Extra Espresso

My waiting game plan is to work on getting back in shape so I can feel amazingly confident for my interviews, so I'm attempting to lay off the wine. But I am a big fan of Zinfandel and Pinot Noir. Yummmmmmm.

I haven't heard of any BME invites going out yet, except one from Stanford posted in the BME thread (here).

Congratulations!! How did you find out?

I applied to bioengineering instead of biology, but I'm not planning on putting mine in, I don't think. I made my first B this semester, and I'd rather not showcase that right before they review my application! But I'd love other people's thoughts on this. They're the only school that lets me put in Fall 2015 grades.

Another note: if you are currently enrolled in school, check if your university has Acrobat available for students to download. I didn't realize until this year that my school offers Acrobat for free to students because it was never advertised.

It also really depends on what your GPA was before. If you had a relatively high GPA to begin with, a 0.1 difference may not matter at all. If you had a lower GPA, it may be helpful when your application is reviewed. If you're pretty positive it will help you, it may be worth sending new unofficial transcripts to your schools by email. I had to update my SOP at two schools, and they were very accommodating, so it's certainly worth a try to get your transcripts updated. But only if you think that change in your GPA is enough to matter when your application is being reviewed.

Unfortunately, a lot of the application deadlines for biomedical engineering programs have already passed. I know Washington University in St. Louis and Cornell University still have open applications, but the majority of schools had deadlines in early December for admission in Fall 2016.

There's definitely some BME programs out there with orthopedic research! If you end up applying again in another season, you may want to look at programs that have a strong partnership with the surgical program in their medical schools- there are some programs that have people with surgery background advising students, and that may be a good fit. Some schools even have a biomechanics track for a BME program, and I doubt they require too much cellular background. But the fact that you already have an interview for this season is a really good sign! And thank you! I am super nervous. I am in love with the research at the schools that I applied to, so I would be really happy anywhere. There are so many amazing programs out there, and a lot of the schools I applied to have a great research fit for me, so we'll see! I just know how competitive all of my programs are, and I don't know how competitive I am one way or the other. It does not appear so. The best I see in the Art subforum is a thread for MFA applicants. You could always start one!

You can send an updated version of your CV to the admissions e-mail for your program, and they may or may not include it in your file. The best thing you can do is ask and explain that you received a new position since submitting your original application and you would like that to be reflected to the committee. A friend of mine did this when he received a new job, and many of his schools updated his application.

@pali123 Thanks for the reassurance! At second glance, the problem wasn't as widespread as I feared. I only messed it up in 5/11, and in three of those I said I wanted a PhD in biomedical engineering when their program was bioengineering, but I got their program names correct when I referenced them specifically. The two I completely screwed up I emailed in new copies of my SOP, so maybe they'll update my application, maybe not.

Other BME/BioE applicants, how screwed am I if I accidentally messed up program names in my SOP? I have all of the University XXX and YYYs straight, but I put BioE for some BME programs and vice versa, and I wasn't always consistent throughout the SOP. I just noticed that there are a few where I would get the program right the first time I mentioned it but wrong the second time and vice versa. Thoughts?

@piglet33, what type of biomechanics are you looking at doing? There's definitely a good bit of that research that falls under the BME/BioE umbrella as well. I've discovered in looking at programs that it's a rather large umbrella! I do want to go more the cellular route personally. I'm looking at a lot of tissue engineering research as my top choice. It bites that your deadlines are so spread out! All of mine were December 1 or 15 except Cornell who has a January 7 deadline.

Your signature is the block of text that goes below each post you write! A lot of people that are on this site during their application season use it to update their applications/interviews/admissions/rejections. It partly an excitement thing (hooray, I got an interview!) and partly a helpful thing for other readers so they don't have to read through nearly 70 pages of posts to figure out who all has sent out interviews. It's also helpful for future applicants who may read through the profiles in this thread in the future and want to know how the person with a certain profile fared in the admissions process. If you're interested, you can add one to your profile if you hover over your name and click "Account Settings" and then click "Signature."

My program has a thread but it's not nearly as popular as many of the others, especially since we don't start getting notifications until mid to late January... I just want to get my nerves about with other people!

One of my former PIs is on the adcomm there, and she said genetics should be going out soon as well! I'm about to make white hot chocolate with Kahlua. I believe in this case it counts as happiness. I feel like if five people missed it in the proofreading that there's also a solid shot that the adcomm would miss it! But lucky you for getting to change it out! I'm still cringing over my mistake, especially since I did it with nearly every program.... Really hoping it doesn't cost me.

I caught one school mistype (left in University XXX's name in University YYY's personal statement) and luckily could still change out my document to the new one in the school's system, so I thought I'd go back and make sure I only made the mistake once. BIG MISTAKE. I ended feeling like my chances of admission were 0%. Never again. I will forever just submit documents and move on. Also, I am glad to hear you were successful with submitting closer to deadlines! Again, different program, but I submitted all of mine on the day of the deadline (all documents were in on time, but it was close), so I have my fingers crossed!

I'm jealous every day!

Obviously BME/BioE is a whole different ball game from Biology, but I do have a friend who is currently in a Top 10 BME program and did not contact any POIs during his application process. It made me feel better about not contacting anyone! Also, I second @peachypie about just needing to get into one school. I just finished my apps a few days ago (later deadlines than this crowd), and I am driving myself nuts with second-guessing and what-ifs. Never mind that I found typos in my personal statement (like writing biomedical engineering for a school whose program is bioengineering) and I keep kicking myself for it. The only thing keeping me sane right now is the reminder that I can do absolutely nothing to change my fate now. I only need to get into one school, and I have a backup plan if that doesn't happen. Now just to remind myself of this every hour when I start freaking out again!

I sure hope not! I made the grievous mistake of mixing up bioengineering/biomedical engineering multiple times in my applications, and I am terrified it's the kiss of death. I'm also now second guessing EVERY SINGLE THING in all of my applications. Did I structure my SOP okay? Did my personality come through? Was it too much like just listing my CV? Did I apply to the right schools? Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!

Finally finished the remaining eight of my eleven, so I am 100% DONE with applications! So excited to get the applying done with, and here's hoping for some good news in the next few weeks! *fingers crossed*

@pterosaur I finished Harvard today and I am seeing no such information about the receipt of GRE scores. I forget if that's what my Hopkins app looked like or not before my GRE scores were added in. It's possible that it's a setting in ApplyYourself that Harvard has disabled, or maybe the status doesn't show up until your scores are linked to your application.

Stanford finally added my GRE scores!

I actually think I will start to use my second email account for this reason exactly! I don't think that's over-complicated- I actually think that's perfect. I used my school email for all of my apps for the same reason- wanted to be official, but it would be so much nicer not to wonder about every email I get (especially since my university email gets a billion spam emails and has a crappy filter).

I don't know much about M.S./M.Eng. programs in BME since I am applying to Ph.D. programs, but I may be able to help? I think your GRE scores definitely help make up for your GPA, and the Jr/Sr GPA should also help you. Do you have an extenuating circumstances that you discussed in your SOP? With your pub and all of your research experience, I think you appear to have a really, really good chance. Assuming your LOR are strong (and since you did research with all of them, it's a good bet that they are strong), I think the one weak mark on your whole application is your GPA, and that could easily be overshadowed by your other strong points. Especially since you are applying for M.S./M.Eng. instead of Ph.D., I would guess that your chances are good. But take all of that with a grain of salt because I'm also a current applicant so my experience with admissions is virtually nonexistent!

I'm thinking about getting a small souvenir for each of my recommenders from one of the cities I interview in. Some unique to the city and its culture as a thank you for them getting me to that point. I also really like @rising_star's suggestion of chocolate!