dhm0219

Okay, so I'm finished with my first interview weekend, and the experience was not quite as expected. Basically it seems at though every interview varied based on the direction that the conversation naturally took, and based on the approach of the interviewer. My first interview was with a faculty member who was on the adcom, and he essentially wanted me to talk the whole time. He asked me first to describe my progression through various labs (I have worked in three labs between undergrad and post-bac work), explaining why and how I got into the fields in which I worked, and what I was working on in each lab. Then he asked me what I was planning on doing after completing my PhD. Along the way I tailored my responses to issues and questions that I had about their program, for instance, "I've worked in a variety of fields and have not yet committed to exactly what field I want to join, which is actually part of the reason why your school is so attractive to me. I want somewhere where I have the freedom to try working in different sub-fields and flexibility to try a lot of different areas of cell bio research. I was actually wondering if you could talk a little bit about how fluid the interaction is between departments..." He didn't really grill me on my individual research projects, but he gave me a chance to ask plenty of questions about his department through the course of the conversation.

My second interview it was clear the prof had done some reading on my previous work, as she was able to talk to me about the pathways I had researched previously. She was very friendly and wasn't grilling me, but was interested in the process by which one previous project had developed. She then spent the majority of the interview actually talking about her own research as I asked her questions about the pathways she was working on and the model systems the lab was using to explore them.

My third interview was with my faculty host, and I was grilled pretty brutally and specifically. He asked me to describe the research I was doing, starting with my current lab and then progressing backwards, but we never actually got past the lab I work in now. He asked very specific questions, such as "are there homologous enzymes to the one you are studying in other organisms such as yeast?" "Is it known whether the mechanism of action of any structurally similar enzymes have been solved?" "What are the interacting partners involved in specificity of targeting for the enzyme?" and similarly specific questions. I really wasn't ready to answer a lot of these, and this interview went fairly poorly compared to the others.

Okay, so I'm finished with my first interview weekend, and the experience was not quite as expected. Basically it seems at though every interview varied based on the direction that the conversation naturally took, and based on the approach of the interviewer. My first interview was with a faculty member who was on the adcom, and he essentially wanted me to talk the whole time. He asked me first to describe my progression through various labs (I have worked in three labs between undergrad and post-bac work), explaining why and how I got into the fields in which I worked, and what I was working on in each lab. Then he asked me what I was planning on doing after completing my PhD. Along the way I tailored my responses to issues and questions that I had about their program, for instance, "I've worked in a variety of fields and have not yet committed to exactly what field I want to join, which is actually part of the reason why your school is so attractive to me. I want somewhere where I have the freedom to try working in different sub-fields and flexibility to try a lot of different areas of cell bio research. I was actually wondering if you could talk a little bit about how fluid the interaction is between departments..." He didn't really grill me on my individual research projects, but he gave me a chance to ask plenty of questions about his department through the course of the conversation.

My second interview it was clear the prof had done some reading on my previous work, as she was able to talk to me about the pathways I had researched previously. She was very friendly and wasn't grilling me, but was interested in the process by which one previous project had developed. She then spent the majority of the interview actually talking about her own research as I asked her questions about the pathways she was working on and the model systems the lab was using to explore them.

My third interview was with my faculty host, and I was grilled pretty brutally and specifically. He asked me to describe the research I was doing, starting with my current lab and then progressing backwards, but we never actually got past the lab I work in now. He asked very specific questions, such as "are there homologous enzymes to the one you are studying in other organisms such as yeast?" "Is it known whether the mechanism of action of any structurally similar enzymes have been solved?" "What are the interacting partners involved in specificity of targeting for the enzyme?" and similarly specific questions. I really wasn't ready to answer a lot of these, and this interview went fairly poorly compared to the others.

Got 3 interviews from UNLV Life Sci, ASU MCB, and OHSU Biol. Are these schools considered elite schools? I am wondering if there programs is comparable to the top 20 Schools. I have not heard from the top tier schools that I have applied to and got rejected from UW GS, UC Davis BMCDB, City of Hope, and UMich Pibs.

You're going to have to visit each program's website and see if they mention anything about average stats for previous incoming classes. Very often they do, especially in the FAQ sections. However, if not, don't be afraid to call the program and ask. There is no "place" that outright reports these statistics in a nice list for you. It's best to get this information straight from the source.

Hi all,

I have applied to most of these Universities. I have one interview from OHSU on Feb1-4, and a potential interview from UC Riverside. However, I have been rejected from University of Washingtion Genome Science and University of Michigan PIBS programs. My question is simply if I have not heard from these Universities above by now which is Jan. 17, then is it safe to assume that I am on their rejection lists? Do they have a second or third batch of interview groups. How late do they have the interview dates?

This just came in! Woohoo!

"The admissions committee for the graduate program in Molecules, Cells and Organisms in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology is pleased to invite you to visit Harvard University in Cambridge, MA for an interview and to participate in our on-campus recruitment events.
Your visit is scheduled for Wednesday afternoon, February 15 through Saturday morning, February 18."

For those who are interested:


We are holding interviews February 1-4 and February 15-18th.  Invitations will be sent out sometime mid-January.
I hope this information helps

MCO PhD Graduate Program
Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology
Harvard University

"Why does this kid have a 3.26 GPA and a near perfect GRE? Is he really lazy or something?"

24 with some quarter-life crisis issues.

I called Harvard BBS right before Christmas and they said they'd start sending emails out hopefully by January 13 and that no more invites will be sent after January 20. If anyone is wondering about MIT Biology, they emailed me back saying: "The faculty admissions committee is in the process of reading applications now. This continues until the first week of January when they will meet and make admissions decisions."