aberrant

Personally, as a Chemistry major back in undergrad, I think your trend of GPA means more than your current GPA. That being said, if you think you messed up this semester, just make sure you will bring up your GPA next year, and avoid taking classes that you think it may hurt your GPA before your application cycle (drop it if you think you cannot handle it). While it may seem to be a reasonable thing to do summer internship and such, unless it is a REU, I would rather stay in the same lab and work through your undergrad as time progress. Keep in mind that not too many undergraduates get publication to begin with (depending on the field and PI's perspective on who/how should I get his/her name on a paper), let alone getting a paper published in fewer semesters working in the lab. For that, I would recommend you stick around the lab and push your project further whenever you can -- unless you are not interested in your current research. At the same time, try to network with other professors who run their own labs -- you will want to have good recommendation letters from those individuals who can evaluate your ability to succeed in grad school. While I'm not sure what discipline of Chemistry you are focusing on, when I was a "general" Chemistry major, calculus plays a huge role in a lot of upper division courses. If it isn't your thing, you definitely want to polish the basics up. If biochemistry isn't your major requirement, nor you are applying to analytical chemistry program with some emphasis on biomolecules (i.e. HDX-MS and such), I won't bother retaking it -- better spend my time elsewhere worthwhile. You don't have to be a perfect student in every aspect of Chemistry, you just need to be great at a discipline, or two, or three. However, if you think that you need to master that knowledge, you can self-taught or retake the class when time is available (on top of your research commitment and fulfill other course requirements for your degree). Finally, it takes extra effort to fail a class in grad school even in top tier programs. For me, I didn't bother enough to try it.

Just wanted to point out that the word plugin for Mendeley can do what @Butterfly_effect was looking for. That being said, Mendeley can also automatically arrange/adjust the order of citation in bibliography (that is journal / citation format-dependent. You can change your format from 1 journal [e.g. Nature] to another [e.g. PNAS] in a few clicks.)

@fuzzylogician was right -- that 1) I do not have a connection with the PI I'm interested working with, and mainly because 2) those PI are technically not in the same field* (*same experimental approach, but very different research interest/theme/questions). If I define the field based on the experimental approach, then it definitely requires +2 years post-doc training before applying a TT position. I'll take your advice to not go too aggressive about it! Thanks @TakeruK. The template certain gives me a good idea to start! I also like the idea of letting other PIs aware that I'm in town (should I be invited for an interview) -- both saving time and money. Indeed, there are only 2 states, 3 cities that I'm looking at to do my post-doc (if I could). So this may also be in my favor! Thanks for the advice, folks! They are truly valuable.

Hi everyone, since my last thread that I inquired about the general timeline to apply/become a postdoctoral researcher positions, I have decided to try to graduate within the next 7 months. I recently have compiled a list of PIs that I'm interested working with, so that as soon as my recently submitted paper is accepted, I'll start search for my next stop. However, even though I have a general idea how I should construct my cover letter (e.g. discuss why I am interested in a particular lab/research, what I can offer to that lab, etc.), I'm still trying to figure out how should I strategically inquire a potential postdoctoral position -- through e-mail and in-person -- to a lab that does not advertise such position. E-mail: How to make your cover letter standout enough that the PI would read it, or, wouldn't go straight to trash bin? (Not sure if the "game" is different than applying a position that is advertised.) *In-person: What would be the best approach to bring up/discuss/inquire possible postdoc positions if the potential PI is giving a presentation? (*A conference/symposium without neither a poster session nor social activity(ies). Hence the assumption here is that I would try to talk to the PI before or after his/her presentation.) Thank you!

I would say that you should consider taking biology, chemistry, calculus, and physics courses in community college first. Then maybe you can take a few upper division bio classes that are required for a typical biology major at a 4-year university, and look for research opportunity at the same time. You can try to look for lab assistant / research assistant position as a start. It should be relatively easy to find one if you are in Greater Boston area, or if you can commute to Boston/Cambridge. Otherwise, you still may have a chance to find the same kind of position at a nearby research university/ies. I don't think that a science degree is absolutely a must if you can show that you have mastered the scientific knowledge that is expected to have from a bachelor degree holder. Typically, it can be proven by doing well in courses and, especially in situations like yours, an outstanding subject GRE test score.

kinda late to chime but regarding reading habbits: -. I'm sort of a mix of reading/highlighting/annotating a paper in PDF (create notes) and printouts (write on the margins). Since my lab has a biweekly journal club meeting, I usually printout papers that are either 1) important that I need to check, read, re-read periodically or 2) I wanted to present in journal club. I usually remember papers that I read thoroughly, but I still keep these papers in corresponding folders (e.g. topic, specific technique, etc.), all in .pdfs with supplementary info. - I usually skim through less significant papers, specially for journal club meeting. Since the expectation from our PI is to be able to summarized a paper (or more) in 5 minutes followed by Q&A of the entire lab, it sort of forced us to learn how to extract the significance of a paper in 5-15 minutes before a lab meeting. I noticed that the reading time shorten as I found myself becoming more comfortable and familiar with the topic / technique. Many of the papers in my field can be understand rather quickly -- read the abstract, understand the figures, read the discussion (sometimes subheadings are suffice), and go through the supplementary info (many gems, such as elaborated method section and extra data, were presented in SI in my field). Figures are extremely important. If I don't have enough time, I would go straight to figures and try to understand the significance of the paper. The key is to be able to point out the significance of a paper, and learn something (hopefully new) from this paper -- for yourself and for your lab. - For those who are not good at remembering significance/summary of papers, MS OneNote is definitely an option. Although I only use it for my electronic lab notebook, I think it is user-friendly enough to type up bullet points / jot what you read quickly while keeping it organized. - For citation, I'm a huge fan of Mendeley, even though my boss is a die-hard EndNote fan. Mostly because of user-friendly, editable citation formats, and like someone mentioned, you can read the paper in .pdf while you are organization your list of citation -- if something needs to be check / confirmed quickly while you are writing/editing your paper (I know I don't wanna look through my own folder / printouts of +100 papers).

I'll jump in since I'm bored. I think a one-liner is OK as long as your "package' generally fits those PIs' research. By fit, I mean either your skill set or personal scientific interest(s) (e.g. theme) aligned with these PIs. Otherwise, you may have to tailor a bit more about how you see you are a "fit" for them. If you are applying an umbrella program, I think it is generally OK to be more broad / general when explaining what you are interested in. Just my $0.02.

I know a few individuals who switched to different programs of the same school -- whether that be leaving my program, or transferred to my program. There are a few things that you can do. For example, identify PIs from neuroscience whose research interests you. You then can communicate with those PI and see if they are willing to accept you as a PhD student. Typically, if they are willing to take you as a student, they will work with you -- go through all the paperworks, transfer process, and such -- so that you don't have to quit / re-apply the program (of the same school). You can also contact the program director to see if they are willing to accept you as a transfer student, and go from there. You can explain your situation to the PIs / program director and seek for their advice. That is absolutely field-dependent. Some fields, or even sub-fields (i.e. crystallography in structural biology) are more open to train postdocs who have no previous background / experience, while some other (i.e. electron microscopy in structural biology) typically doesn't -- unless it is a position from a lab that does both. Hence, it is also certain that if your PhD career doesn't overlap in any ways with what you want to do in postdoc, you are very unlikely to be recruited -- maybe with the exception of a stellar LOR from a well-known PI. That being said, if OP truly wants to work in the field of neuroscience as a postdoc, her PhD training absolutely needs to cover topics/techniques that are common used in neuroscience, despite being in MCB.

Good luck!

Kinda late to chime in, but I think extensive research experience outweights the prestige of school. Columbia or not, if you will not be doing research during the MS program, your profile will not be significantly improved. And, unless top programs are running low on funding or applicants, preliminary screen/cutoffs will always include the use of GPA and GRE score. A particular program (e.g. biochemistry, molecular biology, chemistry, etc.) may not have a "minimum" requirement, but a school (e.g. graduate school of art and sciences, etc.) may have one. So, even if a program nominated to for an offer of admission, the applicant's profile still need to fulfill the graduate school's expected requirement (written or not). Some people here may not realized that, but this information can be acquired by communicating with the graduate program admission officers/assistants. That being said, I think OP should continue to do research, whether that be in industry, a thesis-MS, or volunteering in the lab you were working during undergrad.

Speaking as a person working on CRISPR, research on CRISPR can be any (or combination) of the following depending on your interest: 1. structural biology and biochemistry (enzyme-substrate interactions, effector complex assembly, enzyme kinetics, etc.) 2. cell biology (application of CRISPR systems in vivo), or 3. bioinformatics (discovery and analysis of cas genes, cas locus, or simply cas elements from If you going after option #1, having any knowledge related to biochemistry / biophysics with some molecular biology and physical chemistry will be very helpful. Obviously, cell biology is required for option #2, and ability to learn computer languages / writing program will be very useful for option #3. If you want to do a PhD in a different field (outside of ochem) then maybe you should consider taking necessary undergraduate courses in that different field, instead of graduate level ochem courses. Otherwise, your profile will be very ochem-oriented, and I'm unsure if it is competitive to biochemi/biophysics/molecular bio/cell bio programs. Obviously, you can still get into a Chemistry program and join a lab that works on/with CRISPR through the aforementioned themes, but that will also limit your choices of programs that fits your profile. When you said single molecule imaging, it can be done through either chemistry, biochemistry, biology, or physics programs depending on which specific technique you are interested in. As Eigen suggested, directly go into this field with an ochem background can be challenging.

Capable of doing "baby math" is rather fundamental for being in STEM field. Most STEM majors learned those "baby math" before or at the beginning of their college career which are, often times, prerequisites for their major/core classes. That being said, when compare STEM students to non-STEM students, doing well in GRE quant is basically a common expectation. It doesn't make you a Math genius, but as any of the prospective graduate student sin STEM field, one should be capable of doing "8th grade-era math". To me, GRE quant is merely a formality, yet it is still useful to eliminate those who did not do well in that section, unfortunately (or suspiciously). Meanwhile, GRE verbal isn't even a "reasoning" test per se --- it is a section to showcase your vocabularies (in my perspective as an international student, non-native speaker). Speaking of writing, I'm almost certain that those words that I have encountered/seen associated with GRE verbal test would not be applicable in my field. The idea of writing is to communicate ideas clearly and logically, not necessarily using big words that remind others I am the second coming of Frasier Crane or Sheldon Cooper (a bit of a stretch, I know). And I'm unsure how GRE analytical writing works, as I have been told that the grading is rather subjective and adcom tends to ignore the score unless you scored like a 1.5 or 2.

Couple years ago when I apply graduate schools I know that one should aim for +80% for quant and +50% for verbal. For Yale, they specified that sub-50% of any of these sections would be detrimental to your application.

Grants are typically not for students. Students typically apply fellowships. For the fellowship that I got, it requires 3 letters of reference (who are not from your PI), a letter of sponsor (from your PI), a letter of consultant/consultation (from a scientist who provide specific technical support/comments on your proposed project), and, if necessary, letter of collaborating investigator (if you will have a collaborator / co-PI). I don't think it is necessary to have co-mentor/co-PI specifically for this purpose. Money is always an issue, besides interpersonal relationship between your (junior) PI and your potential (senior) mentor. Your situation is more probably if the two PIs are currently collaborating.

I attended 3 colleges -- a community college for 1.5 years, an university overseas for 1 year, and a 4-year university where I got my bachelor degree. When I applied grad schools, I have to report and submit all the GPA and transcripts from schools that I attended. Often times, applications explicitly stated that applicant needs to report all the schools that you have ever attended. Some applications require you to state all the classes that you have taken, and report where have you completed those particular classes.

Thanks for the responds, @fuzzylogician. I have a few follow up questions: 1. for most post-doctoral fellowships, do they allow ABD people to apply? (in other words, applicants do not have to be graduated/received their PhDs at the time of application)? 2. for the same post-doctoral fellowships, do you need to communicate with a POI to be your sponsor? What if I have a few POIs, must I choose 1 POI for each application that I plan to submit? 3. Is it common that people send out a few (let's just say up to 10) e-mails to their POI to inquire potential postdoc positions? Or you would recommend sending this kind of inquiry e-mail one at a time, and go down my "list of POI"? 4. I supposed research statement is to explain my research interest and such. What about teaching statement? What should it entail? These are some great information. Thank you in advance!

Hi folks, I am in a situation where I may either graduate in Spring/Summer 2017 (lack of funding), or in Spring/Summer 2018 (if secure a dissertation fellowship). Since neither alumni from my lab nor alumni from my program (STEM) typically go into academia to be a postdoc, I would like to know at what point of time should I do such or certain things, so that I can ultimately getting a post-doctoral research position that I want, presumably at the beginning of a Fall semester/quarter or as soon as I fulfilled all the requirements that complete my program. I think that inputs from those who are graduating / graduated from grad school can be gathered and combined into a "timeline", so that future viewers/readers of the forum can use it as a guidance. I would assumed that the first step is when "you about to start / started writing your dissertation", or "meet individuals / POI who you wanted to work for as a postdoc". Many thanks in advance! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ - [If necessary] The summer before graduation -- prepare research and/or teaching statement(s) - July-December the year before graduation -- apply post-doctoral research fellowship(s)

I personally think that OP need to take this time to rethink why OP wants to attend grad school, or getting into a PhD program. Even if the school permits any students to take "unlimited time to finish the program", does it sound realistic? Would any fellowship / PI supports any students and let the students take "forever" to complete his/her MS / PhD? To be successful in grad, we all need to prioritize tasks, and complete the important ones on time (if not ahead of time). Although I do not know what the program was OP attending, based on the provided information, it seems that OP did very little of research during the first 3 years of grad school. That being said, I think OP will have a shot at Chemistry programs that accept a lot of students (or currently under-enrolled), but those programs are probably neither from a top university, nor a top-tier program (in general). "Do I have a shot at any grad school in chemistry?" Without knowing your background (academic or research), it would be hard to comment on your chance to getting into any programs "related to chemistry". As for a job, you can probably easily getting a job as a research assistant / lab technician / lab manager in academic labs, or somewhat similar positions in industry / government labs. I personally don't think any course works would prove anything at this point, unless you are switching fields, for example, to biochemistry or biophysics. Grad school isn't for everyone. If what you want to do in the future does not need a PhD, then there is no great reason(s) to put oneself going through all this. (I'm a hater of someone [that I know of] who is doing a PhD in Chemistry and thinking about going into finance after his PhD training - wasting the tax payers' and PI's money, everybody's time, and opportunity for somebody else who genuinely want/need the degree.)

I agreed. I think the only time OP will need to concern about the "academic inbreeding" issue is later in the career when OP is looking for a job after graduate school (or down the road, such as after post-doc). OP, you can always try your best in your current program, or consider switching to a different program if you think this is a huge issue for you.

I don't know how you would define "hard sciences", but I did my quals and I'm in biophysics. My quals composed of two sections -- a written proposal in a specific format for a national funding agency (i.e. NiH, NSF, AHA, etc.), and a verbal defense of the written proposal. After writing the proposal, the committee members have 2-4 weeks to review the proposal before your verbal defense. The verbal defense is a public seminar followed by public Q&A, and closed door, committee members-only Q&A. Since I wrote my own proposal and was funded before my quals, I essentially used the same proposal with minimal edits. My committee was also very easy on me. They asked a few relevant yet simple questions for their curiosity. Hence, my experience of quals was a lot carefree compare to my preliminary exam (written responses to both textbooks and research/application questions, followed by verbal (private) defense).

If the OP has been in graduate school long enough, try getting your friends/professors that you know to help you out. You can send them a page or two, instead of the entire proposal, to proofread. Just make sure that you do pay attention to edits that they make and learn from there. Good luck!

Welcome to the forum. Here are a few things that you should provide in order for the others to provide more valuable inputs to you: 1. Separate the score of GRE Verbal and GRE Quant when you are looking for inputs. Although it means something if you report each of the section in a score out of 170, it is best to report the score in percentile -- that will directly indicate your performance compare to your peers who previously/recently took the exams. 2. What does "assistant professor" entail? It seems to have a different "definition" than that in the U.S. If you are report something other than the "common definition of 'assistant professor' in the U.S.", adcom may find your application suspicious. Worst case scenario is that they will not review your application any further. 3. You didn't say anything about your personal statement/statement of purpose, nor your recommendation letters. Those are some very important criteria as well. Few things that I would say based on your provided info: 1. If I remember correctly, TOEFL score is out of 120. While some programs do have a minimum TOEFL scores and some don't, I would say that you should try to get at least a 100 in TOEFL. Otherwise, you can/should consider programs that do not require reporting TOEFL score during application. 2. Most PhD programs do not accept students in Spring semester. You probably should be looking at Fall 2017 admission instead. 3. It seems that your research experience is not as extensive as others. Were you a co-first authored on that paper? Did you present your 1 year project? How long were your 3 summer projects? Were there any results from those 3 summer projects? Also, do you mean you organized a national conference instead of a seminar? They are very different. Good luck!