Immunogenic

The mutation is just the first step but those mutations occur all the time and we don't all have cancer. We know how to cure cancer. Sure the mutations got the ball rolling, but it was the failure of your immune cells to detect it that caused the cancer. To cure cancer, you don't have to do anything to the cancer cell, you need to make the immune system recognize it and that's basis behind checkpoint inhibitors. They take an ongoing immune response and make it stronger. What we're doing now is trying to figure out how to initiate an immune response and what's funny is that often means keeping the cancer cells there until they're detecting by the proper immune cell and not something like a macrophage.

Know your research project in and out so it shows that you led the project and you weren't just an observer. They want to know that even if your role was small in the research, that you understood why they were doing those sets of experiments and which questions they were trying to answer. I believe they care more about how much you knew about your PI's research than how talented you were at research as an undergrad. One of the things a grad admission person kept saying is they want to know that you know what you're getting yourself into and that you're sure you want to be a part of it.

The people that run the PhD program at UCI are great and really supportive. The school itself is the complete opposite of UCSD. The campus is always calm and quiet and most people just go to it from 9-5. Everything is designed around a loop including the library so there's no large crowds anywhere and I go to my lab without seeing or speaking to another person for days at a time. If you're looking for a calm, chill, PhD program where can just go in and do your work and still have a life outside of grad school for 5 years, UCI is great for that.

I attended UCSD and UCLA for undergrad, and UCI and UCSD for grad. UCSD is definitely the toughest of those schools. The entire school is centered around an 8 story library where people literally spend days at a time studying. You won't find parties like at UCLA or a super chill atmosphere like at UCI, but if you want to focus on your research for 5 years it's great for that. The library has a cafe inside and treadmills so you don't get blood clots while you study everyday for hours. Their scientists are involved with major research and they've been a huge part of the covid effort. You have The Salk, Scripps, The La Jolla Institute of Immunology, Sanford Burnham, Sanford Consortium, all granting PhDs through UCSD so there is a large emphasis on research.

Last year Sinai sent out interview invites on January 8th. I'm sure they're waiting to see if it'll be in person before sending them. They said all the actual interviews will be over zoom this year to keep things even but they were going to fly everybody that can go, to the campus. This was before Omicron though.

I've applied to Harvard for the last 3 years and they always send out rejections in March. Lots of other schools do that too. They wait for after the interview decisions to send out rejections to everybody even if you didn't get interviewed.

Mount Sinai? The immunology group is led by Miriam Merad who is one of the most important people in science right now. I don't if it's considered prestigious or whatever, but it would be an incredible place to do a PhD. Lot's of top notch research coming from Mount Sinai. Merad is an MD/PhD that has said her purpose as a scientist is to alleviate suffering.

I got denied ?. Out of all 14 schools I applied to, Sinai was the only one that really felt like exactly what I was looking for in a grad school. Definitely want to try and do a post-doc there or something in the future.

They told us they were interviewing 270 people. They have 311 PhD students I estimated between 5.5 and 6 years to complete a PhD ~53 open seats per year if nothing else changes.

I got invited to 2 interviews out of 14 schools. I completely bombed my first interview at Sinai. I had so much trouble explaining my own research. ? Sinai interviewed 270 people for 53 positions. People assume that they accept twice as many as they need to account for people accepting other offers so we're twice as likely to get denied after the interview than we are to be accepted. This year is different because of the virus so it might be even worse odds if the labs have less funding and Sinai could be especially affected by that because their stipend is so high.

Yeah Same. Sinai is exactly what I'm looking for in a grad school. They only exist to improve patient care and that's why I got into science. The only other school I got accepted to seems to focus completely on training career scientists that get paid a lot. This is my second year applying. I'm considering just going with the other school but if Sinai is something you want, you might want to hold out and try again next year.

Haha that's so funny I'm doing the same thing. Looks like the last couple years they sent out post-interview rejections on the same day so at least my refresh button might survive. In 2018 they made applicants wait a week for closure

One of my Sinai interviewers said that they write a paragraph about us for Dr. O'Connell to read and then he ultimately decides so he has to read 810 comments from the reviewers. ?

<---Also freaking out about Sinai right now. ?

It was 15-16 days after the last interview for the 2019 and 2020 cycles. It'll probably be either tomorrow or Monday.

Just wanted to reply to this in case it helps somebody in the future. My Mount Sinai interview seemed like it was broken into 3 parts. I'm not sure if that was intentional, but that's what it seemed like. None of the faculty were on my faculty of interest. The first interviewer asked me about my research and went into specifics like cell types and reasoning and what my conclusion was. The second interviewer asked about my personal background like where I grew up but barely mentioned my research experience. The third interviewer asked why I wanted to go to Mount Sinai and then asked a little about my background and explained to me what the environment at Sinai is like. The impression that I got from the faculty and students is that it's a very friendly and collaborative environment. It's also my #1 choice so I'm glad they send out acceptances and rejections within 2 weeks because I'm already refreshing my application multiple times a day. ?

I wouldn't give up or settle for a school you're unhappy with. This is my second year applying and I have every intention of applying again next year if I'm not chosen.