2020 Computational Biology/Bioinformatics/Systems Biology PhD Admissions

[rcon]

Hey everyone,

I saw a 2019 post for computational biology/bioinformatics/systems biology, but nothing posted yet for the 2020 cycle. I thought I'd get it started for this year because it was nice to read through a thread from last year that was separate from the biology postings.

I'm curious to hear where everyone is applying to, and any news/tips anyone has as well. And of course staying updated once results start rolling in after the application deadlines. Good luck to everyone!

[chikiti]

Oof.. it is awfully quite here.

Hey guys, I just submitted my last for 2020 Fall application and am glad it is finally over.

I hope all of you finish strong and good luck!! we all need it

 

Here is list of schools that I applied to:

 

University of Washington 

UCSC

UCLA

UCSD

USC

Harvard

MIT

BU

UNC

NYU

NYU Sackler

Edited November 13, 2019 by chikiti

[rcon]

 

On 11/12/2019 at 10:55 PM, chikiti said:

Oof.. it is awfully quite here.

Hey guys, I just submitted my last for 2020 Fall application and am glad it is finally over.

I hope all of you finish strong and good luck!! we all need it

 

Here is list of schools that I applied to:

 

University of Washington 

UCSC

UCLA

UCSD

USC

Harvard

MIT

BU

UNC

NYU

NYU Sackler

It’s been VERY quiet here...? congrats on getting all your submissions in! I’m in the midst of getting them all set for submission right now, and entering that stress mode. 
 

My list right now is:

Harvard

WPI

UMass Med

BU

Yale

Dartmouth

UPenn

Columbia

 

I’m trying to stay in the Northeast and getting a little nervous about having a top-heavy list. Anyone else applying and hoping to be in the Northeast US?

[Walfred]

I am applying this year for Bioinformatics this year...

Can someone give me a fair evaluation. Do I have chance getting into a good program.

 

Worst international Asian male

Undergrad school: Big state (I stupidly chose wait for 3 waitlists, I thought at least 1 out of 3, and ended up like this...)

GPA:3.81

major GPA:3.95

Majors: Cell biology, biochem

Minor: Math

GRE: not taken yet, but will take soon, quant easy full score, verbal IDK, 145-150 prob

Exp:

2 years research at UCSF

couple summer research

publications:

Nth author on Nature comm
3rd author on median clinic journal
4th author on a field top journal
2nd on a paper under review for nature, quit big project
 

Working on a (I think) very cool novel deep learning pipeline independently (code is done, result seems promising to my PI, need to finalize)

Lof:

big name in the field 
ordinary senior researcher
somewhat big name prof in the biomedical filed
 

honors:

very competitive national honors for math, biology and physics in high school

Putnam experience 

skills:

python (very good, huge amount of projects on git), c/c++ (one project), R(fine, couple projects) , shell(fine, couple projects), cython (one project) and matlab (studied).

 

What is my chance ? is it possible for a Big state international Asian male be accepted in good programs ?

 

Which schools fit my level ? I am applying a lot of schools, but still not very confident...seeing a lot of very competitive people could find a decent program in the end...

 

[rcon]

Does anyone know if any schools (I’m guessing the answer is none) just straight out admit without interviews?

Also it looks like mid-Dec is when people heard back from their Dec-1 deadline places...if you don’t hear back then do you assume it’s a no??

[hsiaoyi0504]

As far as I know, CMU-Pitt joint program did that last year, but not sure if that condition is for all students or just few students. 

14 hours ago, rcon said:

Does anyone know if any schools (I’m guessing the answer is none) just straight out admit without interviews?

Also it looks like mid-Dec is when people heard back from their Dec-1 deadline places...if you don’t hear back then do you assume it’s a no??

 

[mat10d]

On 11/12/2019 at 10:55 PM, chikiti said:

Oof.. it is awfully quite here.

Hey guys, I just submitted my last for 2020 Fall application and am glad it is finally over.

I hope all of you finish strong and good luck!! we all need it

 

Here is list of schools that I applied to:

 

University of Washington 

UCSC

UCLA

UCSD

USC

Harvard

MIT

BU

UNC

NYU

NYU Sackler

Also applying to many NE schools. What departments did you select for Harvard, Columbia?

[rcon]

2 hours ago, mat10d said:

Also applying to many NE schools. What departments did you select for Harvard, Columbia?

I’m applying to Harvard’s BIG and Columbia’s biomedical informatics - what about you?

[jeanetic]

Hey all! I'm glad there's a thread for this year, the one from last year was super helpful 

I'm applying to a mix of biosciences and computational/systems bio programs, my undergrad is a CS major and microbiology & immunology minor. I applied to a lot of programs, maybe too many, but it'll all be worth it if I get even one interview right? 

Here's my list, I'll do my best to update it as I hear back for those who are curious. I've coded the life sciences programs as yellow and computational programs as orange. 

School	Program
University of Washington	Genome Sciences
University of Washington	Immunology
University of Washington	Molecular and Cellular Biology
UBC	Microbiology & Immunology
NYU	Biomedical sciences (Sackler)
NYU	Biology (GSAS)
Harvard	Immunology
Harvard	Systems, Synthetic, and Quantitative Biology
UC Berkeley	Computational Biology
Yale	Biological & Biomedical Sciences
Stanford	Biosciences-Immunology, MBIM, Systems & Chemical Biology
UChicago	Biological Sciences- Immuno + Systems
University of Michigan	Immunology
Northwestern	Integrated Biological Sciences
UCSF	Biological and Medical Informatics
Weill Cornell	Immunity & Microbial Pathogenesis
Tri-Instiutional (Cornell, Rockefeller, Sloan-Kettering)	Computational Biology
Johns Hopkins	Immunology
UPenn	Immunology
UCSD	Biomedical Sciences
MIT	Computational and Systems Biology

[chikiti]

On 11/29/2019 at 2:41 PM, mat10d said:

Also applying to many NE schools. What departments did you select for Harvard, Columbia?

I have applied to Harvard BIG!

[rcon]

23 hours ago, jeanetic said:

Hey all! I'm glad there's a thread for this year, the one from last year was super helpful 

I'm applying to a mix of biosciences and computational/systems bio programs, my undergrad is a CS major and microbiology & immunology minor. I applied to a lot of programs, maybe too many, but it'll all be worth it if I get even one interview right? 

Here's my list, I'll do my best to update it as I hear back for those who are curious. I've coded the life sciences programs as yellow and computational programs as orange. 

 

 

School	Program
University of Washington	Genome Sciences
University of Washington	Immunology
University of Washington	Molecular and Cellular Biology
UBC	Microbiology & Immunology
NYU	Biomedical sciences (Sackler)
NYU	Biology (GSAS)
Harvard	Immunology
Harvard	Systems, Synthetic, and Quantitative Biology
UC Berkeley	Computational Biology
Yale	Biological & Biomedical Sciences
Stanford	Biosciences-Immunology, MBIM, Systems & Chemical Biology
UChicago	Biological Sciences- Immuno + Systems
University of Michigan	Immunology
Northwestern	Integrated Biological Sciences
UCSF	Biological and Medical Informatics
Weill Cornell	Immunity & Microbial Pathogenesis
Tri-Instiutional (Cornell, Rockefeller, Sloan-Kettering)	Computational Biology
Johns Hopkins	Immunology
UPenn	Immunology
UCSD	Biomedical Sciences
MIT	Computational and Systems Biology

Wow, that’s extensive! My list ended up only being 9:

Brown - CCMB

BU - Bioinformatics

Columbia - biomedical informatics

Dartmouth - QBS

Harvard - BIG

UMass Med - GSBS

UPenn - GCB

WPI - BCB

Yale - CBB

I’m definitely interested in hearing everyone’s updates as invites and decisions start to roll in, I’ll try and update as well

 

[jeanetic]

Has anyone heard anything yet? Or will they probably not get back to people until next week? 

[rcon]

2 hours ago, jeanetic said:

Has anyone heard anything yet? Or will they probably not get back to people until next week? 

Nothing here yet - I thought maybe UPenn might go out today based on past years, and it either hasn’t or it’s a no for me from them 

[potoooooooo]

Hi everyone! 
Just got an invite to UCLA Bioinformatics (1/30-1/31)!!

Bioinformatics programs I'm applying to:

Harvard BIG
MIT CSB
Tri-Institutional
UCLA Bioinformatics [12/6]
UCSF Bioinformatics
JHU BME
UC Berkeley Computational Biology
Yale CBB
Princeton QCB
UCSD BISB
UChicago GGSB
UCI MCSB
Penn GCB

[Interview Notification] [Acceptance] [Waitlist] [Rejection]
(None means still waiting)

[mumblepiehoney]

potoooooooo Congrats!

What are your stats and background if you don't mind sharing?

Edited December 6, 2019 by mumblepiehoney

[jeanetic]

1 hour ago, rcon said:

Nothing here yet - I thought maybe UPenn might go out today based on past years, and it either hasn’t or it’s a no for me from them 

I didn't hear anything from UPenn either, I think Stanford might have gone out today as well (not sure) but radio silence! Aaaaahh..

[zha0rong.li]

I am also applying for PhD in bioinformatics program this year. Haven't heard anything back yet.

My school list: 

Harvard BIG

UNC

BU

University of Miami.

Background:

MS in bioinformatics from BU

BS in Applied mathematics and biology from SBU

4th author on a Nature paper

4th author on a Nature neuroscience paper

One year full time research experience in HMS

 

[chikiti]

9 hours ago, jeanetic said:

Has anyone heard anything yet? Or will they probably not get back to people until next week? 

I got an invite to UNC BBSP!

I guess UCLA (looking at potoooooooo's post) and UNC are sending invites as they are reading through applications.

[jeanetic]

11 minutes ago, chikiti said:

I got an invite to UNC BBSP!

I guess UCLA (looking at potoooooooo's post) and UNC are sending invites as they are reading through applications.

Awesome, congrats! 

[Walfred]

I just got an interview invitation from Emory...but it's not normal one, but a zoom interview for only 15 min....

Is this a good sign or a bad sign ? is this the final interview or a pre-check interview ?? 

[VirtualCell]

On 11/15/2019 at 4:43 PM, rcon said:

[...]

I’m trying to stay in the Northeast and getting a little nervous about having a top-heavy list. Anyone else applying and hoping to be in the Northeast US?

Me! I've just applied to Harvard (BBS, SSQB, BIG) and MIT (Biology, CSB, BE). My list is beyond top-heavy lol--this feels a lot less stressful than undergrad, though, since I/we can always work for a year or two and re-apply more broadly. 

Edited December 7, 2019 by VirtualCell

[yy222]

Just copy my background from other place=-=

Undergrad Institution: University of Liverpool, UK
Major(s): Mathematics,Honours degree 
Minor(s): none
GPA in Major: 3.7
Overall GPA: 3.7 (WES)

MS Yeshiva University, Economy

Overall GPA: 3.96

MS Duke University, Biostatistics

Overall GPA: 3.5

Type of Student: international, asian
GRE Scores (revised/old version):
Q: 155
V: 167
W: 3.5
B:


Research Experience: 2.5 years experience, Frist 1 year as TA and RA in Yeshiva University to do research in game theory. Then another 1.5 years in Duke with a Biostatistics faculty, have one paper preprinted (first author) and I think I will get very stong letter from him, also letter come from a famous professor (it should be a stong letter? hope so)

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: National Encouragement Award, Academic Achievement Award, Dean List


Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help:

Special Bonus Points: one1st author preprinted on BioRxiv, 3 stong referecne letter 

Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter:  low GPA in Duke

Applying to Where:

University	program
brown university	computational biology
brown university	biostats
NYU	biostats
Dartmouth	Quantitative Biomedical Sciences
university of pittsburgh	Computational Biology
PSU	biostats
Duke	CBB
Mcgill	biostats
university of miami	biostats

[pangenome]

Congrats to all who are done with applications, and good luck!

I applied to 9 programs so far: Harvard BIG, MIT EECS, MIT CSBi, Stanford BMI, Columbia BMI, Princeton QCB, Carnegie Mellon CPCB, UCSD BISB, JHU CS. I'm planning to apply to Cambridge and Brown if I don't hear back until January.

If you applied to any of these programs above, when do you think we'll hear back for interviews?

Thank you all!

[jeanetic]

6 hours ago, pangenome said:

Congrats to all who are done with applications, and good luck!

I applied to 9 programs so far: Harvard BIG, MIT EECS, MIT CSBi, Stanford BMI, Columbia BMI, Princeton QCB, Carnegie Mellon CPCB, UCSD BISB, JHU CS. I'm planning to apply to Cambridge and Brown if I don't hear back until January.

If you applied to any of these programs above, when do you think we'll hear back for interviews?

Thank you all!

Based on last year's thread: 

 

It looks like schools will start contacting people next week. I know one or two places already have but they seem to be in the minority. 

 

[dogmom2012]

I'm applying to these schools, also haven't heard anything yet. Good luck to everyone!

UNC BBSP

Duke CBB

Boston University Bioinformatics 

MIT Biology 

UCSF BMI 

UCSD BISB

UC Berkeley Computational Biology 

UC Santa Cruz PBSE 

UPenn GCB

Stanford Genetics 

UW Genome Sciences