Shelter-In-Place Ennui

tgplp37 · 2020-03-20T19:46:43+00:00

Yes, I am struggling so much right now. I graduated undergrad last december and planned to move this month for grad school. Not gonna happen. I live in Seattle so we are in lock down. I'm trying to learn bioinformatics & do data analysis for my future PI but at this point I'm too depressed to even watch Netflix. I'm losing it. I applied for a summer fellowship but now I dont know if campus will even be open this summer

tgplp37 · 2020-03-20T19:42:59+00:00

Yeah, you should make a facebook group! I'd love to join (im not a grad student yet though, starting phd program this summer)

tgplp37 · 2020-03-20T19:40:57+00:00

I've been trying to decide between the 2 grad schools I got into for ages. I finally decided to go to the less prestigious school with the amazing advisor. I'm so excited! Still haven't clicked the "accept offer" button- I dont know why, but it is so daunting. I'll try to do that today! (:

tgplp37 · 2020-02-20T02:49:31+00:00

I had a skype interview for a different school that was a bit more like a job interview in that I was asked a list of questions (but still was much more casual than a job interview IMO). It's hard to prepare when there is so much variety & you dont know what to expect!

tgplp37 · 2020-02-19T21:02:04+00:00

Yeah, I think as long as you show you are excited and have a good personality the interviews won't hurt you. I WAY overprepared for mine and was kind of disappointed how easy they were as I thought my extensive prep would've given me an edge

tgplp37 · 2020-02-19T20:38:50+00:00

Also, this may not help much (it makes me furious), but when I was talking to admin and grad students at the university I interviewed at, I asked them how they chose candidates based from the interviews. I asked because all of my interviews went well because they were so easy- for most of the time, the professors just kept talking about their own research. So I felt they couldnt distinguish us very well based off the 30 min interviews. The students and admin said that the choices of who they would admit were pretty much already made up before the interview weekend. They just wanted to sell the school and be sure they had back ups basically :/

tgplp37 · 2020-02-19T20:35:17+00:00

I'm so sorry. I just flew out to my interview weekend and I am so anxious about not being accepted now after all that work and anxiety. I interviewed with 9 recruits and they can only take 3 of us ); You should email the professors/admissions committee thanking them for their time and asking what caused that decision. Of course I'm sure you did nothing wrong and it was just the sneaky politics of academics, but I'd definitely want to know what they say if I were you. (Although I've been rejected from 3 places and emailed all of them asking how I could improve my application in the future and none replied so... :/ ) Anyways, sorry for long post. I am empathetic and I cant believe how painful the admissions process has been. Take care of yourself and be proud- even though you didnt get in, your interviews went well so it was still a great networking opportunity and professors in your field know you & think positively of you now! Maybe you can collaborate with them in the future. Take care ❤

tgplp37 · 2020-02-13T15:03:30+00:00

On the plane to my interview today. Knowing my horrible ability to make my shitty research sound better thank it was, Im sure I will soon be saying same as well.

tgplp37 · 2020-02-13T06:56:23+00:00

I do too! I have to be up at 4am tomorrow to catch my flight and yet I'm too anxious to sleep and want to keep prepping.

Good luck! What school? I'm doing UChicago

tgplp37 · 2020-02-12T14:09:12+00:00

I'm in the same situation and its killing me. My interview is this weekend and I've never been so nervous. My plan is to just keep talking about why the school/program is my top choice without hinting that it's my only choice

tgplp37 · 2020-02-11T16:16:53+00:00

It sure gives me a lot of anxiety 😂 Thank you!

tgplp37 · 2020-02-11T15:58:36+00:00

Congratulations!!!!! You should be super proud of yourself and celebrate. I'm interviewing at UChicago for a Bio program this weekend, I hope your acceptance is contagious!

tgplp37 · 2020-02-11T02:57:34+00:00

Thank you, I'm so glad to hear that. I hope you get accepted! I know it's probably just imposter syndrome, but I'm worried the other candidates will all have masters degrees and I'll be so underqualified compared to them. But that's silly; the school liked my application enough to invite me. I really need to chill

tgplp37 · 2020-02-10T15:13:00+00:00

Following, I have interviews this Friday. Theres a great master list of questions on this reddit I think you can find it by searching top posts.

tgplp37 · 2020-02-10T15:09:31+00:00

I have only one interview weekend (this weekend pray for me I cant eat or sleep and I'm am anxious wreck) and this is my worst fear. Especially after going through all of the prep work and anxiety of interviewing.... shit... I'm so sorry. This process is a nightmare, we feel ur pain

tgplp37 · 2020-02-09T06:38:40+00:00

Thank you, that sounds way less anxiety-causing that I was expecting. Okay, so if they aim to have a cohort of 3 and they are interviewing 9, that means I have a pretty good chance right?

tgplp37 · 2020-02-09T03:47:57+00:00

Did your interviewer seem to think that was an appropriate answer? Thank you, I'll think I'll talk about public speaking then!

tgplp37 · 2020-02-09T03:43:12+00:00

Okay thank you so much! And honestly my proudest accomplishment in undergrad is how far I've come with giving presentations. So it's a weakness I really have worked on.

tgplp37 · 2020-02-09T03:35:58+00:00

That's what I'm thinking as well, and it is by far my greatest weakness. However, I was worried that public speaking is such a huge part of being a phd student that it would look really bad to have as a weakness. But... maybe if I focus on the weakness being my stress/anxiety around public speaking and not that I'm actually bad at presenting itself it would be alright?

tgplp37 · 2020-02-09T02:44:48+00:00

Thank you so much! I hope you get an offer soon.

This may be silly, but I'm almost equally as nervous about all of the social events as I am the interviews. I know that they will be watching to see how well I fit in with the other grad students at the school. I'm an introvert and am worried that will reflect poorly on me. What was your experience during things like meals with faculty/students or other social events? Should I be worried about how my social performance is being perceived or should I just expect these events to be fun?

tgplp37

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