What are you doing on your off year? (If you have one?)

[Say Chi Sin Lo]

Hello, I'm new here, and I hope I can provide as well as learn from you all

I'll get to the point, I'm having an off year because I did not get into graduate school on my first attempt. I applied to all of the UCs (except UCLA, UCSF, UC Merced) and I did not get into any. Although I was waitlisted at UC Riverside and ultimately denied, only to find out one of my friends got in and withdrew! People please make sure you are well aware of the pain, suffering, and being an absolute brokeass for the next decade or so that is associated with becoming a scientist or being in academia. I was mad when my friend dropped out, cause I could have easily taken his spot... I had 3 labs lined up to do my Ph. D in! All were well within my interest, all were faculties I knew, all had room for me! I spent 2years of undergrad in one of those labs... (learned a lot in that lab, learned research, learned about teaching too!)

It was with great luck and good preparation that I landed a job at Stanford just a week following graduation. Working with my PI, Dr. Rockson, we study secondary lymphedema. It's a really small lab. I'm essentially the only one and I basically do everything. From purchasing, planning, designing experiments, doing the experiments, and data analysis. Therefore, I'm also dubbed as "lab manager." My PI gives me the independence to run the lab on my own. The job comes with great freedom, great learning opportunities (I work with people from other departments as our research overwhelms what our lab can do, such as some MRI imaging studies and what not), not to mention my PI emphasizes on my learning. The money is not bad either.

I plan on getting into a master program (somewhere cheap, like San Francisco State University, mainly because Stanford will pay for it). Aside from basic science research, I have a passion in teaching. Therefore, I don't mind doing a master because it'll give me a chance to fine-tune my teaching abilities as a TA. I've also had experience teaching an upper division cell biology course under my mentor at UCR (she realized i've developed a passion for teaching, so she allowed me to teach, and to learn how to teach).

End goal? Ph. D then post docs then professorship.

Here are some meaningless stats/numbers

UC Riverside, BS in Cell, Molecular, and Developmental Biology 2008

Undergrad cumulative 2.67, last two years/upper division 3.3, graduate courses ~3.67 (A, A-, B+)

GRE V470, Q670, W4.0

2years undergraduate research on telomeres/telomerase

Currently lab manager at Stanford studying secondary lymphedema

Applying to SF State University for Cell and Molecular Biology M.S. program Fall 2009

I already know what denied my admission on the 1st attempt, my cumulative GPA and my average GRE. Please note that I do not plan on taking the GRE again, I've already taken it twice. I definitely hope my master's GPA will reflect on the drastic improvement of my knowledge and skills.

So, what are y'all doing on your off year? Whether it's intended or unintended.

[Dontuse]

your master's work/gpa will definately boost your chances. glad you're taking it on. believe me: they will take note.

during the off time? well that depends. it's between working in a lab [these knuckles need cracking!] & going away... like REALLY away to veg before i devote the next 4-6 years of my life to biology.

i'm hoping i have the funds [& guts!] to swing with the latter... or at least find a way to schedule both.

what am i NOT doing? applying to ANYTHING. [i'm way too tired of this whole process. consider me drained.]