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Where is the interview? Just curious since I'm going to Harvard tomorrow and wondering if I will see you. I had an interview last week at UVa for their neuroscience program. There were five one-on-one interviews with faculty members of the neuroscience program and then a seven person panel interview. The faculty interviews were more conversations than interviews. I got to ask them what their lab is like, whether or not they are taking on grad students, and other general program questions. The panel interview was a little more stressful. The questions that I was asked throughout the interview were pretty much one of the following: 1. Why our program? 2. Why do you want to pursue a PhD and specifically a neuroscience PhD? 3. Describe your research experiences. 4. There were a few tricky questions that I received during my panel interview regarding my research along the lines of have you considered how the following change would influence your results. These questions are tough to prepare for but as long as you understand your research you should be able to provide a decent response. Overall, the interview weekend was really fun. Mostly just socializing with current grad students and PIs. It really was a friendly atmosphere. In addition, I got the impression that the interview was a bit of a formality (which may or may not be true at the place that you are interviewing with) and that I had already been accepted based on my personal statement and prior research. I interviewed with UVa on Friday and received an offer on Sunday. Good luck!

Yup. Have not heard anything from them yet.

UCSD no, but I think that interview invites will be sent out either later this week or early next week.

Nope. Nothing yet.

Busy morning. Received a call from Johns Hopkins Program in Cellular and Molecular Medicine and an email from UC Davis Immunology for interviews. Good luck to all other applicants and try to have a stress-free holidays!

Thanks! Best of luck to everyone else and who knows, they might not be done sending out invites.

Interview invite for Harvard Neuro! Weekend is Jan 22-25. Already committed to attending UTSW's recruitment weekend (Jan.22-24) so I really hope that I can make some alternative arrangements. Congrats to the other person that also got the invite!

Don't think it makes much difference when you hit submit -unless program explicitly states that they review apps as they get them and give interviews on a rolling basis in which case it might be best to submit as early as possible. I submitted for Emory the day before it was due and got an interview invite.

Would not worry, it is still very early in the game. I would imagine that most programs are still reviewing applications and sending out invites on a rolling basis.

Emory is calling! Interview weekends Feb 5-7 and Feb 19-21.

Duke Neurobiology!! Looks like they are not done sending out invites.

Congrats! Did you receive an email or did you have to log in to the applicant self-service site?

Have received invites from 2/10 schools that I have applied to (UTSW and UPENN) and have not heard anything from the rest. I would not worry a bit. Most schools have not even met to decide on interviewees and probably will not do so until after finals. Just hang in there!

Filled it out Friday morning. In hindsight, I probably should have waited a little longer since I received the UPENN invite that afternoon and one of their interview weekends clashes with the date I picked for UTSW. I would have preferred to attend the UPENN interview first since they are higher on my list but oh well. Tentatively, it looks like I will be traveling to UTSW on Jan 22 and UPENN on Feb. 13 (would have wanted it to be flipped). Since UTSW offers quite a few dates for interviewing I think that it would be okay to wait until the end of next week but I don't really know what the right answer is.

Interview invites for UTSW DBBS (received yesterday) and UPENN Neuroscience (today)! Good luck to everyone else.

Invited for interview at UTSW Division of Basic Sciences! Submitted app around Nov. 15. Good luck to everyone else!

The term CV and resume are used pretty much interchangeably. I would just send your resume and not really worry about it. Regardless of whether or not you want to call it a CV or resume I would just make sure in your case that you include your GPA, major, jobs (even if they're non-academic any work experience is beneficial), and your research. You should also include any volunteer activities, awards/honors, and professional affiliations (if you have any). You might also consider adding a brief 2-3 sentence description of your future goals if it is not asked for anywhere else in the application.

Yeah that's probably what I would do.

Ah I see. If it lets you enter in future dates, then it would make sense to just enter the date of the final day of your fall semester. If not, just enter the current date.

Typically it means the courses that you have taken up to that point. For example, if you are a 4th year student you would enter in all of the coursework that you took your 1st year, 2nd year, 3rd year, and 4th year fall courses. Hope this helps.

Hey guys, Just wanted to know if anyone else is having these issues. Whenever I try to login to the Duke Applicant self-service site I get the error message that my user id and/or password are invalid. I have reset my password multiple times and have also tried several different browsers but still get the message. This is an issue that I have been facing for the past 2 weeks. Wanted to know if anyone else is having these problems because it may suggest a server issue on their end.

Alright. Thanks for the input!

I should clarify that I am considering using my 3 pg PS for programs that do not specify a range. For programs that do ask for a 500-1000 word PS I will cut down my 3 pg PS. Which goes back to my previous question of should I email programs that don't specify a range and ask how long they feel the personal statement should be? Or, would that be frowned upon?

Essay is 3 pages single spaced. Generally, the programs that I am applying to ask for 500-1000 words (some do allow for 2 pages). Did not want to have to cut down on my 3 pg PS. Don't really have any "fluff" in it and the professors that I have had look at have said that it is good. Could I just go ahead and email the programs how long my PS should be since they don't explicitly state it on their application site?

Hey guys, So some of the graduate schools that I will be applying don't have a specific length requirement for their personal statement. What would be the ideal PS length? I wrote up a 3 page personal statement when I applied for the NSF fellowship and was hoping that I could use it as is for my personal statement for schools that do not have a PS length.