ashcanpete
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Posts posted by ashcanpete
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Accepted at UChicago! Excited to be in the windy city next year!
- nermah1, pyrocide, iheartplants and 4 others
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Just got an invite to skype interview with Syracuse. They aren't my first choice, but that's off topic. Does anyone know why they'd elect for a 20-30 min skype interview as opposed to an in person visit? I've never heard of skype interviews for domestic applicants before. Additionally, a lab mate of mine received the same email to skype interview with them, so its not just me. Any thoughts?
Penn Biology has skype interviews for the first round and on-campus interview afterwards. It might have to do with budget. Do they have any follow-up interview though?
I don't think it is a budget constraint for the Penn Biology interviws. Most US schools typically accept about 80% of the domestic interviewees (there are expections, e.g. Columbia). In other words, most schools already invite close to the minimum number of students the they can for on-campus interviews (probably because of budget constraints). As such, these interview weekends are largely there for recruitment purposes. If they're going to do a pre-screening round on Skype, then that would actually add to the expenditures of the interview process (taking up several professors time is expensive). My guess is they really wanted to interview more people at least at a basic level before essentially admitting them by inviting them to the on-campus interview, so they added in this "first round" of Skype interviews.
If they do some Skype interviews as the only round (like it sounds like they are doing at Syracuse), of course that would save some money. In that case I don't know what fraction of people would be accepted afterwards. They could keep the ratio similar to the on-campus numbers, but it could also be a more selective process because of the lesser cost per interview. Very weird that would give out 2 different types of invites to domestic applicants. Are you located really far from Syracuse, MackF?
Edit: Nevermind just saw you listed PA in your sig. Strange about this, maybe its up to the professors that are doing the interviews. Could be you just happened to get matched to some PIs that prefer Skype interviews.
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Got my North Carolina itinerary. I didn't get interviews with my top two POIs. The ones I did get are tangentially related to my research interests (they're cardiac, I'm interesting in musculoskeletal dev). One is completely different (cancer), but I'm assuming they're on the adcom? Is it common for an assistant prof to be on the adcom?
Considering I was pretty explicit in my interests in my SOP, how should I approach the cardiac interviewers? I don't want to come off as uninterested, but unfortunately the people I'm meeting with are not my top POIs and I think that shows with the descrepancy in my SOP versus their work.
Finally, there are six scheduled interview slots but I only got a list of five interviewers. Is this common? Will I get a mystery person day-of, or just skip a slot? Thanks a bunch, guys!
Also, if anyone else is going to UNC this weekend, shoutout to you! Hope to meet you there!
Yes it is very common to get POIs you did not ask for. don't worry about getting profs you didn't ask for. There will likely be about 40 or more inteviewees, making it impossible to schedule 200 individual interviews. PIs are busy enough as it is, or they could be out of town, etc. The empty one interview slot you should have free to do whatever, though there will be a location to hang out with other applicants. The extra slot just helps with the scheduling.
Yeah I totally agree with what mop said, this happens all the time. At my Northwestern NUIN interview weekend, I got scheduled for 2 people I didn't request, and both were fine. Also, one of my interviews got switched to a different PI (but another one I requested) about 2 hours before the interviews started. And then, about 5 min before my first interview there, they discovered that the PI was out of town (and he didn't tell anyone, lol). They switched me to someone I hadn't asked for, but it was totally fine and I enjoyed hearing about his research and telling him about mine. In the end, I liked all of my interviews, and it all worked out great. (I got accepted!)
I've been told that they mainly want to see if you can converse intelligently about science in general. They're not necessarily interested in discussing every detail of your or their research. Anyway, don't sweat it too much, they really just want to get to know you, so just relax and be yourself.
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Hey all,
I posted this in another thread but would love as much feedback as possible so I'm posting here as well - hopefully I'm not being too annoying
I was recently lucky enough to get an acceptance for a school very high on my list - so high that some of the schools that I am scheduled to interview at, while great, are no longer places I would consider going. I don't want to waste anyone's time interviewing somewhere I know I won't go and potentially taking up acceptances from people who want them more, so I'm inclined to cancel these interviews. However, all of these places have already paid for my airline tickets via a travel agent and presumably booked me a hotel room (though this is likely easier to cancel). Also, all of these visits are scheduled for within the next few weeks: the first one is THURSDAY!!! What do I do?
I would feel bad either way and would honestly prefer to cancel (I have 7 interviews scheduled and am already exhausted) but I'm concerned that canceling will produce ill will at these institutions, which I certainly don't want.
I feel bad about the situation, but honestly I don't think it could have been avoided: I only got this acceptance less than a week ago, and I wasn't even sure I would hear before the end of January, which wouldn't have left enough time to book many of these flights.
Is it acceptable to politely and very apologetically cancel? Is there a minimum number of days of warning that I should give? What would you do?
Thanks for any advice, and congrats to all of you getting acceptances
!!!Do the right thing and cancel - it will allow schools to consider other students. when touch base with the schools just be honest that you decided already on to do PHD in school X...If you've totally made up your mind, then yes I'd say cancel. However, if there's even a small chance you may attend these other schools, don't feel bad at all about interviewing there. Yes, you will likely take up some PIs' time and there is some possibility that you'll prevent someone else from being interviewed (not likely though, this is what post-interview wait-lists are for). But consider the substantial time and effort you've committed to each school you applied to (not to mention the years of effort required to become an acceptable applicant even before you apply).You have fully earned the right to interview at every school that invites you, and you shouldn't feel guilty, even if its just to check out the campus and meet potential future collaborators.
Also, that plane ticket is already booked, so that is a sunk cost at this point.
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I have to laugh when I see my signature now, because I swear, I really did apply to programs outside Boston, too! But for some reason all my interviews are there!
Lol, I know what you mean. I applied to 10 schools, only 2 of which are in Chicago (or the Midwest for that matter). The 2 interviews I've got so far are Northwestern and University of Chicago, so its looking like the windy city for me next year!
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Has anyone heard anything from Northwestern NUIN? Have they announced their interview dates?
I have not. I did call them though, and they said most interview invites had been sent out, 55 out of 250 applicants, and that in the next week or so they would come out with official decisions.
Has anybody heard from University of Oregon?
I just heard tonight from U of Chicago Integrative Neuroscience!
I've just interviewed at Northwestern for NUIN last weekend. They originally gave me the option of three interview dates:
"NUIN's three admissions/recruiting events are scheduled for: January 16-17, January 30-31, and February 20-21."
They told us we will get our decisions sometime before this Friday. Those of us that aren't admitted will likely be waitlisted, but they might reject some applicants, and some applicants might turn down the acceptance right away. If that happens, I'm guessing they will probably send out new invites to meet the total number of qualified candidates they need. However, I think those newly invited people will be at a disadvantage and may end up waitlisted unless they do really well in their interviews (i.e. they have to do better than the people that got waitlisted from the first round of interviews).
Also, I don't know if all the invites to the last 2 interview sessions are confirmed, though I think they are (the email I got back in December specifically said to respond as soon as possible). If some people declined their interviews, that would also open up spots for more invitations to be sent out, but that may already have happened by now.
Either way, I'm fairly confident that all of the initial invites have been sent, so if you haven't heard anything yet, I'd consider yourself waitlisted. They get a lot of highly qualified applicants, so the difference between the waitlist and the interviewees is almost just random chance (and for all I know, I was at the very bottom of the pile of people that got the initial interviews). Having not heard a rejection yet is a good sign that they want to hold on to you in case another spot opens up.
If you do get an interview at this point, make sure you really present yourself well. At least on paper, they've judged you to be at "the back of the pack" and so you'll need to make a good impression to avoid getting waitlisted after the interview.
EDIT: Actually I don't see that any rejections have been sent out yet, so that's probably bad if you haven't heard anything. If they do send out a bunch of rejections and you don't get one, then you're on the waitlist and you have a decent chance at getting an interview.
TL/DR - If you haven't heard anything yet, its unlikely you'll get an invite. However, if they send out rejections and you don't get one, then you'd be waitlisted, and should have a reasonable chance to get an interview.
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Interviews for NYU's 1st round have been sent out, 2nd round will be first week of February. All decisions in March.
Hey evrad, which program are you talking about at NYU? There is the NYU Sackler Neuroscience and Physiology Program and the NYU Neural Science Program. Or are you talking about both programs?
I know they have a joint committee this year, but I received a rejection that looked specific to the Neuroscience and Physiology Program. Also, I know some people have actually received an invite (I'm assuming Neural Science) back in late December, and then got the same rejection I got in mid January. I haven't heard anything from the Neural Science program, so its unclear if I'm still in the running for a 2nd round invite in February.
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Is it appropriate to ask a PI about their mentoring style during an interview? (i.e. how often do they like to talk face to face with students, how they handle the process of paper writing, how available they like to make themselves to students, etc?)
That is definitely something you can ask, and I don't think it would offend anyone. I might first try to ask related questions instead like: how many grad students are in your lab now, how many post-docs? If the lab seems big, I'd ask how many papers are you typically working on at any one time, that seems like a lot of projects you have going. . . and see what they say.
I think its even better to ask a grad student/post-doc in their lab, you might get a more direct answer. Keep in mind that some PIs may present themselves differently in an interview than when you are working in their lab (I think its pretty rare, but I've met a few people that had a PI like this). I'd try to get opinions from multiple people before I made any judgments. Also,be aware that people can be very polarized in their opinions of PIs, so everything heard second-hand should be taken with a grain of salt.
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all stanford biophysics invites are out dear.
How did you find this out? Last thing I saw about Stanford Biophysics was this post yesterday:
just saw this "
Stanford Biosciences, PhD (F14) Interview via Phone on 13 Jan 2014 ♦ A 13 Jan 2014- Just so everyone knows I got a call from someone in the Biophysics department just now so Stanford is still sending out invitation (for some programs at least)!"
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Has anyone heard from Rockefeller? They said they would sent invites out by email today.
Yeah looks like they were all sent out at around 5pm EST. Check this thread:
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Any word on whether Columbia Neurobiology and Behavior is still reviewing applications? My assumption is that since the first interview weekend is next week, they would have sent them all, but I'm seeing invites as late as Jan 16 last year, and Jan 24 in 2011.
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Mine was sent at 4:56PM (I'm on the east coast), and with the same text as spaceimmunology's. I don't think it was a mass email, though I could be wrong about that?
I got mine at 4:56 pm (east coast as well). My guess is mass email.
They did however use my nickname which would only been in my LORs. Pretty nice touch.
Thanks for the info, looks like I can cross Rockefeller off my list. I'm sure they looked at each email, just probably sent them all in one big group.
aba1984, thanks for the encouragement, but I think in this case it's more certain, Rockefeller already announced they would send out all the invites tonight.
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Just got a Rockefeller invite! So, everyone else should be on the look-out.
Congrats! Got mine as well. Can't wait.
Congrats guys! I didn't get anything, guess they didn't send out the rejections at the same time.
Was it a mass email, did both of your invites have the same timestamp?
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Yeah, you just never know what's going on behind closed doors. Vanderbilt and WuSTL have been very odd for me - not a single peep. Sometimes a rejection is better because at least you know what's going on. My problem is that I can maybe do one or maybe barely two more interviews tops because of my classes next semester. I will wait till Friday and just accept the interview at the other school and then call it quits at 4 interviews before my grades start suffering.
Lol I know what you mean. Universities should offer credit for "Grad School Apps 101". I feel like I've read enough papers investigating the PIs at various schools to warrant some credit hours!
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Vanderbilt doesn't do March interviews anymore?
I'm going to UMiami on 2/14 and the interview invite I got today happens to be for 2/27...I guess there is no correct way to go about this - accept the 2/27 interview at a #90-100ish ranked school just in case or keep the slot open in case Vanderbilt invites me? UGH!
I'd say if you're pretty confident about Vanderbilt, wait on it. Otherwise, just book the other interview, and if you do get invited to Vanderbilt, you can always cancel at the other school. Probably not the best form to cancel on an interview, but they have to expect this will happen sometimes, and you could volunteer to cover any flights they've booked for you.
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Anyone else nervous to be hearing from Rockefeller tomorrow?
Yeah, but I'm glad they told us a specific date they'd send out the invites. It takes a lot of the stress out of the long wait for decisions, I wish more schools did it that way.
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Hmm interesting. Everything else seems to be listed as complete for me too but they didn't email me to confirm anything after I submitted it. Thanks for this info though! I'll post again when I get a response.
The email from the administrator was just to fix a mistyped SS number (apparently I was already in the system from my undergrad app). Did you get the auto-generated email right after you submitted it? It should say:
"Thank you for your interest in the Stanford Biosciences Ph.D. Programs. This email is to acknowledge that your application has been successfully submitted."
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Re: cardboardboxes
Oh jeez major fail on my part. Literally just realized my Stanford app was listed as incomplete. Emailed them asking what exactly I'm missing but I'm expecting a rejection at this point. I guess it's not in the cards for me to stay in California. Anyone else scared of the cold for Midwest/East Coast interviews? lol
I wouldn't worry about it. Mine is listed as "incomplete" too, but I don't think it means anything. Absolutely every field is filled out and they've received all my stuff. Also, back in December, I got an email from an administrator asking me to confirm some minor details, and after I sent them the info they said thanks. I assume they would've emailed me again if they needed more information.
That said, I am curious why the online status still says that, so let me know if you get a response about it.
- cardboardboxes and sqxz
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I think I might just be instilling and promoting false hope for myself, haha. Maybe I will call to specify for neuro. I heard for neuro that people got phone calls, some got follow up emails, but to expect snail mail with details.
So didn't see any results from Stanford neuro today. Did you end up calling them? I think they'd probably finish up sending out invites today, since they already started Friday, but I'm curious if they are sending invites via snail mail. I'd think they'd call or email everyone they invite in addition to mailing a letter, but hard to be sure.
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I was thinking an ephys trace?
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I called - no one answer (they sent the email after 5PM EDT) I emailed them and I hope to hear anything...but I guess I will have to wait till Monday to understand whats going on...
I was wondering if there are any other person here that got invitation to interview at NYU and before the interview they decided to reject him...-
I think you're still good. NYU did a joint admissions process for neuroscience this year. All applications were reviewed for 2 programs:
- Doctoral Program in Neural Science (Faculty of Arts and Science)
- Doctoral Program in Neuroscience & Physiology (Sackler Institute, School of Medicine)
My guess is that you got an interview for one, and a rejection for the other.
Look here for more info about the joint admissions process: http://www.neuroscience.nyu.edu/graduate-programs
NSF GRFP 2016
in The Bank
Posted
I got the GRFP this year, and I'm thrilled but I now have a kinda tricky decision/situation with funding to deal with. This is my second year in my PhD program (started the program Fall 2014) and so I was already being funded by an institutional training grant. Now that I have the NSF, I was expecting a raise (NSF stipend is ~$4500 more than the base stipend in my program). However, the training grant director wants me to put my NSF on reserve until the training grant funds run out. Unfortunately, it's a two year training grant, and I only started it at the beginning of my second year last October (right before applying for the NSF). Thus, my training grant funding won't run out until the beginning of my fourth year.
This presents 2 problems:
1. I won't get my $4500/yr raise for another 1.5 years.
2. If I take less than 6 years to graduate, I'll lose some NSF money. For instance, if I were to take only 5 years, I'd directly lose $4500 out of my pocket.
I don't think this happens that often at my school, I've been informed that most people get the NSF as an undergrad or first year, so they aren't on training grants yet. The only other person this happened to in my department was only on a one-year training grant, so it wasn't a problem of actually losing money in the long term.
I'm pretty sure I can go against my department's recommendation and start my NSF tenure earlier (this fall for instance). However, if this is going to be looked very badly upon, it might be better to just wait for my training grant to run out and risk losing some money. I think most schools that are in more expensive cities (SF, NYC) have stipends close to the NSF anyway, so this probably isn't an issue there. But for me, at least part of the NSF's allure was the 15% raise that came along with it, and I really don't want to give part of that up or postpone it 1.5 years if I don't have to. Obviously, none of us went to grad school for the money, but I think a 15% raise would go a long way towards making my time here much more enjoyable and would relieve a lot of financial stress.
Has anyone else had this problem, and what did you do about it? Also any general advice would be great, as I've never really encountered a situation where my financial interests are opposed to my department's.