phira

When I get my first acceptance, I will probably go out to a bar (whatever night of the week it is) with as many friends who are free for celebratory boozing. When I decide where I'm going? Sky-diving. FOR REALS. Oh, and celebratory boozing.

Eh, I wouldn't call the MBTA phenomenal after the week I've had on the T. Maybe it's phenomenal in theory, but not when you're sitting between two Green Line stops for 20 minutes, while you hear the conductors over the intercom trying to figure out what the problem is. It was a fun night! Just looking over some of the towns and cities mentioned. Billerica isn't a bad town if you're commuting to Methuen, but then if you're also commuting to the city, it's not great. Medford would be a good location, though; it's right on 93, it's easy to get places, and it's less undergrad-y than Somerville. Malden and Melrose are also good locations, and typically less expensive. As for the BU area, I live in Brookline with a BU grad student. Brighton/Allston tend to be very grad-student-y, and I avoided it intentionally. JP is a bit distant, and one of the downsides is the fact that the E train, which goes to JP, skips over Kenmore before joining up with the main line. You might have to do some walking or fancy bus transfers. A bike would make it all easier, though. Otherwise, I'd consider Brighton, Allston, certain areas of Brookline, and Cambridgeport (which as the advantages of typically easier parking and the Red Line!).

Albert Einstein College of Medicine: Jan 24-25 / Feb 14-15 Boston University School of Medicine CMB: Feb 14 BU (A&S) CMBB/CM: March 6-7 Brown MCB: Jan 27-30 / Feb 11-13 Brown-NIH GPP (Neuroscience): Feb 28-Mar 3 Columbia CMBS: Jan 21-23 / Jan 28-31 Duke: Feb 4-5 / Feb 18-19 Emory (Cancer Biology): March 3-5 Emory (Neuroscience): Feb 10-12; Feb 24-26 Florida State University Neuroscience: Feb 18-20 Georgetown(Tumor Bio) Jan 24/Feb 18 Gerstner Sloan-Kettering: Jan 18-20 Harvard BBS: Feb 10-13 / Feb 24-27 Indiana U IBMG: Feb 3-5 / ??? Johns Hopkins BCMB: Feb 17-20 Johns Hopkins--CMDB: February 10th-13th NYU Sackler Institute Biomedical Sciences: Jan 13-14 / Jan 20-21 / Feb 3-4 / Feb 10-11 OHSU Neuroscience: Feb 6-8 Rockefeller: Mar 3-5 / Mar 10-12 Stanford Biosciences (Chem/Systems Bio): March 3-5 Stony Brook Neuroscience: late January/early February?? The Scripps Research Institute: Feb 24-26 / Mar 3-5 U Alabama - Birmingham: Jan 13-15 UC Berkeley MCB: Feb 6-8/Feb 27- Mar 1 UC Irvine CMB: Jan 27-29 / Feb 3-6 UCLA ACCESS: Jan 29-31 / Feb 12-14 / Feb 26-28 UCSD Biomedical Sciences: Feb 17-20 UCSF TETRAD: Feb 3-5 / Feb 24-26 University of Chicago--Immunology: February 10th-12th U Georgia - Genetics: Jan 27-29 University of Iowa - Biology: February 17th-19th (second weekend sometime in March) U Maryland - Baltimore Neuroscience: Jan 21 / Feb 11 / Feb 18 University of Minnesota Neuroscience: March 3-6 UNC BBSP: Jan 27-29 / Feb 17-19 / ??? U Penn CAMB: Feb 3-5 University of Pittsburgh CNUP (Neuroscience): Jan. 27-29 or Feb. 3-5 USC PIBBS: Jan 13-14 University of Virginia Neuroscience: Feb. 3-5 or Feb. 24-26 University of Washington Immunology: Feb 17-19 / Feb 24-26 University of Washington Microbiology: Feb 13-15 / Feb 27-Mar 1 University of Washington Neurobiology and Behavior: Jan 18-19 / Jan 19-20 U Wisconsin Microbiology: Feb 3-6 / Feb 17-20 Wake Forest Neuroscience: Jan 13-15 Washington University in St. Louis Neuroscience (WashU/WUSTL): Jan 27-29 / Feb. 10-12 Watson School of the Biological Sciences: Jan 27-30 / Feb 3-6 Weill Cornell Immunology and Pathogenesis: Feb 16-18 Weill Cornell Allied: Feb 16-18

YEP, same here. "Huh, check this one out. Amazing letters of recommendation, great GRE scores, and really good research experience." "Yeah? So what's the problem?" "Look at this transcript. If she had just majored in Women's Studies, she'd have graduated summa." "That's good, right?" "Well, yeah, except this is a biomedical sciences PhD program, and she's only got one A-grade in any of her science classes." "Wow, those women's studies classes must have been easy." "I'll say! Oh, and then she talks about being a feminist in her SOP. TRASH." (And yes, it's all true. My WS GPA is something like 3.7, and my biology GPA is more like ... 2.9-3. But if you think it's because I'm bad at biology and that WS is easy, you'd be wrooooooong.)

I've lived in New England my entire life (born, raised, college, and now work--hopefully grad school, too), and I haaaaaate the snow. I don't necessarily want to move because of it; I like living in New England for a lot of reasons, and I also feel like something's wrong with the seasons if there isn't snow. But I guess I'll never understand the fascination with it that some people have. Like someone else mentioned, snow doesn't mean a snowday (although we've had two this winter--it's been pretty bad). For example, today, snow meant trying not to fall over while walking to the T to get to work. I'm still at work, putting off leaving, because it's raining now, and I know walking home will be pretty bad! And yeah, the snow gets dirty and crusty pretty quickly. As an undergrad at Tufts, I remember a lot of people who had never seen snow before, or never seen so much accumulation, were excited for snow, but then confused and nervous when they found out that we were going to have to walk up and down the hill in the stuff ... It's fun to see everyone in the south get snow days, though! That's so weird!

Albert Einstein College of Medicine: Jan 24-25 Boston University School of Medicine CMB: Feb 14 Brown-NIH GPP (Neuroscience): Feb 28-Mar 3 Columbia CMBS: Jan 21-23 / Jan 28-31 Duke: Feb 4-5 / Feb 18-19 Emory (Cancer Biology): March 3-5 Emory (Neuroscience): Feb 10-12; Feb 24-26 Georgetown(Tumor Bio) Jan 24/Feb 18 Gerstner Sloan-Kettering: Jan 18-20 Harvard BBS: Feb 10-13 / Feb 24-27 Indiana U IBMG: Feb 3-5 / ??? Johns Hopkins--CMDB: February 10th-13th NYU Sackler Institute Biomedical Sciences: Jan 13-14 / Jan 20-21 / Feb 3-4 / Feb 10-11 OHSU Neuroscience: Feb 6-8 Rockefeller: Mar 3-5 / Mar 10-12 Stanford Biosciences (Chem/Systems Bio): March 3-5 Stony Brook Neuroscience: late January/early February?? The Scripps Research Institute: Feb 24-26 / Mar 3-5 U Alabama - Birmingham: Jan 13-15 UC Irvine CMB: Jan 27-29 / Feb 3-6 UCLA ACCESS: Jan 29-31 / Feb 12-14 / Feb 26-28 UCSD Biomedical Sciences: Feb 17-20 UCSF TETRAD: Feb 3-5 / Feb 24-26 University of Chicago--Immunology: February 10th-12th U Georgia - Genetics: Jan 27-29 University of Iowa - Biology: February 17th-19th (second weekend sometime in March) U Maryland - Baltimore Neuroscience: Jan 21 / Feb 11 / Feb 18 University of Minnesota Neuroscience: March 3-6 UNC BBSP: Jan 27-29 / Feb 17-19 / ??? University of Pittsburgh CNUP (Neuroscience): Jan. 27-29 or Feb. 3-5 USC PIBBS: Jan 13-14 University of Virginia Neuroscience: Feb. 3-5 or Feb. 24-26 University of Washington Immunology: Feb 17-19 / Feb 24-26 University of Washington Neurobiology and Behavior: Jan 18-19 / Jan 19-20 Wake Forest Neuroscience: Jan 13-15 Washington University in St. Louis Neuroscience (WashU/WUSTL): Jan 27-29 Watson School of the Biological Sciences: Jan 27-30 / Feb 3-6 Weill Cornell Immunology and Pathogenesis: Feb 16-18 Weill Cornell Allied: Feb 16-18

I've been working as a tech at a research institute for a year and a half, and I have to work with mice all the time. Almost everyone has an animal model they're working on; you don't get a lot of funding (or great data!) from only in vitro work. Doing research involving animals is very tough, but it's necessary. There are very, very serious and specific rules and regulations involving animal research, though, to keep the animals happy, healthy, and free from pain (even when you do pain studies, the levels of pain allowed are very, very low). Believe me when I say that we do everything we can to avoid causing our animals any pain or discomfort. Even then, you'll see us apologizing to mice while we're giving injections or sac-ing them (or at least I was relieved to find I wasn't alone!). If you're really, really, really against in vivo experiments and animal models, and you absolutely would never be involved in that kind of work, then yeah, I'd say that I'd avoid studying most subfields of biology (I figure plant biology and maybe some population biology would be doable, but I do cell and molecular, so I wouldn't know). It'll be tough to avoid otherwise, unless you're ridiculously lucky.

Ugh, money. GRE once ($140) 17 GRE scores ($23 each) 14 transcripts ($3 each) 9 fees ($35-$105) Lots of mailing (~$62) So apparently I spent about $1215 on all this. It's much less than originally planned, when I had 19 schools instead of 10.

I think you'll be fine! I've got a 3.35 from a top-30 university, but if you look at my transcript, it's obvious that I struggled in my biology classes and excelled in women's studies. But I got excellent GRE scores (not as wow as yours, but close!), and I've been working in a lab for a year and a half and doing some great work. Everyone I've talked to has said that GPA is often the least important thing for a lot of schools. And since I've been invited to interview at the University of Chicago and Johns Hopkins, I guess that's true!

Columbia CMBS: Jan 21-23 / Jan 28-31 Duke: Feb 4-5 / Feb 18-19 Gerstner Sloan-Kettering: Jan 18-20 Indiana U IBMG: Feb 3-5 / ??? Johns Hopkins--CMDB: February 10th-13th NYU Sackler Institute Biomedical Sciences: Jan 13-14 / Jan 20-21 / Feb 3-4 / Feb 10-11 Rockefeller: Mar 3-5 / Mar 10-12 Stanford Biosciences (Chem/Systems Bio): March 3-5 The Scripps Research Institute: Feb 24-26 / Mar 3-5 U Alabama - Birmingham: Jan 13-15 UC Irvine CMB: Jan 27-29 / Feb 3-6 UCLA ACCESS: Jan 29-31 / Feb 12-14 / Feb 26-28 UCSD Biomedical Sciences: Feb 17-20 UCSF TETRAD: Feb 3-5 / Feb 24-26 University of Chicago--Immunology: February 10th-12th U Maryland - Baltimore Neuroscience: Jan 21 / Feb 11 / Feb 18 UNC BBSP: Jan 27-29 / ??? / ??? USC PIBBS: Jan 13-14 University of Washington Immunology: Feb 17-19 / Feb 24-26 Wake Forest Neuroscience: Jan 13-15 Washington University in St. Louis Neuroscience (WashU/WUSTL): Jan 27-29 Weill Cornell Immunology and Pathogenesis: Feb 16-18 University of Pittsburgh CNUP (Neuroscience): Jan. 27-29 or Feb. 3-5 University of Virginia Neuroscience: Feb. 3-5 or Feb. 24-26