bdnf_13.1

I did!

Hi! I was accepted (NSGP) a few weeks ago. Did you apply to the NSGP or NIH partnership?

I was telling my research advisor I was surprised by how it feels so unpleasant to have to write those emails (I wrote to the people who sent the offer, checked in on me, or those with whom I spoke on the phone in the fall or who really helped me get information about the programs) and they said that not a lot of people do it, but that it's the right thing to do. It's ok to keep it short though! just a couple sentences will do

Don't worry- It's hard to say no to schools that reach out to you like that- I had a few that did that and I was super nervous sending them my emails declining their offers. People replied wishing me luck and congratulating me and it wound up being a lot less awkward than I thought it would be.

I wasn't saying that you HAVE to do it, but I think it helped me. A lot of the POIs were able to tell me things about the environment at their institutions that there was no way to know otherwise at that stage. I don't think it looks bad if you don't do it, but I also don't think it can hurt as long as your emails are appropriate.

Harvard (2 programs), Brown, BU, Yale, MIT, UConn Health, UMass Med, Brandeis, NYU, Rutgers, and Tufts I don't want to get into it more than that I got rejected at Harvard, Yale, MIT, and NYU- saying much more would give things away about my personal opinions about the schools based on what I said in the last post. I am thinking of doing the full profile thing after I've committed somewhere- I got a lot of advice from faculty at my school and research advisors and I didn't want to hear too many more opinions on my stats a few months ago because I often care too much about what other people think. But I think it would be helpful for people (i.e. the 2017 folks) to see what I went in with and how I did. @Bioenchilada

I applied to 12 and have 6 interviews (would have 7 if school #7 was willing to give me an alternate date but they could not), and I have to say that money aside, I don't regret it at all but I think I could have eliminated 2 of them before I applied. I have a broad range of interests and five of my schools were ivies- so REALISTICALLY I thought I had a shot at 7 of the 12 although I was fairly competitive for all of them (3.8 GPA, 2 publications, started doing research in high school), and one of my invites was at one of the schools I thought wouldn't be interested in me. I was interested in ALL of the programs- I asked myself "If this is the only school I get into, will I be happy there science/life wise?" and didn't apply if the answer was "no." I only applied in the northeast and only to schools within an hour and a half of a major city, and made sure I could find 5+ POIs I liked at each. That said, I applied broadly ranking and size wise to give myself options, but this was not the first priority in choosing schools. I emailed probably around 75 POIs last spring/summer/fall to get responses from 2-3 from each school to get a feel for the environment and chat about their research and I DID NOT email a single person I was not interested in working with. This was the most time consuming part of the application process so I suggest you START NOW- if you are lucky you will find a couple people on adcoms who will remember you! Yes, I would have taken the 7th interview if I could have. Yes, I am exhausted, I have had one weekend WITHOUT an interview since the semester started and won't be done till after next week. But I have learned things on these interviews about myself, my future peers, the field I am going into, and even was able to rule a school out completely during the interview. Also, I feel great in business casual and suits now instead of like a kid playing dress-up so that's a plus.

Makes sense. Just wasn't sure if you were taking pause because of the area/weather/etc. You do raise a good point- their MD/PhD program is a joint program with my undergrad institution. It's definitely a different feel, university campuses without medical schools! Good luck!

Not sure exactly what you mean by "not sure what to make of it" but I go to a nearby college and I have been to Princeton a handful of times. It is a beautiful town with a lot of great restaurants and good shopping (if not a little bit expensive)- just really pleasant to walk around. And outside of the actual downtown area it's very quiet and picturesque, lots of farms where you can pick fruit and taste wine etc.

At the in-person interview they said that it could take until 4/15 for you to receive your final decision. But I got mine 6 business days after the interview, and so did a few students that I saw for the second time at a subsequent interview...this may be different for international applicants but they seem to have a pretty good record of accepting people in a timely manner! Congrats on your interview, I really liked it there, if you have any questions about the campus let me know.

Yep, agreed. I'm a girl and I do basically a suit minus the blazer for the actual interviews, but I saw someone in dark jeans at my last one. For dinners where I'm not sure, black trouser pants and a nice blouse. Basically, wear what feels good unless you have directions. One of my roommates said "well it said business casual but I want to dress to impress so I'm going to wear a suit" and that worked well for her, but I get anxious if I'm overdressed, so I didn't wear a blazer that day and I felt great.

You may actually want to ask the program admin. For my first interview, the Thursday dinner was fancy and everyone wore business casual. Then they wore suits for the interview even though we were instructed to wear business casual for that day too. So I followed that for the second one, wearing business casual for the dinner but I was overdressed and knew not to wear a suit the next day. Better to err on the side of overdressing than underdressing, you can always take off a blazer...or wear Khakis instead of suit slacks for Thursday dinner if you want to be on the more casual side of business casual.

this past weekend I got an email inviting me, for Feb 29-Mar 1

BU GPN at least started sending out interview invites over the weekend.

Yale BBS at least has finished sending invites