Bioengineering/Biomedical Engineering Applications for 2020 Admission

[DreamOfferPlssssss]

On 1/30/2020 at 8:43 PM, AlwaysPPE said:

Penn BE has what's called the "Graduate Group" which consists of all professors a BE admit can join the lab of, even if their primary appointment is outside BE. As long as that PI is on that list, I can't imagine they wouldn't be aware of admission procedures.

finally got my invitation! my POI helps a lot...

[Bernt]

I received an interview with University of Washington BE but haven't received an official acceptance or rejection from the admissions office. A bunch of people have posted their acceptances/rejections from the program but I haven't heard anything. Is anyone else in the same/a similar situation? Is it worth reaching out to admissions/my POI or should I wait it out and assume I'm waitlisted?

Edited February 5, 2020 by Bernt

[AlwaysPPE]

Congrats to the person who heard back from Harvard!

Could you tell us any more details?

[dkjfhcnvm]

If we haven't been contacted by any POI from Harvard is it likely a rejection? Does anyone know?

 

[BioE2020!]

One of my interviewers told me I should hear back within 2 weeks of my Stanford Zoom interview. It has been 2 weeks and I haven’t heard anything at all, so I think I was told bad information. Starting to get impatient! Does anyone know when we should actually hear back?

[BioE2020!]

On 2/5/2020 at 2:40 PM, Bernt said:

I received an interview with University of Washington BE but haven't received an official acceptance or rejection from the admissions office. A bunch of people have posted their acceptances/rejections from the program but I haven't heard anything. Is anyone else in the same/a similar situation? Is it worth reaching out to admissions/my POI or should I wait it out and assume I'm waitlisted?

Hey I am in the same situation for UW. I am assuming waitlist. Or they may be waiting to see if there are some people who decline the offer before officially waitlisting us? It seems strange to not give us answers because so many people heard back already. Anyways, I got a very generic response that they are still making decisions when I emailed admissions. Since I already have a better offer, I didn’t feel inclined to email POI. But if you like UW a lot, I would recommend emailing the POI, as to avoid the generic email response from admissions.

[Anik_91]

Any updates on the UNC BME program? Someone has just posted an 'interview invite' on the results page. I wonder if that person is present on this forum and would provide more info (e.g. POI).

[AtLeastOneAdmission]

Hi! Did anyone here appy to UIUC BE? Any updates on your status?

Edited February 7, 2020 by AtLeastOneAdmission

[2020bioE]

8 hours ago, AtLeastOneAdmission said:

Hi! Did anyone here appy to UIUC BE? Any updates on your status?

Hi I’m an undergrad at UIUC. I got the visit day interview a few days ago and it seemed like a mass mail. The admissions process this year seemed extremely convoluted according to my advisor and they extended significantly fewer invites

[Bernt]

I had the chance to meet with an MIT BE professor during an interview with a different department. Apparently they invited 42 people for interviews this year and expect to admit 22-26 students. Good luck to everyone else I'll be seeing at the interviews!

[Red_Ranger]

@Bernt I suspect they will be giving offers to 35ish people (or nearly everyone) then to get a matriculation in that range. See you in March! 

[2020futureBME]

Hi all! I've have a couple BME interviews coming up but other than the schools that have sent me invitations, I have not heard anything from the other places I have applied. I assumed that meant rejections, however I checked the "results" page and saw that other people have already gotten rejection emails from a couple of those same schools. My question is, if someone else has gotten a rejection but I have not, is that a sign of a potential late interview invite/waitlist, or does it just mean they haven't gotten around to sending everyone a rejection yet? 

[ydzhu]

6 minutes ago, 2020futureBME said:

Hi all! I've have a couple BME interviews coming up but other than the schools that have sent me invitations, I have not heard anything from the other places I have applied. I assumed that meant rejections, however I checked the "results" page and saw that other people have already gotten rejection emails from a couple of those same schools. My question is, if someone else has gotten a rejection but I have not, is that a sign of a potential late interview invite/waitlist, or does it just mean they haven't gotten around to sending everyone a rejection yet? 

For what it's worth, I had a case where I didn't know I was rejected because the e-mail landed in my junk folder. Otherwise, I would stick with the Stanford adage that "no news is not necessarily bad news."

[2020futureBME]

1 hour ago, ydzhu said:

For what it's worth, I had a case where I didn't know I was rejected because the e-mail landed in my junk folder. Otherwise, I would stick with the Stanford adage that "no news is not necessarily bad news."

Thanks! Just checked my spam folder and found nothing there either so I'll keep my fingers crossed! 

[WhatTheHek293]

I see Stanford sent out acceptances. Is anyone else who had an interview, still waiting on a decision ? I was interviewed but have yet to hear back, so I am assuming it is a rejection at this point. 

[BioE2020_88]

1 hour ago, WhatTheHek293 said:

I see Stanford sent out acceptances. Is anyone else who had an interview, still waiting on a decision ? I was interviewed but have yet to hear back, so I am assuming it is a rejection at this point. 

I also interviewed with Stanford and have not heard back yet. I saw in the past that the acceptances came out over two days so you never know, but yeah, probably a waitlist or rejection. 

[bimblebee]

So given the recent Stanford acceptances, does no interview yet indicate 100% that I am rejected?

[Tuazeee]

On 2/6/2020 at 10:51 PM, Anik_91 said:

Any updates on the UNC BME program? Someone has just posted an 'interview invite' on the results page. I wonder if that person is present on this forum and would provide more info (e.g. POI).

The interviews are next week. I would suggest you email the grad program coordinator if you have any questions.

[Anik_91]

43 minutes ago, Tuazeee said:

The interviews are next week. I would suggest you email the grad program coordinator if you have any questions.

Thanks for a reply! Is that in-person on campus interview for everyone? I did email the coordinator and the reply was that very few acceptances were sent out and we gotta wait patiently for a decision. 

[WhatTheHek293]

2 hours ago, Baarbod said:

So given the recent Stanford acceptances, does no interview yet indicate 100% that I am rejected?

As far as I know they are not holding more interviews. You aren't rejected until you get the official email, so there is always a sliver of hope!

[AlwaysPPE]

2 hours ago, WhatTheHek293 said:

As far as I know they are not holding more interviews. You aren't rejected until you get the official email, so there is always a sliver of hope!

 

5 hours ago, Baarbod said:

So given the recent Stanford acceptances, does no interview yet indicate 100% that I am rejected?

I am in the same boat, and I'm just going with a working assumption that I'm rejected. A program like Stanford's would presumably know how many people to interview so they can always pick from that pool, and avoid the risk of an un-interviewed acceptance.

Having said that, you do hear stories of miracle acceptances from people in March w/o an interview. I just find it useful to go with the aforementioned working assumption.

[Cece333]

On 2/5/2020 at 11:48 AM, vjysd said:

Hey! As an international student myself, who went through the admissions last year and again this year, I can provide you the inside story. Last year I applied to 3 bioE programs and got interview at UPenn and JHU (I did my masters here) & rejected at UCB-UCSF. I went through interviews at both places and even though I was well qualified on paper for Neuroengineering training grants (NIH T**), I couldn't get admitted due to my international status. My only option was to get funded as a Research Assistant and join a lab from day 1. Unfortunately, Professors are hesitant to fund students directly and would rather have them rotate on a training grant/federal fellowships before funding them as RAs. It's a very tough situation to be in. Other engineering programs like EE/CS has departmental fellowships and TA opportunities to fund international students.

This year, I got an admitted to BU's BME program which has departmental fellowships irrespective of your citizenship status. I have an interview with UPenn again, which is dependent on getting an RAship. I'm still waiting to hear back from other schools. I wish I had better news, but it sucks to be international in NIH/NSF funded programs (BioE, Neuro etc.). I wish you good luck and hope this answer helps.

Actually, JHU also offers fellowships, not just RA positions. This explains the high percentage of international PhD students they have!

[vjysd]

14 minutes ago, Cece333 said:

Actually, JHU also offers fellowships, not just RA positions. This explains the high percentage of international PhD students they have!

I'm not sure if things have changed from last year, but during the 2019-2020 application season, JHU BME didn't have fellowship for international students. When I interviewed, I was told by multiple faculty that the only way to get into the program as international student is RAship (join a lab). Only US citizens are eligible for fellowships which are funded using federal grants. 

[Cece333]

27 minutes ago, vjysd said:

I'm not sure if things have changed from last year, but during the 2019-2020 application season, JHU BME didn't have fellowship for international students. When I interviewed, I was told by multiple faculty that the only way to get into the program as international student is RAship (join a lab). Only US citizens are eligible for fellowships which are funded using federal grants. 

Huh, that's interesting -- they didn't mention that in the website they set up for the interview. 

[Itai]

30 minutes ago, vjysd said:

I'm not sure if things have changed from last year, but during the 2019-2020 application season, JHU BME didn't have fellowship for international students. When I interviewed, I was told by multiple faculty that the only way to get into the program as international student is RAship (join a lab). Only US citizens are eligible for fellowships which are funded using federal grants. 

Well. I am an international student, and I got accepted to JHU ( Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering).The first year is fully funded although I am not assigned to a specfic lab. 

Edited February 11, 2020 by Itai