glow_gene

Hey all, 
After suffering a pulmonary embolism, a house fire in which I lost all my belongings and a breast cancer diagnosis and treatment during grad school, I finally have a defense date for February, 2019 (after 6.5 years!)! 
I'm feeling nostalgic about my application process and sadness at the thought of leaving Washington University in St. Louis. I just want to offer my input if anyone would like any insider info on WashU, applying here, living in St. Louis or finding a lab at a large institution. I'm going to do my best to keep track of gradcafe. 
Best wishes and best of luck to all applying! Hello to everyone I recognize from years ago! :D
~glow

Hey all, 
After suffering a pulmonary embolism, a house fire in which I lost all my belongings and a breast cancer diagnosis and treatment during grad school, I finally have a defense date for February, 2019 (after 6.5 years!)! 
I'm feeling nostalgic about my application process and sadness at the thought of leaving Washington University in St. Louis. I just want to offer my input if anyone would like any insider info on WashU, applying here, living in St. Louis or finding a lab at a large institution. I'm going to do my best to keep track of gradcafe. 
Best wishes and best of luck to all applying! Hello to everyone I recognize from years ago! :D
~glow

Hey all, 
After suffering a pulmonary embolism, a house fire in which I lost all my belongings and a breast cancer diagnosis and treatment during grad school, I finally have a defense date for February, 2019 (after 6.5 years!)! 
I'm feeling nostalgic about my application process and sadness at the thought of leaving Washington University in St. Louis. I just want to offer my input if anyone would like any insider info on WashU, applying here, living in St. Louis or finding a lab at a large institution. I'm going to do my best to keep track of gradcafe. 
Best wishes and best of luck to all applying! Hello to everyone I recognize from years ago! :D
~glow

Hey there TonyB, 
 
I have spent a day or two at most in Cincinnati so I can't help too much with the comparison, but you may find this website useful: 
 
http://www.bestplaces.net/compare-cities/st._louis_mo/cincinnati_oh/climate
 
It compares two cities based on a number of the parameters in which you're interested. If you end up having specific questions about St. Louis, I'd be happy to help with them if I can!
 
~glow

Just confirmed Emory MMG (+ fellowship)! Definitely the best fit for my research interests (bacteriology and antibiotic resistance). Good luck to everyone making decisions!

Accepted at WUSTL MGG! PI told me in person. YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Calls and emails should go out today and tomorrow.

@Dank Why don't you start a "2017 Applicant Profiles and Admissions Results" thread? No harm in getting it started early. I think there would be a lot of people willing to give feedback if it didn't derail the current topic and application cycle. 

@glow_gene Just put the thread up, sorry for derailing. 
 
 

Nothing better than getting a phone call acceptance from your top choice 10 minutes before a test!
All I need to do now is graduate and I'll be a grad student this fall!
 
Edit: and second acceptance email 1 hour later... Today is a good day (well aside from probably bombing that test)

OMG! I WAS JUST ADMITTED INTO MY TOP CHOICE. I'M GOING TO GRAD SCHOOL!!

It can be a good experience, or it can not, depending on the school, the summer program, and your alternatives. 
While getting a feel for other labs can be great, it can also disrupt the continuity of your research at your own institution, and I find the most important research skills people have (or lack) starting grad school are the very basics. 
Learning how to direct a project, and being extremely competent with very basic lab skills will get you a lot farther (imo) than a high-powered summer research program that you spend as much time catching up as learning.

The 2016 application period is right around the corner. So use the following templates to enter your information, before and after you obtain your results, and remember to submit your results at the end of the cycle for posterity and to help the next cohort of applicants HERE.
You can find the  and threads by clicking on the year.
 
Undergrad Institution: (School or type of school, such as big state, lib arts, ivy, technical, foreign (what country?)... Overall Reputation in Biology?)
Major(s):
Minor(s):
GPA in Major:
Overall GPA:
Position in Class: (No numbers needed, but are you top? near top? average? struggling?)
Type of Student: (Domestic/International, male/female, minority?)

GRE Scores (revised/old version):
Q:
V:
W:
B:


TOEFL Total: (if applicable, otherwise delete this)

Research Experience: (At your school or elsewhere? What field? How much time? Any publications (Mth author out of N?) or conference talks etc...)

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: (Within your school or outside?)

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: (Such as tutor, TA, SPS officer etc...)

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help:

Special Bonus Points: (Such as connections, grad classes, famous recommenders, female or minority status etc...)

Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter:

Applying to Where:

School - Department - Research Interest
School - Department - Research Interest
School - Department - Research Interest

I wanted to thank everyone for answering all of my questions. I was able to find a great apartment in a safe area thanks to all of your experience!

Students do live in the Shaw neighborhood. It isn't my first pick for first years or otherwise, but it is reasonably priced and reasonably safe.
 
The reason it isn't recommended for first years is because it puts you further away from campus and the center of grad student activities (both socializing and work-related, almost all of which will happen in or near the CWE).

BeakerBreaker covered much of the basics, but I had just a couple things to add. St. Louis is very much like a quilt made of different neighbourhoods. Each neighbourhood has its own feel and it's own culture. Some places are great and some not so great. It's difficult to gauge where you'll fit in best until you move here, but there are lots of great places to live and spend time. I personally choose to live close to campus in a very quiet neighbourhood and spend most of my free-time elsewhere. 
 
Places like Clayton and Brentwood (lots of upper-scale stores, restaurants, franchises and the mall) have a MUCH different feel than South Grand or Benton Park (ethnic cuisine, coffee shops, smaller boutiques) but both share similarities with the Delmar Loop. I have previously heard fellow graduate students complain that St. Louis is too close-minded. I have rarely, if ever, had that experience as I choose to spend the majority of my time around people who are open-minded and have found many, many places to speak with like-minded folks. That being said, I do think St. Louis is best enjoyed if you have a car. It's possible to get by without one, but you would likely miss out on finding some of the more out-of-the-way neighbourhoods you might enjoy. 
 
I've generally found people to be friendly no matter where I go and my boyfriend and I almost always make new friends when we go out, even if we're just waiting in line at the grocery store.  Anyway...I'm rambling to avoid grant-writing...please feel free to PM me if you have any specific questions . Aside from "It's a big city that feels like a big town", it's hard to succinctly sum-up St. Louis. 

feel better! I hope you are ok.  best of luck with everything. 

I'd say it has the features of a big city without really feeling like one.  If you are used to Houston, Chicago, New York, Boston, etc. Saint Louis might feel kind of small. The metro area has about 3 million people to give you a rough idea for comparison.  On the plus side we don't have insane traffic problems, and it never feels like a particularly busy place (which may be good or bad depending on your perspective).  Saint Louis sort of sprawls out, and there has been a lot of recent development to the west.
 
As far as things to do, there are a few nice perks of living here.  The zoo, science center, history museum, and art museum are all free and all very solid options (the zoo is better than a lot of paid zoos in other cities).  The scenery is not that great, but it's what you'd expect living in the midwest, although there are some decent state parks within 20-30 minutes of downtown if you want to go for hikes or mountain bike or that sort of thing.  It doesn't get cold enough long enough to do major winter sports although you can find places to go ice skating in the winter or indoors.  St. Louis is big enough to have a good symphony, several concert venues that attract broadway/off-broadway productions and current artists, and NHL/NFL/MLB (Cardinals fans are pretty crazy here).
 
Public transportation exists but isn't great.  UMSL will give you access to the light rail system which will connect you to certain parts of town (the airport and the stadiums/venues downtown are notable examples).  UMSL itself isn't in the best part of town (but not the worst either), and some of the recent posts above mention some very nice suburban areas to live near UMSL if you have a car; otherwise you can look at the Metrolink (light rail) path and see if you can live near one of the stops.
 
I'd say the people on the whole are nice, sometimes too provincial, and diverse when it comes to socioeconomics and political beliefs.
 
If you have any other or specific questions I can try to address them. Good luck in your search!

Belatedly: Sure thing! I added 1 or two new spots. I could add about 100 more but I don't want it to get too overwhelming

Thanks, guys . I went to talk to my PI and basically said, "I'm super having trouble motivating: Can I meet with you individually each week for a few minutes and decide on goals that must be presented at next week's lab meeting?" She seemed surprised but totally willing. She's too easy on me most of the time and I hope she holds me to this. Also, our R-01 (the one full of my data) was funded so woohoo!. 
 
Also, in additional venting-related news: why in the hell are grant applications so darn difficult? So much to write! So little time! What is my third rec-letter writer doing? How do I EVEN?!

My life kind of imploded in February. Now I can't seem to get back into the swing of things in lab despite all the major non-lab issues being dealt with. I'm scared I'm going to stay this disconnected from my work until it's too late to recover/get data/graduate. Sometimes I find myself just staring at my computer screen.   Just needed to get that off my chest. My friends keep telling me it'll be fine and I'll get back to it...but sometimes I just need to vent my fears. 

Keep holding out, take one day at a time, and realize that it isn't the end of the line:
 
I applied for IRB approval on an exempt proposal that I wanted to start data collection on in mid-December. By early January I realized I would have to do data-collection during the semester and wouldn't be able to take the stats class that I wanted to, that would make my grad school applications look better. The IRB approval came in the third week of January, nearly two months after I send it in, on a damn exempt proposal. Then, I was relying on a grant to travel to an academic conference, the grant paperwork was approx. 25 pages and reviewed by multiple faculty members. The amount of the funding was about 1000 dollars and in late January it was rejected, after it was already rejected once in November and I revised and resubmit it. The grant committee told me to revise and resubmit it in late April, when they knew it would take 4 weeks to review the grant applicants, and my conference was on March 3rd. They don't retroactively award funding. I question whether they told me to resubmit it out of kindness or passive aggression.
 
It was the end of my prospects of going to the conference, presenting this research I'd been working on for about 6 months in some capacity. Presenting at the conference was a major facet of my individual research course and it all went to hell, or so I thought. Turned out my department took pity on me, paid for my hotel expenses, flight expenses and per diam for 5 days (about 1,950 total). 
 
Then the next week I was told that my Tuition Scholarship essays (2 one page essays) were the source of roughly 1,700 dollars of tuition reimburse for the semester. Combined with a grant my adviser nominated me for, my tuition for the semester was completely paid. Since late January I have gotten 3 generous acceptance packages from graduate programs I want to attend.
 
What started as the worst semester became the best in a matter of weeks. No, I didn't get that grant, and no, I didn't get to take the "Applied Stats for the Social Sciences" capstone course I wanted, but I pushed through that and focused on all of my short term goals, one day at a time, and for me it ended up working out in the end.

That sucks.  My worklife imploded in February, and sometimes I find myself just staring at my computer screen too.  It is ok to just be afraid sometimes.  I know there have been times in my life when everyone tells me it will be ok, and I know logically it will, but that isn't how I was feeling right then, and I just needed someone to tell me that what I was feeling was ok.

You could buy them a sweater from where you are planning to go I guess.
 
I was planning on just disappearing and 4 years later returning with a degree.

Apparently I really like maps....here's another one! I made it editable by anyone, so people are welcome to add their own favourite places. This way you have access to their websites/addresses etc. I added small notes so you can click on the red marker and find out why I added it. Hope this helps!
 
https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=znSq18U6Bxo4.kU-6heM8gSjU

My PI's lab is on Danforth campus so it seems like it would be about a 15 minute bike through Forest Park and worse comes to worse, I can take an uber since the apartment is only 8 min away (according to google maps)
 
I'm just going to go ahead and post this here. It's the map I send to first year/prospective students who are looking for housing near the med campus (so it's highly med-campus focused). Hopefully it will help some people. If anyone is more familiar with the Danforth side, please feel free to update/save/repost a version of the map with more details on that side of Forest Park: 
 
Here's the map I refer to in this e-mail (let me know if you have trouble viewing it): https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=znSq18U6Bxo4.ka_fNS8CoCMQ   Just to orient you on the map: The medical campus is the green square to the right of forest park (large green rectangle). I've also labeled metrolink stops with red markers. There's a blue marker that marks the 4444 building, which is where many of the genomics labs are located (though many of them will be moving to the main campus in the next year or two).    I'm sure you've heard quite a bit about the Central West End (purple and red on map) during the interview process. It's a great place and I highly recommend looking there for apartments. Some of the older buildings have extremely reasonable prices, while some of the newer ones can get pretty pricey. The Del Coronado is (in my mind) the gold standard of what you will find in the CWE. It's new, super close to campus and has a parking garage...but its prices reflect those benefits. I do, however, think it serves as a good comparator when looking at other buildings. If you have a car I highly recommend putting affordable, provided parking high on your list; parking in the CWE without an assigned space or garage can be a bit crazy.    I live in the Debaliviere (DEB) area, which is north of forest park (Blue on map). It's right next to the metro link and I metro to work most days. If you live in either the CWE or DEB, there is a shuttle that runs every 30 mins from campus from 5pm-midnight:30 (M-F) that will take you directly to your door on your way home. I love living where I do. It's not as frequently-travelled as the CWE, parking is easier and I feel very comfortable walking around at night. The CWE is generally safe but it has a lot more foot traffic coming through.    There's an area between the CWE and DEB that is highlighted on the map in pink. A good number of students live there but it's not immediately adjacent to any metrolink stop so transportation may be a bit more difficult, though there are some beautiful buildings in that area.    Another place you might want to look is The Grove (brown pentagon on the map). There is lots of affordable housing in The Grove and it's an area that is getting nicer over the years...but it's not a place I feel 100% comfortable walking on my own at night. I do, however, know a lot of people who live there and have never had any problems. There are several apartments outside of the pentagon that are perfectly safe/nice but I can comfortably vouch for the brown-covered area being filled with happy graduate students.    Also highlighted in green is St. Louis University (in orange). There are tons of apartments in that area, but again, you have the commuting issue that isn't a problem in DEB or CWE. I also highlighted the Tower Grove area (in black) at the bottom right. This tends to be a place students move to in their second or third years. I wouldn't recommend it during your first year.   In yellow is the undergraduate (Danforth) campus and the Delmar Loop area. There are labs that some students may want to join on the Danforth campus and the Delmar loop is a great place to live. Unfortunately, I don't know much about the area. I recommend living close to the medical campus (green) for your first year at least since so many of your classes/journal clubs will be there.