DuongVat

Congrats!

My papers that are in actual peer reviewed journals I will keep on until I (hopefully) have enough to start doing "selected publications". For my presentations, I will probably phase those out much sooner (probably by the end of grad school if I present enough). I don't want them to water down my work that has a bit more impact, and is a bit more recent.

The grad students who helped with the interview weekend were asked to give recommendations with a deadline of today. I would think invites would come soon, but that bit is not in my control.

It was fun talking to you guys! It's a little bit weird knowing that I talked to some of you (make believe!) forum people in real life, without actually being able to connect the face to the username. But I'm sure at some point we got to talk, and based upon what was said in conversation regarding research interests, and matching that to the forums I think most of us can make pretty reasonable guesses as to who is who ^_~. For better or worse, what you saw this weekend was an accurate representation of what it is actually like here. In terms of research, as well as interaction between faculty and graduate students, and interactions between graduate students and graduate students. No one really attempted to hide anything about the program, since it is to no one's benefit to have someone come here only for them to find out they hate it. Rumor has it from the powers-that-be that out of all of the people interviewed, about 85% will get accepted. Maybe I'll see you again in August!

I don't have an exact number, but it feels like a majority of people who interview get accepted.

The presentation won't be a big deal, as long as you practice a bit. MSU has been closed the last two days, so Becky/Betty have been unable to send out information regarding the interview weekends. Most people get a graduate student to take them around to their interviews and whatnot, and that has all been assigned internally already. The university will almost certainly be open tomorrow, and with it the information regarding interview weekends should be sent. If any of you have any questions, feel free to ask. I am a current student at MSU. See you all there!

Michigan State

At least here, that's not the case. All of the applications that were submitted before the deadline were divided up between members of the admissions committee for them to read individually, regardless of submission date. After all applications were read by the respective committee members the entire committee met and decided who to send interview invites to. After the committee met, the interview invites were sent the next business day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uUlOAyQsn4 I always watch this video when things just are not going my way and I feel like quitting.

Ah, cool cool. Perhaps we will meet then

Which program inside of BMS did you guys apply to?

Just eyeballing it I would say that maybe 20% are in state, 50% out of state and 30% international. Edit: For what it's worth, though, most of the out of state people are from the general mid-west region that michigan is in. Mostly Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin, etc. People from the south are probably scared of the cold up here, which is why there are not so many of them. For those in that situation though, I promise it is not that bad. People typically get used to the cold after a few months.

Very many. For the most part at an interview you stick with people applying to the same program (inside the BMS program) as you, like CMB, BMB or Genetics. There were either 2 or 3 interview weekends (can't remember) and at least in the CMB program there was about 30 people at each.

Yeah. The rule of thumb to go by here (and probably everywhere) is that not everyone you interact with has the power to accept your application. However, anyone could possibly have your application rejected by telling the director that you were rude to people.

I would just think briefly about what you would say if someone asked you the exact question "So tell me a bit about your research". I wouldn't waste your time reading every paper from every professor who interviews you, they are going to assume you don't know who they are, and they will explain everything on pretty basic terms. Just think of a few general questions to ask them, and also maybe bring some questions for the grad students who show you around as well. The people showing you around/taking you to dinner don't really have enough power to push for your acceptance. But just make sure you're polite and stuff to them, since the director asks the grad students about you as a person, and if the grad student says you were rude to everyone or something, it could lead to a rejection.