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Bioenchilada

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Everything posted by Bioenchilada

  1. Not getting an interview is pretty much equivalent to getting rejected. However, some schools send their invites in waves. If more people than anticipated decline interviews, they might send more, but the likelihood of doing is really low at top schools. Schools typically admit more people than the expected class size. If the yield is unexpectedly low, the school will just deal with a smaller cohort rather than interviewing more people. For the schools that admit without interview, this is probably due to the fact that they operate this way rather than admitting the strongest candidate. The best candidate will still have to interview at schools that require an interview. Have a happy new years, and I hope you get good news soon!
  2. Yeah, most people will either be wearing business casual or business formal. As long as you're somewhere along this spectrum, you'll be fine. However, as I've said before, I do NOT think that wearing a suit is overkill. I have classmates that wore business formal to their interviews with me. I DO think that it's not required to get a suit if you don't have one though.
  3. Well, the interviews are more often than not business casual, so one step above would be business formal.
  4. I was interviewing for cancer biology programs, but there were neuro people interviewing with me as well at some schools. Like @pupperoni, I'm at a top tier school, but my experience is different. In the end, as long as you don't feel underdressed, it's fine, but I don't think that suits are by no means overkill.
  5. Why are suits a no? I think most of the guys in my interviews actually wore them, and many of the program directors were wearing them too. I think it's always good to have a suit in your closet, and this is the best occassion to purchase and wear one
  6. I applied to Cornell BBS and am pretty confident about their acceptance rate being approximately 50%.
  7. Actually, my friend got a UCSD invite yesterday for biochem, so there's some people working there during the holidays haha
  8. I'm very sorry about your potential UPenn rejection, it can suck; however, you cant really use cohort size as a metric for chance of admission given that you don't really know your credentials. That also doesn't tell you about UPenn cancer bio specifically. There's 8 people in my class with me and I don't know if any of them are international. I don't think that regional bias is a factor since I don't think many people from my CAMB class are actually from PA (or the Northeast, there's quite a few from PR and CA). @MCF10A might be right with respect to intl student funding, but I'm unsure. In the end, There's a lot of good applicants and the competition at Penn is intense for admissions. I hope you get a lot of invites from the other schools you applied to
  9. Wait, why did you expect the interview? I applied for that last year. They sent me the invite on the 17th I think.
  10. I don't know about @immuno91, but no one really asked for publications and whatnot. In fact, most of my interviewers didn't even read my SOP or my CV thoroughly. Your interview will go where you take it, but talking about research alone will not necessarily make you a better candidate. Know what you did in both publications and understand the experiments conducted in both and the premise, but don't expect any questions on the matter. If you don't feel like talking abot any of your pubs, don't mention them. Of course, if it is something you take pride on or the prof asks, by all means be prepared to talk about it. Tl;dr Know your research and what you did but be aware that interviews are usually 30 minutes.
  11. Well, international students get the same amount of money as domestic applicants, so I assume that the big hurdle is getting an invite, not getting an admission offer.
  12. Based on the results thread, UChicago has already sent invites for many programs, including those in the BSD.
  13. I think you're overthinking. The amount of people you'll interview with depends on the program but they'll tell you to choose way more, however the range is from 3/5, typically. Michigan told me to choose 12 to interview with 5. You might get someone you whose research doesn't interest you, or someone you were expecting, just listen to their research and try to ask questions based on that. Grad school interviews are NOT job interviews, so don't use the same approach to prep nor the same questions. It is VERY unlikely you'll be asked what your biggest flaw is, for example. Key questions are: Why a PhD? Why your field? Why this school? Why this program? ( The last two can be combined). IT IS CRUCIAL YOU KNOW YOUR RESEARCH! They most likely WILL ask you to tell them what you've done in the past; however, try to not be TOO specific or take too long since you're wasting time for other questions. Don't bring a notepad or anything, it'll make it seem scripted. Interviews tend to be SUPER casual unless you make them not thay way, which might make you look boring. There's more to just knowing your stuff during interviews, you want to seem like you have a personality. You might interview with an adcom and not be aware that they're on the adcom. I suggest you dont overprepare and read papers, it's really not constructive, in my opinion. Most faculty went out of their way to talk about their research and most of the important details are in their web/labpage. I'd suggest just reading those so you have a good idea of what they do and can ask questions. Reading papers is more suitable for a journal club kind of scenario, which this is not lol Of course, different strokes for different folks but the person that read up on the faculty the same day of the interview and was able to have an insightful and fun conversation (me) ended up in the same place as the person that read the most recent papers to prep.
  14. I think a person got one earlier on the thread.
  15. You got invites from schools that are just as excellent, so you should definitely not feel disappointed
  16. I guess you can do that, might as well call though. However, BBS sends invites on a single day, and that was last Friday
  17. Hopefully your attitude is not reflected on your SOP, because you are sounding kind of mean and bratty. Not only that but you sound kind of entitled...
  18. That depends on the program. Some give every candidate equal opportunitu across weekends, others start filling spots. Others might do both since they have enough funding for most of the people they interview in the first place.
  19. I don't think it'd be bad. No consequence when you don't identify yourself, really.
  20. I think Penn BGS already sent all their invites.
  21. It is unrealistic to attend the activities of multiple programs, even within the same school.
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