synapticcat

Accepted to University of Michigan PIBS - Neuroscience!!!!! 

Accepted to UIC GEMS!!  Still very highly considering UW-Madison's offer!

Accepted to University of Michigan PIBS - Neuroscience!!!!! 

Accepted to University of Michigan PIBS - Neuroscience!!!!! 

Accepted to University of Michigan PIBS - Neuroscience!!!!! 

Accepted to University of Michigan PIBS - Neuroscience!!!!! 

Accepted to University of Michigan PIBS - Neuroscience!!!!! 

Accepted to University of Michigan PIBS - Neuroscience!!!!! 

Accepted to Case Western BSTP!!! 
I know I was just on here posting worried about not getting in anywhere....so if you're reading this, sometimes really great things happen when you least expect them to! In my case, it was in the middle of grocery shopping. The rest of the produce section was not nearly as thrilled as I was. 
I interviewed 2/1-2/3 and got a call today from an admissions committee member (who I sat next to at dinner one night lmao - cool guy) saying that the committee met today and that they are definitely extending me an offer, official stuff to follow in the next few days. Woohoo! I can now delete the lab tech jobs I bookmarked today as a plan B and sit back and wait to hear from my other top choice, but I would be equally as happy to attend here 

Accepted to University of Notre Dame Biological Sciences Ph.D. Program! 

Accepted to Case Western BSTP!!! 
I know I was just on here posting worried about not getting in anywhere....so if you're reading this, sometimes really great things happen when you least expect them to! In my case, it was in the middle of grocery shopping. The rest of the produce section was not nearly as thrilled as I was. 
I interviewed 2/1-2/3 and got a call today from an admissions committee member (who I sat next to at dinner one night lmao - cool guy) saying that the committee met today and that they are definitely extending me an offer, official stuff to follow in the next few days. Woohoo! I can now delete the lab tech jobs I bookmarked today as a plan B and sit back and wait to hear from my other top choice, but I would be equally as happy to attend here 

Accepted to Case Western BSTP!!! 
I know I was just on here posting worried about not getting in anywhere....so if you're reading this, sometimes really great things happen when you least expect them to! In my case, it was in the middle of grocery shopping. The rest of the produce section was not nearly as thrilled as I was. 
I interviewed 2/1-2/3 and got a call today from an admissions committee member (who I sat next to at dinner one night lmao - cool guy) saying that the committee met today and that they are definitely extending me an offer, official stuff to follow in the next few days. Woohoo! I can now delete the lab tech jobs I bookmarked today as a plan B and sit back and wait to hear from my other top choice, but I would be equally as happy to attend here 

I hope your interviewers say the same! I'm the complete opposite - all three of mine happened already, and now I'm just waiting. Thanks so much for the encouragement, I hope you get fantastic news too 
I just had my ~beginning of the semester~ meeting with my PI and I'm feeling a bit more relaxed now. Also spent the past 2 hours pipetting fish - sounds infuriating, but methodical work like that is super calming for me. I know for this program specifically they accepted almost 80% of their interviewees. Someone just told me that no one has heard from neuroscience yet, so I guess I can put off my freak-out for a bit longer! Thanks so much for the positive words and congrats on your acceptances 

Accepted to Case Western BSTP!!! 
I know I was just on here posting worried about not getting in anywhere....so if you're reading this, sometimes really great things happen when you least expect them to! In my case, it was in the middle of grocery shopping. The rest of the produce section was not nearly as thrilled as I was. 
I interviewed 2/1-2/3 and got a call today from an admissions committee member (who I sat next to at dinner one night lmao - cool guy) saying that the committee met today and that they are definitely extending me an offer, official stuff to follow in the next few days. Woohoo! I can now delete the lab tech jobs I bookmarked today as a plan B and sit back and wait to hear from my other top choice, but I would be equally as happy to attend here 

Accepted to Case Western BSTP!!! 
I know I was just on here posting worried about not getting in anywhere....so if you're reading this, sometimes really great things happen when you least expect them to! In my case, it was in the middle of grocery shopping. The rest of the produce section was not nearly as thrilled as I was. 
I interviewed 2/1-2/3 and got a call today from an admissions committee member (who I sat next to at dinner one night lmao - cool guy) saying that the committee met today and that they are definitely extending me an offer, official stuff to follow in the next few days. Woohoo! I can now delete the lab tech jobs I bookmarked today as a plan B and sit back and wait to hear from my other top choice, but I would be equally as happy to attend here 

Thanks so much for the kind reply! This did make me feel a little better. I had 3 faculty tell me that they would be "thrilled" to see me there in the fall, and two tell me explicitly they thought I would be a great fit for the program. So....I would be pretty bummed if I wasn't at least wait-listed haha. The good news is I liked my other top choice just as much and would be thrilled to attend either school, and at that interview weekend I was told by the faculty and students that unless you had a MAJOR red flag or fucked up big time in your interviews you were getting an offer (they accept >90% of the people they interview).
I will certainly update you guys with the news when I hear! And congrats again!

I got into my top choice in Madison!!!!  I'm 99.9% certain I'm going here, but I still want to at least go on the rest of my interviews (at least the ones for which a plane ticket was purchased).  Would it be bad if I waited to accept the offer in March after my last interview?  Or should I withdraw my application for the places I'm not flying out to?  I'm so excited, but I don't know what to do now!

I have been sending my emails the following day, or two days at the latest. Most of my interviews have been ending on a Saturday morning, and I've been sending thank you's Sunday night (before they get slammed with Monday morning emails). They usually respond and have always seemed pleased to receive a follow-up. I've just been saying thanks, not reiterating my interest or anything about myself (I think that might be too much, especially after a busy weekend of nothing but). Just thanking them for their time, support, and answering my questions. I'd definitely send them though!

Case Western acceptance!!  First one!

Accepted to Northwestern DGP! Very excited!

It was an awesome weekend. Everyone stayed at the Blackwell Hotel which is on campus. On Thursday night, you will start with dinner at a local restaurant with the current grad students and then they'll take everyone out to ice cream after dinner. Friday is when everyone goes through faculty interviews in the biomedical research tower. Also, you will learn about different areas of research emphasis and the current grad students will take everyone on a tour through the OSU campus. Saturday - you will get to tour a research institute before everyone departs. It was a lot of fun and you get to learn so much about the program! OSU has an amazing top caliber program and all of their faculty are extremely supportive of their students. I was extremely impressed with OSU and am strongly considering the program now that I got accepted into OSU. You'll have a great experience and a lot of fun too! 

For anyone interviewing with UMich PIBS (1/25-1/27), I just talked to the graduate office and interview itineraries will be sent out on Friday  

Accepted to Ohio State Biomedical Sciences Graduate Ph.D. program after my interview weekend!!! First acceptance! Feels great!

Yep, me as well . Oh well, their loss!

Some recommendations from a current student interviewer. This is just from my personal experiences interviewing and discussing with admissions committees.
1. Be prepared to answer WHY you want to do a PhD in general. If you are coming straight from undergraduate, be especially prepared to justify why you believe you are ready to enter directly into a PhD program instead of taking a year or two off.
2. Have justifications for why you applied to a specific institution and program. Being able to pinpoint specific faculty, resources, graduate outcomes, etc. all help show you are applying to a program for a particular reason and not just because it is ranked highly.
3. Be able to talk about your research clearly and concisely. If you do not know something, do not be afraid to say you do not know. I would rather have someone answer "I do not know" 10 times than try to make up an answer once. It is also helpful to be able to identify specific things you have taken away from each experience. Also, if you have multiple experiences, it is best to focus on the one you are most comfortable talking about rather than trying to give equal time to all of your research.
Above all, be enthusiastic about your own research, research in general, the program you are applying to, and pursuing a PhD. If you can talk about your research and genuinely seem excited about it, then that will come across to us and we will remember it more than if you can answer every single technical question flawlessly. It is okay if you are nervous and it is okay if you can't answer every question - it is not okay if you are just going through the motions.
4. For faculty interviews, don't worry about knowing their work inside and out. If you want, you can read a couple abstracts from their most recent papers + look at their lab websites, but anything beyond that is not expected.
5. Prepare questions! They can be general questions about graduate school, specific questions about a PIs research, etc., but do not just sit there blankly if you are asked if you have any further questions.
6. If you have a student interview in addition to faculty interviews, be forewarned that at many schools this interview will be weighted alongside your other interviews. This means you need to maintain professionalism and decorum.
7. You ARE being evaluated at all times, but 90% of the evaluation that goes into the final decision is done during the interviews. However, there are really only three things you can do that will get you immediately disqualified (and yes, I have seen each of these happen at least once): (1) Making sexist, racist, or homophobic remarks, (2) falling asleep during an interview, and (3) aggressively hitting on current students or PIs to the point of harassment. Every year, without fail, there are at least three recruits who do one of these things (usually #1 or #3) and are disqualified from consideration.
8. It is okay to drink alcohol if you are someone who likes to drink alcohol. It is okay to abstain from alcohol if you are someone who likes to abstain from alcohol. It is NOT okay to get belligerently drunk and make bigoted remarks or harass current students or other recruits. I would recommend knowing your limits and what type of drinker you are - we want you to have fun but try not to embarrass yourself. Believe it or not, we have accepted people who have gotten black out drunk and thrown up at recruitment parties, but do not put yourself into that situation.
9. Dress to impress for your interview day. A full suit is unnecessary for guys, but some nice slacks, a good button down, and a blazer will suit you well for all interviews. Gals, do not wear heels - you will seriously regret it. For the rest of the weekend, feel free to wear whatever is comfortable.
10. Have fun! All participating faculty and students go into the interview weekends trying to recruit EVERYONE. We want everyone to love our school and our program and want as many people to attend as possible. Talk to as many faculty and students as possible, be engaged, and generally look like you want to be there and you will find the biggest challenge will be deciding where you actually want to go from all of your options. Getting the interview is the hard part - we interview around 8-10% of applicants and accept around 75% of those interviewed. If you have gotten an interview, you have all the qualifications to get accepted - we just need to make sure that you look as good in person as you are on paper.
I hope this helps! I'm sure I'll be seeing a few of you in the coming months.