Now What?

[Menkamus]

Hi everyone, I've been reading the forums for a bit and thought I'd post to see if anyone had any insight into this.

I've just gotten through hearing back from most of my schools that I applied to, and it doesn't look promising. Of the 6 schools I've applied to, I was only invited to interview at one and was later rejected. The others are either rejections or no-shows so far, including my home institution (which I don't think is a rejection, but it's a last resort). I've already taken a year to work after undergrad as a laboratory technician (I have a B.S. in Biochemistry), and both the PI and I had only planned on having me work here for a year, which is almost up, so now I'm getting ready to pack up and head back home while a new technician starts phasing in.

What should be my next step? I don't think graduate school is going to be a possibility this year unless I risk "academic inbreeding", and I'm scrambling to figure out if I should start taking more classes or get more lab work or something. Any thoughts?

Edited March 16, 2011 by Menkamus

[neuropsych76]

Hi everyone, I've been reading the forums for a bit and thought I'd post to see if anyone had any insight into this.

I've just gotten through hearing back from most of my schools that I applied to, and it doesn't look promising. Of the 6 schools I've applied to, I was only invited to interview at one and was later rejected. The others are either rejections or no-shows so far, including my home institution (which I don't think is a rejection, but it's a last resort). I've already taken a year to work after undergrad as a laboratory technician (I have a B.S. in Biochemistry), and both the PI and I had only planned on having me work here for a year, which is almost up, so now I'm getting ready to pack up and head back home while a new technician starts phasing in.

What should be my next step? I don't think graduate school is going to be a possibility this year unless I risk "academic inbreeding", and I'm scrambling to figure out if I should start taking more classes or get more lab work or something. Any thoughts?

It's hard to say without knowing more about your profile. Were your GRE/GPA high enough? Did you have clear research matches and glowing LOR's?

[Menkamus]

My GPA wasn't the best (3.15), but it was enough to get honors at my institution. My GRE scores were pretty good (800 Q, 650 V, 4.0 W). I haven't actually seen or inquired about my LOR's so I don't know if I can attest to them being glowing or not, but my profile was enough to get this interview so they can't be terrible, right? As far as research, I interviewed with professors that matched my interest, but my background isn't exactly the same, I'm not sure if that's what you meant. I've done mostly molecular bio. type stuff, but I was looking to get into the genetics more.

Does this answer what you were asking about?

[runonsentence]

Hi everyone, I've been reading the forums for a bit and thought I'd post to see if anyone had any insight into this.

I've just gotten through hearing back from most of my schools that I applied to, and it doesn't look promising. Of the 6 schools I've applied to, I was only invited to interview at one and was later rejected. The others are either rejections or no-shows so far, including my home institution (which I don't think is a rejection, but it's a last resort). I've already taken a year to work after undergrad as a laboratory technician (I have a B.S. in Biochemistry), and both the PI and I had only planned on having me work here for a year, which is almost up, so now I'm getting ready to pack up and head back home while a new technician starts phasing in.

What should be my next step? I don't think graduate school is going to be a possibility this year unless I risk "academic inbreeding", and I'm scrambling to figure out if I should start taking more classes or get more lab work or something. Any thoughts?

It's not uncommon to email committees to ask for the reasons your application was rejected (or better, what you can do to improve it for the next application season). Sending out those kinds of inquiries to the schools who have already rejected you could give you some ideas on whether you need more coursework or lab work for next year.

[Amalia222]

given a choice between unemployment and academic inbreeding, I'd say let the incestuousness begin!