paulio

Congrats!! Awesome news Awesome, I'm *probably* going to accept too - was at the revisit weekend last week and it's just incredible. Such a great place with so much going for it! For me, it's totally between Columbia and WashU (with a bit of UChicago for good measure) for various reasons. I'm currently veering towards WashU, which realistically is where I'll probably end up... 1) I applied to C2B2, which is like a computational path of the Integrated program in cellular, molecular, structural and graduate studies (bit of a mouthful!) 2) Same as yours - we were on the train back from the airport together (I think we were anyway - the other guy from New Jersey was called Ben, and my username is not my real name...) 3) Probably WashU - I was back at the revisit weekend last week and it was awesome. The housing situation is so good compared to a lot of places, the breadth of research is beyond anything I've seen anywhere else, and there's just SO much going on all the time. Have you made a decision yet?

@Neuropsychologist - thank you! I've been quite lucky I think, as my GRE scores are pretty average/low for a lot of the places I applied (I had no idea they were so important when I took them in 2011 - I'd never done a standardized exam before!)

It's occurred to me that despite having been here since the start of this season I never posted my stats... Undergrad: Oxford - Biochemistry Masters 1: Oxford - Biochemistry (actually part of my undegrad - it's like a 4 year degree, equivalent to a Bachelors and Master) Masters 2: Imperial, London - Computer Science Citizenship: British GPA: 3.7 (Oxford) and 4.0 (Imperial) GRE: 760Q, 580V, 4.5 AW Research Experience: 2 summer research projects, one 7 month thesis and one 4.5 month thesis Publications: Heading to San Diego in May to present my first author paper at a conference, although I didn't know this when applying LORS: 2 from professors, 1 from postdoc Prospective Graduate Program: Computational Biology, Systems Biology, Biology, Computational Biophysics. Prospective Graduate Schools: (In order I heard back from) MIT - Rejected without interview NYU - Accepted WashU - Accepted Columbia - Accepted Yale - Waitlisted UPit/CMU joint program - Accepted UPenn - Accepted Duke - Accepted Chicago -Accepted Cornell - Final interview next week Harvard - Not heard anything (i.e. rejected without interview) Attending: Undecided... If people have questions, especially about applying as a British student, let me know! Good luck everyone!

I had a phone interview last week and got an offer via email/phone on Saturday (for Computational Biology & Bioinformatics). The guy who emailed me said they'd be sending out formal offers over the next few weeks, so given he emailed me on a Saturday I'd guess the adcom probably only met on Friday. Whatever the case, good luck!

For what it's worth, those are all really competitive schools, and by all accounts you seem like a very strong applicant, but the fact that you have an undergrad in theoretical physics, not compsci, AND you're international, might make you less attractive than someone who is coming from a US school with an undergrad in CS, for example. I don't know, I think the calibre of applicants those schools receive is pretty exceptional across the board and so any excuse (like, "he might not have as strong a foundation in basic algorithms or architecture") might make the admission committee's job easier. I've met quite a few people applying for the second time, typically who have a lot more success, who are working in a job in their field of interest - it's not a common thing in the UK, but seems to be pretty standard here. You might want to consider getting a job in scientific software development (or some area close to that you'd be interested in doing a PhD in) and reapplying next year if you don't hear back - given your background I'm sure you'd have no trouble finding something for a year, and you're still young - I'm 24 and applying now, and have met lots of people my age and up. One thing you've got going is your GRE scores, which are great, and that's a good way to not be culled in the first batch of rejections. It's a bit of a crapshoot though (to a certain extent) - I was rejected by MIT basically as soon as I applied, but accepted other equally competitive schools (in computational biology) with the most informal of interviews. I think one thing I hadn't appreciated is that the whole personal statement thing for the US is a bit different to one in the UK. If you have any friends/professors who are american they might be able to give you a hand, as my girlfriend caused me to iterate over mine 5-6 times and it ended up totally different from how it was to start with. The other thing is how you convert your grades to GPA, which seems a bit arbitrary, but, for example, UK % != US % - in the UK 75+ is incredible, in the US 75+ is barely acceptable! It's tough coming from the UK though - I actually did a masters in compsci at Imperial last year (big up Huxley building) and my undergrad is from the UK too, so if you want any more advice feel free to shoot me a PM.

I interviewed 27/28 Jan - heard two weeks later.

Yup, although I couldn't do the time/day they suggested, but am yet to hear back about an alternative.

Yeah maybe - judging by the submissions there are three of us who received invites today though, which for a relatively small program seems like quite a lot. I wonder if it's because we're "international" applicants? (I am, in as much as my undergrad and masters are not from the US, but I live here now and am a permanent resident).

For the record, Duke are, apparently, still sending out interview invites for computational bio and bioinformatics, even though interviews were last week? Weird...

ME TOO! Congrats

For the record, I just got an email from a member of UChicago's molecular biosciences admissions board to say that their progress had been pretty slow this year, but that they're still processing applicants (and that my application, "has been evaluated quite highly at this point" and I should expect to receive a phone/Skype interview request soon). So maybe there's hope yet for people waiting on that program and the associated umbrella programs.

Reading! Not just for the classroom

Oooh thanks coonskee!

So I was just wait listed (no interview) at Yale (BBS - comp bio). Seems like an odd thing to happen - surely they invite enough candidates over to not need to wait list those not even worthy of an on-site interview. They said they'd let me know some time after April 15th, but will they want to interview me at all, and if so when? I'm not holding out much (i.e. any hope) but I'm just confused!

There was a round of interviews last weekend (which I went to), and they have another round in a week and a half. I was accepted yesterday (I'm specifically interested in comp bio), so it looks like they're doing things on a pseudo rolling basis. If you're applying for evolutionary biology, I heard a few people say they had a pretty strong crop of applicants this year. That said, if they're making offers so early then applicants might decline them, so waitlist places may appear. Good luck!

When do you start giving up on programs? I'm yet to hear from Yale, Duke or Chicago (and Cornell, but the deadline was about a month later, so they can have some grace period for now) and kind of feel like it's probably the end of the road. Realistic or pessimistic?

Congrats on MIT guys! :-D

Big 'grats on the fellowship nomination - awesome stuff! Just got an invite to interview at WashU, where my wife has already been accepted for the medschool program (and has her heart totally set on it). So relieved it's not a rejection it's literally made my Christmas!

OK, so this might be a bit late but how strongly do schools weight GREs and GPAs (and I know it varies by school/program etc. but is there a general schema used)? I'd always assumed (based on conversations with postgrad application people) that GREs are a good way for an admissions comity to assess your ability if you'd come from a less prestigious or unknown school or maybe your GPA was not great (for whatever reason - illness, unfairness etc). As a result I'd not really worried too much about my GRE scores 580V 760Q 4.5W because my GPAs are pretty strong - 3.7 and 4.0 from top 10 world institutions (with higher research marks, research scholarships, research awards, summer research projects etc.). Clearly they're still important, but I'd figured that 760 to 800 probably wouldn't make a huge amount of difference. BUT everyone seems to have an 800Q at least, often with higher verbal scores than me to boot, and now I'm increasingly seeing people getting called for interviews for the programs and schools I've applied to and I've only yet heard from 1/11. It sounds incredibly arrogant, but having turned down multiple offers to do Ph.Ds over the last few years I sort of thought I'd at least get interviews, but now I'm actually terrified that I might only get this one. As an international applicant competition is (at some schools at least) more competitive, and I just wonder if I've totally shot myself in the foot by not retaking the GRE and getting a more competitive score. Any thoughts would be appreciated - sorry, I'm just really stressed about it all!

Who knows, but hey - if you haven't heard then you haven't been rejected! I'd say no news is good news right about now. [EDIT: And I wouldn't expect to hear back until the new year by now, probably?]

I'm surprised at how many people seem to be applying for systems biology/bioinformatics/computational biology - good to see the subject's generating interest! I got my first interview invite today (NYU) - such a relief to at least have one, I thought I was a reasonably competitive candidate but seeing the kinds of profiles posted here I'm getting worried I won't get in anywhere!

Me too, bit disappointing, had hoped at least for an interview. Hope this isn't indicative of everywhere I've applied :-/