Summer Programs

Ugh. I'm applying to a bunch of research programs this summer, mostly in neuroscience, with one in computer science / math. I have a list of seven programs so far and it sometimes feels like a lot (even though I cut it down from ten), but I'd really like to get into one, and more applications means a higher chance of getting in somewhere.

I don't mind applying to more programs. Their applications are pretty much the same. But it's the faculty recommendations that are giving me a hard time. My two recommenders are my research mentor and my computer science program director who was my boss when I was a CA for one of her classes. I don't want to ask for too much since they are both busy with the beginning of the semester. I have already sent the lists to them and my CS director replied, saying it was a pretty daunting list for this time of the year. (My research mentor hasn't replied for a few days now.) So I feel like I should really cut it down, namely on the ones that require more than a general letter of recommendation, but these programs - MIT's UROP and Univ. of Minn.'s Program in Cognitive Sciences - look pretty promising, with MIT offering many many more possible mentors that I might enjoy working with (memory, plasticity, computational/theoretical neuroscience). So, to drop or not to drop the Univ. of Minn. program... My girlfriend applied to four REU's and thought that was a lot. I'm doing seven (although one requires no rec's and has a deadline after all the others will have decided if I got in). *sigh*

Ok, I will drop it. Make life easier for my recommenders. I don't want them getting tired of writing rec's for me...

Thanks, blog! Writing my thoughts out helps. =)