[Bioengineering/Biomedical Engineering Applications for 2020 Admission]

12 hours ago, LPT said:

They have two visit weekends, back to back. March 26-29, and April 2-5.

I heard from them February, and it seems like they send out acceptances every few weeks, although I don't know if they're done or not. A polite email asking for a status update might help you out? 

Thank you for your kind reply! Yeah, I'm planning to send an inquiry email next Monday. Hope it won't bring back a rej directly. It's my dream school for PhD research after all. Fingers crossed.

[Bioengineering/Biomedical Engineering Applications for 2020 Admission]

Does anyone has info on Minnesota BME? It is on their website that interview can be late till mid March, but I never find any result post from international student.

[2020 Applicant Profiles and Admissions Results]

Thanks for sharing! I didn't successfully get in touch with the professor of interest during my application, so maybe there's just a silent rej awaiting. Anyway, thanks for your post and wish you all the best with the rest of your applications! 

[2020 Applicant Profiles and Admissions Results]

7 hours ago, computationaldd said:

Hi! I kind of "interviewed" at Purdue last winter as part of their Graduate Diversity Visitation Program, and was looking at Biochemistry/PULSE/IBSC and associated faculty, although I only interviewed with one faculty member in BME. I was accepted in early January and flew out last weekend for their interview weekend for students that were nominated for internal fellowships, so I got the chance to interview with a few more faculty members in the program! This was for both BME and IBSC students, but all the other prospectives I talked to were BME -- IBSC is much smaller in comparison. I am not sure if they have sent out all acceptances, or are waiting for the results of the fellowships to determine how many other offers to extend. Either way, best of luck! 

Thank you very much for your information! That helps me a lot. IBSC is indeed a very cold program, I can rarely find any app result of this program. I submitted my app in early Nov. and got no reply from it for this long. And may I ask whether you were assigned with any advisor in the admission letter or, there's a lab roation in the first year? Thanks!

[2020 Applicant Profiles and Admissions Results]

On 12/21/2019 at 5:29 AM, computationaldd said:

Undergrad Institution: UC Santa Barbara
Major(s): College of Creative Studies (basically a small honors college separate from L&S) Biochemistry
Minor(s): N/A
GPA in Major: 3.8
Overall GPA: 3.8
Type of Student: Domestic, female/nonbinary, I think I'm technically considered a minority because I am disabled (?)

GRE Scores:
Q: 163 (86%)
V: 161 (82%)
W: 4.5 (81%)
No Subject GRE (too much $$$)

Research Experience: 

• 2.5 yrs Computational chemistry project working one-on-one with a professor, working on a 1st-author pub, lots of poster presentations, funding sources, etc.
• Summer research at Tufts in Neuroscience, lots of poster presentations, one poster funded at a national conference
• Recent work as a software developer within an Environmental Science lab

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: (Within your school or outside?)

• Summer research via UCSB McNair Scholars Program
• GRE prep scholarship via UCSB McNair Scholars Program
• Several offers for summer research at other universities as well as a prestigious local fellowship (Declined because it required me to be a full-time student)
• Summer research at Tufts via NIH grant
• Summer research fellowship via UCSB grant
• Research grant via UCSB Grant
• Travel award for ABRCMS
• Accepted to pre-application visitation programs for graduate schools (Purdue, Penn State, Georgia Tech, RPI)

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: 

• Board member for a newly-founded chapter of ASBMB
• Helped develop/implement a week-long science outreach program for high school biology students and recruit volunteers
• Mentored students in STEM majors through a few different orgs
• Volunteered at local STEM conferences
• Two part-time jobs, one involves shipping and receiving of chemicals/lab supplies

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help:

• Stressed in my SOP that my "main" research project has been pretty much independent (PI runs upper-div biochemistry lab so he has no time to help most of the time)
• Lots of unofficial programming experience
• I was able to fit in 2 summer research "experiences" last summer by choosing a program that started while my school was still in session, then did a local program after the first program ended....and still did decently in my classes, so I'm hoping this will show the adcomms I have work ethic

Special Bonus Points: 

• Spoke to POIs in person due to diversity visitation programs at some universities

Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter:

• I accidentally ended up with 5 LORs because my PI decided he was going to submit his super late *sigh*

Applying to Where:

1. MIT - CSB (Computational & Systems Biology)
2. MIT - BE (Bioengineering)
3. UCSD - BMS (Biomedical Sciences)
4. Scripps - BMS (Biomedical Sciences)
5. UCB - Chemistry
6. UCSF - CCB (Chemistry & Chemical Biology)
7. UW - MCMP (Medicinal Chemistry & Molecular Pharmacology)
8. Purdue - IBSC (Interdisciplinary Biomedical Science)
9. Penn State - BE (Bioengineering)

If anyone else is applying to the same places, PM me and we can suffer together LMAO

Hello! It's really exciting to see your post. I also applied for the IBSC program at Purdue but haven't received any update yet, would you mind to sharing some information about this program, e.g., when did you take the interview and did you contacted specific professor before applying? Thanks a lot!

[Feel like I'm going Crazy]

 I'm wondering whether it is still effective to cold-email professor of interest at this point, are there any opportunities left? I only received one offer from a backup school in the first week this month, and I was asked by the future supervisor to give my final decision within two weeks. So I just send inquiry emails to several other schools about their review timeline, and luckily one of them gave me a reply soon with a fully-funded offer, without any interview. The left ones replied me that I need to continue to wait till early March or even later, and some even suggest me to consider the offers I already received if I haven't been contacted at that time. Actually, I didn't receive any update from all the five PhD programs that I mostly want to go, no rejection, no waitlist, no interview, so desperate, I'm afraid they'll come together next month. Oops, I just received my first rej when I finished these words...