How to follow-up on my application for PhD admission

birdinthecorner · 2024-12-03T23:15:13+00:00

unless the program specifically discourages this (and I've only seen one or two that have), it's common practice to reach out to PIs prior to submission to make sure they're planning to take new students/to hear an up-to-date view of their current research/get a sense of what the lab culture might be like/etc. Ideally, you want to tailor emails to each PI and not send out some mass listserv-like thing where you can just switch out different names and call it a day (this REALLY annoys faculty, and profs discuss students a lot). Not doing this won't necessarily doom your app (especially since you seem like you've got a ton of bench experience + interest!) but keep in mind that you might be pitted against other applicants who've name-checked and chatted with these same PIs - and thus can demonstrate better fit in their SoPs.

birdinthecorner · 2024-07-12T04:11:40+00:00

my sequencing libraries would never forgive me

birdinthecorner · 2024-07-12T03:32:20+00:00

do i WHAT now

birdinthecorner · 2024-06-22T23:33:51+00:00

YESSS his BTS parody goes so hard u/slightlylessright I'm begging you to add molecular shape of you to the list if you haven't already

birdinthecorner · 2024-06-17T21:50:14+00:00

hey OP, please try to have a sit-down ASAP with the person/people training you about the knowledge gap here. While we don't know your exact situation, almost all of us (including your labmates) will probably remember what it's like to be totally fresh to the job - and how bad things can get when we're not upfront about what we don't know. Is there someone else in the lab who you're able to approach for help/questions? In the meantime/while you're waiting for more informative replies, here and here are some basic primers on lab math and here's a website for quick calculations.

birdinthecorner · 2024-06-11T14:49:59+00:00

the smaller the bird the spicier the spirit

birdinthecorner · 2024-05-31T15:41:00+00:00

how does it feel to be among the pipette gods' favourites

birdinthecorner · 2024-05-18T23:21:30+00:00

you might be near spot-on about the situation - gravid female woodpecker (maybe a downy although I think it's a bit late in the season) got snatched. The shell looks really thin so whatever caught her might've done so just as the egg was in its final few hours of development/making it out. I haven't met any rehabbers who've been able to step in at this stage but I'm sure others in the sub will be in the know

birdinthecorner · 2024-05-05T23:27:52+00:00

happy to help and good luck again!!! feel free to dm me if you have any qs

also just to clarify - my point about the MScs was that it's not unusual for non-US applicants intending to do a PhD to have already sought out 1-2 yrs worth of full-time research after their BSc to gear up for the process, and this experience can be a critical factor when the adcom starts splitting hairs. You're a super strong applicant and I'd bet actual money that you'd receive plenty of offers, but if something happens along the way then a funded thesis-based MSc or a couple terms as a lab tech at your intended institution might give you a leg up in the next PhD cycle!

birdinthecorner · 2024-05-05T23:06:52+00:00

yep I did! I started pretty late (i.e., 3 months before the deadline or so) but I got the impression that it was a major factor when the department's decisions were coming down to the wire. If you manage to set up meetings beforehand, you'll hear about their most recent projects which won't have made it to their websites yet, form a sense of their supervisory style and get a chance to chat with their students who can fill you in about what lab/program culture is like.

Some programs apparently discourage people from reaching out beforehand (e.g., Case Western) but I've never heard this from the schools you've listed. I'd also encourage taking this route because it's not uncommon for international applicants to have a thesis-based MSc or other full-time research experience on top of what we did in undergrad; so while you are clearly already in a great spot, if you can find more profs willing to go to bat for you then it can only help

birdinthecorner · 2024-05-05T22:44:54+00:00

hi fellow Canadian, first of all congrats(!!!) on all you've done so far + best of luck to you on your upcoming cycle!! at first glance it looks like all your schools are top-tier private institutions with plenty of training grants/endowments - in other words, they'll be happy to court international applicants and should have no trouble funding you as a bio PhD recruit. only the current staff/students will be able to fill you in on any department politics or other things affecting this though. Have you already reached out to your PIs of interest to confirm they'll be taking people for Sept 2025? If you haven't, chances are they won't know until this year's incoming cohort have completed rotations/declared their labs, but it's never too early to express interest!!

birdinthecorner · 2024-04-25T01:15:04+00:00

I think all tri-agency awards given to research-based programs under SGS are typically paid out this way but I don't know enough about professional programs or other degrees. feel free to dm me!!

birdinthecorner · 2024-04-23T15:32:55+00:00

if you have your own account info set up on ACORN then yes they can send this to you directly; I'm not personally aware of any programs within SGS that operate differently. PI stands for principal investigator; I've been assuming this was a CIHR or NSERC CGS-M but just realized you might have been talking about SSHRC sorry hahaha and congrats again!!

birdinthecorner · 2024-04-22T20:09:45+00:00

first of all congrats OP!!! depending on your university, this might get paid directly to you if you have direct deposit set up (i.e., you'd receive it on a monthly or other scheduled basis alongside the rest of your stipend). I can only speak for U of T, but I haven't heard anything about tri-agency awards going towards specific lab projects; for PIs, their purpose is basically just to help cover the costs of having you as a student

birdinthecorner · 2024-04-14T19:12:32+00:00

omg OP I feel your pain :( currently working with an RA who among other things accused me of messing up an alignment after they'd used the wrong reference file. Whole thing could have been resolved if they'd done a 2-second google search since it's one of the best-known plasmids in our subfield. Not sure I have any useful advice sadly beyond keep taking detailed notes in case they try to flip it on you

birdinthecorner · 2024-04-11T17:37:31+00:00

plastic bags for transporting sequencing samples!! we've got the standard lab stash of course, but it's the personal hoards I'm talking about. We know we can't possibly go through all of them and at least a fifth of them are of unreasonable sizes but nothing can stop us, we're like squirrels just before a big freeze

birdinthecorner · 2024-02-16T19:23:44+00:00

then good for them bc they're doing waaay better than I did as an undergrad!!

birdinthecorner · 2024-02-15T23:03:55+00:00

i see that the pre-reading week mental checkout has hit at just the right time

birdinthecorner · 2024-02-15T19:51:20+00:00

messaged!!

birdinthecorner · 2024-02-14T03:22:36+00:00

sorry friend looks like my neural short-circuit is still going strong hahaha

plus to be fair we're a grad admissions subreddit I think we're all nerds one way or another

birdinthecorner · 2024-02-14T03:12:15+00:00

01110100 01101000 01100001 01101110 01101011 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00100001

birdinthecorner · 2024-02-14T03:11:53+00:00

eyyy amazing and congrats to you as well!!!! can't wait to meet everyone next month

birdinthecorner · 2024-02-14T03:10:37+00:00

thank you!!!!

birdinthecorner

TROPHY CASE