nutellarain

I think Tetrad is done, they sent out invites before Christmas it seems

Whelp, I hope that is the case! I searched "Stanford" in last years thread and it seems you need to actually contact the home program administrator (http://biosciences.stanford.edu/contact/home-programs.html) to get a real response. I feel bad bugging them as well; I will probably just wait until the end of the week to email them.

I hope so! I specifically asked about the micro and immuno home area, but they didn't acknowledge that in the email.

If anyone is waiting on Stanford Biosciences, I emailed and got the following response, "The applications are still under review. In general, if one has not heard about a possible invitation by the end of January, it is unlikely that you will be invited to Stanford or admitted. Applicants who are not selected for an interview will receive a letter which states that no further action will be taken on their application by the Committee on Graduate Admissions and Policy" I think this is probably just an automatic response for all bioscience inquiries and doesn't really apply to whatever home group you ask about...

They are my last school, I just want to know- rejected or not! Probably should wait until the end of the week before bugging the admissions office for my home program. I'm surprised schools just don't run twitter pages or blogs where they could easily update if all invites have been sent out for certain programs. Then they wouldn't get a zillion emails/calls from anxious applicants. If I ever magically end up in charge of graduate admissions I will do this!

uhh do they mean 150 people applied total or 150 people interviewed? I think it's pretty rare for programs to have an acceptance rate of much less than 50% post-interview. It is expensive to interview people, you wouldn't pay to fly 150 people in if you only had room to accept 7. Also, they could have meant 150 people interviewed for ALL biosciences programs and 7 were accepted in biomedical informatics.

I think they send out invites sporadically. I remember someone posting that they weren't done sending them out recently...might be good to call/email them to check.

There is also one for Microbiology and Immunology, which I applied for Ah well, living in the peninsula for 5 years did not sound fun anyways. I see earlier ones for Biomedical Informatics and Chemical & Systems Biology as well

Hmm, I did receive mine quite a long time ago (early dec.), but I applied in October. I would just email them to confirm.

Thanks for letting us know! Do you know if they generally do all invites for one home group in a single batch?

There are some posted for Stanford biosciences already, but I assume they do the different home programs in groups. Kinda wishing I never stumbled upon gradcafe in the first place, I could be blissfully unaware of when invites started going out!

My #1 rule for staying in rooms with other people (at hostels, etc) is bring earplugs! I'm sure most people applying for graduate school are generally not completely nuts and you can work out sharing a bathroom. As for hot water, I think it's pretty rare for hotels to run out...that would need to be a long shower.

Does anyone have any general interview weekend tips? So far I've heard "don't get wasted and be a shitshow". I'm not too worried about this one, my tolerance is pretty well-developed

I think you should definitely do it. I applied to many microbio programs and they all asked about upper division science classes, generally expecting everyone to have taken a year of ochem. Most programs expect at least a year of biology, calculus, general chemistry, organic chemistry, and physics. I recommend you take a year of biochem as well. If you know what programs you plan on applying to, this information should be in their admissions requirements.

Ah ok, I will wait for a formal rejection instead of bugging them right away. Too bad you got invites at all your schools pasteltomato or you could ask as well

Has anyone asked programs why they were rejected? I'm wondering if it might be a good idea to ask before I go on interviews so I know where my weak points were...I don't want to pester anyone though, I know they receive a ridiculous amount of applications.

Just send them an email and ask. You can say something like, "Hello, I was wondering if all interview invites have been sent out. UCSF is one of my top picks and I want to make sure I am able to attend the interview weekend if invited". I did that and got a very nice response saying I was not selected which made it sting a bit less.

Emailed Berkeley, I guess all of the MCB invites have been sent out. Bummer

Anyone know if UC Berkeley MCB is done sending out invites? It seems many people were contacted before the holidays already

FYI UCSF BMS is done sending out interview invites

Does anyone know if UC Berkeley MCB is done sending out invites?

Then you split a 1 bedroom and it comes out to 800/person But yeah, I understand. If you are making a post-doc/grad student salary, it is only a city for younger people who don't have kids and are not planning on buying house/apt. I enjoy not owning a car and being in walking distance of amazing restaurants, bars, events, etc. You are paying for the convenience factor of always having something to do walking/biking distance from your door. For people who prefer smaller towns or have children, I would definitely recommend going to school in another city.

That is right, I think Appsitude was referring to single rooms, not entire apartments/studios. I only moved to SF a year and half ago and found a room for $800/month, there are more affordable places if you are a savvy apartment hunter.

Congrats! Just out of curiosity, when did you submit your application?

Nooo, stopping giving me hope so I'll leave my inbox alone It probably is a bit of a reach for me, but I figured I should apply anyways. I'm just sitting pretty in my rent-controlled apt in SF and don't want to leave! How do you like the program by the way?