jougami

Heard back for interviews or admission? Interview invites should be done already.

It depends on the program but from what I could see, yields are surprisingly low. Princeton (life sciences in general) and UPenn CAMB have roughly 40% of their offers accept, while Duke CMB had a yield as low as 27% last year. https://gradschool.princeton.edu/sites/gradschool/files/admission_stats.pdf https://www.med.upenn.edu/camb/app_info.shtml https://gradschool.duke.edu/about/statistics/cell-and-molecular-biology-phd-admissions-and-enrollment-statistics

During the interview, when the professors asked why I chose the program, I told them "so and so is my first choice because x and y reasons." I don't think it would hurt to say "I really like so and so school for x and y reasons. I would definitely attend if I was accepted."

If your research in public health wasn't lab work, programs might not consider it as part of your "research" repertoire but more like an extracurricular. With only 2 years of research, 1 of them part time, you might want to build your resume a bit if you want to apply to American programs. Your GPA could use some work, so a master's would definitely help if you did solid research and got good grades.

I think the general advice is to choose a program that has the best research that you would be happy doing in an area you could see yourself living in for the next 5-7 years. Factors to consider in order of importance I feel are your interest in the research, compatibility with faculty, research funding (which generally correlates with prestige to some degree), location, and stipend.

If you know you won't attend the program, you should probably just ask them.

Being an international student, you might want to look less at public universities which will be more limited with funding for non-US citizens. What kind of programs did you apply to at those schools and what kind of research did you do with public health?

I heard back from Princeton MolBio 2 weeks ago.

I would try to avoid declining an interview if they already booked a flight though it probably doesn't matter too much if you're not going to interview there at all.

Same here!

Interview invites from Northwestern IBIS and Dartmouth MCB

Oops I applied for a concentration in cancer biology. I have an excel file with all the dates and if the UPenn calendar online is correct they have an admissions weekend 2/23-25 that would fit all my potential schedules. Would it look bad if I asked to do the latest date?

The CAMB program. I would have liked to go to the first interview weekend but it looks like I'll have to go to an alternate one since I'm already scheduled then I wouldn't say it's time to move on just yet; they'll definitely take time to send out all the invites.

Sorry, I don't know about QCB in particular but it seems like they send it out at different times. On the results search someone got an invite to Princeton MolBio on 12/2 while I got mine 12/12.

Just got an interview invite by email!

Undergrad Institution: Mid-Ranked Flagship StateMajor: Cell BiologyMinor: ChemistryGPA in Major: 4.0Overall GPA: 4.0Type of Student: Domestic Asian MaleGRE Scores:Q: 169 (97%)V: 168 (98%)W: 5.0 (93%)Research Experience: As of now, 2.5 years plant biochemistry and 1.5 years cancer biology (senior thesis) concurrently at home institution. 3 poster presentations at my school but no pubs.Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Scholarships, Phi Beta Kappa, small research grants from my schoolApplying to Where: UNC BBSP Dartmouth MCB Northwestern IBIS Cornell BMCB Duke CMB (offered interview 12/9) UPenn CAMB Princeton MolBio (offered interview 12/12) List is full of reaches but I could always do another year of research if I don't get in. I feel like my stats are solid but I'm concerned about my (in)ability to interview and explaining a lot of my research experience being unrelated to what I want to study in the future (cancer/disease treatment). It looks like I'm going to have to practice interviewing over winter break...

Got a call to interview at Princeton MolBio!

Got an email interview invite from Duke CMB! Good luck to everyone!