2013 Applicant Profiles and Admission Results

[CSCmeta]

I have a question that some of you may be able to help with.

I was originally going to apply to memorial sloan-kettering also for the biomedical sciences PhD. I didn't in the end because i'm also applying to quite a lot of places in the UK in addition to the current 3 i've applied to in the US and didn't want to spread myself too thin (/spend too much money on applications). I recently keep getting emails from the associate dean stating that they've extended the application deadline until next week for me to submit my application. Is this a good sign?

I'm actually really interested in the cancer focus of the institution (I did previous research at big cancer research institution in London) and some of the faculty's research interests me (the structural biology focus) and so if this email is an indication that they are potentially interested in me as an applicant I would go ahead and submit it. However, the pessimist in me thinks that this is probably just a generic email they use to get more money from those who have made an application but not submitted it.

Thoughts?

It's just an automated email. I got the same email telling me the deadline is extended and asking me to submit my app. even though I already completed mine a week ago.

[porge1991]

It's just an automated email. I got the same email telling me the deadline is extended and asking me to submit my app. even though I already completed mine a week ago.

Well they've waived the application fee so i've gone ahead and submitted, may as well.

[banksy]

What a good way to procrastinate my last few apps

Undergrad Institution: UC Santa Curz -OK in Biology.

Major(s): Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Minor(s): N/A

GPA in Major: 3.44

Overall GPA: 3.29

Position in Class: Not known

Type of Student: Domestic - non-minority

GRE Scores (revised/old version):

Q: 161 -83%

V: 161 -86%

W: 4.0 -49%

B:

Research Experience: No undergrad research experience, I sort of slacked as an undergraduate, in case my GPA didn't already say that. I have been working as a full-time research technician for the past three years at a non-profit research lab.

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Deans list a couple of semesters, nothing too fancy

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: See research experience

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help: we have drafted a manuscript detailing my research for the past three years, unfortunately it is not ready to submit...sending to Nature

Special Bonus Points: My mentors have some connections at the programs i am applying to and they have sent them personal emails describing just how amazing I am (two are on admissions committees). These people have offered to talk to the admissions committees to give my application a better look, we will see how this pans out. Should be meeting a few professors at UCSF next week to WOW them (i am actually very nervous), one of which is looking for another fantastic graduate student to replace one that just graduated, who happened to from my research institute (though he probably had a better GPA and test scores).

Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter: Spent 3+ months discussing, editing, and improving my statement of purpose with a postdoc in my lab. I believe my competence shines through...but that could just be my incompetence blurring my vision.

Applying to Where:

UCSF - iPQB

UCSD - Biological Sciences

UCB - MCB

UT Austin - MCB

UCD - BMCDB

Rice - BCB

UMass Medical School - BBS

ASU - BioDesign

UI Urbana Champaign - MCB

Madision - CMB

UW - MCB - REJECTED, probably gpa/gre filter people have been mentioning

Ann Arbor - Pibs

Northwestern - IBiS

UNC Chapel Hill - Biomedical Sciences

Note * the acronym's above could be mistaken, MCB CMB BCB all are essentially molecular cell biochemistry genetics development...and so forth

This is my 3rd time applying to graduate school. If I do not get offer this year I am going to DEEPLY REGRET turning down Columbia University 2 years ago.

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  Applied to (11/14):UCSF, UCB, UCSD, UCD, UMASS MEDICAL, UT Austin, Madision, Ann Arbor, Northwestern, UW, UNC Chapel Hill,
  Need to submit (3/14):Urbana-Champaign, Rice, ASU
  Interview (0/14):
  
  Accepted (0/14):
  
  Rejected (1/14): UW
  • 
    

[ImmunoXX]

Its my second time applying to grad school. I feel I have improved my app this year. Here we go again....

[MicroB2012]

UChicago Molecular bioscience program sent out the interview offers today. GL

[chemaholic]

Anyone else except balissar heard back from UPenn-CAMB yet?

[bassish101]

I got a UChicago Molecular Biosciences interview invite today! So excited!

Does anyone know if this was a first round of interview invites or were all of them sent out? They were so quick sending invites, I'm just curious.

[moechtegerndeutsche]

Long time lurker here. I keep checking my email all day, every day, so I thought this might be a better use of my time.

Undergrad Institution: small liberal arts...good reputation regionally, possibly known nationally

Major(s): Biochemistry

Minor(s): German

GPA in Major: 3.86

Overall GPA: 3.80

Position in Class: top 10?

Type of Student: Domestic female

GRE Scores (revised/old version):

Q: 155 64%ile

V: 162 89%ile

W: 5.0 92%ile

B: still waiting for the score, so I didn't report.

Research Experience: 1 summer program at Harvard, current position since August in undergrad lab in microbial ecology/bioinformatics.

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: dean's list, DAAD undergraduate study scholarship, APS summer undergrad fellowship, 2nd place poster at regional ASM meeting, some internal awards/recognitions

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: genetics lab TA for 1 semester, intro to organic chem lab for 1 semester

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help: I'm almost fluent in German, multiple semesters as a TA for German

Applying to Where:

WUSTL DBBS Molecular Genetics & Genomics (I would go here in a heartbeat...)

Harvard BBS Micro

Baylor COM Molecular Virology & Micro

University of Maryland GPILS Molecular Micro & Immuno

Research Fulbright (Austria)

Good luck to everyone!

[Lira]

Yeah, quite a bit of time actually, I graduated in May 2010 and started working for my PI immediately. We had to take about 6 months off of work to move our lab across the city, so all in all I’ve done about 2 years of productive full time work thus far. I have also had a bit of luck in that my PI has generally been correct in his hypotheses, so almost all of my work has produced publishable data.

Good job! Your application to me looks very impressive. Even though you have some weaknesses in academic scores I think with your experience and success you beat all 3.9 GPA applicants.

Good luck!

[piano5115]

Ahh! Just got my first invite for interview today!!! I'm so excited It's for UChicago, Molecular Metabolism and Nutrition PhD program. If anyone else hears back from the Biomedical sciences let me know! All the Biomedical Science programs are interviewing the same weekend (Feb 21-23).

[neurograd7]

Undergrad Institution: State School

Major(s): Psychology

Minor(s): Biology+Spanish

GPA in Major: 4.0 (In psych, probably going down after this semester though)

Overall GPA: 3.78

Position in Class: Decent I guess? Probably top 15%.

Type of Student: Domestic

GRE Scores (revised/old version):

Q: 160 (83%)

V: 159 (77%)

W: 4.5 (73%)

B: n/a

Research Experience: This is my 3^rd year in a neurobiology lab at my school. No publications, one maybe coming out? Won’t be first author though.

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Dean’s list, Baystate Medical Summer Scholar Program (basically, 10 weeks of funding for summer research in my lab)

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: None yet, going to TA next semester.

Applying to Where:

UMass Worcester – GSBS – Neuroscience

Tufts Sackler School of GBS – Neuroscience

Brandeis – GSAS – Neuroscience

UPenn – BGS – Neuroscience

UChicago – Biological Sciences Division – Neurobiology

UCSD – Neurosciences Dept. – Neuroscience

UCLA – Neuroscience

UCSF – Neuroscience

UCBerkeley – Neuroscience (Helen Wills)

(UMass Amherst – Accelerated Masters Program in Neuroscience)

[thej-hizzle]

Undergrad Institution: Public Ivy (Research I)

Major(s): Quantitative Biology (BS), Mathematics (BA)

Minor(s): Computer Science

Overall GPA: 3.59

Position in Class: Top 15%

Type of Student: Domestic, Asian male

GRE Scores (revised/old version):

Q: 170 (99%)

V: 160 (83%)

W: 5.5 (96%)

Research Experience: 1 summer experience in non-profit mouse lab, 1 summer experience at NIH/NCBI, 1.5 years in BMME lab (doing systems bio work), working computational side in RNA lab currently. No pubs, but 1 poster presentation

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Dean's List (5/7 semesters), University Distinguished Scholar, Thomas J Watson Scholarship (IBM), Honors Program

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: No TA positions because worked as a Resident Assistant and currently a Community Manager for the last 3 years to pay for my housing.

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help: Lots of experience working in diversity organizations on campus, but because I'm Asian, the ill-fated "over-represented minority" in science fields it probably doesn't mean much, especially for the UC schools I'm applying to.

Special Bonus Points: Two recommenders have graduated from or worked at a couple of the institutions I'm applying for.

Applying to Where: Probably reaching for most of these, but mostly interested in computational/systems biology, but I definitely eventually want to make a jump to biomedical/health informatics

NYU Sackler Institute - Biomedical Informatics

Cornell - Graduate Field in Computational Biology

UCSF iPQB - Bioinformatics

Harvard GSAS - Systems Biology

Yale BBS - Computational Biology and Bioinformatics

UCSD - Bioinformatics

UW Seattle - Biomedical and Health Informatics

UCLA - Bioinformatics

Stanford Biosciences - Chemical and Systems Bio

Michigan PIBS - Bioinformatics

Columbia Center for Computational and Biology and Bioinformatics

UPenn BGS - Genomics and Computational Biology

[SynBio1]

Just got an interview invite at UT austin. So excited!!!

[ion_exchanger]

Congrats SynBio1!!! Hope that I can post something similar soon!!

[kimbokrn]

My profile is pretty embarassing compared to everyone else's, but hopefully it makes some people feel better about their applications (haha). I had my mind set on pursuing a career in dentistry until I found out how much I loved biology in the biochemical/molecular levels which was not until late junior year. I guess I'm a late bloomer. I'm a pretty smart kid even though my numbers/activities may tell you otherwise.

Undergrad Institution: Small, private, liberal art school with a weak biology department (couldn't resist not paying anything for an undergraduate education!)

Major(s): Biochemistry and Biology, double major

Minor(s): None

GPA in Major: Biochemistry (3.184/4.000), Biology (3.286/4.000)

Overall GPA: 3.251/4.000

Position in Class: Probably average

Type of Student: Domestic, male, minority (if Asians are considered a minority in higher education anymore..)

GRE Scores (revised/old version):

Q: 163/88%

V: 154/61%

W: 5.0/92%

B: Too lazy.

Research Experience: No undergraduate or summer research experience (I was a slacker who was more focused in the social life). I've been conducting research at my current position (~4 months now) at a small company that is more chemistry related than anything (polymer chemistry, fabrication).

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Sigh.

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: General chemistry lab TA, Current research position (see research experience)

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help: Co-authored in a provisional patent application at my current job.

Special Bonus Points: Sigh.

Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter: Sigh.

Applying to Where:

Mostly low-tier PhD programs and few masters programs in molecular biology

San Diego State University - PhD

UC Santa Barbara - PhD

City University of New York - PhD

SUNY Downstate Medical Center - PhD

UC Riverside - PhD

Stony Brook University - PhD

San Francisco State University - M.S.

San Jose State University - M.B.T.

UC Irvine - M.S.

Good luck, everyone!

[thej-hizzle]

Just got my first interview offer from UPenn Genomics and Computational Bio! So pumped!

[piano5115]

someone got an interview from yale already?!?! if you're lurking around here Congrats

[Biohopeful]

Congrats to all the interviewees! It looks like I have to wait until January to hear back from anywhere...

[Pyridoxal_phos]

Got an interview offer from UPenn Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics. Super happy!

Edited December 13, 2012 by Pyridoxal_phos

[chemaholic]

Congratulations, Pyridoxal_phos! Could you maybe post your stats, if you don't mind? Then we could estimate how our chances of getting interview offers from UPenn are ;-)

[ion_exchanger]

Congrats! Has your app status changed on the website? Also, how close to the deadline did you submit your app to Upenn?

Edited December 13, 2012 by ion_exchanger

[Winteriscoming]

Undergrad Institution: Undergrad at a big spanish state university, well known and good rep in Microbiology. Masters at #1 U in Spain.

Major(s): Biology - Microbiology

Minor(s):

GPA in Undergrad: 3.08

GPA in Grad School: 3.78 (directly related to what I want to do)

Position in Class: Top 30% as undergrad

Type of Student: Female, international

GRE Scores (revised/old version):

Q: 151

V: 157

W: 3.5

B: -

IELTS Total: 8.5 of 9

Research Experience: 2 summer internships with own projects as an undergrad in a big biotech company in Germany; 5 months as grad student with independent project in a well known HIV research group in a state U in Germany; 5 months as a TA in my undergrad university (microbiology course), 3 years as a research technician and lately as project leader in the R&D dep of a pharmaceutical company. No publications... just a couple of posters with a lot of people.

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Erasmus Internship grant

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: R&D Tech/ Project Leader

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help: mmh... I don't know if it helps, but I'm fluent in 4 languages?

Special Bonus Points: I don't think so, no...

Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter:

Applying to Where: Princeton (Molecular Biology), MIT (Microbiology), Indiana Bloomington (Microbiology), U Washington (Microbiology), U Rochester (Microbiology)

2nd year applying to grad school. I think I learned a lot of my application last year, but my scores aren't very high... never was a great student (a fish has more memory than me), but I hope my international research experience helps.

[Biohopeful]

Looks like someone got an interview for Northwestern IBiS. Congrats! Their deadline is Dec. 15th, so I'm curious about the interview offer before the deadline (I don't think they don't review on a rolling basis).

[MicroB2012]

Looks like someone got an interview for Northwestern IBiS. Congrats! Their deadline is Dec. 15th, so I'm curious about the interview offer before the deadline (I don't think they don't review on a rolling basis).

Does Northwestern have a rolling base review process? If they do, maybe they would start reviewing applicant's files that has been completed before the deadline.

[Biohopeful]

They don't mention anything on their website about reviewing applications on a rolling basis. They do mention their review period is December-February. Their deadline is in a couple days, so it wouldn't surprise me if they started looking at applications a little earlier and picking out the most outstanding applicants so far.