Bioenchilada

Most of my peers took the summer off and they did just fine in their coursework and rotations, and I think all of them went either straight from undergrad or from a teching job. I didn't take the summer off, but I also didn't prepare for my classes in that time. Honestly, classes are made for you to be able to succeed without having to study months prior to the class starting.

Fellowships will take into consideration your undergrad GPA. You don't want to make it seem like you stopped caring at some point, since it will be pretty obvious if your GPA doesn't match up with other semesters'. Of course, this can change if all the courses you are taking are extremely difficult lol For me, I wanted to graduate with one of the highest distinctions to make my family proud, so that kept me motivated.

I also did my first rotation during that summer. I was not going to be doing anything particularly amazing otherwise, so I decided to be productive. I feel like you get more out of the lab you rotate in because you don't have to worry about classes and can just focus on work. Besides, I had PLENTY of time for myself after work because, again, no school. In the end, I ended up joining this lab for my thesis work.

The budget has not been approved and will probably face a lot of congressional backlash. A lot of presidential budgets are flat out rejected and just make the news for shock value. Also, a school of the caliber of UCSF will probably not be significantly affected. I would be more concerned if the OP were going to a school that's not a research powerhouse and depended on NIH funding, if the budget is actually approved.

There's more to an applicant than the personal statement, maybe they thought your interests would be less specific when you described them in person.

Compared to what?

I would personally not go to a school based on one mentor and feel like you have conditioned yourself to like school X more because it won't require sacrificing a lot and stepping out of your comfort zone. However, if you feel that the only regret you'll have by declining an offer from Penn is that it was a top program, then by all means go to school X. As a Penn student, I must say that it is definitely much more than just a top program and you'll be surrounded by a bunch of opportunities here (i.e network) , and a great environment. You're right in that your PI has a huge impact on success, but you can't ignore the fact that the reputation of your school also has an impact. And, there are a lot of highly-recognized PIs here. Not only this, but you'll also find a lab where you fit in given that there are soooo many to choose from at Penn. In the end, this is only my opinion, and I urge you to choose the place that will make you the most happy; however, you should try to not bias yourself to one program just because you found ONE good fit.

Wow, you're being really constructive here, bud. Give yourself a pat on the back.

If you are interested in cancer, then I would seriously consider Penn. I feel that out of the three schools you listed, it has the strongest focus on cancer biology. The amount of faculty investigating cancer is incredibly large, and a lot of money goes into it. Not only this, but the hospitals in the area and the cancer center affiliated with Penn are amongst the best in the nation (top 10). Penn also has a lot of resources for people that are interested in jobs outside of academia and the professors tend to be very well connected with industry, so you should have no problem getting a great job right after.

I didn't say that it was impossible for professors to help you out during the admissions process; however, I think that big professors are already extra busy and probably won't go out of their way to contact people in the adcom or vouche for someone they only know via email. Again, I'm not saying that the applicant should not email profs, I just believe it'll be more informative rather than advantageous in terms of admission.

A desirable verbal score is higher than 160, especially if you're an international student. Admission rates for grad school are completely meaningless, the process is much more complicated than for undergrad. I'll just say that it is not unheard of for top schools to have 15% acceptance rates. However, I don't know how this changes for international students, probably much much lower. The subject test does help to alleviate a lower GPA, especially if you go to an unknown school. A low GPA will hurt you, but it will not necessarily kill your chances. Professors read your applications. Contacting profs is very likely to NOT give you any kind of advantage when it comes to admissions, in my opinion.

Given that I'm seeing a lot of discussion about prestige, I must point out that for your PhD, how people view your school is irrelevant. If the school is known to be incredibly good in your field (biomedical sciences), how your professional peers view the school is what truly matters. Sure, telling random people (or others outside of the field) you go to UCSF might not get the same reaction as if you told people you go to Princeton, but you shouldn't really be concerned by this, at all. This is coming from a person whose school is perpetually confused with Penn State. General people knew (and cared) more about my school when I went to Purdue lol

I think it really depends on a lot of factors and the school. My roommate got transferred from the program he originally applied to because the school thought he had a better fit with the other division.

Sure, I cannot disregard the fact that coming from a top 5 school and thriving will make a very good impression and give you some form of an advantage, but it is by no means a requirement, like publications. Most undergrads entering top schools do not publications from my experience knowing applicants at top schools and grad students.

Maybe their SOP wasn't strong, or they couldn't put their experience into perspective, or they didn't really match with the schools, maybe their rec letters weren't as strong as they think. There's many possible reasons for a rejection, and the only possible way of knowing why is to ask the adcom.

I completely disagree with this comment. I go to an Ivy League school for my PhD and know many people at my school and other Ivies (and top 25 schools) that neither had any publications or went to an Ivy for undergrad (I didn't have an Ivy undergrad either). Publications are really NOT a make or break aspect of your application, your research interests, experience, and fit with the program matter significantly more.

Getting an email from a PI has nothing to do with where you have to rotate or decide to do your thesis work. Also, you cannot commit to a PI before doing rotations, at least not formally.

I think my cycle starter like that, and then spiraled down haha By the end, I'd say like 40% were fully familiar with my credentials

You won't get anything out of pressing them. From a logistical sense, it makes sense that you send all rejections together after the interview to just send one massive batch instead of "personalized" rejections after you're out of the running. I don't really see it as a coward's approach at all, but I can see how it's annoying to not know. However, a school can never make assumptions about the yield they'll have in a given cycle, so it makes sense to keep people in standby rather than revoking premature rejections. It's unlikely, if not unprecedented, that they recur to this, which is why not getting an interview is equivalent to a rejection, but I'm just saying it's understandable. Also, UChicago's interview last year was in early Feb and interviews came out in December, so I would say it's more than likely your friend got rejected. I don't know how they conduct Skype interviews though.

I mean, looking at it from the angle you pose, sure, there is no harm from emailing a school you likely got rejected from. However, is asking really going to make you feel better? You're either going to get your hopes up by being told that "apps are still being reviewed", or they'll say "all invites have been sent". If you were rejected, you'll get your formal rejection after that school's interview weekend, so why ask? Also, a lot of times schools will avoid using absolute statements (ie You were rejected) and you wont get the peace of mind that you look for.

Penn is well into the logistics of actually planning the interviews, so it should be pretty safe to assume that an on-campus interview is extremely unlikely. It might be possible to get a skype one, if international, though this might also be unlikely given that they sent a batch of those last week.

Actually, at most schools I interviewed at, rarely any of my interviewers were aware of my credentials or familiar with my other application materials. The interview is when you show the adcom that they were right about you by inviting you. So, I think the impression you make during it will go farther than your credentials, given that they were already good enough to get you there.

On my cycle, they invited a very small group and invites were sent on the same day about a week ago.

I'm fairly confident it's based on the interview alone I really don't see an adcom being like "Oh, he was great on paper and an amazing interviewer, but his GRE could have been better" haha

I don't think that's true lol I'll check and get back to you.