navier

YES!!

DOWN!

I have faith that tonight is the night!

Fashionably late is better than on time!

Oooh I see. Well, I have faith that the results will be out Sunday morning! Haha. Probably wishful thinking considering this, though.

FastLane will be unavailable Sunday, April 1, from 12:01 AM to 8:00 AM ET for scheduled maintenance. We apologize for any inconvenience. There it is folks

I can provide some insight: Know your professors and have an idea of what they do (no need to be an expert) KNOW and be able to clearly explain your prior research - this is absolutely key. If you can't clearly and competently explain your research you're in trouble. This is what you're going to do as a grad student and they need to know you can do this well. Be prepared for difficult questions. Look and act professional Use your interviews to evaluate your fit into the program and school. Just because the school is more highly ranked doesn't necessarily mean it's the best fit for you, so use your visit wisely. Good luck!

If you don't mind me asking, which professors are those?

Hmm ok. It seems like I should've received my rejection by now. This is odd. Thanks for the info though!

Hey, thanks for responding! My status on the web page still says under review... I've sent several emails with no response. Did you get to choose your visiting weekend?

Anyone know anything about UPenn BioE? I still haven't heard from them and was wondering if anyone had insight into this..

I sort of had the feeling the Stanford community was pretentious... Not my style at all. And I definitely will! Trust me, I understand how it is! I'm even going to decline my interviews at the schools I haven't heard from, if I get any more interviews, because it would be wasteful for me to take that spot from someone else. Who are you interested in working with at Columbia? I know some of the professors there, so I'm just curious.

Thanks! Yeah I would say those are definitely first tier schools. I'm definitely going to Duke if I don't get into JHU. Even if I do get into JHU it will be a tough decision. Duke is an awesome place and I love it there! As for Stanford and MIT/HST... I honestly don't know either. I thought I would get an interview at HST. Two of my recommenders have ties with MIT and know the people I was interested in working with... so idk. And Stanford really blows my mind. They're out of the top 5 and their research doesn't seem as cutting-edge to me as other schools... I honestly just wanted to go there because of the location lol. But I'm really hoping to get into JHU because I'm really interested in several PIs research, but I know they're going to reject a decent number of people who they interview.. so we'll see.

Oh yeah, sorry. My list is as follows: Accepted: Duke, UM Interview: JHU Rejected: HST, MIT, Stanford Pending: UCSD, UPenn, Columbia >3.9GPA from top 20 engineering school. >90% on GRE in all sections. Several years research. 1 paper. Some scholarships. Top very strong LORs

Yes, I agree this year is extremely competitive. I'm not an 'out-of-this-world' applicant but I have a pretty strong app. Been rejected to 3 places so far, admitted to 2 and one more interview. I'm really happy with how I've done thus far but I thought I'd get one or two more interviews. I'm still waiting to hear from Penn, UCSD and Columbia but I consider those rejections. Seems like I made the '2nd tier' list for those places.

So far: Interviews: Duke JHU Accepted: Duke (haven't gotten official word yet) Rejected: MEMP Stanford

Applied: MIT, HST, JHU, Duke, Stanford, Columbia, UPenn, UCSD Stats GPA: > 3.9 from top 20 american engineering university Research: 2 years, 3 different projects on BME related topics GRE: > 90th% on all sections Several scholarships and Amgen scholar 1 pub in progress (3rd author) 3 very strong LORs (was told so by prof that has reviewed my app already); 2 of these from top PIs in the field

BME applicant here too!

Thanks for the reply! Congrats on getting into Stanford though. You must have had a very solid resume otherwise? I know for CSci MIT doesn't even require it. I am thinking it won't kill me, but I have indeed registered for the revised GRE. Since I am competing against others, I think my score will be much stronger (especially since people can't really study tricks to do well -- I did NOT study for my first GRE much at all). Plus, with a revised GRE score, I don't know that adcoms will even have a low limit to cut people off, therefore my app will get looked at by a lot of schools -- and I really think I'm very competitive in all other regards. Just a few thoughts I guess. Above poster: thanks for the link!

Hi Taylor, Thanks for the response. As an engineer, I'm not too worried about the math/quant section of the GRE. I took the ETS practice revised exam and my score was 750-800 they said. My main issue with the old quant was the memorization of formulae: this is not something you need as a grad student. With a calculator, I can pretty much reason through any problem. Although it may be more difficult, I've had enough math courses where I feel completely ready to take any standardized math test. My main issue is the verbal. My communication skills do not lack, but my knowledge of obscure words (that nobody actually uses in everyday life) does lack. As an engineer, this really isn't a huge deal for getting into a Ph.D program. How would you say the new verbal section is? I know there is context, but what else can you say about it? Thanks in advance!

Thanks for the advice. I also think verbal will be easier on the new exam because they're providing context for words now. Using logic, one should be able to increase their odds by pure statistics, and having some idea will increase these odds even further. I think even with my current GRE I can get in to a few of the top 10 programs (I've been in contact with multiple professors already about summer research - which can translate into a PhD position - and a dean of grad studies who has already informally recruited me to apply to their program). Maybe I'm wrong though.

Okay, this makes sense then. I thought you simply meant that scores won't make it on time if you test in July. As for the new GRE, I'm awful at verbal and quant is easy (even easier now that they provide a calculator), so taking the new one will benefit me. I understand you're the opposite so waiting wouldn't be a good idea. As for the new scores, the reports translate the new scaled score to the old scale, which I think is meant for adcoms to understand scores better until the new GRE has been implemented for a period of time. They're also taking a long time to grade the first series of tests, so something tells me they're going to scale it somehow. By this I mean I think they're going to scale it relative to a bunch of scores taken over the two month period (using statistical analysis). I'm not sure of this though; I may be completely wrong. (If so, it may be beneficial to the early test takers)

Why do you think July is cutting it too fine? I'm planning to take it in August, in which my scores won't be available until November. The deadline for most grad schools for Fall 2012 is December at the earliest. I'm confused as to why you think July is too late. Depending on your strengths/weaknesses, the new GRE may benefit you as well (I know it will for me as an engineering student).

Thanks for the advice. I can check this option out as well. How long is a long time? (Since I'm already 6 months away)

Thanks for the advice, and same to you above poster. I think I will retake it (since I'm just not quite there). Does anybody have any software to recommend for enhancing ones verbal score? This is really my only weak spot, and I really need to try and increase it as much as possible. 550+ would be ideal, but anything over 500 should suffice.