NeuroNerd86

tomatoes, I had a similar issue with SUNY stony Brook neurosci - the application website stated that everyone who is not a native speaker has to take TOEFL. However, I emailed the program coordinator and she said it would be waived if I get accepted since I received my bachelor's degree in the U.S. Typically if you have a degree from a nationally accredited institution they waive TOEFL. But do ask the program!

Vassago, I got invited to Stony Brook Neuro program for an interview on Jan 13th - I submitted mine pretty early (mid Dec) because they have rolling admissions. The interview weekend I'm going to is next week. Don't know about other schools you listed.

Alex, it's a she:)

Hi Neurohopeful, I'm really sorry to be a downer, but from what I know most of the UCs are done with notifying their interviewees. At least UC Davis definitely is and I think so is UCLA. But you email program coordinators just to be certain. UCs also tend to send their rejections very late, even when it is pretty obvious that there can be no other decision. Again, I'm really sorry to be a downer. It's a VERY tough year for UCs economically, so they only take a very limited number of students.

Although the question was not for me, Rockefeller does exactly what you described, hippobrains: no interview, FedEx package for "yes", thin big envelope for "no". I have a feeling that they are done notifying their accepted students by now - there were several posts in results section from applicants who received overnight Fedex, all in one particular day. Whether or not they have a waiting list, I don't know.

Tsujiru, I was actually wondering if you know - can the students admitted at SUNY Stony Brook do their research at Watson? I'm asking because on Stony Brook faculty page some PIs are listed under Cold Spring Harbor lab. Thanks!

Newbio, 2 interviews is not bad at all, a lot of people don't have even that. And if you think about it, even if you get in at one of the schools you apply right now, would you really want to go there? In any case, from what I know Drexel Univ deadline is in March, Virginia Commonwealth is Feb 1st (for Neuro, don't know about other bio programs though)

Seadub, you would've had an interesting discussion with one of my recommenders who turns white with rage the second somebody brings up the importance of grades and score in graduate school admission.

Receiving an email (or a letter) that calls my credentials "outstanding". I save and re-read them when I'm sad:)

I think the issue of extenuating circumstances of any kind (such as health issues of the applicant himself or their loved one) is a double-edged sword, since it can either hurt the applicant or help him/her to stand out. Personal example: I had to deal with some serious illness in the family, so I mentioned that in my SOP. The reason I decided to talk about it was that, at least in my eyes, the experience made me a stronger person and cemented my dedication to academic research. However, a friend of mine who used to be on the adcoms a couple of times advised me to be very careful in describing that part of my life. In the eyes of the adcom, such issue might be seen as a distraction - say, the university X takes NeuroNerd to their program and NeuroNerd's family problem comes back. Then what will happen - will she drop out? that will not do. One thing they want is as much certainty about the applicant as possible. So any similar issue should be explained very carefully in the SOP in order to avoid any unnecessary confusion.

disable Facebook email notifications:)

definitely consider retaking it. One good thing about the GRE is that it's the part of your application that you can improve in a relatively short period of time (unlike GPA, research exp, etc). I guess it's also one of the reasons why schools use it as an immediate cutoff factor. I don't know how it goes for the programs you are interested in, but 1200 is usually a score that would keep you out of "rejected due to low GRE pile".

ma7eb4i, thank you for sharing that! But are you certain that you didn't get in anywhere? I'm with neuroscience too, so for us interviews are supposed to be early, but maybe some of your schools are not done with invitations yet? What schools did you apply to?

MarA, congrats, that's fantastic news!!!

Grad Hopeful, thank you for sharing this information with us. While I've spent most of my life in Michigan-like weather, last five years were in Southern California, and local weather is sooo easy to get used to... (proceeds to recalling what sub-zero C temperatures feel like)

Sorry to be a downer, but I'd say retake it. While your GPA would demonstrate that the score is most likely a one-time aberration, chances are such low quant score will at the very least raise some serious red flags for the adcoms. For physical and life sciences anything below 700 Q is not good.

congrats Alex! That is amazing!!!

Maybe that file also included all your GradCafe forum posts and blogs

Gremot, I heard somewhere that they accept about 2/3 of the people they interview but I think it was on college confidential discussion board, so it's not necessarily an accurate information. PIBS is one program that everyone seems to be applying to - either as a reach school or as a safe school!

Gremot, congrats! Welcome to our PIBS interview club:)

I'm actually curious if anybody knows - when Rockefeller accepts the lucky applicants, does the decision come via FedEx or by regular mail? The lengthy list of rejections in the Results database indicates that rejections come as a thin large envelope via USPS... Do they ever communicate with applicants in any other way (email, call etc)?

While before spam/promo emails just mildly annoyed me, now they drive me insane. Every time I see a little envelope on my blackberry screen I get my hopes up, frantically push the buttons and... "Victoria's secret end of the year sale is almost over! Hurry!". Even worse are emails from random graduate schools via ETS database - they actually have the word "GRADUATE" in their subject/address, which makes my heart stop every time. Sometimes I just want to put a filter on my inbox so that it would let in only the adcom emails:)

you need to check if the program has rolling admissions. If they do, the earlier you apply, the better. If they don't the only problem with applying right before the deadline is supplementary materials which tend to get lost frequently.