risingsun11801

If you are in a biomedical field, you should look into the Graduate Partnerships Program at NIH. You do most of your dissertation research at the lab of an NIH faculty member in collaboration with your mentor at your home school. That would give you some years in the northeast near friends and family.

I'd say your stats are fine and you don't need to take the GRE again. If you are worried, make sure to apply to plenty of schools with TBI research clusters- Virginia Commonwealth University, University of Kentucky, Uniformed Services University, Emory University, University of Pittsburgh, University of Pennsylvania, Ohio State University

I have a lot more experience driving long distances with dogs, so that may affect how I drive with cats. First, I highly recommend a top-loading carrier for cats who put up a fight. It's much easier to drop them in. On an 8 hour drive with 3 cats, we stopped once at a rest area and let them out. I bought cat harnesses and leashes to keep them from getting loose outside. We offered food and water but they didn't eat or drink. (my dog usually doesn't either) I got a cheap cake carrier from Walmart that's a rectangle with handles on the side and a lid that snaps on and used that as a traveling litter box- no spills. My cat used it inside the car when it was raining and I stopped to get gas. Based on stories I've heard, my cat doesn't whine that much so I'm not sure what to do with a very vocal unhappy cat. My mom has gotten "travel medication" from the vet for her dog, so I would check with your vet to see if they can be calmed a bit. Good luck!

Be sure to ask questions about what it would be like to join the lab, not just rotate there. How many students have they graduated and where are they now? How would they describe their mentoring style- sink or swim? Keeps a close eye on students? Keep in mind also- the most important source of information about potential labs is current students!

Does your PI speak to everyone else in their native language? If so, she is doing them a great disservice to their careers. I worked for a PI from Asian country and others in the lab were from the same country, but the PI laid down a strict English-only rule at work. I later worked at a different institution and the entire center had an English-only policy. Some still had casual conversations in their native language, but not in front of any faculty and not pertaining to their research. These rules were made for the benefit of trainees, and even people who had their scientific training in their home country and moved to the US a few years ago were able to communicate in English and were taking free pronunciation classes offered by the institution. I would worry more about being in an environment which is not invested in the development of trainee skills. I agree with the above poster- why is everyone in your lab from the same country? This could lead to exploitation of trainees quite easily. As for advice, I'm not sure what you can do to force others to learn English when they don't seem interested. An option may be to casually mention something to your boss or higher personnel to bring the situation to their attention. I suspect they already know about their poor English speaking skills and don't care either. Sorry for the negativity.

I think getting some wet lab experience will help a lot if you plan to apply to programs that aren't psychology based. Organic chemistry will help a lot, but if biochemistry doesn't fit into your schedule before grad school I wouldn't worry about it too much. I took 2 quarters of biochem in undergrad and it didn't really help. In my graduate biochem course we spent 2-3 weeks reviewing the highlights from an entire year of organic chem and then moved on to biochem topics. Undergrad organic chem was extremely helpful, but any background past that was not necessary. I also took some time off to work as a tech before grad school and it helped immensely. During my interviews I didn't have anyone question my time off and many professors made favorable comments about my research/ real world experience.

Does your research experience involve wet lab bench work? If you want to do pharmacology, I think you will need more chemistry experience- almost all programs require biochemistry, and if you haven't taken organic it will be a hurdle. (not impossible, but challenging) Look at the IBS class requirements at UK- they suggest bio, chem, and organic chem. I would use that as a benchmark for which classes will help you succeed. Not having background coursework won't rule you out for acceptances- one of my peers was a math major with no science coursework- but once you're in you might have a more difficult time with the grad coursework.

It depends on the subject. In my biomedical science program, we have been told research is far more important than grades. Less than a 3.0 will get you on probation, but there's no reason to strive for much higher than 3.0.

After graduation I started an academic lab job away from home, but hated being there and became so depressed that I quit after 3 months. A few months later, I started working as a contract hire for a phameceutical company, then moved on to an industry job. I finally got another academic job 1.5 years after I quit the first one. I worked there for a few years, then money ran out and I started working another academic job for 9 months before I applied to grad school (stayed for 1.5 years total). My boyfriend (I didn't know him at the time) worked a lab job right out of college but his PI left the country so he had to get a retail job. After that, he landed a job in industry in his hometown and had to stay there and help his mother/brothers after a nasty divorce. Six years later the house was paid off so he applied to graduate school. I should also mention that the year before he aplied he started volunteering at a local academic lab on his days off. My point is, if you need to go be with your family, then do so. My dad died my senior year of high school and at the time I wanted to spend a lot more time with his side of my family. Do what is best for you right now- don't stay miserable because of your career. You can find a way back like my boyfriend and I both did. We have both begun a biomedical PhD program in a place we are happy to be. If you have to take more time off than you planned, it will be okay, as long as you keep working on a plan to get back on track. I had a low GPA in undergrad, so I needed a lot more lab experience before applying. My boyfriend had a solid GPA from a good school, so he didn't need as much academic lab experience as me. What's important is to stay up-to-date on your area of interest. Read free articles online, or buy an advanced textbook. I hated my contract job, but I used the company's journal access to read Science and Nature every week to kep up with where things were headed. My boyfriend used a technique at his job in the easiest way possible, but he got an advanced text and read all that he could. When you do apply, admissions committees will be able to tell that you've stayed interested in furthering your education but had some derailments you had to work through.

I think it depends on how well you like your job and how excited you are to get going on your PhD. If you start your program in July, will you be joining your thesis lab early or will you be doing an extra rotation? If you are starting in your thesis lab, I'd say there is no rush to get started. You'll be there for 5+ years, take a break now. If you will be doing a rotation, do you need to be doing an extra rotation? If there are quite a few labs you're interested in, then maybe the extra time will help. Personally, I have quite a few things I'd like to get done before moving for school, so I am going to enjoy the free time I have in the evenings right now before getting back into school mode after quite a few years out.

Why are you telling your dog to lie down in the middle of a walk? Maybe he is getting confused. A walk is supposed to be for exercise, so telling him to lie down is a bit strange. Possibly he thinks the walk is over and it's time to relax. My dog loooves ice cubes. When she was a puppy she would knock over any glass she could find to get the delicious ice cubes inside. She always comes to the freezer when I'm getting some ice cubes for my water and she has to have one.

This is exactly the reason I am trying to hang on at work, even though I am so ready to leave. I need to keep earning money, plus I don't want to be stuck without health insurance. Although I looked up the COBRA documentation at work recently, and it looks like we have 60 days to sign up. So I think this means I can leave up to 60 days before grad school starts, and only sign up for COBRA if I need it. Plus, I saw that my company policy is for your regular insurance to last until the end of the month you stop working. I was thinking of having my last day June 29th, but if I went into July I'd be covered until August...

If this is for your Master's degree and you plan on getting a PhD somewhere else, I don't think there is a problem staying. The advice about not staying for grad school is mostly for people doing their BS and PhD at the same place. Then, when they look for jobs they have only been at one institution. As long as you plan to move on, I think you will be fine.

I have a ~60lb dog and a cat in a one bedroom apartment with 2 people. It never really feels crowded, except when we are sleeping and they both jump on the bed to look out the window. For the litterbox situation, mine has to be in a place where the dog cannot get to it. Covered litterboxes with a flap will not work, my dog will stick her head in to get those delicious cat turds. Teaching her to use the toilet won't work, because if I leave the seat up the dog will drink out of it. Right now I have the litterbox in an open closet with a baby gate across the doorway. The cat can easily jump over the gate to do her business and it keeps the dog out. It never smells that bad unless she's doing her business at the moment and hasn't covered it yet. I HIGHLY recommend FreshStep crystals. They are a bit expensive if you have multiple cats/boxes, but for my one cat and one litterbox they work wonders. They absorb odors much better than scoopable litter and there is no dust when scooping or adding new litter. How they work is the urine get absorbed into the crystals and they turn from blue to greenish yellow. So, the only thing you scoop out are the logs. It makes cleaning a lot easier- no litter clumps to worry about. Before I go to grad school this fall, however, I will be making one of these: http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=291147.0 It's a cabinet modified with a kitty door to hold a litterbox. Genius! My dog is a pretty good traveler- she's ridden 18hrs straight back when she was ~1 year old. (Of course I stopped for breaks every 2 hours at rest areas for her.) What I did at the time was I tried to put her crate together in the back seat of the car. The roof didn't fit, but the 4 sides and the bottom fit. I pointed the door of the crate towards the door of the car so when I opened the backseat door, I still had plenty of time to make sure she didn't escape. She usually rides in the front passenger seat on short trips, and sometimes is a little too excited to get out of the car once we've reached our destination. This also assured that she would not try to jump into the front seat for any reason and distract me while I was driving. I've also transported 3 kittens on an 8 hour drive, and they rode in a cat carrier together (they were 3 months old at the time, plenty of room for everyone.) They all had collars and we brought little leashes for the grass at rest stops, but they hated it and would not eat or drink or go to the restroom. They were litter trained already, and for the trip I bought a cheap plastic 9x13 cake carrier from Walmart that had a good snap-on lid. I put some litter in it before we left, and the lid assured it wouldn't spill in the car. At stops, I just popped off the top and set the kitties on it. On the way back, it was raining so I actually had to hold the litter in my lap while in the car. It was small enough to maneuver in the car but large enough to function as a litterbox.

I struggled through ochem at OU several years ago, and luckily got curved up to a C. I actually retook 2/3 quarters of ochem at OSU several years after graduation, and aced it. The instructor made a BIG difference to me. That, and using the models! Even though I retook it with better grades, no one in any of my interviews mentioned it. I had a lot of dismal grades in science classes my first 2.5 years. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do, so I had no focus and it took me longer to develop different types of study skills. I am completely fine with hands-on stuff in the lab. Grad school is not med school. It doesn't matter what grades you earned in what class, as long as your overall GPA is above 3.0 and you did well in the class that relates to your future grad degree (immunology, ect.) Focus on getting research experience and a clear direction of why you want to attend graduate school. Even in a PhD program, your grades don't matter as long as you maintain your 3.0 GPA. The research is what matters. If you insist on taking ochem or you may want to apply to professional school, my friend took the entire year of ochem one summer at Capital University I think. It was a lot of information at once and cost a bit much, but if you have time to completely devote yourself to learning ochem this may be an option.

The coursework for each program will differ. If you join the biology program, you will have to take their required courses, which may include topics you're not interested in. The administrative help will be different, and funding situations will be different. Some programs may have safety nets in place in case your advisor loses funding (teaching assistant) and some may not. Even at the same schools, programs can treat their students very differently. My current lab takes rotation students from a molecular biology/biochemistry program and an integrated biomedical program. They have to take different courses, have different comprehensive exam rules, have different seminar requirements. The stipends may be quite different. For your case in particular, I think it depends on your undergrad degree. If you have a computer science degree, the courses in a biology program will cover many new topics including many topics not related to systems biology. If you have a biology degree, you might not get the appropriate amount of computer science background to have the kind of thesis project you want. If you want to use a lot of computational methods, it may be difficult to catch up on all of the methodology.

If program B has a better placement record, that trumps less senior faculty. Senior faculty at program A might mean less time for mentoring. It doesn't matter what kind of bigwig you can work with at program A if they don't take the time to help you network and prosper.

If program B is only slightly lower ranked, I would go where there is more money. You will have less stress about making ends meet and will be able to focus better. You didn't mention the types of cities or cost of living though- make sure more money will actually go further in city B. Also, which place would you rather live? All things seem pretty much equal- I would say choose wherever you will have a better lifestyle or which place has more networking opportunities for a future job.

Ironic, I give this advice all of the time. This is more a better of no one doing the type of studies I'm interested in. A lot of the neuroscience labs do psychology research and I'd rather not do so many behavioral studies. Some of the labs I'm interested in aren't taking students, so I'm concerned with finding 3 good rotation labs. It now also appears they they don't completely cover tuition so the stipend amount will be $1500 less after paying for these fees.

My boyfriend and I both applied to PhD programs this year. I have been accepted to 2 schools, he has been accepted to one of those and is still waiting to hear from the other (fingers crossed). Assuming he only has one acceptance though, should I go to the same school to be together or the school I feel is a better fit thousands of miles away? We have done long distance already for 1.5 years, living 8 hours apart (by car). I personally hated it even though we saw each other every 6-8 weeks. The situation in grad school will be quite different though because of $$$. We will not have as much money to visit each other compared to when we were both working. Neither school is in the same city as a major airport so air travel would take an entire day and not be cheap. Driving would be even worse, around 20 hours. If we don't go to the same city, we have pets to split up. We'll have to find separate housing which will be more expensive. I'm too old and crotchety to be living with strangers again- a single apartment will eat into any extra money that could be saved for visits. However, if we both go to this school, we'll be really far from our families and everyone we know. We both have reservations about the programs to which we've been accepted. He's had thoughts of not even going to grad school if this is his only acceptance. Should we go anyway and hope for the best? I should mention he wants me to go to the school I like better no matter what, and is very supportive.

Well, my boyfriend and I both feel this way for different reasons about different programs. For his, there are no rotations and he has a faculty that accepted him into his lab but he is worried about being stuck in this lab because the current students seem like they are worked too hard. Plus, they utilize large animals and take care of the animals themselves, which is not something he really wants to do. Also, the lab is located pretty far away from the main campus in an area that can't easily be accessed by anything but a car and he was hoping to bike a lot. For mine, I just didn't feel right about the program when I interviewed. The current students did not seem that enthusiastic and everyone kept addressing the administrative problems with this joint program between 2 colleges in the same university. There also aren't many faculty in the research area I'm interested in. The school is also really far from my family (~2,000 miles, no major airport) and I'm worried about how easily I will be able to visit in case of health problems with my grandparents and mother.

Did anyone accept an offer to a school with some reservations and it turned out better than expected? Is it better to start a PhD program somewhere you're not that excited about or just not go to school at all?

I also applied to Neuroscience programs, but not any of these ones, so I can only comment on the reasons you listed. No guaranteed funding at UT Austin would be a red flag for me. 15K compared to 29K at Houston?? I have undergrad student loan debt and would not want to scrape by for 5 years or have to take out more loans. Another thing that I noticed was you only mentioned one POI at each school- don't these schools have rotations? Ideally there would be at least 3 POIs at each school that seem interesting enough to work with. The mentoring ability of an advisor is far more important than their research area when it comes to grad school. Furthermore, some PIs might be good postdoc mentors but not student mentors. (My current lab does pretty well with grad students but postdocs end up foundering.) I would suggest UT Houston because I know it's a nice city, there is a ton of research being conducted in the medical complex and opportunities to meet all kinds of people (there are more likely regional meetings for networking compared to SC), the stipend is generous. But, I would make sure there are multiple labs taking students that you would be interested in joining there.

My boyfriend grew up in Ithaca and HATES those bumper stickers! I have visited a few times, and the city has more than I thought it would. There are almost all of the chain stores there (Walmart, Target, Petsmart, ect.) and there are a lot of nice smaller stores downtown in The Commons. It is very hilly, so if you wanted to ride a bike everywhere, you had better be in shape. There seem to be enough good restaurants, even in walking distance of campus. Real estate is quite pricey for a small town, so keep that in mind in terms of cost of living/stipends.

If I recall correctly, UAB has a rolling admissions deadline. If they interviewed into March, they are probably still deciding on the last spots. If you don't mind, how long after your interview at VCU did you get accepted? I had a late interview and am still waiting to hear.