jmillar

I just got back from an interview where several people were not within my specific field. It seemed more about getting a feel if I'd be a good fit for the program, through personality and interests outside of my specific field. Everyone was friendly and working on interesting things, so it was fairly conversational.

I'm interested in the molecular evolution of infectious disease. I didn't go looking for general Bio departments, but several people I was interested in working in just happened to be in Bio at WashU. The current university I'm doing my Masters at only has a Biology department and has 9 evolutionary biologists. I saw UMich has an EEB program, but people mostly apply to the PIBS umbrella.

I'm curious, how many people are applying solely to programs that are specifically labeled as Ecology/Evolution? I applied to a few Biology programs with several evolutionary biologists in the department and some general Biology umbrella programs.

We were moved to a new building 2 years ago. Open air cubicles, but lots of desk space.

This is really important. If you have lower scores, but you really hit it off with a professor, they can go to bat for you during the admission process.

I bring a small notebook with me, one page where I've written stuff down about the POI, and a blank page for me to scribble down notes if needed.

What is in a dean's packet?

At my school, grades A-F are given at the grad level, however grades C+ and below do not count towards the major. For us, these are considered failing and are also grounds to revoke TAships and other funding provided by the university. And, yes, there have been a handful given out in my associated departments in the last few years, including F's.

This might depend on your SOP. I don't know about the ranking specifics of programs for Neurobiology, but in general I've heard if you are a competitive applicant and apply to lower ranked schools/depts, you may have a greater chance of being passed on if they don't think you will likely attend their school if you get accepted into higher ranked programs. The way around this is to make your SOP very specific to their school. Make a case why this program is your top choice. This can be done about talking about POI in the department, parts of the program they are unique to this school, interdisciplinary nature, things at the school that tie well into your plans after grad school, etc. You need to convince them that if you were given an acceptance letter, you would most likely go there.

This will depend on the the university, and in some cases the specific department, as well as what kind of fellowship it is (which funding agency), the rules associated with the fellowship, and how much the fellowship is for. For instance, some universities will tack on a little extra as a congratulations to you, since their funding is similar to what you would get through the fellowship. Some universities will help make up the difference in funds if a fellowship is less than a typical RAship and other may only contribute up to a certain percentage. Depending on the granting agency, some will let you double up on stipends, while others do not allow this. Certain grants pay only a portion of your tuition, expecting the university to pay/waive the rest, while for others you are responsible for the rest. It's good to have a talk with your POI and other people at the university to see what specific situation applies to you.

Email from Yale BBS yesterday: "Admissions committees are in the process of contacting domestic applicants about interviews, and international applicants will be contacted in the coming weeks. Good luck!"

You need to stay in the field that you applied under as you are not allowed to make a major focus change (field change) within your first year. I have been super careful transferring from MS to PhD to make sure my new program is still within the field I applied under. Be careful about joining programs that are more health/social science related, as many are not allowed. I've seen a few people make it work, but this happened when people got the GRFP during their masters and quietly changed to a different field for their PhD at the same university without officially declaring it.

If you really want economy plus, and are willing to pay the difference, buy the coach ticket and give the university that receipt. Most airlines will allow you to change seats/upgrade later and you can pay for that part yourself.

I was able to get an extra night, but mostly because there were no early enough flights to get me there before check ins in the afternoon, so I'm coming over a day early. You may want to e-mail and ask if it is possible.

It's most likely for Oregon Health Science University.

I checked the results and I see one rejection from a few days ago. You may want to call or email.

Didn't apply to UW Immunology, just to the general UW Biology, but invites appear to be going out late this year. Just got a call on Wednesday for interview weekend in January.

I heard from another person I know talking to admissions that they would not be sent out all at once.

Emory PBEE is starting to send out invites!

Albert Einstein Biomedical sciences: Jan 25-27 Berkeley Comp Bio: Feb 14-16 Berkeley IB: Jan 27-28 Berkeley Cell Molecular Bio: Feb 12-14, Feb 26-28 CMU-Pitt Comp bio: Feb 23-25, March 2-4 Columbia Biological Sciences: Jan 22-23, Mar 2-4 Columbia Biomedical Informatics: Jan 27-29th Cornell Tri Institutional computational biology: Feb 26-27. University of Chicago Molecular Biosciences: Jan 19-21, Feb 9-11, Feb 23-25 Duke Biochemistry: Feb 9-12 or Feb 23-26 Duke CMB: February 2-4 or February 16-18 Duke Immunology: February 9 – 12 or February 23 – 26 Emory PBEE: Feb 16-18 Harvard BIG (I asked and then asked a contact I have and all I could get was late January or early February) Havard BBS: Jan 26-29, Feb 9-12 Harvard MCO: Jan 25-28, Feb 1-4 Icahn SOM at Mount Sinai (Neuro only): January 9-10 Icahn SOM at Mount Sinai (non-neuro): January 12-13 or January 19-20 Johns Hopkins CMM: January 19-20 or February 23-24 UMichigan PIBS: Jan 26-28, Feb 2-4, Feb 9-11 MIT Biology: Feb 11-14, Feb 25-28, March 11-14 MIT CSBi: Feb 3 & 10 MIT HST: march 2-4 (strange those two overlap as they are 2 of the top comp bio programs) Northwestern DGP: Jan 12-14, Jan 26-28, Feb 9-11 NIH OxCam: February 15-17 NYU GSAS: Feb 2-3, Feb 16-17 Princeton QCB: Feb 9-11 Rockefeller: Feb 23-24, March 2-3 Sanger 4-year program: Jan 23rd Sloan Kettering: Jan 10-12 Stanford BI: march 1-5 Stanford Biosciences: March 1-5 UConn Health Biomedical Sciences: Feb 10-11 University of Washington Biology: Jan 26-28 University of Washington Genome Sciences: Feb 12-14, Feb 26-28 UC Irvine CMB: Jan 26-27, Feb 9-10 UCSD BMS: Feb 2-5, Feb 23-26 UCSF BMS: Jan 26-28, Feb 9-11 UCSF bioinformatics: Feb 9-10, Feb 16-17 UCSF TETRAD: Feb 2-5, Feb 24-27 UNC Chapel Hill BBSP: Feb 2-4, Feb 16-18, March 2-4 UMass Medical School BBS: January 26-27 or February 2-3 UPenn CAMB: Jan 19-21, Feb 2-4 UT Austin Cell and Molecular Biology: Jan 19-22, Feb 9-12 Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL) Biochemistry DBBS February 2-4 and February 16-1 Yale BBS Immunology: Feb 16-19 Yale BBS MMPP: Feb 16-19 Yale CBB/MCGD: Feb 3-5

It's all par for the course. Reviewer 3 can be annoying, but it usually makes for a better paper in the end.

I should have mentioned my main interest is pathogenic bacteria. I didn't apply to that program in particular as I want to work more on molecular based infectious disease surveillance modeling, but they do interesting research on the human microbiome.

WashU has the McDonnell Genome Institute, one of the three original places that sequenced the human genome. They have some amazing resources and research. I assume if you go to WashU, you may get to interact with them?

Berkeley Comp Bio: Feb 14-16 Berkeley Cell Molecular Bio: Feb 12-14, Feb 26-28 CMU-Pitt Comp bio: Feb 23-25, March 2-4 Columbia Biological Sciences: Feb 23-24, Mar 3-4 Cornell Tri Institutional computational biology: Feb 26-27. Duke CMB: February 2-4 or February 16-18 Albert Einstein Biomedical sciences: Jan 25-27 Harvard BIG (I asked and then asked a contact I have and all I could get was late January or early february) Havard BBS: Jan 26-29, Feb 9-12 Icahn SOM at Mount Sinai (Neuro only): January 9-10 Icahn SOM at Mount Sinai (non-neuro): January 12-13 or January 19-20 Johns Hopkins CMM: January 19-20 or February 23-24 UMichigan PIBS: Jan 26-28, Feb 2-4, Feb 9-11 MIT Biology: Feb 11-14, Feb 25-28, March 11-14 MIT CSBi: Feb 3 & 10 MIT HST: march 2-4 (strange those two overlap as they are 2 of the top comp bio programs) NIH OxCam: February 15-17 Princeton QCB: Feb 9-11 Rockefeller: Feb 23-24, March 2-3 Sanger 4-year program: Jan 23rd Sloan Kettering: January (Jan 12-15 once appeared on their website but they removed it for some reason) Stanford BI: march 1-5 Stanford Biosciences: March 1-5 UConn Health Biomedical Sciences: Feb 10-11 University of Washington Biology: Jan 26-28 University of Washington Genome Sciences: Feb 12-14, Feb 26-28 UCSF bioinformatics: Feb 9-10, Feb 16-17 UCSF TETRAD: Feb 24-??? UNC Chapel Hill BBSP: Feb 2-4 UMass Medical School BBS: January 26-27 or February 2-3 Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL) Biochemistry DBBS February 2-4 and February 16-18 Yale BBS Immunology: Feb 16-19 Yale BBS MMPP: Feb 24-26 Yale CBB: Feb 3-5

The only one I've heard from so far is UMich Bioinformatics. Hopefully hear from more next week.