housecleaning

Agreed. Baltimore is widely known as the armpit of DC. And the BCMB program has got to be the sh!thole of all known sh!tholes. Right in the middle of the worst possible geographic location on earth. The faculty get sweet, reserved parking spots in the secured garage. So they don't have to dodge stray bullets on their walk/run (when they notice the hooded stalker who sneaked into the parking garage) to lab. The grad students get a nice f*ck-you-for-coming-here space in Reed Hall where you'll get to walk the infamous tunnels to your lab and fear for your life daily. All of the programs you mentioned beat the hell out of Hopkins.

Hey, congrats on all the acceptances, Bubba! I'd probably go with UCLA. -hc

Nothing like high stress to get the lurkers to make their first post. Welcome worried. Let's see some stats.

3 months? Try 3 days.

Nice work. Congrats!

:tup: Sweet! :tup:

Sounds good. And if you're getting your masters from there then you probably have a pretty good idea which program it's linked to. I can't imagine having no contact with classmates is a downside, considering you'll have plenty of new friends in your lab at NIH. Now that you've heard my side of what I think of the armpit of DC, maybe you could share your thoughts on Baltimore & the living situation, since you've actually been doing it, and I only experienced it for a couple of days.

I have no idea which one the NIH-JHU program is. What's the link? I knew NIH had one with Penn, but I didn't realize they also had one with Hopkins. I got in to all the programs (PhD & MS) that I applied to except Mayo biochem. Bastards. Didn't even interview me! Wait until I grab that Nobel. They'll rue the day :). Oregon State (MS - Comp. Science); Northwestern (PhD - biology); Arizona (PhD - biochem); Stanford (MS - computational biol., which is where I ended up); Oregon (PhD - biology); and some others. My story though is complicated by the fact that although I have a strong biochem background, I want to get as far out of it as I possibly can. Computer science. Med school. Anything that doesn't require a 5-year postdoc & then a guarantee of no job (except a protein purification-like job in industry). Bethesda or Rockville would certainly be better than Baltimore. And when I say Baltimore, I don't mean like the "nice" part of Baltimore (if there is such a place). I don't mean fells point, or the inner harbor, or anywhere else where some nice waterfront, or a tree or two might be found. I'm talking "med school/public health" Baltimore. Crackhead central. More HIV than you can shake a stick at. I could almost smell the viral load emanating from the homeless as I was escorted by the grad students to the nearby "market" (that's a whole 'nother story too) for a sandwich. Still brings back some pretty scary memories. I remember the chair telling me how the grad students seemed pretty happy there (being completely out of touch with reality is an understatement), "but don't go over to *this* side of town," as he waved in some direction out his office. It amazes me that people actually choose to live there.

Could be because it was unfinished, but more likely it's because your grammar is so poor. I'd work on that if you want to increase your AWA. Good luck.

Which JHU programs did you guys apply to? The Homewood campus, med school, or public health? I interviewed at the public health one (PhD in Biochem & Mol Bio) last year. It was a lot of fun. They put me up in a great hotel in the Inner Harbor, had a nice dinner with another applicant & a *lot* (like 8!!) other grad students (this was apparently their big chance to score a meal at a nice restaurant -- Afhgan), and spent the day listening to them pretty much sell me on their program. Apparently no one has ever been denied admission once they're at the interview stage. And the chair of the dept tells you you're accepted before you go to dinner that night, which is nice because you get to kick back & enjoy. So, if you got an interview with this particular group, then you're good to go. Personally though, after touring Baltimore & the sh!thole where the school of public health was located, I really couldn't have imagined spending 5-6 years there. And some of the other grad students said that the program is considered third-rate relative to the med school & homewood programs. So, I ultimately declined their offer. I'll probably apply to their Homewood program next year, as it seems like a relatively decent place to go. But I'll have to say that even that program won't be very high on my list.

these people have interest in chemistry: http://www.www.urch.com/forums/search.php?searchid=369256

Like a crackhead, I suppose, if I didn't follow up earlier than that.

Good to hear. Is OSU Ohio, Oregon or Oklahoma? thx.

It's totally wacky how competitive this particular Stanford program is. I don't understand it at all. They don't participate in the umbrella bioscience admissions program; the degree itself sounds like one of those pseudo-degree programs (e.g., the ALM in Information Technology from Harvard); all courses & almost all faculty are available through the biosciences program; and yet they remain far more competitive. MD's & PhD's from top schools do their masters program unfunded. Outrageous. Makes no sense. They only recently garnered some recognition through NIH for some training support. I'll never understand it.

That sucks, Morassa. But at least it only happened with your safety schools, and not your top picks. And you're only out an application fee or two. BTW, did any bio or chem folks have any luck having application fees waived this cycle? I've *heard* that even the most elite programs will waive if you ask right. If so, please list the school that waived.

Thanks rynosus!

Riiiiiight. I suppose I would be inclined to believe you if you hadn't already announced that you wouldn't post your score because it's "private." But now I'm thinking that you probably tanked it because no normal person (i.e., one who is *not* heavily addicted to crack) would wait this long for a score that should have been available a month ago. Either way you'll probably fit in fine at Berkeley -- if you're doing crack you can find some decent stuff on Telegraph; and if you're just trying to hide your subject test that's why they don't require it. Good luck!

Thanks for the input, Forest. I know they're trying to build a big bioinformatics/computational biology group, but I'm wondering how successful they've been at doing this? I'll be applying next year & I'd definitely like to stay in the Bay Area, so that makes Santa Cruz *extremely* attractive as a safety school. But I'll have to say that from what I've seen I pretty much agree with what everyone else has been saying as far as them being lower quality. And when I see faculty profiles in the chem dept like this: http://www.chemistry.ucsc.edu/scott_w.html, it makes me want to stay as far away as possible. I mean really, is this this kid's 8th grade photo? And reading his incessant whining about only making $57K as a chem prof (http://www.chemistry.ucsc.edu/%7Ewgscott/mystuff/stats/) reinforces that thought. It appears he brought his pathetic Berkeley attitude down there. It's too bad that they've infected the school with these types, because I'm sure there are some good folks there. And before somebody says, "Yeah, but he has a *Nature* paper" take a closer look. Postdoc > 5yrs ago. Next-to-last author. Nobody in his lab contributed. Say hello to what we see all too often in chem/bio -- gratuitous authorship. i.e. postdoc advisor felt sorry for him & listed him last. pathetic.

Sounds good, Bubba. I won't be applying until next year but let's keep this thread going.

Are you serious? Or just still hiding your score?

which program was that?

Interesting forums. Thanks for the links!

You should post the good news on the bio thread -- it'd be great if there was one place to follow everyone's status.

Nice, suja. Congrats!

They don't interview for the masters program. Or at least they didn't interview me. Could be different for foreign applicants though. Good luck!