microarray

1) Every application is completely different. 2) There are no stats on how many interviews are offerred at universities. You can see how many students applied and how many accepted, but no info on how many interviewed. 3) Applications that don't let you submit letters of rec requests until you're finished applying. (note to anyone reading this in the future, apply a few weeks early in case this happens!)

I had such a great time this weekend. After the presentation was over, I was much more relaxed, and the interviews were really casual. I talked to Dr. DePres on Satruday night and he said that they would be getting back to us within a week. They'll go through all applicants and make 3 piles: accept, waitlist, and reject. He mentioned they will not be able to take as many students this year as they usually do. My roommate talked to one of the grad secretaries and she mentioned they were going to be extending offers to around 80 students. Out of 58 (first weekend) + 40 something (second weekend), this is really good odds that most of us will get in! *fingers crossed* DuongVat - no idea if i met you, but I really appreciated how nice all grad students were. I was blown away by how much I liked MSU! Seems like such a great community and a great place to do science

Finished my last application today to Brown (EEB). Feels weird to only apply to 4 schools, but I decided not to apply to my 5th choice (Oregon State University). I really want to go to UMich and I'm anxiously awaiting an interview invitation! I know the committe won't be sending out any invites for at least another week.

I saw in results that someone got an interview at University of Oregon for the Biology department. However there are 4 institutes (sub-departments) within the Biology department. Does anyone know if they hold separate interviews for the different departments? *worried :/

Can you tell me what brand of boots you have? I'm vegan, and i'm having difficulty finding warm, non-leather boots. Great idea, i'll ask ahead and see if there's a place to store boots. I'm pretty sure I will have to walk far across campus, so it will be nice to have snow boots to keep my toes nice and warm! Thanks!

What about schools that will definitely have snow on campus? Is it inappropriate to wear snow boots?

As far as I can tell, most schools don't send out invites until mid January, unless they have recruitment/interview weekends in January.

Oo I like your icon! Twin Peaks = best. I think the best advice is to look at all possible departments and see who you would want to work with, and go from there. Apply to places where there are multiple people that you'd like to work with - if they do lab rotations. Personally, i'm more drawn to the ecology departments, but I think that's just due to my strong interest in microbial community ecology. I also want to have an even stronger background in ecology and evolution. I should add that it took me several months of research to find microbial ecologists that I was really interested in, and I had to look in several departments. But, I mainly focused on schools that were in the states that I could see myself living in for the next 5-6 years.

Microbiology, you?

Most people on this forum are the good students, trying to figure out how to make our applications even better. Your GPA is definitely competitive. People with 4.0 seem to be going for Biochem or something like that - and maybe the expectation is to have a 4.0. I highly doubt that being an international student will hurt you as long as you have relavant research experience, great LOR, and great SOP. I think a lot of grad programs are full of international students Best of luck!!

I really doubt they'd want to see them at the interview. As long as you don't fail your classes, i'm sure it's fine. Try not to stress either way.

I asked her the dress code for the events. Some schools are super casual, and some aren't. I just don't want to be over or underdressed. Slacks, blouses, blazers, etc aren't part of my daily clothing, and I don't want to buy them if I don't have to.

Dang, your application deadline must have been early. EEB dept application deadline isn't until Jan 7.

Seriously! eep. Good luck to you, too.

I'm not really sure. Do you know what schools it conflicts with? I think for most schools, if you can't make a weekend - you can come the following weekend and interview, etc.

Has anyone gone through the interview process at Michigan State before? I am extremely nervous about the presentation that we have to give and I want to be as prepared as I can. Also, I'm confused about the whole process. Call - invited for interview weekend, but email stated that it was a recruitment weekend. So if I got an invite does this mean I have a really good chance of getting accepted? Also - what do people wear to interview here? I tried asking the Grad Coordinator but she won't respond to my email. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

FYI If you applied to UMich EEB - invites won't be sent out until ~Jan 20, interview weekend Feb 13-15 (info from a potential PI who happens to be on the admissions committee this year)

Same here! I'm nervous about the weekend, especially since we have to give a presentation!!

Not to derail the topic - but where did you get an interview? I just got an interview for Michigan State To add to the topic- I did really horrible on GRE and I did not expect to get interviewed from schools that seem to stress importance of high GRE score. I think the most important thing is that your research is relavent, and you are really excited about grad school. You know what you want to do and why you want to do it. Hang in there!

Honestly, I felt the exact same way. I got extremely low scores on everything on GRE. I'm so embarrased that i refuse to post them - really does not reflect my ability to communicate or to do math. I have a very high GPA, 2 years of research experience, great LORs, scholarships/awards, first to go to college in my family, and I think - stellar SOP + PS. I was terrified that my GRE score may keep me from getting into grad school. Last week - I received a phone call from Michigan State University inviting me for an interview (less than 2 weeks after I applied). I was shocked, given their program boasts about the GRE average school is super high and yada yada yada. Now, I think that I have a good chance of getting interviews at most of the schools that I applied to. If your application is strong besides GRE, don't worry. Most schools look at you as a whole package. Hang in there.

Also, make sure to email your CV - this can tell them a lot about you GPA/where you went for your undergrad/scholarships/awards/publications/research esperience, etc. I also included relavent coursework on mine.