No Coffee Plz

I've completed 2 interviews so far, and have 3 more coming up. The most difficult questions for me to answer have consistently been "Why our school/department?" "Why did you choose me as a POI over others?" Of course I have reasons why I chose them, but I can't really formulate much more than "I like this program". Anyone have suggestions?

First official rejection letter... from Rockefeller. Good luck to all those who got interviews!

I agree that it would have helped you. Whether you should take it or not mostly depends on the quality of your coursework.

On the GRE Subject Test: I did not take it based on the advice given to me by upperclassmen who were accepted to top-notch biology PhD programs (hint: neither of them took it). One explicitly said it's a waste of money if one has a good GPA in my school. I heard that a rule of thumb is, you take the GRE Subject Test if 1)Your GPA in the subject is not too great and you need to redeem yourself, or 2)your undergrad school does not have a competitive program in the field. My major GPA is good, and my undergrad institution has a rigorous biochemistry program (my major), so that's why I'm guessing they didn't count me off (they still explicitly said that lack of the GRE Subject Test will work as a disadvantage against you). I'm assuming other parts of the application probably outweighed the absence. After seeing that the GRE subject test is required, I almost did cross Scripps off my list too, but then I was like "oh well". They don't have an application fee anyways (if I remember correctly).

Same here! I almost had a heart attack when opening the email. Congrats.

Well this is a little bit overwhelming. Scripps Research Institute (Florida) just gave me an interview offer. Feb 13-15 or Feb 27 - Mar 1. They said they noted my interest in the CA campus (I applied to both) but acknowledges that the the La Jolla Campus is not done reviewing the applications yet. FYI to students who applied to the CA campus. Also, I didn't take the GRE subject test (Scripps is the only institution that requires it), and they scared me by saying my application will be put at an disadvantage... but I guess they didn't care after all haha.

MIT Biology interview just came out for me. Feb 10th, Feb 24th, Mar 10th.

I just got a Stanford Biosciences (Genetics) Interview. Feb. 26 - Mar. 2

BostonBio153, you're my positive control. According to your signature, MIT & Rockefeller have not sent out their interviews yet haha

I think it might be possible that they had an internal deadline for you to respond. For example, BCM explicitly asked me to respond within 3 days. But then, Harvard sent out all the invites in one wave (I have not heard of any additional sends), so the interview pool might be closed. You should ask.

Last year's records seem to indicate that Stanford Biosciences send out interviews via email throughout second week of January. Exact date seem to differ per individual department. Only biophysics seem to send out interview offers via snail mail.

Oh yeah, it felt like I just had gulped down two cups of coffee in 5 seconds. Haha. According to last year's records, they send out all the interview offers on one day and then send all the rejections at once about one week afterwards. Fingers crossed, everyone.

I am also an international student (F-1) already studying in the United States. The policy for non-U.S. citizens/permanent residents vary from school to school, but generally, the bar is set higher for internationals. On one end, I believe in some schools everyone is combined into one applicant pool (i.e. no procedural difference between Americans and non-Americans), while on the other extreme they are basically considered two very different applications. I think generally, the interviews are sent out at the same time as the domestic students (I currently have 2 interview offers; applied to 9). But really, kevintoy, I think we all should wait till late January to get a good idea. I know that many state schools discriminate against foreign nationals because the tuition system makes us more expensive to support (I heard this from my PI). There is a thing called "tuition remission." All graduate students are charged tuition, and usually the program and/or the PI pays that amount to the school on behalf of the student. As we all know, state schools have separate in-state and out-of-state tuitions, and while U.S. citizens and permanent residents can establish residency in the new state to qualify for in-state, we can't do that, and thus we are more expensive to support. Some UC schools take this to the extreme (UCSD BMS: admits 1 out 300 international applicants). We also face differential treatment in many private institutions because we're not eligible for federally-funded training grants. The epitome of these types of grants is of course the NIH training grant. But generally, it's not as bad, and I've seen some biology departments with 30%> international student population, from which I inferred that the playing level is almost even. It really is case by case depending on the school or even the individual departments. Of course, these restrictions sit on top of any language barriers we still might have. I think I rambled on a bit... but I presume it'll be nice to have a post from an international student perspective. Cheers to everyone out there, Eagle Passport or not haha

Hello nermah1. Although I am applying to general umbrella programs in biology and also in nutrition, the lab I currently work in is a plant genetics lab (Arabidopsis). Happy to see a fellow plant person haha. What's your model organism in your current lab? I also happen to be an international student as well, although I am attending my undergrad here in the States and my English is pretty much native.

Wow. I was looking through the archives, and in 2011, Rockefeller rejected someone with a 4.0 and a undergrad publication in Nature. From what I know Rockefeller didn't do in-person interviews back then, correct? So it wasn't like the applicant blew his interview or whatever....