DRMF

First of all, you are a student, and the point of a PhD is to learn, so it's absolutely fine if you don't know things. Some faculty will even be excited that you're bringing in insights from a different field. If you don't know about their research area, read up a few of their recent papers (or better yet, interviews/news reports/videos of them explaining their own research) and note down things that you didn't understand. Google those, see if there's anything that's not common practice in the field, and when they mention it you could ask things like "right, I saw that term in the paper but I didn't quite understand how it works - could you explain that a bit more?" There was one interview I had with a faculty member who happened to have given a talk at a retreat I went to. So I started the interview by saying "I have these 2 pages of notes from your talk last year and honestly I don't understand anything after the 3rd line." and he was absolutely delighted to explain the whole thing again. Sometimes they finish a story by saying "the only question left now is..." or "if only we could just figure out..." and that could be a good point for asking "so do you think our current approaches are not sufficient to solve this question? Do you predict that such technology will become available in the next say 5 years?" I've also asked general questions like "Why did you choose to come to this school as a faculty member?" "Having been at XX institute for your postdoc and now at YY as faculty, what would you say is the biggest difference between these two places? Culture? Scientific approaches?" "How did you enter this field?" "What would you say is something you wish you had known when you were a student?" "How has your experience been as a woman/ethnic minority?" BTW this post reminds me of the following anecdote; perhaps someone well-versed in bioinformatics may be able to come up with "fundamental" questions similar in spirit to these: [[A certain well-known pure mathematician had a wife who, while intelligent, was not into mathematics. However, by continued practice, she learnt to distinguish between the conversations of algebraists and analysts. So when he had guests to dinner who were talking about mathematics, if they were analysts, she would introduce at a suitable pause in the conversation: "But what happens at the boundary?" Whereas, if they were algebraists, she would say: "But do the roots lie in the field?" By this means she was always able to impress his visitors by her knowledge of mathematics.]]

Most programs I've heard admits more than half post-interview, expecting only a portion of the accepted applicants to actually attend (even "top" programs may have a pretty low yield rate, since the same outstanding applicants would usually get multiple offers from other top programs). However some (like mine) first admits n students where n = number of actual spots, and almost everyone else who interviewed is put on a waitlist; again a considerable number of accepted students don't come, so they sometimes go pretty far down the waitlist. If the program has only 1 interview weekend, they usually reach a decision *very* soon (like, they meet on the Monday after and call you on Tuesday) so have your phone turned on / check your emails. Attire can vary and you can simply ask the admin/director for the dress code, but most places do business casual (though some applicants would still choose to go full on business attire). I wore a sweater dress and boots, which is the furthest I'd go to adhere to dress codes. There's already a lot of info out there on what to expect at interviews, please use the search function wisely; you'll get more meaningful responses if you post what specifically you're asking about.

From last year's experience, NYU probably have more than 2 available weekends. They will likely tell you the first 1 or 2 options, and if you tell them that you can't make it, they'll then ask you if you could make their alternative date(s).

Well then you'll have to look up that Treaty and see what it says (google "tax treaty US [your country's name] F1 student" or something like that). For instance, the US-China tax treaty says that Chinese nationals studying in the US with <$5,000 annual income are exempt from federal taxation. The Treaty between the US and your country could be something wildly different (these things are negotiated individually between each pair of countries, as I understand it). You'll also have to figure out your "tax residency" status (which is a separate concept from being a "US citizen/permanent resident/alien"). This is rather easy: if this is your first time studying in the US on a F1 visa, you're likely a "tax non-resident". If I remember correctly, without a tax treaty, income exceeding tuition for F1 tax non-residents is taxed at a flat rate of 14%. If your country has a tax Treaty, that usually means you get taxed less, so you should have >86% of your stipend free to spend after taxes. Again, exactly how much depends on what that specific Treaty says. Note that most US universities do not withhold taxes for PhD candidates receiving a stipend, so you'll have to budget that yourself, pay quarterly taxes on your own, and remeber to not spend every dollar you receive in the bank account.

Which program at Harvard? Harvard Immunology has likely sent out all invites (interviews happening 1/23) but not sure about the other programs.

I think applying to umbrella/more flexible programs (that include a solid list of immunology faculty) is a smart move for someone trying to switch into the field. I would say that when I interviewed with Imm specific programs, most of the other interviewees I talked to did have considerable Imm research experience or exposure (e.g. worked in microbio or cancer labs that dabbled in immunology). I had a 3.75 GPA and 90+ percentile GREs, which I was pretty happy with, but my undergrad PI felt it'd be much safer if I had a 3.8 (he brought it up multiple times during my senior year and I was like, I really appreciate the input but at this point it's mathematically impossible LOL).

Same as above - never met with anyone who's "not interested". A particular interviewer may not be specifically interested in taking you as a student in their lab, but should be interested in evaluating your qualities and recruiting you to the school. If an interviewer is really just not interested in recruiting you to the program, they probably wouldn't agree to interview in the first place, or would make it really short and boring, with no meaningful discussions or conversations, rather than spending some effort to make it "difficult". When they throw difficult questions at you / seem to act a bit mean/harsh, that's likely their style of challenging you and trying to assess how well you actually know what you're talking about.

Various offices at Harvard (including my program's admin office) have sent emails saying they're closed from Dec 23/24 - Jan 02. Some offices are closed till Jan 06. Staff may occasionally check emails and reply to truly urgent ones, but I wouldn't expect any news until at least Jan 02 or 03.

You're probably right about Skype interviews for international students being later in general. Now that I think about it, the "early interviews" I had in mind were mostly initiated by applicants contacting PIs directly and asking to talk over Skype with them (i.e. not officially organized by the program/adcom). I just looked through my emails and realized almost all the rejects I got were sent to me in mid Jan - early Feb. It probably felt like later to me b/c I already had offers at that point and was in a "I'm done! I don't care!" mental state lol. There are a few schools that never sent me any communication about decisions, including UCLA, Columbia, and (my home school) UChicago, all Immunology programs. Literally nothing at all after 12/1, according to my email search. Judging from past TGC posts, this type of ghosting behavior isn't uncommon, so sadly you'll probably have to be prepared for it. Congratulations and good luck with the Notre Dame interview!

When you say others have been "accepted", do you mean actually receiving an offer, or just getting an interview? An actual offer from biology programs at this time point is very rare, usually given out to exceptional applicants who are, literally, the exceptions (or occasionally international applicants who already did Skype interviews). If you mean others have been invited to interview (i.e. gotten regular interview invites, not the "I know some PIs here so I got a call to interview super early" kind), it's likely that your app has been read and was unfortunately not selected for further review. A lot of programs only send out rejects towards the end of the admissions cycle, but if you email them to ask (at this point you should probably wait till after the New Year), they'll likely tell you what's going on, i.e. whether you're still under consideration. Also each program's committee works on their own timeline, so someone hearing about a related but different program at the same school tells you nothing about your specific program's review status (e.g. Stanford biosciences has multiple programs and they always say in their interview invite email something like "your classmate or coworker may or may not have heard from us, but no news does not mean bad news"). Also it's a good idea to add "biology" to your post or title, since the "waiting it out" section does not specify fields; things vary a LOT between grad schools in different fields.

Sloan Kettering probably sent all invites all at once, extrapolating from what they did in the past 2 years. They usually have their interview weekend really early as well. I saw that you already heard from Weill Cornell - congratulations! As you know those two programs are historically very closely related and the faculty you wish to work with at GSK are likely available through Weill Cornell as well. If they're not, you can still possibly contact them/the admin to see if they could be added to the faculty list at Weill Cornell and be your adviser.

If you're currently located in the US and presumably interested in an in-person interview, (to my knowledge and from my personal experience) you should receive interview invites the same time/way domestic students do (obv if the program sends different batches, you'd never know which one yours would be in). If you're outside the US and expecting Skype interviews, the timeline might vary quite a bit (no personal experience there). I imagine some may do these earlier b/c the logistics is easier and can be scheduled anytime, while others do those later b/c they're waiting to see a financial report in order to figure out how many international students they can afford next year. You shouldn't expect to get rejections from most schools at this point; those typically come in Feb/March after schools send out offers to those who interviewed.

I had a less than pleasant experience with a LoR writer as well, who was also French (but located in the US). In my case I knew that this professor didn't have much experience writing/submitting LoRs (he's very established in the field, but because he seems scary most students don't ask him for letters - which is probably wise). I've no idea how it works in France, but I could somewhat understand this behavior if French schools don't typically require this kind of effort from letter writers (I think most US supervisors understand that providing letters later on for jobs/admissions, potentially for multiple times, is a natural part of being a mentor). Maybe your supervisor never showed it in previous years, but the thought that you were asking too much of a favor was always there in her head. Or perhaps there was a true misunderstanding (e.g. you asked "Can you do X? Can we meet to talk about it?" and she replied "ok", meaning okay to talk but you thought it meant okay she'll do X). In my case it was a much less important letter for me, but I can very much empathize with your urge to submit a complaint so that the same doesn't happen to someone else. I ended up sending an email to the department's undergrad dean briefly describing the situation, in case future students want her advice on who to ask for letters. I did this after I was all done with admissions, and the dean never responded to me. I personally would not file a formal report or complaint for this situation; I'd just do my best to informally communicate this information with relevant people (e.g. your Master's program director, or when future students considering choosing her as their supervising reaches out to you to hear about your experience), while remaining professional.

I didn't know interview offer *withdrawal* is even possible.

That sounds like an easily fixable mistake. Email the relevant people ASAP and perhaps attach the correct transcript to that email as well; if the app portal allows uploads after the deadline, also upload it there. Once they have the complete, correct transcript, I don't think they'll hold this against you.

Oh in that sense yeah, I think it's reasonable to expect no communication between Christmas and maybe a few days after New Year.

Maybe more than half are, but I'd say not close to all. And some subfields within biology just typically all follow a later timeline. Typically interviews are mid-Jan to early Mar, so those that host interviews early will send invites early. I had 6 total invites, 4 were sent in mid/late-Dec (interview dates were in Jan-Feb) and 2 were sent in mid-Jan (interview dates were Feb-Mar). I think a month before the program's earliest interview date is a good estimate for when they send invites.

Generally interview questions/format can vary quite a lot between interviewers even within the same school. I didn't interview at Rockefeller myself but I haven't heard of anything special that they do there. So it'd be wise to prepare for it as you would any PhD interview: know your past projects well, know how to describe what you want to study and show reasonable knowledge/understanding, and once you have the names of your interviewers, briefly look up their research interests. Types of questions I / someone I know got asked at various schools: - Describe what you've done before (some will follow up with "what's the point/the big picture/hypothesis" and/or experimental detail questions) - Why are you interested in this specific field? Why do a PhD? - Interviewer describes what they do in their lab or some interesting problem, and then asks for your opinion on a particular issue. Usu there's no wrong answer, just show your thought process. Example: "I recently heard a talk by a guy who specializes in XXX technique/experimental approach. Do you think it's actually useful to do this?" Or, "we were doing this and got this puzzling result - what would you do next?" - What would you do when you get stuck / seem to not succeed at a project (this one seems odd to me but I actually got asked this twice) - Some ask exam-like questions e.g. "how does this pathway work" "do you know the XX effect/theory", usu stuff related to your past work or their current research focus (I never got this question though) - Some of them just get excited and go on and on about their own research. In that case just listen and occasionally interrupt with a few intelligent/relevant questions.

Probably no. Logistically the second one may run marginally smoother just because they will have done it once already. If you have potential conflicts (interview dates at other schools), just choose whichever is less likely to conflict. If neither has conflicts, I usually went with the first one, just because if anything comes up last minute (you fall sick, flight canceled due to weather, family emergencies) you can still ask to be rescheduled to the later date. Of course if you think you'll be really unprepared by the first interview date for whatever reason, then do the second one.

They mail it to your current mailing address. After you've decided which school to go to, you can contact the international office of the school to ask when you'll receive it etc.

Does the program application require a specific project proposal? Does it admit you directly to a lab/adviser, or do you go through rotations? In most Bio sciences fields, you do not write about a specific future project in the application, since you'll have to go through a few rotations to figure out a potential thesis topic and lab/adviser. They may have a short answer question that asks you for a potential research idea, but that's not the personal statement. You typically use your Statement of Purpose or Personal Statement to describe your academic background, personal motivations, past research experiences, and general research interests ("using stem cell models to look at immune interactions controlling cancer formation" may be an okay research area to describe in the essay, but I think that's more specific than what most people write about). I'm happy to read over your essay, but I think you first have to make sure it answers what is asked of you in the application. Feel free to DM me.

I had something similar happen to me, though in my case the professor didn't even tell me that he's unable to submit to the rest or why; he just straight up stopped replying to my emails and ghosted on 1/3 of my apps waiting for his letter. I scrambled to find someone who wrote it and sent it in to all the rest, some of which were >3 days past deadline. Ask anyone you could think of; at this point a kind personality and free time is more important than knowing you well. Send them your SOP, CV and highlight all the points you'd like them to address. In my case I asked a prof who taught an intro class (>100 people) my 2nd year of college, who I knew was always willing to help students but barely knew me.

1. For the most part, the date doesn't matter. Yes it's okay to tell them it conflicts with another interview - the adcom will likely see it as "ah this kid must be quite good, getting invited to other places as well; we've made a right choice". I've actually told one school that neither of their dates worked for me and would like to schedule a Skype interview. *However* some programs may send out too many acceptances right after the 1st interview date, and then realize they got a better yield than expected and would have to be more conservative with their 2nd batch. So, unless you know there's another program you're waiting on whose interview date conflicts with one of the options, I always went with the earlier date (plus, you can always ask to be moved to the later date should anything come up; can't really do that the other way around.) 2. [This could be field-dependent. I only know about Bio sciences programs.] Some schools will state in their confirmation/agenda email what to wear. If not, you can ask for dress codes directly. Business casual is what I've seen most; some (esp men) wear a full suit. I have a personal principle against dress codes, so I went with the bare minimum of what could be called business casual. Most interviewers won't care at all, unless you're in ugly Christmas sweaters or jeans with holes. *Someone showed up in a Spiderman onesie at an interview for my undergrad school, and sure enough did not get in.* I actually mentioned the dress situation to one interviewer - about how interviewees at that school seemed to dress a bit more formally than at another school I interviewed for - and the interviewer's response was, "Well look at me [flexing toes in flip flops]."

If you're thinking of specific schools/programs, go search for them on the Results page and see if all their interview invites came out all at once last year.

Are you aware of the Results page? Are you starting this thread because you still found those Results posts too toxic? https://www.thegradcafe.com/