Neuro15

Brotha it's still early, don't lose hope yet. Many schools haven't even begun to send out invites. 

Brotha it's still early, don't lose hope yet. Many schools haven't even begun to send out invites. 

I just PMed two moderators. Hopefully they can help me move this post to the Biology section. Sorry for the rookie mistake everyone.
Best of luck!

Hi, another neuro applicant here. Also had a hard time finding this thread because of its location. Thank you for creating it, but is there any chance we can move it to biology in the Life Sciences section, where it's appeared in past years? I think that will be helpful for people just joining, like me, and for future applicants who look for info from the prior cycle.
I'm applying to Mt. Sinai (received interview invite yesterday), NYU, Columbia, Harvard, UCSF, Yale, MIT, Emory, & JHU. 

Until you find out that if you don't escape the room in time it's an auto-rejection! 
 
 
 
 
 
 

BIG CONGRATS to everyone who has gotten interviews - you guys are rock stars! 
 
And to the rest of us:

We got this, yo! 

11.  Skiing a lot. Tough to check email on the mountain 
 
By the way congrats everyone who's heard back so far! 
 

Just got a call from an unknown San Diego number and with absurd enthusiasm ran out of the library (#finals) to answer. It was a telemarketer. Hang in there, pals. 

Also which program, please? Congrats!

From what I've seen most programs will pay for your hotel and flights within the States, but your flight from your country to the US won't be covered.

I've done that several times and it should be very straightforward.
You have two options: email the PI (cc your PI), or email the first author of the paper (cc both PIs). If the paper was published recently (which means the first author is likely to remain in the same lab), I'll prefer to email the first author because usually the grad students/postdocs tend to reply emails fast, but PIs are very busy and might take weeks to reply your email if you're unlucky. To start the email, just use several sentences to briefly introduce yourself, what research you're doing and explain why you need the cell line. Then mention in which of their papers did you know about the cell line, and ask if you can get their cell line. That's really it, just be polite and professional. You don't need to worry about the details like the method of delivery in the first email, as you guys will email back and forth several times afterward. 
Feel free to PM me if you need further info. Good luck!

I know right? Kind of regretting making my application correspondence email my work email because I'm obligated to check it frequently. 

Is there any add-ons limiting your email checking frequency? I really need one...

Well my compulsive email checking (from Penn at least..) can cool off for a week!

From UPenn public google calendar,
"Long PhD Admissions Committee Meeting" is on the 13th. (The same day as the Holiday party lol)
Anyone could have found this, but just putting it out there... lol

on the more depressing side, when do you start getting rejections? do you assume to be rejected if you don't hear back around that time?

All of my schools but Stanford sent invites before Christmas. They send them the first/second week of January. 

I'll let the more experienced posters weigh in on your chances, but regarding school choice, you know Dec 1st is the deadline for a lot of programs right? Just a reminder because you're going to have to hustle to get all your LoRs/GRE/transcripts in. 

I briefly mentioned what they study as a way to connect it to my interests. I said something like, "From professor X, who studies selective autophagy in yeast, to professor Y, who studies autophagy in cancer, there a many faculty with whom I could work." 

@VirologyPhDinTraining 
Hey friendo, you're coming off a bit arrogant. I would tone it down a bit before proceeding. We're here to help people, not make them sad. 

Lol do you honestly think that most people at top schools have first author pubs? I think rec letters are enough proof of a candidate being committed and productive. 

Also, you could apply to some interdisciplinary/umbrella programs that have a neuro track.  But otherwise, you'll be totally fine because a year and a half of experience is great!

You don't need experiece in the field you're going into to be a strong candidate for a specific program. Just make sure to state how each experience made you grow scientifically and how your exposure to neuro then led you to apply your skills to a neuro setting.