RM17

@kokobanana Thank you! I did have someone look over my application, and it definitely was helpful. By and large, the schools that rejected me were very prestigious, so it's unfortunate but not surprising. I have spoken to admissions faculty, my PI, and others, and the general consensus about my main weakness seems to be publications. I am working on a first author one which will go out ASAP. Plus I was recently at a conference and got some face time with PIs, not to mention ideas for other schools to apply to that are doing things related to my rather specific area of interest. So I'm honestly feeling good! I also wonder if it isn't partly about the type of research I do; I am a neuroimager, and some neuroscience programs seem to perhaps prefer those who do more cellular/molecular research. Only one of my interviews was at a pure "neuro" program, and I was one of very few folks doing the cognitive thing. And, incidentally, one of few non-college seniors. Unsure if this is normal, but in that school's psych programs, students were either funded by the department with TA-ships or paid their own way, meaning that neuroscience students were much more burdensome financially for people who took both. That was only one weekend for one school, and I did get in there, so it wasn't impossible. But it did make me think. I'm sure it depends who's in the room and what they want in a particular year. One of the aforementioned admissions people essentially said as much. That (mostly irrelevant) anecdote aside, it might be a great idea to take a pass at writing a new SOP prior to looking at my old one, just to see what I say, and then checking out the old one, and putting them together. I was generally happy with my old SOP and the feedback wasn't SO drastic (though it was helpful!) that I think I need to totally go back to the drawing board, but the SOP in general was a helpful exercise in figuring out how to present myself in a broader context throughout the process, so redoing it will probably not be a bad thing.

Hi everyone! I was accepted to a couple neuroscience PhD programs last year, but, due to a confluence of personal and professional circumstances, I opted to stay at my job and reapply in the fall. Though it's a daunting task to undertake a second time by choice, I am happy with my decision. I got into 2/5 schools last time -- not a bad record certainly -- though I hope to do even better this time around. I will probably reapply to at least 2 of the programs that rejected me (the list is still a work in progress), and one program let me defer without committing, so I still have one acceptance. I will have a few extra pubs (1 first author, hopefully) and presentations when I apply. However, I am remaining in the same RA job I've had for a couple years, and of course my past experiences are the same. In my SOP, I plan to highlight the past year (which won't be hard, it's been productive), but I don't know if I can/should change the "bones" of the essays too much. Still, I don't want schools to look unfavorably upon me because the two versions are too similar, either because they view it as lazy (or worse, self-plagarism?) or because it wasn't good enough for certain schools in the first place... Should I just not look at my SOP from last cycle at all, and start from scratch, or can I use it as a guide and tweak/rewrite as necessary? I don't expect schools to remember what I wrote, but I know they likely have my last app on file and don't want to run the risk of them comparing the two if they see I applied last year... P.S. FWIW -- I don't think there was anything fundamentally wrong with my application in general -- I had a GPA >3.6 (top 30 mid-size private US university), and GRE over the 90th percentile on all sections. I think that 1) publications (I had ~3 mid-author with 2 of those in prep last time) and 2) possibly a more psych-heavy bend to my coursework, were my main downsides, along with somewhat minimal contact with PIs. I have been rectifying my publications list, as well as my PI contact, this year, and my LORs, though strong, will be stronger this fall. Therefore, the SOP is kind of the big thing that might need serious work.

Ehhh if it's recommended I wouldn't sweat it as much! I ignored it at the one other school I applied to where it was "recommended" -- though again, I am still waiting to hear about interviews (which I think are only just starting to come out for my programs). I figured that my (hopefully not imagined) strengths would be enough if it was the right school for me. Maybe naive, but alas...too late to do anything about now!

I'm in a similar situation; I haven't taken physics and I'm applying to neuro programs, most of which do not have hard prerequisites, and I'm more on the psych/neuroimaging side (I have taken TONS of neuro classes). One of my programs actually had prerequisites, so I e-mailed. They said people do get in without taking them and make them up in the first year (I'm 2.5 years out of undergrad at this point, so I'm probably not going to do it unless I am going there), but that it's a good idea to mention it in your SOP to show that you're willing to make it up. I doubt they would tell you straight-up that you won't get in for that reason; I think they are relatively flexible for the right candidate. That being said, it looks like the school in question on my end has started notifying about interviews, and so far I haven't heard, so take it with a grain of salt...

Anyone here get one of the interviews for the Wisconsin NTP posted on the results page??

Fellow neuro applicant (and Arrested Development fan). I thought applying was hard, but the wait is literally killing me...

Yesterday, I found out I received an oral presentation at a conference coming up. My apps were due Dec. 1, and though I mentioned this project in my SOP and put it on my CV, I obviously was expecting a poster. I feel like this is kind of a big deal and I should tell my schools, but I'm not sure how to go about it: Update my CV and email it to the generic admissions email? Just say something in the body of an email? See if there's any way to upload new documents to applications? Alternatively, I can just wait and sit on this info for interviews (the talk should be after I get invitations but before I do any traveling), but I'd hate to think that this might be the thing that makes the difference between getting one and not getting one, and I just didn't tell them...