Extra Espresso

Hopkins did send out interview invites yesterday for all the focus areas within BME! If you didn't get one, it doesn't necessarily mean you won't (so don't panic yet). As far as the Skype interview goes, I'd assume it's because they got your application and are interested in you. It's not the official interview since it's just with the POI, but it is a good sign. If you all have an questions, you're welcome to message me!

Thank you! I declined all of my offers yesterday when I accepted my offer! Best of luck to you - I really hope you end up somewhere amazing!

I hope this is true because I accepted my offer this morning!

That is definitely true. It cracks me up some of the comments that people have gotten. Slave labor?? I wonder if they have a conspiracy plan to say crazy stuff in random places so we all at least have entertainment after the results come out?

Thank you!! Congratulations to all of the other awardees and honorable mentions, and congratulations to everyone for having outstanding proposals for graduate work and acceptances to (or already studying at) amazing schools!!

E/E, E/E, E/E, awarded. I'm a senior undergrad starting grad school in the fall, and I applied in biomedical engineering. My first review was easily the most detailed/helpful. My third was like one sentence total. They liked my GPA, broad research experience, and publication. They commented on an additional study I would want to add (which was actually a good idea I hadn't considered). They also said I had strong recs, but they didn't give details. I feel really lucky that I didn't get dinged for not putting separate headings in my personal statement/not having direct, bolded statements about the important stuff. It was all there, but I'm lucky I didn't get the reviewers some of you people had the misfortune to come across. I definitely don't understand the review for people who got E's from one reviewer and an F from another reviewer. That's so much variation!

The incoming email ding woke me up so I didn't have to wait long to find out - I received it as well! I've checked three times already to make sure I didn't misread the email and that I'm actually on the award list, and I'm sure it'll be around twenty times by the end of the day....

I'm actually working! It's just the simulations take eons to run, so I need something to kill time as I wait for the simulations to stop. So basically I'm killing time while working on the thing I'm using to kill time until results are posted.

I'm planning on celebrating with the people in this thread regardless of what happens to me! It's fun waiting with y'all. I forgot/didn't know I needed to put a separate broader impacts section in my personal statement, so....

I feel the same. It's also not really what I am wanting to work on in grad school, but it was based on my undergraduate research. That was simpler for me in the midst of the crazy grad school application season.

THIS.

You could very well be right, hahahaha. The username stems from the fact that no matter what coffee I order, I always ask for extra espresso because I always need it.... #confessionsofacoffeeaddict I CAN'T BELIEVE IT'LL BE TONIGHT. Isn't there a Michael Buble song or something with the line "it has to be tonight" or something like that? Or am I going crazy? (That's actually fairly likely.)

Holy crap, will it be tonight?!?!? I had myself mentally prepared for Friday, and now I don't know what to do.... AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!! That's 5 AM my time. Do I pull an all-nighter or set an incredibly early alarm? Also, my status also says "received." One more piece of evidence for the Troll Theory.

Ahhh, that makes me so excited! I'm glad I could help people out!

Thanks!! The person I wrote it for is a sophomore, and it made me realize that I wish I knew someone in graduate school when I was starting out to give me advice. I go to a large flagship state school in the south!

I wrote this to answer a question in the questions and answers forum, but I thought people over here may find it useful! I wrote it from the STEM perspective, so feel free to correct me/add details for other fields. If you think you may want to apply to grad school, there are several things you can do now to set yourself up well for your future applications if you end up deciding to apply to later down the road. 1. Keep your grades up! This goes for getting a job post graduate school as well, but GPA tends to be a reasonably large factor in the admissions process. The most important classes will be those related to your field of study, but you will also want to have the highest overall GPA you can manage. 2. Start/maintain strong relationships with a few of your professors. Talk to them during their office hours, go above and beyond in their class, chat with them regularly, create relationships with them. When the graduate school application process rolls around, you are going to need professors to write recommendation letters for you where they vouch that you are an amazing student and have strong potential to succeed in graduate school. The best letters come from professors that actually know you well and can speak to their personal relationship with you. 3. If you end up in a lab research-centric field (like biology, chemistry, engineering, etc.), start in undergraduate research as soon as you can. The best way to do this is to poke around on professor and department websites and search for their research blurbs. Read through those until you get a feel for the types of work that interests you. Obviously your interests are going to be broad and undefined at this point - that is absolutely fine. Just find a few things that sound fun and roll with it! Reach out to those professors (either by email or by actually going to their office) and ask if they have any openings for an undergraduate research assistant. Be persistent! It is HIGHLY unlikely that you will be able to get into the lab of the first person you talk to (depending on your department/university), but you will get absolutely no where if you don't try. The easiest professors to get in with are ones who you have had class with and already have a good relationship with (see #2), so you can always start there! 4. Use your summers wisely - do something with your summer breaks that is meaningful. This can be a summer internship, a volunteer experience, an outreach program, a study abroad term, or something similar. Whatever you do should be something that gives you a new experience and helps you grow as a person. Get out there, explore, try something brand new, broaden your horizons, all those cliches. Not only will you grow, but you'll get a better feel for who you are and what you want you want to do, and you'll also have something to talk about in that beast of a personal statement you eventually have to write. Summer internships are an amazing way to get some research experience. If you are having difficulties getting into a lab at school, look for an internship that typically takes students with little research experience and use that as your springboard into the field. Internships are also a great way to explore research that's different from what you are doing at school and can help you narrow your broad research interests! 5. Do something with the research you're doing. Publications are the gold shining star of a graduate school application, but it can be extremely difficult to publish your research as an undergraduate (this depends on your lab). Whether or not you are going to be able to get a paper out of your research, try to find avenues to present it. Most research universities offer some type of undergraduate research symposium where undergrads present what they've been working on. There are also regional conferences as a part of the big national societies that students frequently present at. You can also present at a national conference (depending on your lab)! This is also an option with any research you do over the summer - be sure to talk to the people you intern/work with to see if that is an option. 6. Get involved with something you are passionate about outside of the classroom. So now that I've harped on the huge importance of research, I can move on to the other stuff. Do something outside of your classes/research that you are excited about. This can be band, sports, outreach to local schools, volunteering at a food pantry, working for the school newspaper, photography, something. Get involved and not just on the surface level. Show commitment to the activity/organization. Take on a leadership role, branch out and start a new organization, or something along those lines that shows it is important to you. The goal here is to show that you are a real person with interests outside of school and also that you are committed and motivated. It's much, much better to be deeply involved in a select few things you are passionate about than to be barely involved in twenty different activities. 7. Look into awards, prestigious scholarships, etc. that you may qualify for. There are tons of awards and scholarships out there that will recognize you for all of the hard work you have been putting in. Depending on what your interests/fields are, you can join honor societies like Phi Kappa Phi or Phi Beta Kappa or field-specific ones. You can apply for the Goldwater Scholarship when you have one to two years of college remaining if you are in STEM. There's also Fulbright, Truman, Marshall, Rhodes, Gates Cambridge, and a whole slew of other prestigious scholarships that you can look into applying to. A lot of professional societies also have undergraduate awards and scholarships that you can consider for your individual field. Your university probably has an office/person to assist people in applying for these types of awards, and I definitely encourage you to find them and talk to them about your options! There are also specific awards for minorities if that applies to you and first generation college students. While these are not nearly as important to your application as a strong research background and recommendation letters, they can definitely be extra jewels in the crown. 8. Keep track of everything that you are doing. You are going to be busy during college with lots of class, activities, research, and summer plans! Start a resume, CV, and list of classes (with course number, full title, number of credits, professor, textbook, your grade in the class, and a one-line blurb about what you did in the class). You can find good templates online for a resume and CV, or you can talk to the career office at your school for help. You will thank yourself later for starting early because it's so much easier to remember all of the details about your involvement when it's actually happening than three or four years down the line! 9. Keep in mind the components of the graduate school application so you can plan ahead as necessary. For every field, your graduate school application is going to have several key components: GPA (major and overall), GRE scores (verbal, quantitative, and writing), two to three recommendation letters from faculty, a CV, and a personal statement. For some fields, you may also need a subject GRE score, a writing sample, and/or a portfolio of your work. This is why I said keep your grades up (#1), have good relationships with faculty (#2), do research (#3 - 5), and start your CV early (#8). 10. Do your research! When you reach your junior year (probably the spring of your junior year), you should start thinking about what grad school programs you might be interested in, what you want to study, and what you need to prepare for your applications. You should also think about when you want to take the GRE and set up a study plan. I won't go into more detail here because there's TONS of information about both of these things on the site, and that's still a while away for you. 11. Take a deep breath and enjoy college. I listed tons of advice here, but the last thing you need to do is stress out. By already thinking about what you need to do to prepare for grad school, you're way ahead of the game and you're going to be just fine. Take the time to enjoy your college experience because undergrad can be a whole lot of fun, and you don't want to miss out on that! GOOD LUCK!

There are several things you can do now to set yourself up well for your future applications if you end up deciding to apply to graduate school later down the road. 1. Keep your grades up! This goes for getting a job post graduate school as well, but GPA tends to be a reasonably large factor in the admissions process. The most important classes will be those related to your field of study, but you will also want to have the highest overall GPA you can manage. 2. Start/maintain strong relationships with a few of your professors. Talk to them during their office hours, go above and beyond in their class, chat with them regularly, create relationships with them. When the graduate school application process rolls around, you are going to need professors to write recommendation letters for you where they vouch that you are an amazing student and have strong potential to succeed in graduate school. The best letters come from professors that actually know you well and can speak to their personal relationship with you. 3. If you end up in a lab research-centric field (like biology), start in undergraduate research as soon as you can. The best way to do this is to poke around on professor and department websites and search for their research blurbs. Read through those until you get a feel for the types of work that interests you. Obviously your interests are going to be broad and undefined at this point - that is absolutely fine. Just find a few things that sound fun and roll with it! Reach out to those professors (either by email or by actually going to their office) and ask if they have any openings for an undergraduate research assistant. Be persistent! It is HIGHLY unlikely that you will be able to get into the lab of the first person you talk to (depending on your department/university), but you will get absolutely no where if you don't try. The easiest professors to get in with are ones who you have had class with and already have a good relationship with (see #2), so you can always start there! 4. Use your summers wisely - do something with your summer breaks that is meaningful. This can be a summer internship, a volunteer experience, an outreach program, a study abroad term, or something similar. Whatever you do should be something that gives you a new experience and helps you grow as a person. Get out there, explore, try something brand new, broaden your horizons, all those cliches. Not only will you grow, but you'll get a better feel for who you are and what you want you want to do, and you'll also have something to talk about in that beast of a personal statement you eventually have to write. Summer internships are an amazing way to get some research experience. If you are having difficulties getting into a lab at school, look for an internship that typically takes students with little research experience and use that as your springboard into the field. Internships are also a great way to explore research that's different from what you are doing at school and can help you narrow your broad research interests! 5. Do something with the research you're doing. Publications are the gold shining star of a graduate school application, but it can be extremely difficult to publish your research as an undergraduate (this depends on your lab). Whether or not you are going to be able to get a paper out of your research, try to find avenues to present it. Most research universities offer some type of undergraduate research symposium where undergrads present what they've been working on. There are also regional conferences as a part of the big national societies that students frequently present at. You can also present at a national conference (depending on your lab)! This is also an option with any research you do over the summer - be sure to talk to the people you intern/work with to see if that is an option. 6. Get involved with something you are passionate about outside of the classroom. So now that I've harped on the huge importance of research, I can move on to the other stuff. Do something outside of your classes/research that you are excited about. This can be band, sports, outreach to local schools, volunteering at a food pantry, working for the school newspaper, photography, something. Get involved and not just on the surface level. Show commitment to the activity/organization. Take on a leadership role, branch out and start a new organization, or something along those lines that shows it is important to you. The goal here is to show that you are a real person with interests outside of school and also that you are committed and motivated. It's much, much better to be deeply involved in a select few things you are passionate about than to be barely involved in twenty different activities. 7. Look into awards, prestigious scholarships, etc. that you may qualify for. There are tons of awards and scholarships out there that will recognize you for all of the hard work you have been putting in. Depending on what your interests/fields are, you can join honor societies like Phi Kappa Phi or Phi Beta Kappa or field-specific ones. You can apply for the Goldwater Scholarship when you have one to two years of college remaining if you stay in STEM. There's also Fulbright, Truman, Marshall, Rhodes, Gates Cambridge, and a whole slew of other prestigious scholarships that you can look into applying to. A lot of professional societies also have undergraduate awards and scholarships that you can consider for your individual field. Your university probably has an office/person to assist people in applying for these types of awards, and I definitely encourage you to find them and talk to them about your options! There are also specific awards for minorities if that applies to you and first generation college students. While these are not nearly as important to your application as a strong research background and recommendation letters, they can definitely be extra jewels in the crown. 8. Keep track of everything that you are doing. You are going to be busy during college with lots of class, activities, research, and summer plans! Start a resume, CV, and list of classes (with course number, full title, number of credits, professor, textbook, your grade in the class, and a one-line blurb about what you did in the class). You can find good templates online for a resume and CV, or you can talk to the career office at your school for help. You will thank yourself later for starting early because it's so much easier to remember all of the details about your involvement when it's actually happening than three or four years down the line! 9. Keep in mind the components of the graduate school application so you can plan ahead as necessary. For every field, your graduate school application is going to have several key components: GPA (major and overall), GRE scores (verbal, quantitative, and writing), two to three recommendation letters from faculty, a CV, and a personal statement. For some fields, you may also need a subject GRE score, a writing sample, and/or a portfolio of your work. This is why I said keep your grades up (#1), have good relationships with faculty (#2), do research (#3 - 5), and start your CV early (#8). 10. Do your research! When you reach your junior year (probably the spring of your junior year), you should start thinking about what grad school programs you might be interested in, what you want to study, and what you need to prepare for your applications. You should also think about when you want to take the GRE and set up a study plan. I won't go into more detail here because there's TONS of information about both of these things on the site, and that's still a while away for you. 11. Take a deep breath and enjoy college. I gave you tons of advice here, but the last thing you need to do is stress out. By already thinking about what you need to do to prepare for grad school, you're way ahead of the game and you're going to be just fine. Take the time to enjoy your college experience because undergrad can be a whole lot of fun, and you don't want to miss out on that! GOOD LUCK!

I received an official email from the department with my offer, but I do not know if that means they released all of their acceptances yet or not!

Cornell doesn't do interviews - they accept people straight out and then do recruitment visits. If you haven't heard anything yet, it means you haven't been rejected yet and have a shot at picking up an offer if they decide to take on additional students or if someone doesn't accept their offer. No news isn't bad news in this situation!

I got accepted to MIT! It's definitely one of the places I'm seriously considering!

Same!! I'm super stoked!

Thank you for this! I was preparing last night to leave for interviews and kind of panicking about everything when I saw your post and it helped me out.

Sitting in the airport getting ready to fly out to my first interview! This whole process just got very real!

I feel like you and @Jelly need to get together so we can have a jjjjjjelly or jjjjjellyJelly.

Thank you!! It really is! Same here, hooray! If you are waiting on UCSD BioE, I know they sent a round of interview notifications about three weeks ago for an interview next weekend. I am not sure if they still plan on sending more. Wow, I'm really surprised they did rejections and interview notifications in the same day! I'm sorry if you got bad news. Correct me if I am wrong, but my understanding is that Harvard doesn't do a formal interview weekend but instead just accepts outright? I haven't seen anything in the survey or here except @pterosaur's informal interviews with POIs. For UCSD, as I said above, I know they have an interview next weekend that they have sent all of the invites for, but I do not know if they are done with interviews or not.