. The problem is I want my doctorate. But I really don't know how it's going to look with me dropping out with a masters and reapplying.
  4. Year 2...still hating this. =_=

  5. I have funding and I still hate what I'm doing...

  6. Within 24 hours, my department magically found funding for me and I'm 95% confident I have a position for this summer O_O

  7. I still have no funding. My interests are not the most compatible with my department. I'm doing reasonable well academically but I'm apathetic. The first-years advisor has never advised before (they just switched advisors last August) and I'm feeling lost, confused and frustrated.
  8. ...and classes start next week and I'm really not motivated. =_=

  9. ...and my undergrad advisor forgot to submit her letter of rec for NSF...FML How am I going to pay for this?? T_T

    1. singlecell

      singlecell

      What a nightmare... sorry to hear that :(

  10. Note to self: DO NOT WRITE NSF RESEARCH PROPOSAL TWO DAYS BEFORE IT'S DUE *headdesk*

  11. To put it bluntly, poor. I speak from experience. That being said, a post-bac/moderate to extensive research experience + strong letters + strong SOP can offset that. What exactly are you trying to go into?
  12. The thing is I do want my doctorate. I just don't know for what I want to do if I'm going the right way about it? Statistical methods are useful in bioinformatics, but my undergrad degree was in mathematics. My computer science background isn't as strong and my department doesn't have a strong/any computational aspect.
  13. I was only accepted into two schools, neither of them offered funding but I could get in-state tuition at the school I'm at now and there was a new joint biostat program with the medical school (which was the reason I applied in the first place), so I thought that was a strong connection there. Unfortunately, that's not the case. My current program isn't bad, if I wanted to do solely statistics. And there were faculty doing bioinformatics research in relation to statistics but most of them have left and/or switched fields.
  14. So, I'm a first year student in a statistics doctoral program but I plan on pursuing research in bioinformatics which is my actual interest. I'm trying to figure out whether I should stick it out and look for post-doctoral positions in bioinformatics or whether I should stop at a masters and get some work experience/reapply. I hate it right now. I'm doing moderately well classes-wise but I don't really care about the material. I enjoy learning and I realize the material I'm learning will be useful eventually and I'm glad I'm back in school but I hate it. I have minimal to no interest in the research being done in the department. On top of that, I'm completely unfunded, which may be influencing the hate right now. Advice?
  15. Still no funding. FML. *takes out NSF app*

  16. Department orientation. Not bad. Still not convinced about program but lets get through 1st semester. ^_^

    1. msafiri

      msafiri

      Awww, what are you worried about?

  17. I'm curious about this as well with a small difference. Suppose the student is receiving absolutely NO funding from their PhD program drops out with a non-terminal MS, works for like a year or so and then applies to a new PhD program. Would that still be considered unethical?
  18. So, I was accepted to UMBC Statistic program for PhD and UNC Biostatistics MS program (with possible segway into PhD program). Both without funding. I talked to UMBC and they were like, "we *may* have funding open up but you're not on the top list." T_T UNC response was "We're giving Professor CV's to figure out if there's RA available if things match up." >_< So, I have no idea what I'm going to do. Help?
  19. I have a phone interview in half an hour with a biostatistics department. Any quick tips? This was utterly out of the blue. *starts panicking*
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