Epigenetics

I have been admitted to every program I've interviewed at thus far and I have yet to have a conversation about a professor's work other than them speaking with me about it at the very end. I haven't even really gotten a chance to ask intelligent questions about their work because time runs out by the time we start talking about their research. Are my experiences outliers?

Most of these programs know who they intend to admit before interviews. These interview processes aren't actual interviews, they're recruitment weekends. Also please don't give me nonsense about "there's only 4-6 spots" no, there's 4-6 final spots after people matriculate on average per year, but the programs admit many more people than that. I know some programs can be more narrow but that is not standard.

Uhh first of all programs make admissions decisions before interviews, you're not stealing someone's spot. Second, if you weren't that interested in the programs you shouldn't have accepted the interviews, that's on you for wasting their money and time, there was a time to withdraw and it has long passed. Have fun bro.

This is definitely false. I interviewed at programs where they interviewed 40+ people for 5-6 spots. 
Also, there's really no need for hostility. I was interested in them. I had a number one school for academic + personal reasons, I thought it was a reach...didn't even expect an interview. Visited, loved it, knew I would go if I got an offer and I got in. It's not some conspiracy...

Uhh first of all programs make admissions decisions before interviews, you're not stealing someone's spot. Second, if you weren't that interested in the programs you shouldn't have accepted the interviews, that's on you for wasting their money and time, there was a time to withdraw and it has long passed. Have fun bro.

Uhh first of all programs make admissions decisions before interviews, you're not stealing someone's spot. Second, if you weren't that interested in the programs you shouldn't have accepted the interviews, that's on you for wasting their money and time, there was a time to withdraw and it has long passed. Have fun bro.

Uhh first of all programs make admissions decisions before interviews, you're not stealing someone's spot. Second, if you weren't that interested in the programs you shouldn't have accepted the interviews, that's on you for wasting their money and time, there was a time to withdraw and it has long passed. Have fun bro.

Uhh first of all programs make admissions decisions before interviews, you're not stealing someone's spot. Second, if you weren't that interested in the programs you shouldn't have accepted the interviews, that's on you for wasting their money and time, there was a time to withdraw and it has long passed. Have fun bro.

Uhh first of all programs make admissions decisions before interviews, you're not stealing someone's spot. Second, if you weren't that interested in the programs you shouldn't have accepted the interviews, that's on you for wasting their money and time, there was a time to withdraw and it has long passed. Have fun bro.

Uhh first of all programs make admissions decisions before interviews, you're not stealing someone's spot. Second, if you weren't that interested in the programs you shouldn't have accepted the interviews, that's on you for wasting their money and time, there was a time to withdraw and it has long passed. Have fun bro.

Your research experience and recommendations are significantly more important than your GPA or your GRE scores. 

Accepted to MIT Biology...will very likely be attending. Initially thought CSB would be a better fit, but after interviewing for both, the differences are very subtle between the two and the structure of Bio was a better fit for me.

Just got a call from a professor at UCSF that I got into Tetrad  

Just got the email from Columbia Biological Sciences - Accepted!!

Getting an email from a PI has nothing to do with where you have to rotate or decide to do your thesis work. Also, you cannot commit to a PI before doing rotations, at least not formally. 

I agree that Stanford does not have a 100% yield - BUT - on their website for BMI, they advertise "a recent cycle" as "PhD: 135 applied, 7 admitted, 6 enrolled." So very high yield.
Not sure from what cycle this is from, nor if this has changed heavily in the time since then nor how typical this is. Just saying it is super competitive and people are lucky to get admitted there, and, according to them, their yield is high.

I can tell you fundamentally none of what you're saying is true. Yes they're trying to fill ~65 spots, because the program is large, but that is the post-acceptance matriculation number. They expect a large number of people not to attend, so if they anticipate a matriculation rate of 50% (from what I've heard that's about what they expect) then they have to accept 130 people to get that. I know for a fact their post-interview admission rate is 90-95%. Source: I work in a BBS lab.

I'm still going through the the app process now, so I guess take this with a grain of salt, but that is MUCH more specific than what I wrote.  My statements were much more along the lines of "I'm interested in the work of Dr. X and Dr. Y, particularly their projects related to innate immunity." 

I can tell you fundamentally none of what you're saying is true. Yes they're trying to fill ~65 spots, because the program is large, but that is the post-acceptance matriculation number. They expect a large number of people not to attend, so if they anticipate a matriculation rate of 50% (from what I've heard that's about what they expect) then they have to accept 130 people to get that. I know for a fact their post-interview admission rate is 90-95%. Source: I work in a BBS lab.

For me at least, I definitely over-applied because I didn't really have any idea how competitive I'd be, as I didn't know anyone else who'd gone through this process, at least in this field. So looking back, I wouldn't have applied to 11. Also, the plan was that the interview invites would narrow down my choices a bit...didn't happen. But yes, I can say with confidence that of those 8 interviews (7 schools...applied to 2 departments at one of them) I would be very happy attending 5 of them. The other 2, I would like to visit because I'm not sure. I also think going on the visits might help me decide (I think I know my top school, but what if I visit and realize I don't like the environment, etc). Additionally, once I realized how many invites I was going to receive, I intentionally put off booking flights for these programs, so I wouldn't cost them any money. That's how I've been reasoning through this, at least.

I can tell you fundamentally none of what you're saying is true. Yes they're trying to fill ~65 spots, because the program is large, but that is the post-acceptance matriculation number. They expect a large number of people not to attend, so if they anticipate a matriculation rate of 50% (from what I've heard that's about what they expect) then they have to accept 130 people to get that. I know for a fact their post-interview admission rate is 90-95%. Source: I work in a BBS lab.

I can tell you fundamentally none of what you're saying is true. Yes they're trying to fill ~65 spots, because the program is large, but that is the post-acceptance matriculation number. They expect a large number of people not to attend, so if they anticipate a matriculation rate of 50% (from what I've heard that's about what they expect) then they have to accept 130 people to get that. I know for a fact their post-interview admission rate is 90-95%. Source: I work in a BBS lab.

I can tell you fundamentally none of what you're saying is true. Yes they're trying to fill ~65 spots, because the program is large, but that is the post-acceptance matriculation number. They expect a large number of people not to attend, so if they anticipate a matriculation rate of 50% (from what I've heard that's about what they expect) then they have to accept 130 people to get that. I know for a fact their post-interview admission rate is 90-95%. Source: I work in a BBS lab.

The people you interview have nothing to do with who you rotate with, or who's taking students. It could just be that they had other things to tend to. 

Hello everyone. I have been following this thread for a long time, however I have just been a lurker. 
Since a lot of people are waiting on Stanford Cancer Biology.  I was offered an interview fifty minutes ago for 3/1-3/5.