LoveMysterious

Hey! I'm also heading to UIC in the Fall for my PhD (Microbiology & Immunology). Do you have any insight regarding living near campus? Or is the Little Italy/Med district part of town considered sketchy? I feel totally clueless, lol :p.

Congrats!!!!

Sure. (And other people, feel free to chime in!) Bioinformatics/big data genomics coupled with Next Gen Sequencing is super hot right now. The ability to analyze large sets of data is invaluable in the field. Lots of companies are doing flow cytometry or microarray work. CRISPR is also starting to boom along with other genetic engineering techniques. Personalized medicine is the up-and-coming thing in clinical settings, along with immunotherapy and gene therapy for disease treatment. You'll have plenty of opportunities to work with these technologies at your schools in question, especially at UCSF, who helped pioneer some of the technologies.

I'm married, so I had to go to the school that was the best fit for both my partner and I. I got into much better schools than the one I'm going to, so I am definitely feeling a little regret. I think what you're feeling is pretty normal. It's a big decision.

Yeah, you're seriously overthinking how much people care. Hiring managers care about your research experience, skill set, and how well you'd fit in a team dynamic. No one cares where you went to school unless its a top tier school (which all three of your choices are) and in that case maybe - and I seriously mean MAYBE - it will give you a tiny extra advantage over other candidates. For the most part though, no one cares. This isn't like law or business; in biotech, your skill set matters exponentially more than what school you went to. If you want to go into biotech, your number one goal should be to expose yourself to as much cutting-edge technology as possible (NGS, CRISPR, flow cytometry, etc). The exact ranking of an already elite university will mean literally nothing. And no need to apologize from doubting a random person from the internet. But yeah, I've been in the industry (and multiple companies) for the past 4 years so I do know what I'm talking about here. Hope this helps.

Agreed. I'm currently in the industry and have interviewed many people. No one cares if you went to Stanford vs Cal vs UCSF. They're all top tier, have their own extensive networking opportunities, and it makes zero difference to hiring managers. Go with the school you actually like the best.

Pfffft. I've been working full-time for four years straight, I'm going to savor every second of my backpacking trip. Also if you equate travelling to "wasting time," you're seriously missing out.

Cool, me too! Backpacking Southeast Asia for a month in June

I meant prior to interviewing.

Finally got the official acceptance for Case Western Reserve (bio department, not the integrated one)! I know that some people here say that it doesn't matter if you contact PIs or not, but in this instance, a PI quite literally got me in. I really think it's worth it to reach out, especially if you share a common research interest.

As a fellow sub-3.0 GPA-er, I've been following you over in the Biology forum. Super proud of you, man!! You deserve it!!

I'm kind of in the same boat. I chose the less-prestigious university because it was a better personal fit for me, and made the most sense logistically for both my husband and myself (I'm older too). It seems like the only reason you'd be upset about not going to UPenn is because its UPenn. IMO, unless you're excited and passionate about the program there, its not worth passing up a choice that seems like a better fit for you (and ending a 10 year relationship...ouch!) solely for the school's reputation.

Accepted to NYU with a 2.6 uGPA. Miracles happen.

Insulting and offending people doesn't build you a good network. I mean this with sincerity: you really should work on your interpersonal skills. Talking to people the way you have on this forum will get you nowhere.

IMO, your GPA is not low enough for him to "back away" at that point.

I got into PhD programs with a 2.6 uGPA and no masters (though I did take additional coursework). Anything is possible. What I've learned: 1. Research experience > everything else. 2. APPLY BROADLY!

I've been in the industry in the past four years, and I've noticed that the vast majority of PhD scientists did not do translational research during grad school. You won't be at a disadvantage at all if your dissertation is geared toward basic science. However, there are certain skills that are highly desirable in the industry (bioinformatics experience, NextGen Sequencing, CRISPR, etc) which you would be more exposed to in a translational lab. Regardless, you will likely have zero trouble getting an industry job with a PhD from Princeton..

This totally depends on what you are looking for. I went to UCSD for my undergrad. My husband went to Princeton. Two totally different worlds. Princeton is great if you want to research basic science. UCSD and UCSF are better for translational work but still very very strong in basic science as well. Keep in mind that while UCSD isn't quite as bad as UCSF, it is still crazy expensive. It's not way cheaper. You'll be totally fine on the stipends you listed, though. It really comes down to what program you think is the best "fit" for you. These are all top tier institutions and you'll get a great education no matter what.

Accepted to UIC GEMS, Microbiology and Immunology track!! So overjoyed; I thought for sure I was going to have to do a masters with my low uGPA. Found out less than a week after my interview. Thank you all for the help you have given me!

Hey guys! I should bring copies of my resume to bring to the PIs I meet with, correct?

Hey there, as an older-ish applicant who is coming from the biotech industry as well, I have some insight that I can share. I actually don't think its age-ism at play here. Coming from an industry background and saying that you want to go back into the industry when you are done with your PhD is essentially the "kiss of death" on an application. There is a huge bias toward academia in this environment, and it is crucial to be tactful when addressing your future goals. If you wrote about how you want to go back into the industry after your PhD, that may be why your application got rejected. I've seen this happen to otherwise well-deserving colleagues. This is why people lie about their career goals. It sucks, but the reality is that adcoms do not want to bring people in just to have them go back into the industry. They want to train scientists who are passionate about research and bench-work, and they want to train them to become one of their own. Hope this helps. Best of luck in the future.

Congrats to everyone on their acceptances!! Northwestern just accidentally rejected me twice - lol!

Thank you :). I did a post-bacc program, which really helped me out. Good luck to you as well!

Albert Einstein Biomedical sciences: Jan 25-27 Berkeley Comp Bio: Feb 14-16 Berkeley IB: Jan 27-28 Berkeley Cell Molecular Bio: Feb 12-14, Feb 26-28 Boston University PiBS: Jan 26-28, Feb 9-11 CMU-Pitt Comp bio: Feb 23-25, March 2-4 Columbia Biological Sciences: Jan 22-23, Mar 2-4 Columbia Biomedical Informatics: Jan 27-29th Cornell Tri Institutional computational biology: Feb 26-27. University of Chicago Molecular Biosciences: Jan 19-21, Feb 9-11, Feb 23-25 Duke Biochemistry: Feb 9-12 or Feb 23-26 Duke CMB: February 2-4 or February 16-18 Harvard BIG (I asked and then asked a contact I have and all I could get was late January or early February) Havard BBS: Jan 26-29, Feb 9-12 Harvard MCO: Jan 25-28, Feb 1-4 Icahn SOM at Mount Sinai (Neuro only): January 9-10 Icahn SOM at Mount Sinai (non-neuro): January 12-13 or January 19-20 Johns Hopkins CMM: January 19-20 or February 23-24 UMichigan PIBS: Jan 26-28, Feb 2-4, Feb 9-11 MIT Biology: Feb 11-14, Feb 25-28, March 11-14 MIT CSBi: Feb 3 & 10 MIT HST: march 2-4 (strange those two overlap as they are 2 of the top comp bio programs) Northwestern DGP: Jan 12-14, Jan 26-28, Feb 9-11 NIH OxCam: February 15-17 NYU GSAS: Feb 2-3, Feb 16-17 Penn State BMMB: Jan 26-28 Princeton EEB: Feb 7-9 Princeton QCB: Feb 9-11 Rockefeller: Feb 23-24, March 2-3 Sanger 4-year program: Jan 23rd Sloan Kettering: Jan 10-12 Stanford BI: march 1-5 Stanford Biosciences: March 1-5 UConn Health Biomedical Sciences: Feb 10-11 University of Washington Biology: Jan 26-28 University of Washington Genome Sciences: Feb 12-14, Feb 26-28 UC Irvine CMB: Jan 26-27, Feb 9-10 UCSD BMS: Feb 2-5, Feb 23-26 UCSF BMS: Jan 26-28, Feb 9-11 UCSF bioinformatics: Feb 9-10, Feb 16-17 UCSF TETRAD: Feb 2-5, Feb 24-27 UIC GEMS: Feb 10, Feb 24 UNC Chapel Hill BBSP: Feb 2-4, Feb 16-18, March 2-4 UMass Medical School BBS: January 26-27 or February 2-3 UPenn CAMB: Jan 19-21, Feb 2-4 UPenn Biology: Feb 24 UT Austin Cell and Molecular Biology: Jan 19-22, Feb 9-12 Vanderbilt IGP: Feb 3rd, 10th, 17th Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL) Biochemistry DBBS February 2-4 and February 16-18 Yale BBS Immunology: Feb 16-19 Yale BBS MMPP: Feb 16-19 Yale CBB/MCGD: Feb 3-5 So happy that I get to add to this list! Good luck everyone!

INTERVIEW AT UIC GEMS!! I am in shock!! For those wondering if you can overcome a 2.6uGPA, apparently you can!!!