It is true that poor GRE scores can be overruled by faculty if they really want her. But it's all school and advisor dependent. There's no fixed rule.

Earlier in the thread, someone was asking about PhD programs in biology-related fields - if anyone is still interested, I'd be happy to answer questions. I finished mine in 2007 and having been working in a non-academic, non-research career since that time.

I've bricked out about 8 or so of the 11 schools I applied to and other than my waitlist I strictly prefer a dual masters than attending the remaining choices. Tbh I actually feel good about being rejected from all these places. At first I was pretty insulted and felt bad given quite a bit of my self worth was wrapped up in being an academic all star. I'm a competitive person who needs someone to show up to really get after it. Unfortunately I don't intrinsically motivate well and tend to get complacent when too many people tell me how great I am. I'm looking forward to getting back to the grind.

As a UIUC student let me say (if you haven't visited yet) the CS/CE facilities are fantastic. If you have any questions about campus life in general shoot me a PM and I'll recruit you harder than Bruce gets after those chi town ballers.

As a UIUC alumni, i can say that it's an awesome place to do grad school.

My field isn't biology but I would be curious if anyone else who has a PhD works in non-academia.

I'm only my first year but I'd be interested in hearing if anyone has been able to successfully juggle an academic position along with something on the side like consulting?

yes, pure math PhD, working at hedge fund. Never took a business or "financial math" course.

Did this as a grad student. This destroyed me, and I was way underproductive at both. I would recommend you not take something like this on until you're tenured.

Just got a funding offer from UIUC's CEE - Structures program!!! Super pumped, it was my #1 choice .

gratz

Crossposting from the low content thread, but it's probably more appropriate here:
Sending out some e-mails for possible internships I want to do next academic year for my Master's degree.
I specified 'academic year 2011/2012' explicitly in the e-mail.
My top choice mailed back within ~5 hours 'Unfortunately I don't have space at the moment'.
Did he misread my timeframe specification or does he just phrase it nonchalantly?
Can I follow up here with another mail saying something like 'Thank you for your quick reply, I am sorry you do not have any space the entire year.'?

It doesn't have to sound as snarky as that. You can ask him if he has any sense of when the earliest available slots might be opening up and you have an extreme amount of flexibility for the next school year.

Oh yeah I'd rephrase it before sending a mail again.
I was just wondering if I could follow up on this with something like you suggested, OR that it's just his way of phrasing and that I should accept defeat?
But you think I should just be persistent and ask again and show my flexibility? Which is real btw, if I get in there I don't care at all when in the year it is.

Academics can be terse. Also, he might just have several students at early stages and is pretty certain he can't fund/provide time for any more students.

I might have made a big mistake.

There is one particular school I sort of had to be admitted to for a bunch of reasons (it was a good match, close to home, good dept) so I originally applied as a Masters applicant instead of a PhD applicant because they explicitly say that Masters admissions are much less competitive. I'm 95% sure I want to complete a PhD now. Obviously, I need to have a chat with the GPC about how I go about changing from one to the other. They say that it is a fairly easy matter but it is still something I want to get straightened out right away.

First year funding isn't a huge concern although it would obviously be nice if I had it. Are there any non-obvious things I need to talk to the GPC about to get this changed?

No, I think you just need to ask the questions. I wouldn't expect that they can do much at this point, although you've still got a week or two before schools are rounding out their classes, so I guess lightning could strike.

Goldwater comes out this week, the whole not giving an actual date tilts me.

All good, called the GPC today and got it changed.

Feels good to have finally made my decision. I will be heading to UIUC in the fall! At this point I'm just freerolling for the NSF GRFP, haha.

gratz and gl

edit: @ ijs & i_m

no luck on goldwater

ul man. Let's have 2p2 ship an NSF one time though!

I just got an interview about a phone interview with SIG (i randomly filled out an application a month or so ago). As of now I've talked to a professor about doing research this summer and was fairly certain I'd be doing that. I figure I may as well do the phone interview and be straight-forward with them.

I wish I got this email a week or two ago, I'd feel bad about dropping out of summer plans now with current research group. I figure I'll tell them exactly my situation and see if there is any way to split time, though I doubt this will be a possibility.

I would drop the research group and take the gig at SIG if it were offered. You've got a little research experience, and this is a great opportunity you have to see inside an industry you may later consider. Not to mention, you can always do research for credit next semester or something. And, if you go to grad school, trust me, you'll get a feel for whether you enjoy research. SIG and not close imo, unless you have a geographic reason not to come to Philly.

And if you do come east, lmk, and we'll grab a beer.

so here are my hangups, which have a variety of influences:

1) I now am president of my school's robotics team and we have a competition this summer. I may be able to make the competition but would not be able to help work on things over the summer

2) I currently have two overlapping leases for apartments over the summer. This means I would need to find 2 separate sub-letters (Hopefully not a huge issue but is something to consider).

3) If I do drop research I'm a bit afraid of damaging relationship with the professor I am working with. The one upshot here is the group I work with does behavioral game theory, so I may be able to convince him that this will help me contribute more later.

reasons I feel I should do it:

1) Everything I've heard about SIG is up my alley. It seems very much based in poker/game theory/math

2) I recent took a physics class in complex systems that was very focused on the stock market and I actually found it really interesting

3) The things Wyman said

4) The group I'm in now does quite a bit of collaboration remotely, so it may not be a huge issue to try to keep working with them over the summer from Philly.

I am the kind of person who really really hates the idea of breaking commitments once I have made them, this is probably the biggest reason I feel I shouldn't do it. I'll see how the phone interview goes though then make a more informed decision.

re: robotics. Sucks, but maybe you can skype in to team meetings one night a week or something just to get an update?

re: leases. But you haven't thought about your SIG megabucks!!!

re: prof. You won't damage your relationship with the prof. If you get the SIG job, go talk to him, and apologize but tell him you just got an offer from SIG, and you think it's a really great opportunity to experience something outside the academic world so you can make better decisions about your career path later. Then tell him you really were looking fwd to working with him and would love to still do so if he has any opportunities next semester. If you don't think you can pull it off f2f, then email him, but I think f2f is better.

Shipped funding as well. Committed today!