disco

Update, since I've now finished all of my interviews and heard back from everywhere. GPA: 3.45/4.00 (major in Biochemistry/Biophysics/Molecular Biology) from a small liberal arts college GRE: V: 81% Q: 67% A: 4.5 Experience: I've been working for the past ~2.5 years as a technician in a lab studying chromosome segregation in S. cerevisiae. I also did a 5 month summer internship in a Drosophila lab studying germline stem cells. Publications: 3-- all 2009 & 2nd author (Genes & Development, Current Biology, & Genetics) Manuscripts: 1 in review at Nature (4th author) Presentations: 2-hour long seminars & a poster presentation, no meetings unfortunately Applied: UCSF (Tetrad), Berkeley (MCB), Santa Cruz (MCDB), San Diego (Biomedical Sciences), UW (MCB), Colorado (MCDB) Accepted: Santa Cruz (MCDB), San Diego (Biomedical Sciences), UW (MCB), Colorado (MCDB) Rejected: UCSF (Tetrad), Berkeley (MCB) Really unsure of where I want to go this point. UCSC/UCSD/UW all seem to have great programs...it's going to be a tough decision. Not entirely sure what field I'll end up in, I'm interested in studying Cell Cycle/Epigenetics/Aging/Molecular Evolution. If anyone has any advice/info on any of these schools, I'd love to hear it.

Got my acceptance e-mail last weekend. Anyone have any opinion as to whether or not it's appropriate to e-mail back a "thanks" or whatever? I'm pretty sure I won't be joining the program, but I don't want to piss them off either. It was easier when someone just called me.

Has anyone that interviewed for Colorado MCDB heard back from admissions? I was expecting to hear back quickly and I'm a little anxious now.

Rejection from Berkeley. Visited UCSC this weekend, really enjoyed it. The interviews were much less stressful than I had originally envisioned. Off to Boulder, CO this week for another one..

Pretty sure UCSC is done as they only have one recruitment weekend and it's this coming weekend Jan28-30. I guess it's possible that they will send out some more invites after the first weekend. Also, my P.I. recently chatted with someone on the admissions committee for Berkeley MCB. I guess they are only taking ~35 students this year (compared to 60+ for the past few years), so they're obviously interviewing a lot fewer people. If you haven't received an invite yet (like myself), I guess it's really unlikely you will, but still possible.

Got an invite for Colorado MCDB this morning. Excited to visit Boulder--it seems like a pretty awesome place.

Yeah, I saw the interview invite in the results section. Still no word here. I actually sent them an e-mail last Wednesday asking about decisions/scheduling/etc, but I haven't heard back which is messing with my head.

Rejection from UCSF Tetrad via e-mail this afternoon. Glad they made me login to their website to find that out.

You're right, I just looked at the e-mail: For your planning purposes, if you are invited to visit, we will be holding 3 recruitment weekends. The tentative dates of the weekends are February 4-7, 18-21 and March 4-7. Seems like no one as submitted any "results" here about interview invites to Colorado, so perhaps they just haven't sent them out. I was considering it a "safety" school as well. Expecting that UCSF Tetrad rejection any minute now.....too bad as it was my 1st choice

Where did you find out that their interview weekend is the 4th-7th? I was thinking of e-mailing someone there as I'm a little surprised not to have heard from them, especially since I know now that the recruitment weekend is approaching so quickly. Still no word from UCSF. Bummer.

Also, forgot to mention, a friend in my lab got an invite to Princeton QCB last week, so they've definitely sent out invites.

Crap! No call here--guess this means I'm not getting an invite to UCSF Tetrad? Has anyone heard from Colorado (MCDB)?

Got an invite to UW MCB. Still haven't heard from Berkeley/UCSF...getting a little nervous about those two.

Interview invite to UCSD Biomedical Sciences last Fri 12/18. Anyone heard from UCSF Tetrad or Berkeley MCB?

Got my first invite to UCSC earlier this week. Coming to visit in late January

Did you like UCSC for undergrad? My boss is a big fan of Santa Cruz...seems like there are a lot of interesting PIs there. Hoping to get a chance to visit this Spring

Applying to Molecular/Cell Biology Programs: GPA: 3.45/4.00 (major in Biochemistry/Biophysics/Molecular Biology) from a small liberal arts college GRE: V: 81% Q: 67% A: 4.5 Experience: I've been working for the past ~2.5 years as a technician in a lab studying chromosome segregation in S. cerevisiae. I also did a 5 month summer internship in a Drosophila lab studying germline stem cells. Publications: 3-- all 2009 & 2nd author (Genes & Development, Current Biology, & Genetics) Manuscripts: 1 in review at Nature (4th author) Presentations: 2-hour long seminars & a poster presentation, no meetings unfortunately Applied: UCSF (Tetrad) Berkeley (MCB) Santa Cruz (MCDB) San Diego (Biomedical Sciences) UW (MCB) Colorado @ Boulder (MCDB) Interested in studying the Cell Cycle/Aging/Evolution. Haven't heard from anywhere yet, but some of them aren't even due until Dec 15th.