Sky_china

Now with UT health md anderson not giving me any update makes me anxious now....

I honestly feel confused, from the professors all over the increased number of applicants is real, harvard sys bio 27% increase , Berkeley 27% increase ... and some other program say they have 50% increase, especially microbiology and epidemiology... Yet less information on grad cafe ...

publication is not a big thing for master. But have you had any computer science / stats background shown without that its tough. Also an important part of the international applicant is TOEFL. if you don't have a certain score, some program just throw a way your result. (make sure you get that one)

Just to add on to that. I was a master student there and worked with several PhD students at the time. UPenn is overall great but its a place might kill your research interest after PhD. A lot of Penn graduate didn't want to go for academia after instead for consulting, law and industry. This might be a good thing or a bad thing depending on your goal .

The first time I applied with undergrad no publication. all very reachy school The second time course, I have a master with one publication. got three interviews, one admit no funding, one interview, and one waitlisted This is the third time, I have worked 1.5 year in a lab with a distinguished professor got another publication. lowered my school tier contacted professor. not much giving me feedback. applying 12 schools. all computational biology. My professors offered to help me to call the program to recommend me) ( Gradually I think my gpa just got worse over the year with undergrad in Bioinfo 3.79 major 3.85 and grad biotech 3.7 , 6 year research experience, 36 months converted 40 hrs a week, my international status defenitely didn't help, I also have an academic warning bc I helped a my friend with coding) My safety school is Thomas Jefferson but I haven't seen anyone applying to that. The lack of information this cycle is the kinda unknown is eating me alive, plus busy work life most researcher in the lab relying on bioinfomatician much more right now.

I really thought this cycle there will be a lot of applicants especiallly in the biology field which made me very anxious. It also seems to be the cases from some schools maybe from the information I got from other places. I am wondering if anyone have any data on this? This is my third time applying as an international students and probably last time. I don't think I will apply again even if I didn't get in. So this puts additional pressure on me. My profile isn't excellent but Its almost the best I can do now. Would love to talk to some anxious future Dr. in the same boat