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icsyr

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Everything posted by icsyr

  1. Wow! Thank you for all the info! This was exceptionally helpful. I'm in a really similar boat with Penn being my top program but another school offering me an additional fellowship for at least the first year. I think I'll send an email the chair of the committee and the department with similar inquiries; and maybe I'll ask about it at the additional Q&A session coming up this month. Are you leaning towards Penn over Duke? (I also interviewed at Duke [Immunology] but I did not have a good time -- no real connection with the faculty or the students.)
  2. Hey, have you heard any additional information on this or found out more from your preferred choice? I'm actually in a really similar boat and would love your insight.
  3. Agreed with what "blood type" said. It is wholly program dependent, and I think largely dictated by the size of the program and the amount of NIH or external funding the program receives. From my personal experience: I interviewed with Duke Immunology -- there were a total of 25 people interviewing. They expect a class size of around 5. This year, instead of being able to send offers to an excess of people, they were only able to send out exact or slightly more than they hope to matriculate. Everybody else was either immediately rejected or added to the waitlist. I was waitlisted and then withdrew my application. They said this was due to COVID and funding, and they needed to get additional approval from the medical school to facilitate more admits. In my interview with UPenn, they had at least 2 weekends, and each weekend had about 50-60 people. They told us from the jump that they hoped to offer spots to nearly everybody that was interviewing. If there were two weekends, that's 120 people, but their typical class size is 30-40 students - a far larger admit pool than matriculants. UCSF had two weekends of interviews, with about 40 people per weekend - so, 80 total. They told us flat out that they hope to have a class size of 25 and they will send admits to about 55 people. So compared to Duke, they were less selective after the interview process; but compared to Penn, they were more selective after the interview process. Just dependent on the school/program/size of program/funding.
  4. Anyone out there thinking about UCSF or UPenn? Starting to become extremely torn over the two.
  5. Hey! I've only talked to one school about it thus far, UCSF, and they said they'd really hoped to be able to reimburse students for travels to come tour the school but unfortunately are unable to (not sure why, maybe a health&safety / legality thing). It's not going to be the cheapest thing in the world, but it's crucially important for me to figure out where I'll be living for the next 5+ years. I absolutely think it is a reasonable request. And, per my convo with UCSF, they'd hoped to be able to do this very thing. I plan to ask Penn if they'd be able to reimburse this expense. I hope you're able to figure it all out!
  6. I am planning to fly out to the schools in my top three that I'm weighing between. Obviously, we applied to these programs for a reason. But once you interview and potentially get an offer, you have harder decisions to weigh, and it's valid to be conflicted. I know I am. I have also been reaching out to the students hosts I was connected with, following up with them about professors and if they know additional faculty researching topics I am interested. Further, I am reaching out to faculty I interviewed with (saying thank you & remarking on their research -- many of which respond and have a "you should consider rotating in my lab!" line) as well as faculty I did not interview with (and setting up meetings with them separately) to get a feel for more potential mentors and their science, vibe, and thoughts.
  7. Have any of y'all interviewed at UPenn? If so, how was it?
  8. Sounds about right for UW. The MCB program said they're interviewing 12% of their applicants this year. Immuno sounds like ~15%. It's cool to see the numbers.
  9. Student host said if you're one of the people they want to extend and offer to, you'll hear something this coming week. She also said, remember there are still 2 interview weekends, they can't give all spots away immediately, so you might not hear anything cause you've been waitlisted. it's just a real possibility. good luck.
  10. UW Seattle (MCB) is interviewing 72 people over the course of two weekends, which, according to their invite email, is 12% of applicants. If you quickly do the math, that is 600 applicants. Every interview webpage i've seen says they received a record number of applicants this year, but who knows what that really means.
  11. I just interviewed with Brown MCBGP today and leading up to my interview it was pretty sporadic and sparse information. I think the programs are quite small and they don't have the same infrastructure as others do when it comes to planning and organizing these virtual events. For instance, i didn't get the interview schedule until Monday, didn't get the link to the interview website until Wednesday, and still didn't have access to some of the google sheets until Thursday morning, then the interview was today. It all went off smoothly, but it was a bit stressful leading up. I'd try sending an email or call (like you mentioned). They were pretty responsive to email inquiries. Good luck!
  12. I would argue against asking that. Odds of getting in after being invited for an interview are quite high. But preempting the interview by asking a question like that might make the panel nervous about your willingness to be recruited. I understand the difficulty, though. I am going to have to decline an interview because of scheduling conflicts. It's likely that you can ask the coordinator to reschedule your interview, but do it sooner rather than later since they are trying to arrange professors to align with your interests specifically on the day(s) for you were recruited. Good luck; and good job getting interviews!!
  13. Which program did you apply to/are you curious about? I received an interview invite from UW - MCB. It was a general email but did have my name. Received it yesterday around 3pm. "Dear [my name], The University of Washington and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center Joint Graduate Program in Molecular and Cellular Biology (MCB) in Seattle, Washington is delighted to invite you to one of two virtual Recruitment Visits: Visit 1: Wednesday, January 20 – Friday, January 22, 2021 OR Visit 2: Wednesday, February 3 – Friday, February 5, 2021 The visit will begin at 11:00 am PST on Wednesday and end at 4:00 pm PST on Friday. We received a high number of applications this year and competition was exceptionally strong – we are offering interviews to 12% of all applicants. Congratulations on being part of such a select group of talented young scientists!" There's additional detailed information after all of that about what to do to prepare and what to expect.
  14. I heard from Brown yesterday afternoon via phone call. Then an email was sent in the evening. I also heard from UW MCB yesterday afternoon. Just heard from Duke Immunology this afternoon.
  15. For UPenn CAMB, I did MVP (Microbiology, Virology, and Parasitology) For UNC BBSP, I did (in order): immunology, DNA Repair and Genome Stability, Cell Biology, Translational Medicine, and Systems Biology For Brown...I can't find it in the portal, but I would've selected Response to Pathogens, then Cell Signaling. I was not one of the people interested in the biology of aging.
  16. The only insight I can give on this is that I also applied to UPenn CAMB MVP and I received an interview invite back on Dec 12 for Feb 4, 5, and 6. This one *may* be done sending invites. I applied to UW MCB (not micro) and just heard back yesterday; also applied to UW immunology but have not heard back yet. So don't give up hope.
  17. Hey all, Throwing another update in the thread. I've heard back from 5 of my 9 programs thus far: UW - Immunology, UW - MCB, UCSF - BMS, Boston U - PiBS, Harvard - BBS, Brown - MCBGP, UPenn - CAMB, UNC - BBSP, Duke - BSP Immunology I haven't heard back from Harvard, but I'm sure I did not receive an invite based off the responses from others in these threads. Has anybody heard from UW Immunology or Duke BSP?
  18. It wouldn't hurt to email. This whole year seems to be operating uniquely due to COVID, maybe that bleeds into how they're sending invites, etc. You should've applied to a "track" within CAMB, could be good to check that on the portal. I applied to CAMB - MVP and received an interview invite on Saturday 12/12.
  19. It wouldn't hurt to email. This whole year seems to be operating uniquely due to COVID, maybe that bleeds into how they're sending invites, etc. You should've applied to a "track" within CAMB, could be good to check that on the portal. I applied to CAMB - MVP and received an interview invite on Saturday 12/12.
  20. I can chime in after a small period of lurking. I have submitted applications for 8 schools and 9 programs: UW - Immunology, UW - MCB, UCSF - BMS, Boston U - PiBS, Harvard - BBS, UPenn - CAMB, UNC - BBSP, Duke - BSP (Immunology), Brown - MCBGP Thus far, I have received interviews from UNC BBSP and UPenn CAMB. My understanding is that UCSF intends to notify applicants by Dec 19; unsure of Harvard BBS timeline (likely soon?). I'll chime back in later today if I receive anything from the two mentioned above, since it seems a lot of people are curious about those programs this cycle. Good luck, everyone!
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