University of Illinois at Chicago

In retrospect, I’m glad that I have 8 am classes every day this semester: it makes getting up at 5:30 am for these graduate school visits much easier. My friend Kristen drove me to the train station quite early, and I spent about three hours on the train into Chicago. I have a hard time doing anything but sleeping or talking on trains: the rocking motion tends to lull me into a happy contentment. We ended up arriving late as per usual: Amtrak really takes second priority to all of the freight trains going in and out of Union Station. It is fairly easy to take the El to UIC/Halstead, but due to time constraints, I took a cab. In all of the traveling I have done, I have decided that I really do not like cabs…they are just so jerky, alternating between extremely fast and crawling along slowly. I ride in cars so rarely now anyway that I find I prefer just walking: I can’t wait to live somewhere where I can walk anywhere I need to go.

My first meeting was with Dr. Alan MacLachlan, the director of graduate studies, regarding the basics of the GEMS program (an umbrella program that stands for Graduate Education in Medical Sciences). The first semester is taking three required core classes for GEMS, plus your first rotation. Second semester is finishing up two additional rotations, as well as taking two courses and a research ethics class. The stipend for next year is $24,000, and the university does not provide subsidized housing…the suggestion when I asked about where to live was check things out on Apartments.com. Most people use the El or Metra to commute, and not very many live directly in the city (although UIC is trying to push for a more residential campus).

My first interview was with Dr. David Ucker, a gentleman who specializes in viruses: he had several very specific questions regarding my work this summer with adenoviruses, and I felt rather motivated to take a virology course afterwards…really, viruses are quite marvelous: they have coevolved with our immune systems, and offer some extremely elegant prospects for drug delivery and other mechanisms that could be protective or beneficial within the body.

The second professor I was supposed to interview with didn’t show, but he’s not the first: it made the administrative person feel awful, but these things do happen.

The third professor I interviewed with was Dr. Bellur Prabhakar: he is the head of the Immunology program here, and did his best job to sell UIC as the place I wanted to be. In a time of diminished federal funding, 19 of 20 principal investigators at UIC have NIH funding, which is actually quite significant. He was pretty heavy emphasizing how excellent UIC’s program is, and while I agree, there is a caveat: many many programs are great…but are they the right fit? That’s the real issue at hand. Georgia Tech is a great school, but the area and weather just aren’t for me: I wouldn’t be happy.

The next professor I interviewed with was Dr. Nancy Freitag, one of the nicest professors I have met on my visits to these schools. Within ten seconds, I knew I would love to work for her…and that is saying something. She was attentive, non-patronizing, and seemed really interested in what I had worked on. She works with mechanisms of entry of Listeria, one of those odd

I ate lunch with Michelle, the coordinator of the visits, along with Dr. McLachlan and another professor…we chatted about the other schools I had applied to, as well as my thoughts on where I would like to go next year: they seemed a little confused about the seeming random nature in which I applied to graduate schools (looking back at it, I think I did my best, but I see how they could arrive at that conclusion).

In some ways, I wish I would have been able to interview on a weekend where I could meet additional graduate students, because one only gives you their particular slice of life at any given school. The one that I was able to talk with for a little while was nice, but he is but one of many in the program, and it would be nice to temper his thoughts with other opinions.

I took a cab back to Oglivie station, meeting a close friend for the walk over to Union Station: I have loved being able to catch up with friends on these grad school visits, if only for a little while.

The train was, again, late, but Sarah was able to do errands and come back to get me from the train station and get me back to campus by 8 pm that night.

Also, by popular request:

The “Help-Bridget-get-to-her-grad-school-interviews Brownies” (I’m not sure where exactly my aunt found the original recipe, but it’s fantastic!)

Make a pan of 13x9 brownies as per normal (the family sized version; you can do two boxes if you want really thick brownies).

Seven minutes before completed, start melting 1 cup each of chocolate, butterscotch, and peanut butter chips (either in the microwave or in the double broiler; you are supposed to use 1 cup of peanut butter, but I only had the natural oil kind and thought it wouldn’t be sweet enough).

Five minutes before baking time is completed, take out the oven and sprinkle with mini marshmallows: continue baking for the recommended time.

Mix the melted chocolate/butterscotch/peanut butter chips with 2 cups of some sort of cereal (the original recipe was rice krispies, but I have also used rice chex, and I’m sure you could use your own personal favorite as well).

Spoon the cereal and melted chips onto the marshmallows as soon as the brownie comes out of the oven, and mix them with the marshmallows. Allow to cool, and cover.