NeuroNerd86

they told me they will contact me soon with further details.. I submitted my professors list and got a ticket with AAA.

Rogue read my mind. I also really hope that increase in applicants' pool does not necessarily mean that the actual competition is harder. I imagine adcoms have enough experience to be able to tell the difference between a person who is applying only due to recession and the one who would have applied "rain or shine".

Thank you guys! That sentence is exactly what confused me and "reserved with a side of hope" is what I will remain at least till 15th:)

Hands down, the recruitment officer from the University of Minnesota - Twin cities. Even if I don't get an interview there, I will still send him "a thank you" email for being so nice and supportive (and helping me with the application fee waiver, so it didn't cost me anything)

Hello everyone, I applied to a neuroscience graduate program at one school in early December, whereas their deadline is January 15th (I just really wanted to be done). Right before Christmas, I got a letter in the mail from them that said something like: "Dear NeuroNerd, although it's really early in the admissions process, we already received a positive feedback about your application. Each year we are happy to get such strong applicants like yourself blah blah blah. We take the process seriously and it spend a lot of time on applications blah blah blah. Meanwhile, congratulations on your great application and we wish you good luck in finding a great graduate program. You are already off to a good start!" I emailed their program coordinator (who is usually very responsive) asking her if this letter indicates anything but to no avail. I just don't really know what to think - is it just their way of saying "your application is under review" or should I get my hopes up a little bit? Did anyone ever get anything like this? Any suggestions are much appreciated!

I don't think anybody heard from the Rockefeller yet.

You sound like a VERY strong applicant to me, and your lengthy list of interviews only confirms that:)

I dance in random places (elevators, empty rooms, etc) when nobody is around:)

Just curious - where do horror stories like these originate from (don't get me wrong, I am not being sarcastic at all)? I guess each program is different. A grad program coordinator from one very large university assured me that they look at ALL applications and they would not just trash them because of a low GRE element or a typo. Maybe he was being dishonest, maybe not, who knows... I also got an interview from one very big program and I for sure know that I had a typo in my CV:). So I will remain hopeful:)

Definitely my undergrad GPA in the U.S - some bad grades in my major present, although I got better eventually. It is also obvious that chemistry is not my forte - the highest chem grade I've ever received in college was a B. Oh well.

Chances for acceptance after interview are usually pretty high from what I've been told by my friends and labmates - that is, if they like you in person. PhD interviews are fortunately not like the ones for med school - they don't test us much, but rather see what we are.

since according to the free depression diagnostic test I have moderately severe depression, I guess I really need more positive thinking. Here I go -back in my home country I went to the top university in the nation and I got accepted to one of the top US schools a year after I came here. - very strong GRE quant score -massive amount of research experience in related field - abstracts and posters at conferences and poster sessions -2nd author publication in a good journal, images I helped generating made it to the journal cover for the issue month -top prize at the international conference in my field of study - I was competing against postdocs and grad students whilst being a mere lab technician. -while I haven't seen them, my LORs should be strong - 2 are from very prominent profs. -I have overcome some REALLY bad stuff last year and still stayed on track with my work and research.

Waylance, I had a similar issue as well! I have my transcripts from another country in sealed and stamped envelopes + official translations, but one school told me up front that those would not do because "they are not mailed from the university directly". When I tried to explain to them that it's obviously not my fault that my other school does not do international mailing, they said it happens every year and aint nothin they can do. So I ended up not applying there at all:(

@Bryan, I think it is normal for them. From what I saw on this forum and from my personal experience, mid Dec is about the time they usually notify interviewees. I got a call on Dec 18th.

something similar happened to me - however, I was told that as long as my transcript gets to school before Jan 6th when the committee meets, it should be alright. You should definitely contact a school and ask if something like that is possible there.

are you an international student? If yes, then they will get back to you later. If not, then maybe you should give them a call? Also, check results page for PIBS interviews timeline. They might have some that get notified a bit later. The interview weekends for domestic applicants are Jan 28-30th and Feb 11th-13th if I'm not mistaken. Good luck!

I was wondering if anyone heard from WUSTL neuroscience PhD program yet. Their application deadline was Dec 1st and when I emailed them about application status mid Dec, they said they would have information available late Dec/early Jan.

I think Northwestern has one.

8 PhD programs and one graduate partnership program for PhD in 2 schools abroad combined with doing work in the US. So I guess actual school count is 10. Mostly money reasons and LORs, didn't want to put strain on my recommenders since most of my programs required online submission.

ditto on blackberry. I check it...I don't know how many times a day, honestly

For several schools I applied to I absolutely HATED the section where they give you about 5 characters worth of space to put in your publications title. Have you ever seen a publication title in life sciences shorter than 4 words? Grr.

My former labmate - a non-US citizen - got rejected across the board last year. In his case, there were many factors that led to this situation: mediocre GRE scores, lack of translatable GPA, lack of international reputation of the school where he got his BA and Masters. Plus, he only applied to the top ranked schools like Harvard, Penn etc. On the flip side, he had a lot of research experience (no publications, though). This year he got published first author, improved his GRE scores (although they still were not incredibly stellar) and got more research experience. He cast his net wider and applied to good programs in Midwest and Florida as opposed to only high-ranked one in big cities. As a result, he is now attending a very good school, althogh in a rather obscure and isolated location. During the process this time around, he was told straight out by most schools that rejected him that they didn't have enough funding for an international student and that was the main reason for rejection. I guess that is exactly what happened to Peppermint Beatnik last year. I guess what can help here is applying to scholarships/funding for international students and checking whether there are schools where students get funded through the Dean's office/university, not through an individual faculty's budget. The economy really isn't helping anyone these days....

I've had a nightmare that I went to an interview at my dream school and there was some kind of lecture beforehand. Among the students was one girl I used to have beef with back in high school and she annoyed me immensely in my dream as well. So I loudly cursed her out which attracted attention of the dean. I had to take a walk with him and apologize for my behavior. The rest of the dream was me agonizing over ruining my chances for admission. lol

Belowthree might come by and tell you what to do:)

AVATAR - for escaping the grim reality of application waiting:). Gorgeous, gorgeous flick Inglorious Basterds - Tarantino. Enough said Julie & Julia - a very cute (girls only!) flick that might actually inspire you to cook or bake something From TV Shows: THE WIRE - you will forget all about the grad school as you get immersed into the storyline. The Big Bang Theory - for all of us hopeless nerds:)