ndd23123

Nope. I know someone who accepted the offer immediately when they got the call from the program director.

It's very rare. Sometimes if you're early in your career (year 1 or 2) and your PI moves then you can transfer to the new institution. If you're later in your grad school years then you move to the new institution but remain enrolled at your old one.

Nothing significant. Mostly it's the chair or other members of the admission committee calling. They probably just divided the work.

The PIBS stats seem right though. The ones for individual departments are a bit off if you assume that they only include PhD programs.

Some of those acceptances within a department are for their MS program.

Apparently I can't do math. I believe approximately half of those received an offer. They usually make ~150-170 offers for a class of 80-90. They will probably tell you these things at the interview.

Last year UMich received a little over 1300 applications and made 440 interview offers. This is on their website. I'd be very surprised if they're cutting the number of interviews by more 75% this year, especially when they don't have to fly people into Ann Arbor anymore.

Vanderbilt used to have a separate interview date for international applicants so you should confirm if they are done inviting people for this track. They interviewed all international applicants on the same date while domestic applicants had more options.

I would say no more than 2-3 minute summary. Then you can discuss it further with the interviewer. It's supposed to be a conversation, not a presentation.

Congrats.

Depends on the school. Some interview international students separately so your application is reviewed in the same pool with other international applicants and the the entire process is mostly separated from domestic admission. Some don't care at all and treat all applicants the same way. In these cases you'll probably hear back from them at the same time as domestic applicants. However, if you're not physically in the US then they may need to make special arrangements to accommodate time zone differences and that might take time. Some has rolling admission and interview applicants in waves. Some only have one or two interview dates so everyone is notified at once regarding interview invitations and admission decision. Some has several interview dates for domestic applicants but one interview date for all international applicants. It's impossible to read into these things and make generalized prediction.

Most applicants aren't even aware of this website. I certainly wasn't when I applied (and I'm glad that I wasn't). What you're seeing is a very small sample of the population.

Not sure if this widely applicable for biomedical sciences programs, especially umbrella programs. Sure, compatibility is a factor, but it's more about compatible with the whole program/department rather than individual PI. While admission to a specific lab does happen, most students are admitted to a program/department. They typically rotate through labs and don't pick an advisor until the end of their first year. So it's hard to imagine that an outstanding applicant would get rejected just because a professor can't take students, unless they somehow make an impression that they're only interested in this program because of this one single faculty.

If you're already in the US with an F-1 status then you don't have to leave (even if you're doing OPT). Just transfer your SEVIS to the new school, get a new I-20 from them and you're good to go. However, do note that transfering your SEVIS would end your OPT authorization, even if your EAD expiration date is still in the future.

You might be right. However, if I were a visa officer, I would heavily question why you have been out of the US for so long and why you need to come back now given that you have been able to perform you volunteering duties outside of the US in the past 8 months. I would prepare a convincing answer for that. You should probably have a letter for from your advisor stating that you are authorized to leave the US for the period mentioned above and that you will have a job (even volunteer) to return you. When I renewed my F-1 visa while on OPT, I sent in my I-20, a copy of my EAD card, a letter from my employer, and the last 3 paystubs. I was able to renew without having to come in for an interview. Also, I would check with your school international student service regarding your status on SEVIS. At the end of the day, it is what on SEVIS that matters, not what on papers. Additionally, I would also make sure that your travel signature is less than 6 months old. "* Regulations state that during post-completion OPT, the travel signature should be no older than six months. The International Center recommends while on post-completion OPT that you get a valid travel signature every six months. Source: 8CFR214.2(f)(13)(ii)"