ms_green_genes

Did the email come from a POI or an adcom person? Congratulations!

I don't think it means rejection. Looking at the results survey, it looks as if they do interviews through March. In past years, people received interview invites through late January or were informed they were on a wait list in February and even March. That data is from a quick scan of the first 3 pages of results when searching on "Vanderbilt IGP."

Great! Thanks for responding so quickly!

My daughter waited a day and a half to select her Vandy interview weekend, and the first weekend was already full. So she's attending the second weekend choice. Out of curiosity, can you share what the general weekend schedule is like?

Stanford's website says they will officially begin reviewing apps today. Assuming that's the case, I wouldn't expect to hear anything today.

There are a couple threads from previous years here in the Biology forum about interview dress codes. There are also some threads in the Interviews forum.

If you have an all-in-one printer, you can print everything, scan it, and save as a multi-page PDF document.

She contacted several different professors at each school before submitting her applications. They were all interested in working with her and wanted to meet with her if she was offered an interview. Now she just needs to meet them in person to see how well she meshes with them. I guess she'll find out at the interview if they actually have funding and want to take on another student and if their personalities are a good fit. Or after rotations and meeting people during her first year, she could end up in some other lab altogether.

I forgot to say my daughter didn't pick her schools because they were top-tier. She picked them because she found professors there doing research in areas that intrigue her, as well as because the schools are in areas/cities where she could see herself being happy for the next 5-6 years.

I don't think you need to know exactly what question you want to research when you apply. My daughter is applying this cycle. She knows she wants to do genetics/genomics research in a lab, in academia or industry, and definitely not field research. She mentioned some general types of broad questions in her SoP, but nothing very specific. She was very honest that her interests are broad, and she is applying to umbrella programs so she can experience lab rotations and get a better feel for narrowing down the research she wants to do. She has a 3.98 GPA; 167 Q, 162 V, 5.0 W on the GRE; 3 years lab research at university; 2 summers research in industry at a genetics incubator; 4 different field research trips; won the major research award at her university; 3 first-author posters; one middle-author paper in review for a major publication. She has received first-round invites for 5 top-tier schools so far; waiting to hear from Stanford and Rockefeller in January. She was able to put together a solid package indicating she knows what research is and exactly why she wants to do it for the rest of her life, even though she does not yet know exactly what she wants to research. She knows enough to know there's a lot she doesn't know and won't be able to learn until she's actually in grad school. I think it's okay not to know exactly what you want to research when you apply, if you put your application together directly.

From Petersons.com for Watson School of Biological Sciences, CSHL, no info for # of invites: 7% of applicants are admitted. Acceptance Rate Applied276 Accepted22 Acceptance Rate7 Enrolled9

I've been unable to find any information about the number of invites offered for 7 different schools. For some I've found # of apps, # of offers, and # of admissions, but no info at all about # of invites. For example, last year for Duke's GMB program, there were 200 total apps, 47 offers, and 18 acceptances. For Vandy's IGP, 1,010 average apps and 74 enrolled. UCLA GPB, 1,000 apps and 70 enrolled. UNC Chapel Hill, 1,000 apps and 90 enrolled.

Earlier today, I was talking with my sister who is a professor (and department head) at an R1 school, but not in the biological sciences. She has served on many adcoms in her career. She said, that at least in her fielled, the school REALLY wants candidates who receive first-round interview invites. She said the interviews are really just to make sure someone isn't a whackadoo who completely lacks interpersonal skills and that they really understand what research entails. She said her discipline will make admission offers to nearly all interviewees, except the rare few who are jerks or who don't live up to their app package. So congratulations to all who received first-round interview offers. Sounds like the school will be trying to convince you to pick them instead of you convincing them to pick you. You've already been picked!

Many schools have a rolling policy, often with a priority deadline. They'll rank the apps received as of that date, issue the first round of invites, then release more invites as new apps are received up to the final deadline. It's possible that some people who meet the priority deadline may never get an invite, while some who submit on the final deadline do. Some schools also have rolling acceptances, such as Vandy and UNC-Chapel Hill. They'll offer some acceptances right after each interview date, and may release more from the earlier dates after the last date has taken place.

Yes, my daughter has 5 invites so far. Waiting until Jan for Rockefeller and Stanford. If she gets those interviews, she'll be traveling 6 weekends in a row. Unfortunately, she's booked for Columbia's two offered weekends and for the alternate they gave her. They told her they'd be willing to fly her in at another time, but it would just be for a day of faculty interviews, and they wouldn't be able to arrange spending time with the current grad students. Although she could probably arrange to meet up with a couple on her own for dinner the day of arrival. She's trying to figure out how to work it into her travel and work schedule. She really wants to see the campus, meet professors, etc. Do you absolutely need your January class to graduate? If not, could you withdraw, just to ease your stress levels? Maybe you can take even more classes pass/fail. If you have to take the January class, I'd suggest trying to get the syllabus and assignments now, so you can do a lot of prep work during winter break.

Congratulations on 9 out of 13 interviews so far! I have a feeling more are coming your way, too. How many do you think you'll try to attend? And however are you going to choose which interviews to accept from all those great schools?

Wow! I'm surprised they do that before interviews. Congratulations!!!

Invites for Columbia's Integrated Program started going out today.

Just FYI, Rockefeller's main weekend will be the last weekend of February. Called to find out to help with scheduling other invites.

What are Columbia's interview dates?

Biotechie, I saw that post the other day and sent my daughter a link to it. Very helpful!

Thanks, biotechie. She was in the first round of invites for her track in each of these 4 schools, so I'm trying to get her to believe that they'll be trying to convince her to pick their school. My sister, a journalism prof who has sat on many adcoms, read my daughter's SOP and offered some input. She's trying to reassure my daughter, too. Thank goodness daughter knows how to get along well with all sorts of people. Daughter has no prior experience with this. She refused to consider any college except our state flagship, and they were courting her from her junior year of high school. She also knows acceptance at Tier 1 schools can be a crap shoot, since there are plenty of other students with high stats like hers, so she won't take anything for granted.

My daughter has received 4 invites so far; the other 3 schools don't invite until January. She is determined to go to all of them if the schedule allows. She was afraid she'd get no invites; now she's afraid she'll get no admission offers, so she feels she needs to go to them all just in case. She is now scheduled for the last weekend of Jan and the first 3 weekends of Feb. She's holding the last weekend of Feb and the first weekend of Mar open, based on historical and current info. No clue when interviews for the 7th school might be, so she's thinking she may have to turn it down due to scheduling conflicts. Luckily, it's the school at the bottom of her list. (Daughter doesn't do forums, while I'm a forum junkie, which is why you're hearing from me and not her. She doesn't mind me sharing with you, as she's thankful for all the info Ive learned demo all of you and passed along to her.)

That is Stanford's only interview weekend, as posted on their website.

Are you sure Columbia is sending out invites now? I haven't seen anything in the results survey, unless I'm searching wrong.