Jump to content

ghostar

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    93

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Posts posted by ghostar

    NSF GRFP: undeclared status?

    in The Bank

    Posted

    Curious if anyone else has received this email from NSF GRFP this morning:

    "Dear Fellow in Undeclared Status:

    The GRFP has re-opened the GRFP FastLane module to allow noncompliant Fellows to declare their 2017 Fellowship Year Statuses. Due to the impending NSF move this summer, the deadline by which these actions must be completed is May 31st.  Any Fellows who havenot declared their status by May 31st will have their Fellowships revoked by NSF at the end of the current fellowship year (2016-2017). 

    Should you require additional assistance, send inquiries togrfp@nsf.gov.

    Thank you, GRFP"

    I confirmed my acceptance of the 2017 NSF fellowship before the prior May 1 deadline and still got this email. Anyone else?

     

    NSF GRFP 2016

    in The Bank

    Posted

    6 hours ago, chaparral said:

    Nope, I just logged in fine. But this could be a good sign!!! I saw in previous years that people had trouble logging in/using fastlane before results went up :-)

    Interesting. Not only am I unable to log in, but when I try to retrieve my username & password, I get the error message "The system is unable to validate your secret questions. Please contact FastLane User Support for further assistance."

    Curious to know if anyone else is having this problem. My guess/hope is that this is a bug resulting from one of these site maintenances leading up to the grand announcement. Based on previous years, I'm thinking it will happen on either the Tuesday or Friday of next week!

     

    Program Specific Thread: Caltech

    in Chemistry Forum

    Posted · Edited by ghostar

    One of the things that I'll definitely be looking at closely during the visit is the department's atmosphere - is it a in-the-lab-every-night-and-weekend sort of deal? High pressure environment? (I realize grad school is this in general, but how will it compare to other schools?) Do the grad students seem to enjoy being there and in their labs? My visits to other very-highly-ranked schools in the past did not make them seem like particularly healthy environments, so I'm curious to see how Caltech compares.

    What aspects of the departments at top schools were those that seemed unhealthy, if you don't mind explaining in more detail? It would be helpful to know these things to keep in mind during visits.

    Chemistry Applications Fall 2015

    in Chemistry Forum

    Posted

    So I have an awesome/exciting story to tell. I hadn't heard back from Northwestern regarding my decision at all as of last Thursday. I had called the graduate coordinators and they said that they were essentially done sending out acceptances roughly a week before last Thursday. I was getting worried as it was my top school...I ended up talking to one of my friends who goes there as a graduate chemistry student. He told me who the professor was that is the head of the admissions committee (who I was lucky enough to have written about on my SOP).

     

    I decided to give calling him a shot and I a voicemail on his office phone Thursday morning telling him how I really enjoyed his group's research and that I would love to come to NU, but I had not heard anything back yet and was afraid that my application was overlooked despite being readily qualified ( I go to a small state school and none of my LOR writers had any connections to NU). 

     

    To my astonishment I found a voicemail from him about two hours later and he told me to call him back. I ended up talking to him for roughly 20 minutes and he told me that I had been accepted! 

     

    I'm not sure if I had initially been rejected (I feel like I was), but calling him seemed to have made a huge difference! I hope that gives hope to all of you out there about potentially taking the initiative and calling your top schools if you haven't heard back yet.

     

    Also excellent job everyone else, I hope to be able to run into some of you at visitation weekends.

    This is the most epic story I've read on gradcafe. Congratulations!! Shows the power of genuine interest and initiative that can go a long way.

    Program Specific Thread - Princeton U

    in Chemistry Forum

    Posted · Edited by ghostar

    I didn't apply to Princeton, but I just wanted to ask: what makes you lean towards Princeton among all your accepted programs? Which programs have you visited? 

     

    5. Which PIs do you think are most famous/well-regarded OR which PIs would you be interested in working for?

     

    This depends on what your research interests are for grad school. For organic synthesis/catalysis, names that jump right off are Abi Doyle and David MacMillan -- they are both well-respected for organocatalysis, and Abi Doyle is a rising female star. There is also Erik Sorensen if you're looking for natural-products total synthesis. 

    Harvard or MIT? Pros and cons.

    in Chemistry Forum

    Posted

    I think Harvard is good for materials - their Wyss institute is, according to some, the doing the best biomaterials research in the nation. If I had taken the chem GRE I totally would have applied.

    I heard MIT is pretty intense. I just have one persons account but he said that he felt the department thought it was okay everyone was suffering, and that getting a PhD should be full of suffering, and that a lot of stress was a good indicator that you were working hard enough. I have also heard MIT is better for engineering, whereas Harvard might be better for physical sciences.

     

    Wyss Institute is heavily biology-oriented, the OP is interested in inorganic & materials.

    Harvard or MIT? Pros and cons.

    in Chemistry Forum

    Posted · Edited by ghostar

    Does Harvard have any inorganic/materials chemists besides Dan Nocera? I might be ignorant here, but I haven't seen Harvard being touted for its inorganic & materials division. Much less when compared to MIT for sure.

     

    Also, I have heard some really, grossly, nasty stories of departmental infighting at Harvard. Word from several grad students there is that all Harvard PI's essentially hate each other and compete for lab space and resources, and the stress ultimately trickles down to their grad students. Granted, these stories were told primarily by the organic chemists in the top labs, so take it with a grain of salt, but this is something that I would ask about during visits.   

     

    (I am willing to go to academia as my career, so do you have any ideas of the academic atmosphere of these two programs?)

     

    I'm not sure what you are asking here. What do you mean by the "academic atmosphere?" Whatever it is, how is it relevant to your willingness(??) to go into academia? Based on your wording, it sounds like an academic position is not exactly what you want but something that you would be okay with.

    *Program-specific thread* UW Madison

    in Chemistry Forum

    Posted

    I worked pretty closely with a number of the organic professors. I graded for one of Teshik's courses for example, and he's a great person and professor. The Schomaker group, though new, is really awesome! They are close knit and Jennifer is a very good mentor. Blackwell is another awesome professor, she was my intro to organic professor. Riessling will be a popular choice so keep that in mind. (Oh yeah, I really like Streiter, he's a really cool guy, started in organometallic work, and then switched to biochem. He's also pretty funny)

     

    I think some of you worried about the size of UW don't realize how small each department ends up being. They don't let in so so many people each year. Organic is by far the largest pool of people and they maybe have 20-30 people, each split up into different groups. So if you're analytical, you might be added with 8-9 other people. Physical even less, chem bio (I think) is the smallest. 

     

    As is always the case people group up, you make friends, the department becomes a lot smaller than it might seem at first. Just don't worry. The size of UW is actually a giant plus! There is a lot of cross-group collaboration. So many people (undergraduate and graduate) to meet and find a place with. 

     

    And to the above poster, UW is extremely well known. We get speakers from all over the world, cross departmental collaboration( e.g. engineering and chemistry) We have a ton of research funding. I believe the chemistry department has rotations for the first semester so you can make sure the group you join is a fit for you. At smaller programs you won't be able to do something like this.

     

     

    I hope I've quelled some fears. And if anyone has any questions about UW don't hesitate to ask, I will answer anything I have knowledge of.

    Thanks for the information. Did you mean Kiessling?

    Some additional questions: How is the public transportation system in Madison? Can you get around the city comfortably without a car? What are some options for graduate housing?

    *Program-specific thread* UW Madison

    in Chemistry Forum

    Posted

    Hmm... As far as I know, interdisciplinary labs in this type of interface program tend to have more people. Lab members do vastly different stuff: some are mostly concerned about synthesis while some do mostly biology. And the list of PIs are pretty well-known as well, which means their reputation has well established. One of the younger PIs my professor told me of is Professor Strieter. There are pros and cons about joining bigger labs in general. You may have a much easier time getting published if you join Professor Samuel Gellman for instance, but you may get less attention because of the size of the group. I think that's why we go to visitation weekend to gather some information =)

     

    How funny, Gellman and Strieter are the two other PI's of interest I mentioned in my personal statement! The biggest lab I have worked in had 6 people, so I am clueless as to how labs with 10+ people operate. Not that I'm against big labs, it will just be an entirely new experience for me. The visitation weekend will be very helpful for getting an insight into the lab dynamic and management styles of various bigger labs I'm interested in.

    *Program-specific thread* UW Madison

    in Chemistry Forum

    Posted · Edited by ghostar

    Hi, I am planning to visit the program in early March. I am currently conducting research in the field biological chemistry / bioorganic chemistry (I have no idea how I should name my research interest.) and UW-Madison is one of the best places to do this type of research other than Scripps, Harvard, and some other top schools. UW-Madison has a designated chemical biology path for my intended research areas, and it also provides alternatives since there are some quantitative biology PIs in this particular path. Even though I am going to work in one lab probably after your first year, I think I will have a good list of professors to choose from. 

     

    I would suggest you to ask your PI for information about this campus and see what his/her opinion about this school. When I got accepted the other day, I talked to my PI and he said this was the place to bioorganic research if I was not accepted to Scripps. In addition, he could name a few PIs on top of his head, indicating that this program was of some significance.

     

    Your case sounds a lot like my own. I definitely plan on joining the Chemistry-Biology Interface Training program if I do attend. I'm mostly interested in Laura Kiessling at UW Madison--one of former labmates is now a grad student in her lab, and he had lots of great things to say about her research, the lab (people, environment), and Kiessling as an exemplary female scientist and mentor. 

    *Program-specific thread* UW Madison

    in Chemistry Forum

    Posted

    I thought that having a program-specific thread would make it much easier to keep track of all the information said regarding a particular program, so here is one for UW Madison! I'm just curious about the following:

    1. Is anyone planning on visiting? 
    2. What do you see as pros and cons of the program?

    Feel free to chime in with any additional thoughts or questions, folks! :)

     

    Here are my responses to the questions.

     

    1. Yes - I will be visiting the March 27-29 weekend.

    2. Pros:

           * Well-respected chemistry program

           * Great science, strong representation of synthetic chemists and chemical biologists

           * Strong recommendation from alumni from my undergrad who are really happy there

     

        Cons:

           * Everything is way too big - the school, the department, and even the labs I am interested in

           * Location & weather -  :wacko:

     

    These are the big ones I can think of for now. 

    *Program-specific thread* UW Madison

    in Chemistry Forum

    Posted · Edited by ghostar

    I thought that having a program-specific thread would make it much easier to keep track of all the information said regarding a particular program, so here is one for UW Madison! I'm just curious about the following:

    1. Is anyone planning on visiting? 
    2. What do you see as pros and cons of the program?

    Feel free to chime in with any additional thoughts or questions, folks! :)

    Chemistry Applications Fall 2015

    in Chemistry Forum

    Posted

    in a moment of desperation i called the program coordinator for the umpteenth time. the coordinator said that invites should go out this afternoon, but the've been experiencing difficulties of some kind. I called again at 5 but no answer. It may be that they're still working on these "difficulties," or they've sent all invites. praying for the former! here's to hoping, I suppose...

     

    did you also apply to scripps btw?

    Yeah, invited for both campuses last week.

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. See our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use

  I accept