<p>Hey Everyone,</p>
<p>So. Here I am. I've been reading all of these posts but I can't figure out where I stand. If some of you could give me some feedback, it would really mean the world to me.</p>
<p>So these are my stats: 3.3 overall gpa, 3.7 major gpa (physics, neuroscience courses, organic chem, all that good stuff) at a major state university. I've worked in three labs. I worked in a cognition lab for a year (will get a solid rec) and then i've been working in a neuroscience lab for ~2 years. No authorships but I am presenting a poster at SFN. This summer I moved to another city to work for a professor to study a subject very similar to the subject I'd like to go into in graduate school for.</p>
<p>I haven't taken the GREs yet, but am next week. I've been consistently scoring ~630V and ~680Q on the Kaplan tests. So I imagine I'll score something near those scores.</p>
<p>I'd like to go to a graduate school to study circadian rhythms or sleep and their impact in either - neuroplasticity, mood regulation, or learning.</p>
<p>Does anyone have any advice or suggestions? I'm nervous as hell but excited as hell.</p>
<p>Never know unless you try, I’d apply. Plenty of neuro schools on the west coast. I Think UCDavis is good on neuroplasiticity.</p>
<p>cool. i’ll look into it! thanks for replying.</p>
<p>May want to get your quantitative score into the 700s, but that’s not strictly necessary, just a suggestion.</p>
<p>Also, further down your research topic into something compelling. Right now it is very broad, and you want to be specific without being too specific. Think about what kind of studies you’d want to conduct, or what kind of research questions you’d like to answer. What can you write in a personal statement about yourself?</p>
<p>okay. so i’m applying to all wet-lab based neuroscience programs. but many of my questions and interests lie in translational neuroscience. while i want to be bred or learn the techniques of a neuroscientist being trained in the hard science aspects, would it hurt to mention my interests? a few of the schools i’m applying there are foreseeable overlap or collaboration between two completely separate labs and i think it’d be very interesting to answer some questions using both techniques in different lights. obviously if i were to write this i’d be way more specific about how to do it and what i see but do you think that would hold me back? do you think admissions committees/the PIs I’m applying to would be turned off by this because they’d want me to just focus on working in their lab?</p>
<p>Mention your interests as they relate directly to the program and current research in it. If you mean you want to express your interest in the work of two or more different PI’s, by all means do so. If you’re talking about wanting to work on the questions one lab addresses with the technique or approach of another lab in the program (in a way that they’re not already collaborating on), that’s a bit pushy for a personal statement. It might make for an okay hypothetical discussion on an interview. </p>
<p>There was a poster on here last year who had nearly perfect stats and got something like 12/12 rejections. In subsequent posts, it was eventually teased out of him that he basically came off as suggesting better ways that various PI’s could carry out their research.</p>
<p>Anyway, it doesn’t seem like you’re suggesting this as it sounds as though these collaborations already exist in some form.</p>