tito balisimo

Yes, I am interested in the neurobiology track... and the weekend I was there was definitely a "neuro" interest weekend, but I know there were others as well. I was there February 13-14 and I know they will still be sending out acceptances from that weekend (they only have one more interview weekend, so I'd guess most offers come out next week or the week after )

blinchik can I ask what you thought about UAB? It was definitely a huge pleasant surprise for me. 
 
BiochemMom- Congrats! Sounds like a very good problem to be having! I have also been in contact with UNC this week so I don't know if faculty are just communicating at home or if the university is open.. I actually got my acceptance this week, but a different track within BBSP. I would guess at Ga Tech since they don't have interviews, they want to know a potential adviser is available before they accept anyone

Great advice, amertume - thanks!

I think I read somewhere that NYU made all decisions by Feb 15 for that program :\ I heard back from them before that

Thumbs up! You made my day, thank you. I just need to be patient.

Well, after getting my first rejection the other day by OHSU, I felt pretty glum with the reality of things. Then I got home today from work and I got an interview from Indiana School of Medicine IBMG program! It is the weekend before my Purdue interview. I never thought I'd be spending two consecutive weekends in Indiana! 
 
Wish some of the California schools send me an invite before I accept anymore ><

Thank you for this insight, I am a lifelong worrywart. If I didn't have 7 shifts in the next 6 days at work I'd be lurking these forums all day and be telling myself things that I should probably do if grad school doesn't work out.

Its concerning also because it means they must not have a lot of federal grants to support grad students as well.  A lot of funding for  an institution for research doesn't come from state budgets.

I waited until I was done interviewing before I made anything official since I felt that would only be fair.  You can have your preferences and your list set and be ready to make a decision after your last interview but I didn't feel I could be honest and true if I showed up to an interview having already accepted an offer somewhere else.  What is waiting a few weeks going to do?

Chill.  Sometimes the better programs don't really feel the need to over compensate by walking the walk and talking the talk since the school and the research and the faculty there already did all that walking for them.  I don't think it would make me change an opinion of a school if they felt that confident.  I'd be more concerned about those wanting to put on a song and dance.  Kind of like when a guy has a nice car, what am I supposed to look past your shitty personality? 

If you know (with reasonable certainty) that you will attend OSU and no other school, regardless of their program or their offer, then the right thing to do is to withdraw all your applications and accept the OSU offer now. Why drag it out longer? Also, this will help the community in the sense that the committee can stop thinking about your application and make decisions on other people faster. Actions like this benefit academics everywhere -- including you (in future years, when you are at OSU, you would appreciate people already deciding not to attend OSU to withdraw their applications, so that you and the faculty there do not waste time on these candidates).
 
But if you are still considering some of these schools, then don't accept OSU yet and wait to hear from the schools you are still considering. Withdraw applications only when you are certain you do not want to attend that school. 

I think that if you are sure that you will go to Ohio State, then you should go ahead and accept their offer and notify your schools. It's helpful to you to settle your mind, for the program to take the next steps and for you to take the next steps in enrollment, and it helps schools that might be waiting on your choice to inform other students. It's beneficial for everyone. However, if you are accepting because it's a guaranteed offer and you still maybe want to go to Iowa, I would wait. This is just my opinion. I completely understand how stressful the process is, and I think in the end you will make a decision that is good for you.

I'm going to grad school next year!
 
Received my first offer from the University of Wisconsin - Madison MDTP via email.

I get in at 1:30!  

There are some things that are slightly out of your control for applying. LORs are one of them. You need to pick people who you're confident will write you a good letter, but some schools even specifically ask "what are applicant xyz's short comings?" in the form letter. EVERYONE has shortcomings. The program has to decide if yours are so big that they doubt your ability to complete and thrive in the program.

Personally, I would advise against not waiving your rights. I believe it's in poor form. I would email your recommenders and ask if they think there's anything you could improve upon for graduate school. That will give you a good indication where they stand with you.

Generally, I work under the assumption that whenever I'm being asked to waive a right that it's not a good thing. I did for my application season as it does me no good to fight it. But, it just strikes me as skeevy that in order to obtain higher education you functionally have to discard a right provided to you by law.

As far as relevance I can say that I know professors in departments other than neuroscience who do neuroscience work. Off hand, I can think of pharmacology and biophysics professors who would qualify. So, even if the degree isn't in neuroscience, if the work is relevant to neuroscience I don't see a real problem.

People put considerable time and effort into giving advice, whether you think they did or not. They took time to type something they thought you would find helpful. Calling them out for not saying what you want makes people less likely to give you constructive advice. How would you feel if you took the time to read 6 pages, gave your thoughts, and then OP basically told you it was useless??

It's similar to lab stuff. You slave over some data, hand it to your PI, and then they go "haha, this is awful!" It's not a good feeling and makes the person less likely to put that much time in again.

You've also named some professors by name, so you could reasonably be identified by someone. What you post on the Internet can and will come back to haunt you. Being rude to people on the Internet is the same as in real life.

/end rant

Just an FYI, when you ask for advice on the Internet, you open yourself up to helpful and not so helpful suggestions. Pointing out the ones you don't find helpful makes you seem extremely rude. If you only want advice from certain people, ask them. Don't post an open thread.

Everything about this process just always makes you feel like shit no matter how hard you work.

I will be going into biophysics with almost no physics or biology background (mostly pure math, with computational biology/bioinformatics research). I think you'll be absolutely fine going from biology to neuroscience (an infinitely more "traditional" transition). You have (former) PI's who have suggested that you look into grad school. Without knowing you at all, I would think you got some great recommendations. I highly doubt a PI would encourage you to look into PhD programs if s/he didn't think you could succeed in one. 
 
Maybe you're selling yourself (hey, it's the internet after all, right?), but you look like you're the complete package with one gaping hole that is your GPA (two holes if you count the fact that you're a big meanie and would probably blow all of your interviews). If you get a 4.0 in a masters program, you'd be an exceptional applicant. Based on your academic record so far, you should be realistic about the grades you'll be able to manage in a masters program. If you're not going to be able to get a masters GPA that can reassure graduate programs that you'll pass all of your courses, you shouldn't bother.
 
That being said, your GPA is a major red flag even for masters programs. If this is your dream, you're going to have to pay for it (you're not going to get any grants with that GPA).

The only interview weekend for Duke Molecular Genetics and Microbiology (I presume that's the program you mean) was this past weekend. I'm sorry that you haven't heard back yet. Acceptances should be going out this week, followed by the other decisions.

I'm 90% certain that NGP is done with interviews. I know 100% that CMB is done with interviews on the off chance you applied there.

Just like we are "fishing" for the best opportunities, and trying to get multiple invites, the schools are employing the same strategies to get the best and most applicants. They know that some people they invite have no real intention of accepting admissions if the student gets multiple admissions offers. They are trying to coordinate probably at least 40 people to interview with many faculty at different times. Think about how complex it is if they invite 20-40 people and they have to set time schedules for different faculty based on the applicants, who may not even accept an admissions offer after all the resources were allocated to the BEST students. Not only that, but you want them to coordinate these times with OTHER schools. I don't think that is really fair on their behalf, even though it is affecting me currently.
 
This is a game of cat and mouse, and its not so easy to have separate days for different applicants because they have to get those 5 or so professors who you wish to interview with. Think about this, each faculty member that you wish to interview with needs to get paid, you get a hotel and food, and possibly a plane ride over, and its 2-3 days long. Its extremely expensive and time consuming to make accommodations for one applicant because each applicant is so different and each faculty they will interview with must take time out of their day to interview you, and you may not even want to end up going there because you have 7 or 8 other schools you want to interview with. Now imagine doing this for each student that wants to change the schedule... It is unfortunate we can't attend each single invitation, but this in my opinion is first world problems. We are really fortunate we have interviews to begin with and if you have options to the best schools you should feel blessed!