<p>Yes, the scores are very important for applying to fellowships. I know a couple of people who got into programs they had already been rejected from (although in chem and physics, not bio) because of a fellowship award, so in a way, the fellowship affects your odds of being admitted.</p>
<p>Many people get in without the subject test scores. Grad programs may believe that you are hiding a bad score when in fact you didn't take the test at all, but if your education was good in other ways (emphasis on experimental design and interpretation vs. emphasis on memorizing photosynthesis) I don't think they'd care if you did do poorly. So your transcript and your undergrad department's reputation can make up for no/bad GRE subject test scores.</p>
<p>Belevitt, at UT Southwestern, the graduate program will add the amount of tuition onto your first stipend check of each semester and then you just turn right back around and pay that back to the school. Seems weird, but that's how it works for us. Probably different with other schools.</p>
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at UT Southwestern, the graduate program will add the amount of tuition onto your first stipend check of each semester and then you just turn right back around and pay that back to the school.
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<p>So, does that mean you pay taxes on the total amount (stipend plus tuition) rather than just your stipend amount?</p>
<p>You don't have to pay taxes on money that's used for tuition or for required educational expenses. (It's the same rule for college scholarships -- tuition scholarships aren't taxed, but those which go above and beyond tuition would be.)</p>
<p>This may not be a question I should be concerned about. However, here goes.</p>
<p>Does it matter how much commitment I show to any particular lab? My initial plan was jumping labs from 2nd yr summer all the way to my 4th yr research course. So I am expected all of my LORs to come from laboratory PIs.</p>
<p>However, it is often assumed that when one volunteers in a laboratory during the year, they continue with a full project during the summer if at all possible. It isn't exactly a good idea to just leave at the end of the school yr and jump labs for the summer---doesn't rlly show the PI any respect.</p>
<p>However, I RLLY want my 3 LORS to all be from lab PIs. The prob is I have yet to find a lab position for my 3rd yr---assuming that I don't continue with my current lab. I like the work in my current lab but I don't rlly care too much for the atmosphere here and have been lookin for spots in other labs altho I haven't been lookin hard enuff and I've been very picky.</p>
<p>If I don't resume my work in this lab durin my 3rd yr and I wait till 3rd yr summer to do research, i may end up doing my 4th yr project with the lab I'll work in next summer. That would mean I'd only have 3 LORs from PIs.</p>
<p>Frankly, I don't want my LOR coming from a lab course supervisor or anything of that nature.</p>
<p>So to cut it short, how important is it for me to show some degree of commitment to a particular lab? Should I worry more abt the sheer amnt of time doing research or the # of LORs I can milk out of this as well.</p>
<p>I think I can prolly get a better LOR from a lab i've stuck with for a while anyways.</p>
<p>Yes! You're overanalyzing this and stressing out way more than you need to be! Where did you get the idea that you need 3 LORs from 3 different PIs? I think 2 from PI's is perfectly normal and fine.</p>
<p>I'm sure 2 is perfectly normal and fine. But if 3 is the norm, wouldn't it be fabulous if all 3 were from PIs that would praise my lab skills and so forth? I mean if 2 are lab PIs, whos the third gunna be? The only other person I can think of will be the lab coordinator for my 3rd yr microbiology lab course. And with abt 20 ppl in the class, how much interaction will I get with him/her.</p>
<p>Outside of my lab PI, no other proff in this university knows I exist. All my 2nd yr classes have been huge thus far with sizes ranging from the usual 200-300 students/class with the lowest being 60 and the highest been 1500.</p>
<p>I think it would be better to stay in a lab longer and possibly get a publication than change labs and just get a 3rd letter from a PI out of it. Do you have any opportunities to take seminar/journal club type classes? These classes usually consist of students evaluating papers every week and a LOR from a professor of that class could be valuable for demonstrating your analytical skills and ability to critically evaluate others research.</p>
<p>If it were me, I wouldn't be terribly concerned about the appearance of lab hopping. You're an undergrad applying for a graduate program, not an employee in some high-turnover industry. They expect that you would have a somewhat more broad experience, who narrows down their field at 19? I would feel confident that these experiences, though shorter, would provide you with a greater breadth of material to draw on in a personal statement and hopefully provide more overlap between your background and potential future projects. You might have guessed, but I too look like some sort of job hopper with my being in my 7th lab in as many years.</p>
<p>I don't think it matters much. Although I worked in 4 labs over my undergrad career, I only got a letter of recommendation from one of the PIs (my thesis advisor). 2 of the labs I was only in for a summer, and one of them was a junior professor. I got my other two letters from professors that I had taken several classes from and knew me a bit outside of class. I didn't take a lab class with either of them, although they were familiar with my work. If you don't like the lab atmosphere, you should switch. But I wouldn't switch labs just to "milk a letter of rec" out of the PI.</p>
<p>Well with my current lab, the dumbed down steps to my proj is getting genes, cloning cells and purifyin the proteins, afterwards, we do a host of general functional tests and then have some of the chemical engineers do the detailed work determining the industrial viability of some of these enzymes (stable pH range and so forth). I'm pretty much doing everything except for the chem.eng work so its just basic genomics and proteomics work. However, since this is my 1st lab position and I had to pick up lab techniques while I did the proj and needed constant support for the first month and a half, there was involvement from my PI, a lab tech, and an older summer student (who will have spent his entire undergrad career in this 1 lab). However, I still trump all of them in terms of input. However, since my PI came up with the project, he may be the primary author rather than myself or the chem engineer. However, in terms of actual experiments done and who did ALL the real labwork, it was just myself and the chem.eng student whos gunna take up my proj afterwards. I don't quite know where I'll land if this does lead to publication (i think it will but prolly months after I've left the lab ----WILL THAT BE AN ISSUE?) Frankly, I still feel its too early to talk to my PI abt the details of publication and its prolly to early to worry abt it altogether. </p>
<p>ec1234, did u CHOOSE to get a LOR from only 1 of ur 4 PIs or did u want a LOR from them but only 1 was willing to give one.</p>
<p>I took a look at the PIs I want to apply to in my department and most of them teach courses I plan to take so if I land a PI, it'll be one who also teaches one of my crses. However, I won't be in the situation where I'll have a proff who teaches many of my classes. The dept is just too big.</p>
<p>My thoughts exactly belevitt. Furthermore, after my 3rd yr classes that focus more on my specialist, I should sharpen my focus a bit. Until then I want to touch upon as much lab work as possible and try and narrow down my choices by the time grad school comes around. From my initial post, its obvious I have taken specific fields into consideration but I have quite a bit of work to do.</p>
<p>KUNRD07, Most of the lecture classes in my 4th yr and only a bit in my 3rd yr are based heavily on research papers. They are seminar type classes in the sense that there is more interaction b/w students and b/w students and the proff.</p>
<p>A friend of mine who lab-hopped somewhat was asked to defend himself in interviews -- he was asked how the program could be sure he'd be able to commit to a single lab for his PhD. Programs try to minimize the number of students who declare a lab at the end of first year and then decide to switch, as this obviously has a negative effect on their time to graduation.</p>
<p>In my opinion, the benefits of having one or two really solid recommendations from PIs with whom you've done research plus being able to commit to a long-term, potentially publishable project outweighs any benefits of lab-hopping, unless you're changing labs because you're genuinely unhappy.</p>
<p>My third rec was from a professor who had taught a course I took, and who subsequently took me under his wing and gave me graduate school advice. I never worked with him, although he was familiar with my research and the way my mind worked. If you want to form a relationship with a professor, just make an appointment with him or her and start asking questions about grad school applications.</p>
<p>I didn't ask them, I am sure that they would have written them had I asked, but the other options seemed better to me. </p>
<p>If you have done all of the labwork, you get the first author. The PI is expected to be last author, for having funded and helped conceptualized the project. Don't worry about papers, worry about understanding the implications of your research and further directions etc. Most people applying to grad school do not have papers that have already been published, and some people who have their names on papers do not know much about their research other than their small part of the project. It is better to have a thorough understanding of the project then to have an authorship.</p>
<p>Mollie, your comments about the importance of committing to a lab in grad school are appreciated. As always, you have been very insightful. What were the specifics of your friends' situation that required him to justify himself to an admissions committee? The reason I ask, is that as I had mentioned, I have been in a number of labs (however, i spent 2+ years in each of two labs) and some of them were only for a semester or two, the duration of an "undergraduate research experience credit". Would you estimate that this will require explanation? Are these reasons valid for having left labs (project ended and I wanted to pursue something else)?</p>
<p>I wish I could remember, but I'm afraid anything I say is going to be inaccurate.</p>
<p>He was, incidentally, ultimately admitted to the program which was asking him about his lab-hopping, so certainly switching labs in his case was defendable. :) I think they just wanted to hear that he had put thought into switching labs rather than just doing it for no reason.</p>