ion_exchanger

Congratulations! They are a little early this year. I see a couple of people have already posted on the results page. Congratulations to all Sloan Kettering invites! Does anyone know what the interview dates are?

Life is real my friends. I'm glad I have another interview to soften the blow if I don't get an invite to Sloan tomorrow.

Come on down to biology thread in the life sciences section of the menu. We have a thread, 2013 applicant profiles and admission results, where we list stats and invites.

Oh great LMac So you can mark off each day that you wait to hear from them!

That's just cruel and unusual.

Agreed gnmcclur. People in my life are sympathetic, but they really have no idea the stress we are under. I have started to hate those emails that I am getting more frequently that say, "you're application is currently being reviewed, a decision will be made.....". Ok thanks, but just do it, don't tell me about it. The anxiety of seeing an unopened email message from a school is ridiculous.

I believe the majority of schools will be closing on Friday, as I've received a couple of emails that say so. I think that we can expect mail up until Friday.

Thanks for the much needed and appreciated laugh!

Oh no mccamel, I think that in my own psychological state, I would have had very choice words for that telemarketer. I would've told them to take me off the list and if they knew what was good for them, they would inform as many people as they know not to disturb me until April 16th!

The small amount of reviews on the results page, which I have been studying tirelessly for the past couple of weeks for all of my programs, shows that for the past three years, a lot of Sloan invites have gone out on December 21. There is one person on the results page that says that they heard on January 7. They could do it before or after this year, but just following the trend.

I personally wasn't offended. I absolutely understood what you were trying to say. We are all friends here :-)

Am I the only one who seems to be nervous that this Friday is likely to be "G" day, Sloan Kettering day?

I desperately just want to enjoy the holidays, but two of my programs are known to send out invites by Christmas. I received one of the invites, but am anxious for the other. Once that is out of the way, I can just relax, since the rest of them will be sent out after the new year.

Agreed. I studied my butt off for the math portion of the GRE, still wasn't satisfied. No one to blame but myself. Maybe I'm just not good enough at grasping the material. I can't blame my freshman year grades on anyone but myself. A lot of time I think I purposely didn't try hard, so that I could actually use the excuse that if I tried harder, I could have done better. I admittedly tried my hardest while studying for the GRE's, and still didn't do as well as I wanted.

I say go for it. As long as you are alive and the desire is there, you should continue. My personal motto throughout this application season: "You miss 100% of the shots that you don't take".

I applied to Upenn, JHU (2 programs), GWU, Sloan Kettering, UMD (2 programs) Well, I guess 5 schools, 7 programs

What is considered old? If I am successful this application cycle, I will start grad school at 26. I personally didn't want to start that late since the average length of my program is 5-7 years, but I guess others wouldn't consider that late. There are people that I graduated with who are older than me still applying for medical and graduate school. I've heard that schools might look favorably on mature candidates. As long as YOU don't feel too old, you should be fine.

Thanks BambooPanda. I also only applied to 7 programs, even though my mentor suggested ten. I applied to two reaches, three good matches, and two that I thought I had a pretty good shot at getting in. Good luck to you!

Agreed about your biology peers. Two of mine happen to work in my lab, but the majority are not working in biological or medical fields. I'm completely happy with my lab, but it is time to move on. Also about the SOP, I think about mine and I cringe, but when I take a second look it isn't as bad as I thought. I just need one acceptance, just one. I hope everything works out for you this time around!

Thanks! Stats coming up in next post.

Just received an interview invite for the University of Pennsylvania biochemistry and molecular biophysics program. I literally don't know what to do with myself right now. It was a HUGE reach for me!

I agree. One of my mentors suggested a lot of schools and I pretty much applied to all of his suggestions. I wish I had applied to more lower tiered schools, but you miss 100% of the shots that you don't take. In my case, my GRE score is probably going to hold me back. I'm hoping that 3+ years of research and a good undergraduate GPA will compensate for it. My recommenders have not asked about my apps yet because the latest one is due Janurary 1, so I still have some time to get an interview hopefully to at least feel better.

I agree. The time is flying because I still have apps to finish, on top of continuing my research project. Once there are no more apps to occupy my time, the waiting is going to drive me crazy. Everyone applying to professiosnal schools in my lab are a little on edge. I check my email, on average, about every ten minutes.

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

You hit the nail on the head. I work with senior scientists, who are more confident in my acceptance into schools than me. I'm so nervous of disappointing them.