kokobanana

@Quickmick My PI told me a story about how when he was applying to grad school, he applied to 10 programs and only got into 1. Lucky for him, that one program had the PI he was most interested in working with. Unfortunately... over the summer, that PI moved to a different university (but it turned out that he was not a great mentor anyway). So I was advised to always ask potential labs if they have space for new graduate students (and if they are retiring soon or planning on moving to a different institution, they would probably tell you). Best of luck with your applications!!

So for all those struggling with the cost of living here in Boston @Butterfly_effect@ts1493 Boston actually has quite a few housing programs to help with renting and purchasing in this stupidly expensive city. http://www.bostonredevelopmentauthority.org/housing Boston's redevelopment authority provides subsidized housing for people making about 70%-120% of the area median income. This nicely fits with what grad students / postdocs make. The exact income limits depend on how many people are in your household. It is a long-ish process, and they go through your financial background in fine detail, but the payoff is pretty nice. All new buildings with apartments or condos must set aside 12% of the units as a lottery for this program (or pay the equivalent to the city in a fund). Anyway... I'd highly recommend it. You can occasionally find them listed on craigslist (I search "BRA" under the housing section). If you have questions about the program, feel free to message me. It definitely helped me offset some of my living expenses. Other housing resources: http://www.bostonredevelopmentauthority.org/housing/more-housing-resources

I've heard so many different options about reaching out to faculty before submitting an application... I know a former graduate student from one of the programs I applied to told me to send a short note to any PIs I was interested in working with. It was a small program and I think they only flew people in for interviews that demonstrated a real interest in coming. That said, I know that it probably wouldn't make a difference for the other programs I interviewed at. For the most part, I don't think it will hurt to send a short note with something along the lines of what @Quickmick said. Something saying that you are applying to the program, your current interests/ lab, and why you are interested in their lab. You can even make it less awkward by asking if they are planning on accepting graduate students next year (a legitimate question if you are trying to figure out what programs to apply for). Just keep it short enough to read in 5 min and don't include any resume / CV stats. Good luck!

I think you addressed your strengths and weaknesses already, and you have plenty of experience to apply and write a great SOP. I'd look into adding Columbia - I thought they had a great program and they greatly subsidize the cost of housing. It's actually cheaper than in Boston. I've done a lot of ephys work and applied to schools with this focus. If you want any advice, feel free to send me a message

I think the biggest issue could just be your lack of lab experience, specifically in terms of the amount of time spent in the lab. Unless you took off some time after graduating or really put in the hours while in school, spending 1+ year in a lab while being a student probably doesn't give you much time to get into a project. You will need to show in your personal statement that you have had 1) the opportunity to take charge of a project 2)ask your own research questions and 3) develop your own experiments to answer them all in a short amount of time. Columbia is also putting a lot of money into building up their computational neuro labs, so I'd look into there too. Good luck!

I think you stand a good chance at getting interviews at most, if not all of those places. Just make sure you write a good personal statement - adcoms place a lot more on that than I think people realize. (GPA and GRE scores matter, and you clearly have those in the bag... but a bad personal statement will definitely count against you. So plan to spend a lot of time on it!!). If you want to figure out what other schools to apply, there are a couple of great things you can do: 1) Ask your PIs (current and former) about programs they would recommend. This proved extremely valuable when I was applying. 2) Equally important - what kind of research are you interested in? What labs spark your interest and what programs are they in? If you are just applying to a school for the name but you can't find more than 3 labs that you can see yourself in, don't waste your time applying. If you are a strong candidate, which based on what you have written... it seems like you are, you will get multiple interviews. So prioritize early which programs you would want to attend. Making a ranking is helpful. 3) Less important, but still valid to consider, is where do you want to live? Does it matter if you have to move across the country? Good luck!

I think you have a pretty good chance at getting interviews at more than half of the schools on your list. Your GPA is slightly low for the more competitive programs, and your verbal score for the GRE could come up a bit. I think if you are really enthusiastic about your research and goals in your personal statement, you will be a great candidate. It's also hard to tell what you mean by 4.5 years of research... is that full time? Did you take time off after undergrad? This gives a better idea of how involved you were in the work. If I were you, I would really consider if these are all schools with at least 4-5 labs you would be interested in working in. I can't tell what type of work interests you, but it is a good idea to make a list of labs you would be interested in at all the schools you apply for. If you can't honestly come up with more than 4, I wouldn't apply there. 10 schools sounds great initially, but it is a lot of work to apply and attend more than 5 interviews. Good luck!

Awesome! Congratulations!

Yep, I heard yesterday too! I'm extremely relieved and grateful. It's been a long journey to this point, but I realize that in many ways, it's just the beginning of a new journey! Time to recharge and go to the next interview!

I can't believe I'm writing this - I'M GOING TO GRAD SCHOOL!

UCSD neuro just sent out invites! I hope to see some of you guys there!!

I have many of the same feelings as you. I moved from the West coast to the East coast (I guess in the opposite direction as you!), and it's been a struggle. I'm living with my boyfriend, who is in a PhD program, and I'm applying right now. It's tough emotionally and financially, especially when half of my monthly pay goes straight to rent. I'm taking a major pay cut to go to grad school and on top of that, I'm trying to balance the stress of lab work / applications / life.... while my family is all the way on other side of the county (literally, almost the farthest possible place in the contiguous states). And I have no idea where I'm going to be 6 months from now. I'm sorry to hear about what you are going through. I know this might not mean much from a stranger on the internet, but I genuinely hope things will get better for you and your husband.

I am a domestic applicant and one of my applications was considered "incomplete" due to a missing but totally unnecessary TOEFL score. I called up the school and apparently they still reviewed the application because their online system isn't able to distinguish student who do or do not need to submit a TOEFL report. So I wouldn't worry too much about it

I'm also waiting for UCSD neuro... I'm hoping they will respond by the end of the week!

From what I've heard (and experiences of close friends), it's being a UW grad. I know multiple UW grads who applied to UW (for neuro), then got accepted to Harvard / MIT/ UC schools. I'm not sure about being a Seattle resident, but if you've been working in the private sector, I don't think you'd be disadvantaged. It's also likely a department-specific issue. But I just wanted to share since it seemed odd that so many Seattle residents are waiting to hear back.

There seem to be quite a few Seattle applicants waiting to hear back from UW, so I thought I'd share some experience. I know from talking with PIs in the neuro department and watching multiple people apply that being a UW grad or working at UW as a postbac can (surprisingly!) work against you. It's illogical and not great news to hear, but I know that for some departments (particularly the neurobiology and behavior department), the admissions committee has historically favored outside applicants (and many of these local applicants were accepted to better ranked programs!). I wouldn't be surprised if this was a case at some other schools too. So don't take it personally if it doesn't come through. It's an unpredictable and arguably illogical process to be admitted.

Trader Joe's has a great selection of wine- I'm a fan of German white wines. It's probably a good thing that it's a 20+ min walk from my place...

99% confident that PiN sent out all of their invites.... I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news I am still waiting on UCSD too.

Sorry! I heard back from OHSU on the 22nd. On the brighter side of things, they have a stern warning to reply to the invite by the 30th or your spot will be given to someone of the waiting list, so it sounds like another wave of invites will be sent out early Jan. Best of luck!!

Congrats! I just checked my email and I'll see you there! I think there is a lot of overlap in the schools we applied to. Are you going in Jan or Feb?

The neuro programs seem to be slower than some of the other bio departments... I've only heard from 2 of the 6 that I applied, but I am very grateful for the ones that I've received.

I didn't hear back either Boo... but congrats to those that did! I visited Chicago during SFN and liked it more than I thought I would!

As far as I know, if you applied to multiple programs at Harvard, they don't know or look into it. It seems like applications are reviewed independently in each department and each department sends out interview invites separately (even if the dates conflict).

Congrats! Interview invites left and right here!

Any idea if it's rolling or if you dont get one today you aren't invited? I think most of the invites are going out today for Harvard's PiN (but I can't say for other DMS programs). The email I received stressed replying if you can attend by the end of the day, so I think they might invite a few more people if some can't attend. I really hope some of you guys hear back soon too!