Applied to Spring 2019 BME Ph.D ...should I consider this a positive sign?

[Guest ketodietman]

Hi y'all,

I am a foreign student who's currently studying in a decent US state college and have recently applied to  BME Ph.D program at a grad school in NJ. I am strongly interested in 

one of the professors there, and a lot of professors in my school told me that it's very strong engineering school. I have 167Q/161V/4.0AWA, 3.634 GPA in chemical engineering with double minors in math and Spanish, 3 years of undergrad researches and some on-campus work experience as a student assistant.

Couple days after I applied, the professor - let's call him Prof. K - and I had a 30 min+ phone call and discussed about his research interests and my reasons to go to grad school, which was to 

learn more professional knowledge about engineering in medicine and doing "my own things" to help medicine progress in long term. We ended phone call in a very positive note, and from what I felt,

he seemed to like me and told me that "he hoped to talk to me soon again." 

JUST yesterday, one of my recommender(let's call him Prof. W) forwarded me an email that Prof. K had sent him, which was on the line of "hey I am very excited about this kid's application but have some few question so I want to talk to you." Prof W asked me what selling points I wanted to emphasize, and I told him to talk about how great I am at adapting at different situation, how I worked hard to maintain good academic credential despite financial and status struggle, etc. And today, Prof. K emailed and asked me if I would be okay with waiting 1-2 weeks to get a decision from admission committee, which I said yes. 

I am super nervous right now because I really want to go to grad school, and if I don't get in anywhere(i got 3 rejections so far), I will have to go back to Korea and waste 1.5 years in military, which will make it very hard for me to find a job due to an insane job competition. It looks like that Prof. K really likes me and wants to accept me, and from what I heard, it is ultimately up to professors to decide whether to accept me or not, but I know that anything can happen. 

I am sorry for rambling...I have a migraine, and I am trying so hard to not roll on the floor and scream in pain. 

[sgaw10]

im not too familiar with spring admissions timelines, but these interactions all sound very positive and that professor k wants to check with professor w that you are who you say you are. i would be excited in your position. but nothing is official, so no relief until you get that acceptance. hope it works out for you!

[StHoly]

It all sounds to me they are positive signs. Professor K took the initiatives to call up your prof and ask questions about you, which means he's definitely interested in taking you on! 

All the best to you and I hope you get in!