Today I want to talk about my experience at my graduate school interview at UCONN.
If you've watched my videos from my REU at UCONN and read some of my posts, you probably know that there were some things about my experience that weren't all that great. For this reason, I was skeptical about re-applying to the graduate school. I was nervous about re-applying for a couple of reasons. The main ones being that Connecticut is a long ways away from Minnesota. Also, given I didn't fit into my first lab very well at UCONN, I was nervous that I wouldn't fit into any of them this second time around.
I was so wrong.
My second experience at the University of Connecticut and their Physiology and Neurobiology program was completely different than my first experience (yay).
I flew into Connecticut on January 29th, which was a Thursday. My flight got in pretty late and I was very tired. This was my first experience with flying by myself. I had flown lots of times before, but never on my own. I'm glad to report, everything went well and I didn't die or get kidnapped (that's a joke).
When I got into Connecticut it was 7 pm. The program was very organized as far as getting my flights scheduled and transportation worked out. Believe it or not, these programs pay for the majority (sometimes all) of your travel expenses. Sweet, Right?
Because the program was so organized, they had someone waiting to pick me up at the airport. They also were very smart and scheduled another student to fly in at the same time as me. We rode to UCONN together and I have to say the company was welcome after I spent the whole day flying by myself. My traveling partner was very nice. We thoroughly confused the driver with our science talk. I asked him if he wanted me to explain reactive oxygen species and c. elegans, but he wasn't interested.
When we finally made it to UCONN, there was a little bit of time to check into the hotel, put our stuff in our rooms, and freshen up. After which there was a house party to go to. I mean house party in the literal sense of the word. The graduate students had a casual party at one of their houses and we all went to hand out and mingle.
I met lots of people (some who I already knew and some I didn't). I had my eyes on the prize though. There was one particular lab I was interested in more than any others. I sought out the graduate students I knew in the lab and went to town asking all kinds of questions.
All in all I ended the night unsure of how I was feeling about being back. I was very nervous and didn't sleep much the first night.
The next morning (Friday January 30th) a couple of the professors took us to an awesome restaurant called Toast. Toast is an absolutely amazing breakfast place. I had the eggs Benedict which was fabulous. If you're ever in Storrs I would highly recommend stopping by toast (and Eat Joy).
My nervous-ness continued into the morning which isn't surprising given my track record with anxiety. As we ate the professors talked about their labs and asked us questions. Most nerve wracking-ly, the professor I was most looking forward to meeting with sat right next to me at breakfast. Being a previous REU student all of the professors already knew me. Therefore at breakfast I kind of took the back burner. Initially I thought this meant the professor didn't want to work with me (which was really a bummer). Later I found out that this wasn't the case.
Additionally the professor I wanted to work with told me about a super cool addition to his research which I was unaware of....AXOLOTLS. They're getting freaking axolotls. If you don't know what an axolotl is I would recommend checking out the video I made specifically about them. I'll embed it in this post. Long story short they're a partially developed salamander. I swear I threw my hands down on the table so hard I scared everyone else. I was WAYYYYY too excited.
The rest of breakfast passed quietly because I was embarrassed about my axolotl outburst. Following breakfast we went to campus where they gave us a short overview of the program timeline and what the expectations would be if admitted.
They gave us some cool merch and we were off to interviews.
The day was jam packed. I bounced from interview to interview all day with my favorites being right before lunch and right after. I was very excited to see some of the people from my REU.
The day flew by, and I have the graduate students to thank for making it a success. Without them the day would have been painful for me, literally. I wore the worst shoes possible for walking around all day. By lunch time, they were searching for a pair of shoes for me to wear. They kindly delivered me some sneakers to wear for the afternoon and I was grateful for them in ways I cannot express.
In the afternoon we had a brief poster session and an awesome tour of the new rec center at UCONN. We ate dinner with the faculty which ended up being more of a get-to-know-each-other event than a you're-being-interviewed event. And finally we ended the night with a women's basketball game. I wish I could have appreciated the game more, but I was so tired and my contacts were sticking to my eyes. I mainly focused on staying awake.
The next morning I left the hotel and was at the airport by 7 am. I flew out by 8:30 and was back in the Twin Cities by 2 pm.
And that was my experience at UCONN for a interview with the Physiology and Neurobiology Graduate Program. I was very hesitant to even apply again to UCONN after my REU because I didn't think it would be the right atmosphere for me. I am so glad they proved me wrong. I enjoyed myself more than I ever thought I would and now I find myself seriously considering going to their program (which I've been accepted to).
I'll keep you updated on my decisions relating to graduate school as they happen.
Saren
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