Sorry it’s been so long. Everyone who warns you that senior year is the most unbelieveably hectic time of your college years is telling the truth! Last semester I was absorbed in a research project, and then spent every waking minute working on graduate school applications/my personal statement. I applied to 10 neuroscience PhD programs. That was a LOT of work, as well as a LOT of money in application fees. As far as applying to grad schools, or even undergrad, don’t venture above 10!
Graduate degrees are divided into two types: professional degrees (med school, dental school, law school…) and non-professional degrees (PhD). If you want a professional degree, you will end up coming out of grad school with about $250,000 in debt– but on the bright side, you’ll make a ton of money shortly after graduating and for the rest of your life. Professional schools also require you pay for your own interviews, so if you apply to 10 schools all over the country, you’re in rough financial shape.
IF you are interested in a PhD, graduate schools pay for your interviews, and also pay you to go to school. In general, the institution will cover the cost of your tuition and health insurance, and provide a yearly stipend of $25,000-$30,000 to live on. So in that sense, it’s sort of like getting a job. A job that requires, on average, a minimum work weeks of 50-60 hours plus teaching/doing coursework, and an indefinite time commitment in the range of 5.3 years.
If you want to go to go grad school for a non-professional degree, you also have to take the SATs– oh excuse me, I mean the GREs. The Graduate Record Examinations are essentially the same as the SATs. They test your ability to write, measure how many random vocabularly words you can define, and test your algebra and analytical thinking skills. The big difference is that you take GREs on the computer, which is a WEIRD change from paper-based tests. As with the SATs, there are also specific subject tests for biology, english, etc, that you may have to take for your grad program.
“They” tell you to apply to 10-15 graduate programs. I started with a list of about 20 programs that I looked in to, and wheedled down my final list based on the neuroscience research projects and faculty at the institutions. (And location, since I decided I’m ready for a city school.) Applications were available in early fall, and were due between Dec 1 and January 1.
Beginning mid December and ending last week, I received interview invitations from 8 of my 10 schools. (YAY!) Being invited to an interview means they’re pretty serious about admitting you to the program, and want to bring you to campus for a weekend divided into 50/50 faculty interviews and recruitment events. Most schools give you a choice of 2 weekends to interview, while others only give you one. Interview season is about 6 weeks long, so scheduling is pretty difficult to begin with– and becomes more so when your interview offers trickle in over the course of two months. I couldn’t fit everything, so I ended up cancelling one interview, leaving me with 7 in 6 weeks.
And the nominees are: University of Pennsylvania, Vanderbilt, UC San Diego, UC San Francisco, UCLA, Emory University, and MIT.
7 interviews in 6 weeks, during the height of the academic semester? Yes. In spite of the fact that I scheduled NO classes on Monday or Friday trying to avoid missing all of my classes, it was a fruitless battle. Many schools require you arrive on Wednesday night or Thursday afternoon. Some are really wacky, and cut days right out of the middle of the week. So for the 6 weeks preceding spring break, I can attend exactly 5 days of class. In case you’re wondering, this went over okay with some of my teachers, and very poorly with others. I had to withdraw from a class for the first time ever, and I am looking at the prospect of ”no higher than a B” in another. Gross.
But back to the sunny side! The interviews have been amazing so far, and having all expenses paid made it easy for me to apply to the programs I loved, without having to economize based on what I could afford to visit. I was at U Penn last week, and just got back from Vanderbilt. (In case you were wondering: Nashville, TN is everything you imagine it to be.) Next up, I leave bright and early tomorrow morning for UCSD! They’re interesting experiences, so you’ll hear from me again soon….
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