siliconchins

Gotta say your profile pic makes this post that much better.

I had a really good week. Received an acceptance to one of my programs, so it's a relief to know that I'll be getting a PhD! Also, a paper that I submitted last year was just accepted for publication pending revisions.

Congrats on the interview! I was pretty nervous going into my first interview and I found that a combination of exercise and re-characterizing my nerves as excitement really helped (I'm the kind of person that can't sit still when there is something like this coming up). Also remember that most of the people visiting with you are also feeling the same way! One of my mentors warned me that a lot of people feel inadequate during the admissions process - just remember that your worth as a person isn't defined by the number of interviews you get as they only have a fraction of who you are to base their decision off of.

Yikes! That's a big drop. Guess it's not surprising considering that the last program solicitation update was in 2016.

Does anyone know how many GRFP awards will be offered this year? The solicitation still lists ~2000 offers as it has been in the past, but I recently heard that there may only be ~1000 this year due to a decrease in funding.

Could you apply for outside or internal funding?

If you are interested in reapplying to some of the programs you applied to this year, you could always contact the department and ask for specifics on why your application was denied. Most of the time they will let you know the deficiency in your profile so you can use that info to improve your chances for the next cycle.

I heard back before the holidays and their interview date is 2/1.

I was in the shower when my girlfriend saw the acceptance pop up in my email. She came screaming into the room, making me think something was wrong and jump out of the tub dripping wet. I got everything wet and scared my cats to death, but it was worth it for the relief of knowing that I'll be getting a PhD from a great program no matter what happens in my future interviews. And then I checked the email again and again to make sure I wasn't misinterpreting it :P.

They didn't mention anything about the specifics for this year, but talking to some faculty it seems that they tend to interview between 80-85 people and offer admission to ~75 with the goal to matriculate a class of 25-30 students. Here is the data for the past few years if you're interested (http://www.tgs.northwestern.edu/documents/program-statistics/L20PH_adm_enr.pdf). I wouldn't worry about being in the last interview weekend, as each seem to be pretty independent of each other and there isn't a max number of people that they admit.

I brought a notebook with me to take notes. I didn't actually write anything during the interview but I wrote some bullets right after so I didn't forget anything. There isn't a specific dress code, but they do say casual on their website. They mention that jeans are very acceptable, but most of guys there (including me) wore some nice slacks and a sweater. There were a few people with sports coats or wearing suits, but I thought that was too formal for the tone of the weekend. The women wore nice pants and blouse or a button up. Just remember that it's winter in Chicago, so dress accordingly!

Thanks! The whole interview weekend was really laid back. Dinner on Thursday night was with some students and faculty, and they give a short presentation about the history of the program and the area. There is a time for everyone to mingle and get to know each other, and some other icebreaker activities later on led by Steve Anderson. On Friday, Steve and Nick met us at the hotel and led us to breakfast and presentations about the program, after which students led us to our first interview. I met with five faculty members for 30 mins each, and they were mostly relaxed conversations. I would say that you should definitely prep a short ~5min blurb about your research interests as I was nervous for my first interview and probably would have forgotten to mention things without the prep. They mainly asked about my prior research experience, why I was choosing to do a PhD, and what I wanted to accomplish afterwards. It's hard to pinpoint a specific type of interview though because each faculty interview was slightly different - for example, one person I met with wanted to know how my research interests meshed with his work, and gave me some hypothetical situations to gauge my response. I would say the best prep for this kind of thing would be to read the research on each person you're meeting (info I got maybe 2 days before the actual interviews) and maybe some abstracts of recently published papers. I wouldn't go much beyond that though, because they don't really expect you to know the specifics about what they do, and won't "test" you on your knowledge. They just want to make sure you can speak intelligently about your previous work and about science in general.

The first interview weekend was 1/11-1/13.

Accepted to Northwestern DGP! Very excited!

I believe UChicago Cancer Bio invites have already gone out as I ran into people who were invited before the holidays on some interviews.

I wrote down notes after each interview so I could remember what we talked about - some profs asked me to forward them some papers about my research that we discussed or additional info later. I definitely think that this is a good idea. The interviewers that I selected were conducting research relevant to my interests, so they would ask how their own observations fit into my understanding of the material, and how I might move forwards from there (such as what questions I would ask and how I would go about answering them). It wasn't like they were quizzing my knowledge - rather, it seemed to be a natural progression from our discussion. It was more reminiscent of a lab meeting with my PI more than anything.

Someone on this thread mentioned that UChicago cancer bio hadn't sent out invites yet, but I ran into someone this past weekend at an interview event that already received an interview invite before the holidays. I'm not sure whether they are completely done or still reviewing applications.

These numbers were given to me by someone I know who attends the program, but they were estimating. I would think that their numbers are pretty accurate. There are currently 220 students in the program - spreading that out over 5-6 different cohorts puts the number per year between 36-44 students.

Thanks! I just had my first set of interviews this past weekend and I found that they were more interested in learning more about my interests and understanding how I would respond to certain observations relating to their research. Overall it was pretty laid back and not stressful at all.

Also very interested in this. I've heard anecdotally in the past that they interview ~100 applicants and matriculate ~40-50 people per year, which puts it around the same range of @BiomedicalPHD's estimate. I would guess that they accept a bit more than their matriculation target, but since MIT is a top program I'm sure that they don't accept much more than their target number.

I asked for alternate dates for a few schools, it was no issue.

Just heard from BU CMB today!

How much are you meant to know about your interviewers research? I've looked over their research summaries and a couple abstracts but since the field is so broad, my interviewers' research interests are also very diverse.

Most bio programs will only accept applicants post-interview. That being said, I know that some programs look at international applicants after selecting through their domestic pool. I wouldn't treat anything as a rejection until you get official notice.

I wouldn't treat anything as a rejection until you get official notice. Plus many programs will extend interview invites from now through Feb, as it is still early.