Pitangus

First invite from Michigan State! Finally I have something meaningful to focus on/prepare for. Good luck to eeb2012, PrescribedBurn, and eakmurphy with all of your schools! Hopefully more programs will get rolling soon. I kind of feel like a slacker now with only three schools, but then again I was really nit-picky with fit so I don't know where else I would have applied at this point.

Hehe, yeah, any reoccurring number is most likely due to the same applicants posting for different schools, but from what I remember there are at least a few individuals in EEB. Plus me. I just thought it was curious since there are so few reported bio scores.

Welcome PrescribedBurn, thanks for stopping by, and congrats on your invite! I saw your post on the results board (I'm assuming it's yours, but even if it's not I'm going to ramble on anyways). I thought it was interesting that, except for your higher Q, we have the same GRE scores (on the new scale). So that helps me stay optimistic (though I'm never going to completely get over the recent realization that my Q score is a little low and might be enough so to hurt me, even though I know my score isn't bad - I think I've been too aloof about the admissions process otherwise, so I guess this has given me something to worry about pointlessly). Actually, I've noticed that a disproportionate number of the Bio GRE scores I've seen in the results section are 860. I haven't looked at all of the bio entries of course, and most entries don't have them anyways, but I was still struck by how often I've seen 860 compared to any other score... Ok, rambling done.

Yeah, some of those personal info sites (Spokeo, Intelius) are really sketchy, though they tend to put all the weird stuff behind a pay wall, which makes me wonder if they actually have the information (or if someone would actually pay for it).

Nope, nothing besides an email sent back in November after I submitted the departmental pre-application. I'm assuming they will start notifying people soon now that the deadline has passed (finally), and they'll need to get invites out before February (if the EEB interview is at or around the same time as the Biology one listed in the interview thread). So good luck to us (and any other EEB people hanging around)! Where else are you applying?

Although I am applying within the life sciences, I generally agree that if a subject test isn't required, then it won't make much of a difference if your background in your field is already strong (though of course it wouldn't hurt to take it and do well, since adcomms will either be happy with it or will just ignore it). Then again I say this even though I took the GRE in Biology anyways because my undergrad institution is not well known, and I was paranoid that my GPA would not be taken seriously (see my own "worst scenario" previously =P).

I'd have to agree with finknottle that updating just for the sake of a slightly higher GPA might not be worth the money/effort, unless someone had a sub-3.0 GPA and this semester's grades brought it above 3.0. In LLajax's case, I personally would only try to send another transcript if it included relevant graduate-level courses and/or courses that are required/recommended for admissions to my programs. So to LLajax - Congrats on your successful semester! But if you are already having trouble contacting your grad departments, it seems unlikely that you will be able to get the "ok" to send the transcript before your file has already reached the review stage. Perhaps you could take a chance and send them in the mail (if that's what you had to do originally) and hope people in the admissions offices are still putting together applicant folders and would add them to your files. But at $10 a pop I personally wouldn't bother.

If you have the time to do some old thread searching, the question about interview dates is usually addressed each year somewhere in the College Confidential Bioscience result threads. Look for posts by molliebatmit. I'm pretty sure I remember a post in last year's thread saying it doesn't matter which interview date you attend.

I am a science applicant, though mine is unfortunately not one of the sciences currently blowing up the results board. I submitted all of my apps in late November/early December, but the deadline for one program was just yesterday, so I figure now the "real" waiting begins. Best of luck to everyone throughout this long month!

And don't forget that OTHER applicant's letter writers are well-liked international powerhouses who have fostered successful collaborations with members of the ad comm (all of them) and did their undergrads/PhDs/postdocs at this university!

Sigh. I'm very much in this thread today. My final deadline passes today, which means all of my applications should either be in or heading to review now. Biggest fear #1 (ad comm): Oh look, another valedictorian from some SLAC I've never heard of. Must be grade inflation. Verbal GRE is 99%? A little strange, but doesn't hurt as long as .... wait, Quant isn't even 80%? And this thesis project was completed almost entirely independently? Must not have been very sophisticated. Cut. Moving on... Biggest fear #2 (POI): This applicant has not worked with my lab previously, and I am not friends with these recommenders, so I'll pass. Biggest hope: Excellent GPA, and GRE clears the cutoff. Previous experience shows clear progression towards current research interests, and is a good fit with Dr. so and so. Recommendations are all glowing and, more importantly, specifically tailored and helpful. Some good conference presentations. Hmm, only one publication submitted, but wait, this applicant designed a thesis project with little support and traveled alone to <foreign country> to conduct the fieldwork? Clearly won't need any hand-holding. I say yes. I imagine I'll get a mix of the above. Just hoping it'll be a good enough mix to get me an acceptance...

I don't have a Facebook account, but I don't see anything wrong with sharing successes with friends (assuming Facebook "friends" are actually friends). Personally, my only hesitation would be if I had applied to many programs (say 10+). If I ended up having a very lucky season and received mostly acceptances, then I think I would feel a little bad posting "Got into School X!" one day, "Got into School Y!" another, and on and on, especially if I had friends awaiting acceptances of their own. And if the opposite occurred and I received mostly rejections, well, I don't think I'd want to put up multiple updates for that either, for my own sake. =P So I think I would wait until I heard from all schools and put my results in one update or even just put "I will be starting grad school at School Z in the fall!"

I think BDav mentioned who to contact. But to try to answer your question anyway: I had to email a department because they were missing the transcript for a transfer course I took at another school, and the person who responded was a graduate secretary who was very nice and helpful. I think it is often administrative assistants who handle these requests rather than the ad comm themselves, so even if they get annoyed (which doesn't seem common) I doubt they will try to get you rejected or anything! Also, my apologies to everyone else for continuing to derail the thread somewhat!

Good to hear. And don't feel bad about not thinking anything of it beforehand: it's a standard practice if people have told you about it, but not necessarily an obvious one if they haven't! I'm not sure what I would have thought about the waivers if I did not have advisors telling me to always put "yes"...

It seems that not waiving your right won't help you if you're rejected from a school and *may* hurt you during the review process depending on how the ad comm feels about unwaived letters. So I suppose you might as well try and make the contact, as BDav suggests. Again I don't know how important the waiver is, but if you can get it changed it would be one less thing to worry about, since really I don't think there's any disadvantage to waiving the right.

I'm not sure I understand what you mean by "change it." Do you mean that you currently have an F on your transcript for the course and you want to change it to an incomplete "I" because you deferred an exam? Sorry if I am misunderstanding your question, but obviously I wouldn't recommend changing any grades on a transcript yourself, even if you have permission from the professor to make up an exam. You should take it up with him/her about getting the grade changed to an I, if that is your intent.

This is just the general consensus I've seen online and heard from both high school college counselors and a scholarship advisor at my undergrad, but I don't know whether it is the result of speculation about how letters are viewed or someone on an ad comm has actually shared their thoughts on it. Either way I think it's just standard practice to waive the right, unless, as I said before, you have a reason beforehand to want to read the letters. Someone can correct me if I am mistaken. EDIT - here is one of the topics I was referring to: BDav do you have any thoughts/observations regarding waived vs. not waived letters?

I have a Google+ profile, which I like because it pops up near the top on Google searches of my name, plus I've linked it to my linkedin etc. profiles, which in turn makes them appear near the top as well. Not that I think sites like linkedin are that useful, but rather I agree with Gellert that it's best to have control of what's out there under your name. All of my profiles have the basic CV-type info to identify me, as well as a headshot photo to hopefully distinguish me from the two people on Facebook with my name.

It's usually recommended that you waive your right to see the letters because it shows that 1) you have good relationships with your writers and trust them to submit strong letters, and 2) you didn't review a less-than-ideal letter and either switch writers or ask your writer to make it stronger (though supposedly some writers will let you see their letter even if you waive your right, but I've personally never had a writer show their letter to me). I don't know how much of a difference it will generally make in the decision process. Presumably ad comms give waived letters more weight for the reasons above, but I don't know if or to what degree they discount unwaived ones. So personally I would only choose to not waive the right if I had concerns about a letter writer. Ideally I wouldn't have to resort to a questionable writer in the first place, but I know sometimes it is unavoidable for various reasons.

Welcome kgumps2012! Don't be nervous, it looks like you've got some nice experience. I was worried at first when I realized that my Quant GRE was lower than many of the scores listed here, but I think we've established that the numbers tend to run high here, so I'm staying positive about my applications.

Congrats on the invite/fellowship nomination ryanmor! It's good to see that the EEB-type departments might be starting their reviews (I know plant bio is often its own program, but still). I'm still not expecting to hear anything before the end of January at the earliest, but it's nice to think that the review process has started or will be starting soon.

What is your undergrad major? Most biology type majors, that I've heard of at least, require a few chemistry courses and at least one or two physics courses, which would fulfill the requirements for graduate programs in most biology fields. If you aren't a biology/science major, then perhaps you should contact some of the departments and see how they consider applicants with different backgrounds. I know I've read on at least one biology program website that said program welcomes people with different academic backgrounds and will allow students to make up courses during their first year as a graduate student. But again, you should look into each program and try to find out if they require certain core courses for admission. Maybe someone in neuro will be more familiar with the standard requirements for admission and can give you better advice!

Yes, definitely talk to your professors and share your concerns and goals with them. I understand your feeling of being overwhelmed about missing experience and wanting to make up for lost time. Although I was fortunate enough to catch on before senior year and to start looking for opportunities on my own, I know I am still applying alongside people with better connections and experience working with a lab/mentor throughout their entire undergrad career. But I am staying positive, because the work I have been able to do so far is the kind of work I would love to keep doing, and I can only hope that it will show my self-motivation and be worth something to the admissions committees! So if research is what you really want to do, don't give up because you didn't go through the typical channels for gaining experience. Good luck!

I believe it is definitely possible to conduct research and get published even if you come from a school without many research opportunities. I came from a SLAC that didn't have much of a research culture in biology, especially not in my area of interest, and while I took part in the school's summer research program and was able to present a poster at a regional conference, it wasn't until I pursued a senior thesis project independently that I was able to present at national conferences and submit a paper to a journal. Like eco_env has suggested, you should first look at your previous research experience and see if there is a possibility of producing at least poster for a conference presentation. Whether this is a possibility will depend on your role in the research you've been a part of: if you developed your own project, however small, and obtained results, then you could definitely produce an abstract describing this project and submit it to a conference (I'm not in psych so I can't give suggestions unfortunately). If accepted you could present a poster as first author, listing anyone else involved in the work as additional authors. If your research experience has been mostly assisting others (professors or graduate students) with their projects, then you would have to talk to them to find out if they have any plans of submitting a poster/paper somewhere, and perhaps then you could be listed as a second or third author, depending on the extent of your involvement. Also, I know in my field (ecology) there are post-bacc research opportunities similar to Research Experience for Undergrads (REU) programs that are designed for people considering graduate school, though like REUs, they are often very competitive. But again, I have no experience in psych to know if similar opportunities exist for you, so hopefully someone in psych will have further info!

Like orangeman said, the percentiles probably changed now that the revised tests taken this fall have been scored, which was to be expected since the change was so radical and relatively few people have taken the new test so far. The fact that the old test taker's Q percentiles went down suggests to me that either people did better on the new Quant test or the concordance table used to equate old and revised scores isn't exacted yet. I self-reported my old percentiles to two schools, but I sent my score request for those two early (before the first round of revised tests were scored I guess), so the confirmation report I got in the mail was still in the old format with the old percentiles. My third school only asked for scores on the online app, not percentiles, if I remember correctly, which I guess is good because I sent that score request later and got the new format report. Though I did use my old percentiles in an email I sent to a POI at that school. I would report the new percentiles from now on but don't worry about what you've already sent. I really doubt anyone will care about the percentile discrepancy because they know the test changed, and even the score report looks different. As long as the scores themselves were reported correctly no one will suspect dishonesty.