ghostoverground

Just got an interview offer from UNC BBSP for Feb. 5-7, but I've got a conflict with that date. For those of you who have also gotten interviews from them, were they on other weekends? Wondering if they've got more than one and I can ask for a different weekend.

Thank you! Good advice.

Congrats to everyone on interviews! I have a question along the same lines as things that have been asked before, so apologies for bringing this up again. Based on the results search, it seems like there are a bunch of programs that don't send out interview invitations until January, for interview weekends as early as mid February. How am I supposed to balance this with programs that have already invited me to interview weekends in February (and require a response soon)? If I get invitations in January, they are bound to conflict, but I feel helpless to do anything about it since I need to inform these other schools long before the January invitations go out. Does anyone have advice for dealing with this? I presume I'm just going to have to live with the fact that I'll probably have conflicts if I get invitations in January, but it just feels like a really awkward position to put us in when some schools notify a full month before others.

glow_gene and Vene, thank you so much!! This is invaluable advice. I really appreciate it!

I got an interview invite from Duke this morning

Do you (or anyone else) have any advice, etc. for someone who IS planning on going straight from undergrad? Like maybe what is hardest for those people? I'm sure it's what I want to do, but I'd be grateful to hear your opinions or tips.

Honestly all the one's I've gotten interviews invitations to so far.

I have been wondering about this as well, so thank you for posting about it, bsharpe269. For people who interviewed last year or have been through this process, do you have any advice to offer in terms of things that you think either got you an offer or got you rejected post-interview? Aside from the obvious, I guess--be respectful and kind, appropriately dressed, etc. Or do you have a sense of things you absolutely should or should not do that may make a difference in getting accepted? I'm particularly nervous because I have my first interview at one of my top choices--I would have preferred to have more "practice" first, so any tips would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Got an interview at UC Santa Cruz PBSE (BCB)!! So excited!

Hah, pasteltomato, you read my mind. I don't have any nice clothes yet... need to go shopping over the holidays. And I pretty much do dress like a slob most of the time...skinny jeans or black pants or running tights and a sweatshirt with my undergrad school on it pretty much 24/7/365. So you're definitely ahead of me. I haven't even heard of a portfolio before. Is this something everyone does? I don't have any publications, so what would I need besides potentially copies of my CV? You guys are all lifesavers, by the way. Thank you so much.

Congrats to everyone who got interviews! I've got a dumb question... What does POI stand for? (I know what PI stands for, but never seen POI before this website.)

Definitely, I'm so grateful you made this thread! It has already answered a bunch of my questions. I just feel weird posting because I'm so new here, hah. And thanks! (for the insight on the interview days question)

I'd like to add in a question of my own, if you don't mind. I received my first interview invitation, and it's a Thursday-Sunday, and I know some do Friday-Sunday. I've seen some people say that they can be Saturday or Sunday to Wednesday as well. Does anyone have a sense of which of these is the most common? Or how common they are relative to each other? Do schools every change from year to year (i.e. if they did a Thurs-Sun last year, is it a safe bet that they won't switch to a Sun-Wed this year?). Thank you!

Thank you all very much!

Hi everyone. I'm super new here and I know I'm late to the game, but I thought I'd post my info. If anyone has any idea what my chances at some of these schools might be, I'd really appreciate it, or any other advice for that matter. I feel like I'm just shooting in the dark (that's why I'm applying so many places!). Thank you!! Undergrad Institution: Top 5-10 Liberal Arts college-- strong sciences I think? Major(s): Math, Biology Minor(s): Computer Science GPA in Major: Does this include classes like chem and physics required for the bio major? If so, 3.98 for bio, 4.0 for math. If not, 4.0 for both. Overall GPA: 3.95 Position in Class: near the top I think-- was nominated for Phi Beta Kappa Type of Student: domestic white female GRE Scores (revised/old version): Q: 165 (90%) kind of embarrassing for a math major but still good I know V: 166 (96%) W: 6.0 (99%) B: Research Experience: 3 summers of research at my school and some work during the academic years as well including this year (I'm a senior). Worked on 3 different projects, but no publications. Had posters at our school's research symposium twice, but that doesn't mean much. Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Phi Beta Kappa, Biology department book award ("outstanding junior bio major"), Dean's list, won some semi-competitive fellowships for summer research at my school (HHMI, etc.) Pertinent Activities or Jobs: none Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help: none that I can think of Special Bonus Points: Female going into a somewhat computational field? Not sure if that counts. Two of my recommenders are pretty successful but I wouldn't say famous... one just won an NSF CAREER grant last year. That's about it though. Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter: I took one of my math classes Pass/Fail, and I have a "W" on my transcript for withdrawing from Orgo II due to an illness... I didn't explain these though, since I figured they aren't terrible and are kind of self-explanatory, and since the only reason I have the W is that you can't drop a class without special permission after the first few weeks of class at my school. Applying to Where: Applied: UC Berkeley- Computational Biology UC Santa Cruz- Bioinformatics & Computational Biology track of PBSE U of Washington- Genome Sciences U of Michigan Ann Arbor- Bioinformatics Duke- Computational Biology & Bioinformatics U of Colorado Denver AMC- Computational Biosciences UPenn- Genomics and Computational Bio Boston University- Bioinformatics Cornell- Computational Biology Stanford- Biomedical Informatics UNC BBSP- Bioinformatics & Computational Bio Yale BBS - Comp Bio & Bioinformatics-- but I submitted this one a couple hours after the deadline, so I don't know if they will consider it or not. It was a spur of the moment type thing. Will probably apply (deadlines coming up): UC Irvine- Mathematical, Computational, and Systems Bio UC San Diego- Bioinformatics and Systems Bio Dartmouth- QBS USC- Computational Bio and Bioinformatics Albert Einstein UCLA - Biomathematics (one of my professors/recommenders/research mentors went here so that should help) Brown- CCMB (still not sure about this one, but leaning yes. One of my professors/recommenders is friends with one of the core faculty at this program, but I don't know if that will help or not.) I haven't heard about an interview from UNC or UPenn like some of you have. Congrats to those who have though!