mcfc2018

Sure, I’ll take a look at it. i applied last year for neuro programs.

Ultimately what you're trying to accomplish with your application is to have members of the adcom advocate for you to get accepted. This will obviously be easier if there's a member who knows and likes you, but at the end of the day, your application still has to convince most of the committee, so even if you have one advocate, it won't be enough if the rest don't agree. It's possible. But some programs require PIs to step out of the adcom meeting when discussing their own student/anyone they wrote a rec letter for.

No. Quite frankly, emailing the PI is so that you get to know the PI’s research better. Chances are it will have no impact on your application (the PI probably isn’t even on the adcom). attach a CV so they have a better sense of who you are, but I would focus more on asking about what they do and their research than talking about applications.

Agree with Babyscientist it's definitely not bad form and it's a good opportunity for you to get a taste of what the PI is like and their research. Don't get discouraged if they don't respond though! They're busy people and some profs are simply terrible at responding to emails.

Some people might disagree with me on this, but IMO, a 3.3 GPA is perfectly respectable and there's really no need for you to go out of your way and defend your grades, particularly if you're a couple years out of undergrad. Obviously it's not the ideal 4.0, but I feel like trying to pass off a B+ average as "personal problems" comes across more as fishing for an excuse than anything else (Not trying to insinuate that you didn't go through personal problems or anything like that, but unless you plan on elaborating more into what they were, I wouldn't bring it up).

This is the most comprehensive list I know of: https://grenotrequired.com/

I applied to top neuroscience programs this past semester, and most of the undergraduates who I interviewed with didn't have publications. It's the norm, not the exception. That said, are you currently doing research yourself? Hard to tell what "volunteering in some labs" actually entails, but research experience is definitely necessary for a neuroscience PhD

I don't know too much about these programs, so maybe I'm missing something, but I feel like you're overvaluing the number of faculty aspect of each institution. It's not like you'll be doing 8-10 rotations anyways, so at most you'll only be working directly with 3-4 different faculty members at either institution. And if it's simply that you want to collaborate with them (or even just talk to them), the two institutions are so close (physically and relationship-wise) that I imagine it wouldn't be too difficult to do so at either institution. This does assume that you view all these faculty equally. If there's one in particular that you especially want to work with, then that changes things, but imo, the difference between 8-10 and 4-5 isn't huge simply because you wouldn't have the opportunity to work in 8-10 labs to begin with.

Anybody apply to Rockefeller/know when they're going to send out invites? They're the only school whose timeframe I don't know.

I got mine at 1:47 pm and a follow up email at 3:52

Got interview offers at Harvard PiN and Hopkins today!!! So psyched.

It's a massive pain in the ass (I don't understand the purpose either). I plan on filling in on the ones I can and either leaving it blank or writing N/A for the ones I can't.

I hate that some advisors take forever to respond. Makes me anxious. Also submitting my first application today and I keep thinking of worst case scenarios.

Super stressed about my SOPs and can't sleep. just want to be done with this.

I've got a call scheduled with a potential advisor next week and was wondering how I should prepare. I plan on reading the highlighted papers as well as the more recent papers, but beyond that, not really sure what I should do or expect?