bsharpe269

My acceptances came about 2-3 weeks after the interviews.

FYI, I interviewed at UNC Jan 22-24 and received an offer this week. My interest areas are Comp Bio/Biophysics. At the interview, I was told that BBSP sends offers to some students in the weeks following the interviews and then sends the majority of offers in March. I was told this by someone from BBSP in general, not by my specfic phd program. I left with the exact same vibe that you got... I had one intervewer tell me that I was a "shoe in" and the others invited me to come for summer rotations. It worked out decently for me so good luck... based on what you say, it sounds like you should expect an offer in the next few weeks! I dont think everyone leaves with this impression. I chatted with several students who said that they couldn't tell whether their interviews went well or not.

I guess the take away message for future applicants would be: 1) if in doubt, contact PIs with a short email... It can't hurt and could potentially help a lot 2) if you are worried about annoying PIs as I was then it might be a good idea to ask the department secretary if they recommend contacting PIs. They will know whether it is normal in that department. Not contacting worked out well for me but rotations are common in my field so you don't come in with a designated PI already. Even still, I doubt it would have hurt anything to contact people and it could have helped. I may have reached out to more PIs if I had more time. Writing those types of emails are very time consuming because you need to comment intelligently on their work and I get paranoid and reread the email 100 times. I agree that it might be very important for some departments.

It is very field dependent I guess. I didn't contact professors and have 6 interviews and 1 acceptance so far. My current PI told me to avoid emailing because it annoys professors. I followed the advice it worked well for me.

If you take a couple years to improve your application then you can do really well in the application process. My uGPA is 3.27 and scinece uGPA is 3.0. I am doing a MS and applied to PhD programs half way through the program (so after only 1 year of grades). My MS GPA is 4.0 and I studied hard for the GRE and ended up with 168Q, 162V. I have tons of research at this point which resulted in very strong LORs. My research experience includes about 5 years total between undergrad and MS and 1 middle author paper, 1 first author in prep, and a few conference presentations. You can see how my application season is going in my signature but to summarize, its fantastic. I have interviews at schools like WashU, Univ of Washingotn, and even Hopkins. I am saying all of this to show that if you can put together a stellar applicaiton then your uGPA need not hold you back at all. Since you are only at 1 year of research experience right now, my advice is to get into a lab full time and kick butt. I second the advice to go this route and take a class each semester (and get As in them!) to show you can handle the material. This route would be cheaper than an MS and probably just as effective. If you prefer the MS option though then I think that will also give you experience you need. I would also put effort into getting your GRE scores high enough to prove that the your GPA isnt reflective of your intelligence. Good luck... if youre willing to put some work into improving your application then you can shoot for schools even more competetive then the ones you applied to this round. If you have any questions then please feel free to ask because my application looked very similar to your a couple years ago.

Both of these schools have great name recognition so I don't think you need to worry about job opportunities either way. I think that a top professor in the field can open a lot of opportunities... for example, you will be more likely to be chosen to give big talks at conferences, will have an easier time getting papers published, network with other top PIs. I would go with the top professor. With that being said, I would also strongly consider the stength/fit of the other professors at the school. My field may work differently than yours but I think there is always a chance that the professor will choose a different student over you for the lab or that you will join the lab but the prof will leave the university or maybe she turns out to be a poor mentor fit for you. This stuff happens all the time. If that happens, what other profs are at both universities? Are there other strong profs at either school? This should be a HUGE factor in your decision in my opinion.

I don't think grad school apps work like this at all... For example, you can see the schools I applied to in my signature. I applied to the 10 best schools for my research interest in the country. By best, I mean that there are multiple very well respected professors doing the sort of work I want to. Of the schools I applied to, Stanford, UCSF, and Univ of Wash are probably the worst research fits. They have famous professors in my subfield but it is clear from my SOP and LORs that I am interested in the more theoretical side of the subfield and the professors at those schools do more applied work. I could be happy at those schools too but they would definitely have all been my last choices. They would open up less career opportunities since it would be more beneficial to get into a more theory oriented lab since all of those labs collaborate and I could network with other theory labs for post doc opportunities. Interestingly, the only schools I got rejected from were Stanford and UCSF and I got an interview off the waitlist at Univ of Wash. Other equally "ranked" schools like Hopkins and WashU gave me interviews super fast and are very interested in my application since they are great fits. When I choose a school, I will choose the one that maximizes both short term happiness and long term career opportunities. Of the schools on my list, Rice and Univ of Maryland probably provide the most long term opportunities. The professors I would work for there are so freakin incredibly famous and will surely end up with nobel prizes at some point. But I have to balance this with short term happiness meaning I want professors who have time for their students and famous profs might not. I will seek out this info from current students at interviews. Department culture is always very important to me. So when you say that lower ranked schools will not accept top students Im not really sure what you mean. Do you mean the schools without super famous professors or do you mean a ranking list that you would find on google that says nothing about subfield? of the schools on my list, maybe Univ of Maryland would be one of the "lower ranked" ones but there are multiple very famous professors there so that school would provide many more career opportunities than Stanford for example. So why would Maryland reject me based on the idea that I might go to Stanford? They know they are a better school for me than Stanford and that I would choose them first any day. The schools with less opportunities specific to your subfield (like Stanford for me) might reject you for that reason but that is why it is so important to apply to schools with a good research fit.

I had only a 3.25 undergrad GPA but I have a 4.0 MS GPA, great LORs, lots of research, solid GRE scores, etc. You can see how my application season is going in my signature. I applied to 10 schools. Of the 10, 8 do interviews. I was invited to 6 of the 8 interviews. Of the 2 that don't interview, I have been accepted to 1 so far. Basically, if your undergrad GPA is only negative in your application then you should be fine as long as it meets the requirements of the overall grad school (which is usually 3.0). If you're a bit below that then it gets harder but is still possible. I think that my MS gpa and high gre scores show the programs that I can handle the course work. Im convinced that my LORs have been the major selling point of my application. I say this because I have formed strong connections with professors in my department and I recently received an email from a POI which actually mentioned that I come very highly recommended. Apply for the schools that are the best research fit and if your application is solid other than the undergrad GPA then I'm sure you'll do fine.

I would rank them: - research interest - professor status (e.g., well-known or not) - safety of area - (As a woman who will be around campus at potentially late hours, this is very important to me) - school program ranking - cost of living - school overall ranking - distance from home - weather

THIS. I am female who studies biophysics. My current campus has the main campus and then within walking distance but still pretty separate is the "engineering" side of campus with engineering, comp sci, and physics buildings. I swear that just yesterday, this guy came up to me and said "Are you sure you're on the right side campus?" Umm excuse me??? He seemed to mean it in a flirty way and then proceeded to explain that he doesn't see many women over here. Does he really think that I might be interested in dating him after he insults my gender? Why is this ok to say to women but a problem to say about ethnicity or socioeconomic status. I'm a girl and I do science/math. If a guy seriously is concerned about the lack of women in STEM then do some outreach and encourage young women to pursue science. If you don't care enough to do that then you really don't need to be insulting us. I have totally noticed that unlike my male peers, I have to prove myself. Men don't seem to want to ask me to be in groups for projects or ask me questions they like do men in the class. It is only after I kick their butt on the midterm that they seem to take me seriously.

Don't do that... If the prof has a deadline to respond then its because he really needs a student and if you can't do it then he needs to make an offer to someone else. Doing this would be super selfish and screw over the prof and hurt your reputation in the field. Do you want to run into someone you screwed over at all the conferences in your field? Anyway, I totally think it is appropriate to ask for an extension if you are very seriously considering the offer. I would let the professor know that you are in the process of making a decision and will not know by that date. Tell him that you are seriously considering the offer and will keep him updated as you make decisions. If at any time you decide that you will definitely not accept the offer because you got into another school that is a better fit then let him know right away so that he can ask someone else. I have already had to do this with a school who wanted me to respond to an offer in a couple weeks. Schools/profs totally understand that you might not be able to make a decision by then. They have to balance waiting on their top choice candidates and moving on to their next choices before its too late. My advice to go about this process honestly and both you and the school will come out of the process happy and on good terms.

I would definitely be careful this situation still! Keep a few things in mind.. She will probably be aware of the fact that some students she is interested may go somewhere else. Because of this, I would say that it is super likely that she has multiple students that she is interested in and trying to make offers to. If she is this famous then multiple students will probably want to rotate with her. How will you feel if she only can take one student and goes with someone else? Will you regret your decision if that happens? If there are multiple professors you like at Chicago then I would strongly consider their offer. I am actually even nervous about one program because there are only 2 people who I really like there. I will probably only accept an offer from a school with 4+ professors in my subfield. I want options. I want to be able to try to out mentoring styles during rotations and find the one that I prefer. All of this said, you have decide what is most important to you! My advice is to make sure you consider possible regrets in both directions and try to minimize those.

I think it is fairly normal for schools to put a date in the letter that they want you to respond by. I have gotten 2 offers so far and both had this. That DOES NOT mean that they are forcing you to respond by then. It is likely something that they put in all the letters to avoid getting dragged around. When I inquired further about this to both programs, they just said that they would appreciate being kept updated but that I could take as long as I needed. They asked that I just let them know as soon as I am no longer seriously considering their offer. Everyone is playing the same game... They have to juggle waiting for their top choice students with also sending offers to their second choices before they already accept somewhere else. I think the the best way to handle this is to be honest with programs and to only hold a couple offers at once to your top picks. I would just send a polite email to the school and say that you are really interested in the program but want to visit a few places in person before making a decision. I would also mention that funding information will be an important part of your decision and see if you can get that info before deciding.

I answered that I appreciated the admission offer and would like to visit the school and meet with professors before making a decision. if you already visited, you could easily just add a line that you will let them know as soon as you make a final decision. That would make it clear that you are still deciding.

I don't think I would prepare questions. You should just go have a genuine conversation with awesome scientists. They will ask about what you have done and are interested in and then will tell you about their work. They will probably choose a project that fits best with your interests to talk about. You should ask questions throughout that but you don't need to prep them. I feel like you either know the literature in your field and can comment on this sort of stuff or you don't. Also, they don't expect you to know everything, just know your interests and show curiosity. For example, I do computational studies of proteins and one of my best conversations was with someone who uses experimental methods which I know nothing about. Some of my questions were seriously like "I would study that idea with X computational technique but am not familiar with experimental methods. What sort of methods would you use to study that?" Its ok to not know stuff. They don't want someone who knows everything, they want someone who loves science and is curious. That interview went way over time and then he approached me to chat more at dinner. Just be yourself.

I didn't interview there but I'm curious about what you mean by weird time.

I agree that you don't need to mention it now. If they make you an offer then you should mention the concern at that point (before accepting). That is when they will probably be most accommodating since they will be trying to recruit you.

I am from NC and one of my top choice schools is UNC. I really want to get out of NC and live somewhere new but UNC has such great research for my interests! I totally understand being torn between the two.

I definitely wouldn't act open to their research if you are not. If you do that and are accepted then you might find yourself at a school where you don't fit at all. You seriously don't find any aspect of their research interesting? I think that the research of just about any scientist would interest me... not to the point that I will go study it of course but I can generally pick out SOMETHING interesting that I would want to ask questions about. I would try to find points of common interest (even if they are small) and discuss those. Or maybe you use similar methods even though you study different topics and you can ask about the facilities for those methods or something. I would try to look at this from the perspective that you get to have awesome conversations with tons of brilliant scientists who could be your future professors. Find out what brought them to this school and what the best aspects of the school/culture are. Don't fake who you are or what your interests are but it never hurts to be open minded.

Anyone else on here apply to the Joint Pitt/CMU computational bio program? It looks like they sent interviews around Jan20-25 in the previous years. I have not been contacted and haven't seen anyone post results for this program this year.

This is definitely not ok.

I doubt it works like that. I bet they decided how many people to bring based on budget and if they already bought your ticket then they used their budget on you. My personal opinion is that you committed to this school and should follow through with hat commitment.

My undergrad degree is in math and I took a class like this during my sophomore year, after multivar Calc and linear algebra. You can definitely handle this class. Just spend some extra time with material since people with math majors may pick up the information a bit faster.

Have flights been booked yet for the interviews? I think that would be the biggest factor for me. I wouldn't want to screw over a program that already bought my ticket. If they haven't bought the ticket yet then I think this is less of an issue.

Agree with this. Don't draw more attention to it. I was at an interview this weekend and the grad students told a story about a prospective student who got drunk. He took his clothes off in the hotel and was naked for a while apparently. He was admitted to the program. Someone got drunk and threw up this weekend apparently. People were laughing about it the next day but no one seriously cared.