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glialstar

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  1. Like
    glialstar reacted to NotDawsonsCreek in 2021 Neuroscience PhD Applicants and Admissions Results   
    Ah I see, I'm most interested in the Clinton lab and the Hodes lab for the work they do on mood disorders. Actually got an invite to interview with them yesterday!
  2. Upvote
    glialstar got a reaction from masha18 in 2020 Neuroscience PhD Applicants and Admission Results   
    Can confirm that Brown is done sending out interview invitations! 
  3. Like
    glialstar got a reaction from Mimititi in 2020 Neuroscience PhD Applicants and Admission Results   
    Current student! I can ask to confirm, but fairly positive that they’ll try to determine your preference during interviews, and ask which you are leaning towards. The NSGP and GPP have different funding mechanisms, and thus different numbers of slots per year etc, so you’d likely just receive an offer from one of them rather than both. The first year/coursework is identical for both, so its really just about preference for location/resources for the remainder of your PhD (RI vs Maryland). Let me know if you have any questions, look forward to seeing you! 
  4. Upvote
    glialstar reacted to Mimititi in 2020 Neuroscience PhD Applicants and Admission Results   
    Brown doesn’t have an alternate (I’m also going). Maybe ask if you can do it via Skype. They’re nice. 
  5. Like
    glialstar got a reaction from Neuromantic in 2019 Neuroscience PhD Applicants and Admission Results   
    Just got a call with an offer for the Brown Neuroscience PhD! With my gpa from undergrad being 3.27 (3.07 in major), i really wasn't too hopeful for this round of applications- But I'm ecstatic! 
  6. Like
    glialstar reacted to nęm0 in NIH PREP 2019-2020 Applicants unite   
    Committed to UIC PREP and will be removing apps from places I interviewed( Uchicago, Tufts). Hopes it helps someone.
    So long, gradcafe!
  7. Upvote
    glialstar reacted to mediumtwotopping in NIH PREP 2019-2020 Applicants unite   
    Just got back from Einstein and I got in! No interviews! ?
  8. Upvote
    glialstar got a reaction from trollsloot in Rejected- What to do next ?   
    I vote option 3. I graduated with a Neuro degree with about a 3.3, and like 3.07 in major (ochem yikes), a good deal of research experience, posters etc. I didnt apply my senior year and opted to to a postbacc instead. Applied to 7 schools this year for Neuroscience PhDs, interviewed at 4, declined 2 immediately though due to fit during the interview and 2 acceptances to programs I loved!
     
    Applied: Brown, Mayo Clinic, Yale, USUHS, Dartmouth, Princeton, Weill Cornell
    interviews: Brown, Mayo Clinic, USUHS, Dartmouth
    Accepted: Brown (I picked Brown!) & Mayo Clinic
     
    Just work in your statement and more experience this year and you should be fine!
  9. Upvote
    glialstar reacted to AnonNeuroGrad in Rejected- What to do next ?   
    So I have some good information for you since I was in your exact position when I graduated (almost exact same stats) and probably would’ve had the same results. I’ll help walk you through what I did to compensate for low grades and what worked/didn’t work and how I did this application season.
    i graduated from a regional SLAC with a 3.2 GPA in Biochemistry and Math with a minor in neuroscience. I had three years of undergrad experience but no pubs. I went on to take the GRE and got a 167/164/6.0 I think V/Q/W. I thought deeply about where I needed to compensate and how by following the advice of others and some good blog posts; my weakest areas were going to be my GPA, lack of publications, and letters of rec (no one knows of my recommenders). Thus, number one and two on my list were to enroll in an MS program with good grades and to get some publications. Also to find a job with some big names to write my letters.
    I was actually fairly successful at everything: at the time of application, I was a quarter shy of finishing a masters in applied math with a 3.7 at a top-3 public school and I had been working 3.5 years at the premier neuroscience non-profit gaining 3 publications (3rd in Neurotox., mid in eLife, mid in eNeuro), 2 in review (mid in Nature, 2nd in PLOS ONE), and two more in prep (3rd and a 1st). My letter writers were all now former academics (not PIs though, postdocs) that were known in the community. I thought I did everything I could have almost as best as possible and all my mentors had told me that I should shoot very highly in terms of schools.
    I applied to the following 14 schools: Harvard, Stanford, Columbia, Princeton, Carnegie Mellon/Pitt, UCSF, UCSD, Carnegie Mellon (Bio), University of Oregon, Boston University, Stony Brook University, MIT, and NYU. I also networked heavily and emailed 2-3 PIs at every school and corresponded with around a dozen extensively over email, over Skype, or in-person at SfN. I was feeling very confident I’d get interviews from around half my schools.
    Now a few months later I was rejected from ten schools and received interviews from Carnegie Mellon (Bio), Stony Brook University, University of Oregon, and Boston University. I was admitted to both University of Oregon and Stony Brook University with fellowships about $5k a year each for three years. I’m still waiting to hear back from Carnegie Mellon (Bio) and am waitlisted for Boston University (GPN).
    Some takeaways,
    I should’ve asked my letter writers to address my grades and I should’ve talked more at length about why my grades were so low (undiagnosed sleep disorder [DSPD], and trauma with my best friend dying in a car accident). Admissions committees didn’t care that I got a 3.7 in my masters it felt like and this didn’t offset my undergrad grades as far as I could tell The admissions process is tightly controlled at a lot of schools by a single-person or a small committee and even though I was invited to interview (even being rated first in the cohort by a professor), it once again came down to grades and I suppose fit which was disappointing. I had believed that once I interviewed, the schools already wouldn’t care about grades and thought I was a good fit. as far as fit goes, I was a bit too specific and I suppose seemingly inflexible during interviews: I thought being a very good specific fit for two or three professors was the way to go but I’m thinking it’s better to have broad appeal. I wasn’t able to get un-pigeonholed as a “biology” or “computational” guy in different contexts. Some PIs expressed doubt as to whether I would even want to do experiments while others didn’t comment on my 5 years of programming or my masters in math. my publications didn’t matter. I never got a single comment on any of them and a lot of interviewees seemed like they had pulled up my CV in their computer a minute before the interview. I think the only sort of pub that matters is a 2nd or 3rd author in a high-tier journal or a 1st in a mid-tier journal. my work experience didn’t matter per se. I had a lot of friends get admitted to schools I got rejected from when they had only 2 years of experience and I had very nearly 7. The only difference between us was GPA so I think the advice “research experience is more important than grades” is false. it matters tremendously who is writing your letters. I’ve seen students with a 3.4 gpa and mediocre scores/experiences with letters from HHMI or NAS members get into every school in the top10.  If I were to do it all again, 
    I would have addressed my grades more directly and had my letter writers do so as well I would have not done the MS (or done a 1-year full-time) and then focused two years on getting one or more first-authorships. In retrospect, I had all the experimental and analytic skills to do so but I was just intimidated by the idea of it. I would have chased after working with big names in the field to get a recommendation from them. It matters more than it should. I wish I knew that everyone who was giving me advice that was last in admissions 5 years ago has outdated information. It's at least twice as competitive now and 1st-authorships are now going from unheard of to uncommon. I should've worked like my life depended on it and that's saying a lot because there were many weeks I was working 60-80 hours with work and homework combined. Neuroscience is the hardest life sciences field right now (except clinical psych PhDs) and possibly all of science save except some fields like ML/CS but, unless you talk to someone who's recently applied or is on admissions, you wouldn't know it. BU got >500 applications for 40 interview spots and 8 spots in their incoming class. I networked a ton but I should've networked even more. Really making sure these PIs were invested in having me. One PI at each Boston and CMU had told me explicitly they "golden buzzered" me into interview which I would've never gotten otherwise. Most of my schools were top-20 so I needed this sort of help for each one but even one isn't a guarantee especially if their admissions process is more committee based. BU's seemed to give more power to individual PI's while others were tightly controlled and voted on by each committee. I had a chat for 30 min in-person with the director at Harvard and he said he liked my skillset and would look for my application but alas I never got in (I should've been upfront about my grades). I should've applied to lower-ranked but still very good schools like Pitt, Northwestern, Rochester, UT Austin, Georgia Tech, etc. Very important: I should have applied to more biology programs. They're easier to get into and the only difference is in curriculum (work with all the same professors). Several neuro interviewees I was with at sort-of mid-level institutions also had interviews at top20/10 biology programs. I'm also going to disagree with the advice that getting an acceptance after interview is "yours to lose" because at several of my interviews the acceptance rate was below 50% and so it came down to fit mostly even if you were a wonderful person. One school told me they wanted to see at least three PI's throw their hat in the ring for you. At several of my interviews, all of us were confident, knowledgeable about our work, skilled, and driven no question but yet more than half of us will not receive an offer. This does vary though as I know of one top school that routinely offers every interviewee that passes the "is this person at least normal" test.
    Your grades aren't as bad as mines but I feel like for those with the same grades, the only way out is to have something that makes the reviewers go "holy shit" i.e. one or more glowing recs from big names in the field or having first-authorship. That's all I can think up right now but let me know if you have any questions.
  10. Upvote
    glialstar reacted to Shomeek Chowdhury in 2019 Applicant Profiles and Admissions Results   
    I got PhD admission in Integrative Life Sciences at Virginia Commonwealth University and in Molecular and Cell Biology at University of Texas at Dallas. I like the research work at both the places for my doctoral studies. Which one should I choose?
  11. Upvote
    glialstar reacted to dejosco in NIH PREP 2019-2020 Applicants unite   
    It sounds like you could greatly benefit from taking some time to gain a greater understanding of what exactly it is you want out of a career and what exactly it is you could see yourself doing with an advanced degree, whether that be a PhD, MD-PhD, or MD. 
    You make "this information" more understandable to the public by publishing. Doing research isn't about just fiddling about in a lab doing experiments--it's about expanding the frontier of human knowledge. If you play your cards right, you will also be able to share this information outside of the context of scientific journals (e.g., review articles, Popular Science articles, TED Talks, etc.) that will allow for this information to be shared in a way that is more understandable to people that lack the technical knowledge we as life scientists have. 
    All research, even basic science, is done with hope it will someday have an impact. If you are interested in research that is more translationally focused, it would probably be advantageous for you to look into public health graduate programs or translational research programs. Additionally, bear in mind that having an MD does not preclude you from doing research. Luckily, there is a place in research for people with a vast array of interests! 
  12. Upvote
    glialstar got a reaction from dejosco in 2019 Neuroscience PhD Applicants and Admission Results   
    Just got a call with an offer for the Brown Neuroscience PhD! With my gpa from undergrad being 3.27 (3.07 in major), i really wasn't too hopeful for this round of applications- But I'm ecstatic! 
  13. Upvote
    glialstar reacted to _kb in 2019 Neuroscience PhD Applicants and Admission Results   
    I got my MIT accpetance email this morning from POIs! Official email to come soon, best of luck to the other applicants! 
  14. Upvote
    glialstar reacted to dejosco in NIH PREP 2019-2020 Applicants unite   
    Yeah, JHU did interviews! 
    Unless you already have a substantial amount of research experience already, it would probably be more advantageous to utilize your gap year to gain research experience in some way. 
  15. Upvote
    glialstar reacted to maya123z in 2019 Neuroscience PhD Applicants and Admission Results   
    Just accepted my offer from UCSD Biomedical Sciences, I’m so excited!!!
    Also PSA: if you get in to UCSD be sure to ask your department to nominate you for the SHORE program, which allows you to live on campus for your entire PhD (normally just a 2-year limit).
  16. Upvote
    glialstar reacted to CancerBiology in 2019 Applicant Profiles and Admissions Results   
    Hey guys! I ended up committing to Columbia. I got many messages asking about how I managed to get into these schools as an international etc. This was my first time applying and I got lucky, but to those who did not get in anywhere, you'll get in next year! Absolutely everything happens for a reason, and you'll end up where you're meant to be, which will be a great place for sure. If this is what you want to do, don't EVER give up. YOU GOT THIS! If anyone wants to contact me, please feel free. I am not an expert by any means, but I did get into 4 pretty good schools for my PhD in Biomedical Sciences, and I am happy to help as much as I can!
  17. Upvote
    glialstar got a reaction from NeuroMetro in 2019 Neuroscience PhD Applicants and Admission Results   
    Just got a call with an offer for the Brown Neuroscience PhD! With my gpa from undergrad being 3.27 (3.07 in major), i really wasn't too hopeful for this round of applications- But I'm ecstatic! 
  18. Upvote
    glialstar got a reaction from Ntwadumela in 2019 Neuroscience PhD Applicants and Admission Results   
    Just got a call with an offer for the Brown Neuroscience PhD! With my gpa from undergrad being 3.27 (3.07 in major), i really wasn't too hopeful for this round of applications- But I'm ecstatic! 
  19. Like
    glialstar got a reaction from eevee in 2019 Neuroscience PhD Applicants and Admission Results   
    Just got a call with an offer for the Brown Neuroscience PhD! With my gpa from undergrad being 3.27 (3.07 in major), i really wasn't too hopeful for this round of applications- But I'm ecstatic! 
  20. Upvote
    glialstar got a reaction from mdh118 in 2019 Neuroscience PhD Applicants and Admission Results   
    Just got a call with an offer for the Brown Neuroscience PhD! With my gpa from undergrad being 3.27 (3.07 in major), i really wasn't too hopeful for this round of applications- But I'm ecstatic! 
  21. Like
    glialstar got a reaction from _kb in 2019 Neuroscience PhD Applicants and Admission Results   
    Just got a call with an offer for the Brown Neuroscience PhD! With my gpa from undergrad being 3.27 (3.07 in major), i really wasn't too hopeful for this round of applications- But I'm ecstatic! 
  22. Upvote
    glialstar got a reaction from nexttosomewhatnormal in 2019 Neuroscience PhD Applicants and Admission Results   
    Just got a call with an offer for the Brown Neuroscience PhD! With my gpa from undergrad being 3.27 (3.07 in major), i really wasn't too hopeful for this round of applications- But I'm ecstatic! 
  23. Like
    glialstar got a reaction from mcfc2018 in 2019 Neuroscience PhD Applicants and Admission Results   
    Just got a call with an offer for the Brown Neuroscience PhD! With my gpa from undergrad being 3.27 (3.07 in major), i really wasn't too hopeful for this round of applications- But I'm ecstatic! 
  24. Upvote
    glialstar got a reaction from cam27 in 2019 Neuroscience PhD Applicants and Admission Results   
    Just got a call with an offer for the Brown Neuroscience PhD! With my gpa from undergrad being 3.27 (3.07 in major), i really wasn't too hopeful for this round of applications- But I'm ecstatic! 
  25. Like
    glialstar got a reaction from k8e in 2019 Neuroscience PhD Applicants and Admission Results   
    Just got a call with an offer for the Brown Neuroscience PhD! With my gpa from undergrad being 3.27 (3.07 in major), i really wasn't too hopeful for this round of applications- But I'm ecstatic! 
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