Edotdl

That's why I ended up just looking at the profiles of people that had updated signatures of their results. Considering interview invites probably do count as results too I think they're appropriate. However, for the sake of future applicants looking back at this thread for information, updating your signature or re-posting your profile with results at the end of the cycle would probably be very helpful.

I check my email constantly regardless, but been checking this site way too much looking to see if other people received interview invites from my programs...

I'm not sure how to interpret this statement. Are you saying volunteered research is looked upon more favorably than paid?

Not sure if you looked at my signature, but I'm applying to a variety of programs (EE, Neuro, BME, etc.). I just listed those two since they were the ones relevant to the thread.

Aren't we all obsessively checking every thread anyways?

He said emory in the other thread.

I'll join. I'm applying to two (three if you count Caltech CNS) Neuro programs, UCSF and MIT. Side note: why is the engineering forum so deserted compared to the life sciences...

Only applying to two BE/BME programs but I'll join you guys. Undergrad Institution: Ivy Major(s): EE Minor(s): GPA in Major: 3.8+ Overall GPA: 3.8+ Position in Class: top? Type of Student: Asian Male GRE Scores (revised/old version): Q: 170 (98%) V: 162 (90%) W: 4.5 (80%) Research Experience: Multiple semester long experiences in not super related areas during freshman and sophomore year. Sophomore summer did research program at Big 10 school in Neuro. Started in lab beginning Junior year in another Neuro lab at my current school (in this lab now). Amgen scholar doing Neuro research summer after junior year. Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Dean's list, GPA stuff Pertinent Activities or Jobs: TA one semester. Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help: Special Bonus Points: Letters from PIs that did PhD at MIT Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter: Recs from the two summer programs and the lab I'm in now at my school. At least 2 are relatively famous in their fields (which is not exactly what I want to do in grad school though) Applying to Where: All PhD Berkeley-UCSF- BioE JHU-BME

Has anyone heard anything about UCSF Neuro? I think most people here are BMS though.

Wonder child

Limited research experience makes master's programs more practical. However, with your courswork I'd guess you might be able to get into some less competive PhD programs, assuming your GRE doesn't keep you out. Although 148 isn't *that* bad.

How many of your schools actually request updated fall grades? Only one of mine does. If they want updated grades, they'll probably have the same weight as the rest of your transcript. Although they might be more understanding given that you were applying to grad schools at the same time. If they just want final official transcripts after you've been accepted, I doubt they'll matter much (i.e. make sure you get your degree, don't fail any classses, and don't drop more than 2 letter grades from your previous performance).

Well I've heard someone say they got in by just using their SOP for the personal statement too...I don't see how it can hurt you besides being badly written. I think it's just for diversity fellowships and for people to explain if they had any unique circumstances. Since that didn't really apply to me, I just wrote about 400 describing my academic journey and how I might help disadvantaged populations. You'll be fine.

With Dec 1 deadlines I'd say a week is probably the extent of the grace period, especially if they interview and need to send invites soon. Some of my schools specifically said that materials should be in by the deadline since they start reviewing applications soon after. Whether or not late recommendations get your app thrown out or just reviewed late is still to be determined. However, obviously if it's too late and invites have already been sent out, then they're pretty much the same.

A friend who worked with a professor there.

If you have no time to retake I'm not sure what you're looking for. I guess at this point the most you can do is make sure the other parts of your applications (namely SOP) are as good as possible. However, the GRE is generally give less weight especially if you have a good GPA from a good school.

evil child

Another thing to note. Schools will have some idea of the grading situation at your school (if it's reasonably well known) either from other applications that season or from previous years. If they see that everyone applying from the school has a 3.8+ then they'll expect that but if, as you said, there's massive grade deflation and everyone has a 3.3 then I'm sure they'll find that acceptable too.

Although I don't necessarily agree with some of the other things you wrote, I feel like there is some essence of truth here. It is difficult to compare GPAs from two different schools let alone infer what they say about their respective students. However, I believe most people would believe that getting a perfect GPA at MIT is likely harder than at <insert large state school>. That being said, it really bothers me when people claim that they're getting a 3.2 because they go to an elite school and there's grade deflation and they could go to a state school and get a 4.0. Besides the problem of generalizing all state schools, I believe most people magnify the difference in grading. Additionally, instead of thinking about how much your GPA would rise if you went to an easier school, we can think about the converse. Do you think it's likely that your GPA will drop by 0.8 if you transfer from a state school to a top school? Well I was in that position and I thought about it a lot, since as you mention it is a big deal to grad school applications. Result? It dropped by 0.06. This may be a bit unique but the other people I know who transferred from state schools and even community colleges only dropped by around 0.5. Also worth mentioning is the law of diminishing returns with grades. In my opinion a drop from 4.0->3.5 is very different than a 3.5->3.0 since the work required to get from one to the other is not the same in the two cases, generally.

For those applying to UCSF BMS I heard that interview invites should be sent by Dec 18.

I'd guess having a liberal arts degree by itself won't hurt you if you have all the necessary prerequisites outlined by the program. However, adcoms are trying to determine the qualifications of potential applicants in data science, having a technical degree will probably be advantageous by virtue of their undergrad training/curriculum. If you are struggling to fufill the prerequisite, lower level math courses how are you going to compete against students that have already taken several upper level data science courses and presumably also did well in them? This isn't meant to sound pessamistic, but rather express my opinion for what I believe adcoms would be thinking while review different applications. I would also think that things would be slightly different for lower tier schools where the applicant pool is probably less competive. Additionally, it is good that you have a strong quantitative GRE score, that's probably the first step.

Apply for MS programs and look for jobs. I'll decide later whether or not to reapply. If I really get rejected everywhere I'll have to reconsider my goals.

2000 words does seem long. I kept mine at about 1000 for most schools even if they had a longer limit. As long as you include all the information you want/need I don't think adcoms will view a shorter statement negatively. In fact, at many schools they explicity stated that brevity is appreciated. Being too long actually might be bad if it's unclear and bores the reader.

Santa Beard

A 54% in verbal is probably below the threshold for most top tier program. Although I'm not sure how many of these top programs will have hard cutoffs for each section of the GRE especially if the other parts of the application are good. My undergrad has listed minimums for GRE scores but explicitly state that candidates who are below the minimum in one section are still encouraged to apply. Finally, for engineering I hear the verbal is generally given less weight and I'm sure people have gotten into top 10 schools with those scores.