galaxstar

UC Davis had their interview weekend this past weekend. Unfortunately, I don't think they were planning on having another one :-(.

I know that for one of the schools I interviewed at already, the acceptance rate of interviewees from the first weekend was only 20%. I think these were "first round" picks though, as there are three interview weekends, and I expect they will make more offers at the end.

The way I see this is not to take a position away from someone who deserves it - it's more for my department to know my situation, and why I might not accept their offer. Also, look at this from the perspective of my department. If they can find out sooner whether or not I will accept the position (depending on an expedited result for my SO), they can let someone else from the wait-list into my department. So, it's a good situation for them, and should not reflect positively OR negatively on him. I'm not asking for the department to look favorably on him, just to let us know as soon as possible whether or not it will be an option. Assumptions about intent with these things is not fair. I will try to make that clear in my e-mail, but I think that letting the department know our situation is the *best* thing for applicants in both departments.

I already have an offer with guaranteed funding, so I'm certain that they've accepted me. I also know that they have started sending out interview invitations in mechanical engineering, so they have certainly started reviewing applications. I will check their website to see if they mention anything about student pairs, though, thanks!

Hello forum-goers! I have been exceptionally fortunate to have received a couple of offers from some of my top choice schools. My significant other is also applying to some of these schools, but he has not heard back yet (the programs generally notify students later than the one I applied to). Given that I have been accepted, should I notify the department of my situation? I will not be able to attend this school unless my SO is also accepted, since that was the only school we both applied to in this geographical area. The relevant departments are Computer Science and Mechanical Engineering if anyone has any idea about how much influence various departments have over each other. Thanks for your advice!

Actually the place where I interned almost never sends people to PhD programs, and I was the only one under 30 working on the project. I did a tricky thing and looked through my PI's linkedIn profile to see what he mentioned and what he kept quiet about. Since he mentioned a couple of the techniques we used in there, I feel it's fairly safe to talk about them in the interview. :-D

A couple of years ago, I worked on a relatively confidential project for the government. I mentioned this project in my statements of purpose, because it was extremely relevant to my research interests. However, I'm now worried that I will be asked about specific techniques we used, and I'm not sure that I am legally allowed to disclose any of that information. The main concern here is that I'm just not sure. The supervisor for the project wrote my recommendation letter, and may or may not have mentioned anything specific, but I have no way to know since I waived my rights to access the letter. Additionally, he has been traveling for the past month, before I was notified of interviews, and therefore has not been able to get back to me about how much I can disclose. What should I do if an interviewer asks about this project? Should I just say that I'm not sure how much information I am allowed to disclose, because parts of the project were confidential? Thanks in advance for your advice!

Neurotic, which program at Columbia did you apply for? They did send out a few interview invites in late December for the Neurobiology and Behavior program, but they may send more. (The first interview weekend is next weekend) For the MIT program, this is what I saw in the e-mail I received: " fewer than 10% of the more than 220 applicants to the cognition and computation tracks of the department are being asked to visit." However, my primary interest was in the computation track (secondary cognitive), so I don't know if this was sent out to the people whose first choice was the cognitive track as well or not. The invites for the various tracks were sporadic, and not on the same days, so it's definitely possible that primary cognitive was not included in that e-mail.

I would also say use the results search for previous years, but take it with a grain of salt. I heard back from two programs over a month earlier than I was expecting to - it seems that acceptances/interviews are being sent out a bit earlier this year. Some schools have turnaround times for applications of less than a week, and others seem to take more than 2 months. On average I think it takes at least a month though, so don't expect anything back until February (and certainly don't panic until March, or if you see a ton of acceptances show up on results search in the span of a couple of days!)

Me neither - it has been incredibly frustrating. This is not good news that the results won't be out until April. Oh well, nothing to do but wait I suppose. I'm not sure what will happen with the PGS. Since you can take the PGS to universities outside of Canada, it doesn't seem like it would be fair to allocate a certain number of awards in the way the CGS-Ms are allocated, so we might not see the same transition. TakeruK, thank you so much for linking that site! It's perfect!

Hello (mostly for Canadian students) Does anyone know when we'll hear back from specific schools about NSERC CGS-M results? I've heard back from Waterloo about admissions, but they did not mention whether or not they would offer me the CGS-M. It's critical that I find out so that I can let a potential supervisor there know, since he can only take me on if I'm able to secure that funding. (The system is new this year, so NSERC won't be the one notifying students from what I understand). Ideas, anyone?

The e-mail I got mentioned both the computation and cognition tracks (and these were my two choices), but I'm not sure if they are doing a separate round of e-mails for people who listed cognitive science as their first choice.

I think you're right - computation track e-mails got sent out about a week ago. The RSVP deadline was January 21, so I expect computational track invitations to be all sent out by that point. It sounded like they might do a second round of interviews afterwards though, depending on how many people responded.

Just wanted to let you know my history: I have a degree in Physics, with a minor in Computer Science. My research background is in particle physics, machine learning, and quantum information processing. I decided that I wanted to pursue neuroscience last year after taking a really cool online course, so I'm applying to work in the field of computational neuroscience for a Ph.D next fall. Out of the programs I've applied for, which were the MIT Brain and Cognitive Sciences program, and the Columbia Neurobiology and Behavior program, I was invited to interview at both. So it is DEFINITELY possible to come in from an academic and research background COMPLETELY outside of the discipline, and still get at least interviews for graduate research in neuroscience (and these are very good programs!). A note: I think the most important parts of your application are probably your statement of purpose and recommendation letters if you're coming in from an outside discipline. Hopefully this is somewhat useful!

AxonAxoff, thanks for the info about MIT interviews, I will take it with quite a large heap of salt. Is anyone else here attending the Jan 23-25 Columbia interviews?