March 15 would be a nice day to stay in bed. I have 7 pending decisions promising to come out on or before that day. I really wish they were coming out small-small before my head go explode (or implode).

@cezeozue , This is still stzero! The Moderators banned me and called me a spammer! Wtf? I mean whoever is moderating this should not piss me off,


You'll just have to wait and see, what ever happens don't give up!!!

lol @ getting banned. When I started posting on this thread, my posts were frequently deleted by the dumb spambot but it been a while since that happened last sha.

So where are you in the graduate school ladder? Prof, Student or Applicant?

Ph.D student, applicant, I am shooting for the M.D/Ph.D program which is almost impossible for Internationals but i am working on this Breast Cancer Paper and if i can get it published this year, my chance with Harvard for the M.D/Ph.D program will be more that stellar,

What is wrong with this damn forum!!!! I wrote *Breast* and it changed it to Bosom, Wtf?

I meant B R E A S T cancer not bosom cancer, whoever set the standards for this should reconsider his restrictions, B R E A S T is a perfectly appropriate word

Another positive response's just come in, though i'm not interested in the school

@physicall: What school is that? If I may also ask, what's your profile like?

Physicall:

@ceze, i applied to TAMU, UARIZONA and FIU. GATECH looks more like my strongest. Na wa for Stanford ooo.Thought all the ivies fund their grad students.Anyway,goodluck with MIT!

@physicall

Of all the schools you applied, none of them comes near GATECH in reputation, , Congrats!

maybe
[img]http://s07.flagcounter.com/count/DymW/bg=EAFFDE/txt=EAFFDE/border=EAFFDE/columns=1/maxflags=1/viewers=3/labels=0/[/img]
[img]http://2.s07.flagcounter.com/count/DymW/bg=EAFFDE/txt=EAFFDE/border=EAFFDE/columns=1/maxflags=1/viewers=3/labels=0/[/img]

See this marcus1234's last posts on NL, all of them na one or two words each: Maybe, nice, wow, thank you, God bless etc, If this isn't spam, what else is?

There still a lot involved but i will respond to any questions anyone may have. Good luck to everyone,


cezeozue, Did you by any chance apply to Urbana-Champaign?

@stzero,
Ha ha, you obviously must be a "motivational speaker." No doubt this has proved to be the most thought provoking treatise I've read in a couple of years.
We couldn't have asked for better seniors in this house! Again, I'd love to catch a glimpse of your sample LORs; perhaps I can have your personal email.

@cezeozue
Indeed, this guy knows more about you than you can imagine (lol)

We probably went to secondary school together and if he had a more obvious handle, I would know him equally well. I just can't think of which of my smart secondary school friends are not on facebook. Who isn't these days anyway?

stzero1:

Ph.D student, applicant, I am shooting for the M.D/Ph.D program which is almost impossible for Internationals but i am working on this bosom Cancer Paper and if i can get it published this year, my chance with Harvard for the M.D/Ph.D program will be more that stellar,

I am also considering Md/phd. Are you at Harvard? do you know anything about the HST MD program? Md/phd for international students is almost impossible. I might be going there this summer for the summer research thingy, hopefully I can get those details worked out. I am looking forward to it though. You have to be absolutely ridiculous to get into hms md/phd. The last guy that did it is Benyam Kinde. He was valedictorian at Maryland. You kinda have to be the best of the best. However, a better way would be to get in for Md first and then apply for phd. Anyway, I am interested in systems bio.

Anyway, Cecezuoe any info on funding from MIT?

sefago any tips for the md/phd thing. I am waiting oh.

@flo_path: No info yet o! I'm following it up with them sha while they try to find a suitable RA match for me.

feels like i ve missed a lot.
@ceze my friend, about 2 of my schools wud be giving their decision b4 or on March 15. thats next week na, just cant wait to get this process over with. Success with the MIT funding thing!

flo_path:

I am also considering Md/phd. Are you at Harvard? do you know anything about the HST MD program? Md/phd for international students is almost impossible. I might be going there this summer for the summer research thingy, hopefully I can get those details worked out. I am looking forward to it though. You have to be absolutely ridiculous to get into hms md/phd. The last guy that did it is Benyam Kinde. He was valedictorian at Maryland. You kinda have to be the best of the best. However, a better way would be to get in for Md first and then apply for phd. Anyway, I am interested in systems bio.

Anyway, Cecezuoe any info on funding from MIT?

sefago any tips for the md/phd thing. I am waiting oh.

M.D/Ph.D programs are funded by the government and as such just like most Public medical schools in the U.S, there is no funding for internationals. Their requirement varies. Stanford for example admits internationals but there is absolutely no funding,
Harvard on the other hand, can admit an exceptional international student

Exceptional here being like 3.9 to 4.0 GPA, 42T on the MCAT, 2 to 3 high impact journal. And all that…

And there is only one International student scholarship available in Harvard. Also International students who do not have a degree from an institution in the US or Canada are not accepted for admission.

But there are other schools like Yale which I am still looking into…. But Medicine on its own is an almost impossible feat unless you have the money!


Kinde was a Gilliam Fellow,  He was already endorsed by HHMI… Who’s harvard not to admit him when HHMI already endorsed him and he was coming with funding,

As a Gilliam Fellow he will be receiving $44,000 aanually for a period of five years…,  Harvard did not need to fund him… That also contributed to his admission…, 
He also had one publication on NMR structures and RNA.

You got to be that exceptional….
I recently received a letter from Harvard Diversity office urging me to apply. I am still trying to find out if it’s a marketing ploy or if it’s for real…. I believe they picked scope my MCAT score from AAMC….

I’ll say shoot for HHMI’s summer research programs…. They carry more weight and all schools respect their training program.

If you’ve been accepted into Harvard’s Summer Program, pick a productive P.I.
Normally they will give you guys a list of P.I’s and their projects and ask you to choose.


Pubmed them and find out also how old they are… The more active they are, the better your chances of coming out with a paper in those three months.
You come out with a paper authored under Harvard Medical School…,  You’re attractiveness to most Medical schools just went up 40%, 

Make sure that you see him at least twice every week,  Bond with him,  Read journal articles and come up with questions to ask him……Bond with the Post Docs so by the time you’ll be applying for the M.D/Ph.D program, the post doc may already be an Assistant Professor and can also write you a letter of recommendation.

Also make sure the stipend and incentive they are awarding you for the summer program is enough …. Boston and Cambridge are really expensive. I turned down a Job from Cohen’s Lab in Pharmacology Department in Harvard because there was no way I could meet the cost of living giving that salary. And if you really want to study, there is no way you can concentrate fully worrying about Rent, Utilities and all that!


You want to come out with a high impact journal and stellar letter of recommendation from Harvard….No matter what they say, people still bow to that name… even though I have met some idiots who graduated there but have no idea what they are doing….

@stzero1: The research program has free housing so that's good. However, the stipend is decent, and you have to get food yourself, but I figured the sacrifice is worth it. I am deciding between that one and a goldman sachs internship actually. it is the classic money vs purpose, but I think i'll chose the reserch thing. if I go there and i see that the research isn't really my cup of tea, then we'll proceed to other things.

So a couple of questions for you, do you have 3.9 and a 42 mcat? is 42 mcat not like top one percent or something. I don't know a lot of people with that kind of score. the things you've listed are daunting and would require absolute focus. As for publishing, I am actually getting close to submitting a paper. My research is in applied math/ systems biology, so it a little different. Here is what I am saying, the md/phd at harvard is really really difficult. I talked to some naija guy that was doing his phd at mit and they wouldnot even let him transfer to md/phd.

Anyway, columbia, and wustl also take international students for md/phd. I have a list of schools that take international students, but I am too lazy to post. Stanford and cali schools are no go zones. They like money too much. Anyway, if you don't mind, are you attending a top ten school? seems like you have already taken the mcat, how did you study for it? I am an engineering major, so I hope they'll give room for gpa slack. I should end up with 3.85-3.9 range. Mcat I haven't taken yet. Basically, this summer would determine things on that end.

Have you heard of hst? That is another viable option, but that one only takes superstars, as in people that are just freaks of nature. One naija guy made it a couple of years ago though. Actually, md for international students is not that bad, you just need to have your money or apply to private schools.

So what made you decide md/phd. is the 7/8 years schooling not affecting you? what is your goal after?

Oh, I forgot to add this. Harvard and all these md/phd schools like oxford and cambridge, another shortcut is doing a 1 yr masters there, with a stellar record you would

@cezeozue: MIT has to fund you oh. That your profile is too good for them not to get you an RA or TA position. correct me if am wrong, but you are going for the TPP right? you can easily do a dual masters with that say in tpp and cs or even aero and astro. Did you look into their media arts program? the mit media lab does amazing things. MIT is just a land of opportunity abeg. anyway, did apply to cambridge again? I just wanted to know about that. One more question, do you intend on taking it all the way to phd? if so why? and what do want to do afterwards? I just like to hear/get a feel for what other people reasoning is for getting a phd?

flo_path:

@stzero1: The research program has free housing so that's good. However, the stipend is decent, and you have to get food yourself, but I figured the sacrifice is worth it. I am deciding between that one and a goldman sachs internship actually. it is the classic money vs purpose, but I think i'll chose the reserch thing. if I go there and i see that the research isn't really my cup of tea, then we'll proceed to other things.

So a couple of questions for you, do you have 3.9 and a 42 mcat? is 42 mcat not like top one percent or something. I don't know a lot of people with that kind of score. the things you've listed are daunting and would require absolute focus. As for publishing, I am actually getting close to submitting a paper. My research is in applied math/ systems biology, so it a little different. Here is what I am saying, the md/phd at harvard is really really difficult. I talked to some naija guy that was doing his phd at mit and they wouldnot even let him transfer to md/phd.

Anyway, columbia, and wustl also take international students for md/phd. I have a list of schools that take international students, but I am too lazy to post. Stanford and cali schools are no go zones. They like money too much. Anyway, if you don't mind, are you attending a top ten school? seems like you have already taken the mcat, how did you study for it? I am an engineering major, so I hope they'll give room for gpa slack. I should end up with 3.85-3.9 range. Mcat I haven't taken yet. Basically, this summer would determine things on that end.

Have you heard of hst? That is another viable option, but that one only takes superstars, as in people that are just freaks of nature. One naija guy made it a couple of years ago though. Actually, md for international students is not that bad, you just need to have your money or apply to private schools.

So what made you decide md/phd. is the 7/8 years schooling not affecting you? what is your goal after?

Oh, I forgot to add this. Harvard and all these md/phd schools like oxford and cambridge, another shortcut is doing a 1 yr masters there, with a stellar record you would

@cezeozue: MIT has to fund you oh. That your profile is too good for them not to get you an RA or TA position. correct me if am wrong, but you are going for the TPP right? you can easily do a dual masters with that say in tpp and cs or even aero and astro. Did you look into their media arts program? the mit media lab does amazing things. MIT is just a land of opportunity abeg. anyway, did apply to cambridge again? I just wanted to know about that. One more question, do you intend on taking it all the way to phd? if so why? and what do want to do afterwards?[size=8pt][size=8pt] I just like to hear/get a feel for what other people reasoning is for getting a phd[/size][/size]?

I also like to know why people esp. 9jirians are now goin crazy for Phd?

@myforumid3: I don't know about Nigerians being crazy about a PhD generally o! As a matter of fact, I'm the only person I know that seriously wants to do one in the near future.

@flo_path: You seem to know a lot about TPP. Were/are yu interested in the program? About dual degree, I find the prospect very interesting. I'm not just sure how it works yet cos the site says you have to be admitted to the second degree as well so I'm not sure if I have to apply and all after a year there. I'll make more inquiries sha and probably take up the opportunity.

About media lab, omo, I don see things for that place o! Infact the first thing that tripped me about the program was a TED presentation of some "sixth sense" project from the fluid interfaces group in the lab. I have also watched most of their labcasts. My problem is that they don't need GRE (which is a strong part of my application), and they require evidence of similar creative projects (I no get power to start creating something cos of 1 program). Moreover, its not a traditional engineering field so I might find it hard to get local teaching appointments (inasmuch as I know one ECE lecturer in UNN who was in the media lab). In any case, I might try and do an RA under a prof in the lab. I'm still weighing my options.

I did not apply to cambridge again (or any UK school for that matter). I also intend to go as far as a PhD cos I guess I want to be a university lecturer.

Dude, I really don’t think a lot of Nigerians are going for Ph.Ds… The culture seems to foster, “Graduate, get married, have kids, start making the money and building the houses”---- That’s not what Ph.D assures you.
But you may be right; you have possibly seen a concentration of them somewhere. The one I have witnessed is a lot of Indians going for Ph.D. .
Then again, Ph.D is not for the faint hearted!  I know people who have failed out. Ph.D  is intense research. It’s about you coming up with you original idea in a particular field…
Earning a Ph.D is one of the most demanding and challenging intellectual activities you can undertake. It means extensive study to master a body of knowledge and then to contribute to that knowledge through your own research.

There is little instantaneous gratification in science and no instant discovery but however I stay in science. Why go for a Ph.D?   Why?
In my first research experience, I induced seizures in like 25 mice, and the idea was to get them to survive, decapitate them, extract the brain and examine pattern of neuronal degeneration (overly simplified) but that point was  to find what molecular channels are responsible for  brain death in epilepsy.

Only 2 survived,  Even though I tweaked and tried every available means to reduce mortality. When time to present to the school what I have been doing with taxpayers money came after three months, I could not walk up there and say I  murdered a number of mice but do not have sufficient information to explain what I was investigating.
I sat down and watched over 60hours tapes of mice having seizures and graded the seizures and compared the wild type to the knock out model,   (I can tell a grand mal seizure for a mild seizure even if I am flat out drunk)
I was able to find significant different in severity of seizures…. I was so happy that I did not have to go up there looking like an I D I O T. And also I knew this is what I want to do for the rest of my life.

It started out looking boring watching mice having seizures but watching those movies, Instead of going to theater and having some romantic dinner. I had every one call me crazy! It was the summer and people are having the time of their lives and I can tell you I had the time of my life deconstructing neuronal mechanism that underly epilepsy.  (So yes, you have to be crazy to want to get a Ph.D)

The truth, I can’t imagine myself doing something else. Breaking down the fundamental system of life down to simple molecules fascinates the hell out of me.
FLO_PATH drove the point home when he said “I’ll see if research is for me” … You either like it or not. I wake up every morning and walk into the Lab at 8 or 9 am and I don’t leave until 10:30pm and sometimes I am in lab till 2am the next morning…
But it’s not work…It’s fun…. You are in the bus and you’re thinking “What can do to increase my transfection efficiency in MCF7 B R E A S T cancer cells”…. Or what will be a good way to investigate the interaction  between  2 adaptor proteins….

Being smart has nothing to do with succeeding in Ph.D program too. Which is what most admissions committee are now realizing. Some people are just excellent Test takers, but can not come up with independent ideas or even lack creativity to design an experiment.  Smart play a little role in Ph.D, 


Ph.D programs admit a lot of people relative  to medical school because most people just come for the alphabet, they will graduate and end up teaching in some community college.(We need them)….But very few carry on with the research…That is what admission committee are looking for in application. Tenacity, Persistence, Internal motivation.Very few go on to become the Nobel Laurates.

No one tells you the amount of hours and frustration involved in Ph.D Most schools  enroll far too many of students  without telling them clearly what doing a doctorate should entail. The set the students  on a path of frustration and disappointment. But if you are going for your Ph.D, BE PREPARED TO BE FRUSTRATED. If science were easy, everyone will be doing it.


I have been working on an experiment for the past Six months trying to mutate a single amino acid in the Parathyroid Hormone Receptor to no avail. Why not give up? I have scoured over 115 scientific journals and consulted 12 scientists. Sometimes i am so mad i can't eat.

Last week it worked and was just excited out of my mind,  Looking back at it, I just changed a  Lysine to Alanine.  Some might say who gives a F U C K ?   I will tell you, then I can investigate whether the structure is related to function in triggering metastasis in cancer.

M.D program, the more I look at it, it looks like a memorization of facts and your ability to find an anomaly. Patient presents with symptoms, you look at it and run it through the database in your head  to see which disease it fits…,  Really, not that exciting for me. So M.D alone will not be fulfilling to me.   Surgery will be exciting!
Most medical schools are now looking for medical students who have the capacity to be a scientists too, 

Research scientists not Medical doctors discover.…  But a combination of the two is powerful which is why NIH is channeling money into the MSTP programs.   It’s only in science  where you are allowed to give a presentation and say “We don’t know why” with confidence.

  Francoise Barre-Sinoussi   who won the Nobel Prize for discovering the link between HIV and AIDS was in the lab on the day of her wedding,  I thought that was crazy when I heard it but now when I look at the path I’m going, it probably makes sense….

That’s how you know people who love this stuff.  It’s not work,  It’s their passion… Ph.D in science is long hours in the lab with very little instant gratification. So you are right, one has to be insane to even try to get a Ph.D,

@flopath, you see 7 or 8 years of schooling? I don’t even see the years. I see opportunity to ask questions and to interact with great minds without any administrative responsibility and see where the investigation leads.

What I am always not comfortable with is when you ask people “So after college, what else?” and they come up with the annoying answer “ I want to graduate, get a job, get married have kids?” It’s not a bad thing, but I am pretty sure that that’s the path every specie in life wants to take.  We are called Homo sapiens for a reason (The thinking man)….

People graduate in college, let say accounting,  And the do the same thing over and over again for the rest of their lives? I will die of boredom if I took a path like that.
Science is not a job, it just a passion…. Ph.D for me is NOT just Alphabets…,  It’s the opportunity to privilege to work with the greatest minds without worrying about anything else but science.

If you have no passion for it, do something else…

HOLY COW!!! That's a lot of writing,  I gotta go,

I agree every bit with stzero's assertion that one should not go for a PhD just for the sakes of it. I believe within me that I am cut out for the stuff but, honestly, I really am not sure. As a matter of fact, even if I get admission to any of the PhD programs I applied for, I will probably still go for the TPP masters so I can get a feel for research and know for sure if its something I want to be doing for most of my useful life.

WOW, stzero made a lot of sense. more plssssssssssssssssssssssss
Even tho i applied and am getting some phd offers, I have not decided for phd cos i ve no clue if research wud be of [b]passionate interest [/b]to me, what i do know is that i like to keep the bucks flowing and to enjoy the best of life, however long or short it wud be.
I did enjoy teaching sometime back and my friends did say i wud make a great lecturer so maybe If i do go for phd, i wud end up a prof like my friend ceze but trust me, i cant hide my passion of flowing in $$$ and enjoying the best of life,
All wud depend on yankee school life sha cos schooling in 9ja which i so regret has given me a different mentality to life.

stzeros says it all, i believe is all about the drive and passion. As for me, i tried to simulate the fact that i wud be doin one particular(like simulating reservoir parameters) task in one big multinational company for like say 15 years or more and not being creative( doin my own thing) , that really scares the wit out of me. Am someone that easily gets bored, i always like to get *my hands stained* getting busy and rubbing minds with great indians and chinese minds, lol,

I think doin Ph.d shld b for the love of it.

stzero, thumbs up man for the speech

i'm with the the group that is trying to get a feel for research by going for Masters first. I am not really sure whether its something i'll love doing though i really enjoyed the experience i gained while doing my undergraduate research project. Its currently being considered for publication in a 'low-key' journal with the help of my supervisor.

@ myforumid3, may the bucks keep flowing in for you. . . . . , use it for good though

lai-lai:

stzero, thumbs up man for the speech

i'm with the the group that is trying to get a feel for research by going for Masters first. I am not really sure whether its something i'll love doing though i really enjoyed the experience i gained while doing my undergraduate research project. Its currently being considered for publication in a 'low-key' journal with the help of my supervisor.

@ myforumid3, may the bucks keep flowing in for you. . . . . , use it for good though

sure. $$$ is uesless if you cant impact people's lives positively with it.

@stzero thumbs up to you for such insightful write up, we share the same view on doing research.keep up the good work.U don't seem to be interested in Hopkins Medical School,I heard they're the best in the US.

Rejection 2: UIUC. So much for being a safety school,

someone should pls correct me if i'm wrong but it seems the GRE revised general test is going to be a lot easier than the current test. no analogies and antonyms which (in my view) is d most difficult aspect of the entire test. oh gosh!! now i'm confused. someone shuld pls fill me in so i'd know if i shuld risk waiting till august 'cos i have a deadline to meet and my schedule is already soo tight