PathMicro

TA'ing isn't as bad as givnig a presentation to your peers. You'll realize that you have the authority in the class you TA (as long as the professor isn't in class as well). When you give presentations or seminars you some times have to worry about somebody in the audience knowing more than you about the subject and asking crazy specific questions that you aren't prepared for, but when you TA the students don't know nearly as much as you, and most don't care enough to ever ask questions. I also think that failure isn't a death sentence at all. Your school might have the students do evaluations like they do with professors, but they often do not matter at all. You won't get kicked out of your program for not being the best TA.

My financial aid package stated one amount for fall and spring combined and then an additional amount for the summer, so I'm assuming I'm going to be in/at school for the entire year. So, I was wondering if anybody could provide info about breaks for grad students? I know it probably varies by program, but for example do any of your programs allow time off for winter or spring beak, or any time off in the summer? Any help is appreciated.

Damn that does sound nice. I already signed my lease for the grad housing, but I think the housing is only for first year students anyway. I'm hoping that I can find people to room with during my first year and then move off campus for the rest of my time.

Off campus is significantly less than ~660/mo including utilities? I haven't done much looking but could you reference some apartments that are a good deal but not in a bad place/bad apartments? I would love to live off campus because the graduate housing does look awfully small.

Oh I forgot to put the stipend amount. It's 24k for the calendar year. I also just got an internship for the summer doing microbiology near home, so I should easily have enough money saved for the first month. I think I like the idea of the graduate housing because it ensures my heating etc bills will be constant throughout the year. But yea, is 24k/year going to go far in Troy?

Damn, guess I should save up for the first month's expenses. Moving, rent, food, anything else big that I'm forgetting?

I know that it probably varies by school/program, but I was wondering if anybody know about the pay schedule for TA/RA stipends? As in, are they like monthly, twice monthly, at the beginning of the month, the end of the month, etc. Thanks.

I'm going to be attending RPI for graduate school, and I was wondering if anybody could post any information about the area. I know that there was already a topic created, but that was around 5 years old I think and if I recall they just built a brand new biotechnology building that I'd be really interested in hearing about. I'd also like to hear about the graduate housing offered by the school. Would it be good to live there, or would it be better to live off campus? Also, how essential would a car be for living in the Troy/Albany area? And lastly, is the stipend enough to live fairly decently off of? Any help is greatly appreciated, Thank you.

I have decided to accept the offer. I figure that it is better to take a guaranteed spot in a Ph.D. program with a stipend than try to find a job that pays a little better and then attempt to get into a different program. I also talked to my undergrad adviser, and he had actually been to the school multiple times and said it's a really great program. And I also like to travel, so moving a little more than 1,000 miles should be pretty exciting.

I've got until the 22nd to give them a response

Well I have an update for those interested. I got offered funding from the school that admitted me. The funding covers tuition waiver + stipend for a TA position. However, I'm having a really hard time deciding whether or not to go. From what I understand, the department at the school is pretty small, and chances are my research wouldn't be in pathogenic microbiology. The alternative is to take a year off of school, get a job as a research/lab tech, and then apply to schools next year. My thinking is basically that I could get into schools that I would rather go to if I had more experience.

Also, is it common for a school to accept somebody for a Ph.D. program without an interview? I actually would have really liked to interview because I think that's a good opportunity for me to learn about their program as well, so I was disappointed.

Well, I got accepted into one of the programs, but the chair of the department sent me an e-mail stating that there wasn't enough funding for me, but that some may open up throughout the month. I'm basically gonna take that as a wait-list, because I'm not going without funding obviously. Glad I got accepted though, tells me that next year I ought to stand a decent chance at admittance, especially if I improve my scores and experience. Still haven't heard anything from the other school. Also I looked into the REU and SPUR programs and I think that it is too late for both of them, which is disappointing. Honestly, though, if I don't get into a program this year I would actually kind of enjoy taking a year out of school to get a job and make some money.

Hey everybody, thanks for all the help and suggestions. What schools have good micro programs? I've been trying to find specific professors from some schools that do research in pathogenic microbes, or even really in microbiology in general that I'd be interested in doing research in. US News and Rankings(I think) had Stanford ranked #1 in biology and #2 in microbiology, but I looked through their faculty research interests and very few of them were interested in microbiology, and even then none of them did research on human pathogens. Also, do a lot of professors look for summer intern/lab techs? I would love to spend a summer as an intern or lab tech for a research lab, but I don't even know where to look to find openings. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Well I'm mostly interested in pathogenic bacteria, but in all honestly I would love to do research on any pathogenic microbe. I'm also really interested in Plasmodium, probably mostly due to a lot of my professors saying that with shifts in climate malaria will hit the U.S. sometime in the (near?) future. I don't know much about eukaryotic microbes, though so I'd have to do some research into that. Currently I'm a senior and I applied to 2 programs. I had never heard of RPI but they sent me one of those "recruitment" letter with a fee waiver and whatnot so I applied. FSU sent me the same kind of letter and and after some e-mail correspondence with somebody there, they said I stood a good chance at getting accepted, so I decided to apply. I did this all pretty hastily because I got a pretty late jump on the application process because I didn't really know what I wanted to do after I graduated. I applied to both very near to the deadlines (late Dec-early Jan) and haven't heard anything back from either. I'm not too worried about getting in this year, because of my lack of experience. I figure it would better suit me to just take a year and get research experience somewhere and increase my GRE (I'm pretty certain I could get close to an 800 if I went about it like I should have). I figure with more experience and a better GRE score my chances would be a lot better for getting into a good microbiology program. My dream schools are either WashU (great school and I'm from near St. Louis) or Stanford, Yale, or Harvard. I don't know if I really even stand a chance at any of these schools ever, but I'd really like to go.