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for the record, i didn't "win" the fellowship, i was offered it. it's a privilege, not a competition. maybe you should get that straight first if you ever hope to get one in the future.

yeah, FrankForum. you're being a pretty selfish and downright asshole with those comments. maybe you should just chill out until you hear back from the fellowship definitively. otherwise you're just being a nuisance on this forum.

what are your stats aramj? why not update the results thread with your stats and where you are applying?

yeah, i guess so. i'll just wait it out, but whatever...csb is kind of a weird program anyway.

have most people heard back from MIT CSBi? i'm still waiting for a response, but it seems like a lot of domestic and international applicants have heard back. does anyone know? also, i think it helps to specialize in order to be admitted into a systems biology-type program. that is, be a biologist looking to break into computation or a hard science / engineering graduate looking to break into biology. it's not really a jack of all trades field as you need to be solid in either biology or computation to find a niche.

well, as an undergrad / masters student, i was lucky enough to join a productive lab in a hot field. i had my own project that i published as a first author (over a couple of years, of course) and a couple of side projects that gave me a second and middle author paper (in a much shorter timeframe). after i finished my masters i joined another productive lab where i got another second author. also, most postdocs / PhD students i've met in my field have put out many more papers than i have, so this might be field specific, too. neurogirl is correct for the most part, it's just a combination of luck and circumstance. i had good advisors who put me in charge of my own project while letting me contribute to others, too. i also worked in fields where major discoveries were only recently recognized (think 2000s nobel prizes). sometimes this happens, but i can't say much else other than this.

i also wanted to see how i would fare given that i've been out of college for a couple of years now. i've heard that people like me are held to more stringent standards, so i thought it would be a useful data point to post my stats here.

Undergrad Institution: BS + Masters from Ivy Major(s): Math, Biology Overall GPA: 3.7 Type of Student: Domestic GRE Scores (revised/old version): Q: 780 V: 680 W: 5.5 Research Experience: 5 years of research at Ivy and large research university in systems biology / bioinformatics and molecular biology. 5 papers, 1 first author, 2 second author (Nature/Cell/Science level), 2 middle author. 1 conference talk + a few posters. Special Bonus Points: Very good recs, 1 from an all around famous PI, 1 from a famous systems bio. / bioinformatics PI. Applying to Where: Harvard (BBS), MIT (Biology, CSB), Stanford (Genetics), Caltech (Biology), UCSF (iPQB), Berkeley (MCB), Yale (MCB)