sysbio

Just received an email invite to Bioengineering program at the Unversity of Washington. The interview weekend is March 22nd – March 25th.

Got a response to my status-request email from University of Texas Southwestern Basic Sciences Division today: "Thank you for your application. Your file has been reviewed and is currently in the HOLD status while we complete review of all applicants. In about 10 days, we will re-review all applications in that category and hope to move some into the INTERVIEW category." I also got rejected from UCSF IPQB today 1/26. The funny thing is that they rejected me on 1/19 too. Man, are they just rubbing it in or what? lol

Acceptance from Washington University in St. Louis for Bioengineering. Email sent yesterday with a notice to check today. So I checked just after midnight. The acceptance also included an invitation for a recruitment weekend mid Feb or late March with other students. I'm really pleased!

Yeah, rough day for me too. I wasn't surprised about not hearing from UCSD, but I thought I had a good chance at the IPQB program and even at Berkeley. No official rejections from those two, but no invites, so... I'm headed to the first weekend. As for profs, it's hard to say as there are several with some level of overlap with my interests. Obviously I'm interested in systems biology, but there are aspects of synthetic biology that appeal to me, especially when they interrelate. I'm doing some more in-depth reading on their work and hope to gain more insight during interviews.

There was an interview posted today, the 17th. So looks like they're still sending invites. http://thegradcafe.com/survey/index.php?q=MIT+CSB*&t=a

Sorry @sarofino. Which WashU program was it? Assuming DBBS, which division did you apply to?

Definitely not. Heck! I got an email from Santa Cruz Biotechnology, Inc about some antibody nonsense. But all I saw was 'Santa Cruz' and the adrenaline kicked in with the 'OMG, accepted or denied' panic response. The funniest part was that I didn't even apply to a school in Santa Cruz. wtf. So ridiculous. This process has made me insane. *grin*

Congrats Paulio on your first interview! Anyone else out there apply to Bioengineering PhD programs for Systems Biology? I found that lots of the faculty doing Systems Biology were cross-listed, or were found in the BioE departments instead of the Biology side of things. Systems Biology (as a traditional academic category) is kind of an odd duck - it doesn't quite fit in with the classical structure of Biology departments or Bioengineering departments. Arguably you need enough math and statistics to be on par with engineering curriculum, but it's nothing like the traditional fields in Bioengineering like biomaterials, cell and tissue engineering, etc. And it's obviously quite different than most molecular or developmental biology programs which require no more than basic statistical analysis. I'm curious how programs where Systems Biology is a subprogram in the biology department will evaluate their applicants, and how that compares to 'stand alone' programs like CSBi at MIT or BioE programs. I imagine they'll look at applicants rather differently, despite all purportedly looking for the same type of folks.

It seems to be from the past year. Although some of the Peterson's data is suspect for some programs (and you can tell because it's incomplete or inconsistent, or obviously represents a whole department rather than a program) this came from one of their premium 'fleshed out' profiles with updated information. Nevertheless, it's clearly 'off'.

A couple of things for my first real post here: (1) Rejected by email from MIT CSBi on 12/21 and Univ of Washington (MCB) on 12/20. (2) I was really surprised by the UW MCB rejections posted across the board here. My UG GPA is low, but I'm a non-traditional student and it was from a quite some time ago. I've followed up with some MS work. Nevertheless, my apps are quite a crap shoot. Nevertheless, I thought I had a good chance on UW(MCB) based on their numbers in Peterson's. Peterson's link to UW MCB stats Peterson's has: 400 applications, accept 133 (33%) and 20 matriculate. Obviously the Peterson's stats tell a very different story than what was reported above for this year: 470 apps and 70 interviews. That's (guessing) 45 admits for 25 spots? That's a ~10% acceptance rate, not a 33% acceptance rate. (3) On a positive note, no rejections yesterday! *grin* Good luck to all of you waiting. And if you are lurking, take a moment and post your profile and your experiences. I have really appreciated the posts in this thread and the survey database for the admissions process. It's a great source of otherwise unobtainable information about timing and interviews and where you stand. Plus it's really cathartic. The Survey

Undergrad Institution: Strong Midwest Major(s): 1st: History, later: Chemistry; Then two MS degrees in Biology and Bioinformatics GPA in Major: 3.1 UG; 3.9 Grad Overall GPA: 3.1 UG; 3.6 Grad Type of Student: Domestic, non-traditional. After law school and practicing, went back for a science UG and now finishing two MS degrees in Biology and Bioinformatics. GRE Scores (revised/old version): Q: 800 (94%) V: 730 (99%) W: 5.0 (87%) Research Experience: 3 Years, developmental bio and bioinformatics. One publication, 2nd author, 2 more first author by the end of the year. Several conference poster presentations. Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Funded RAs as MS student. Applying to Where: Systems Biology programs in stand alone departments, or in biology departments: MIT - CSBi MIT - Dept Of Biology (Computational and Systems Biology) Stanford - Chemical and Systems Biology UCSF - IPQB University of Washington - MCB Washington University in St. Louis - DBBS Computational and Systems Biology Program Harvard - HILS Systems Biology UPenn - Genomics and Computational Biology Northwestern - IBiS: Biotechnology Systems & Synthetic Biology UCSD - Bioinformatics and Systems Biology UCIrvine - Mathematical, Computational, and Systems Biology Systems Biology programs in Bioengineering: UCSD – Bioengineering UWashington – Bioengineering UCBerkeley - UCB-UCSF Joint Bioengineering Program UPenn -Bioengineering UTSouthwestern - Biomedical Engineering through Basic Sciences Caltech - Bioengineering: Synthetic and Systems Biology WUSTL - Biomedical Engineering