bmeupscotty

Officially accepted UPenn's offer! Super excited!

I've now heard from all of my schools, but I'm still waiting to hear about a fellowship program at one that I'm like 98% sure I would choose. But without the fellowship I'm significantly less excited about the school (the curriculum and the way you choose a research lab) and way more conflicted about my choices. It's so frustrating to be done waiting but STILL be waiting!

Also see this post re: safety schools For the record, this person was rejected from everywhere they applied last year and was responding to someone who told them they'd be rejected everywhere again. They've gotten at least one acceptance and an additional interview this year. There's not anything wrong with applying to fewer programs if you're sure those are the ones with research and professors and resources that you want to work with. On the other hand, don't restrict yourself to only "top" schools if there are others that are doing what you want to do, as those might actually be better for the subfield you're interested in or just be a better fit for you.

Besides industry jobs, you can also look for Research Assistant positions at labs that fit your interests at universities or hospitals (many hospitals are associated with med schools and have professors doing research, plus a lot of BME programs collaborate closely with med schools). This is what I've been doing for the last year and a half before I applied to grad school. Many places will be glad to have someone with the technical experience being BME gives you. For example, I work in an imaging research lab and I've gotten great use out of my coding skills and understanding of image/signal processing. My position also gave me more connections, including two of my recommenders who are professors that I work with closely, and helped me gain a better idea of what I wanted to study in grad school. Overall, I think it made me a more competitive applicant.

Accepted to WashU! Also rejected from Oxford this morning, but knew it was a long-shot anyway.

@thaibear Thanks for the info! That makes me feel much better about the math questions. I'll definitely ask about funding-- that's always been a big maybe with applying there. I'd LOVE to go, but I've known from the start it might very well not be possible. I don't know yet who I'll be interviewing with, but I'll post again once I know!

I got an interview with Oxford for their Biomedical Imaging program! @thaibear Do you have any info about the interview or best ways to prepare? In the email they sent me, they say it'll include "some questions designed to test your confidence and ability in mathematics"... it's been a number of years since I was in a pure math class so this is making me nervous!

Hi! Yes, I got a separate email from the department inviting me. Details were in an attached letter from the Director of Graduate Studies.

Got an interview invite from UPenn! Hope everyone is checking their spam folders because that's where this one went for me

UPenn has three interview weekends: February 8-10, February 22-24, and March 1-3

UNC/NCSU recruitment: February 22-23 (arrive late in the day on the 21st)

Thanks! I hadn't heard anything from them till I got an email today. It looks like they're another one that sends them out over multiple days. It also cc'd professors I had mentioned in my application to connect me with them directly, which was nice! On another note, are the emails from UPenn about their student chat driving anyone else crazy? My heart starts pounding whenever I see an email from them before I realize that it's not anything related to an interview!

Georgia Tech/Emory recruitment days are March 8-10.

Thanks so much! My field is imaging, so fingers crossed those interview invites are still in progress!

Anyone know if JHU sends out interview invites over multiple days or just one? Also, those who got an invite today, do you mind sharing what your research area/specialization is?

Very helpful info! WashU in St. Louis: 1/25-1/27 and 2/15-2/17

Congrats!

Got my first interview invitation today! Email came from the Director of Graduate Studies at WashU in St. Louis. Possible dates are January 25-27 or February 15-17. So excited! Good luck everyone!

Thanks for the suggestion! I actually have looked at the program there, and though it is undoubtedly amazing, it's just not the program for me--primarily because I'd like the chance to explore other imaging applications like cardiac MRI. Plus I'm currently in the Boston area and I'm excited to move somewhere new again! Though I certainly don't discount coming back after for a post-doc haha. Hope everyone's taking deep breaths with the Dec. 1st deadline coming up

1) I don't think you need a really specific research interest, but knowing the general area you want to work in is pretty necessary, especially for PhD. Note that the fields you mentioned (bio-MEMS, bioinformatics, biomechanics, etc) are those general areas and are very different from one another, though there is a lot of interdisciplinary research between those fields. If you go to any school's BME/BioE website you'll most likely see their research areas split into similar categories. You don't want to invest the time and effort (and money for MS) without being reasonably confident you want to be in that field. 2) Again, I think you want to be decently sure about the area of your research for MS as well as PhD. It's certainly not unheard of to switch fields between degrees, but you need a compelling reason to do so, and a MS may not give you the chance to explore all those different areas of research. MS is a great way to narrow down within one of those fields a more specific interest for a PhD and give you more engineering/math background to help you be a more competitive candidate. 3) I think joining a lab that does one of the things you might be interested in is the best idea. It would give a chance to actually see if it's something you want to do and give you more engineering-type experience and show schools that you're serious about BME/BioE and can handle yourself in the field even though you don't have an engineering background. You can also talk with researchers about the other fields you're interested in to help you narrow it down some more. You might also think about taking some classes in math and physics. Most BME/BioE programs require math through differential equations or linear algebra and at least some physics. Though it's also worth contacting schools directly to ask if you can take some of those upon enrollment to catch up. 4) This is very program-specific. Some schools, some won't. You need to check with the individual programs to see if they'll consider you for MS if you're not accepted to PhD. 5) Also school/program specific. They're pretty much the same. Finally, I think when you consider these questions you need to think more about what you want to do with that degree. Do you want to pursue research, or do you want to stay in industry? Or do you want to do research in an industry environment? These are all different end goals, and one may be more suited to a PhD vs MS. I suggest researching jobs that you'd like to have with a BME/BioE degree and seeing what types and levels (senior researcher vs associate R&D engineer, etc) require a PhD vs MS.

Okay, I'll bite. Undergrad Institution: Top 15 private research university Major(s): BME with honors Minor(s): Scientific Computing GPA in Major: 3.89/4.00 Overall GPA: 3.86/4.00 Demographics/Background: Female, domestic GRE Scores: Q: 170 (97%) V: 168 (98%) W: 4.0 (60% whoops?) LOR: 1 strong letter from the director of my current lab- she's psychiatry, not BME but she's very well known for neuroimaging and has a long history of mentoring successful students; 1 very strong letter from the associate director of the lab who I work very closely with. He has PhD in comp sci and I'm planning on having him focus on different things than my first letter; last one I'm hoping to get from the professor I worked under for my senior honors project. I also took classes with him so he can speak to my academic performance as well. Research Experience: 1 summer REU with magnetic resonance spectroscopy, 1 year (honors project) using diffusion MRI on ex vivo canine muscle for fiber tracking, a little over 1 year (though will be 2 by the time I leave) post-grad working full-time as a research assistant in a neuroimaging lab working on diffusion, structural, and functional MRI analysis Publications/Abstracts/Presentations: 1 second author conference paper at a well known international imaging conference that will be published in Spinger's Lecture Notes on Computer Science (conference papers are peer reviewed and well respected in the comp sci community, btw), and possibly in a special issue of a journal. I actually wrote this paper even though I'm second on it, but I'm going to have my LOR address this. Also presented a poster on this at a Harvard Medical School research day. Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Magna Cum Laude, Dean's List every semester Fellowships/Funding: None right now Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Other Miscellaneous Accomplishments: Research Interests: If you couldn't guess already, medical image processing and analysis (especially MRI), but not sure quite yet what I specifically want to do in the field... Institutions/Programs: JHU (BME), UPenn (BioE), WashU in St. Louis (BME), Georgia Tech/Emory (BME), Oxford (DPhil in Biomedical Imaging) Comments: A little concerned about applying only to 5 programs that are well very competitive... but I'm particularly interested in these because they all have a ton of researchers I could see myself working with and they give you time to find an adviser. And most (except Georgia Tech) have you do rotations in different labs, which is nice. Good luck everyone!