berba9

Got the MIT bio reject too, and a UNC BBSP interview to balance that out

I also got a reply from UNC saying that the BBSP interview notifications will be sent by the end of this week...

"When we are down to the 100-125 we will need the official scores and look for them on our end. For those who have not sent at that point, they should send promptly once receiving an invitation. Those invited should hear by Friday, January 9th." I had sent them a mail in November about an unrelated topic, this is a part of the reply. To be honest, I was also surprised at the fact that there's almost nothing on the results page here about MIT biology. Harvard MCO (molecules, cells and organisms) are also done sending invites, so that's another rejection, though no official rejection letter has been sent. "I can confirm for you that the invitations to interview with the graduate program have been sent." Was a mail they sent yesterday in response.

MIT Biology will finish sending their mails by today (Friday Jan 9th). I'm counting their silence from Dec 1 onwards as a (not unexpected) rejection.

Do you know if the Tetrad program is done sending interview invites too?

At the end of a Skype interview: "We're really happy with your research profile and hope that you will join us. We'll let you know of the final decision very shortly" (at this point I'm on cloud 9 and grinning stupidly at the screen) "As you know, the process is very competitive for international students. So, we'll let you know very very soon." I could go mad replaying those 2 lines in my head forever.

NYU doesn't require TOEFL if your undergraduate teaching was in English, and I mailed them to confirm this. In the reply , they said that if I do have a good score (they defined that as >110), I should include it in my application as it "may help."

Thanks. It's just very much like me to worry Actually the very early interview request from Duke I think has skewed my perspectives...now every day that goes by I assume one more place has rejected me

Full-panic mode now... I have seen a lot of references to NYU Sackler and Weill Cornell in here but not so much to NYU (Biology-Genomics and systems bio) or Cornell (Biochem, mol and cell bio) itself. Anyone know when they generally send out the interview requests/rejects/accepts? (I am an international applicant if that makes any difference) I'd really appreciate it if people who have got invites to any of the other programs I am applying to also say if interview emails are being sent. So far I have seen stuff for UCSF TETRAD which is my absolute dream but in which I always knew I had no chance... Especially if emails are being sent from UWisconsin-Madison Genetics and UChicago Genomics.

Undergrad Institution: Foreign university, decent reputation in the US. Major: Chemistry. 5 year bachelors+ masters program. GPA in major: 8.74/10 (3.50/4) (I calculated this myself, my univ won't show it separately) Minor: Biology GPA in minor: 8.67/10 (3.47/4) (again, self calculated) Overall GPA: 8.53/10 (3.41/4) (7.3 for the 1st year, above 8.85 for every semester after that) Position in Class: Top 15% (3rd out of 27) Type of Student: Male, International GRE Scores Q: 170 (98%) V: 170 (99 % ) A: 4.5 (56%) Research Experience: 3 year research experience in computational chemistry (in a nucleic acid chemistry laboratory). Right now I'm doing an experimental project involving in-vitro biophysical studies and in-vivo transcription assays (for my masters' thesis) I'm also planning to do a little mathematical modeling work based on some experiments by one of the genetics groups here (but that project will start after I send in my apps, I'll try to mention it though) 1 summer REU in computational chemistry at Duke Publications: one second author paper just accepted, another hopefully will be done by mid November. 2 posters, one of them 1st author. All involving nucleic acid chemistry. Awards/Honors/Recognitions: 2*Institute Academic Awards - nothing big, they give them to anyone who comes 1st/2nd in their departments in any academic year. Applying to: Surely applying to: UCSF Tetrad Duke Genetics and genomics or MCB (1 of my LORs might be useful here) Columbia Biological Sciences Cornell- BCMB U Chicago - Molecular biosciences - GGSB (1 of my LORs might be useful here) OSU - Molecular Genetics (1 of my LORs might be useful here) SUNY-Stony Brook - Genetics MIT- Biology Harvard - MCO (1 of my LORs might be useful here) Maybes: (any 2/3) UNC Chapel Hill - BBSP UIUC - MCB (1 of my LORs might be useful here) Johns Hopkins- CMDB NYU- Biology- Genetics and systems biology Yale - BBS - Mol, cell bio, gen and dev (completely depends on whether 1 particular prof still works there) Biology@Princeton- Mol bio Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter: GPA: Grading in my university is not nice at all! The guy who is 1st in my department has a ~9.2 (3.68ish), the next guy has 8.6ish (3.44), and then there's me with 8.5 (3.4). Motivation: In my university the major is decided at the time of admission. It was only when I took a molecular biology course (in my 3rd year) that I realised that it was biology I wanted and not chemistry. This was confirmed when I took a graduate course in genetics a year later and loved every minute of it-operons, systems biology, epigenetics, et.al. Since my 3rd year I've taken at least 1 bio course each semester, covering biochemistry, molecular biology and chemical biology at a masters level and 2 courses (genetics and evolution of biological circuits, biophysics) at a graduate level. (Total 9 courses, 2 of which courses I'm doing now and won't show in my transcripts when I apply, but I'll mention them. I plan to do 1-2 more bio courses by the time I graduate) The kind of research I'm doing in chemistry seems to barely scratch the surface, but attacking the problem using a biology perspective would yield much deeper insights. I'm hoping to do research on transcriptional regulatory circuits, involving both experimental work and mathematical modeling. Any group that does that, especially if they're also looking at the evolution of these circuits, I'd love to get into. As far as I can see, I have 3 huge drawbacks: 1. I'm a chem major going to pretty hardcore genetics, without a genetics subject GRE score to show (stupid decision on my part, I chose the chemistry subject test because quite a few bio departments accept it) 2. Experimental bio research only for a year, mathematical modeling work only for 4 months 3. GPA. Even over here 8.5 isn't outstanding, after converting it to a 4 point scale and comparing it to some other scores it looks really inadequate. Questions! 1. I know I'm aiming pretty high with most of those universities...is it way too high? 2. Will the subject change be a huge issue? (I've tried and picked those univs whose department pages mention that they have chemists working in the bio department, and those that accept the chemistry GRE) 3. A couple of nice universities (UW Seattle, UW Madison, UC Berkeley, UC Davis) I've not applied to because I heard they don't have much funding for foreign students...is that true? 4. I'm fairly confident that I have done enough bio-related coursework, but is 1 years wet lab work in a bio lab too little? 5. There are some groups whose papers I've read as part of coursework/research and really enjoyed. I'm applying to 2-3 such places. I'm guessing it would be ok to mail them before sending the formal application? PS: Sorry for the massive post, I'm super nervous and have a million doubts!