rexzeppelin

Not on the results page, but my good friend just got accepted and posted this on facebook and said "all of my emotions in one gif."
 
Here is the gif:
 
 
http://imgur.com/E9b2ekZ

My favorite rejection comment: 
 
Didn't even want to get in. I applied for the irony. These tears are from laughter.

... that I got accepted into Yale? Do you think this will boost my chances of getting in because they'll be thinking, "Oh, damn, we have to accept him too because if Yale wants him then we want him too!" OR do you think they're going to think, "Well, if he got accepted into Yale then we don't have to waste a spot for him here."
 
Either way, should I tell Harvard? What are the pros and cons?

YAYYYY! Just received my official acceptance to UC Berkeley Integrative Biology! I am officially going to grad school in the fall!!!!!!!!!!
 
Edit: I accidentally upvoted myself and now I can't undo it. However, in reflection, I would upvote it again lol

AHHHHHHH! Just got a phone call, I'm in at Stanford Dev Bio!!!!!!!!!! 

Oh my god I'm going to grad school 
Acceptance from Boston University this morning.

Acceptance to Yale BBS MMPP track! Seriously beyond excited - world's greatest birthday gift!! I will be accepting and heading to New Haven in the fall! I hope to see some of you there!
 
*wanders off to buy Yale merchandise*

Hell to the YEAH. Accepted into U Chicago Ecology and Evolution! Will be attending. 

Berkeley MCB acceptance phone call today (interviewed earlier this week) and UW immuno acceptance a couple of days ago (interviewed last week). Dream programs! So excited! Exclamation points all around!

Got into UConn! No word on funding or when I could visit, just an acceptance on the website. I have options! Woo.

Just finished my last interview! Time to sleep...
 

I also agree that this difference in prestige is very small and probably not going to matter. At the same time, the difference between "decent" and "excellent" research fit might not be that big either. In terms of thinking about post-PhD career plans options, here are some of my thoughts. I am not in your field and know pretty much nothing about it though, so I'll just offer thoughts and let you decide what is actually relevant.
 
1. What do you mean by "research fit" precisely? Do you mean that you get along well with the faculty and that the faculty there do exactly what you want to work on? Or do you mean that the program has a very strong research program and the right resources to help you achieve your goals. In my opinion, one of the things you can be flexible about is the exact topic of research. So, to me, I never looked for graduate schools based on the exact topic I wanted my PhD thesis to be on. Instead, I made a list of certain goals/skills/experiences I wanted to achieve during my PhD and my choice of "fit" is the place that will let me enable these goals. For example, I wanted to learn how to use telescopes and become an observational astronomer. This meant that my "topic" fit can be anything that is observational in the department, whether it's asteroids in our Solar Systems or planets in other solar systems. 
 
So, in my opinion, I don't usually think of "fit" as "I want to study [topic X]" but rather "I want to become good at [skill X]".
 
2. Related to the above, what about the resources available to you at each of these programs? Let's say that I did want to study topic X, subtopic Y using telescope observations. However, sometimes a school with the best research fit (many experts on topic X, subtopic Y) might have fewer resources available to you than a school with only a decent research fit (some experts on topic X, but they mostly work on subtopic Z). You will be much more likely to succeed when you have the resources available to you. Resources can be things like funding to attend conferences, funding to "buy you out" of other commitments like TAships (unless developing a strong teaching background is your PhD goal, then you might want the opposite of this!), equipment to do experiments, good location/big city where a lot of other academics will visit and give seminars, etc. 
 
In my opinion, if I am indeed a badass scientist, I would be better off where I have the most resources to fulfill my maximum badass potential.
 
3. I also don't think PhD students need to be completely 100% in love with their PhD thesis/work. You definitely need to not hate it and be miserable, but really, you might only need to tolerate it. I think it's hard to stay as freshly motivated and in love with a topic after 4-5 years. And, for most that are entering grad school, we probably have 2-4 years max of research experience in the field. Our research careers (if we go that route) will probably be 40+ years long. Even after grad school, we would have only completed a tiny fraction of our total research career. So, I think this means two things. First, how can we really really know what we actually like to research--our exposure to our field is pretty small. Second, it's not like what we do in grad school is going to dictate the rest of our research careers. Most professors I know change paths after grad school. Many postdocs I work with do not work on the same topics as they did in their PhDs just a few years ago. The field is changing all the time, so it makes sense for our interests and research goals to change too.
 
4. So, also related to the above, if you are mainly concerned about post-PhD career plans, instead of worrying about research fit with your choice of topic, I'd consider more about the program's research fit with what kind of work you want to do later on. For people in my field, I'd advise them to work on topics that will be likely to get grants/jobs in a few years. One way to think about this is to think about what space missions are scheduled to arrive at their destinations at the time of graduation. At this point, there will be a ton of data, and lots of people looking for scientists who know how to interpret it and analyse it etc. For other fields, I would suggest a similar approach for whatever big projects that exist there. 
 
Also, if your eventual career goals are not research based, then consider that in your decision too. For example, there are some schools in my field that are very research heavy and has very little emphasis on teaching. Grad students might only work as a TA for a couple of semesters in their whole degree. This is not going to be an ideal place for someone whose career goal is to work in a primarily teaching position. 
 
5. Finally, one thing I also did consider is prestige of the school outside of your field in case you are interested in working outside of your field. There are some schools in my field that are not very big names to public as academic powerhouses but they are very well known to be the best within the field. But if you are looking for a job in industry or something outside of academia, it would help more to have the shiny school brand name even though the program might not be as good as the one at the less shiny brand name (of course, usually the best program in the field will make the other 4 points here better, so I would say this is one of the least important points). Also, if you are planning to work outside of academia in a certain geographical area (e.g. not the US) then perhaps the bigger name schools will have more international recognition. 
 
Hope these were some useful thoughts to think about and help you

Well if your goal is to study X then you probably wont reach it by studying Y in grad school, prestige or not!

I don't think so but you decide for yourself. For 1.5 years of tuition not including anything else you will have $60,000 of loans to pay off. The cost of living in Boston is really high and if you get lucky and find something cheap and try to cook at home and not drink you would probably spend around $20,000 for a year and a half. The school has almost no money for student orgs, so little scholarships that you should bet on not having a chance at getting them, and no work-study jobs unless you want to become a full time employee. There is a drop in the bucket merit scholarship given to students when accepted which is usually around $10,000.

So all together the most minimum cost you are looking at is $80,000 and if you subtract the scholarship you will be in $70,000 of debt.

Is that worth it? Is Boston offering some extraordinary education that just can’t be offered at a lower tuition or compensated with more scholarships?

Absolutely not!!!

Just to let you know something like 40% of the tuition from the MPH goes to the medical school. It's like the MPH is the med-school's side business. And the education structure at BUSPH does not favor students. In fact the way the classes are scheduled is detrimental to student education. The classes meet once a week for 3 hours for a 4 unit class. I never adjusted to a 3 hour class in the evenings where the teacher kept skipping through slides because she was more tired than the students. By the way there are almost no classes in the mornings. Most classes are at night. Making your way home on foot or public transport at 8 or 9pm during wenter temperatures less than 20F is torture. It is much warmer in the day during the winter. The school isn't thinking about the students.

Take note that a 4 unit class costs $5,000. If you are planning on studying international health and working in Africa... you should not tell any of the people you will be working with how much you paid for school. They will call you a hypocrite and question your ability to set priorities. In the most health deprived areas of Africa a family struggles to make annually just a forth of the money you pay for one class at BU. If you want to help Africa why spend the rest of your life making a salary off of the disparity there while paying $70,000 (not including interest) to banks. I think it would be better if you skip the MPH and donate even a small fraction of that would be loan money (even if it is on credit) to send African students to school!

The education at BUSPH is nothing you couldn't get by reading on your own, finding a mentor in public health, and volunteering/working for a public health oriented institution.

What you learn in school is not comparable to what you will have to teach yourself while working. An MPH is a professional skill building degree. It's not like you will focus on one topic and learn everything you need to know about it. Not even 2 years of is not enough time for that in an MPH especially when the quality of education for public health students is an afterthought to the institution.

Anyway you decide what is best for you. But as someone who has gone to BUSPH, who is working in public health, and who has several friends from all the major schools of public health.... I say you are a fool to think the $70,000 at BU is worth it.

You are much better off working in a restaurant to pay your bills, working hard for no pay at a public health institution, and reading as much as you can about public health (there are tons of information and books out there that courses at BU don't even talk about). After you do this for a year you will have $0 debt, a whole year of work experience, and probably a more real and genuine understanding of public health than an MPH at BU will give you. If you did this with dedication and discipline, you would be equally or more employable than someone with a MPH. Also remember some employers will pay for you to take classes they think you might need.

Don't get exploited! Only go to school if it's free or almost free!

Acceptance via email from Weill/SKI BCMB program, looks like a generic email sent to everyone.
 
I will likely end up accepting their offer. Glad to be done with this process, best of luck to everyone else!

The last day of my last interview is tomorrow, and I have to say that I am so glad it is almost over. I've had a lot of fun, but I'm also soooo tired! Very glad that the end is in sight (: 

Just got my acceptance notification from Duke pharmacology That's the one I'll be taking ... Super excited to have the application process done!

I just got my first acceptance: Tufts Sackler for molecular microbio!!!!!!

The problem at UNC appears to be the grad departments delaying on the decision process... Actually, the real problem is the entity that sends out the official decisions. Many of the grad departments are not allowed to send out the decisions themselves; instead they issue a decision to the graduate school who then sends it to you. It is a darn shame but with the budget cuts NC has experienced in the past few years at the university level, all of those "extra" personnel that helped to make application season run more smoothly are now out of a job. If the way the grad school handles this process is enough to make you turn them down even if offered admission, its too bad... But from what I have been told, the professors and admissions people in each department or school are equally frustrated. I had to call four times about getting my application status and the department person told me they had sent out all offers of admission but that the graduate school was the only way they were allowed to communicate those offers, and I should be hearing shortly. After my fourth call /email, my decision was finally made available on the online site, and there is no evidence that my calls had anything to do with it actually being made available at that time, either.

It's sad that a department of mostly clerical staff, not related to the academic disciplines for which we apply, have so much affect on admissions and in turn, may cost them some great MA and PhD students.

Let's just hope that you can find a very prolific lab for your thesis!
 
 

I knew when my interviews went well because I enjoyed them and the professors seemed excited to be talking with me. We kept going off on tangents about topics in science and agreeing with each other's opinions and finishing each other's sentences. Some of the professors would walk me to my next interview and then stand outside the door with me for several minutes and continue the conversation. A few people even directly told me they were impressed with me or started saying "oh well this is something you could do in my lab".
 
So far I've heard back and been accepted to the programs I interviewed with, but they did mention that they wouldn't be making most of their decisions until March when the official acceptances go out.
 
For what it's worth, some of my interviews felt awkward, too. But I think maybe if you hit it off with at least a couple faculty then you are in a good position to be accepted.

I'm sorry to hear that mbiochem but I think you might get potentially get a more 'real' look at the program since they could let their guard down on a weekend that's not a full-blown recruitment type thing. And since there won't be as many other prospective students you'll have more opportunities to talk with current students and see what they're like amongst themselves, when not in entertaining-mode

I don't send thank you emails. When an interview is over I shake their hand firmly and say, "I really appreciate you taking the time out of your day to speak with me. It was a pleasure." A thank you email would basically say the same thing as that, so I don't feel like it's necessary. But that's probably just me.

Yale BBS was really fun!

Accepted to WashU DBBS - MCB track!!! Yahoooo! A total top choice after visiting St. Louis!