Tomthegreat

DMed you!

I just accepted the offer to Scripps! See you in La Jolla!

Attending Scripps this year!

Oh congratulations! Fellow waitlisted applicant here but I guess I won't end up in WCGS for PhD.... Edit: Do you mind sharing which program you were WLed at?

Same for me. People still got in on April 14th, so good luck!

Actually kinda in the same situation here: deciding between Scripps and Northwestern while also trying to see if I can miraculously get off waitlist at Weill Cornell. But after I visited both places and contacted PIs and students in the labs I found interesting, I am more inclined to Scripps since first: their research are very well aligned with my interests and my career goal of translational research. TBH I was under the impression that they do NOT have as much translational research going on as Northwestern School of Medicine since they are not affiliated with any hospitals. But some labs have collaboration with other places where patient samples and cell lines are available, so I am getting your point of the presence of translational research. And I'm not really under the impression that people there do not like sciences, maybe depending on who you are talking to. The students I met are pretty happy and enjoy talking about both their research and fun things outside the lab. I actually think Scripps students are on the happier end of the spectrum and again maybe bc I was talking to people who are in the good time period of PhD; the expectation I have heard from them never involves some amount of time in the lab but rather the progress; maybe they put it in a way that doesn't sound like a time commitment but you just have to spend 60 hrs anyway to meet that. But at the end of the day, I ask myself where I would more likely grow as an independent scientist and develop the skills and connection that would allow me to fulfill the type of work I want to do and the career I want, and the answer is Scripps. NU has amazing medical school and proximity to clinical research/patient samples, but I can do more specific translational research during postdoc; the kind of relationship I feel with the PIs when I visited would be able to build me up to that type of work after graduation and I do believe PIs at Scripps are more likely to help me achieve that. Either way you have great options and I hope you get into UC Irvine like you hope for. But if you end up choosing Scripps, we can also start connecting! Good luck!

Really torn between these two programs and really need some help if anyone is interested in sharing their opinions. Honestly did not expect to be making a decision between these two very different programs (maybe bc I haven't decided what exact direction I wanna go) Research-wise, both have pretty good labs that are doing the type of research I’m interested in, particularly gene and transcriptional regulations in the context of cancer and development biology. The distinction between them is the emphasis: northwestern has a lot more connections to clinical and translational research and can have access patients samples fairly easily; labs at Scripps have more interests in the chemistry, basic mechanisms and drug development/optimization. I like both but would actually incline towards translational research for future career in academia (at least for now). Location-wise, Chicago and SD are like polar opposite. One super urban/skyscrapers/tons of restaurants and public transportation near campus while the Scripps has amazing beaches/sunshine/ocean and very spread out places which are almost impossible to get around without a car. Personally I like city life but winter in Chicago is miserable and can’t say no to the beach and sunshine after two winters in New England. People-wise, I connect with the students at Scripps on a more personal level; since I can't make a decision, I visited both places and their responses when I told them about my visit were quite different. Northwestern basically said "Well you can't come in to visit the labs but you are welcome to walk around in the public area" while Scripps was like "Great we understand your dilemma and tell us whose lab you would like to visit" and set up an actual itinerary for me to see 5 PIs' lab in-person. I understand NU is not trying to push admitted students given COVID but their way of handling requests to visit did feel a bit distant. I reached to equal number of PIs at both places and everyone at Scripps got back to me positively to set up meeting while only one responded to my Zoom meeting request, one never replied, and one said he is busy and won't be able to meet until very late before 4/15 and may not be taking new students. When all these come together, I just feel the people at Scripps a lot more approachable and willing to recruit me but maybe I am not giving NU many opportunities?

Really torn between these two programs and really need some help if anyone is interested in sharing their opinions. Honestly did not expect to be making a decision between these two very different programs (maybe bc I haven't decided what exact direction I wanna go) Research-wise, both have pretty good labs that are doing the type of research I’m interested in, particularly gene and transcriptional regulations in the context of cancer and development biology. The distinction between them is the emphasis: northwestern has a lot more connections to clinical and translational research and can have access patients samples fairly easily; labs at Scripps have more interests in the chemistry, basic mechanisms and drug development/optimization. I like both but would actually incline towards translational research for future career in academia (at least for now). Location-wise, Chicago and SD are like polar opposite. One super urban/skyscrapers/tons of restaurants and public transportation near campus while the Scripps has amazing beaches/sunshine/ocean and very spread out places which are almost impossible to get around without a car. Personally I like city life but winter in Chicago is miserable and can’t say no to the beach and sunshine after two winters in New England. People-wise, I connect with the students at Scripps on a more personal level; since I can't make a decision, I visited both places and their responses when I told them about my visit were quite different. Northwestern basically said "Well you can't come in to visit the labs but you are welcome to walk around in the public area" while Scripps was like "Great we understand your dilemma and tell us whose lab you would like to visit" and set up an actual itinerary for me to see 5 PIs' lab in-person. I understand NU is not trying to push admitted students given COVID but their way of handling requests to visit did feel a bit distant. I reached to equal number of PIs at both places and everyone at Scripps got back to me positively to set up meeting while only one responded to my Zoom meeting request, one never replied, and one said he is busy and won't be able to meet until very late before 4/15 and may not be taking new students. When all these come together, I just feel the people at Scripps a lot more approachable and willing to recruit me but maybe I am not giving NU many opportunities?

Oh so you got in too! Congrats!

I attended the second one. So we haven't met during the recruitment lol.

I don't see there's as many waitlist posts on gradcafe for the past couple years so maybe this year is a bit different? Anyway can only wish for the best. Good luck to both of us!

I am also waiting for them...I emailed them and they can only say “as soon as possible” which I take as later March or early April.

Based on my binge reading of other WL posts on Gradcafe and Reddit, it could be late March or even till April 15th. I reached out to the program and they only said they will update us "as soon as possible" so be prepared for some last minute notification if you are willing to wait for those programs.

Oh wow that's great! And yes CA campus is the one I am considering to accept. Just need to double check with some profs with regard to the research interest fit before I can make up my mind. BTW which interview week did you attend?

Hi I am also considering accepting an offer from Scripps. I am actually a bio major working on cancer biology and it's so interesting since I actually think the research at Scripps is very chem oriented in contrast to what the chemists think on this forum. But I would say Scripps is highly regarded by many chem bio people I have encountered during the interview days and their research on HIV vaccines are everywhere. If you check out the bio forum you might find some people with a background in immunology/neurosciences/chembio are also applying there.