MCF10A

Just got the official rejection from MIT Biology #It only takes 56 words to break my heart.

I actually found some data on HILS website and did some math based on the data. The result confirms what @Epigenetics just said: (source: https://gsas.harvard.edu/programs-of-study/divisions/harvard-integrated-life-sciences) (1)Last year all programs in HILS (BBS, BIG, MCO, immunology, chem bio, etc) accepted~396 students (2331 total applicants*17% admission rate), and the entering class is 210, which makes the yield rate ~53%. (2)Since BBS is the largest cohort in HILS (~31% of the HILS), let's assume that the yield rate of BBS is similar to that number of the whole HILS. (3)In order to fill 65 spots, BBS needs to accept 65/0.53=122 students. If the # of spots to fill is 70, they need to accept 132. (4)~120 people will attend two interview weekends, and there are more internationals do Skype interview. Harvard BBS has ~30% intl students, let's assume that among 30%, half (15%) reside in the US and are already included in the 120, and the remaining 15% will do skype. The total interviewee number (onsite+skype)=120/(1-0.15)=142. (5)The conclusion: BBS will interview ~140 students and accept 120-130 students, which makes the post-interview acceptance rate 86-93%. Not bad at all. So guess we can just chill

Wow that really relieved me! I feel kind of surprised by the ~50% yield rate tho, given that the MD and MD-PhD program at HMS both have 75%+ yield rates. Maybe many people who get in Harvard BBS tend to have multiple offers from other top programs, but getting into multiple top schools for MD/MD-PhD is way harder?

I think all cancer bio people this year have to attend the one on Jan 19-21?

Thanks! But the bad news is that I have time conflicts on all their Skype interview dates and the on-campus interview weekend. Really wish they could have told me earlier. Hope I can work something out with them.

Just got a Skype interview (?????) invite from UPenn CAMB-Cancer Bio.....

Anyone invited to Yale BBS (especially MMPP) but still hasn't receive anything about travel arrangement?

Me too! I think GSK might be the earliest one among all programs. Mix of excitement and anxiety right now.

wow that was pretty darn early. I didn't count on Uchicago cancer bio anyway. It only takes (at most) one international every year, common theme for cancer bio programs.

I also believe that UChicago Cancer Bio has sent out invites in Dec. I saw a DP in the result database posted saying "Interview via E-mail on 29 Dec 2016", and also someone's signature saying he/she got a interview. I already gave up on my side, but maybe (and hopefully) I'm wrong.

Yeah i received a email from the travel agency on Wed. I guess you can either give it more days, or just call ur program coordinator?

I received their invitation email right before Christmas (Dec 23rd). I submitted my application in Nov so might get reviewed in the first batch. Hope they are sending more on the way and good luck!

So have anyone heard anything from Weill Cornell (or the travel agency) after submitted the interview response form?

Yeah I'll come to the interview weekend. I'm living in the US now so I just need a domestic flight, so that's really a no brainer lol. But I do understand your dilemma. Long I nternational flights and jet legs are not pleasant at all and I have experienced a lot of these. Hope you can figure it out soon

Congrats! I think Yale can reimburse $500 towards travel and extra 1-2 days of hotels for international travel (I only knew this because they thought I wasn't residing in the US lol). If the plane tickets from India to New Haven are expensive, you can consider flying to one of the NYC airports (LGA, NWR, JFK) and take the airport shuttle to New Haven, which will be cheaper than connecting flights to New Haven. In terms of the research quality at Yale, I think overall it's top notch. The immunology department is one of the best in the nation, so many PIs doing amazing science. Their structure biology is also one of the best in the nation(Thomas Steitz, Anna Pyle, etc). I'm not particularly familiar with MCGD (since I applied to MMPP), but my impression is that it's very strong as well. There are 3 HHMI investigators in MCGD (Ronald Breaker, Tian Xu, Joan Steitz), several NAS members, which are good signs of great science and reputation. But the key is whether there are faculty members you want to work with in your specific area of interest. These are just my impression, and it's one of my top choice school for sure. Good luck!

Another international here. I think the real deal is whether you're residing in the US (maybe also Canada) or not. If you're residing in the US now (like me), it's very likely that the timeline is the same as domestic students for the majority of programs. That's because many programs will invite internationals residing in the US together with domestics to their interview weekends. If you're residing outside of the US, the situation is different for each program. For some programs (like Harvard BBS, Sloan Kettering, Weill Cornell), the timeline is still the same as domestics. However, for many many other programs, the committees tend to review internationals and offer Skype interviews later (January or even February). So if that's your case, don't worry, because many programs have not even sent out skype interviews yet. Just hang in there and good things will happen after the holiday season I'll be happy to take a look at your profile if you want. Good luck!

Which program???

There are a lot of factors that we can't control in the admission process, especially as fella international applicants. Many specific cancer biology graduate programs (versus big umbrella programs) heavily rely on NIH T32 grant to recruit students, but they couldn't use T32 to support intl students. Which means that these programs have to secure other funding sources (institutional, private foundation, etc) if they want to recruit intl students, but these funding might not be available every year. That explains why many great cancer bio programs (Stanford Cancer Bio, UPenn Cancer Bio, UChicago Cancer Bio, to name a few) have a very small portion of intl students in their student body. If you take a closer look at the student body of UPenn Cancer Bio each year (current student, 20XX metrics, Ctrl+F CB), you can notice that there are very few intl students in at least the 2016 and 2015 class (I use educated guess, @Bioenchilada please correct me if I'm wrong on this). And there are hardly any UPenn Cancer Bio interviews/offers in the grad cafe database labeled as "I" or "U" in recent years. So when I got the assumed silent rej from UPenn Cancer Bio, I'm of course sad but somehow anticipated that, because I'm like gambling on whether they will have the funding to support intl student or not. I know that you're a very strong applicant and UPenn is your top choice. But sometimes being an international applicant just kick yourself out of many games. We all know this part, right? Hope this will help you feel better.

To my knowledge, it's very likely that UPenn Cancer Bio has sent out all invites already. And UChicago Cancer Bio hasn't sent out any invites yet. Good luck!

I don't think US News ranking (and any other rankings in general) matters that much. As long as there are several PIs in the program that you'd love to work with, you should be good to go. NYU Sackler is a great program. Congrats on your interviews!

Here are the links for CS forum and Engineering forum. Good luck! http://forum.thegradcafe.com/forum/33-computer-science/ http://forum.thegradcafe.com/forum/32-engineering/

Invite from Weill Cornell BCMB

I want to know too. Haven't heard a single word from this program yet

I think so. I'm a international residing in the US, and so far all the interviews I received are the same time as domestics.

I can totally feel ya. We once had a -65F windchill+45mph gust in MN. Received a school email said "wind chills colder than -50F can cause exposed flesh to freeze in only 5 mins" LOL