What surprised you the most going through this whole process?

[HadiBody]

That numerous applicants have strong research experience from the undergrad days. I see some applicants on here with 3- publications, which is insane even for some grad students.

 

I never thought I'd be competing against so many researchers. Isn't the whole point of grad studies to become a researcher?

 

If you're one already, then get a research job, as the majority of grad students do once they're finished.

 

Hopefully I'm good enough for at least one of my picks, but I'm not confident about it.

[Crucial BBQ]

I recently emailed every grad student in one of selected programs a series of questions. Some 40 students in total.  Out of that number roughly 30 responded within 24 hours.  So my most recent surprise is just how helpful current grad students really are.

 

Great insights for sure.  

That numerous applicants have strong research experience from the undergrad days. I see some applicants on here with 3- publications, which is insane even for some grad students.

 

I never thought I'd be competing against so many researchers. Isn't the whole point of grad studies to become a researcher?

 

If you're one already, then get a research job, as the majority of grad students do once they're finished.

 

Hopefully I'm good enough for at least one of my picks, but I'm not confident about it.

To be frank, this is more of a recent development and to my knowledge not one grad program excepts an undergrad to publish.  

 

I read a blog post over the summer relating to the current drop-out rate of Ph.D. students.  The author wrote that when he attended UC Berkeley in the 1960s he was joined by 100 or so other students in his same, niche, program.  That is nuts by todays standards!  According to him he was only one of five students who actually made it through to the end.   The reason why the program admitted so many students to begin with was because back then undergraduate research was relatively unheard of and it was assumed that most who drop out do so because they cannot hack it as a researcher, and as such, it was necessary to admit ~100 just to pop out ~5 graduates.  His reason for the post was that students drop out for a variety of reasons, fyi.   My reason for mentioning this is that Ph.D. programs only began looking at undergraduate research experience perhaps maybe 20 or so years ago.  As usual, the applicant pool dictates what the base-line becomes and what is considered "normal" of a typical applicant.  

 

Twenty years from now published undergrads might be more common, unfortunately, which will most likely--as with it all--begin with a few students attempting to pad their applications with a legs-up-on-you approach.  

Edited January 21, 2015 by Crucial BBQ

[HadiBody]

I recently emailed every grad student in one of selected programs a series of questions. Some 40 students in total.  Out of that number roughly 30 responded within 24 hours.  So my most recent surprise is just how helpful current grad students really are.

 

Great insights for sure.  

To be frank, this is more of a recent development and to my knowledge not one grad program excepts an undergrad to publish.  

 

I read a blog post over the summer relating to the current drop-out rate of Ph.D. students.  The author wrote that when he attended UC Berkeley in the 1960s he was joined by 100 or so other students in his same, niche, program.  That is nuts by todays standards!  According to him he was only one of five students who actually made it through to the end.   The reason why the program admitted so many students to begin with was because back then undergraduate research was relatively unheard of and it was assumed that most who drop out do so because they cannot hack it as a researcher, and as such, it was necessary to admit ~100 just to pop out ~5 graduates.  His reason for the post was that students drop out for a variety of reasons, fyi.   My reason for mentioning this is that Ph.D. programs only began looking at undergraduate research experience perhaps maybe 20 or so years ago.  As usual, the applicant pool dictates what the base-line becomes and what is considered "normal" of a typical applicant.  

 

Twenty years from now published undergrads might be more common, unfortunately, which will most likely--as with it all--begin with a few students attempting to pad their applications with a legs-up-on-you approach.  

 

Shouldn't be more difficult now to conduct research though?

 

I mean as you mentioned, a lot of PhD candidates couldn't even get to the finish line when their studies involved intense research activities.

 

I know schools don't expect students to publish, but they look very good on an application, and without any context. At my school, there was some research going on, but it was nothing worthwhile. I know many of my friends who just drew some shapes and graphs for a paper in LaTeX, got their name in a submitted paper, and wrote it as "research experience" on their applications.

 

For me, a true research experience, is one that you'd struggle to describe to someone out of your research group. The research must make you the most knowledgeable person in the whole school in that particular task of yours.

 

I really don't think this many undergrad students have been able to do that. Yet you see someone in a 4-year program with 2 years of research experience. That is pretty surprising to me.

[Crucial BBQ]

Shouldn't be more difficult now to conduct research though?

 

I mean as you mentioned, a lot of PhD candidates couldn't even get to the finish line when their studies involved intense research activities.

 

I know schools don't expect students to publish, but they look very good on an application, and without any context. At my school, there was some research going on, but it was nothing worthwhile. I know many of my friends who just drew some shapes and graphs for a paper in LaTeX, got their name in a submitted paper, and wrote it as "research experience" on their applications.

 

For me, a true research experience, is one that you'd struggle to describe to someone out of your research group. The research must make you the most knowledgeable person in the whole school in that particular task of yours.

 

I really don't think this many undergrad students have been able to do that. Yet you see someone in a 4-year program with 2 years of research experience. That is pretty surprising to me.

Yes, publications look very good on the application.  With more-and-more applicants to grad programs (and a lessening acceptance rate) this is why it is something that is most likely to become more prominent in the future. 

 

As for research, there are many opportunities for students.  There is of course on-campus research and also REUs, (summer) internships both on and off campus, off-campus jobs, senior projects, research-related courses, and so on.  At my first university, I ended up working for a PI in the Chemistry Department.   This was a paid position that I applied to.  It continues to baffle me to this day how I got the job and, say, not a senior chemistry student, by the way, but I did.  This school was not a research university but keep in mind that professors are Ph.Ds.  As such, they were trained to do research.  It's almost all they know how to do.  Just because it was not a research university did not mean that research was not being done.  I know for a fact that the PI published with the data I collected and the technique I developed (I googled the PIs name a few months and came across the paper).  

 

The same was true at my second university.  This time I took a research course for credit, twice.  This was real-deal research with on-going projects, one of which stands to make the PI famous if he publishes first.  In both instances the PI only took on two students per semester.  Some PIs only took on one student. Even though these were for credit, they still required an application (mainly consisting of an essay describing why I, out of all students, deserved the spot).  The grades came from papers and public presentations. In retrospect I probably could have published the first paper, but it did not occur to me to do so at the time.  There were those in my cohort who participated in REUs all over the place:  Alaska, Hawaii, Chile, on campus, Top 20 schools, and so on.  I never bothered with them because I assumed my GPA to be too low to have been competitive.   

 

So that is how I got my two years of research experience.  I also completed a senior project.  It's on my CV but not discussed in my SOP because there was no true PI involved, only a director of sorts.  Its on my CV because it led to a ~30 page paper and public presentation (PowerPoint). I also have roughly two more years of experience from my time spent at a community college.  I mention these experiences in my SOP because they are what really planted the grad-school seed in me, but they were more-or-less investigations or me tagging along as a tech.  In addition, I also have roughly seven years worth total experience between volunteer work (almost directly related to my intentions in grad school) and with being employed as a lab tech.

Edited January 22, 2015 by Crucial BBQ

[ktk]

I just discovered I was missing a transcript for one app - still don't know if I need one - and that one of my references forgot to submit for one of my apps when I could've sworn he did... i.e. "application submitted" != "application complete". Whatttt

 

Big unpleasant surprises

Edited January 25, 2015 by ktk

[isilya]

The biggest surprise for me is how fun the process is at the interview stage! All of the blood, sweat, and tears from the applying part of the process were so worth it. I've had three Skype interviews so far and they have all been an absolute blast. I've had really great discussions with my POIs, and I can only imagine that the in-person interviews are going to be even more fun. I have my first one in less than two weeks, and I could not be more excited!!

[AnomalousApplicant]

I will have to echo some other people's responses: What has surprised me most is finding out how many others applying to the same programs have had more research experience at their undergraduate institutions than I had because my school did not have too many research opportunities. 

[LittleMac]

How absurdly difficult and time-consuming a 500-word essay can be.

[Chubberubber]

How absurdly difficult and time-consuming a 500-word essay can be.

Or, for that matter, a 50-word e-mail...

[SLPosteriorCricoarytenoid]

I found out/am finding out how intimidating the email sound on an iPhone can be. Especially when it's just a junk email. You know, nothing pertaining to my future in the slightest.  

 

I also found out that annoying grad offices pays off. So much gets lost and misplaced, so if you're annoying and bug them enough things seem to get done.

[B. Blumenstrauss]

I am in fact quite surprised of the way I startle and jump (from a chair, from the bed, from wherever I am) when I hear the "ding ding" of the Gmail inbox. The cat is not handling well this new attitude of mine.

[Guest]

I will have to echo some other people's responses: What has surprised me most is finding out how many others applying to the same programs have had more research experience at their undergraduate institutions than I had because my school did not have too many research opportunities. 

Same. This includes internships for the most part as well. The whole education system within my area is flawed as well, period.

[Kleene]

The biggest surprise for me is how fun the process is at the interview stage! All of the blood, sweat, and tears from the applying part of the process were so worth it. I've had three Skype interviews so far and they have all been an absolute blast. I've had really great discussions with my POIs, and I can only imagine that the in-person interviews are going to be even more fun. I have my first one in less than two weeks, and I could not be more excited!!

Wow, respect for having so much fun in interviews. That will probably pay off!

[Excruciated]

What surprises me is that the wait is equally, if not more, excruciating than the actual act of applying!

[FoggyAnhinga]

Possibly my biggest surprise was the act of triumph after paying and submitting all my applications immediately stomped by feeling of guilt or regret that I could have done better with my applications...

[isilya]

Possibly my biggest surprise was the act of triumph after paying and submitting all my applications immediately stomped by feeling of guilt or regret that I could have done better with my applications...

Haha seriously!!! I was asked to add a little bit to my diversity statement at one school so they could nominate me for a fellowship...going back and reading it, it's so bad why oh why do I have to work on this horrible thing again

[ilovelab]

Having to consolidate your SOP into 500 words for some schools. I don't know how on earth adcoms expect applicants to talk about research experience, what they want to study in the program and why the want to go to that program in 500 words. I was helping an undergrad in our lab  whose applying to PhD programs do this. That was harder to write than the longer 1-3 page SOP's.

[jujubea]

my acceptances period, but also specifically the "top candidacy" status of my acceptances.

[Cheshire_Cat]

How nice Ph.D students are.  I mean, in my experience, most MBA students are the devil, so I was afraid that Ph.D students would be even worse.  However, the ones I've met seem a lot nicer... not as likely to stab you in the back and then charge for stitching you up.  From what I can tell, there is a lot more camaraderie among Ph.D students than there was among master students.  Foxhole friends I guess.

The second thing that suprised me is my reaction to getting into a program.  First, I thought I'd be nervous waiting for results, but I pretty much forgot about it until I got my first letter.  Then, I thought I would feel so relieved and excited to finally know where I would be for the next 5 years, but instead I freaked out and got a little scared, haha.  It didn't last long though.  I cried to a friend in a Ph.D program about it, and he reminded me that it was a completely rational reaction.  And I found Grad Cafe.  Now I'm getting excited.  Six months feels like forever!

[eeee1923]

One thing that I've been surprised with is how fast some of the programs reach a decision. Also the corollary of how slow some programs are in the aforementioned decisions. 

[juiceboxrampage]

I always expected I would feel like a "real" adult once I got to this stage. I thought I'd feel so confident, mature, and successful once I had my college degree and starting working to become a fancy-pants doctor. Nope. I still feel like a little kid, I'm just giving myself more responsibilities.

 

The whole application process has been completely surprising. I only applied to one school for undergrad and I had guaranteed acceptance (since I was in-state and had a high GPA/ACT scores). So this is my first time having to actually try to write good essays, waiting to hear back, dealing with the possibility of not getting in anywhere, sitting by my phone and computer all anxious... It's been crazy! Folks who went through this process for undergrad, is it easier going through it again? Harder? Is applying for grad school just so different that it's hard to compare?

Edited February 8, 2015 by juiceboxrampage

[travelgirl125]

I always expected I would feel like a "real" adult once I got to this stage. I thought I'd feel so confident, mature, and successful once I had my college degree and starting working to become a fancy-pants doctor. Nope. I still feel like a little kid, I'm just giving myself more responsibilities.

 

The whole application process has been completely surprising. I only applied to one school for undergrad and I had guaranteed acceptance (since I was in-state and had a high GPA/ACT scores). So this is my first time having to actually try to write good essays, waiting to hear back, dealing with the possibility of not getting in anywhere, sitting by my phone and computer all anxious... It's been crazy! Folks who went through this process for undergrad, is it easier going through it again? Harder? Is applying for grad school just so different that it's hard to compare?

 

I applied to 9 schools for undergrad and 8 for grad (plus the Fulbright and an internship program).  I think I applied to too many in both rounds, but I felt more prepared applying for grad programs.  There were things that I knew I wanted to look for (for example, how many undergrad students vs. grad students in the institution) in grad programs that I had missed when I applied to undergrad.

[VulpesZerda]

I always expected I would feel like a "real" adult once I got to this stage. I thought I'd feel so confident, mature, and successful once I had my college degree and starting working to become a fancy-pants doctor. Nope. I still feel like a little kid, I'm just giving myself more responsibilities.

 

The whole application process has been completely surprising. I only applied to one school for undergrad and I had guaranteed acceptance (since I was in-state and had a high GPA/ACT scores). So this is my first time having to actually try to write good essays, waiting to hear back, dealing with the possibility of not getting in anywhere, sitting by my phone and computer all anxious... It's been crazy! Folks who went through this process for undergrad, is it easier going through it again? Harder? Is applying for grad school just so different that it's hard to compare?

 

Undergrad school applications, for me, can't even compare to grad school. I only applied to 4 schools, all because they were 30 minutes away and had psychology. And all 4 were easy to get into - private schools in this area are desperate for students and the state schools are easy to get into with average numbers (GPA was probably about 3.3 in high school.. good enough). Zero stress. For grad school, I applied to 10 and still didn't feel safe despite 3.8 GPA and lots of other things going for me! And only one program was in my home state. This felt like it was officially time to be a grown up.

[grad_wannabe]

I applied to a grad program at a school that rejected me for undergrad ... so I can feel 17-year-old me longing to get in and be validated finally! weird how long that stuff sticks with you. 

[isilya]

I applied to a grad program at a school that rejected me for undergrad ... so I can feel 17-year-old me longing to get in and be validated finally! weird how long that stuff sticks with you. 

Haha I know that feel!! The only school I was rejected from for undergrad was Stanford, and it's the exact same deal for grad school as well