Raerosk

I think saying that you have had a medical issue that has caused you to miss classes and even forced you to be out of school for a while while you recovered, but now you are healthy and since you have gotten healthy you have been able to do research and maintain grades. I'm sure they will say something like "sorry to hear about that but I'm glad you are doing better" and previous grades will no longer be a question. Be prepared to move the conversation along to your research both present and future though.

Hey guys. For those that have been waiting on Yale to send out travel info, I finally got tired of waiting as the date is starting to get close so I emailed the person who sent me the initial email (the director of graduate admission) instead of the person who was setting up the planning to see if I was still being considered for an interview. I had a response from him within 20mins and travel info from the other person by the end of the day. As it is getting late in the season, I would recommend that if you haven't gotten that travel info yet to start reaching out to other people. On a related note, the BBSB program looks friggin awesome, I am so excited to get out there!

Color me jealous! What did you apply to?

I've gotten 3 responses this week both positive and negative. Chin up!

Car Trip!

I don't think it can be that uncommon, especially for some schools. I am going to have the same situation if I get any more responses, and I am still waiting on 6 schools. I committed to visit a school after a Skype interview and a true letter of acceptance, and they booked me a flight and everything to come out. The school has been awesome, I had a phone convo with a PI about his lab, what he thinks of my admission and everything has been great. Made sense esp since I had an offer in my hand. Now I'm getting interview offers from much better schools, and if CalTech or Stanford or someone pretty awesome responds, I'm just not going to be able to take the time to go see that school. So yah, I know it's not a big help but know that you aren't the only one who is having to make that kind of decision. Best of luck, and remember at the end of the day you have to do what is right for YOU.

I sent her like 5 emails, and on the 5th I said something like please respond, and today I got something saying she's getting them and we'll be sending out information about the trip.

Madison - WI IPiB interview offer in today fyi for others waiting.

Which track did you apply to? I am waiting for the Chemical Biology Track. Those are the three states I am still waiting to hear from, the east coast schools I applied to have all responded. Good luck to you as well!

I was contacted by Yale on 12/18/13 for the BBSB track, fyi. Hate to be the bearer of bad news there. Anyone else applied to Scripps Research Institute, and has anyone heard anything yet? Seems California has better things to do than tell me anything... and Washington... and Wisconsin... This week is worse than last, the waiting is so stressful. I know everyone else is going through the same thing, but man this is painful. I agree with the last guy, would be nice to just know and be done with it. Just keep swimming, just keep swimming...

Just think, after you get all your responses then you have a month or two to wait until your interview!

Invite from Penn State BMMB just hit my email. Sadly same weekend as Yale so will be declining. For those of you that applied though..

UCLA has a decent program. Completely outdated information can be found here: http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-science-schools/biochemistry-rankings That is the Biochem section, but you can do a little digging and see if there is a breakdown for Bioinformatics at all. Personally I think it is hard to get a good idea about a school in these ranking systems (especially since they are 4 years old), but it can give you a place to start. I would also recommend looking at the school's website for more detailed information about the professors... although I am sure your son has already done this. Generally when looking at labs I have been looking to see if there are any grad students/post-docs there already to determine if there is funding in the lab. It is imperfect, but useful none the less. Most of the PhD programs seem to be applied to and taken by undergrads which is why you are not seeing many master's programs. It would probably assist in acceptance, but that might be a better question for some of the individual schools. Good Luck!

hamburger patty

I have heard nothing from caltech or scripps, either positive or negative for their Biochem programs.

Has anyone gotten positive news from UCSF?