quietBird

I am in Canada, but I am applying to schools in the US and obviously I am not fully familiar with the process; how embarrassing! I assumed that the professors interviewing me would be the ones who would be accessing me for whether I would be a good candidate for their lab in particular and didn't consider that this may simply be the admissions committee. If these individuals are simply accessing me for whether I would be a good fit for their program in general, I find it a bit odd that I wouldn't have the opportunity to chat one-on-one with the professors I'm actually interested in doing rotations with. However, I suppose there will be other opportunities during lunch, poster sessions, etc. where I could speak with them. By "professors I'd actually be working with", I meant that the individuals I'll be interviewing with aren't those I proposed to do rotations with, as their research is quite different from my previous experience and research interests. So far no one has mentioned anything about who I'd actually be doing rotations with, likely because this is a discussion to be had if they decide to give me an offer of admission, as you advised. I haven't actually contacted any professors in this program directly yet, but my SOP was very detailed and my application included a list of the professors whose research I was interested in. I think you're right in that this is likely the admissions committee interviewing me and not necessarily my prospective PIs. Thank you so much for clarifying this process with me; you have great advice that I'll certainly be following and questions that I'll be asking!

I spent a very long time writing an SOP that was very focused on what I wanted to study and I included a few professors that I wanted to study with in my application. I got offered an interview, which I accepted, but now that I've been sent an outline of the professors I'd actually be working with, I realize that the profs for which I have interviews with are not those that I applied for! The research they do is somewhat related to what I am interested, but it's still very different. Now I'm not sure what to talk to them about and I'm worried that the other interviews I've accepted will not include professors I actually applied to work with. Has anyone else experienced this; is it common?

Sooo does anyone know if the Upenn invites to their immunology program are no longer being sent? Maybe I should email them... I applied to immunology but not CAMB. Oops.

Does anyone know of Upenn is sending out any more invites for their immunology program? They've been sending them out over the last two weeks...

Hi everyone! I'm wondering what my chances are of getting into the PhD immunology program at Harvard for Fall 2017. I would like to go there because the university is still relatively close to my family, although I'm also considering UPenn and I'm not sure what other schools... Here's my stats: I am Canadian and all the schools I've attended are in Canada. I am currently a master's student in my field of interest, hoping to graduate by the time I enter a PhD program. I am on three publications (in the middle; not first author or anything). I have a high GPA in both my undergrad and graduate courses, about a 93/100 average which is approximately a 4.0 GPA? 13 scholarship awards. I have worked for 2 years at two large biotechnology companies based in the USA through internships. I have three strong reference letters from my current PI and from my PIs at the two biotech companies. I am doing the GRE in a month and I suspect I'll do very poorly; I've always been bad at English and vocabulary. Maybe a 150V/150Q at best... Am I crazy for even applying to Harvard, especially considering I'll do poorly on the GRE?