gummybear9

Lol I think they tell you eventually - I couldn’t find any BE rejects in the results but other rejections were throughout March. I think they wait to see how many people accept their offer before they send out rejections

Me too! I just need to hear back from somewhere. Unfortunately I think MIT at least does pretty late rejections, so I’m taking this as a soft rejection.

It looks like MIT already sent out their interviews. Three people on the results said they got an email yesterday ?

I asked my friends who were also applying and they all said they were honest. So I was too. I don’t know if that’s the right thing to do or why they ask that. But I was more scared of being caught lying in case they checked somehow.

I didn't apply there but I just skimmed the results section and it looks like they do the mostly in one day but there are some later. And today isn't even over yet! And congrats @sgaw10!!

As the other BME with a pretty bad GPA... this waiting game is horrible!! I woke up today with a missed phone call from an unknown number that wasn’t from my local area code (like most spam calls are) so I freaked out, only to listen to the voicemail and see it was in fact just a spam call. I imagine the process is something like you think, where they get rid of anyone who doesn’t meet a cut off first. I really don’t know what they do afterwards though. Sort by research experience?? Publications?? Who knows. I think some schools (UCLA is the one relevant to me) might send out applications to professors earlier rather than later, since they have very sporadic interviews that all seem to be from emails/phone calls from POI. (I also think I’m screwed for not reaching out to professors because of this yikes.) Maybe they separate by area of interest and then send it to a head person for that area who then sends it out to relevant professors. Obviously all we can really do is speculate... which is unhealthy but I can’t stop!!

I can't get off this website!! I'm just making myself more anxious. Now I think I'm totally screwed because I didn't reach out to any potential advisors. I didn't think it was super necessary in this field but someone with similar stats to me attributes it to her success in applying last year! It's too late at this point and I may have thrown away my chances just because I have email anxiety. Ahhhhh I just need to get an acceptance. At least an interview! So I know I'm not a total failure

I think you can get in literally anywhere with those stats. How did you manage to get so many publications holy crap. I wouldn't be too worried about the major - you're in a related field and as long as you meet (most of) the requirements for the programs and briefly address it in your statements it should be fine. From what I can tell most programs will accept a variety of majors. It's all (supposedly) about fit anyway.

My partner and I are just trying not to talk about it. We're both applying to grad schools on the west coast, but that could still put us many hours away from one another, and we honestly don't know what we'll do if that happens. I don't even know which side of it I'd be on - I think I'd like to at least try. The dream is for us to go the same school, but the odds of that are so low because obviously we each have to go to the best school for us. Anyway, for now we avoid the topic and we're just going to wait until we know where we're going and figure it out from there. It's really stressful ?

I know, you and I are ridiculously similar applicants! Good thing we're not applying to too many of the same programs or we'd be in direct competition ? I believe in both of us! It'll work out! ?

Worries: My biggest fear is that I was too ambitious when selecting programs so I won't get accepted anywhere at all. My GPA is relatively low and I have very average research experiences and no publications. I feel like my statements will be the most significant part of my application and I'm not really happy with them so what if I threw away my chances by not working on them more? I have so many fears I just need to hear back from somewhere so this fear that I won't get in anywhere will subside slightly. Excitement: Everything is officially submitted! My PI submitted the letter of recommendation yesterday for my last program! That school is also the closest thing I have to a safety and I expect to hear back from them pretty quickly so hopefully I'll have news, positive or negative, within the next two weeks or so!

I think you have a pretty good shot. Your GRE quant is a little concerning but I think everyone will look past that because your resume is incredible. As long as you're applying to places where you're a good fit and labs that focus on CS-based research, I think your unique background will catch faculty members' eyes. Seriously though with that many publications I feel like you must have a huuuuge advantage

Congrats!! That's so exciting! I haven't heard from anyone yet, positive or negative, and the waiting is KILLING me. It must be such a relief to know someone wants you!

@ad_infinitum @sgaw10 and anyone else applying to UCLA BioE... I'm working on the application now and I just realized that I have not been able to find any information about the length limits of their SOP and personal statement? I checked every page I could think of but it's nowhere. Am I missing something obvious or should I just assume it's 2 pages?

Your scores are super impressive! From what I can tell, any quant score above 165 is good for a top program, and for verbal honestly a 155 is good for STEM haha. I definitely wouldn't retake it if I were you. No school is going to take a second glance at your scores.

Updated with my GRE score and an updated school list

I've actually been avoiding looking at Columbia because of how much I do not want to live in NYC on a graduate student stipend

@sgaw10 Yeah, we're definitely similar! I thought we might even go to the same school given the grade deflation and all that, but I couldn't figure out what major you were talking about lol. I totally feel that fear of not getting an interview. It's just so hard to be competitive. I have pretty broad interests but I really like orthopedic research. Cartilage and bone repair sort of things. My current research is on bone but it's more on the basic science side, so I'd love to use what I know for more translational applications.

Undergrad Institution (approx. rank/reputation in STEM): Top school with a highly respected engineering program Major(s): Biomedical Engineering Minor(s): None GPA in Major: I never know how to calculate this. Everything except liberal studies: 3.56/4.00 or 3.63/4.00 for just things under my department name. Overall GPA: 3.62/4.00 but I have a 3.89 in the last two semesters Demographics/Background: White, female, first generation college student, LGBT but not sure if I'll mention that GRE Scores: TBD LOR: Excellent letter from my primary PI, not so excellent letter from my summer PI (only not excellent because how much can they write about me after knowing me for 8 weeks), and one more TBD. Will probably either be the lab instructor for a class I was a TA for or a professor that I've taken classes with for three semesters (I did well in two of them, including a graduate-level course, not so great on the first class because I was struggling sophomore year) and hope to TA for next semester. Research Experience: 1 year in a lab at my school (started summer 2017) where I will be writing an honors thesis. 8 weeks this summer as an Amgen Scholar at a top school. The research I've done doesn't align with my research interests for grad school, but they are BME related. Publications/Abstracts/Presentations: 2nd author publication in review, poster at a small regional conference, just sent in an abstract for a niche conference and planning to apply for another more general conference. Will write an honors thesis that could result in a first author publication, though obviously way after getting into grad school Awards/Honors/Recognitions: I got a research grant from my department, I won an award from a niche academic society, and I was on a team that placed at a local Hackathon Fellowships/Funding: I'm not sure if I'll apply for any fellowships, just because most require more than 3 LOR and I just don't know who else I'd ask. Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Some STEM outreach positions. Other Miscellaneous Accomplishments: Anything else in your application that might matter (faculty connections, etc.): My PI did their undergrad at Stanford, our lab is collaborating with UC Davis but probably not in my department and definitely not a lab of interest. Research Interests: Biomaterials, tissue engineering, hydrogels for drug delivery Institutions/Programs: I still need to narrow down the list but currently: UCB/UCSF UCSD UCLA UC Irvine UC Davis MIT Stanford Caltech (maybe) WashU (maybe) Comments: I know I'm not a super competitive applicant. I'm pretty average out of the people who will be applying to these programs. My GPA isn't great but everyone says that admissions committees will know that it's pretty good at my school (maybe the same school as . I'm trying to figure out more "target" schools to apply to, but I don't know what those would be. It's also somewhat limiting that I've lived in NY my whole life and California seems very appealing... but obviously I would go somewhere else if the program was great. So if anyone has recommendations for target/safety BME programs that offer full funding and do interesting research, let me know!