Jump to content

Tomthegreat

Members
  • Posts

    34
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by Tomthegreat

  1. I just accepted the offer to Scripps! See you in La Jolla!
  2. 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?
  3. Same for me. People still got in on April 14th, so good luck!
  4. 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!
  5. 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?
  6. 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?
  7. I attended the second one. So we haven't met during the recruitment lol.
  8. 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!
  9. 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.
  10. 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.
  11. 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?
  12. 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.
  13. Hi I am also waiting on BCMB after being informed of a waitlist status by the program coordinator. Have you tried reaching out to them? They don't seem to actively inform the applicants of their wl status...
  14. Thank you! Loving this recognition since you saw that change lol.
  15. Thank you for sharing this information! I guess the program I am waitlisted is kinda something in between Duke Immunology and UCSF while I am not sure. Congrats on your acceptances to all these awesome programs!
  16. Thank you for this post! I will just keep my hope up but expect nothing ?
  17. Do people know what's the proportion of offers a program sends out at the beginning? I have heard some programs send them all at once based on past yield rate. I'm a bit dubious since for the program I am waitlisted for, they sent 60+ offers in the past couple years for a cohort of 20-25 and it would be disastrous if a lot more applicants accepted when they sent out 60 offers at once. But also I have seen some posts saying this scenario happened in some programs, so now I am very conflicted and not knowing if I should keep my hope now.
  18. Congrats on your acceptance! I read some of the interviewers' papers who are in my field and asked them not hard but questions related to my direction; one of them is working on a quite different subject so I did not want to risk sounding stupid but only asked some general questions which might be a mistake in retrospect. That's a great point and I will keep that in mind and do the same for my following interviews. Last but not the least, I was rejected by Columbia but I have not been officially rejected by WC. I emailed the program coordinator and they replied that they are listing my application as alternate (fingers crossed).
  19. Yes totally I also feel very good about the interviews as well as very accomplished since some interviewers expressed their interests in keeping in touch with me about research in the future if I were admitted. From what I have seen in the post many other who also interviewed there but have not been accepted are also saying the same regarding their Weill Cornell interview (BCMB or other programs). I guess a great interview experience/performance is necessary but not sufficient to get in since most people are having this experience.
  20. I interviewed with Columbia in Jan 21-22 and I guess generally one week-10 days after the last round of interview days you should expect to hear back (it has been the case for most of the places I interviewed at) and if not I would follow up with the program. And thanks for the kind words! I actually already did my interview with Weill Cornell in early Feb and found out I got waitlisted lol.
  21. Rejected by Columbia today...The only program in NYC I have left now is Weill Cornell ?
  22. Thanks for sharing! I ranked my research interests by Genetics/Epigenetics, Cancer Biology and Biochemistry if that's what you are asking.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. See our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use