Quantum Buckyball

I'm truly sorry to hear that chemgeek. I would apply for a student loan ASAP if I were you, since you are in your third year, you should be considered as in-state resident by now. I do not think it is a good idea to sacrifice your precious summer time to get a part time job, summer research is extremely critical important to all scientists. Do not let your pride get in the way.

The deadline is the same for both PhD and MS programs and I think it might be too late to apply.

If you want to find a job with reasonable/decent pay, then I don't think you should get a MS nor PhD in Biology. You won't be able to find a job in hospital with a biology degree to be honest. However, you can if you have a MS or a PhD in Biomedical Sciences, Biochemistry, Immunology, Microbiology etc.

One of my acceptance letter said I don't have to make my decision until the 17th.

bull terrier

I think the main question, where do you think you'll have a higher chance to get accepted? UPenn is definitely a lot more well-known and prestige than UCSD. However, If you're an international applicant, it will be very harder for you to get into a PhD program at tier 1 schools here in the US. My friend who is an international student and she told me a lot of her friends got turned down by tier 2 or tier 3 schools due to federal and state budget cut. Her friends were all out-standing applicants (as in have a very strong GRE, GPA, and research experience, top 10% of graduating class).

Yes, you should go ahead and email them about the fellowship offer from another school, and the amount they're offering you. My friend did it and the school decided to match the offer.

I think Southern Illinois University would be a better choice because their program is through the medical school. It means there will be a lot of potential collaboration in the future

My friend had to give up his RAship because he received an external fellowship. I think the department would compensate you if your fellowship stipend is lower than the chemistry department RAship or TAship.

role playing

Yes, it is possible to transfer to another graduate school. However, they are most likely making you re-apply and submit an application, 3 LoRs, and SoP. If you get accepted, you might be able to transfer partial credits, it's really rarely for a tier-1 school to accept all transfer credits.

john carter

I would go to UNC-Charlotte. A lot of things could happen in the next 12 months. When an opportunity presents itself, take it and enjoy the ride. Even if life doesn't go as planned sometimes, you can still be successful if you believe in yourself and give your very best in everything you do.

This weekend is their Visitation Weekend. They need to just go ahead and accept me so I can reject them!

Out Magazine

I think the question is, do you think you are competitive enough to get into a PhD program if you apply during your senior year? Since you've only been to UC Davis for one quarter, the admission office will most likely combine your UC Davis' GPA with CSU's GPA. It is normal for undergraduate students to apply for PhD schools during their senior year, however, it's highly competitive. You will need to have a strong, solid GRE score, personal statement, and 3 letter of recommendations. Last but not least, you should go ahead start putting your application together and apply if you think you're ready.

Yes, it has gotten a lot more competitive than ever. The cutoff GPA for most of grad programs is 3.00. My combined and subject U-GPAs from my BS and BA degrees were pretty similar to my current G-GPA (only 0.1 off) so I only gave them my G-GPA (~3.5).

When I submitted my application for PhD programs, I only gave them my master degree GPA and not the undergrad one. It's really pointless to give undergrad GPA if you already have a master. I have never received any emails from the schools I applied (7 schools) asking for my undergrad GPA , although I had to submit "all" transcripts to 2 schools, which I thought it was kinda funny because I took a class at a local community college back in 2005 and it was "introduction to sociology", and I can't believe they wanted a transcript for that one ? Like, how is that suppose to help me get into PhD in Chemistry?

I don't really know the difference between profit models vs non-profit models. There are plenty of PhD programs are accredited but not ranked, because schools does not disclose enough of information to be ranked. A school's ranking is only important if you plan on teaching at a top-tier university, otherwise it doesn't really matter . I don't look at U.S. News' ranking because their ranking is based on "survey", and not real data. http://sites.nationalacademies.org/PGA/Resdoc/PGA_044475 is the website I use to check the schools' ranking in my field. They look at the average citations per publication, awards per allocated faculty member, percent with academic plans, and the percent of first year student with full financial support.

You should be able to get in a non-ranked PhD school, or an online university. Your GPA might be too low to get into a decent school right now, but you can take some post-graduate classes in leadership, education, or related field to boost up your GPA . Just need to make sure you have a killer personal statement, very strong letter of recommendations, and a solid GRE score then you should be good.

I didn't apply Temple University because I did not like the location of the school, the crime rate in that area is extremely high. Temple is located in the "bad" part of the Philadelphia, Safety is my number 1 concern when I applying to a school. You can see it yourself here. http://css.ocis.temple.edu/crime_reporting/annual_statistics.pdf It's the statistics from 2008 ~ 2010.

I know nothing about Nanyang Technological university, so it's difficult to compare. Do you know which professor you want to work with for your PhD? Charlotte is a big city, it's the biggest in North Carolina. To my knowledge, a school's ranking is only important if you want to teach at a high-end university, because I've met numerous of successful professional chemists and engineers with a PhD from 2nd-tier, 3rd-tier or even a non-ranked school. I think with your international background you should be fine.

I think your GPA is reasonable . The admission committee have a different standard for each applicant depending on which institute he/she graduated from. I didn't take the GRE subject test, I believe the admission committee focuses on applicants' SoP and LoRs more than the standardized exam score nowadays..

If I were you I would decline this offer, because as an international student, you cannot apply for US federal student loans or private loans.

Yes, it is possible to get your PhD while working full time. However, it will take you a lot longer to complete the degree though. I have a friend who is working full time as a consultant, and doing part time for her PhD degree in physical science. She is married and has a daughter. I think you just need to make sure that your research advisor has a tenure track, and you can afford the tuition yourself, so a public school would be better.