VBD

If this happens, then sometimes they just search more stringently the next year and offer either less positions or less funding. It is definitely a common practice to offer more though because that situation (of many people accepting) is rare and won't fit their current trend. I went to an interview last year and out of 20, they only accepted 12, expecting only 6. So I'd say it could be 50% or even higher depending on the program/school. If you are truly curious, you can ask students. I tend to not ask Professors (talk only research with them) or the academic/admissions people so I don't look too pushy. Current students went through this exact process and will tell it like it is.

Logan, a lot of people I know (Northeastern people) end up loving it in the Phoenix-area, so I'm sure you'll find your place there if you end up going. However, like Post-It, I say it's too early to think about this. Let's hope you'll hear from other schools soon! University of Washington just sent out an invite =D I'm starting to love February. (Of course January was like a slow slow plunge into an endless pit. XD) I also found out two days ago from another applicant that Boston U had sent out some invites too, but I think it was just environmental and community programs?

When you are trying to hired, what matters is when you talk about what you did/your thesis topic. Example. I met someone who was in charge of running a company and had to hire someone for water work, etc. Many applicants came, but he ultimately hired someone with a Geography masters. It was an atypical background, so he had to justify why. That Master's student did work on sanitizing sub-saharan African water resources, so even if the name of the degree isn't exact the project was. So I'd say as long as your work remains distinctly neuroscience related, you will be able to show future employers your capability. Then again, neuroscience might be a completely different beast, and I should just shut up. Regardless, congratulations on your acceptance!

If you are talking about disaster preparedness, there is actually a lot of state and local gov't interest in that part of environmental studies. So some school programs are actually very interested in getting students to study that. Not many do, so that should make your SOP extremely interesting. Also, I think everyone starts to panic a bit and second guess ourselves. This is a personal yet harrowing experience with 5 years of your life on the line. But your apps are done and I'm sure you did the best you can. No fear!

I was just wondering this.. What are the potential benefits of being a PhD student at a large department (~40 faculty, and altogether 120 Masters and PhD students in each cohort)? What are the drawbacks? From what I've brainstormed (not a comprehensive list at all!): Pros: Flexibility of choosing/changing labs Diversity of program in terms of research interest Many different mentors (official and unofficial) - Good chance for collaboration Can easily make friends within cohort - Built in study buddies for the 1st two years Cons: Could be competitive Perhaps funding? What are the potential benefits of a small department (~15 faculty, and altogether 5 doctoral students max each cohort)? What are drawbacks? Pros: Individual attention from advisors? Potential thesis help more readily available? Cons: Might be hard to make friends since there's less people Smaller because it is relatively a newer program In this case, please consider the schools as equal ranking and equal fit (both with 2-3 POIs of interest), I don't want confounding factors. I'd like to hear people's thoughts on how size of the program and impact your studies, since I know my list sucks xD

A rejection across the board doesn't mean that you are a horrible, bad student/person/whatever. It just means that those schools didn't have funding, good fit, etc, so many other things than you personally come into play. Rejection across the board just means that now you get to carve your own unique path to grad school, and hey, things happen for a reason, and sometimes have a tendency to work themselves out. You can still stay an applican xD *gives a cookie to Ohgoodness*

A lot of UNC seems to be global. I mean, it's in the name of their public school.. Environmental health even had students talk about their overseas experience. *shrugs* I dunno I only looked at the kind of research I wanted to do so I don't know much about other programs >.> Blinders were on when I was dying doing all the apps xD They kept talking about funding, so maybe that's why the spurts? Like they are seriously making sure they have enough money..? Pitt LOVE! Go PITT! Not as much love for that program in this thread, so I'll go overboard. Good luck on the phone interview MPHD

Someone once told me that the power of positive thinking is an unmatched universal force. You wield great power Michelle. Thank you for the cheer and using it for good

OK, so I'm on UNC for their open house and it is awesome. The department is super friendly, even a dept in the SPH that I didn't apply to (Yes, I started wandering around the building and a super nice professor in Maternal Health(?) asked if I needed help, etc. The campus is beautiful, and the SPH seems to have awesome facilities. I sincerely hope MammaD and Boiler hear at least something from UNC peeps, because the awesome must be shared Carrboro seems to be perfect to bike because of the less hilly area, just from what I see. ^^; Congrats Songsong and elsewhy on your admits! I can't believe someone would do such a lowbrow thing like down a program only to get off the waitlist. I mean, we're all public health, aren't we all supposed to be together work together? Hopefully, I think Harvard does multiple rounds, so don't give up hope just yet! If you feel like you need to find out, you could call them/email them and ask, but again, that's personal preference. I personally don't (unless app issues) because I don't want to bother admissions people who are probably already swamped. Give it a week, then call, perhaps?

Wow, loads of exciting news from the PhD in PH thread. Yay. Thanks MammaD for the helpful information. I suppose I must have sensed that somehow since Harvard didn't make it to my short list. LoganArtemis, I was referring to how you were also told that a program you applied doesn't notify applicant until way later. xD Sorry for the confusion. Anyways. congrats on getting into Arizona State! That must take some of the nerves from this waiting game off. Good luck on your other schools as well. Also, I'm not sure about Columbia's program, but most Envir Health programs want an interview before admittance. Probably for fit reasons. They didn't make it mandatory, but since I'm going in person, I can sit in on a journal club, and a doctoral class, eat lunch with 5 current doctoral students AND talk in person with 2 POI's. So in-person definitely won out over Skype. Thanks for the luck, I'll surely need it. Jordanhina, congratulations on getting into Wisconsin! Let's hope we'll all be debating here soon.

I am a horrible writer, with many of my draft manuscripts riddled with misplaced modifiers, wrong word choice, dependent clauses stuck out by themselves, and many many comma splices. So I was worried about the AWA. I'm sure you're 100% the better writer than me. However, I read the AWA section help in the Kaplan and Princeton review books. The only advice they gave me was to follow the traditional layout. It seems extremely formulaic (but I don't remember it, sorry!), and as long as you follow it, you have a good chance to survive the crapshoot unscathed. I did and surprisingly got a 5.5 So please don't beat yourself up about this AWA score since it really doesn't reflect on your writing ability that much. Toot away on your currently non-GRE awesome writing. Own it. Also and perhaps more importantly, some programs KNOW that the AWA sucks, and if they are a writing intensive program, they will ask for your writing sample (which I'm sure you'd rock).

Interesting, which other programs have you found to be geared toward MDs? I wonder if the MD skewing bleeds into the Environmental Health department at Columbia. Thanks for the tidbit though. It's your calling! That definitely draws attention to your application, I'd think. It's like look, at what this person did to step off her current and pursue a PhD. It could work in your favor. *crosses fingers* Boiler- that definitely sounds like a win-win situation all around xD

I'm not too sure on internet/email ettiquette, so I appreciate any answers to this question. I've been in contact with a professor at University X. He was a really nice POI, and we've sent back and forth around 5 emails. A couple weeks later, I got a rejection from University X (It's ok, I'll survive ), but I'm not sure if I should write an email of acknowledgement of the program's rejection and/or my thanks to the POI for his time and extended conversations with me earlier. My field is so small that he could end up a collaborator with a professor at a program I (hopefully can) get into, so I'm trying to prevent any "burning of bridges." But it could be awkward post-rejection (or maybe perceived passive-aggressive malice?), so should I just leave it and not email him thanks anyways? What are your thoughts?

MammaD, you sure sound like you have lived an interesting life! It doesn't seem like Columbia's talked about as much on here, but I just got an in-person interview offer from them. Yay pleasant surprises. Like LoganArtemis, I was told I wouldn't hear anything from Columbia until March. So perhaps Mailman's going to be trickling out with other interview offers soon? (At least one other person on the results survey has the same offer as I received) Hope everyone's staying sane *hugs all*

I just politely asked during the campus tour, whether the place I wanted to take a picture of, Place X was open on the weekends or the next day. Once I got my answer, before I had to leave for my flight the next day, I got up super early and took pictures all around campus that I wanted to the day before. This way I got to see some places twice and without distracting fellow applicants, or the student tour guide. Even if they say they don't mind, they might and are too polite to say so. Good luck on your visits!

I would definitely argue against ear plugs. If used too frequently, they can cause irritation of the skin in the ears and can contribute to ear wax buildup (and subsequent pushing in of the ear wax when putting on the plugs). I just got headphones that cover the entire ear, so I get passive noise cancelling, or at the most, a muffling of the noise around me. Stuff that is usually marketed as noise cancelling headphones can send out destructive sound waves effectively cancelling out noise around you, but I personally don't think it's worth the extra money. An alternative is Mack's swimmer ear plugs. They don't push in like common ear plugs do, but effectively block out a lot of sound.

Deady, what you should do is visit the second school and do your best at the interview. Best case scenario, you get accepted into the second school. Depending on the second school's financial package, you can use the higher financed for you program as a sort of leverage/bargaining with the other program (whichever one you end up deciding). So it can only end well. Ask the school you're already accepted into if there's another weekend, and focus on your interviews at the second school. Good luck!

Exactly my take on it. Then again, it IS totally possible adcom/faculty lurk on TGC, but I won't let that stop me from helping others gauge where they are. If anything, it's a bit like free advertisement for the program (look it IS possible to get accepted with an average GPA!) So I will put my stats for all my programs. I posted my acceptances/waitlist offers within 48 hours of the email. I needed some time to let the reality sink in and realize that I'm not just in some waking dream. Rejections I sometimes post, most of the time, it's because it's easier for me to forget. Out of sight, out of mind. But I'll try to do better this year. xD I do not post when I get interviews/informal interview since it seems to make people feel upset ("Oh, I didn't get an invite") prematurely sometimes ("Oh wait, now I got one a few days later!") so I try my best to prevent that emotional rollercoaster.

Firstly, thanks Regina. You basically took the words out of my mouth. [Regina, I definitely didn't picture myself down this path. I walked off the beaten path xD No regrets though!] Meg, the part that I highlighted will be a good point to raise during interviews for PhD programs, because I definitely did get questions about my age. Is it fair? No. But it could happen. So I can cite that from this, you are a determined, confident, passionate researcher. All good qualities. Yay. So regarding your potential gap year. Would you look for work at your current lab or another lab completely? Also, don't worry about publications, they certainly DO help strengthen your application, but people are not expecting you to be able to publish in 2 years. If you do.. wow, that's impressive and I will hail you xD. Most programs DO ask for a third LOR, and you certainly don't want a simple 'does well in class" letter. Is there someone you collaborated with or a thesis advisor of sorts during your tenure at the aging or Pchem lab? If you can find someone, I'd say there's no reason to not apply for programs and skip the gap year business. [Also, everyone can relate to being sleep deprived/nasty computer issues. Hope it all works out!]

Yesterday, I got the schedule of an interview weekend. One item, a mandatory social event at 4:30PM stands out. I'm not really sure what the appropriate dress would be for something like that. Past interviews (at other schools and other programs) have had a optional social event which involved going to a downtown restaurant or bar, so it was easy to gauge what sort of dress code would be for that. I plan to dress business casual (business suit and dress pants) during the actual interviews and am hoping to have enough time to run back and change, perhaps into a nice blouse and dark jeans? Do you think that's too casual?

Regina raises some points about a psychological break. I too graduated a little early (finished both my Bachelors and Masters when I was 22) and was raring to go and continue being awesome at a PhD program. But due to family circumstances, I had to take a gap year. And it gave me some time to really mature. I thought I was mature and confident and ready, but after stepping away from the rushed academia schedule I had, I realized where my true interests were, and grew up a little to the point where I can say I definitely matured a little. Granted, this is just me. I had fellow Masters classmates who were 21-22 also, and they were able to go full-steam ahead. So just take a breather and some introspection time to decide whether 5-7 years of hard-core PhD is what I want now? Or should I take a gap-year break?

It's unofficially encouraged to go to a different school from your undergrad so you're exposed to different, broader, and/or newer perspectives. You can gain a lot (not just publications or lab techniques) from working in a different laboratory group.

True. But how do you "up the ante" without offending anyone? While it may not hurt, won't it potentially sour relationships at the school (either school) and make professors think your main concern is money?