aberrant

Because you are looking at those top-tier programs, 2 years full-time is about the same as 4 years part-time (20 hours/week), which is what a lot of competitive students do when they are undergraduates in the U.S. I know a few people started doing research when they are in junior/senior in high schools, or 1 to 2 years before going to college in the U.S. Subject GRE is recommended / strongly recommended, but not required. Therefore, technically you don't have to submit it if you don't want to. If you have read posts from previous application cycles in the forum, quite a lot of students got into these schools without a subject test score. Yet, my perspective is that a good subject GRE score will help your chances, and a poor score will hurt. Therefore, my take is "play it safe" -- know the subject GRE score before sending it out, even if ETS offers it "free to send the report to 4 schools".

I think that you're on the edge of getting in. If your research interest fits with this faculty member, show interest in her work, and willing to commit to this particular PI, then she will "be your ally" and try to get your accepted by the school, and bring you under her wings. On the other hand, if she figured that you two aren't a good match, you probably have to wait longer to see if anyone turns down any offers (if there is a waitlist or such thing), or you might getting a rejection letter (if there isn't a waitlist). ps. Since her lab is 3 years old, she might also be an assistant professor rather than a professor switched from another school as she bring up the "commitment" in the discussion (if she is a professor, she probably would have a few students from her previous institution, so "commitment" on new students should be less of an issue.) Assistant professors tend to have lesser funding than established professors, hence, every single dime needs to be carefully spend, including making right investment such as recruiting good graduate researchers / students. A poor investment may potentially cost her tenure. and that's just my speculation.

In a long run, regardless what discipline it is, to go to academia, you'll just need to do research and getting publish even without a PhD (e.g. MD). As a result, you'll have to build yourself up from doing what a MD would do PLUS research, before reaching any admin positions in academia-related settings. You can look up these program directors (and whoever established in these fields) and look at their CV for their background. Multiple friends of mine are in dental school, pharmacy schools, and medical schools, but none of them are doing any basic/translational research since their undergraduate studies. As far as I've been told, in general, they go to classes everyday from a couple hours (e.g. 8-12 pm) and everyday the lecture covers multiple chapters (in pharm/med school). Hence, they spend a lot of time to study, with a couple hours a week to "be social"/bond with their class/schoolmates. The details of the curriculum can be found in any med/pharm/dental school programs, and I would recommend you to google it since I'm almost certain that their curriculum by 3rd year and graduation requirements are very different (e.g. pharmacy students need to accumulate X amount of hours internship in pharmacy store and etc. prior graduation.) I personally find it "more chill" going into grad school in STEM field compare to my friends, simply because classes are less important (to us than to professional school students) and, while depends on your PI in the lab, our work schedule in the lab can be pretty flexible. I know a few people/friends who like to going into the lab late and go home in early morning (I was one of those), and some PIs don't really care as long as you get things done/your research is progressing. Obviously though, it's not a very healthy lifestyle and discouraging intellectual communication in the lab since you might be the only person in the lab after 9 / 10 pm. I'm not sure what do you mean by "work-life balance" in your first post. As far as I know, MD is almost always 24/7 on-call. While DDS isn't, you might have to be 24/7 if you run your own dental clinic (from my experience living with my uncle during a holiday break) in order not to lose any customers.

you are all over the place. i highly doubt that your non-research experience can compensate your lacking of research experience in academic lab setting. therefore, even if you'll write great SOP/PS and get strong LOR, you'll just need to start working in a research lab for at least a year before you apply to grad school, as I never heard of anyone got into any graduate school with research experience less than a year and a half, not to mention highly-ranked schools (not necessarily top-tier programs). http://www.thegradcafe.com/survey/index.php?q=yale+neuroscience&t=a&o=&pp=250 http://www.thegradcafe.com/survey/index.php?q=harvard+neuroscience&t=a&o=&pp=250 looking at the list, you might be underestimating the competitiveness for getting into these programs.

Quick correction: Cal Poly is part of the Cal State system and many Cal State schools do not offer PhDs, with MS as the terminal degree in their home institutions.

You mean "scores are important... but that does not mean you have high chances"? As a current international grad student who's applied some of those schools on your list, your stats look great. What you need now is strong recommendation letters and SOP/PS, besides your GRE score. Remember that a good GRE scores may not necessarily grant you admission to these schools, a poor GRE scores can hurt your application, especially as an international student. Your age should not be a problem when it comes to grad school application. 2 years full-time seems minimal since you have completed a master program (I assumed it was a thesis program), maybe more research experience will help you out. You can expect that public schools in California accept fewer international students compare to private schools, or schools outside of CA, with UCSF as one of the most competitive schools to get in as an international applicant.

Just out of curiosity, what do you guys consider "cheap"? For I pay money for saving time to buy the ingredients, cook, and washing dishes

I think you should go ahead and e-mail those schools regarding your application status / admission decision. 睇唻你係一個數學神人喎. lol.

I see that you've made 2 threads @ tgc that you get little responses. if you search the city name in the forum, you'll see this post. "Shreveport Louisiana- (I did my undergrad here) It's virtually impossible to not own a car. There are virtually no walkable sidewalks. And it gets to be a billion degrees in the summer, making being outside pretty brutal. The winters can be rainy and cold and icy. Get a car."

I don't know how did you present yourself to this new postdoc, so I'm unsure if I can answer this particular question. Here is my experience though (ps. I didn't come to the U.S. until 6 years ago, for college.): 1. When I was an undergrad, my lab consisted of largely asian researchers even though my advisor isn't. I communicate with a couple others (who are from the same home country) mostly in our mother tongue, but English when we talk about science and when there is at least one person in the lab who doesn't speak our mother tongue. Your concern was reflected by one of my former colleague, that my former advisor asked us to communicate in English at all time during lab work. We did for most of the time, but not quite after work hours and talk about unimportant things. Following the same principle, even if there are one or two of my former colleagues would speak my advisor's mother tongue, my advisor always speak / responds in English when the conversation occurs in the lab. 2. Lab that I'm working in: ~75% of the population are native speakers of this official language of my home country (not my mother tongue) including my boss. My boss speaks in English at all time, even though the remaining of the 75% (75% - my boss) of my colleagues communicate in this language when they talk to each other. While I couldn't care less what they talk about in the lab, through one of a couple casual conversations, they understand that 1) I can understand most of the things they said/say, but 2) I prefer to speak in English. Therefore, I openly "invite" them to feel free and speak in their mother tongue have we ever converse, but I would respond in English. My colleagues totally understand where I come from, hence there is no communication problem, especially in science since they have learned specific terms in English (as fuzzylogician questioned/suggested). I would say focus on your study (science) and screen out things that do not contribute to your work. If situation like this is an issue that bothers you a lot, then bring it to your boss and ask for her advise. If there is a science question that you need to talk to your colleagues, maybe a few words from that language will improve your communication efficiency with them (while help them to learn those words in English). I wouldn't bring race to the follow-up discussion mentioned above. There's not much valid discussion on why one is preferred over the other.

i largely agree with what synorg and Quantum Buckyball said. Personally, I took 4-6 weeks off in the summer / transition between undergrad and grad school. My program started 3-4 weeks early prior to the fall semester began to pick up new techniques, instrumentation, and so forth at the core facility. I considered myself a pretty flexible and adaptive person, hence I didn't come to my current location 2 days before my program begin. Taking time off allows me to recharge for the next couple years to work as a lab slave, assuming I can't take a month long break after qual exam.

I'm sorry to hear about your situation. It is even worse than getting kicked out from a lab imo (largely because you did absolutely no wrong in this case, without any evidence.) I'm not sure if it can be generalize, as it may depends on the field. but from the school that I went to (big state public school), if one is tenured (e.g. a science, tenured faculty member), he/she cannot be fired for any reasons but breaking the law/committing a crime. If a lab has to collapsed due to zero funding, that PI would be rearranged to a management-focus position in my alma mater (hence there is such a thing called "coating"). When you said +15 years, does that included some years when she was a post-doc / lecturer in your school, before being an assistant professor? (a.k.a, what's her title?) I don't think it is a money issue, unless you are going to some top-notch private schools that require all their PIs in the program to have some million dollars of funding every year (never heard of such a thing tho). otherwise, the whole thing makes no sense (to me anyway). Maybe discuss this with your PI, then your dissertation committee?

Try here http://forum.thegradcafe.com/forum/29-biology/

Like fuzzylogician, I, at one point, used prepaid plan for over a year (not monthly payment, but deposit money into your account and use your minutes when necessary.) Coupling with wifi (at home, at school, at lab, etc.) and many free apps for texting and calling, I used no more than $40 in 12 months.

The neighborhood is safe in general, for most of the people who live in La Jolla/UTC area are usually professionals, students, or retired. I found it common that some people jogging around the UTC area in early morning. I used to work until 2 or 3 am and I would walk home from campus (2.3 miles, 30 minutes power + jaywalk). However, if you have never been living in big cities, you may find that most housing in the nearby area is not quite affordable. A 1 bedroom apartment is roughly $1100 - +$1500 per month. Therefore, it is extremely common for students to find roommate(s) to rent an apartment in UTC area, especially when you (probably) can't stay at graduate housing with your Border Collie. While the campus is consider in La Jolla, majority of undergraduate students stay in UTC area, which is 2 - 2.5 miles from the campus. The school and city shuttles to commute students who live in those area (besides MTS buses). You options really depend on how often do you want to drive to campus for classes and work. The only nearby off campus housing is on the west side of the campus, which is close to the beach but probably expensive because it's closer to the beach / La Jolla shore and they do not have a large-scale apartment complex by/near the ocean. For city shuttles: http://www.ucsdbus.com/map Stops on Arriba and Nobel cover a lot of apartment complexes that you can consider. Other bus routes info is here: http://blink.ucsd.edu/facilities/transportation/commuting/public.html

Technically, same thing can be said to that organic chemist in a biotech company. For this particular example, what you said about medicinal chemist in pharmaceutical companies isn't entirely true (look at the degree requirement here: http://www.utexas.edu/pharmacy/divisions/medicinalchem/graduate.html). The point is, a PhD is supposed to be specialized or even an expert in something. Question is, are you specialized in a chemical/biochemical problem or a technique/techniques/experiment method(s). As far as I know, analytical chemistry / bioanalytical chemistry are the branches that allow those chemists to work in variety of fields within the science industry, not necessarily just, for example, pharmaceutical industry. Even in a pharmaceutical company, I would expect one has to quantify the quality of a newly synthesized product and whatnot. But hey, what do I know? I'm no longer a chemist per se.

unfortunately, imo, most of us normal students don't have the bargaining power / we're not in a position to bargain. It's unfortunate that the infrastructure of a school and economy making TA'ship more competitive than before. Therefore, you just have to evaluate your risk of choosing one option over the other. On the other hand, you may ask for honest opinions / comments from adcom / interviewers from school A regarding your chances of getting a TA'ship @ school A after your interview (.e.g if they are in your shoes). Let them understand that you're sort of in a hurry to make a decision between school A and B, by 1) express your desire to choose school A but money is an issue, and 2) providing the TA'ship offer info from school B (but not in a bragging way) and see how they response. That's the best that I can do. If the response I get is something like "sorry, but we can't really decide until May" or "it is really tough to say", then I'll just go for school B (or you can reevaluate the risk I kinda mentioned above).

It usually means you need to fulfill some sort of requirements (e.g. GPA, not getting a C this semester, etc.) by the time you finish your current degree, before going to HKU.

If I need to have financial support for my program, and: School A offering TAship is 50/50, and the worst scenario is I would be notified that I do not get the TA'ship in early May while school B's offer has "expired". And assuming school B won't reconsider my acceptance, that means I'll have to reapply for next year. School B guarantees my TAship. Only problem is it has a decent program. Assuming you're only applying and accepted by school A and B, the risk for school A is a lot higher. Unless you're confident that you can get into a better school next year (with financial support) and you can wait for another year to get your MFA degree, I would choose school B over A. Just my 2 cents.

Letters came at anytime, could be from any angles, directly or indirectly to my mailbox. Like ninjas in the dark attacking their targets with shuriken. It's just hard to predict. But as far as I can recall, I never received an e-mail after 7 or 8 pm PST regarding my admission decision.

I would suggest you to shoot an e-mail to the coordinator regarding the dress code. Although last year most kids in my group suit up for the interview. I wasn't applying for neuroscience so I can't tell you much about the faculty members in that discipline. But you're expected to meet with 3 faculty members that may/may not be your POI, and a current graduate student for the interview (not sure how much is weighted on the latter one.) The program heavily emphasizes on research fit and goals. My impression is that they prefer students conduct translational research over hardcore basic research.

Someone can correct me on this one, but as far as I can recall, you can be a OPT when: 1. you have been previously enrolled in your school and physically stayed in the U.S. for 1 academic year under your F-1 VISA, and 2. you have completed your degree. Unless you can get out of your program with a MS almost immediately, otherwise, you are supposedly not allow to stay in the U.S. Applying a OPT and getting an approval takes about 3 months, but let's just assume 3 +/- 2 months depends on your situation.

Did you ever address your concern to your PI and ask for his/her suggestions? You can't do much if s/he doesn't take it well even if you are being honest.

I don't think you're allow to accept both offers. On the other hand, if your school is on this list, then technically you don't have to make your decision until April 15.(See http://www.cgsnet.org/ckfinder/userfiles/files/CGS_Resolution.pdf). If both schools accepted you, but the funding situation has not been figured out. Why don't you tell school B about the situation you have with school A? I don't think school B can revoke their admission offer based on your circumstances.