New Year

Well, its 2009!

Its been a year since I started this blog. I don't know if I really accomplished my goal of writing more. I decided a few months ago that the reason why this blog couldn't function for me as a place for me to record my "unaltered thoughts" is because this blog isn't anonymous. I know my readership and they know me, so for me to write down my silly inner musings about the universe or my love life is too personal and embarrassing to put on a blog with my real name on it. I might have to start an anonymous blog somewhere else if I really want to journal online, as I had originally envisioned.

It is nice, though, to have in this blog a record of my life goings-on and of my more-or-less altered thoughts during the year 2008. It wasn't an overly exciting year. My life stayed pretty stationary. I did school, I did science. I did develop a close friend group and it was fun to bring in the new year with them last night. Really, 2008 was a good year to do the things I like to do, recoup from bad years past, and to plan for the future.

Now this year, 2009, is when the future comes into play. I finished applying to graduate school in December, and my first grad school interview is in 8 days! I have several more interviews after that (and hopefully more to come that I haven't heard about yet), then I find out where I got in and have to decide where to go. I graduate college this year, I will move this year, and - honestly - there is a good chance I will get engaged this year.

It's kind of crazy. I feel like my "real life" is starting. It's going to be sad to leave CMC and Claremont, but I think I'm ready to move on. It's bittersweet, but at least I think I will enjoy the next step even more than this last one. Bring on 2009!

Why I haven't been posting...

I) I finished applying to graduate school!
II) School, work, neuroscience club, mentoring...

But I'm almost done with this (hellish) semester. Here is all I have left:
1. Overdue stats HW #1 - Today
2. Overdue stats HW #2 - Today
3. Thesis talk writeups (6) - Today
4. Stats presentation - Wednesday
5. Lit presentation - Wednesday
6. Chem formal report rewrite - Wednesday
7. Chem normal report - Wednesday
8. Stats paper - Friday
9. Lit paper - Friday
10. Chem final - Monday
11. Stats final - Next Wednesday
Then DONE!

I have several posts brewing that I just haven't gotten around to. One is about why I should have made this an anonymous blog, another is about why I'm against male circumcision (well any circumcision really). But first I have to finish school... now back to it!

The Grad Schools I'm Applying To

So here is the long awaited final list of the schools I am applying to (for those who may not know, I am applying to PhD programs in neuroscience). Wish me luck!

1. Stanford
2. University of Virginia
3. University of Michigan
4. University of Wisconsin
5. Mount Sinai
6. University of Southern California
7. University of California, San Diego
8. University of California, Los Angeles
9. University of California, San Francisco
10. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
11. University of Texas, Southwestern
12. Washington University in St. Louis

I'm taking the GRE on TUESDAY, and I have my psuedo-final draft of my statement of purpose done and currently waiting for a few edits before I send it to my recommendation letter writers. It's really happening! I hope to have my part of the applications in by the end of October, and to have my letters in by mid-November.

Right now I am excited and nervous about applying, but I wish I could fast forward a few months and just know where I got in and did not get in. I want to be a neuroscience grad student SO badly. I love doing research and I want to do research forever. Its scary to think that I might not get in anywhere, so I'm just not thinking about that. Its also just hard to make decisions about my life right now when I don't know where I will be living next year, it all hinges on these applications.

Send me good mental-vibes everyone. Thanks for the support!

Update: August/September 2008

I know it has been a while since I have posted, things just got really busy in the past month.

In the beginning of August visited Oklahoma and then came back to California. It was nice to see the family but overall I did not enjoy my trip home. I was going to write a post about the trip, but I decided not to as what I have to say could be considered 1) whining and/or 2) offensive to people I know back home. Lets just suffice it to say that I love my life in California.

Once I got back to California, though, I had jury duty - and I was actually put on a jury! The trial lasted about 2 weeks and it was at the same time very interesting and incredibly boring. It was a medical negligence case involving the death of a diabetic 25 year old who was survived by her three young children. There were a lot of factors in the case, but we ruled that the doctors were not at fault for her death. Now I'm off the hook for duty for 1 year, and if I am never on a case again that would be fine with me.

As soon as jury duty was over I had training for my IT jobs, then freshmen orientation happened, and ever since my life hasn't slowed down for a second. My classes are going to be challenging this semester, if not only because each class is going to take many hours a week.

I am taking:
1. Applied Biostatistics - I don't expect the course to be overly challenging for me as I have a respectable background in stats, but I do expect to spend at least 5 hours a week (maybe more) doing problem sets.
2. Organic Chemistry - This class is going to be a challenge, I know. Not only because o-chem is hard for everyone, but because I find chemistry exceptionally challenging (even though I adore science). It is also going to take A LOT of time per week to do problem sets and study. Luckily I have already made plans to spend a lot of time with my friend Tori, the only other senior I know who is taking o-chem. I may or may not also live in my professor's office. Wish me luck!
3. Senior thesis - Surprisingly, I am not at all concerned about thesis at the moment. Most of the other members of my class are in a frenzy about it, but I have already done the brunt of my research and I have 2 semesters to write about it. Plus science theses are not overly long.
4. Jane Austen (Literature) - I am at once very excited about and nervous about my literature class. I am taking it not only because have put off my humanities general education requirement until my second-to-last semester of college, but because I have loved what I have read of Jane Austen and because I love the professor who is teaching the class. The reason I am nervous, though, is that even though I used to love literature and do very well in the subject in high school, majoring in a hard science has not helped me in my literature reading abilities. I do not feel confident anymore that I can read a novel and analyze it critically and intelligently. Even the research assignments for the class have me nervous. Writing a 20 page science research paper, even if it is not primary research, is cake compared to writing a 5 page literature paper. The standards are different. Besides, papers for science classes have a very rigid format, tone, and organization whereas I think of literature research papers as more organic. Plus I am always intimidated by knowing that a literature professor will be reading my grammar. I can just picture her cringing at every comma splice.

Hopefully, though, I will make it through and be better for it. If I can just maintain all A's and B's this semester that will really help me in my graduate school applications (that reminds me, I also need to get the GRE over with...). Wish me luck, and good luck to all my friends with your semesters!

My School's Princeton Review Rankings

CMC Princeton Review Rankings 2008
#2 Best Career/Job Placement Services
#4 Happiest Students
#5 School Runs Like Butter
#5 Best Quality of Life
#10 Students Happy with Financial Aid
#11 Most Politically Active Students
#11 Most Accessible Professors
#11 Dorms Like Palaces
#13 Lots of Beer
#15 Best Classroom Experience
#15 Best Campus Food
#18 Lots of Race/Class Interaction

Yup, that is where I go to school. We have great food, great dorms, plenty of beer, and financial aid money. We also have a lot of political debates in and out of class, plenty of conversations with our professors, and the school does basically everything it is supposed to do so overall we are quite happy. In fact it is like a $52000 a year country club where we also work hard to get good grades and leave after four years with a BA, and usually a job! Plus, because of the financial aid, it isn't just all rich white people. Its pretty much all an undergraduate could ask for, and much more.

It is strange that I am beginning my senior year in about a month, and even stranger that next May I will be leaving Claremont McKenna College. I'm excited about going to graduate school (though I still haven't figured out how I'm going to pay for applications), but it really will be sad to leave CMC. It has been my home for the last few years. It has been a lot of work, but also a great experience.

Luckily I have 2 more semesters, but unfortunately I will be in organic chemistry for both of them. Who knows, maybe by May I will be glad to be finished.

Update: June 2008

Well it is June 14^th and I haven’t posted since May, so I feel obliged to post a little update about my life and things coming soon (read: eventually) on this blog.

As far as the blog goes, I am working on a post about “intelligent design” in which I argue that it is bullshit and definitely not a scientific theory of any kind. Instead it is propaganda and an insult to intelligent people and to science. I am also going to post a few other things about my atheism and atheism in general. There will also be a revamped list of grad schools soon, I may post a draft of my personal statement, and maybe even a resume so I can get some feedback from you all if possible. Plus, you know, anything I think of randomly or find interesting online. If I manage to remember to post, that is.

And as far as my life in the last month? I worked as an intern for CMC alumni relations from the time school got out until June 1^st when alumni weekend was over. It was a great time. I met a man named Dan Vadala who graduated in 1948 (CMC was founded in 1946!!) as a ‘pacesetter.’ Pacesetters were CMC’s first students who came back from the war and went back to school. They only took 2-3 years to graduate because they had already taken some classes before fighting in WWII, and their education was paid for by the GI bill. Vadala stayed in the dorms during the weekend and enjoyed the parties.

Which reminds me, CMC alums are boozers. I swear the alums are bigger alkies (alcoholics) than the current students. They were cracking me up with stories of the old days when they would play large-scale pranks almost every day. Plus, it was founded as a men’s school (it was originally called Claremont Men’s College and there were no women until 1976) so it was basically one big frat for the first 30 years. Luckily for them there was a women’s school (Scripps) right across the street and it was cute to learn that many of the alums were still married to Scripps alums. Overall it was a good time. I was totally busy all weekend from 9am to LATE at night, but they paid me well and the alums were great so it was worth it.

For the remainder of June I have been working at the Claremont-Scripps-Pitzer Joint Science Department. I’m in the same lab that I worked in during the school year doing research on vocal learning. Things have been going well. The goal has been to do two experiments a week as well as doing two lesions a week, and some histology. Of course we have been having some trouble maintaining that pace… but if we keep the goals high then even if we fail we still did plenty. I love it. I love science, I love doing science, I love talking about science, I love reading about science. It’s pretty much awesome.

What else? Hmm, pretty much nothing. I live in the lab (some days I work from 8am to 11pm). And if I’m not in the lab I’m hanging out with people from the lab. For example, Thursday night the lab went over to Prof. Coleman’s house (my mentor) and I have never laughed so hard. It was a great time.

Okay, more to come soon I swear, but that’s all for now.

Grad Schools I may Apply To

So I finished classes this morning then spent the rest of the day researching PhD programs in neuroscience. Here is the list of the programs I am looking at as of today:

(they are not listed in any particular order)

1. Mount Sinai
2. City of Hope
3. Harvard
4. Stanford
5. Yale
6. Duke
7. Columbia
8. Cornell
9. Dartmouth
10. Northwestern
11. Johns Hopkins
12. New York University
13. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
14. University of California San Deigo
15. University of California San Francisco
16. University of California Los Angeles
17. University of California Berkeley
18. University of Texas Southwestern
19. University of Michigan Ann Arbor
20. University of Washington
21. University of Chicago
22. University of Colorado Boulder
23. University of Washington St. Louis
24. University of Virginia
25. University of Wisconsin Madison
26. Medical College of Wisconsin
27. Georgetown University
28. Rockefeller University
29. Brandeis University

Is it ridiculous to apply to 29 schools?

GRE Words I didn't Know until Today

So I seem to have come down with a bad case of senioritis, even though I am just a junior. I have a test tomorrow morning in neurobiology, an online quiz due tonight for neuropsychology, a presentation due Wednesday for my history class, and two overdue assignments for cell biology... but instead of doing ANY of those I spent the day studying for the GREs.

In case you aren't up on your graduate school requirements, the GRE is the entrance exam for graduate school. Med schools require the MCAT, law schools want LSAT scores, and business schools insist you take the GMAT - but if you want a masters (in something other than business) or a PhD in anything you are looking at the GRE. And since I want a PhD in either neuroscience or molecular biology I am looking at the GRE.

The GRE is basically a SAT for college students - in fact it is published by the same company that puts out the SAT. It has a verbal section, a math section, and an analytical writing section each of which is worth 800 points. And, of course, there are subject tests (I'll be taking one in biology).

Anyway, the GRE math section is supposedly easy but the verbal section is notoriously brutal. At first I thought, "Whatever, how hard can it be?" Well I took a diagnostic test today and let me tell you, its hard.

Here is an example of the words I didn’t know before today:

phlegmatic- calm, sluggish, unemotional, stoic

quaff- to drink deeply

quotidian- occurring or recurring daily, commonplace

loquacious- extremely talkative

prolix- long-winded, verbose

inimical- damaging, harmful, injurious, hostile, unfriendly

inimitable- one of a kind, peerless

filigree- an ornamental work, especially of delicate lacelike patterns, resembling such a pattern

denigrate- blacken, belittle, sully, defame, disparage

pillory- to punish, hold up to public scorn

chary- wary, cautious, sparing

puerile- childish, immature

inchoate- in an initial stage, not fully formed

peripatetic- itinerant, traveling, nomadic

itinerant- to travel from place to place

tyro- a novice, beginner in learning

nascent- coming into being; in early development stages

bucolic- rustic and pastoral, characteristic of rural areas and their inhabitants

cadge- to sponge, beg, or mooch

And in case that wasn't bad enough, there are many secondary definitions of everyday words that make the test even more confusing. For example:

brook- to tolerate, endure, countenance

nice- exacting, extremely or even excessively precise; done with delicacy or skill

list- to tilt or lean to one side

quail- to shrink back in fear, lose courage

prize- to pry, to press or force with a lever

flag- to sag or droop, to become spiritless; to decline

flip- sarcastic, impertinent

die- a tool used for shaping

mince- pronounce or speak affectedly or too carefully, euphemize, take tiny steps, tiptoe

So are you ready to take the test? I know I'm not. There are hundreds, maybe even over 1000 more words that I don't know that could show up on the test. I have plenty more GRE studying to do... but I guess I should do my more immediate work first. Neurobiology here I come!