[Discuss: How much do you think grades matter in grad school?]

I also heard conflicting opinions on this matter, and the issue with grades always confuses me. When you get all A's, you might be seen as not spending enough time on research, but when you get less than an A, it seems there's something wrong with you... So confusing. 

 

So I second going with what your advisor says. Embarrassed to say, I failed one requirement prior to my qual. My advisor basically said "you don't need to get an A, just passing the course is fine with me.... I only got one A during my PhD and all other classes B, haha", which made me feel a little better. Research is more important. 

I know, I feel like the idea is that you're supposed to do the bare minimum to get an A, but sometimes, it's a lot of work to get an A and they make it seem like it's lame to try hard, but you should be easily making perfect grades.

[Discuss: How much do you think grades matter in grad school?]

I graduated with my M.S. degree with a 4.0 and was damn proud of it. Most of my peers had a 3.75-3.9. During the orientation session for my doctoral program (it included masters students), one of our senior faculty members made a comment that blindsided me...

I'm still waiting for the opportunity to visit with this particular faculty member, but I think the gist of his message was that graduate school should be an educational journey and mistakes are not only inevitable, but should be meaningful as well.

I think the idea is that if you're focusing on research and such, then your grades are bound to suffer, or rather that in the course of doing all the things that you have to do, if something has to suffer and it's not your classes, it's your research and that's worse.

[Is anyone an older student?]

I'm 32 - but people assume I'm like 25 or something for whatever reason (haha). It's weird, there's one professor a year older than me and one I am older by a couple years. If only I knew what I wanted to do earlier, I woulda been a professor by now!

I know, me too! all the profs are older than me, thank goodness, but yeah, the students, ugh. there are a couple of post docs who are my age but they're post docs. i do wish i'd known sooner, but i also know i just wouldn't have. i just wasn't ready, and that's that.

[Is anyone an older student?]

I am also in a bio field after doing something very non-bio related for more than 10 years (and I'm quite a bit older than you are). I am the oldest in my class by about a decade, and no one in my cohort socializes much, but I don't feel old (well, any older than I would feel anyway with my graying hair and increasingly achy body). If anything, I feel younger because of the mental stimulation. However, I have a good network of friends outside my university, which is a great help. You need to find some sort of support/social outlet, even if you can't get it from others in your program. And although people in my cohort may not socialize much, we are friendly, and the program as a whole is very supportive.

Yeah, my feelings are definitely a function of the fact that I'm in a new city and my support system outside school is basically non-existent. I'm definitely going to focus on finding something like that.

[Is anyone an older student?]

I'm in my 30s too. There are several us in our 30s and 40s in my program, but a few have kids or demanding work schedules, plus people are really spread out and fragmented in my city...we don't get together often on spur-of-the-moment.

I joined a hiking club and met others that way; one activity was a series of several high-peak hikes where many of the same people kept showing up. They were fun, and organizing camping/hiking gear gave me something to focus on, a way to explore my area, interact with fun people, and an athletic goal. I'm still not at the point with them where we get together outside of scheduled events, but having something on the calendar outside my program was hugely beneficial.

I've been in my program for a year now, and learned to fill my off-time with reading, cooking, trying new recipes and exercise. I have actually come to look forward to returning to town after visits with my family or partner, because I want to re-establish my healthy routine.

Here's a recent thread called " with some good suggestions.

Thanks! Everyone in my program is so young, and though they're all really nice, I just feel like we have different interests and the thought of being here for five years with only people 7-10 years younger than me to socialize with makes me a little crazy. I'll have to find some other things to do, at the moment, I'm so busy that adding other things to my schedule would be difficult, but I think I might look into that.

[Is anyone an older student?]

I'm in a bio phd program, and I'm in my early 30's. I decided to do this after working for a while in a non-bio related field. I feel old. Really really old, and kind of starved for some interaction with other people my own age. I moved to a new city and though I don't regret my decision to do this, it's just been really lonely and difficult. Is anyone in a similar situation?

[Relationship with advisor]

I had an advisor for my MA that was great because I was just doing an MA. He's really good with undergrads and high school students and teaching people the basics and letting them get very good experience. However, if you're a phd student in his lab, it's really rough. He micromanages and doesn't let anyone do anything and can be a little condescending and rude if he thinks you're getting ahead of yourself. He's also not great for people's careers - not great about publication, but great about presenting at conferences. Sometimes, I think he's threatened by the success of his students.

I'm starting a phd program in the fall and my new advisor seems great so far. He's very available, but laid back, which I like. I haven't had to actually work with him yet, so I suppose it could change, but so far so good!

[2012 Applicant Profiles and Admission Results]

Hi,

does anybody have any idea about University of houston, Texas?

I have applied for PhD programme at department of biology and biochemistry.

please let me know.

I applied to a school to which I was accepted, but my POI might not be doing the project we had spoken of, but they keep the file open very late to basically see if there are any takers or if my guy secures the funding for the project. I only know this because I called them, they never contacted me at all. So could be something like that.

[Any guidance?]

Hey, so I think it would probably be difficult, but I'll tell you what I did. I got a degree in psychology, but did research in a lab with a psych professor who taught comparative psych and had marine animals. So I have a lot of experience with marine invertebrates because of my lab experience. I also did a masters in experimental psych and stayed in the same lab. Now, I've been accepted into a couple of bio phd programs with little to no biology in my background. No funding, so it's not all good news, but I think you could get into such a program if you can wrangle the experience somehow, and learn quickly on the fly.