Jump to content

tuckbro

Members
  • Posts

    175
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Posts posted by tuckbro

  1. On Monday, January 04, 2016 at 2:11 PM, Coefficient49 said:

    Undergrad Institution: JHU

    Major(s):  Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
    Minor(s): Environmental Eng.
    GPA in Major: 3.7
    Overall GPA: 3.6

    Type of Student: International
    GRE Scores (revised/old version): revised
    Q: 161
    V: 161

    W: 4


    Research Experience: 

    1x2nd Author paper, 1xfirst author Manuscript in preparation, 1 x paper submitted, 1x 1st author protocol paper in prep.  and a bunch of other projects with only presentations and posters. 1 US patent. 4 years of research experience in the same lab at JHU. 
    Awards/Honors/Recognitions:  4 different undergraduate research awards and ~25k USD in undergraduate research funding.
    Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Founded and running 2 start ups with around 50k USD of funding each. Designed a portable air purifying pillow for air travel and travelling in polluted nations. Designed a sustainable solar cell for a number of African nations. Designed a water quality monitoring device for a number of south American nations.

    Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help: Past military experience, extensive leadership experience, organized lab duties and lab orderings
     

    Special Bonus Points: nothing special


    Applying to Where:

    all BioE PhD programs.

    Rice , MIT, Harvard

     

    I want to do tissue engineering, my experience are in cellular mechanics and my papers are studies of mechanosensing, mechanotransduction, cellular rheology and cellular migration.

     

     

    SInce I applied to two of your choices, here is how two of the schools work (at least how it worked in 2014)

     

    Rice will not contact you for an interview, they will accept you by the end of January  and invite you to an Open House kind of thing in the spring or reject you in the spring.  One of my favorite visits - they really show they want you to attend!

    MIT will send invites to interviews probably this week.   They accept 80% of whom they interview.   If they interview you, they want you unless they discover you don't mesh well in person. I believe mine came via email this week on a Thursday, not sure if that will hold true this week.  Interview process is really amazing, you have to do a poster presentation and then sit around with world famous scientists and talk science.

     

  2. 58 minutes ago, peachypie said:

    So either Yale or MIT is saying nice jeans or khakis and a t-shirt????  Strange, but if that is what they say!  By all means.  I didn't see any jeans or t-shirts on interview days, but it is obviously a decision for you to make.  People usually don't wear t-shirts in the northeast in winter, but maybe this place is well-heated.

    As I said before, applicants will typically be dressed nicer than the grad students and some PIs, that is to be expected.  Some professors and charimen and admin will be dressier and at a minimum be wearing dress pants and a buttoned shirt etc.  You'll always have a PI or two who is going to be in jeans and DGAF but that is what they get to do, they are already there.  You aren't.  You do whatever you want, I'm putting up information on my experience and what I have seen in subsequent interviews.  If it were me I wouldn't show up wearing a t-shirt and jeans.

    It is stange, I interviewed at multiple places two years ago and did not see any candidates wear jeans until after hours.  Everyone in khakis, button down shirt at the very least. Many in blazers and a few in suits.   I would not have felt comfortable wearing jeans to an interview.

  3. I am a Lehigh grad as well!

     

    Lehigh has a great reputation so that will help him.  I can tell you that top 10 schools such as Duke look for 95% plus in Quants and 3.85 plus GPA, so I am not sure is the 3.5 would be a dealbreaker there.  Most importantly they look for fit.  The year I applied Duke had no openings in Cell and Tissue so rejected all applicants in that interest area and focused on staffing their other labs.  So it really depends on what they have open versus what he has listed as his area of interest.

    Generally I think his stats seem to fit most of the schools listed, Duke being a reach, but not impossbile.

    PhD vs. Masters depends on his career goals, but many poeple to go into a Masters first.  Masters he would need to pay for, and Phd would be funded at top shcools.

    I applied to 7 top 10 schools and two top 20.  Got into 5 top 10 and 1 top 20.    I had 169 quant and 3.97 GPA as a frame of reference.

    Good luck to your brother and Lehigh Strong!

    .

     

  4. I would call instead of emailing. Also, I haven't heard back from JHU either but someone earlier in this thread said they called and were told if they haven't heard anything then it's likely a rejection. :( Sorry.

     

     

     

    I think I know of one or two people from a recent visit weekend who were accepted to MIT BE. Not sure if that helps, they may not be done with decisions yet.

    Thanks just curious- I already go there, just wondered who got in this year.

  5. Tuckbro, your insight has been very helpful. So I was put on alternate list at JHU after the interview, My email did not say expected to be admitted though. "we have placed you on our alternate list. We have asked applicants to respond to these offers by April 15. Should we reach your position on our alternate list before April 15, I will contact you immediately" . Another school PI is pushing me to give an answer already.   Wondering how realistic my chances are. Any comment is appreciated. Thank you!

    Their process was so different this year, I would not want to venture a guess. It depends upon how many slots they have, how many offers they made and how many choose to go elesewhere.  I would not feel pressured to make your final decision until the deadline however, so hopefuly you will hear good news come April. 

     

    Congratulations on being selected an alternate and I hope it works out for you!

  6. Thanks for your help! Was your UPenn interview very technical? I am interviewing with some professors who I haven't spoken to previously and didn't necessarily request, which has never happened to me before so I am a little concerned.. any insight appreciated! Thanks so much!

    Yeah they are technical as they are trying to see if your research goals fit in thier labs and you are trying to do the same.  I found myself really stuggling to fit my goals into their program, so left feeling that it wasn't right for me and expecting a rejection even though we got along well and everyone was really great.  I was ultimately rejected, but accepted at all the others so it didn't bother me.  It felt kind of off to me, the whole weekend.

     

    Basically they'll tell you what they do and have conversations about how your interests might fit into that.  If they requested to meet you it means they feel there is a possible fit.  You should goodle them and have an idea of their research and how you might fit into that.

  7. By the way, at the schools where I interivewed I was directly told on the 2nds interview day to expect an offer for every school I eventually got into.  Not sure if all schools are that forthcoming, but you will definitely get a sense of whether you have a connection with the program/people and they with you.  You do not want to go somewhere without that connection so if it isn't there, don't worry, it's for the best.

     

    I interviewed at:

     

    UPenn

    Columbia

    MIT

    JHU

    RICE (post acceptance)

     

    Anyone having questions about the process at these schools, let me know!

  8. Anyone know what the post-interview acceptance rate is at JHU?

     

    Of course, this is anecdotal information and may not be true this year depending upon thier openings....

     

    Last year, JHU was similar to MIT in that they only invited to interview those they felt they would accept.  A little different than MIT in that they only accept initially the exact number they need, and then make a waitlist of everyone else.  I recieved an email that I was on the waitlist but "expected to be admitted"  and I was shortly thereafter.  JHU went deep into the waitlist last year so chances are very good if you are interviewing.  There were probably some who weren't admitted, but I believe most were.  It all depends on how many accept that first waive of offers.

  9. Does anybody know the recent post-interview acceptance rate for UPenn Bioengineering PhD program?

    UPenn looks for a complete match so it probably varies year to year. Of the group I interviewed with last year I would say around 70% but that was just my weekend.

    Also it is pretty obvious with Penn as you go right into the lab who selects you - no rotation like other schools. If you felt a good match you're probably in. If you had doubts whether it was a fit, you probably didn't and its for the best.

  10. From the attending student's perspective: 

     

    We just got e-mails about signing up for interview-weekend duties! I'm so excited to meet everyone and good luck to those with busy weekends over the next few months :)

     

     

    ~glow

    It's so exciting, I see my program sent out their invites. Can't wait to entertain the new candidates in March!

  11. Thanks to TedBlinsky for reminding that there are people who haven't had a single invite yet. I happen to have applied unsuccessfully for 2 seasons now, and am still waiting for a single interview invite on this current 3rd attempt.

     

    It's rough seeing too much about those first world too many interview problems.

    Think this is a really good point.  I have my figners crossed for you this year!

  12. For the top 10 BME programs, I had no problem whatsoever, they all seemed to know when the other's interview weekend was and so I really didn't have conflicts as they were on different weekends or offered choices.  For the probgram ranked 10-20, however, I had conflicts but they were all very accomodating and I was able to get to each shcool.

     

    Penn had two choices and they were both before the other schools, followed by MIT, JHU the next weekend and so forth.  There seemed to be an understanding they were all interviewing the same group of students.

     

    Maybe it was random luck but it seemed coordinated.

  13. I found it depends on the school, but most of mine were in the top 10 and all but one of the top 10 programs to which I applied  expected 95% plus in quant and didn't seem to care about the verbal.  I think you can get a good feel for the schools of interest to you by looking at who actually got in on the results page and their scores. 

     

    I found that often what they say they will accept and what they actually accept are two different things.

     

    Best of luck! 

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. See our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use