-
Posts
571 -
Joined
Everything posted by aberrant
-
Lunch and chat with a Nobel laureate. Friend of a celebrity chef, who is/was on CBS fairly regularly. Met Shawne Merriman (with his then-SO) once when he was still playing for the Chargers. I guess it is not my time yet.
-
I confirmed that this post-doc has the least scientific sense among all the post-docs that I have met. I swear.
-
I somehow felt like she's trolling here...
-
Bioinformatics prospects after masters
aberrant replied to Wishful Thinker's topic in Decisions, Decisions
I'm not sure to what percentage do biotech industry involves bioinformatics. However, Boston has the biggest biotech industry in the country, followed by San Diego, and then San Francisco / Bay Area. My understanding on biotech industry, however, involves less bioinformatics compare to other bio-related disciplines, such as protein (bio)chemistry, molecular biology, structural biology, etc. -
To give an extra example on single-entry VISA: international students from mainland China have single-entry F-1 VISA. Whenever they leave the U.S., they have to reapply the F-1 VISA again. In other words, you can still visit your family every year, but it will definitely take time for you to reapply the F-1 VISA, get the approval, and stamp on your passport. My lab mate went back to China in early December 2014, and she didn't come back to work until early February due to the application process by US embassy in China. (again, single-entry). Hope that helps.
-
Accepted to a School without Stipend
aberrant replied to thatguy999's topic in Mathematics and Statistics
That is more of a deal between specific departments, and do not apply to all the departments at UCSD, hence, it was not common to my knowledge. I know enough international graduate students who are/were in physical science, natural science, engineering, and history, that are/were TA'ing in their home department. I also know, however, that when necessary, one can TA for an undergraduate language class. So is it possible to have a different academic background and become a TA in the language department? Absolutely. Is it common though? Absolutely not. -
Are you saving for retirement while in grad school?
aberrant replied to brown_eyed_girl's topic in The Bank
If I had money for the down payment, I would have pay mortgage for a condo in my area, and rent it out (as an investment) when I graduate -- mortgage payment is cheaper than rent in my area, since 2012. I know some people have stocks of various companies, but most of them are financially too conserved to do any long term investment. Just imagine how much can you save per month, and then how much money do you need to spend per semester, specifically for school activity/facility fees, and, to some others, insurance. -
There are 3 questions tho... In my opinion: 1) For the MA program in the same school, your chance is high -- especially since they gave you that advice. I don't see how they benefit by telling you something untrue. 2) It depends on the program. You may ask the program coordinator to see how likely a MA student transfer/admit into the PhD program in the past. 3) Does the admission for your PhD program typically require research experience? Do you have any research experience? Will you gain research experience during your MA study? How will the MA degree differentiate you from someone who doesn't have a MA degree (besides the degree itself)? If research experience is necessary and you can gain research experience during your MA studies -- go for it -- if the tuition fees and other fees will not be a problem on your end. Just my 2 cents.
-
Rockefeller vs. Scripps cs. Cold Spring Harbor
aberrant replied to tumi's topic in Decisions, Decisions
Correct me if I'm wrong, but neither Scripps nor Rockefeller are known for their research in computational biology. What you need to figure out is whether the research is more important than the reputation of the PI, or the reputation of the PI is more important than the research (call me bias, but I just don't think neither of these two institutions have PI that is big in computational bio.) I have little to no knowledge about CSHL, but if you are not doing any wet lab work, then I don't think Scripps is a good match for you. I wouldn't concern about biotech industry in SD at this stage of your career. Besides, if you are a good candidate, then you can get into the biotech industry after getting your PhD regardless of your physical location, or even your degree, for that matter. Qualification > connection > ... > current location. My advise would totally be the opposite if you love dealing with cells biology / virology / infectious disease / immunology / structural biology / biochemistry. -
A post-doc in my lab literally just ruined half of my experiments. This person has a tendency to interrupt someone's experiment (e.g. centrifugation, electrophoresis) for convenience so that this person can use the same equipment at the same time without communicating/ask for the permission with the then-current user. Consider the time and cost that build up to the experiment before this incident which cost half of my product before my next experiment, I have a day worse than Jeremy Clarkson. On top of that, this post-doc did not apologize whatsoever for the action. It once again shows that grad students may not be a burden of their post-docs / PI, sometimes it can be the other way around.
-
For chemistry program using chemistry GRE score, you can expect a minimum for 50% for citizen applicants and 80% for international applicants would be a decent benchmark. Although these numbers that I know of are 3 years ago, gathered from professors at different schools that I interacted with.
-
Use the searching function will definitely help answering your question.
-
Anyone applied AHA here? Any advice for those who are interested in applying?
-
Any grad student or program coordinator who is nice enough to help you inspect a place (or places) will definitely make things easy. In my case, I actually was lucky enough to have my program coordinator to help me inspect this apartment that I found on craigslist. I got some photos, her inputs, all these information together, and I signed the lease even before I flew out to the other coast. It worked very well for me, and I still live in the same apartment. Otherwise, I might have to crash at then/current senior grad student's place for a week or so until I found a place to move-in.
-
I personally know nothing about this. However, there is always a section where you can upload "other documents" that the admission should be considered -- you can definitely address your funding there. Also, you are required to upload CV / resume for your application, so put that fellowship under your award, and specify the length of the award and status (i.e. active / will be active on XXXX, 2016). Any information will help. Your best bet, obviously, is to e-mail to the program that you wanted to apply and inquire about your situation. I think that most programs will be very helpful and happy to answer your questions, especially when you got $$.
-
How honest are current students about their programs?
aberrant replied to mseph's topic in Decisions, Decisions
When a program is underenrolled (yes, it applies to PhD program(s)), the department will have less bargain power to ask for more funding from the source (e.g. state government). It is all about money, unfortunately. Keep in mind that in many places, graduate students are cheap TA, too. It actually is happening in this science program, where 1st year students have to TA as many as 3 sections per semester, for at least two semester. Not sure if confirmation bias address a scenario, such as when the current students "pretend" (using it very loosely here) to be friends with one and other in the same, small department during recruit weekends, and then turn out to be "segregated" in different ways. In any case, it's just unfortunate. -
I agree wholeheartedly if you have old/used furniture that have low resale value. I see that people here who suggest using U-Haul here are spending more than $1K to move everything that they need. I spent $850 ($500 1-way ticket + $350 shipping) to move coast-to-coast, from an international (but small) airport to a regional hub. If I were flying out from and to an international airport, it would be even cheaper. In terms of furniture, I initially got used furniture for free, which saves a lot of money. In the end, I spent no more than $500 for new furniture so I guess the total was about $1350 but I saved a lot of time.
-
If you were a PI, can you list any advantages of getting a non-citizen research assistant/lab tech, instead of 1. a citizen post-bac who may/may not have previous research experience 2. an undergraduate who has no research experience 3. an undergraduate who has research experience 4. a PhD student 5. an international post-doc who just wanted to be a research scientist 6. a citizen post-doc who just wanted to be a research scientist I don't know how other people run their labs, but I would imagine that both new / old professors whose lab has some sort of funding and productive would recruit a postdoc for the research work, and an undergraduate/volunteer to do the dishes, and maybe a MS degree holder, who may/may not be the spouse of the lab member, to be the lab tech. Getting a post-doc researcher is actually, believe it or not, cheaper than a PhD student. Tuition + stipend of a PhD student, while depending on location, is very likely higher than the NIH pay scale for post-doc. If you are talking about an unpaid position in the U.S., you will need to sort out 1. what VISA you will need to come to the U.S., and 2. what are the requirement are needed to qualified for that specific VISA. You can expect that all the US VISAs require some sort of financial support -- meaning, you have to show evidence (such as bank statement) to show that you can support your expenses in the U.S. (F-1, business investment, etc.). Otherwise, you'll need an employment letter (paid position) to get a working VISA. How about getting research experience in neighboring countries, or location(s) that has a less stringent VISA application?
-
How honest are current students about their programs?
aberrant replied to mseph's topic in Decisions, Decisions
i think that those responses will "vary", and it has a lot to do with the method/media that you used to ask those questions. For the record, e-mails to a public university account is subject to public disclosure upon request. hence, anyone who realize this is the case may not be as honest as he/she could/should be, at least "on the record". (In other words, you may read a lot more good things about the program/school/etc. then there is.) For the same reason, I would suggest you to ask questions that you have to the grad students in person if you can. Ideally, ask them questions individually, and not in a social gathering environment. Reason for that is because there are students who say all the good and wonderful things about the program, the school, and everything else just to get you in. And, while some of them may not want to "lie", they just "have to" because "it was an order". I, for one, was mislead by senior grad students in my current program. The impression that I perceive during recruitment weekend as a prospective student, and the reality that I am experiencing as a grad student, are quite different. That being said, I tried not to participate in the recruiting weekends as a grad student because I don't have billion good things to say about my school or the city (not necessarily my program). -
Well known professor vs. well known university?
aberrant replied to braindump's topic in Decisions, Decisions
did you try to look up the alumni from this well-known professor's lab/group and see where did his former students go after getting their degrees? -
Well known professor vs. well known university?
aberrant replied to braindump's topic in Decisions, Decisions
if they are both great programs, and he practically is the father of the field, then allow me to ask this question. a well-known advisor can at least get you to interviews in almost any location of the same field for post-docs / a job, what can a prestigious school can do? (there are lots of assumption behind this statement, but let's just say everything works well and perfect.) -
#3 plus suggesting a time to meet and talk with this PI in person. "volunteer" in "grad school life"? wrong board, maybe?
-
I moved from the most southwest end of the country to the most southeast end of the country. - Sold / gave away my furnitures - Sold large electronics/appliances - Sold books that I don't need to carry with me - Shipped books, a bike, some clothes, small electronics to the new location by UPS (gathered boxes from my research building) - Flew myself to the new location I know two friends of mine who are also from the same state to where I am -- they drove all the way to here, with their books, clothes, and electronics (specifically computer and peripherals). There is another thread about how to reduce costs to move cross-country, coast-to-coast. Just look it up.