-Star-

I'm in molecular and cellular biology.

I JUST ( seconds ago) received an email. Got "alternate"/"honorable mention" ... Still a little hope, but I doubt all that many people turn down funding. I hope you got an email too! (And wish you better luck than I had.)

Okay then. I suppose I can wait another week!! Thanks!

Has anyone heard anything about this?

Congrats!

I think that this is dependent on the program and the school. I know there are several schools/programs where your PhD stipend is NOT negotiable and all the students, regardless of the year receive the same stipend from the school. (Though, this may change if you personally are bringing in outside money such as an NSF grant, and most schools will pay you to TA above your required hours if you have any.)

I'm really sorry you feel that badly. I agree that you should try to make time to do other things that make you happy. Even if you go outside (outside of lab or actually outside) bring a timer and just read something non science for an hour during the day. Are there any other grad students around that you are close with? I am only finishing up my second year, but I wouldn't get through most days without a friend of mine. As for your project, is there another person on your committee you could go to for suggestions? You seemed to say/imply that your adviser wasn't all that helpful, maybe another committee member could be? I also agree that talking about your project with others might give you some ideas as to what is going on. It could just be something really silly like the water used to make the reagents has a varying pH that for some reason for what you are testing is really important. Honestly I would try to cut back on lab time a little and do other things you enjoy sometimes. I know each lab is different and expectations are different, but adding hours to your work day isn't going to help if you are too burnt out to get anything productive done. I'm sure you know you aren't the only one who feels this way, but it is a hard thing to deal with. I hope you can figure out how to feel better.

I don't have tons of knowledge on the subject, but you look like you are doing well so far (aside from the problem with recommendations). I think the recommendation situation seems tough, but low profile great recommendations and usually better than high profile mediocre ones. I would look into the GRE requirements for some schools and make the decision about taking them then. I'm not sure exactly where (geographically) you planned on looking so I don't know what the requirements would be. G'luck

They must be required/mandatory school supplies. If you just happen to want to buy a computer/printer/notebooks/etc, it is still taxable. If you are required to buy a text book for a class, then it is not taxable.

As a second year, I'm out. Oh well, it was a good try and at least no one said my whole application and project are crap I'm going to call it a win and get my ass working on my qualifying exam. edit *I found my email in my spam folder as well* I got a similar comment. My undergraduate academic background essentially is crap, but is expected give [X things I wrote about why my UG sucked]. Then I got that my graduate career is fabulous. I ended up with VG/VG G/E ... I was just hoping that my undergraduate grades (which are from 7 years ago) would be out weighed by my two papers, 5 years of research experience before grad school, and good letters. Such is life! I didn't get a third either, and it seems that applications with "worse" "scores" than my did. But I'm going to guess that it has to do with which discipline you applied to. G'luck next year!! Congrats again to everyone, G'luck to those applying next year, and to those who are out of the game ... there are always other fellowships to apply for

bah. Well congrats to all the winners Night.

Yea so ... I had told a classmate that we'd know after fastlane went down. THEN I somehow distracted myself with homework and forgot about it. So, of course she texted me to let me know it was down. NOW I'm in panic mode. PANIC!!!!!!!! AHHHH!!!!!! (yup thought I'd share)

And really, we are all sitting here obsessively refreshing this page ... whats another web page?

Saaaammmmeeeee HERE.

Sigh, Well, one less thing to be anxious about. My NIH NSRA application was "not discussed" so ... strike one. I wish they would hurry up with this thing so I can move on to more ... productive? matters!