Bioengineering/Biomedical Engineering Applications for 2020 Admission

[nodog28]

Did anyone else get invited to WashU's visit day? Just got the email this morning. Does this mean I have a pretty good shot at getting in?

[kipling]

On 12/22/2019 at 9:47 PM, AtLeastOneAdmission said:

Hi everyone! 

Anyone here received a Cornell BME admission email? Could you share your stats and the POI initials?

Thanx!  

Received an admission email on the 21st. At the end of the email they write "PS: Please note that the admissions offers are processed on a rolling basis. Thus, other students at your school may receive notifications at a different time."

Stats:

3.8/4.0 GPA, Large public research school, top 25

3 years research experience, no publications but 2 in review

4 posters, 1 at national conference

3 very strong letters of rec from past mentors

[AtLeastOneAdmission]

2 hours ago, kipling said:

Received an admission email on the 21st. At the end of the email they write "PS: Please note that the admissions offers are processed on a rolling basis. Thus, other students at your school may receive notifications at a different time."

Stats:

3.8/4.0 GPA, Large public research school, top 25

3 years research experience, no publications but 2 in review

4 posters, 1 at national conference

3 very strong letters of rec from past mentors

Hey there! Congrats on your admissions and thank you for responding!

How early did you submit your application and would you mind revealing the initials of the professor in your SOP?

It's just Cornell is my top choice and i submitted my application quite early. kinda starting to worry if its rolling and I was rejected but not notified.

 

[LHMQ]

10 hours ago, nodog28 said:

Did anyone else get invited to wash u's visit day? Just got the email this morning. Does this mean I have a pretty good shot at getting in?

At the interview round you should have a high chance of getting in. Congrats and good luck!

[Kyle the Doctor*]

On 11/11/2019 at 1:53 PM, LHMQ said:

You have very good stats, especially with that Barry Goldwater Scholarship. I think as long as you demonstrate research focus in the SOP you should be fine. How did you make so many connections to faculties in other schools?

Thanks for the assessment, and sorry for the very late reply. A couple are through mutual connections through my PI, one is from an REU, and a lot of them are from conference networking at the Society for Neuroscience meeting this year.

Also, to update, I actually only ended up applying to:

• Duke - Neurobiology
• USC - Neuroscience
• University of Washington - Neuroscience
• University of Chicago - Computational Neuroscience
• Stanford - Neuroscience
• Princeton - Neuroscience
• UCSD - Bioengineering
• Johns Hopkins - Biomedical Engineering

I have received interview invitations from Duke and USC with no other communication, so I suspect rejections from UW, Chicago, Stanford, and Princeton. Here's hoping my admittedly scattered research will be enough to get noticed by JHU and UCSD!

[ydzhu]

Thought I'd contribute to the collective spirit of this blog. I am a nontraditional BME PhD applicant having graduated from undergrad in 2011. I used to be a medical student. Dropped out after my second year (left after passing Step 1) because of combination of illness and burnout. After working for a bit, I decided I still want to go back to school and get a graduate degree. Here I am.  

Undergrad Institution: Washington University in St. Louis, Class of 2011

Major: B.S. Biomedical Engineering
GPA in Major: ~3.6/4.00
Overall GPA: 3.74/4.00
Demographics/Background: Asian Male (Chinese)

GRE Scores:
Q: 166 (89%)
V: 159* (83%)
W: 5.0 (92%)

*Thought about retaking, was scoring higher on practice tests (but also lower at times).

LOR: 2 from my research mentors at Stanford University Department of Surgery (should be strong), 1 from a coworker at a medical device firm
Research Experience: 4 years as a lab technician at WashU molecular oncology (no pubs), 2 years at an engineering lab at Stanford Department of Surgery (2 pubs and counting), 1 summer in a research fellowship in the department of emergency medicine while I was in medical school

Publications/Abstracts/Presentations: 2 publications: one second author, one fourth author, more to come; lots and lots of accrued poster presentations

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Part of the team (and Senior Captain) that won the NCAA Division III National Championships in Men's Tennis, Dean's Summer Research Fellowship Award in Medical School, Sportsmanship's Award, Graduated Cum Laude, Biomedical Engineering honor society member (Alpha Eta Mu Beta)

Fellowships/Funding: None so far (should I be applying? Is anyone applying?); I applied to a scholarship for KTH (Sweden) for masters programs

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Worked for 1.5 years in a medical device firm in Suzhou, China (2018-2019). Worked as a tennis coach/freelance illustrator from 2016-2018. Actually applied to architecture school after leaving medical school, but decided against it. Currently working for a Cancer Software Startup and a Private Hospital in Beijing as a Medical Officer.

Research Interests: Microfluidics, Medical Imaging, Medical Computations

Institutions/Programs: Stanford, UC Berkeley, UCLA, USC, UC Davis, UC Irvine, UC San Diego (PhD bioengineering/biomedical engineering); Karolinska Institute (in Sweden) (M.S. Medical Engineering)

Comments: I really appreciate the positivity and encouragement I've been seeing in this blog. Best of luck to everyone. I have gotten any interview invites yet (as of 12/27/19). 

 

 

[ChemEBear]

Pretty bored during this holiday season so I'll upload my stats as well! DM me if you want to talk or have any specific questions.

Undergrad Institution (approx. rank/reputation in STEM):  Top 5 engineering (USA)

Major(s): Chemical Engineering, Class of 2018
Minor(s): None
GPA in Major: 3.90/4.00
Overall GPA: (also) 3.90/4.00
Demographics/Background: Male Asian
GRE Scores: Low verbal (73%), high math & writing (>90%)

LOR:

• 1 strong letter from a chemE professor (2 semesters of part-time research)
• 1 medium-strong letter from a bioE professor (2 semesters of part-time research)
• 1 super strong letter from Ph.D. scientist at my company who worked closely with me

Research Experience: 

• 2 semesters part-time in chemE lab, unrelated to desired field of research
• 2 semesters part-time in bioE lab, closely related to my desired field of research
• 1.5 years full-time as research assistant in industry, closely related to my desired field of research

Publications/Abstracts/Presentations:

• 0 publications (!)
• 2 poster presentations on campus
• 1 poster presentation at international conference

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: 

• Received >$100,000 in merit-based scholarships throughout undergrad
  • Includes scholarships from undergrad institution + scholarships & awards from companies (Chevron, Genentech, etc) and institutions like AIChE
• Received an award at graduation given to one senior for volunteerism and campus involvement
• Dean's List numerous times
• Honor Societies (TBP, BioEHS, etc)

Fellowships/Funding:

• Applied to NSF GRFP (pending)
• Applied to P. D. Soros (pending)

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: 

• Been working 1.5 years thus far at a company well-known in academia in my desired field of research. I have been told by co-workers / professors / graduate students that the company name and my experience there will boost my chances for Ph.D. programs.
• Had two summer R&D intern positions in industries unrelated to my desired field of research. I didn't write about them in my SOPs; they are only detailed in my CV.
• Extensive undergrad club activities and leadership positions in teaching, mentorship, volunteer/outreach, campus sustainability projects

Other Miscellaneous Accomplishments:

• Nope!

Anything else in your application that might matter (faculty connections, etc.):

• Like mentioned above, my full-time research experience at my company is likely to boost my chances (and based on where I've heard back so far, I am convinced myself.)

Research Interests:

• Synthetic biology, protein engineering, protein therapeutics

Institutions/Programs: 10 chemE Ph.D. programs, 2 bioE Ph.D. programs

BioE Ph.D. programs: UCB-UCSF, UWashington (Seattle, WA)

I'll be updating my results below in my signature, so check below if you're reading this at a later date and you're curious what my results were. If you're on mobile, signatures may be omitted, so request "Desktop View" to see my signature.

Comments:

• My DM's are open

Edited December 31, 2019 by ChemEBear

[2020bioE]

MIT's interviews went out for biological engineering..maybe? Did anyone get one?

[computationaldd]

3 minutes ago, 2020bioE said:

MIT's interviews went out for biological engineering..maybe? Did anyone get one?

I'm still waiting...I'm hoping there will be some updates today.

[Itai]

10 minutes ago, 2020bioE said:

MIT's interviews went out for biological engineering..maybe? Did anyone get one?

I got one several hours ago, but maybe they have more than one interview round

Edited January 6, 2020 by Itai

[2020bioE]

1 minute ago, Itai said:

I got one several hours ago, but maybe they have more than one interview round

Oh damn. Congrats! Do you care to share a short profile about yourself?

[computationaldd]

1 minute ago, Itai said:

I got one several hours ago, but maybe they have more than one interview round

Congrats! Curious, was it a mass email or personalized? 

[Itai]

1 minute ago, 2020bioE said:

Oh damn. Congrats! Do you care to share a short profile about yourself?

First of all, Thank you. Second, I am sorry, but I prefer not to give any personal  information.

1 minute ago, computationaldd said:

Congrats! Curious, was it a mass email or personalized? 

It was personalized.

[LHMQ]

If the trend is the same this year, interview emails will be spread out over January. Still not holding my breath though.

[Red_Ranger]

Also received an interview for MIT BE yesterday. Only one interview weekend. I think they will continue to send them throughout january. Not sure though. 

About a week ago before the official notifications yesterday, I received an email from a professor notifying me. 

Edited January 7, 2020 by Red_Ranger

[NegativeCation]

On 1/7/2020 at 11:08 AM, Red_Ranger said:

Also received an interview for MIT BE yesterday. Only one interview weekend. I think they will continue to send them throughout january. Not sure though. 

About a week ago before the official notifications yesterday, I received an email from a professor notifying me. 

Congrats! Do you mind sharing when is the interview weekend for BE?

[Red_Ranger]

38 minutes ago, NegativeCation said:

Congrats! Do you mind sharing when is the interview weekend for BE?

Thanks! Interview weekend is March 6-7. 

[glvcken]

I am so sad. No interviews for bioengineering...I got so low GRE (312) and so low gpa(3.40)...I wanna cry

[ydzhu]

2 hours ago, glvcken said:

I am so sad. No interviews for bioengineering...I got so low GRE (312) and so low gpa(3.40)...I wanna cry

Keep your head up! It’s still early (I think). I have a feeling this is the calm before the storm (i.e. before this blog explodes). 

[Burr17]

Has anyone heard from UC Berkeley/UCSF joint BE program? 

[AnnieM]

23 minutes ago, Burr17 said:

Has anyone heard from UC Berkeley/UCSF joint BE program? 

I applied and I haven't heard from this program yet.

[nodog28]

From scavenging the grad admissions results for the past three years, it appears as if UC Berkeley is always around January 11th, U. of Washington is always around January 19th, and UPenn is always around January 24th. I'm sure some of you guys have looked at past years results as well but figured I start getting everyones hopes up that we're going to start hearing back soon  

[Lbhm]

Anyone got an interview from UCSD yet? Just seeing rejections on the results page

[Burr17]

UCSF/UC Berkeley always seemed to release interviews on a Friday (based on past results).So if nobody heard today, I’m guessing it will be next Friday! 

[WanderingNomad]

Hope everyone had a happy holiday! Probably a little late to do one of these, but I'm jumping into the in-group before this place inevitably blows up in a month or two haha. 

Undergrad Institution (approx. rank/reputation in STEM): R2 state school, prob. ~150 overall for Engineering

Major(s): Molecular Biology and Electrical Engineering
Minor(s): Honors Program
GPA in Major: 3.91/4.00
Overall GPA: 3.94/4.00
Demographics/Background: East Asian male, American citizen

GRE Scores:
Q: 167 (90%)
V: 166 (97%)
W: 5.5 (98%)

LOR: Two research advisors, one from professor I have taken several courses with.

Research Experience: ~Two years (and counting) combined in cell biology labs at my university, one summer REU in a bioengineering lab, five months and counting in a Chemical Engineering/microfluidics lab at my university, currently working on EE senior project.

Publications/Abstracts/Presentations: 

Publications: One manuscript (second author) currently under peer review in fairly large journal (IF ~10). This had only been "submitted" at the time of most applications. 

Presentations: One poster convocation at summer REU.

Other: Contributed to the design of a poster that was presented at three other symposiums/conferences.

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: 

• Full-ride scholarship to undergraduate university
• Tau Beta Pi scholarship
• INBRE fellow
• Tau Beta Pi (Engineering Honor Society)
• Mortar Board (Senior Honor Society)
• Phi Kappa Phi (Academic Honor Society)
• Gamma Sigma Delta (Agriculture Honor Society- for some reason MOLB is in the Ag college lol)
• President's List (4.0 GPA) x4
• Dean's List (3.5-3.99 GPA) x5

Fellowships/Funding: Applied to Ford Foundation Predoctoral fellowship, will apply for Tau Beta Pi fellowship.  

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: "Research Intern" (misleading official job title) for an EE department program at home university. Built electronic modules to supplement middle/high school teachers' lesson plans, demonstrated modules to interested audiences, heavily involved in Engineering outreach. 

I don't think this mattered at all, but I hold/have held several leadership positions in various student organizations on campus (IEEE president, TBP secretary, etc.) and a LOT of volunteering & tutoring work within the community and college through these same organizations.

 

Other Miscellaneous Accomplishments: None application related, but got to LE in CS:GO three years ago ; )

Anything else in your application that might matter (faculty connections, etc.): None of the faculty I got my letters from are too well-known, and don't really have a solid connection to my chosen subfield.   

Research Interests: Pretty broad for now, but I want to specialize in computational biology and systems biology, using a combination of wet lab and programming techniques to study the regulation and dysregulation of cells, especially pertaining to disease states. 

Institutions/Programs: Biological Engineering/BME/BioE: MIT, Stanford, Johns Hopkins, UC Berkeley/UCSF, Duke, UW, UPenn, Boston University, UIUC

Comments: I really tried to highlight all of the interdisciplinary things that I've learned from this mosaic of a background, and really hope that shines through in my app. Good luck to everyone in this thread; I'll try to be here celebrating with you all in March/April!