Proteostasis Aficionado

Harvard MCO

@Kaede Did you get invited through Harvard MCO? I think they mentioned in my acceptance email there will be an event but I haven't gotten any details about it yet

So for those starting rotations in late August, when is the best time to start contacting PIs? I know whose labs I would like to rotate in, but I don't know if it's too early to start sending emails

Hi there! When I first applied to grad school, I indicated biochemistry as my field of interest and therefore I didn't take any subject test. So if this is also your case, I would say don't worry about it. In hindsight after talking to other applicants during interviews, I think taking any GRE subject test is useless unless you have a low GPA or your school is not very well known or if you didn't major in the sciences. Just save your money if you can. There are other more important factors than tests (such as LORs). I hope that helps!

I heard back yesterday. I went to the first Open House

@Molecular wonder are you an American resident/citizen? If so, I think this could be a factor they are taking into account. I don't think age should be a factor as long as you have things that make you stand out. As @LoveMysterious mentioned, coming from industry and mentioning that you want to go back to industry after getting your PhD might be a "kiss of death". Depending on the program you apply to, some faculty might feel like you might not need a PhD if you want to stay in industry (in fact, some of them might think a Master's could be more appropriate) and that could be affecting your applications. I hope you hear back from the other schools you have left to hear back from tho! I know it is hard sometimes to avoid feeling "bitter about society", and I hope we (the grad school cafe community) can help you with that.

Hi guys! So I am highly considering cancelling an interview because I just feel overwhelmed by all the work I am behind on and I will probably not attend this program. However, they already bought plane tickets for me and I don't know how to go about it. Has somebody been through a similar experience? Do you know if I'd have to pay for the plane tickets if I cancel? I'd really appreciate your help!

Has anybody gotten their interview itinerary for Columbia CMBS? Interviews are next week and haven't heard from them.

Oh God. I was just about to ask if anybody got invites from Stanford Biology. I assume I didn't get an invite, then lol. Congrats by the way!

It is true that international students get the same amount of funding once they get in, but funding available for them might be limited in some schools. I will refer to the post made by Orims: "Applying as an international student was very scary and all I was aiming for was to get into 1 school. Today I cannot believe I was offered 5 interviews and pretty much accepted everywhere I interviewed (MIT wanted to accept me but wait-listed me since I went to their last recruitment week and they had already ran short on international funding). If I could give any advice for people applying within the next few years is to never doubt yourself. I thought that my list was too risky but I was able to get interviews at my 1st and 2nd choice. Also, don't let your GRE scores think that you are not good enough, I scored lower than the average student admitted into most of the schools I applied to but still managed to get acceptances. Finally, if you are an international student try to go to the 1st or 2nd recruitment week you are offered, going to the 3rd recruitment week at MIT was a bad choice given that they had already accepted many international students." Who knows if this might be true.

I am actually very curious about this too. My impression from the posts I have encountered here is that it doesn't matter as long as you are not an international student. I could be wrong tho.