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ghanada

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Everything posted by ghanada

  1. Thanks! Looking at your stats and school lists I was actually surprised you didn't apply to UMich. And yeah I think that is a good clarification. I can't emphasize enough how important advisor/research fit is. IT. IS. EVERYTHING. If you are serious about doing what is best for your future, this alone trumps school rank, reputation, ivy league name dropping, location, etc. If you are not happy with your advisor and/or research, it doesn't matter how awesome the school is, you will be miserable and continually question why you are doing what you are doing. But on the other hand, if you find an excellent fit (fortunately, I did), you will fly through your PhD. I am on track to finish my PhD in a total of 3.5 years. Not to say it is easy, believe me, it is a ton of work either way, but your daily satisfaction and sanity will make all the difference. I wake up looking forward to going into work and I get sad at the end of the day when I have to go home to sleep. But even in my own lab, there are people that didn't mesh well, and they are hating life. The way you fit in is a very personal experience. Don't take that for granted. So with that, I agree that you shouldn't spam e-mail a billion people that are just slightly relevant to your interests. That is definitely a waste of time. Only reach out to people you are genuinely interested in that are doing work that excites you. And also don't be surprised if you never hear a response back. Profs are super crazy busy and there are many situations in which a school won't let profs have a say in admissions. But I still recommend trying to contact the POIs that are good fits and at least just seeing what happens. The worst case is you just don't get a reply. And best case scenario (as in my case) is that even if you were set to be rejected your POI can circumvent the standard routes and find a way to get you in.
  2. Hmm, I can't say for sure. But I am pretty sure most schools (at least UMich) waits to send out post-interview acceptances until both interview sessions are over. They know that there are time conflicts and you may be choosing the later dates for accommodation (rather than priority). So unless a prof sees all the people they are interested in during the first interview round, I am sure they would wait until the second round is over to make final decisions. Which also means if you are attending the first round, you might be waiting a month or so to hear back about your acceptance. No problem, I used this forum a lot when I was applying so I try to pay it forward. And yeah, I saw those comments about tissue engineering here at UMich. I am a bit surprised because that is a big field here and I have lots of friends doing tissue engineering. It must have just been a weird year last year. And again, it really isn't a dept thing either, it comes down to faculty funding. So it could have just been that all the faculty in tissue engineering weren't recruiting for last year? When you are at the interviews you should definitely ask and find out who has money for new students. It varies so much year to year. For instance, my class (2012) only had like 8 people. But I think this last 2014 class had like 30+. So it definitely fluctuates year to year. Good luck though, hopefully I'll meet you during the interviews!
  3. Current UMich BME PhD (neural engineering, BCI, rehab robotics) student here. Just thought I would chime in with "insider" info since I know you are all in freak-out mode at this point. 1. UMich BME invites have mostly already went out. The Feb. 19-20 visit is completely set, there are 35 people coming. There's also a March 12-13 visit as well, but from the results page it sounds like those invites have been sent out as well. It may be possible to still get invited to the March interviews, but I'm guessing that is fairly unlikely at this point. Also, regarding UMich, I have heard from various faculty that the BME acceptance rate is around 5%, which I think is probably about right for all the top 10ish schools. So don't feel terrible about yourself if you don't get accepted to those schools, it is INCREDIBLY competitive and often just a luck of the draw. I only got into 3/18 schools when I applied. 2. Not all schools do interviews. As someone mentioned earlier, I can tell you Boston U will admit you straight up with full funding, no interviews. But there is still a recruitment weekend. However, pretty much all the top 10 schools have interviews. 3. The chances of acceptance after interview varies a lot from school to school. It particularly matters a lot on whether the school uses a "match-based" system. UMich is match-based so that means they won't accept you unless a faculty member puts in a contract to provide you funding for at least 5+ years. Columbia is the same. These types of schools often have lower acceptance rates, prob in the 70-85% range would be my guess. Other schools that don't use this system and offer you funding regardless if you find a match will have a higher post-interview acceptance rate. 4. Someone asked about Columbia. That was my second choice and I was almost committed to going there. The dept. is a bit newer than most and still working out some kinks. But the main challenge is space. They are a tiny campus and lab spaces are very small and cramped. But there's definitely some good work there, and if it is a good fit you should definitely consider it. Also, goto the interview weekend, it was awesome. We went on a booze cruise... 5. NSF/external funding is a game changer. I know of a handful of students here at UMich that were initially rejected but after receiving NSF reached out to many of their top choice schools and were granted immediate admissions. Seriously, if you get it, and you are a decently qualified applicant, you should have a lot more power in getting into top schools, even the ones that already rejected you. 6. If you haven't heard back yet from any schools, things are definitely not looking good. But that isn't to say all hope is lost. It is late in the game, but not completely over. I think admissions still get sent out throughout February. Once you get into March, then it will start to become less likely. The best thing you can do is reach out to POIs. If you can find someone that really wants you and has funding, they can often circumvent the regular admission procedures. But you really need to find someone that wants you. Good luck all, feel free to ask any questions if you have any.
  4. What are your research interests? I do neural engineering, particularly brain-computer interface, so mixing neuroscience and devices. There are tons of schools doing good work in this field. But there's a pretty broad range of specific fields within neural engineering, so it depends on what you want to do. I also agree that your GPA is a bit low and will make it difficult to get into top 20 programs. But it isn't impossible, especially if you are willing to take some time off before applying and gain more research experience in a related engineering lab. For what it's worth, my undergrad GPA was 2.6 from UCLA. But I took a lot of time off, got a Masters in EE, and a good number of pubs. I made it to a top 10 school (U Michigan). So yeah, not impossible. UCLA and USC are both good, but not great BME programs. I wouldn't put them in the "top tier" profile. But they are both still very difficult to get into. UCLA has very little funding and puts the responsibility on the applicant to try and find money, even after gaining acceptance. USC's program is on the smaller side and just offers very few spots. I think my year they gave out under 10 acceptances, and only like 4 or 5 people matriculated. But if you are serious about doing anything in the neural engineering field, I highly recommend you leave Cali as there isn't a whole lot going on out there except Stanford and maybe UCSD...which are both incredibly difficult to gain admission to.
  5. I work in a BME/neural engineering lab doing motor learning. What type of motor learning are you interested in?
  6. I'm surprised you didn't apply to some of the usual suspects for neuroengineering...UPitt, UCB/UCSF, Hopkins, UMinn, UW, Northwestern, Boston U, and UMich. I'm at UMich myself doing neural prosthetics, BCI, neural engineering, etc. Love it here.
  7. ghanada

    Los Angeles, CA

    Just wanted to throw in my opinion, as I used to live in Redondo Beach and commuted to UCLA everyday on a motorcycle. Probably about the same distance of commute as what you are proposing. So the motorcycle life is awesome in terms of getting through traffic and being able to park for free. I also love riding so it was a fun way to start and end my day. I think it is doable for sure, but I also want to give you some things to consider. Just keep in mind that riding in LA, especially on the freeways, is no joke. The average speed for cars on the 405 is like 20-30 mph for most busy sections, which happens to be prime speed for cars to make drastic lane changes and do illegal things like pull in and out of the carpool lanes unexpectedly. That is also the speed at which you will feel pretty comfortable splitting lanes in. So pretty much every single day you will have cars cutting you off or turning into you. I even once got completely wedged between a bus and a semi such that they squeezed my arms and were starting to crush me a bit. Not to mention there is a ton of debris and junk in between the lanes. I have been forced to run over old scraps of rubber and random pieces of furniture to the point that my handlebars will jolt and kick you up a bit. I have done a lot of riding in many types of roads and cities and can honestly say that riding on the LA freeways is the most difficult and most dangerous. You will have a near death experience on a regular basis, pretty much every day. You have to be ok with that. Something to really consider. I figured out a good mentality to have when riding. I pretended that riding was a game in which I was invisible to every single car, but every single car was on a mission to try and kill me. I would also highly advise you also have a car. For one, I absolutely would not ride on rainy days. In fact, I used to never ride if there was even a small chance of rain. LA drivers are terrible in the rain and motorcycles in the rain are not ideal. Second, the car is important because you shouldn't ride on days you don't feel up to it. Riding the freeways takes 110% concentration and you can not afford to zone out for 1 second. So there would be days when my mind just wouldn't be up for it, those are the days I would drive instead. Also, regarding safety, absolutely wear a leather jacket with armor and a full face helmet. I also bought special riding pants with built in armor and wore leather boots. It absolutely is terrible during the summer with the heat, but I refused to ride in less protection. And of course, NEVER ride while under the influence. That factor alone causes most motorcycle fatalities. ok, hopefully that helps shed some light on the riding in LA. I don't want to discourage it, in fact I absolutely encourage it, but you should just be aware of the factors involved. I followed very strict rules for myself, which I think really helped me be fortunate enough to never get in an accident and I rode almost everyday for a number of years. Just be responsible and safe about it. Feel free to message me if you want any more info on riding in LA.
  8. ok, I haven't been actively following this thread for some time now, but I kind of feel a need to jump in here. I am a graduate of the LEAP program (Fall 2009 to Summer 2012) and had an AWESOME experience. You can find my previous posts as early as page 3 (October 2011). Let me preface by saying that I was doing LEAP during the Helaine era and I had at least 50-70% scholarship the entire duration of the program. I also started in BME, but ended with EE. So you can take everything I say with a grain of salt, as I have not been on the BU campus for almost 2 years now. It sounds like there is a lot of negativity about LEAP over here. But I hope the people following this thread consider individually who the program is for. For myself, I wanted to do get a PhD in BME so that I could be in industry research labs or startups designing medical devices. I had a neuroscience undergrad background and 0 shot in getting into a decent BME PhD program so LEAP was a great transition program for me. If any of you are interested in continuing onto a PhD after the Masters (in any eng field), I think LEAP is perfect for that. LEAP prepared me very well in terms of courses, let me do extensive research work and write a 200 page thesis, for which I am writing up 2 first author publications from. It was absolutely instrumental in getting me acceptance into some top engineering schools. I now attend University of Michigan (top 10 in all engineering fields), am leading a 2.5 million dollar research project, writing high impact publications (Science/Nature type), and have multiple interests in people offering me jobs when I graduate from startups to postdocs to government agencies (Army, DoD, etc). I am in line to finish this PhD in lightning fast pace of a total of 3 years. I absolutely owe all my current success to LEAP. Without a doubt. I agree that LEAP might not be the best fit for someone specifically trying to do software engineering and go straight into an industry job. But I think your mileage may vary. I had a lot of LEAP friends in BME, Mechanical, Materials, and EE. All that graduated found great jobs upon completing the Masters and a handful of us, including myself, continued onto a PhD or med school successfully. I only knew a handful of people in CE, but those that I did know had no problems finding jobs. Everyone in my cohort had a positive experience and thinks the LEAP program was necessary to get to where we wanted to go. I honestly don't think BU is any better or worse than other large, R1 type institutions of its size. In fact I would say my alma mater, UCLA, in general is run more poorly and cares less about its students. If you have been to these types of institutions before, you know you get low individual attention and have to figure out almost everything on your own. You know class sizes are huge and often taught by research professors whom don't care about teaching. You know there aren't a lot of programs set up to help you get funding or have special jobs set aside for you. It's the nature of the beast. In return you get a well recognized name brand school, and lots of opportunities to get hands on training in prestigious labs. Anyways, I am sorry to those that had a bad experience with LEAP and you are absolutely right that it probably isn't the best idea for specific types of career paths. But I do want to shed some positive light on the program in general and hope that others that are reading this will realize that negative individual experiences might not be a reflection of the entire LEAP population. If anyone wants to ask me questions about LEAP, BU, or Boston in general, feel free to message me. I always try to help out others with guidance when possible.
  9. For anyone awaiting updates from UMich, I hate to say it, but I would assume rejection. The last interview weekend is settled and I'm pretty sure the roster is set. Best of luck to everyone!
  10. Definitely not guaranteed. I know plenty of people that interviewed places and didn't get accepted. Especially if you are talking about "match" based schools. Usually a professor has like 1-3 open spots at the most, but interviews 6+ people. Granted, if you interview with like 3+ POIs than even if each only accepts half the students they interview, odds are you have a good shot at getting into one of those spots. But you should definitely bring your A game to the interviews. Also, try and get friendly with the current grad students in the labs you are interested in if you meet them. I think a lot of POIs will ask the current lab members about their opinions on prospectives.
  11. Regarding UMich: They did 2 waves last year, but not previously. Although I think I heard from BME faculty that there will be 2 waves again this year. I believe the first wave is set to take place the Feb. 14th weekend. I am pretty sure the invites for that weekend are done by now. If you haven't heard yet, you might still have a shot at the next wave which will probably happen beginning to mid March.
  12. haha I had a terrible experience with Pitt 2 years ago. They pretty much never responded to e-mails. They also NEVER sent me a final rejection notice or anything. I was shocked they wouldn't at least give me a rejection e-mail.
  13. Last year UMich gave 2 interview weekends, one in Feb and one in March. I am almost positive the 2nd group didn't get notice until prob early to mid Feb. For the 1st group, I think they got notice sometime around the end of January because us current BME grads got asked around that time to take the prospectives out to lunch. So I wouldn't give up hope yet.
  14. I think UMich finalizes interviews sometime in mid to late January. Last year, there were 2 interview weekends, one in mid-February and one in mid-March. I believe on average, they probably give out like 40-60 invites. Getting invited to interview is not match based as they form committees to rank each applicant. However, once interviews are set, it becomes match based in that you will only get acceptance if one of the profs you interview with commits to funding you.
  15. haha I was wondering why University of Michigan wasn't on your original list. That is where I am now and tissue engineering and regenerative medicine is HUGE here. Anyways, if anyone wants to know more about UMich feel free to ask. Or even about UCLA (my undergrad) or Boston University (my Masters) that's cool too.
  16. https://www.facebook.com/groups/157020947645515/
  17. I don't know if you just specifically want a group for your specific incoming class, but I think you should all join the official LEAP fb group as it is pretty active and gets lots of quick responses from both current and past members (such as myself). I believe it is a closed group, but you should be able to request access if you are accepted and going to be starting LEAP this year.
  18. haha verrrrrry very far from a badass, but I appreciate the Neil deGrasse Tyson reference! Also, re-reading my post I hope it didn't come off as snooty or arrogant in any way. If it did, I apologize. I also said I wanted to be a "superstar" because I was previously a super-slacker in undergrad and had far far below a 3.0 GPA so I had a lot of work cut out for me knowing I wanted to get into a PhD program. I just wanted to emphasize that it is completely reasonable to put as many or as few hours as you want and get through a Masters or PhD. And I know 80 hrs/week seems insane to many people, but hopefully they know that 80 hrs/week in grad school is such a different experience than 80 hrs/week in "real life". This includes classtime, meal times, coffee breaks, walking all around campus, listening to talks, interspersed happy hours, obligatory youtube watching, etc. It is really more of a lifestyle rather than a job. But they should also know that it is completely possible to love working 80 hrs/week and not be scared of the number of hours that many put into their degrees.
  19. I have done a Masters in EE and now my PhD in BME. I can tell you it is absolutely what you make of it. If you want to take your time, pay more money, and cruise there is nothing wrong with that and it is very doable. Some people just work/study all day and have 0 life. I prefer something in the middle. But all will work. For my Masters I knew I wanted to get into a top notch PhD program so I wanted to be a superstar. I probably put in 70-80 hrs/week to get through all my coursework quickly. However, I was well balanced and had a good amount of free time and screw around time sprinkled in. That way I was able to spend 1 year full time working on my MS thesis which ended up being about 200 pages long. However, I am getting multiple publications out of it and it was key to getting me into some great PhD choices. Anyways, now that I am finishing my 1st year of my PhD I can say that I probably average around 80-90 hours of "work" a week. I use the word work lightly because to me it is more like play. I love my research, love my projects, love my advisor, love my labmates, love my school. I work lots of hours and very hard, but I am not stressed at all. I don't really have deadlines and my adviser doesn't care how many hours I put in. He works in a completely different building so I could take weeks off at a time if I wanted and nobody would really care. But I honestly wake up everyday excited to get into work and I leave every night sad that I have to catch the last bus home. I would rather work 80 hrs/week doing something I am passionate about and find both fun and rewarding than work 40 hrs/week doing something I hated. You know that old saying, "do what you love and never work a day in your life"? That is how I seriously feel.
  20. ghanada

    Los Angeles, CA

    DEFINITELY include the name "West LA" and "Westside" in your searches. Using "Westwood" will most likely only point you toward the large apt housing areas adjacent to campus that are on the streets like Landfair, Midvale, Kelton, etc. That is where most upper level undergrads live and where the frats are. I personally recommend not living there for grad school. They are extremely expensive and really crappy in quality. It is also a very loud area. As soon as you get west of Sepulveda and even Sawtelle, the prices drop quite a bit. The "West LA" region varies a bit and is hard to define, but where I am describing is from the corner of Wilshire and Westwood at the most northeastern tip, to about National Blvd and Bundy Dr at the most southwestern tip. There's tons of apartments and small houses in that region. If you stay closer to the northeastern corner of that region you are looking at about a 2 mile trip to campus. If you are at the southwestern tip, you are about 5 miles out. But again, lots of Blue Bus routes are along that area and would prob be like a 20-30 min ride. Craigslist is ok, but you might want to check out "westsiderentals.com". It is a site that many landlords post their listings on so you have to pay a subscription fee for access to those listings. Reviews are always mixed with this site, but I have personally used it a few times as well as other friends and about half of us have actually found apartments that we ended up living in. Off the top of my head, ALL the neighborhoods within walking distance to UCLA would probably be classified as Westside, Westwood, West LA, Brentwood, Mar Vista, Palms, Santa Monica, Century City, Culver City, Venice, Bel Air, and Beverly Hills. Only a select few of those can be had for your under $1,000 budget. Studios in that price range are possible, but might take a while to find. Now, this advice goes to you and ANYONE reading this post...GET A CAR! I know you might be used to cities where you walked everywhere or had nice transportation systems. Los Angeles is not like that. Only if you are planning on staying for like 1 year, then maybe you can go without a car. But if you are planning on being there for 2+ years, you should definitely get a car. Just something cheapy like $2,000 is fine. And I have heard EVERY argument about why you will be fine without a car. And yes, I agree it is POSSIBLE to get by without a car, but I argue that you are missing the entire culture and point of LA. Many people say LA sucks because there is no culture and it is fake and blah blah blah. That is BS. I lived there for 8+ years and if you understand what makes LA great, you will absolutely love it there. What makes LA great is that there are so many communities and different cities/regions all spread out. Each one has an incredibly different vibe with different types of shops, restaurants, bars, clubs, etc. But that means you have CHOICE. There is a scene for everyone. And if you are adventurous, you will love checking out all the different areas in southern Cali and appreciate various things in each. For instance, Santa Monica is awesome for a chill beach vibe that is family friendly and convenient. There are some cool bars out there and 3rd Street Promenade is a fun touristy thing to do. Venice beach is more eclectic with a cool art scene and hippies abound. Especially in the Abbot Kinney area. Manhattan/Hermosa Beach are small, little surfer-attitude beach towns for lazy afternoons and beach type bars. Downtown LA is a gentrified hip scene, with interesting restaurants and bars littered with young professionals trying to stand out. Silver Lake area is the home of the hipsters where creation and art happens. Lots of trippy, unique things going on over there. West Hollywood is the unofficial socal capitol of LGBT and alternative lifestyles. Lots of great restaurants and laid back bars. Hollywood is the ghetto touristy area, but with the highest class clubs and hottest singles trying to hook up. And all those places are a just a small fraction of socal, which are nearest to UCLA. I didn't even mention more northern areas like Griffith Park, the Valley, Studio City, Pasadena, etc. Or Southern areas like Long Beach, Fullerton, Newport Beach, Huntington Beach, etc. Each of those ares are completely different from the rest and offer their own unique things to do. I also didn't mention all the amazing ethnic areas, like Little Tokyo (both in Sawtelle area and Downtown), Chinatown, Little Ethiopia, and Korea Town. There are also full on ethnic REGIONS in socal like Inland Empire for Chinese people (Covina, Diamond Bar, Rowland Heights, El Monte, etc) or the Valley and East LA for Mexican people. There are just really cool pockets of areas that can't be found anywhere else in the world. The main point of this, is that you HAVE TO DRIVE to get to these areas. Yes, there will be traffic. Yes, you will be irritated and be running late for everything. But I guarantee you, you will discover awesome things and create new experiences that will blow your mind. You will also have the right to say you lived in LA and dealt with the traffic. It toughens you up a bit. The traffic itself is part of the LA culture. You would be doing yourself an incredible injustice to not have a car and trap yourself in Westwood/West LA. There is definitely enough things to do around that area to which you can make do. But seriously, you will be trapped in this bubble and never experience the beauty of LA. Ok that is my rant for the day. I love LA and miss it dearly. I want to do anything I can to promote the awesomeness of socal and help the non-believers understand what it truly means to be an Angelino. Anyone can message me for advice as well.
  21. ghanada

    Los Angeles, CA

    You will not get your own room for under $700 in Westwood or areas within walking distance. An average 2 bdrm Westwood apt goes for $2,000-2,400. And that probably won't even come with parking spots, you would have to pay a monthly fee for those. The only areas somewhat near UCLA where I was able to pay $700 for my own room were in Palms, Culver City, Venice, or Mar Vista. But those areas are definitely not walking distance. They are reasonable using a bus or biking, but not walking. Getting down to $500 for your own room is REALLY REALLY tough. You would definitely have to look further out and you would have be in sketchier areas for sure. Keep in mind UCLA is smacked between Bel Air and Beverly Hills, also neighboring Brentwood, Malibu, Palisades, Santa Monica, etc. It is a gorgeous area, but you are paying for it. I would personally recommend Palms. It is very central, close to freeways, right along the Blue Bus lines, and close to downtown Culver City. Plus parking is very reasonable around there. You can definitely find something in the $500-700 range if you take on some roommates. If you are willing to move your budget up to like $750-850 you could actually find some cool places in West LA, like the neighborhoods west of Sepulveda and south of Wilshire. I used to live off Ohio and Colby area for that slightly higher price range. That area is a long walk/short bike ride or short bus ride. There's also a lot of stuff going on around there. That is probably my favorite living area around UCLA for the price.
  22. hey all, I haven't been checking in much lately, but if you guys need any specific advice or have questions about BU, LEAP, or Boston in general feel free to ask here or message me. For reference, I graduated from the program last August but I was there for 3 years so have lots of recommendations.
  23. ghanada

    Los Angeles, CA

    My favorite area between LA and Irvine is the South Bay. This includes Torrance/Gardena and the beach cities like Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach, and Redondo Beach. I live in Redondo Beach and have had friends live in all the other cities I mentioned. I spend the majority of my time in these areas whenever I go back to visit. Since you mentioned your husband might work on the Westside like Venice, the South Bay area is right off the 405 which is where both Venice and UCI are off of. Distance-wise the South Bay is a bit closer to the Westside, but traffic-wise you would have nearly equal commutes. In normal traffic, I wold say it takes about 30 min to 1 hour (one way) to get from the South Bay to Venice or to UCI. For your husband's sake, I think the furthest south you should look would be Long Beach. Any further out and he will be doing a 1 hr+ (one way) commute in traffic. You will experience less traffic than he will. He will also prob be able to get to work in the mornings closer to 30 min, but in the evenings the drive will take him closer to 1 hr. The beach cities are extremely safe, and most of Torrance is too. Gardena can be a little ghetto in certain areas, but there are also some nicer areas. When I was living in Redondo Beach, I was renting a 4 bedroom house with a full 2 car garage, driveway, front and back yard, and like 10 min walk to the beach. That place was like $2500 for 4 people, so very affordable. You could probably find a 2 bdrm apt in any of the South Bay areas for like $1400-1800. Even cheaper if you go further inland. Torrance has all the stores/malls and restaurants you can image so everything you need is there. And then when you want to go into LA, like Westside, Downtown, Hollywood, etc. you are just a 30 min drive away. Feel free to message me if you have any more questions or want more details.
  24. Yeah rankings is always tricky. But really all the schools in the top 25 or so on USNEWS are solid and will be reflected in pretty much all other rankings as well. The top 5-10 is much more subjective and it is pretty hard to quantify exactly which ones are truly the best. Rankings mean much much more in professional degrees like MBA, JD, etc. and arguably more so in doing a Masters. I can tell you from personal experience that your advisor and research fit is by far the most important consideration for a PhD. Going to a #1 school without a good research/advisor fit and you will hate it and not do an outstanding PhD. Now with that said, another reason why rankings do have some merit is that top schools tend to have top researchers in terms of notoriety and proliferation of publications and funding. It makes sense that these schools attract the top researchers whom in turn attract top funded projects. That is something to consider about the benefits of highly ranked schools. But in terms of student outcomes, you should look to see what jobs and positions past students have landed after graduating and especially in the lab you are interested in seeing where the graduates have ended up. That should give you a good indication of how well connected/respected your advisor is and how strong your lab is.
  25. Columbia definitely does interviews as they are purely on a "match-based" system (unless something has changed since last year). Last year, they sent interview invites around Feb 15th. I know international students aren't invited out for the interview weekend as they do phone/skype interviews. So my guess is that person that posted might be international. The interview weekend should be early/mid March. On a side note, Columbia's interview weekend is one of the funnest/nicest ones I have been to. I highly recommend going if you get an invite. @sassypants - If you want to know anything about UMich (faculty, the program, the city, etc) feel free to message me. I'm guessing UMich might not be a top choice seeing your other options, but I can't speak highly enough about how awesome the program is. And I am from Cali and very familiar with the reputations of all the top schools there, but still find UMich to be fantastic and just as good as those programs. Also, I am going to be around for a lot of the fun stuff during the interview weekend and will most likely meet you at some point.
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