aberrant

This is totally untrue. Like Pauli said, it isn't about where you from but what you have done to prepare yourself for grad school (besides the fact that the admission process consider number of factors that indicate the potential of an applicant). If you are getting a master's degree and "no research experience", I supposed it is a 1-year coursework degree (some refers it as MA) instead of a 2-year research thesis degree (some refers it as MS)? While your work experience might be able to compensate your lack of research experience, zero research experience will definitely hurt your chances. After all, we are talking about bosses recruiting someone to do research for the next +4 years. For most of the science phd programs (if not all), research experience is almost a must, regardless the duration (even though competitive applicants tend to have at least a year of research experience, if not more). While Cal may be competitive, your GPA would definitely hurt your chance as an international applicant. As an international student myself coming from another UC campus, I'm pretty sure that this GPA will be detrimental to your application (along with ~zero research experience), regardless your citizenship. 3.6 GPA in grad school will not put you in a better position since most of the graduate programs require a B to pass a course, which is really a C/pass in undergrad coursework. Also based on the information from Yale graduate school, international applicants who scored less than 500/800 in verbal is also detrimental; a sub-48% (<4.0) in analytical writing would hurt your application also. What you can do, imho, are: 1. retake GRE and hopefully boost your verbal score to at least 500, ideally +600 (whatever that percentage corresponds to the new scale). 2. write a strong SOP. good SOP is not good enough. 3. get strong recommendation letters from people who know you well enough outside of the classes that you took. since the recommenders have to tell the adcoms how they think you have potential to succeed and do well in grad school, letters from professor who you took classes with may not help (unless they know you well personally). Your grades are reflected on your transcript, so don't waste a letter on things that the adcom can evaluate from other parts of your application. letters from people in the field and very well known is the best; otherwise, try to get letters from the same field, before moving "outwards" (letters outside of the circle of your field). You can always look at the admission results on "Results Search" to see the stats of the successful applicants who got into schools that are on your list.

While almost everyone that I know would suggest me to do summer research, because I'm an international student so I decided to "skip" the summer research. The fact that I'm expecting not to return to my home country for the next 4-5 years bought me a ticket to going back home for a month. I'll go back to the U.S. about a month before the program begins, and relocate to the new school that is +2000 miles from my alma mater. So it depends. Like everyone says, you may want to talk to professors in the department that may potentially fund you as a RA, or your home/other departments at the new school as a TA.

I personally would go for the regular pchem class even though immunology programs probably put a lot less weight on physical science courses (if anyone can verify this). the only reason I would suggest you to take the regular pchem class is for the learning purposes. while it may not be a wise option to take a more difficult class while you are committed to your research/lab and possibly other classes that you'll be taking at the same time, one of the things that you learn is time management. The way I see it is that you will need to practice and maintain a good balance between coursework and research, without significantly drops your efficiency in lab work. I'm pretty sure sooner or later you will have to juggle between heavy-duty coursework and research in grad school, if not as an undergrad. so you might as well take this opportunity as another way to prepare yourself for grad school. It is not about how much time you put into a project, or physically stay in the lab. Is it about how effectively you use your time and perform your tasks efficiently. If you are capable to do things in an efficient manner, I don't think it will be a big problem to take a harder class at the same time. Just my 2 cents.

you made my day.

My observation is that some people put their DOB in CV instead of age. I'm not sure if it is because they are more established and therefore they decided to put their DOB in their CV (they are all nobel laureates): Yes DOB: http://www.inbevbailletlatour.com/media/misc_media/CV_Roger%20TSIEN.pdf http://www.cumc.columbia.edu/horwitz/docs/Curriculum_Vitae-2006-7-19-06.pdf http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CGYQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.kcsnet.or.kr%2Fmain%2Fk_download%2Fdownload.htm%3Ftbn%3Dk_b_ann_notice%26uid%3D411%26fileseq%3D1&ei=Kmy0T43DOumTiQLH-5CkAg&usg=AFQjCNE1FRp87rTgzPZSyM6d9pocS5GAgw http://www.chem.purdue.edu/negishi/Cv.htm http://sims.princeton.edu/yftp/vita4web.pdf https://files.nyu.edu/ts43/public/personal/resume.pdf https://sites.google.com/site/dalemortensensite/home/cv http://economics.mit.edu/files/7728 http://groups.haas.berkeley.edu/bpp/oew/OEWCVJan2010.pdf http://www.princeton.edu/pr/pictures/g-k/krugman/Krugman-CV.pdf http://home.uchicago.edu/rmyerson/research/rbmvita.pdf http://www.sss.ias.edu/files/pdfs/maskincv.pdf http://www.columbia.edu/~esp2/CV2012-5-8.pdf No DOB: http://www.mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk/ribo/homepage/ramak/ramakrishnan_cv.pdf http://www.weizmann.ac.il/sb/faculty_pages/Yonath/CV-AY.pdf http://personal.lse.ac.uk/pissarid/CV.pdf http://www.indiana.edu/~workshop/people/lostromcv.htm http://www.minneapolisfed.org/research/economists/cv/ecp.pdf

The way I see it is that if "research area is not really an issue" and funding are comparable/equivalent, then I would consider the two based on 1. atmosphere of the school & the city 2. living style and living standard You can do a quick research online to figure out the living style and living standard (hopefully from objective sources such as travelers or visitors who stayed in these places for a decent amount of time.) You can look up information on demographic through wikipedia. I don't know much about ATL but if you are living in LA (or Southern California in general), you'll need a car to get around.

And therefore I would 1. decline the offer from Canada and wait for HKU. If HKU, somehow, turned me down, I will reapply this Fall. 2. defer the offer in Canada (for a semester) and wait for HKU. If I am accepted by HKU, then I will decline the offer from Canada (with a brief explanation on (legitimate) personal/funding reasons); if not, then I'll go to the domestic one a semester later (or a year later if that's a year-long deferment.) 3. accept the offer from the domestic school. go to HKU: 3a. after you completed your degree in Canada (get a different degree from HKU. whether it means you'll have to defer your admission offer by HKU or reapply HKU in next applicable cycle), or 3b. by accepting the "late" offer from HKU. tell the domestic school that you decided to leave the program for whatever reasons (worst option of all).

There may be some bad feelings between you and your current supervisor (depends on how he/she takes it). I think that you should be honest with him/her about you wanting to change your decision (e.g. funding, location, etc.). academic reputation cannot be a legitimate reason though. And because you have to choose whichever the best option for you, and therefore you just can't expect the perfect and ideal scenario. Therefore, don't be surprised if he/she "flat out hates you", while you shouldn't dwell into it neither -- you gotta do what you gotta do. Tell your current supervisor ASAP, and the other school, too (whatever your decision is).

One thing that I learned about rolling admission is that it almost never exist to some schools, even if they say so (that is especially true for international applicants). Have you look up the results @ Results Search and see if the school has sent out acceptance and rejection letters?

If you are referring HKU as The University of Hong Kong, then the problem is that you may not receive the official (hard copy) letter until the end of May or even early June. It seems to be rather risky to wait for a school that has yet to confirm your acceptance, because applications submitted back in early December 2011 should have their results back in March/April. You might be on a waitlist, or there is a funding issue that the school is dealing with. The worst scenario is if you declined your local offer and then rejected by HKU. If you can risk or take the worst scenario (and reapply next cycle) then you can definitely wait.

I guess the first thing you should do is to ask yourself why do you want to go to grad school? Is it because you want to make more money with a graduate degree? Or is it because immunology/pathology is something that you love, such that you want to learn more about it even if you may not earn big bucks in the future? (that's the worst scenario, and yet possible). If you wanna go to grad school for money reasons, then it may not be a good idea to do that (obviously). it's not a necessity to land on a good job with a graduate degree. Getting a MS may (or may not) give you an edge to get a job with better starting wage/salary -- it depends on the field that you want to work in, the position that you want to take, the competitiveness of the job market for that particular field, etc. On the flip side, getting a PhD may get you in a job with a better starting wage, but the process of getting a PhD is long and challenging. You degree may also limits your options (field(s) that you wanna work) because you may be considered as "overqualified". So switching fields in the workforce may be tricky. I think that taking sometime off, "for a year or so between undergrad and grad school to pay off some of my student loan debt" as you said, is a great idea since it will give you more time to think about your career in future (besides paying off your student loan). If you decided grad school is the one and only place that you want to go, then I would retake all these classes -- not for the GPA reasons, but to show that I have the ability to master these coursework/materials/knowledge under the right circumstances. While retaking "any of the gen chem classes" is too late for GPA purposes, it is never too late to show that you got the ability to do well in those classes. You can audit (and relearn) these classes 1 class at a time at your alma mater, until you are fully comfortable with the information/materials that you will do well in quizzes/exams and take these classes elsewhere (I supposed you can't retake it at your alma mater if you passed it.) If that's too much work, then don't dwell on it and keep your bio- engine rolling. It's not the end of the world with a couple of Cs that are not quite relevant to what you wanna study anyway (as mentioned in my previous posts). Just my 2 cents.

can't you retake those classes?

So far, none of the professors that I have talked to like to talk about funding with any students. What a graduate student should concern about is the science that you/they are doing in the lab. While I would say that funding should only be an issue when you have to choose (and ultimately join) a lab at the end of your first year, my former PI would argue that I should never be concerned about funding -- it is the department's job to ensure you get your stipend/funding. On the other hand, just because a lab has funding from NIH/NSF/etc. that doesn't mean they'll allocate these money to RAship, like Eigen mentioned. While I would like to think that "PIs in (a) department won't take on students for rotations if they don't have permenant spots for them", my former PI was one of those who would love to recruit new grad students to rotate in our lab even though our lab does not have funding for RA'ship for any graduate students, MS or PhD. For that reason, if you are really concerned about funding, I would go with "I am interested in doing one of my rotations in your lab if you are able to take me on", or something like "Are you going to recruit/take any graduate students in (your 2nd year)?". I do know PIs that are sensitive with discussion/talking about funding issues with students, and they may be offended by students who seemed to be concerned only by the funding of the lab, but not the problems that they are dealing in the lab. Just my 2 cents.

"UF is a better school" is a subjective statement. Because the quality of the education you will receive in the U.S. is about the same, and therefore your so-called "recognition" may not reflect what the employers are truly looking for within a pool of job applicants. (I'd like to think an employer evaluates applicants based on their ability, not where they got their degrees from.) You're logic on "UF’s program is a one year program... I would graduate a year earlier from UF and make a year’s income while also saving on 1 years’ worth of student living expenses" is only valid under the following assumptions: 1. you must complete your program at UF in a year. you cannot postpone / retake courses for whatever reasons while you are fulfilling the requirement for your degree and program. 2. you will get a job and hired immediately after the completion of your program at UF. 3. the annual, starting wage of the job is more than what you'll be paying for a year at FSU (including both tuition and living expenditure) What I would say is forget about the ranking and reputation that your perceived about any of these two programs, and evaluate them based on the curriculum/structure of the program, the quality of the faculty members, the quality of live (both in the school and the city), and how will you benefit from one of these programs, which may (positively/have a little/significantly/greatly) impact your future "marketing related career".

I believe you'll need your local/home/mailing address (e.g. a lease / letter with your name on it), some forms of identification (e.g. passport), and you'll need a certain amount of money that you can deposit immediately for your checking and/or saving account. I am an international student and I opened my Wells Fargo account back in 2007 -- about 3-5 months after I moved to the U.S. since I was using HSBC and I could withdraw money (from a school that I went to) without getting charge for service/transaction fees. Things that you only need to concern is if they will charge you any fees, imo.

I worked in two labs and majority of the computers were PC (I'd say most of them have Windows, one or two are linux). Only one of my former PI uses a Mac laptop and desktop, for his personal uses.

As a person who are not currently in school, it is quite difficult for others to provide you advice since you are pretty much "fixed" by your current situation (having a job). If you were a student, I would say: - taking upper division (or even graduate level) coursework in CE / CS / Math - definitely prepare for your GREs, especially your general GRE since it is required (vs. subject GRE, which may / may not required depends on school) - start working in a research lab, hopefully related to what you are interested in (for grad school).

Just wanna push this thread a little bit. I am a first generation (both undergrad and soon-to-be-grad), low income, AND international student. Clearly I do not have any physical support from my parents at this stage, but that's okay. I got into a program that I supposed nobody in my family ever heard of, neither. But that's okay too. Because as of now I'm being pretty selfish by going grad school and study what I want without considering going back to my home country at this point of my life. Do you feel like you face extra hurdles? Most definitely. Just imagine if you are broke and yet you have to pay at least 3X what the in-state tuition is WITHOUT ANY financial aid. Oh, and also tons of the scholarships that offer out there do not consider non-citizen applicants. Life is tough for sure. If there are any extra hurdles, I wouldn't try to finish off my degree in 3 years (failed because of economical reasons) and in debt that worth at least 1 year of tuition for med school--all just for a bachelor degree. I also took a year off in the middle of my undergraduate studies and another year to go overseas just to take a few classes (that fulfill my degree) and transfer them back to my alma mater in order to get my degree in the cheapest way. Mostly, do you feel that it will be difficult for you to connect with other students in your cohort or even with faculty? Not with the faculty members, and may not be some other students that are at my age (or older).

I believe that PhD and MS programs have different notification dates so you may want to look it up (whether officially or unofficially). You should also try to post this @ Psychology forum http://forum.thegradcafe.com/forum/8-psychology/

Based on the message, I don't think you are officially accepted. In fact, if the school and yourself cannot resolve the funding issue, you will not be accepted by UIUC. This is why they "strongly encourage you to contact AE faculty members to find a research project and a research assistantship in your field of interest". If there are no faculty members at this AE (Aerospace Engineering?) department can accept you as a student by fully support your PhD program financially through RA'ship, then they can only turn down your application and reject you. Since an admission has never been pronounce, they don't really "cancel" your admission, but rather reject you from being accepted to the program. What I supposed is that unless 1. there is a lab that a grad student is graduating during your first semester, and 2. this PI is willing to take you as a grad student, and/or 3. the research interest is fit, otherwise, even if you can support yourself for the first semester, you will still be wandering around the campus without being able to join a lab or find a RA'ship to support your studies. The thing is that some schools really care about these statistics (e.g. attrition rate), so some schools might as well deny your "entry" long before the first semester begins. I hope you'll be able to find a PI that is willing to support your ASAP.

I think you have sufficient experience to be considered competitive (compared to other applicants who will be "fresh out of undergrad"). Keep your research going, and try to attend more conferences/presentations may help (all in your CV). Your stats are okay, but I would have retake GRE just to make sure I'll get a +700 on quant. I'm less confident about the letter from your undergrad adviser simply because his/her opinion on your ability to be successful at grad school + his/her understanding in molecular biology program may not be strong enough / convincing. I would also try to avoid getting a rec letter from a post-doc unless he/she knows you extremely well (besides saying that you got the potential to succeed @ grad school). I personally think that you should let them know you wanna go to grad school, so that they can write you a strong letter specifically tailored for bioscience / molecular bio programs. Unless it is required, your subject test doesn't mean much (with the exception of doing exceptionally well, of course). I think you're being reasonable about your chance. If anything, try to shoot for 1 or 2 top-tier schools that you really wanna go because you just never know (well, maybe unless you're an international applicant, then it may not worth the money.) And your GRE scores will only be a problem if they are "expired" (like +2 or +3 years prior your application, then you'll have to retake it.) look it up at the admission requirement or talk to the DGS/coordinator.

I personally never heard of any companies that would sponsor an employee to study a research-intensive program in grad school (most common ones are for MBA or other qualifications (e.g. CPA, CFA, etc.)) If I were you (as a Chemical Engineer) I would work for a year or two and save up some money, before I try to get a master's degree.