Epigenetics

What is PiN

Alongside this, talk to the professors you're interested in working with to make sure they're not about to disembark to another university. I've had several friends who got screwed by professors leaving right after they joined a program.

HILS are very different programs, don't lump them together because they're all separate. My understanding is BBS admits 90-95% of those they interview, the culling happens before interviews.

ah well, can't win them all.

Ugh all I'm doing is furiously refreshing my inbox. Trying not to get stressed like I did with BBS because that took a bit, but idk. They don't like Harvard undergrads so my hopes aren't high here...

Ahhhhhh now I'm stressed.

Which Berkeley program? For Berkeley MCB I think this is just how they do it, I got a follow-up e-mail from the professor who called me, so i think it serves the same purpose as form e-mails. It's also not a massive program, so the number of people on this site that applied might be low. My guess is they handed it out to all the professors and they did them late last week/early this week sorry!

I e-mailed UW GS and they offered to switch me to the 12-14th so that worked out well.

First of all this is the bio thread, so we're not EECS people. But I also submitted a two-page SOP to a school that asked for one page and I still got an interview, I wouldn't freak out.

There's again a fine line here. There are projects with large data sets (looking at shRNA screens, TCGA exome data, GWAS data sets) where the data collection isn't the project. But there are also many projects like what I do which is cell line work that requires someone to spend a lot of time doing the wet lab work to collect the data. If you want to be a biostat person and are in a dry lab analyzing common data sets, that's one thing. But it's very difficult to lead a project where you're not responsible for actually doing the experiments. Also @pepmochaa that is literally my role in my lab, so it's not uncommon, but those tend to be staff scientists if they only do the bioinformatics. Most grad students/postdocs in cell line work generate their own data for the projects they lead, in addition to assisting on other projects. It is more efficient, that's why I don't do wet lab work right now, but the criteria for lab efficiency and independent research in pursuit of a PhD are rather different.

On that note do ask programs how long it takes for people to graduate, and ask professors as well before you actually join their lab during your PhD. I have friends who didn't realize everyone in their lab takes 6-7 years to graduate because the projects are so labor-intensive and difficult, and now regret it.

I mean there are a lot of mitigating factors. Your PI doesn't really decide when you graduate, your DAC does, but some professors are more willing to get you through faster than others. Also to a certain extent it depends on how much you actually did and how high-quality and rigorous the work is. But my experience with people in several different Harvard programs is once you have one or two first author papers accepted that's when you're able to graduate if you want. My point was not that it is literally impossible to have four papers in four years. I'm actually a bad person to talk to about this, since I have four papers (submitted or in preparation) that I'm (co-)first author on from the past 18 months. However, I'm in a fortunate position since I didn't have to collect any of the data like I would've had to for a PhD, so it would've taken a lot longer to do those other steps. Fields also vary on this to be sure, but PhD students tend to take a while to get their sea legs, and review is a bitch, so there are common mitigating factors. So there are of course mitigating factors, but the likely combination is some version of either (a) you graduate in 3-4 years when the first couple papers are accepted or (b) you graduate whenever you get the first one accepted after however many years that is. Outliers exist, my point was that it's not common or really expected.

I don't have anything to prove, I was just trying to provide information I have. Good luck, you'll be missed at the genome sciences interviews!

As someone who's spent two years now in a high-power Harvard Medical School lab, I can tell you like by definition if you get two first-author papers they graduate you, it can even only take one, that's a remarkably high rate to anticipate.

You do understand that a PhD gets you one... maybe two papers? Especially as someone with no academic research experience that's an ambitious expectation. But good luck!

Did everyone who heard from UW Genome Sciences hear February 26-28th? Just curious if anyone heard a different weekend or if there's only one...

Can you explain why you're applying to PhD programs? Most people with an MD would just do a post doc, like you don't need a PhD if you want to go into academia or industry.

I want to reiterate how important post-graduate research is in this process. There really is no comparison between undergraduate and post-graduate research. If you applied while you're still in undergrad, don't assume they hate you, just take some time to do this full-time. It'll beef up your application massively.

Also just being a research assistant in a lab full time will get you really valuable experience, being in a lab over the summer or as an undergrad is nothing like being full time in a lab. It's a really good experience to know what it actually is like.

Was that on the portal or was it in e-mail? Sorry!

I am hoping to, but they're different weekends. Worth talking to the program though, most programs are literally an afternoon of interviews and then a couple days of fluff and recruitment, so you can probably talk to the programs. I know some programs coordinate this type of thing.

I will say on this note of "are interviews interviews" you can tell so far which programs aren't even pretending and which have some premise of it being an interview and not a recruitment weekend. Harvard BBS called it their "Welcome to Harvard BBS Weekend" for instance. There's some tea leaves there.

Also I e-mailed Harvard SysBio and they said interviews will be sent out by Friday.

I have a conflict as well, just e-mailed them to ask if there's an alternate weekend.

I also just got a UW Genome Sciences interview.