aberrant

"You'll get in somewhere." This is exactly what I have been told (in multiple occasions) when I was building a list of schools that I wanted to apply back in July/August. I was looking for inputs from a few professors who are in that/related field. My typical response (back then) was "and where is that somewhere?"

love it

it happens to me two or three weeks ago, too. I got calls from a few unknown numbers, and I search it on whocalled.us and other websites (thru google, of course). Turned out that the number is from the same area/state of the schools that I was invited for an interview, but not from the school. i don't think you should be worried, simply for that fact that the schools almost always leave voicemail if you miss their calls... unless you have a pranking voicemail intro that longs for almost 2 minutes like mine....

Just from my understanding by lurking in this forum and personal experience, the interview tends to be at the weekend and therefore it should not last for 7 days. Thus far I have an interview that long for 3/4 days, where I fly out to this city on Thursday evening, visiting the campus and having interviews with faculty members on Friday, sightseeing/visiting the city on Saturday, and flying back to home on Sunday morning. My guess is that I don't think you will be at Drexel for a week, but it never hurts to ask!

Definitely not for all of the schools. Some schools offer formal interviews that they use this interview as the final stage of eliminating applicants from the program. while some other schools offer informal / less formal interviews that most of the interviewees are pretty much accepted by the program, in theory. And therefore if you are able to know whether your interview at Cal is a formal / informal interview will help a lot. You can ask the program director / coordinator about the interviews, even if the outfit/attire for the interview will give you hints, in my opinion. Of course, this is just a guessing game and ideally you wanted to be 1) somewhat prepared and 2) your natural self, regardless of the format of the interview. just my 2 cents.

Are you a domestic applicant? I know some schools are still reviewing applications, such as GaTech and Purdue. However, you may want to check the other post to keep yourself updated, if you wish.

I think you'll need to consider a few things before you make the decision. 1. I read it somewhere in tgc that the chemistry program from Stanford receives 15% more applications than last year, and it is an all-time high. That being said, it may be possible that next year has a larger, possibly more competitive applicant pool based on the global economy. 2. As you are applying UCSD, I am sure you aware that the CA budget cut significantly affects a lot of public universities in Cali. It is inevitable that multiple programs will be affected (just imagine UCSD closed down 2 libraries in the past 1-2 years). 3. You would like to identify what makes your application not strong enough for this program. could it be your GRE performance or SOP? if you can't identify where the problem is, it is difficult to boost your chance to get into the program even with publications. If the program is small (i.e. accept very few students each year), then you will have to be perfect in every aspects in your application. 4. Although the program maybe top-tier, I firmly believe that the education you receive in most grad schools are about the same. In other words, what makes a program top-tier / other tiers is the quality of research. Therefore, I would agree the common opinion that the reputation of the school (in research) is less important when you study for a PhD. It may be more important for your work as a post-doc. If I were in your shoes, I would go to the interviews and see what happen.

Albert Einstein: Jan 12-13, Jan 26-2 Brandeis University (Neuro): Feb 3, Feb 17, Mar 3 Boston University (GPN): Mar 4-6 Case Western Reserve University (BSTP): Feb 3-4, Mar 2-3 Columbia (Integrated CMB): Jan 20-22 Columbia (Neurobiology & Behavior): Feb 8-10, Feb 29-Mar2 Columbia (Pathobiology & Molecular Medicine): Feb 3-5 Cornell (Weill): February Dartmouth (PEMM) March 2-3 Duke (Toxicology and Environmental Health) February 2-4 February 16-18 Emory (PBEE): February 2-4 Emory (IMP): Feb 2-4, March 1-3 Emory University (neuro): Feb 9-11 or Feb 23-25 FSU (Molec. Biophysics): Feb 16-18 Harvard (BBS): Jan 26-29 and Feb 9-12 Harvard (MCB): Feb 1st - 4th, Feb 15-18 Harvard (neuro): Jan 19-22 Harvard (BPH): Jan 26-27 Indiana University - Bloomington (Biology): Feb. 16-19 Marquette University (Biological Sciences): Feb 1 MIT (Biology): Feb 11-14, Feb. 25-28, Mar 10-13 MIT (CSBi): Feb 9-11, Feb 16-19 Mount Sinai (Biomedical Sciences PhD): Jan 9-10, Jan 17-18, Jan 24-25 or Feb 13-14 MSU: Jan 5-8 MSU (Zoology): Feb 2-3 Northwestern (IBiS): Feb 13-14 or Feb 27-18 Northwestern (Neuro: NUIN): Jan 19-20, Feb 2-3, Feb 23-24 NYU Sackler: Jan 19-20, Jan 26-27, Feb 9-10 Ohio State University (IBGP): Feb. 9-11 Ohio State University (Neuro): Jan 18-20 OHSU: Feb 1-4 OHSU (neuro) feb 5th- 7th Princeton (neuro): Feb 16-18 Princeton (EEB): February 8-10 Rockefeller: March 1-2 and 8-9 Scripps Research Institute-CA campus: Feb 24-25, Mar 2-3 Sloan Kettering: 1/17-1/19 Stanford (SCBRM) feb 29th - mar 3rd Stanford (Biology) feb 29th - mar 3rd Thomas Jefferson (neuro): Jan 26-27 Tufts-Sackler (Integrated Studies): Jan 27 Tufts-Sackler (Genetics and ISP) Feb 10th Tufts-Sackler (Molecular Microbiology) Feb 2-3 Tufts-Sackler (Neuroscience) Feb 17th UAB (BMS): Jan 19-21 University of Arizona (Medical Pharmacology): Feb 9-12 University of Arizona (Physiological Sciences) Feb 16-17 University of Cambridge (UK): Jan 18th-20th University of Chicago (BSG): Feb 23-25 University of Chicago (Molecular Biosciences): Feb 16-18 University of Chicago (CEB): Feb 15-19 UC Berkeley (Biophysics): Feb 14-16 UC Berkeley (MCB): Feb 5-7, Feb 26-28 UC Berkeley (MBN): Jan 26-27 UC Davis (BMCDB): Mar 1-2, Mar 5 UC Davis (GGG): Feb 16-17 UC Davis (neuro): Feb 9-10 UC Irvine (CMB):Jan 26-28,Feb 2-4 UCLA ACCESS: Jan 28-30, Feb 11-13, Feb 25-27 UCLA ACCESS (Molecular and Medical Pharmacology): Dec 22 UC Riverside: Feb 24 UC San Diego (Biomedical Sciences): Feb 9-12 UCSD Biological Sciences: Feb 1-2, Feb 22-23 UCSF BMS: Jan 26-28 OR February 9-11 UCSF iPQB: Feb 9-11 UCSF Tetrad: Feb 2-3 OR Feb 24-25 UC Santa Barbara MCDB: Feb 23-25 or Mar 1-3 UChicago (neuro): Feb 10 or Feb 13 (but travel times drag it out several days before and/or after) U Colorado - Denver (BSP): Feb 2-5, Feb 9-12 U Illinois Urbana-Champ (neuro) - Feb 16-19 U Iowa (Micro): Feb 23-26 U Iowa (Neuro) - Jan 26-28 U Kentucky (IBS)- Jan 12-13, Jan 26-27 UMASS Worcester: Feb 2-4 and Feb 16-18 U Maryland - Baltimore - Feb 3 U Miami (RSMAS): Feb 3-4 U Mich (PIBS): Jan 27-28 (Cancer Bio), Feb 3-4 (general) U Minnesota (MICaB): Feb 9-12 or 16-19 U Minnesota (neuro): Feb 23-26 UNC Chapel Hill (BBSP): Feb 2-4, Jan 26-28, Feb 9-11, Feb 23-25 UPenn (Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics): Jan 19-21, Feb 9-11 UPenn (CAMB): Jan 12-14 UPenn (neuro): Jan 20, Feb 10 UPitt (IBGP): Jan 20-22 URochester (BMB): Feb 3-4, March 2-3(environmental medecine) Feb 2-4 University of South Carolina (Biomedical Sciences) Feb 6-7 UT Austin (CMB): Jan 26-28, Feb 16-18 UT Austin (MSI): Feb 10-11 UVa (BIMS): Jan 12-14 or Feb 2-4 UW-Seattle (Biology): Jan 13 or Jan 20 UW-Seattle (MCB): Jan 25-27,Feb 8-10 UW-Seattle (GS): Feb12-14, Feb 26-28 UW-Seattle (Neuro): Jan 24-25 U Wisconsin - Madison (Biophysics): Mar 1-3 U Wisconsin - Madison (CMP) : Feb 27th, March 5th Vanderbilt (IGP): Jan 12-14, many others (just got back from the 1st weekend, they said there would be 8-9 other weekends) Virginia Commonwealth University (Biomedical Sciences Doctoral Portal): Feb 3rd or Feb 17th Washington University in St. Louis (DBBS-MCB): March 1-3 WashU (neuro): Jan 27-28, Feb 3-4 Yale (B.B.S.): Feb 2-5, Feb 9-12

any recommendations (business casual attire) for guys? i've been told (by the director) that jeans are not allowed regardless of the color.

i believe it depends on the program that you apply, where some programs have rolling admission policies. i know that some people submitted their applications just a day before the deadline and they received acceptance/invitation for interviews about a week or two weeks later. also, some programs have a deadline that includes the submission of your LORs. meaning that late submission of LOR will postpone the review of your application, even if you have submitted your application long before the deadline.

1) graduate housing such as Mesa is comparatively old. however I know the rent is cheap. i know there is a new building by the medical / pharmacy school, but i'm not sure about the details. if you are looking for off-campus housing, like aforementioned posts, you can live in the UTC area where they have buses and school city shuttles to commute. 2) cost of living is about the same around the county or even the state, with the exception of housing. off-campus housing can be cheap and it depends how you work with it. you can rent a room for less than $500 a month if you live in a 3 bedroom apartment with 3 or more people. however, typically one bedroom apartment ranges from $1250 to +$1500 in UTC area. 3) this is southern california, and therefore buses are the major public transit. there are trolley in the county but there isn't a trolley station by UCSD until 2014/2016 (whatever that number is). again, it is california, you always need a car to get around. HOWEVER, if you are living by UTC area (or in graduate housing), you can always take the city shuttle (for the major off-campus locations) or campus loop (for grad housing). now, unlike UCLA where they have roads in the middle of the campus, there are only a road that separates the main campus and the medical & pharm school campus. therefore, if you are going to campus by any of the school shuttle, you will either get off the shuttle in a not-so-fancy bus station and walk around, or you'll have to sit on the campus loop that runs around / on the outside of the campus. most people choose to walk / bike / skate / whatever-applies-to-you to get around the campus. the campus have hills, too. therefore, sports sneakers are recommended. you can go to downtown SD by bus #30 and #150 from campus. 150 is the express version of 30 and it only runs between 6 or 7 am to roughly 7 pm on weekdays. #30 runs between 6/7am to roughly 1am everyday. however, during weekends, #30 stops at old town transit center instead of downtown SD, which is 5 to 10 minutes drive on local. it takes roughly half an hour or less to transit from campus to downtown SD by #150, but about at least an hour for #30 due to its route that passes through downtown La Jolla on local. 4) though i love the school, SD also stands for socially dead. with the majority of students are undergrads, they spend lesser time in social compare to other colleges due to lack of school spirits (e.g. no football team). the graduate student associate may be a good place to start. their lounge is right across a pub (yes, an on-campus pub) called Porter's Pub. in other words, there are drinking places on-campus and, for Porter's, it is quite popular by many grad students and some professors. along with another place called "the loft", they have concerts/shows once awhile that you can enjoy and have a good time with. if you need to drink off-campus, students tend to go to Pacific Beach (a.k.a. PB) and/or Ocean Beach for drinks. i believe you there is a bus to get there. I have been told that drunk (fist, street) fight can sometimes be found at PB in late night. feel free to ask for other inputs from a person who wanna get outta UCSD as an undergrad.

congratulations. you just impressed me, a lot!

Albert Einstein: Jan 12-13, Jan 26-2 Brandeis University (Neuro): Feb 3, Feb 17, Mar 3 Boston University (GPN): Mar 4-6 Case Western Reserve University (BSTP): Feb 3-4, Mar 2-3 Columbia (Integrated CMB): Jan 20-22 Columbia (Neurobiology & Behavior): Feb 8-10, Feb 29-Mar2 Columbia (Pathobiology & Molecular Medicine): Feb 3-5 Cornell (Weill): February Dartmouth (PEMM) March 2-3 Duke (Toxicology and Environmental Health) February 2-4 February 16-18 Emory (PBEE): February 2-4 Emory (IMP): Feb 2-4, March 1-3 Emory University (neuro): Feb 9-11 or Feb 23-25 FSU (Molec. Biophysics): Feb 16-18 Harvard (BBS): Jan 26-29 and Feb 9-12 Harvard (MCB): Feb 1st - 4th, Feb 15-18 Harvard (neuro): Jan 19-22 Harvard (BPH): Jan 26-27 Indiana University - Bloomington (Biology? Feb. 16-19 MIT (Biology? Feb 11-14, Feb. 25-28, Mar 10-13 MIT (CSBi): Feb 9-11, Feb 16-19 Mount Sinai (Biomedical Sciences PhD): Jan 9-10, Jan 17-18 or Jan 24-25 MSU: Jan 5-8 MSU (Zoology): Feb 2-3 Northwestern (IBiS): Feb 13-14 or Feb 27-18 Northwestern (Neuro: NUIN): Jan 19-20, Feb 2-3, Feb 23-24 NYU Sackler: Jan 19-20, Jan 26-27, Feb 9-10 Ohio State University (IBGP): Feb. 9-11 Ohio State University (Neuro): Jan 18-20 OHSU: Feb 1-4 OHSU (neuro) feb 5th- 7th Princeton (neuro): Feb 16-18 Princeton (EEB): February 8-10 Rockefeller: March 1-2 and 8-9 Scripps Research Institute-CA campus: Feb 24-25, Mar 2-3 Sloan Kettering: 1/17-1/19 Stanford (SCBRM) feb 29th - mar 3rd Stanford (Biology) feb 29th - mar 3rd Thomas Jefferson (neuro): Jan 26-27 Tufts-Sackler (Integrated Studies): Jan 27 Tufts-Sackler (Genetics and ISP) Feb 10th Tufts-Sackler (Molecular Microbiology) Feb 2-3 Tufts-Sackler (Neuroscience) Feb 17th UAB (BMS): Jan 19-21 University of Arizona (Medical Pharmacology): Feb 9-12 University of Cambridge (UK): Jan 18th-20th University of Chicago (BSG): Feb 23-25 University of Chicago (Molecular Biosciences): Feb 16-18 UC Berkeley (Biophysics): Feb 14-16 UC Berkeley (MCB): Feb 5-7, Feb 26-28 UC Berkeley (MBN): Jan 26-27 UC Davis (BMCDB): Mar 1-2, Mar 5 UC Davis (GGG): Feb 16-17 UC Davis (neuro): Feb 9-10 UC Irvine (CMB):Jan 26-28,Feb 2-4 UCLA ACCESS: Jan 28-30, Feb 11-13, Feb 25-27 UCLA ACCESS (Molecular and Medical Pharmacology): Dec 22 UC Riverside: Feb 24 UC San Diego (Biomedical Sciences): Feb 9-12 UCSD Biological Sciences: Feb 1-2, Feb 22-23 UCSF BMS: Jan 26-28 OR February 9-11 UCSF iPQB: Feb 9-11 UCSF Tetrad: Feb 2-3 OR Feb 24-25 UC Santa Barbara MCDB: Feb 23-25 or Mar 1-3 UChicago (neuro): Feb 10 or Feb 13 (but travel times drag it out several days before and/or after) U Colorado - Denver (BSP): Feb 2-5, Feb 9-12 U Illinois Urbana-Champ (neuro) - Feb 16-19 U Iowa (Micro): Feb 23-26 U Iowa (Neuro) - Jan 26-28 U Kentucky (IBS)- Jan 12-13, Jan 26-27 UMASS Worcester: Feb 2-4 and Feb 16-18 U Maryland - Baltimore - Feb 3 U Miami (RSMAS): Feb 3-4 U Mich (PIBS): Jan 27-28 (Cancer Bio), Feb 3-4 (general) U Minnesota (MICaB): Feb 9-12 or 16-19 U Minnesota (neuro): Feb 23-26 UNC Chapel Hill (BBSP): Feb 2-4, Jan 26-28, Feb 9-11, Feb 23-25 UPenn (Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics): Jan 19-21, Feb 9-11 UPenn (CAMB): Jan 12-14 UPenn (neuro): Jan 20, Feb 10 UPitt (IBGP): Jan 20-22 URochester (BMB): Feb 3-4, March 2-3(environmental medecine) Feb 2-4 UT Austin (CMB): Jan 26-28, Feb 16-18 UT Austin (MSI): Feb 10-11 UVa (BIMS): Jan 12-14 or Feb 2-4 UW-Seattle (Biology? Jan 13 or Jan 20 UW-Seattle (MCB): Jan 25-27,Feb 8-10 UW-Seattle (GS): Feb12-14, Feb 26-28 UW-Seattle (Neuro): Jan 24-25 U Wisconsin - Madison (Biophysics): Mar 1-3 U Wisconsin - Madison (CMP) : Feb 27th, March 5th Vanderbilt (IGP): Jan 12-14, many others (just got back from the 1st weekend, they said there would be 8-9 other weekends) Virginia Commonwealth University (Biomedical Sciences Doctoral Portal): Feb 3rd or Feb 17th Washington University in St. Louis (DBBS-MCB): March 1-3 WashU (neuro): Jan 27-28, Feb 3-4 Yale (B.B.S.): Feb 2-5, Feb 9-12

I am definitely not a physics person but all I know about ETH Zurich is that they are also informally known as "The MIT in Europe". So I guess you can compare it to MIT somehow? One thing for sure is that they have lots of collaboration with other schools just like these top research schools in the U.S., but I don't think that will indicate whether "the colleagues in department be stronger or smarter". I supposed your last question can be answered by the department officials over there.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think there is a cut-off or anything that defines whether a journal is "A-Level", "B", or whatever. Even though Nature and Science have the higher (if not highest) impact factor than other journals, but that doesn't mean papers from other journal are less meaningful/significant/whatever. In other words, it is a bonus for you to work with someone who frequently publish papers in journals with higher impact factor, but don't limit yourself to those PI because it is extremely competitive to be published in these journals. I would rather look for PIs who have the most citations in their publications instead. Apologize for any confusion caused from my broken English.

took the chemistry test. i have to say there a some questions covered things that I did not learn in the past, unfortunately. other than that, i think it's fair. just out of curiosity - did anyone who take the biology test today find any questions misleading/weird/wrong?

I don't know about other schools but I think you definitely want to have a much higher GRE Quantitative score if you want to get into UCSD. I supposed if that is for UCSD, similar expectation also applies to Stanford or any other top-tier biological science/biochemistry programs, too. The rest of your application should be okay I supposed. It may be hurt if you do not have any publications after 10 years of research. Just my two cents.

I don't know what is M.Div/A.M. but I believe your application depends on other things too - GRE, LOR, SOP, etc. Even though your GPA does below the general requirement (3.0), you can make it up by doing exceptionally well on other parts of your applications. I supposed you'll need research experience if you are getting any doctoral degrees; in other words, it should be difficult for anyone to get into a PhD program without any research experience. Thus, many non-natural/physical science students tend to get a master degree before they apply for PhD program. Work experience can be a good substitution for research experience as long as they are relevant to the program(s) you are interested. You can check US News to get a sense what are the top-tier schools for your program. From there, you should be able to get a sense what are the mid-tier programs. Otherwise, you can ask professors who know well about these doctoral programs - I'm sure they have something to offer. you can also consider asking your home institution's department/program(s)/admission officers/coordinators and see what kind of students would they admit to their phd program(s) and get a general sense how likely it will be. by the way, your junior and senior GPA is a lot more important than your first 2 years' GPA. so if you actually do well in your last 2 years then your situation is still positive. ps. unlike Eigen, I'm just another guy who is planning to apply graduate school this fall so you can take what I said as a grain of salt. just don't give up and never say never.

Just in my opinion, I don't think you should worry at all. The PI in "this university" is offering help by looking at possible publication of your thesis. Question is - is she planning to be the second author just because she helps you publish your thesis as a result? Since she did not contribute any of the work (of your thesis), nor you were working under her guidance, she should not be on the author list. As for your thesis advisor, it is really up to you to choose either option 1 or 2. But if I were you, since I did most of the work and my advisor is willing to edit my thesis (if necessary), I would publish it by myself. If the publication is not good enough (e.g. lack of data/support), the journal(s) will tell you that they can't publish your work until you get more data (or whatever you need to make your publication convincing enough to pass the peer review.)