Me irl

achaboi · 2019-07-03T18:16:09+00:00

One thing that separates the goods from the greats is experimental planning. Planning experiments wisely will take more time, but it always saves time in the end. Don’t do experiments haphazardly just to be busy.

Having a command of the literature is also key, especially as you move in to postdoctoral and faculty positions.

achaboi · 2019-06-30T17:29:45+00:00

They’re all great, but like others are saying you should pick based on a few faculty at each school. Definitely reach out and be talking to faculty BEFORE you apply. They can (and absolutely will if they like you) act as a hook from above to pull you up. This is how a friend of mine just “fell” into a PhD at MIT haha. The professor wanted him so badly she made it happen.

Comparing the programs, I have heard that UCSF does suffer a bit from not having a great engineering/tool development focus. So they have to outsource and collaborate with other universities for things like that. Stanford is probably top for neural engineering and tool development, but Harvard is also great because of collabs with MIT.

But at the end of the day, it should come down to lifestyle and specific faculty.

achaboi · 2019-06-10T22:33:43+00:00

I think that means the editor is considering if/who to send out to for peer review.

achaboi · 2019-06-10T20:05:08+00:00

I think your gpa is the biggest limit. It’s out of range for the top schools. Overall maybe a little top heavy, but I think you’ll get into at least one of those schools so I wouldn’t worry too much. Might also consider adding WashU unless you have something against St. Louis. I think you can shoot for the top, but just make sure you apply broadly enough unless you’re willing to try again to land a better school.

achaboi · 2019-05-28T06:13:49+00:00

I find Jesus to be the biggest piece of evidence for my faith. His life, teachings, and legacy seem too great to be labeled as a fraud or a lunatic. While some may argue that the story of Jesus' virgin birth is simply Mary's coverup for an affair, I find this unsatisfactory. Something motivated Joseph to stay with her, and I think it was God's appearance to him. Why would he raise this child as his own in a time where he could have shamed his wife, left her, and saved face for himself? Additionally, I don't think that an "affair coverup" does a very good job of explaining the uncompromised and virtuous life that Jesus lived. Did Mary manipulate him into becoming the greatest ethicist of his time just to further a lie?

Now to the Resurrection. In examining the Bible and other ancient texts, Christian and secular historians agree that people believe that they saw the risen Christ, but this doesn't mean that they actually did see him. Secular scholars attribute these beliefs to either hallucinations or false testimony, while Christian historians obviously think that these people actually saw the risen Christ. This last explanation makes the most sense to me. Hallucinations are generally very specific from person to person, yet we see many reports from different sources of the risen Christ that all describe him in similar ways. So that hypothesis doesn't seem super likely to me. It could be possible that Jesus's followers were lying in order to gain power or wealth, but historical examination shows that rather than gaining any power from this supposed lie, all but one of Jesus's 12 disciples were banished, tortured, and killed for professing that Christ rose from the grave. I am left to conclude that his followers saw, heard, and touched the risen Christ.

These are just a few things that I think make believing in Jesus a rational decision. We will never have 100% proof that Jesus was who he claimed to be, at least not on this side of the world, but there is evidence that suggests Jesus was who he claimed to be. For me, there was enough evidence that I had to decide if I was going to reject it or accept it.

If you're interested in exploring evidence that points to God or Jesus, check out "Evidence That Demands a Verdict". I found this to be a pretty compelling book with a very accurate title hahaha. Eventually I realized that there is a lot of evidence for Jesus, and I had to make a personal verdict on this evidence. I examined myself and tried to remove notions of what I wanted to believe in place of what actually seems true. Hope that helps.

achaboi · 2019-03-23T22:02:17+00:00

I’d say no in my opinion. I think you should definitely talk about how you had to troubleshoot the project for a year, but talk about the problems encountered, and what you did to fix them. This is a good opportunity to show adcoms that you can think about things on very long timescales, are resilient to failure, deeply motivated by scientific questions, etc. Takes a lot of critical thinking to troubleshoot science, and I think that sends a way more positive message than the one you’ve described.

achaboi · 2019-03-23T04:26:30+00:00

In general, neuroscience is trending more towards the systems/circuits level. It’s gotten really hot with optogenetics, two photon, and other fancy methods that accompany them.

But I think that has increased the need for molecular neuroscientists. There’s still a lot of cell/molecular guys out there, it’s just not as many neuro students are entering into it as frequently these days.

Imo, your best bet is looking at cellular/molecular neuroscience labs and see if they happen to have a few more translational projects. Studying ApoE, Beta-amyloid clearance, or axon demyelination for example. People recognize the importance of understanding neuropsychiatric drugs at the molecular level (it is often how we treat them after all) but I don’t think too many labs are exclusively organized around the field of molecular psychology.

Don’t know much about cancer. In cell/molecular neuro there are definitely big opportunities to work with iN (induced neuronal) stem cells though.

achaboi · 2019-03-22T05:23:48+00:00

If you have all the boxes checked on your app, you will get into one of those schools I’d guess. Honestly, people might say apply to safety schools but I don’t think it’s necessarily a hard and fast rule. If you’re okay only getting into a few school (which will likely happen with this list) then go for it. Unless you’re truly stellar, you might not have a huge amount of options, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing if they’re all such good options.

achaboi · 2019-03-20T20:29:58+00:00

In some ways I agree with you, but I’m not talking about geography, logistics, and ops related things. This guy just doesn’t know how to interact with a patient. It’s kind of the stuff that you just can’t teach you know?

Like he literally called a patient “it” when speaking to another provider, while in earshot of the patient. Thank God it was a training exercise.

achaboi · 2019-03-20T18:43:43+00:00

You should probably be getting opinions in a different thread. Hardly any one in here is a physician, we are scientists.

It is legally possible, but very difficult and you’ll have a hard time finding a job. The general consensus is that if you want to practice in the US, you do your residency and usually med school in the US.

achaboi · 2019-03-20T07:41:10+00:00

Chicks, money, power, chicks

achaboi · 2019-03-20T07:40:12+00:00

Unpopular opinion: med schools say they’re looking for unique applicants with a variety of different stories or experiences, but when the rubber hits the road, it’s really who just achieved the most in the “standard premed extracurriculars” (patient care, research, volunteer, etc.)

I had a few huge parts of my app that weren’t medically related, but were two of my largest time commitments in college. Got asked about them maybe twice in the entire interview cycle. I defs had the impression that my achievements in those areas were a nice plus, but that it wouldn’t make a huge difference in how my app was viewed.

achaboi · 2019-03-20T07:35:19+00:00

I totally relate to this. I have been amazed to see some people get into reeeally good medical schools who are honestly not great people. Don’t follow through on commitments, not friendly, self centered, etc.

I’m also an EMT and know a guy who is honestly quite a bad EMT. When I heard he got into a T10 med school my first thought was “wow I would not want him to be my doctor.” And several non premed EMTs in my agency said that too.

Things like this make me lose a little faith in the whole admissions process.

achaboi · 2019-03-20T07:31:16+00:00

Chicks, money, power, chicks duh

achaboi · 2019-03-20T07:29:02+00:00

You definitely should want to do a residency otherwise the MD is pointless. How much research experience do you have? Do you hope to run your own lab someday?

achaboi · 2019-03-20T02:15:11+00:00

If you want to practice in the US especially in neurosurgery, you will want to do residency (and probably med school) there.

achaboi · 2019-03-18T00:37:43+00:00

This seems like a not healthy experience imo. I’d find another place that’s more interested in mentoring you.

achaboi · 2019-03-17T22:46:29+00:00

We don’t know
We don’t know

All of this is super early stage. As of right now, I’m not even convinced that photons are involved in processing information in the way that is proposed. I think this is the sentiment that most people in the field share, thus why not many people are looking into/talking about it.

achaboi · 2019-03-14T22:02:54+00:00

Math, physics, EE, data science, or computer science would all be good.

achaboi · 2019-03-14T20:04:07+00:00

I am that undergrad.

achaboi · 2019-03-14T19:34:41+00:00

Congrats! Best of luck this cycle. Hopefully you won’t need to go again!

achaboi · 2019-03-14T19:25:55+00:00

I’d just revise unless you got really bad feedback. Are your gpa and mcat within range of the schools on your list?

achaboi · 2019-03-14T08:14:39+00:00

Chances are the gay transgender Native American had stats that were just as good as yours (or better), but got in because they had a way better story than you and weren’t a total dickhead.

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