abluefox

Hi trickster, my advice would be if you have the funds to definitely apply next cycle before you finish your masters degree as long as you will be done with your masters degree before starting the PhD program if you are accepted. I met many people who were currently working on a masters during my interviews and it seems to be quite common. I would also definetly expand your list of schools to those with programs and faculty more aligned to your current research and maybe not re-apply to schools you have already interviewed at unless you were wait listed or have a connection. Also at the new schools you will have a fresh start application wise I believe, and they won't have prior opinions of you based on your previous application. Good luck!

Also since you are likely more interested in the ecology aspects, you might want to look into interdisciplinary ecology programs. After a quick search I see programs that combine conservation ecology and sustainable development, or focus on human impacts and the environment.

To me it sounds like environmental engineering, I don't know much about the field though.

Has anyone heard from UCLA molecular interdepartmental program, specifically CDB? I haven't heard anything and I feel like its been almost a month now.

I think its fine to accept early, if you qualify for certain fellowships, you normally would still get it after accepting. My sister got one after she accepted. The exception might be some recruiting fellowships some universities have but I'd expect they would let you know pretty early on and they are competitive

Congratulations! I'm sure they appreciated the honesty and you were very qualified!

Yes, I think its only really relevant for people wait listed and are waiting for spots to open up and as long as its a decent amount of time before April 15th it shouldn't affect them too badly

Hi never been in such a situation but I think you should say you are thankful for her interest/support (not sure best wording) and really like X program and would want to attend, but you are truly interested pursuing Y research in the program. Could also add more politeness by saying while you respect the research she does and see the impact etc, you are interested more in Y research.

Ted Binsky I think the important thing is to realize is the context of your response. You replied to peachypie's comment to berba9 who if you look at what programs they applied to are all funded PhD programs. So in berba9's specific case, it likely cost more to public schools to fund him/her than a private school.

I think blinchik makes some good points. I will just add one thing since you say you are planning to pursue a MD after the PhD, you should really be looking at MD-PhD Dual degree training instead. You would probably be a more suitable applicant for this sort of program and it would save you a lot of time then to do them separately.

I feel like it isn't for the most part as both are vastly different and would be a mistake for anyone to consider it as such. A PhD emphasizes research while dental/med you are a practitioner. I think more common backup plans are nursing or PA, etc jobs in similar field. The only people I see kind of switch to PhD from medicine normally only did so because they found they really like research more.

Yeah, I've been waiting to hear back too. From the few results posted for this home program in past years, I would probably wait until the end of this week as they probably are still reviewing applications.

Thanks! That was helpful, good to know.

Hey for people who received UC Davis BMCDB or other Davis invites, did you receive the email with the interview details yet? And are there more than one interview dates? I got my invitation over phone from a POI but I realized the date mentioned clashes with the UCI CMB itnerview date I can attend. He also said an email with the details would come in today, but I havent seen the email yet.

Congrats! What are the interview dates for Berkeley MCB? I might also see you at UCI CMB Weekend