biomednyc
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Posts posted by biomednyc
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On 12/17/2017 at 6:35 PM, siliconchins said:
Anyone know the post-interview stats for Yale BBS, Princeton MolBio, or Northwestern DGP?
For Yale BBS, last year was apparently a competitive year (according to my student host) and the post-interview acceptance rate was somewhere around 2/3 of those interviewed, so anywhere between 60-70%. I obviously have no idea what the applicant pool looks like this year, but I think it's safe to say that they are able to accept more than half post-interview.
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9 hours ago, jeanetics17 said:Congrats! Penn is a great school with lots of great faculty. The CAMB students receive really good training and mentoring. Was my 2nd choice.
Congrats to you too! I can say the same for Harvard
thanks a lot for the kind words, I wish you the best of luck!
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13 hours ago, blc073 said:
What was the deciding factor for you?
It ultimately came down to which school had the whole package of research, mentorship/support and location for me. Don’t get me wrong, it was a very hard decision. I definitely lost some sleep over it.
Long story short, the research fit was very good at both schools, and it would be very hard for me to choose solely based on that.
As for mentorship/support, I got along better with the faculty I interacted with at Penn. This obviously depends on who I happened to interview with/run into, but the gut feeling was there. I decided to listen to it because I got matched with POIs I was really interested in at both places, and simply could see myself working with those at Penn over Harvard. I’ve learned the hard way that personality is something that matters to me.
I also approached it from the angle of: “If (or maybe when) something goes wrong, who (other than my PI) can I go to for guidance?” At Penn I could name two such people after the visiting weekend, at Harvard it was a bit harder. I think this one is largely because CAMB is broken up into a few sub-groups, and each has a chair and administrator. It’s very different when you’re one of six or seven people, versus one of 65. Both of them at Penn sought the few of us in the sub-group out during the interviews to touch base and get to know us. Does not being sought out during the interview mean there is less support at Harvard? Probably not. But the structures of the programs are undeniably different, and I decided that Penn fit my needs better.
Also, there is a higher junior faculty turnover at Harvard than at Penn. To me, this had a higher probability of translating into a high pressure environment that I didn’t feel would fit the type of environment I learn best in. Of course that will differ on specifics labs and it’s probably avoidable; but again, it’s there, and might limit who I get to work with. I tend to gravitate toward smaller labs (which tend to be led by assistant professors) so I did not want to be limited by this fear.
Finally, I preferred Philly over Boston. I can afford a one bedroom apartment about a 15 minute walk from campus by myself in Philly, in Boston that is nearly impossible. I wanted to have the option to live by myself comfortably. Ruled out NYC because of this one too.
All in all, I had to go with where I felt I would have the highest probability of being happiest and most successful. So it’s not really one deciding factor, but kind of the context of the whole program, including the location, that just made Penn the better fit for me. It was one hell of a personal decision.
- Cancerbio1001, celestial, MCF10A and 9 others
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9 minutes ago, PhD_RPs said:
No I agree with you, but if you want to work as a consultant for investing companies: a PhD is not an easy gateway to that, if you are 30 years old with a PhD in Immunology you will be competing against a 26 year old with an MBA for the same job...
I certainly think the skills learned in graduate school would make you excellent at anything that you do and I agree that you have to have a certain level of aptitude for any of those things. But just because you have a PhD you aren't going to be a shoe-in for any of those jobs and if it is outside of science they will question your background.
What I am frustrated with is how schools show you a presentation and one of the slides is always "career tracks", more often than not you don't see Academia on those slides that's how tough it is, and they rub in all the other side paths. Then people are afraid to say they want to be academics as their end goal out of fear of sounding Arrogant?? Really, seriously, I know I've been blunt, and I know how difficult it is, but I shouldn't be humiliated or ashamed to say that that's waht I want to do. I promise you it is purely because I love people and that is the only way I feel like I can have a beneficial impact on humanity.
I don't want to be in industry profiteering off of people's sicknesses.
No of course you're not going to be a shoo-in for any career post-PhD, and I would hope no recent PhD graduate thinks that lol. I think I understand what you're saying...that it's not worth the time and energy to pursue a PhD if you don't really know what you want to do and think it's a good way to make yourself more "employable". I certainly know people who wanted to apply to PhDs to put off going into the "real world." I would just caution against piling people who might not want to pursue an academic career into that boat. People have different reasons for pursuing it, and I would say that those that simply pursue it to put time off from looking for jobs will most likely not make it through.
Also I'm not sure where the shame for wanting to go into academia is coming from...I am someone who intends to pursue an academic path and had no problem having conversations about it during interviews. I'm also not sure how much to read into the introductory presentations...again even as someone who wants to pursue an academic career I usually ask questions about career development/alternative careers because I think it's important to be aware of the options. At interviews they need to cover a lot in a little bit of time so they could've been catering to what people are (probably) most curious about.
Don't feel threatened about what you want to pursue post-PhD. Don't threaten other people about what they want to pursue post-PhD. Do your thing and learn as much as you can from everyone, even those who have different career goals than you.
- Janiejoneswoah and jmillar
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I read a question on Quora a while ago on whether there are too many PhDs given out, and I thought the answer was succinct and to the point:
https://www.quora.com/Do-we-really-need-this-many-PhDs-as-a-society/answer/Joseph-Wang-9?srid=Lbmp
Advanced degrees are much more than gateways for certain careers. It is very very dangerous to think of an education as something that should be limited only to certain people going for certain careers. The application process for PhDs is fairly rigorous, most people that get in are qualified and have what it takes to make the most of it and make an impact in WHATEVER WAY THEY WISH. They are driven by curiosity and the desire to challenge themselves and push the bank of knowledge forward. The PhD lets them flesh out those traits, gain a solid set of problem solving and technical skills and figure out where they can best apply them. If that means consulting for investment companies, then fine. If it means editing scientific communication, then fine. Why in the world would you keep someone from pursuing a PhD just because they don't want to do lab research??? Please take a step back and think of what that means at a societal level.
Just because the PhD used to be solely for the academic path does not mean it needs to stay that way. There was also a time when women couldn't vote, and plenty of people screamed about how it should stay that way, which is obviously ridiculous. For better or for worse, the PhD is changing. Instead of being one of the people complaining about it, think of ways of using your position to impact this change in a constructive way.
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4 hours ago, jeanetics17 said:
Congrats!!!
Thank you!! It's gonna be one heck of a decision where to commit for the fall, but an exciting one nonetheless
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I'm nursing a 102 degree fever that refuses to go down and coming to terms with the idea that it probably isn't a good idea to drive tonight to my interview...
And suddenly I get an email that I got into Harvard BBS!!!!!!
Happy, feverish mess = me.
- Kaede, bioapplerobot, Cervello and 6 others
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13 minutes ago, Bubbles_L said:
may I ask which program in camb? I am getting anxious...
I wouldn't get anxious just yet, it was an informal email from one of the faculty members I interviewed with who also happens to be on the admission committee wanting to congratulate me and let me know that I will be receiving the official acceptance soon. So they're definitely still working through things. I applied to cell biology, physiology and metabolism (CPM). Good luck, keeping my fingers crossed for ya
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Just got an offer from Penn - CAMB!! So pumped...I loved the interview weekend
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Has anyone heard back from Columbia's Integrated Program in Biomedical Sciences? They say they expected to send the first round of acceptances by this Friday, but I'm not seeing much on the results page.
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2 hours ago, Microburritology said:
Umm it was a little more than 75% last year (my cycle), and we're planning on the same this year. My PI is actually on the ad-com this year, and she said literally all they look for if you've been called up for the interview is a) you are the same science-passionate student you seem on paper, and
you aren't an arrogant douchebag.
All the best
Wow, you just made my day. Yale BBS is by far my top choice, and I've heard about them being around the ~50% mark as well. I honestly don't remember where I got that number from, but it's nice to hear from someone who's there that that odds are a bit more generous.
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On 1/7/2017 at 4:49 PM, Ferroportin said:
Like you mentioned, most interviews should be fairly casual and conversational. However, this can all be based on luck and whoever ends up interviewing you. I was asked at one interview why I didn't want to pursue an MD since my CV had some clinical and public health experience on it. We literally spent over half the interview just discussing about why I should not pursue an PhD, but rather get an MD and do research without practicing medicine.
I've heard of people getting interviewers that wanted them to do a chalk talk of their research or draw out signaling pathways for them. I've also heard of interviews where the faculty member completely disregards the student's research/field as irrelevant or wrong. I had an interview where the faculty member did not want to hear about my research at all.
In one of my favorite but more stressful interviews, my interviewer started talking about his research and background info in his field and then asked me to come up with hypotheses given the information he had laid out. He was really encouraging and the interview was really engaging, but nonetheless, it was stressful at the time.
In this end, its going to be a mixed bag with a dash of luck depending on who you get. There's only so much you can do to prepare for the interviews - just know your research well and be able to explain the logic behind the big picture. If you get any interviewer who is just hostile or disrespectful to you, it's ok to bring that up with the program coordinator. After all, if the program coordinator brushes you off or doesn't care that you brought up a genuine concern to them - then perhaps they might not provide the best student support when you're actually in the program.
Thanks so much, your input is immensely helpful. I really appreciate it. On a related note, do you have any tips for good questions to ask interviewers? Regarding their work, their students, or maybe the program at large?
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Seasoned interviewers: what were some of the hardest questions you got, or that maybe took you off guard? I understand that the process is fairly casual and designed to gauge the applicant's research experience/personality while confirming what's on paper, but I have 7 interviews lined up (!!!!!) and I'm trying to prepare myself for the worst. I have no idea what to expect and any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
- spiffscience, Drink The Sea and Kaede
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2018 Applicant Profiles and Admissions Results
in Biology
Posted
I don’t know the NYU Sackler post-interview acceptance rate, but I can tell you that the interview weekend was very laid back and well organized. Regarding the faculty, I remember being struck by how happy and friendly they were. One of my interviewers had research interests aligned pretty closely with what my current undergrad PI was doing, and she offered to send a bunch of mice over for some experiments. I got them in touch and they are now working together. Of course maybe it was just the department I happened to interview in (it was mostly the cardiovascular division of the cell bio department), but the program directors and other faculty were also very helpful and informative during the lunches/poster sessions/what-have-you mingling times after the interviews.
The interviews in general were very casual--very typical discussion of like 20 mins about my research/career goals/questions and then the last 15-20 mins discussing the research interests of whoever was doing the interviewing. The way the interviews go depend on who you happen to get as an interviewer and how you click with them, but in my experience very few faculty are looking to grill you and put you on the spot.
I would say that during these interview weekends you should look into getting the know the students/faculty as well as possible and figure out if the program is right for you. Don't be scared to ask students questions about quality of life, support systems, cost of living, etc. and the faculty about collaborations, mentorship, what past students have done and anything else that is important to you. This is your time to show that you are passionate about science and confirm what was in your application, of course, but it is also the time to figure out if this is the place for you for the next 5-7 years. Keep you eyes open and enjoy it.