gliagirl

We have two interview weekends so I *suspect* they're not done sending out invites (but can't confirm first-hand).

Congrats!! 2nd year NGG student here; I think in the past few years about 90-95% of interviewed applicants get accepted. Unclear whether that'll change this year because of COVID financial impacts. If you can, it's easier on the program if you respond sooner than later (so they can organize your interviews, etc). Given that everything is virtual this year, I suspect rescheduling will probably be easier anyway if you wind up having conflicting dates (and Penn generally tries to get one of the first or second interview slots of the cycle).

Hey all! If anyone's interested, there's an organization called Project SHORT that offers free mentorship for diverse applicants to PhD programs in STEM. You get individually matched with a current PhD student based on interests and background, and they work with you on personal statement editing, interview prep, general advice, etc. Check it out at project-short.com!

Hey all, I direct a pro-bono consulting organization that provides one-on-one mentorship for individuals applying to PhD programs. Our mentors are PhD students and postdocs from all sorts of STEM fields (but especially Neuroscience, mostly because I'm a Neuroscience PhD student at Penn). Check us out at project-short.com and feel free to share with other applicants! Project SHORT_Info.pdf

Some great vision research at UPenn! https://vrc.med.upenn.edu/

Not in robotics field, but a 1st-year PhD student UPenn in the sciences and happy to share my experience so far if you want to PM me!

Hard to say! I'm speaking mostly from things I've seen on science Twitter, so don't have any hard numbers, unfortunately. In general, though, there's a growing movement to eliminate the GRE as a whole from PhD programs (or at least make it optional), and I think it'll encourage many more individuals to apply for whom the GRE may have been an obstacle.

Many programs have dropped the GRE requirement this year, which in the past may have been financially prohibitive for some applicants.

I can only speak for NGG -- no idea when CAMB is, sorry!

Interviews are January 9-11 and February 13-15.

In my experience, phone calls from schools have always been with an area code from the university's city/town. They should not be calling you from a number without a caller ID (and if for whatever reason they do and you don't pick up, they should leave a voicemail).

Ask them if they have alternative interview weekends and if not, ask if they'll let you do videochats. I ran into this issue when I applied and the school I was less excited about offered me the option of doing Skype interviews with faculty I was interested in.

Good luck on the app cycle everyone!! It really is a great time to meet awesome scientists and get excited about the future of neuroscience current G1 at UPenn in NGG if anyone has any questions (about Penn or applying to PhD programs more broadly) -- I received my interview invite December 7th, so it is possible they'll go out soon, but interviews aren't until the beginning of January so they may push it back this year.

Hi all! I run a group of volunteer PhD students and postdocs who give free consulting for PhDs in the sciences! If anyone's looking for unbiased editing for personal statements, help with school lists, or just general advice on how to best optimize their applications, feel free to shoot me a message.