persimmony

Yep, maybe I saw you there. I did like it there and the science is great especially with the connections to Sloan Kettering and all the nearby schools. For me personally, I did not like the idea of paying $950+ to live in a cramped apartment or ~$1200 for a studio. Even with the 33.5k stipend or whatever it was, it'd still be stretching it. Also, I think living in such a big city surrounded by tons of people would wear on me...in hindsight I really should have considered these things before applying

I liked both. I'm from Denver and I love this city, but I think grad school is a good opportunity to experience a new city so I will not be going to Anschutz BSP. UC irvine had a huge undergrad population which kind of turns me off. I think both schools have great science. I'm interested in stem cell research and Irvine has more money for that so I'd be inclined to go there over Anschutz, but my top choice is Duke. At this point, I am 99% sure I will accept Duke's offer. I don't think I could tolerate Madison's cold cold winters...which seems like a trivial reason to choose grad schools but I have options so it kind of comes down to that. In addition to spending more of their money on food, etc., I would have 6 faculty interviews there and don't know if I can come across as excited for the program if I have a top choice in mind. Even at Weill Cornell this past few days I was feeling tired of the repetitiveness and just not as excited as I normally would be...on the other hand, Wisc-Madison was a top 3 choice for me, and maybe I'd want to do a post-doc there later down the road...gosh I keep going back and forth.

I have my 6th interview coming up for Wisconsin Madison on Wed and I'm thinking about cancelling. I already got a competitive offer from my top choice and I am exhausted from all the travelling, but I feel bad about the whole ticket cost..any advice?

I was just at the second interview date for BU PiBS. They said they gave out some acceptances to the best but for the majority, were waiting to decide all together with the second batch of people. They have 107 people to sort through total and are looking for an incoming class of ~20.. so it's going to be probably in 2 weeks or so...someone told me the goal was to have them done by March 1st. Hope this helps.

Duke acceptance two days after my interview! Also got offered a scholarship.

Uc Irvine cmb acceptance! First one. Feels good.

Not yet, going there on Feb 10.

I totally relate. I think it's important to show your competence first. Depending on the personality of the interviewer, if they don't jump right in to questions immediately I'll try to be more dominant and explain the research I've been doing for the past 1.5yrs. I start by stating the overall purpose in the lab and the disease we're looking at. If they don't interrupt me for questions, I move on to how we've been investigating our problem (mouse model, human samples). I keep it brief and then let them steer the convo and if they happen to know more about my area of research they will ask me more technical questions which I try to answer as coherently as possible. Otherwise, they can steer the convo into the school, politics of science, their research, whatever keeps the convo going. As far as having the interviewer talk the entire time..well I got a lot of one-on-one time with a professor at my first interview who took me and another applicant to see the area and even dropped us off at the airport. He mentioned that he felt some pressure to talk about the school and his research and the time flew by. I guess he did a lot of talking and for one of his interviewees he couldn't even remember if they had spoken about themselves at all. Which was bad because he has to fill out an evaluation of each interviewee, and probably won't have much to go off of for that person that didn't maintain their side of the conversation. So I've been to 2 interviews so far and my advice is to be very social, smile, know your research in and out, and display a curious nature. Ask intelligent questions if you can come up with them when professors explain their research.

Yes for BCMB. I got contacted Jan 13.

Yes they show all the names. It's an open spreadsheet that you can fill in and edit. I've been checking it every few days just to see how many new interviewees there are.

^ Which program at Wisconsin? If you're wondering about CMB, they have this google spreadsheet for it that shows so far, 53 people have responded to interview invitations, and it looks like 20 of those people have declined their interviews. So 33 interviewees so far. Last year's stats show that they offered 43 spots. So if you are waiting on this program you may still have a chance! I got invited to interview Jan 6 and was asked to complete the form by Jan 15, after which another wave of interviews was probably sent out. Not sure when they have to respond by.

These are questions I plan to ask as well. Other questions: "What characteristics distinguish this program from programs at other schools?" "Where do your alumni end up?" "Is there a teaching requirement?" "What research projects are available in your lab?" etc..

Just curious, did you ever post your stats on here? What do you think went wrong? (not that you still won't get more invitations!)

Congrats on UCSF! So I imagine your UTSW interviews must have been you talking about subject A and them talking about subject C, without any connecting subject B? Didn't you get to choose your interviewers though..?

When did you hear from CU Boulder? That's the last school I'm waiting on.

Same, they didn't give another date. I'm glad because every other weekend is booked.

I also received an interview from Weill Cornell BCMB!

Haha yes, this is obviously a simplified graph assuming you're either in or you're out. Also assuming your interviews won't be a disaster and that your numbers and letters look good enough on paper to get your foot halfway in the door. If you screw up in your interviews/events...well, adjust the numbers downward accordingly

While we're worrying about acceptance rates post interviews, I made this graph to appease your anxiety. We just want to get in somewhere right? Here's what your chances are for getting accepted into one school, assuming a 50% post interview acceptance rate:

It's 80 total from both weekends. She said they were interviewing ~40 each weekend. So do they want 15-18 people to matriculate? Or are they only offering admission to that many? If it's the former, the numbers may be more like 30-40 offers of admission.

I got an invitation to interview at UC Irvine CMB on 12/20 and they gave me one option: January 26-27. I know how you feel though..Feb 6-8 is so damn popular.

Don't bring it up unless they bring it up and specifically ask your opinion. You don't want to come off as snooty or evasive, but just approach it delicately and state your personal opinion. I don't see how this could really come up though. I'm interested in stem cell research but I don't really foresee having a conversation about whether I'm pro-life or pro-choice...maybe there would be talk about the controversy around it affecting research... but that would be about it.

Is your Denver interview for the BSP? They have an alternative date for Jan 30-Feb1 for people who can't make either of their 2 weekends.

^ I asked the program admin for UC Denver and she gave me some #s (~50% of interviewees offered admission). I only asked because she was so nice and responsive to my other emails. If I had to make a difficult decision like virion has to, I would ask program admins for more stats.

I had this problem when I confirmed UC Denver in December and UW Madison emailed me on Monday with coinciding dates. Luckily, I live 20min from UC Denver and the program admin has been very nice to me since before I even applied. They had an alternative date available with two other applicants and shifted me around. If they hadn't, I would have had to make a difficult decision which would partly have been determined by post-interview acceptance rates. If you can figure out those numbers, do so. I don't think it would hurt to at least ask UNC if they have an alternative date.