mbiochem

Hey, I'm a current grad student in Baltimore on the homewood campus. I've never ever ever had any problems with crime. Also on and around the homewood campus, there are security cars EVERYWHERE. It's pretty safe here. I'm a female and I've walked home in the middle of the night hundreds of times alone and I have never had any problems. Lately I have been taking the super convenient security shuttle which picks me up at my building at night and drives me right to my house. There are bad neighborhoods, but you will never have any reason to go there. Seriously do not let crime be the reason why you decide not to come here.

Yeah, I didn't send out thank you emails either. My plan is to send out some emails when I have finished my interviews and I am trying to make a decision.

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.

That's a good point. That makes me feel a little better about it

Yes, I am pretty disappointed that the Yale interview got cancelled this weekend. I can't make the date they rescheduled it to. They are saying they will work with you to find a time to visit if you can't visit next weekend... but I feel like I'm not going to get the same sense for the program if I come down on a random weekend.

WUSTL has been super responsive and really friendly

I have research experience but not an unusual amount. I have worked in 2 labs and I have about 3 years of research experience. Almost 2 years of that was full time and both of my PIs are well respected. However, I don't have any papers yet and I never did any poster presentations or a senior thesis or anything. I will have a review out soon, but I didn't at the time I applied. I don't quite understand how people are chosen either. Based on the forums, I thought I wasn't going to get an invite from any of the programs I applied to. But I managed to get invites from all of the programs I applied to... so clearly there is hope for "upward trend" people. You have a lot of research experience and an impressive graduate GPA so I think you are underselling yourself by only hoping for Top 50. And thanks! Hopefully I will get accepted somewhere

To those of you waiting to hear from Scripps, I just got an interview invite a couple hours ago.

Ditto on the the Yale application! I just kept following links for a while until I realized I was going in circles. And there were a lot of dead links. But the application itself wasn't too bad.

My GRE scores are only slightly higher than yours and my GPA is a 3.7.... but I was a transfer student from a community college and I failed some classes at the community college and got some other low grades. However, I applied to all top 10 programs and so far I have gotten an interview at every school I applied to (except I am still waiting on Scripps). To be honest... I'm not sure why I have been doing so well with getting invites. But here are some explanations I have come up with: 1. I took graduate level coursework as an undergraduate and did very well. You have a high graduate GPA, I think that will work in your favor 2. I had really good LORs. 3. Like you, there's an upward trend in my performance 4. My SOP was a borderline love story about science. I have ADD, too, and a lot of weird twists and turns in my academic history. However, I didn't talk about my ADD or give any specifics about any problems I've had. I just briefly mentioned that I overcame my "life difficulties" and learned how to be a good student because I am enthusiastic about my studies. I didn't try to make any excuses for my shortcomings, I simply briefly acknowledged them and then argued that overcoming my past shows that I'm persistent. TL;DR: - It seems like an upward trend can make up for some mistakes in the past. Don't be too discouraged by your undergrad GPA! - I wouldn't talk about your ADD. Acknowledge that you've had challenges, but make the emphasis on how you have changed. I can see where you are coming from, but the reviewer might see it as whining if you talk about your ADD. - Use the essays well. A boring SOP might not hurt a student with a high GPA... but I think an impressive SOP can help balance out your application if it has some rough spots. Good luck!

I got the same dates for Weill Cornell BCMB

I don't think it matters if you get the applications in early. I got all of my applications in literally minutes before the deadline and so far I have gotten interviews at all of the programs I applied to, except for one. For one school, I actually didn't get it in by the deadline and I still got an invite to the program. Also, one of my letters of recommendation didn't get in until a week after the deadline. That being said, it was pretty stressful trying to submit everything last minute... so you might want to get them done early for your own sanity, even if it doesn't really affect how competitive your application is.

If anyone is waiting to hear from Hopkins Biophysics, I got an invite from them today.

Hi! For those of you who received invites from Yale BBSB... have you gotten a more detailed email yet? I'm getting nervous because I accepted the invite but I haven't gotten anything about travel arrangements yet. The other schools I heard from have been sending me a bunch of emails, so I'm a little worried that they never got my email accepting the invite.

Have you thought about the University of Rochester?