Biomedical Engineering/Bioengineering Applicant Profiles for 2019 Admission

[sgaw10]

6 minutes ago, jtro37 said:

Do you mean waitlisted after interviewing? Or that Rice has a waitlist to even get an interview?

This is what their email said:

"Thank you for applying to the Rice Bioengineering Ph.D. program. Our faculty are impressed with your prior accomplishments, and believe you have excellent potential to succeed in our program. However, admissions is extremely competitive this year, and we have added you to our waitlist. We will inform you as soon as possible whether we will be able to proceed with an interview, or if we will not be able to offer you a position."

I did not interview. Their weekend is not until the end of this month, unfortunately. But from this it sounds like although I am waitlisted, I would still have to do an interview if a spot opens up. This was sent to me exactly a month ago, which is early to me. I know their department is small, too. I should probably not get my hopes up though  

[jtro37]

1 hour ago, sgaw10 said:

This is what their email said:

"Thank you for applying to the Rice Bioengineering Ph.D. program. Our faculty are impressed with your prior accomplishments, and believe you have excellent potential to succeed in our program. However, admissions is extremely competitive this year, and we have added you to our waitlist. We will inform you as soon as possible whether we will be able to proceed with an interview, or if we will not be able to offer you a position."

I did not interview. Their weekend is not until the end of this month, unfortunately. But from this it sounds like although I am waitlisted, I would still have to do an interview if a spot opens up. This was sent to me exactly a month ago, which is early to me. I know their department is small, too. I should probably not get my hopes up though  

RIP. Sorry to hear that

[dontor]

On 2/11/2019 at 6:09 PM, offery said:

Do you guys know if Boston and yale are done sending invitations/ interviews ?

i believe so. yale sent out decisions today, waitlisted  oh well BU was my top choice anyway

for BU all students for all weekends have been invited so i think they are done for now...

[sgaw10]

At this point I don't know why it catches me off guard every week, but I always flip out when I see an email from Penn. then I read that it's for their applied student chat. Stop playing games with my heart ?

[gummybear9]

I wish UCSD would just reject me already so I can fully commit myself to Davis.

I also wish Davis would tell me about funding so I can start thinking about housing. 

I just want to have everything all set already, I hate waiting, I need to plan

[Ayub2306]

To all the people posting here - 

While writing up on this page hoping that one day I might post a positive reply here but unfortunately, I could not do so. So, I am wishing good luck to all those who got accepted in various PhD programs. In my case, I applied to 11 universities out of which got rejected by 8. I also, as of now, do not have any positive hopes from the other 3 available universities as it is already mid-February. I applied to 3 universities before for Fall 2018 but could not get admitted. I left everything, made my profile better and applied again for Fall 2019. For those of you, who think my profile must be weak let me tell you my profile summary - 3.62 GPA, 107/120 TOEFL, 2+ years research experience, 1 publication, 3 conference posters and won in all three. So, I am now giving up on this PhD dream of mine. I don't have any hopes and as per my financial condition goes I have already spent half of my savings in giving these exams, filling applications and again repeating the same.

Good Luck to all others. Hope you all do your PhD successfully. Also, Thank You for reading my rant for 2 minutes. I felt light. I don't want to spread negativity.

[jtro37]

9 hours ago, sgaw10 said:

At this point I don't know why it catches me off guard every week, but I always flip out when I see an email from Penn. then I read that it's for their applied student chat. Stop playing games with my heart ?

You can update your subscription settings to stop receiving them. The link is at the bottom of the email. I unsubscribed because I was also annoyed at seeing them email me to only find out it's for that stupid webchat 

[jtro37]

6 hours ago, Ayub2306 said:

To all the people posting here - 

While writing up on this page hoping that one day I might post a positive reply here but unfortunately, I could not do so. So, I am wishing good luck to all those who got accepted in various PhD programs. In my case, I applied to 11 universities out of which got rejected by 8. I also, as of now, do not have any positive hopes from the other 3 available universities as it is already mid-February. I applied to 3 universities before for Fall 2018 but could not get admitted. I left everything, made my profile better and applied again for Fall 2019. For those of you, who think my profile must be weak let me tell you my profile summary - 3.62 GPA, 107/120 TOEFL, 2+ years research experience, 1 publication, 3 conference posters and won in all three. So, I am now giving up on this PhD dream of mine. I don't have any hopes and as per my financial condition goes I have already spent half of my savings in giving these exams, filling applications and again repeating the same.

Good Luck to all others. Hope you all do your PhD successfully. Also, Thank You for reading my rant for 2 minutes. I felt light. I don't want to spread negativity.

Have you considered applying to safety schools? If you really want to do a PhD, maybe apply to a school with a high acceptance rate.

Also, I don't know much about the TOEFL exam, but everything else looks pretty good so I'm not sure why you'd be rejected 14 times... maybe your letters of recommendation or your personal statement aren't good?

[offery]

@dontor Did they sent you an email saying that you are waitlisted at Yale ? 

[dontor]

1 minute ago, offery said:

@dontor Did they sent you an email saying that you are waitlisted at Yale ? 

i was emailed my status had been updated on the portal. The portal stated waitlisted.

[Ayub2306]

17 hours ago, jtro37 said:

Have you considered applying to safety schools? If you really want to do a PhD, maybe apply to a school with a high acceptance rate.

Also, I don't know much about the TOEFL exam, but everything else looks pretty good so I'm not sure why you'd be rejected 14 times... maybe your letters of recommendation or your personal statement aren't good?

Thank You. But I really worked on my SOP and LOR. 1 LOR was from a National Funded University where I did my Masters and the other 2 are from my Bachelors Program. TOEFL is for international candidates like those whose native language is not English. Mine is not. So for acceptance i.e. just to prove your vocabulary and usage , you must score above 95 or even 100 out of 120 to be eligible for an acceptance. Mine is 107.

[dontor]

6 hours ago, Ayub2306 said:

Thank You. But I really worked on my SOP and LOR. 1 LOR was from a National Funded University where I did my Masters and the other 2 are from my Bachelors Program. TOEFL is for international candidates like those whose native language is not English. Mine is not. So for acceptance i.e. just to prove your vocabulary and usage , you must score above 95 or even 100 out of 120 to be eligible for an acceptance. Mine is 107.

What about places in India? I see you are from there.

Also I would say don't get caught in the prestige. It is an incredible honor to just do a phd and get to contribute to society. But best of luck in whatever future direction you take your life.

[Ayub2306]

On 2/15/2019 at 8:04 PM, dontor said:

What about places in India? I see you are from there.

Also I would say don't get caught in the prestige. It is an incredible honor to just do a phd and get to contribute to society. But best of luck in whatever future direction you take your life.

Yes, I am Indian. Doing PhD here means slogging for 8-9 years. Also, just like any other human, I had a dream to do it from abroad.

[Ayub2306]

Is there anybody who has received an interview or admission call from Univ of Chicago, Univ of Virginia or Univ of Alabama, Birmingham? Please reply of you have been sent any invite. I just want to know because I haven't heard back from these yet. Any idea about these?

[dontor]

@Ayub2306 I believe UVA BME is done. Interview dates are Feb 28 and March 7 weekends.

Edited February 18, 2019 by dontor

[skyw]

Is their anyone still waiting for a result from gatech?  I am probably just waiting for rejection but a week ago the admin says the committee is stilling making decisions. 

[jtro37]

4 minutes ago, skyw said:

Is their anyone still waiting for a result from gatech?  I am probably just waiting for rejection but a week ago the admin says the committee is stilling making decisions. 

Yeah I am. Also they have like 3 different BME programs and people aren't specifying on the results page, so I'm just assuming their acceptances aren't for the program I applied for lol

[plsacceptmegradschool]

35 minutes ago, jtro37 said:

Yeah I am. Also they have like 3 different BME programs and people aren't specifying on the results page, so I'm just assuming their acceptances aren't for the program I applied for lol

 

40 minutes ago, skyw said:

Is their anyone still waiting for a result from gatech?  I am probably just waiting for rejection but a week ago the admin says the committee is stilling making decisions. 

Same boat. I hope they send something out this week. 

[sgaw10]

I've come to the point where I no longer refresh my emails all of the time because I don't expect news anymore 

[girlbui]

For those schools that gave me silent treatment and I had to pay for the application fee, I'm planning to call my credit card to settle a dispute. A graduate student told me that she did that and said that she didn't get the service she expected and got her money back. 

[offery]

Updates are being sent out to applicants as they are available. Sorry to not have more specific information

Georgia Tech reply when I emailed them last week. 

[Crazy Rich Asian]

I've just received an invite for a digital interview via RIVS with the Fu Foundation School from Columbia University. Totally caught me off-guard, as I'm currently on vacation, have nothing interview-related with me and am supposed to complete the interview by Feb 20... Anyway, gotta go with it the way it is.

Has anyone had a digital interview via RIVS.com or any other kind of interview with Columbia before and could share his/her experience with it? Help would be really appreciated!

[sgaw10]

5 minutes ago, Crazy Rich Asian said:

I've just received an invite for a digital interview via RIVS with the Fu Foundation School from Columbia University. Totally caught me off-guard, as I'm currently on vacation, have nothing interview-related with me and am supposed to complete the interview by Feb 20... Anyway, gotta go with it the way it is.

Has anyone had a digital interview via RIVS.com or any other kind of interview with Columbia before and could share his/her experience with it? Help would be really appreciated!

Congrats! I'm jealous! RIVS seems like a more professional Skype setting of sorts. I wouldn't freak too much. You got this!

[Crazy Rich Asian]

1 minute ago, sgaw10 said:

Congrats! I'm jealous! RIVS seems like a more professional Skype setting of sorts. I wouldn't freak too much. You got this!

Thanks a lot! Checked my mails for the first time today after a long day of sightseeing and of course this had to come now. Guess it's Murphy's law, huh... 

[Monkeyshavenicetails]

Offering updates to school i didnt see comments on.

Got an acceptance to dartmouth for engineering (they dont do specific sub departments but it was chem e/bioe). 

Northeastern said they will get interviews out in the next few days to select students despite the date mentioned in a previous email sent to all applicants( internal delay). Georgia tech said they are still reviewing.  Both of them provided this response today.

Edited February 20, 2019 by Monkeyshavenicetails