neverdecaf

Well comrades, it's over. Or maybe I should say it's just beginning...
I've accepted an offer - Biological Physics, Structure, and Design at the University of Washington in Seattle !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

They rejected me (without interview) two years ago - but I'm back, baby. 

Have. Never. Been. More. Excited. About. Anything. In. My. Life. 

 

First admit! What a relief!

I think what I meant by "deserve" is that the experience that I have had and all the effort that I have put into these four years should get me into a better school and I don't know if I should just settle down when I could've gone to a better program with more opportunities for jobs and research.

Just began declining offers, this is so hard. I know the schools are used to it, but I still feel awful having to do it (especially when I have to do personal emails) 

EEEEEEE! First acceptance! I'm going to get a phd!

This is 100% false. Wanting something for yourself is not selfish. Wanting something at the expense of others is. Grow up. 

We all want in grad school and we want to save our own hide first.  Is that such a bad thing?

I think that to make an informed choice you need all the facts. That often includes sitting on offers. But don't worry - they can't hold onto them forever! Everything will work out eventually.

I think its a bit selfish to suggest this. Considering they worked just as hard as anyone else to get those acceptances, they should have the time they need. 

It's hard to turn down an offer before weighing every option, and it's too early for a lot of people. Many programs have not even made funding decisions yet. Choosing a graduate program is a huge decision and I think it's fair for someone to take as much time as necessary deciding.

Yep, pretty much. It's more important to look out for yourself when making your decision than worry about potentially freeing up a slot (which may not even free up a slot depending on the nature of the department).

AHHH! I got an email from my POI at UC Riverside! Unofficially accepted to UCR!!!! So excited!!!

I would go with your "gut," if you can quantify that gut feeling to some extent - I think if you really review the weekends carefully, you'll find that one fit better for you than the others. I think that going back and visiting your top school choices without the interview weekend set-up could also help significantly with the decision-making process.

I was recently accepted to Columbia and UPenn!! I'm so excited that I'm officially going to grad school.

Got my first acceptance to UChicago Immunology on Thursday!!! So excited to know that I'm going to grad school next fall!

FIRST ACCEPTANCE, YAY!

Uh, wouldn't you be among the first to know?

I think its easy to think that its a common courtesy to send out rejection letters ASAP, but honestly the more i think about it the more i feel bad for these adcoms. they're dealing with hundreds and hundreds of applications, with applicants constantly calling the office, sending e-mails, and nagging them to find out when invites were sent out. It seems like it would be easy to just weed out the people invited for interviews and work with them for the few months leading up to interviews than spend a lot more time taking the names of those rejected and sending e-mails. Just on a organizational level it must be hell to keep track of all the applicants, the interviewees, etc. I really feel bad for these guys because this is a very emotional process and theyre probably the butt of a lot of angst coming from the applicants. Every time I've called their offices they always sound so tired, so I feel for them!

There's still a lot of time. I got the final rejection form a couple universities last year in April. Which makes sense when you consider the April 15th deadline. Chill out.

I often read this thread for some amusement (I probably shouldn't, have to have a program up and running by tomorrow), but I have a general comment: if you are playing a game of inches you are stressing out too much.  Don't change who you are just to try and get into a graduate program. If a thank you note stops you from getting into graduate school, you aren't missing anything from that program. I know thats easy to say from the inside looking out, and much harder to feel that way from the outside looking in. 
 
Remember, PI's are human. Graduate coordinators are human. Heads of departments are human. They have personalities they like, and don't like, but its hard to know what those are. Its important to be yourself no matter what, because gaming your way into a program could set you up for failure, which will have far more consequences for your life than simply being rejected from a program or two (or all). Failing in graduate school is often the kiss of death for your academic career. 
 
TLDR: Be yourself, get into the program that is right for you, not the other way around. 

Do not spend to much time in considering whether or not to write a thank you letter. If you want to, just write it. I think during the interview, several other things are more important than dress code, thank you letter etc. The frist one is to be able to explain your research clearly and logically in a short period of time and remember the big picture instead of small details. The second one is to know your interviewer by reading his or her recent publications. The third one is to be confident and interact with your interviewer by asking some academic questions. 

I got accepted to my first program today after interviewing this weekend! So happy 
 
My interview advice: know your research well, know a little bit about the interviewers, show enthusiasm, and have fun! 

Well, we have one undergrad in our lab who will be sticking around for an accelerated masters as he wants to go premed route. I don't believe his masters will be funded. 
Well, there's the subject GREs for if a program is truly concerned about a candidate's level of biological knowledge. Otherwise, being able to memorize a bunch of details isn't the best way to tell if somebody can succeed in a PhD. Even for the classes the PhD coursework is designed so that we're supposed to be able to put pieces of information together, make predictions, and interpret data. MD classes are much more about memorizing as many clinical details as possible. Or, to put it another way, a MD can tell you the muscles in a body, a PhD can tell you how to design an experiment to test their function.
You'd have to convince the graduate college, never underestimate the power of internal politics. Also, since the vast majority of programs in biomedical science want the GRE students will still take it and will only take the MCAT for yours if you are of sufficient interest/prestige. I see it far more likely that such a scheme will lead to getting droves of med school applicants who are just using your program as a backup without enough interest to really succeed in a PhD.

Even though many a pre-med tried their hands at research (and, of course, clinical volunteering), if only because med school adcoms seem to look at research experience favorably (the pre-meds I know can go to great lengths to accomplish their ultimate objective) research really is the only thing that can realistically cause pre-meds to consider a PhD in a biomedical science as a backup plan to med school.
 
Then again, if some MSc programs in the biomedical sciences are used by premeds in an attempt to bolster their dossiers for med school, are they funded? Do they come with a thesis? Or are they otherwise used to reinforce the dossiers of PhD hopefuls?
 
One last thing: why not use the MCAT (or any other test specifically designed for healthcare professions, such as the PCAT or the DAT) as an admissions test for PhD programs in biomedical sciences?
 
If I were the head of a department offering a PhD in a biomedical science, I would probably allow the use of such test scores on an experimental basis. That is, if tests designed for aspiring healthcare professionals truly were no better than the GRE at detecting biomedical scientific talent, then their use would be discontinued, but that wouldn't mean much then. In the event, however, that, say, the MCAT was proven to be a better predictor than the GRE is, in the context of biomedical graduate programs, then the GRE would no longer be required.

I hope its not treated as a backup plan. I think at this stage people will know what route they want to take. My friends in medical school are extremely passionate about what they do, and I can't even imagine them as anything but in the medical field. Those generally applying for a PhD really enjoy research and genuinely want to take part in academia. I think if it's treated as a backup then you're definitely in it for the wrong reasons and won't enjoy graduate school or take advantage of the experience fully. 
I think if you're dream is to go to medical school you shouldn't give up on it!