<p>I have been "working on it" for like six weeks. I suppose I just need a kick in the ass to finally get things uploaded and ordered etc. I am curious about how motivated everyone else is though.</p>
<p>I've already registered at all the schools websites, filled in basic personal information, sent recommendation packages to my 3 letter writers, sent GRE scores, and written 1 SOP. </p>
<p>What needs to be done: create SOP variations for the different schools, remind letter writers, send transcript, pay application fees.</p>
<p>I'm in the same boat sideserver, I plan to submit everything in 3 weeks. belevitt I'm pretty motivated since I'm stoked about the possibility of going somewhere else for 5-6 years, at this point I just want to get things done with and maybe get an offer before xmas? Haha I'm dreaming again, btw what are you guys' dream schools? For me I'd love to be a Cardinal.</p>
<p>No offers before Christmas, sorry. If you get your application in very early and it's very good, you might get an interview offer before Christmas, but most schools won't start offering interviews until about January 10 or 15.</p>
<p>Thanks for the clarification Mollie, I'd take an interview offer for xmas present. One other question is for a lot of schools they ask you whether or not you have contacted their faculty personally, do we have to fill that out? I mean, sure we are interested in their research but everything is all talks before we get the nod from ADCOMs.</p>
<p>You don't have to fill it out, although if you have contacted a faculty member, certainly write it down.</p>
<p>I didn't contact any faculty members (because my undergrad PI, who was a bit of a curmudgeon, told me it was a waste of time), and it didn't pose a problem for me.</p>
<p>After trying to contact potential PIs in my desired programs and getting surprisingly few responses, I understood the situation. These people may be very warm and friendly in person, but you are an unsolicited email and simply not worth their time. I don't think that the programs would hold it against you if you leave this blank. They may just want a better idea of who to match you with during the interview weekend.</p>
<p>Nice, can't say no to less work.</p>
<p>I got an offer from Rockefeller before Christmas-- but I didn't start getting any other interviews until early January. They all come at about the same time, generally. Also Rockefeller seemed to have rounds of acceptances, so no worries if you don't hear until later. I also didn't contact any PIs, although many of my applications asked me to list PIs that I was interested in.</p>
<p>They will probably ask you for a list of people who you'd like to talk to once you accept the interviews. Although some of my interviews were really random.</p>
<p>I had early invites from Baylor MCB and UT Southwestern. I received both of these in early Dec. They also send invites after the 1st of the year. Everyone I know that interviewed at Wash U heard in Nov/early Dec. If you are interested in this school submit your app as early as possible. They had most of their invites out before I had my app in, which is obviously not a good thing. NYU sent some invites out between xmas and New Years.</p>
<p>Cool man, thanks for the heads up.</p>
<p>So,after the application work, all we should do is just waiting?</p>
<p>have a question about the CV/resume section of applications:
So I realize that a CV is a lot more extended than a resume. I read somewhere that you should include techniques that you are proficient at. It was not specifically talking about biomedical science or anything, but does this mean I should include a section on research techniques that I am familiar with? I have had quite a few intense lab courses where I have learned a good number of techniques that would not get into the section on research experience (electrophysiological recordings, immunostaining, confocal microscopy, fluorescence microscopy etc). Should those be included in the CV? How common is it to have taken seven lab courses as an undergrad? Should I somehow include that somewhere in my application besides just the transcript? If it is not that common to take that many, I would like to stress it somewhere because having a lab course that requires at least 10 hours a week of your time is one of the reasons I did not work in a research lab my junior year. Is the CV the place to do it? Or should I mention it in my SoP somehow? Thanks for the advice!</p>
<p>Also, just an update: I am applying to 8 schools. I have also registered at all of the sites, started filling in all of the boring stuff, currently working on a draft of an SoP , and getting all of the work/research experience stuff organized. It is getting more difficult to get all of this done when midterms are hitting us at the same time! Cannot wait until spring semester when this will be all behind us, although at that point I sure hope I have some interviews to be preparing for!</p>
<p>Thats a great question,neurostudent.I am wondering about what all to include in the cv myself.
I am posting a separate question here about my situation. I hope this is the right thread to post it in.I love this forum and have enjoyed all the posts in the grad school section. my stats-
undergraduate at ivy in theoretical neuroscience
GPA- overall 3.96 major 4.1
previous undergraduate degree in medicine from india
one year in graduate school in neuroscience at top 25 university (Then decided to do another BA)
GRE quant 800 verbal 750 essay 4.5
subject gre- not yet taken
research experience- 5 months at my previous grad school referred to above and 10 months so far (with intent to keep working in the same lab till i graduate next spring) at current school - all in neuroscience</p>
<p>i am interested in perception, especially in theoretical and computational approaches to perception(vision and/or audition)
i am taking a smattering of math, CS, psychology as part of my special major.</p>
<p>not being of hardcore quantitative background, i am curious as to which programs might like people of mixed background like me.
i have decided to apply to NYU, Einstein, Berkeley and BU. I am trawling websites trying to identify more programs. I am just apprehensive of the fact that theory people seem to like math and physics majors. At my current school, the attitude is very encouraging- they want to get experimentalists to try theory and so they take teaching very very seriously. They actually sit down and teach the math as well. Do people know of schools where this is an approach also? I feel like I can handle the math now but it will be great to go to a program where bio-majors are encouraged to do theory.</p>
<p>my second question is- with the research experience I have, do you guys think I should apply aggressively for Fall 09 or do a research job at a lab for a year after graduation? </p>
<p>thanks in advance!</p>
<p>Stats:</p>
<p>Undergrad Institution: McGill University
Program: Honors Microbiology and Immunology
GPA: 3.95, 3.98 in Major.
GRE (Taken today): 800Q, 480V (ouch?--does this really matter that much?)
GRE Subject Biochem (to be taken next week): TBA
Research Experience: Summer Student last summer, and this entire year I'm working in a lab for 12/30 Credits (40% of my academic effort) -- Honors Research Project.</p>
<p>Want to apply to:
Stanford
Harvard
MIT
Berkeley
Davis
etc.</p>
<p>My verbal was ****, but I'm trying to understand how much it is weighed compared to GPA, Letters, and Experience. From what I understand, the verbal is not particularly important but maybe that's wishful thinking.</p>
<p>What do you guys think?</p>
<p>If your TOEFL score is good they probably won't be too worried about your poor verbal score. (If you speak English as a first language, then I am sorry about the assumption). Also the admissions committees have your written score from the GRE and your personal statement as evidence of your ability to compose thoughts and communicate ideas. Furthermore, any publications that you may have will also be useful in showing your ability to write. Aside from the low verbal score, I don't see anything in your posting that would make me think that you would get rejected, but there is no such thing as a sure thing. Best of luck.</p>
<p>Neurostudent, can I ask which schools asked you for your CV? I haven't come across this at all and I am worried that I just missed this. The schools that I have been applying to ask for a research experience document, which I am filling with names and dates of lab jobs, research projects, poster sessions and publications. Is this what you are referring to?</p>
<p>With regard to your question about the number of undergrad lab courses, my major at UW Madison required some fifteen semesters of lab classes. That included all the pre reqs eg. bio, ochem, gen chem, analytical chem, physics, biochem, pchem as well as the specific lab courses for the major.</p>
<p>belevitt, most of the schools I am applying has an option that lets you to upload "any other document" that may be beneficial to the ADCOM, and some schools even explicitly say (a CV or resume) is appropriate.</p>
<p>
[quote]
I have had quite a few intense lab courses where I have learned a good number of techniques that would not get into the section on research experience (electrophysiological recordings, immunostaining, confocal microscopy, fluorescence microscopy etc). Should those be included in the CV?
[/quote]
The CV would be a good place for the techniques, although I'm not sure where you would fit them in -- I guess you could list your lab courses as a bullet point under "Research Experience".</p>
<p>For example:
-Such and such lab, Dr. So and So, faculty supervisor
Brief description of project
Techniques: foo, bar, etc.</p>
<p>-Laboratory courses, Dr. So and So, instructor
Techniques: blah, blah</p>
<p>I would be careful, though, to try not to inflate the techniques you've learned. I have noticed this on my older CVs -- I would write absolutely every protocol I knew how to do, and it sounds absolutely ridiculous to write "PCR with both standard and fluorescently-labeled primers", for example, as if there's any difference between the two. It's better to go general, or else you sound like you don't know what you're talking about.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Cannot wait until spring semester when this will be all behind us, although at that point I sure hope I have some interviews to be preparing for!
[/quote]
I don't mean to sound like the voice of doom, but rest assured that interviews will eat up a much larger chunk of your time than filling out applications -- I missed some seven or eight days of spring semester for interviews my senior year, and it was rough to catch up. My husband took to reminding me that one needs to graduate in order to go to graduate school. :)</p>