prettyuff1

I would take the time and speak with her definitely and get an idea of what she has in research for the next few years. She may be in the middle of a project so taking an additional year off may not hurt you. She may be applying for a grant and getting things together so her funding may be up in the air. I think as long as you are participating in activities that are related to Ph.D. it will not hurt you. Everyone needs time to get themselves in order for what they. Taking an additional year off may not hurt you but i would just see what her outlook is.

Hi. I did a masters before my PhD to improve my chances because i have a low undergraduate GPA. Most of the people in my Cohort do not. They primarly have a BS and directly went into the program. A lot of the people in my program have done this. Some people in my program ( classes ahead of mine) who are coming from different fields have completed some graduate coursework so they can get the necessary experience to be successful, but still had strong undergraduate course work. What discipline are you looking to get int to? In the sciences, it is usually understood that people go directly from BS to Ph.D. with no break in between.

I think most of them do. I was funded 100% like everyone else so I dont have to worry about that.

It is about what i thought it would be.. The classes are ok,studying is what i do when i am home and bored. The time in lab is petty good, I was luckly to land a good lab with good person to train me. That is important. It is a lot of work but I am working away.

I had an undergrad GPA similar to yours and i was accepted into a PhD in Pharm/Tox. What i did was work and then get a masters in biology before i applied, with a decently High GPA( 3.7, including a 4.0 for my full last year of courses). It really scares some departments to see a low undergrad GPA, but you can prove that you are able to handle graduate course work by having the grades to prove it. i also had pretty good letters of recommendation and an ok GRE score(320 total verbal and quant with 5.0 analytical writing). I would also tailor where i apply based n GPA. Dont expect to get in some where top with out really turning things around, meaning perfect score and high masters GPA. I was surprised i got in where i did, its a pretty decent school with a ton of research opportunities and i applied relatively late. I was admitted but under special circumstances. Meaning i have to prove ability in the first year or i get recommended to the terminal masters program.. I am not worried about that, 2 other people in my program were admitted the same way and I know i have changed a lot since undergrad.. I am much more focused on getting it done and not making mistakes/wasting time.It is hardwork to do, but i think the important thing is to put some distance between you and undergrad. Focus on maturing, take some time to get a stellar application together and apply maybe for 2014 cycle.

I am in a very clinical lab but i am working bench side mostly.. I work with infectious disease vaccines and I am not even at the point of touching patients.. I am determining toxicity with animal subjects.. I would love to move to human subjects but its not yet..

I totally agree. I think a lot of science PhD go in wanting to get as much knowledge as they can about a particular topic without including real world skills. Budget managing, managing your lab/research, the ability to lead and mentor other junior scientist are skills that are sorely lacking from a lot of PhD students. There is also a lack of networkng skills that are taught. My department is trying to change that by making attendance to national meetings mandatory, but that doesnt teach the skill all the way. I'm getting a PhD to get a job outside academia because these loans wont pay themselves back.. and i have a son to support.

Wow. I'd start thinking about applying this coming cycle

did you ever hear back from the department.. even though school has started you may want to find out what happened to your appication.. I had an application lost from being sent to the department from the admissions office. What was an even bigger problem was the admissions department sent the file electronically..Admissions had electronic proof but the department said :blink: we dont know what happened to it.. Since i had 4 professors interested upon reviewing it, they offered to interview me with the 2013 application cycle.. You never know what happened and you deserve some closure. But TBH, if the school can't give you the common decency of a no, then i would think twice about the state of affairs..

I agree totally. There isn't too much funding for knowing just because your interested. Everything now in the hard sciences is gearing towards clinical applications/relevance.

This time last year I was thinking about pharmacy school and considering how to do it. Phd was in the back of my mind but not too much. I ended up not doing pharmacy because it would take another year before I could apply. Now I'm feeling really excited that I'm in school away from the feeling of "maybe" and into the feeling of " I did"

I started in may. while it didn't turn out the way I expected with an advisor, I am glad I did. I mad good connections with other professors and students. I also got to know the area very well.

I think at the end of the day we will always stand out in some realms. I am a black single Mom getting a pPhD in pharmacology focusing on Aids research. I know how it feels I am always the only one in my situation in the room and to be honest that's what it is. I cannot sit and harp about how hard it is to be alone. I try to use my experiendces to help people and be a leader and stand strong. You have talents and gifts so use them and do let small things distract from the true goal. ETA- I know how if feels to be considered lowest of the low and have to really work at it. Another poster was spot on to say society view black women pretty poorly. But I have to live for what I want out of my life. I can't wait around for other black women to take control of how society views them. I have to be for me and my life. Even if other people still view me as low as a single mom I know in my heart and in the things I'm doing, I'm better than 90% of the population.

I'm a single parent raising a child and myself $1600/month. What savings would you be speaking of. we cannot work outside our phd program so I'll be supplementing myself with some student loans to bring myself up to $2500/month. From this I have added expenses like childcare/ school expenses/ child maintenance. I won't be saving a penny

They will go to the admissions department and be passed on from there.. it will show up in your application when the school receives it. I would check a week after you sent the scores

Because I am to smart to work at the Bachelor Degree level. In the sciences it is really a matter of do you want to do your own research or do you want to do you own work... I go tired of working for $13/hr and struggling to pay bills. I want the better paying jobs that a PhD will bring me and the ability to do what i would like to do. Long term i would like to be a professor and continue in research. I really like it a lot. I can't see myself not advancing to the next level and not taking this opportunity.

I feel you on this one.. I moved to a city completely alone back in may to do a summer internship.. I dont know anyone here. I have been able to make a few friends who are in the same program but generally it is me. I think maybe getting out and trying new things.. I am taking a pole fitness class friday. then going to hear music play that weekend. I also try to get out to the more hip areas of town to just walk around so that im not home watching "criminal minds every night". I would try to get out to do something you have wanted to try. That helps too...

I think since you have masters under your belt, they may be willing to over look what you have done with the GRE.. The GRE is a judge of how well you will do in graduate school and you have proof that you can do well based on your MS GPA. I think they will also like that you have work experience. you would be better equipped to handle some of the issues that phd's bring. Liddy is right. I don't have any publications either but i was very strong in lab both work and in academia as well.. I would try to bring up my GRE score, but i would focus on getting a personal statement that really highlights your assets as a researcher and tailor where you apply too based on your overall picture.... I think you could do well during your application cycle...

I'm not going to stop. But the experiment we ate doing us very time sensitive with three steps. Due to logistics and lab availability we would struggle to complete to actual data collection portions during the final time. I am mainly upset because I left a lot to come down early. I had to leave my son behind and miss several milestones in his lifeand based on the way things have gone with this PI I feel like I could've stayed in Chicago and arranged an experience with a professor from my masters Progran. It's hard especially to come to a new city alone, leave a child behind, and give up opportunities here. I am maintaining the internship, it ends next Friday and doing every thing fully. I am never going to just quit I really worked hard to get into the PhD program. I'm mainly venting

I think i have taken the reins in a lot of aspects. i have made sure that i was always active in the initiating/planning of things that we were looking to ( specific pathways to look at, predicting outcomes, and suggesting ways our studies can improve experimental design). Since the student has left, i have made sure to always be more than available to the undergraduate student, take on all of the administrative things that have come up( including yelling at the company that screwed us). I have put 100% into everyday but i think my feeling about it has come into me negatively.. The long term goals of the study were to generate data to go to a poster to be presented at the university wide research symposium. We are to be judged among the other students in the program ( undergraduates separate from rising professional students). We were very concerned about getting publishable data for this duration, particularly for novice writers like me. The issue with putting in extra time is that for the Phd program orientation begins the the same day the program ends( Aug 3rd, we have a reception and introduction to the program). We begin getting things started for that . Orientation is two weeks, i have a weekend to move into my apartment, and then school and rotations begin Aug 20th. medical and dental schools begin in early August. i harp on it because it was sort of harped to us during orientation of the internship that " 10 weeks is 10 weeks"

Well I may have been a little ambiguous. The grant I am under is a cancer education program. The program is designed to be a 10 week program with the entire research designed to be done during the completion of the program This program/internship is separate from the PhD program that I'm involved in. The grant is designed to be separate from the long term project of the PI. It's really designed for medical student/dental students to get research hours. I'm mainly thinking in how am I to finish. I don't think it should stop but I do think it should wait until the main student gets back. Put yourself in my situation. Your told to come early to participate in the program and don't get anything out of it. It's pretty depressing to hear the excellent projects others have gotten on and to not get the same. We have asked for her help to show us things but not really been well received

I have a bunch of tattoos and none of them really matter some visible some arent.. The bulk of people i have seen working in industry have had lower arm/wrist tattoos and never had a problem with it. I think in the sciences we can get away with a little more given the nature of most of the people in our field.. most of the time, people are excited that scientists can match our clothes. lol i can also say that I have a friend who is a director of financial aid at major university, and she has 2 wrist tattoos. her sister works for verizon and has a large tattoo on her foot

Hello all, My term hasn't even started yet and things are going wrong lol. I am in a summer internship through a cancer grant funded by the NIH. I am assigned to a PI and the project we have is full of problems. It is the 9th week of a 10 week program and we are just BEGINNING TO DO THE EXPERIMENTS SO WE CAN COLLECT DATA.. We ordered supplies 7 weeks into things and have been delayed delayed delayed. What have we done? I have no clue aside from working on a manuscript with no data. We also have a requirement to create a poster and with no research data, I am very concerned. My PI for the internship also spends the bulk of the program missing in action, hasn't taught us a thing, and has been mostly uninvolved..SHe relied heavily on a rising second year Ph.D. Student who has been called away with family emergency. I am the most senior member of this lab and I AM THE INTERN.... So the problem that i am having is the PI wants to continue with the experiment and try to conduct the experiments and attempt to get data. We have issues with progressing forward with data collection because no one knows how to use the software she wants to process the data and determine interactions. I also believe that she thinks we are going to continue with the project after the conclusion of the internship, which i do not have to/nor do i want to. So my question is how do i/should i tell my PI that i believe she should wait until her student gets back and not continue with the project. I also want to tell her that i should do my poster as a literature review of things i have learned about the topic/postulate as to how the experiment would turn out. I feel that i cannot put out a strong poster with rushed data and no true ability to complete the process. I would approach the leader of the program but guess who that is, my PI. I also have to tell her i will not be staying in her lab when the PhD starts but i will just tell her that I want a more established lab. TIA

I moved to Louisville memorial day to participate in a grant. We have orientation Aug 6-14th and school starts Aug 20th

That's the norm for pharmacy school. The only way to get it paid for is to get a pharm d/ phd. The tuition remission from your phd will cover the pharm school Portion as well