2020 Applicant Profiles and Admissions Results

[REGGAE]

I am an international applicant, I would like to know if anyone has heard from Tufts.

[appcs2020]

4 hours ago, Minhao said:

Anyone applying to UPenn Biology? Have they sent out all or start to send interviews?

applied to UPenn Biology too, haven't heard anything yet. I'm an international applicant tho, don't know if international applicants would be viewed later than domestic.

[Minhao]

1 minute ago, appwccs said:

applied to UPenn Biology too, haven't heard anything yet. I'm an international applicant tho, don't know if international applicants would be viewed later than domestic.

I just emailed  the POI that I contacted before and she told me the interview email will be sent in a day or two, so wish both of us good luck!!!

[appcs2020]

5 minutes ago, Minhao said:

I just emailed  the POI that I contacted before and she told me the interview email will be sent in a day or two, so wish both of us good luck!!!

Thanks! Fingers crossed, good luck to you too!

[SeaHolly]

On 12/22/2019 at 12:56 PM, SeaHolly said:

Applying to Where:

1. Scripps Research Institute - Chemical and Biological Sciences
2. University of Washington - Biology/Astrobiology
3. Oregon State University - Botany and Plant Pathology
4. University of California, San Diego - Chemistry & Biochemistry, Biological Sciences
5. San Diego State University - Cellular and Molecular Biology
6. University of California, Riverside - Botany and Plant Science
7. Northwestern University - Plant Biology and Conservation
8. University of Illinois at Chicago - Biochemistry & Molecular Genetics

Rejected from University of Washington.

Waitlisted with Northwestern!

[mitochondria_1]

On 1/14/2020 at 12:29 AM, REGGAE said:

I am an international applicant, I would like to know if anyone has heard from Tufts.

I'm not an international. But, I haven't heard from Tufts either. They may send invites next week or at the end of this week.

Edited January 15, 2020 by mitochondria_1

[Samhorst15]

On 1/10/2020 at 11:32 PM, Su08 said:

Did you hear back from Boston PiBS ?  Have you emailed them ? 

I have applied to Boston PiBS. But I am an international student so i am not sure when they send out the interviews. Do they send in waves (like first domestic and then international) or do they send it out together?  Does anyone here knows something about it ? 

I emailed BU PiBS and they informed me that there are still interviews that will be sent out. Good luck!

[TheDefeater]

Just got MIT Rejection

[mitochondria_1]

On 1/14/2020 at 12:29 AM, REGGAE said:

I am an international applicant, I would like to know if anyone has heard from Tufts.

Tufts just sent their interview invite. I hope you hear back good news.

[Su08]

4 hours ago, Samhorst15 said:

I emailed BU PiBS and they informed me that there are still interviews that will be sent out. Good luck!

Hey that’s good news. Thanks for the update. Good luck to you too !!

[blondebiophysicist]

Question - has anyone heard from Georgetown's Tumor Biology program? I know they typically send out interview invites late.

[pipettingerror]

Has anyone heard from Michigan MCDB? Internationals in particular but if domestic students know the dates when they are interviewing please let us know. 

[zigzzz]

is this year particularly slow? or I am screwed.... ☹️

[liamhohoho]

1 hour ago, zigzzz said:

is this year particularly slow? or I am screwed.... ☹️

This year is somewhat slower than before due to the large size of the applicants pool. Even most of the programs have sent out all the invites, a few programs are still reviewing the application.

[Amirreza91]

On 1/26/2020 at 3:22 AM, zigzzz said:

is this year particularly slow? or I am screwed.... ☹️

I sent several emails to the programs which I haven't seen any signs of them in the the gradcafe result pages. All of them told me that they have not send any invitation yet!! 

Edited January 27, 2020 by Amirreza91

[ssrour98]

Has anyone heard back yet from Rowan GSBS? 

[MyconidMan]

Undergrad Institution: Local liberal arts college
Major: Biology
Minor: Education
GPA in Major: 3.8
Overall GPA: 3.76
Type of Student: Domestic, male, white

GRE Scores (revised/old version):
Q:155 68th
V:155 56th
W:5.5 98th

Research Experience: 2.5+ year bioinformatics project with honors thesis, 3 different 1 semester research projects in plant ecology, one summer field research with botany/entomology focus, one with genetics & lab/greenhouse experience, another focused on writing a literature review in plant pathology. 

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Highest honors in major for honors thesis, magna cum laude, tri-beta biological honors society, honorable mention/3rd place for poster presentation at school research symposium. 6 semesters of dean's list, one of honorable mention.

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Undergrad TA/tutor for 1 year, Biology teacher and research mentor at a nature center.

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help: Prior service military (I guess this helps???). Working on pub for bioinformatics research. Former president of campus American Chemical Society group. 

Special Bonus Points: Emailed PIs before applying and got a pretty good responses. Guess that helps?

Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter: Positions I'm applying to are funded by a TA position, and I have some good teaching experience. 

Applying to Where:

Washington State University (WSU) - Biology -  PhD
University of Wisconsin-La Crosse (UWLAX) - Biology - Master's

I would be ecstatic if I got accepted into either program. I haven't seen any posts about biology for either school, which leaves me in the dark. I had a prof at VT tell me I "wouldn't be a strong PhD candidate for his lab", so that's been nagging in the back of my head for a while. Anyone think I have a chance at either program? 

[computationaldd]

Undergrad Institution: UC Santa Barbara
Major(s): Chemistry and Biochemistry            Minor(s):
GPA in Major: 3.8                                                Overall GPA: 3.8
Type of Student: Domestic, female, minority (LGBTQ+ and disabled)

GRE Scores:
Q: 163    V: 161    W: 4.5     B: N/A

Research Experience: (At your school or elsewhere? What field? How much time? Any publications (Mth author out of N?) or conference talks etc...)

1. 3 yrs Computational Chemistry Research Group (ongoing): Independent project with a notoriously "difficult" professor, 1st author pub in progress, 5+ poster presentations, 3+ associated fellowships/grants
2. Summer 2019 Neuroscience Research Group: Worked with a respected prof in Boston, 2+ poster presentations, 2+ poster presentations, 1 associated grant, potentially a 4th author pub someday LOL
3. 0.5 yrs Scientific Programming work for Ecology Centre on campus

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: (Within your school or outside?)

• Summer Research Programs 2018 (McNair @ UCSB), 2019 (Tufts) 
• Summer Research Programs 2019 (3 @ UCSB, declined due to other offer)
• Summer Research Fellowship 2019 (UCSB)
• GRE Scholarship & Course 2019 (McNair)
• Travel Award to ABRCMS 2019
• Research Internship Grant 2019 (UCSB)
• Pre-App Graduate Visitation Programs (PSU, Purdue, RPI, GaTech)

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: (Such as tutor, TA, SPS officer etc...)

• Board Member of UCSB ASBMB Chapter
• 4 yrs part-time exam proctor and course notetaker
• 2 yrs part-time graduate research storeroom assistant (shipping and distributing chemicals, glassware, etc.)
• Developed high school programming for scientific outreach program
• Mentoring students in STEM via 3+ orgs

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help:

• Well-maintained personal website, GitHub, etc.

Special Bonus Points: (Such as connections, grad classes, famous recommenders, female or minority status etc...)

• Minority in STEM, participated in lots of programs/mentoring positions that focused on diversity in STEM
• Took way more physics classes than I needed 

Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter:

• Lots of programming experience, but no formal coursework 

Results:

• UCB Chemistry                                                      - Accepted January 17th, 2020
• UCSF Chemical Biology                                      - Rejected    December 24th, 2020 (**My PI never submitted his LOR because he thought UCSF was ONLY A MED SCHOOL smh)
• Scripps Chemical Biology                                   - Interview   December 20th, 2020
• UW Seattle Medicinal Chemistry                       - Interview   January 15th, 2020
• Purdue Biomedical Engineering                         - Accepted January 15th, 2020
• Penn State Bioengineering                                  - Accepted January 15th, 2020
• MIT Computational & Biomedical Sciences    - Rejected   January 24th, 2020
• MIT Bioengineering                                              - Rejected   Febuary 1st, 2020
• UCSD Biomedical Sciences                                 - GHOSTED LMAO  ?

 

[cis-stem error]

So I'm jumping on the worry wagon since I haven't heard back from four of my schools yet either.

In particular, anyone happen to know if the University of Kansas' EEB or the University of Montana's OBBE programs have sent anything out yet?

Many thanks either way!

 

Edit: Just in case they haven't been said yet, I've heard back from University of Washington, University of Oregon, University of Minnesota, and University of Missouri.

Edited February 4, 2020 by cis-stem error

[cis-stem error]

On 1/27/2020 at 12:31 AM, Amirreza91 said:

I sent several emails to the programs which I haven't seen any signs of them in the the gradcafe result pages. All of them told me that they have not send any invitation yet!! 

Any chance you could share with us which programs you've contacted? It might provide some ease of mind. Thanks either way!

[anxiousafinternational]

Hi guys, I attended an Interview Weekend at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) from Jan 15 - Jan 19. I was told they would start sending out offers in Feb which makes sense since they have another Interview Weekend this week from Feb 4 - Feb 9. However, I saw someone posted an acceptance on Jan 24 on results page a week after the 1st interview weekend. It's a relatively small programme so no more results have shown up since. Do you think I should start panicking now since I haven't received anything and a rejection is probably coming next week? Or maybe just the super exceptional candidates were told after the first weekend and they're just waiting to see how this weekend goes to send further acceptances/decisions? Anyone else heard/know something? Aghhhh the wait is dreadful and this programme is def my top choice ?

[anxiousinternational]

You are probably being waitlisted. I like your profile name lol.

[anxiousafinternational]

34 minutes ago, anxiousinternational said:

You are probably being waitlisted. I like your profile name lol.

yea i figured, just hard to accept the truth ?looool defo subconsciously got inspired by you ?

[LazarusRises]

In a desperate attempt to make the time go by faster, here's my profile. Open to any and all comments, critiques, glowing adulations, teardowns and straight insults. 

Undergrad Institution: UC Berkeley
Major(s): Environmental Policy
GPA in Major: 3.8ish?
Overall GPA:  3.71
Type of Student: Domestic, male

GRE Scores (new version)
Q: 160, 74%  
V: 168, 98%
W: 6.0, 99%

Research Experience: Senior thesis, policy research comparing US and Chinese environmental governance

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: 2 semesters Honors, 1 semester Dean's Honors, High Honors for Research on my senior thesis

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Worked for a conservation nonprofit my senior year, AmeriCorps climate fellowship with the City of Berkeley after college, hired by the City of Berkeley after that, currently working in utility-scale solar development

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help: Walked the Camino de Santiago, 20 miles a day for a month; Fulbright India semifinalist in the Energy category

Special Bonus Points: Nobel laureate recommender, among the authors of the IPCC

Applying to Where: Duke Nicholas School MEM (Environmental Management, not Engineering); Columbia SIPA MPA-DP; UC Berkeley MDP

Edited February 4, 2020 by LazarusRises

[Amirreza91]

On 2/4/2020 at 9:08 AM, cis-stem error said:

Any chance you could share with us which programs you've contacted? It might provide some ease of mind. Thanks either way!

If you're a domestic applicant, you are probably being waitlisted. I've sent emails to:

University of South Dakota

University of South Florida

Florida State University

Ohio State University

Rutgers University

University of Virginia

University of Louisville

University of Kentucky

P.S.  I'm an international applicant in Biomedical or biomolecular fields