International students PhD admissions

[M246]

Hi,

I have applied for admission to biomedical sciences graduate programs (PhD) and was wondering if international students are notified about interviews in the same cycle as domestic students? Or do schools send out interview invites for domestic students first.

Thanks!

[flippase]

5 hours ago, M246 said:

Hi,

I have applied for admission to biomedical sciences graduate programs (PhD) and was wondering if international students are notified about interviews in the same cycle as domestic students? Or do schools send out interview invites for domestic students first.

Thanks!

Hi M246!

I am also an international applicant and wondering the same thing... I only received one interview invite and nothing else (not even rejections) and I did notice on the results page that in previous years many schools sent out interview invites to domestic students before they sent them to international applicants...

If you don't mind sharing, have you heard back from any of your schools yet? 

[M246]

2 hours ago, flippase said:

Hi M246!

I am also an international applicant and wondering the same thing... I only received one interview invite and nothing else (not even rejections) and I did notice on the results page that in previous years many schools sent out interview invites to domestic students before they sent them to international applicants...

If you don't mind sharing, have you heard back from any of your schools yet? 

Hi flippase,

Thanks for replying! good to know that someone else is wondering the same. Out of the 11 schools I have applied to, I have gotten an interview from the mayo clinic. No rejections or interviews from the rest..

[flippase]

On 12/22/2019 at 2:40 AM, M246 said:

Hi flippase,

Thanks for replying! good to know that someone else is wondering the same. Out of the 11 schools I have applied to, I have gotten an interview from the mayo clinic. No rejections or interviews from the rest..

Nice! The only interview invite I received so far is from Notre Dame. Slowly losing hope for the other programs ? and slowly breaking the refresh button in my inbox

[M246]

1 hour ago, flippase said:

Nice! The only interview invite I received so far is from Notre Dame. Slowly losing hope for the other programs ? and slowly breaking the refresh button in my inbox

One is better than none!  There may still be hope until beginning of January. Hang in there!

Edited December 23, 2019 by M246

[DRMF]

If you're currently located in the US and presumably interested in an in-person interview, (to my knowledge and from my personal experience) you should receive interview invites the same time/way domestic students do (obv if the program sends different batches, you'd never know which one yours would be in).

If you're outside the US and expecting Skype interviews, the timeline might vary quite a bit (no personal experience there). I imagine some may do these earlier b/c the logistics is easier and can be scheduled anytime, while others do those later b/c they're waiting to see a financial report in order to figure out how many international students they can afford next year.

You shouldn't expect to get rejections from most schools at this point; those typically come in Feb/March after schools send out offers to those who interviewed.

[flippase]

18 hours ago, DRMF said:

If you're currently located in the US and presumably interested in an in-person interview, (to my knowledge and from my personal experience) you should receive interview invites the same time/way domestic students do (obv if the program sends different batches, you'd never know which one yours would be in).

If you're outside the US and expecting Skype interviews, the timeline might vary quite a bit (no personal experience there). I imagine some may do these earlier b/c the logistics is easier and can be scheduled anytime, while others do those later b/c they're waiting to see a financial report in order to figure out how many international students they can afford next year.

You shouldn't expect to get rejections from most schools at this point; those typically come in Feb/March after schools send out offers to those who interviewed.

Thank you for your advice!

Actually a lot of programs started sending out rejections already (according to the results page at least). The timeline difference with international students has more to do with your second point, not with scheduling interviews. Programs usually have only a few sport reserved for non-US students while at the same time have comparable numbers of international and domestic applicants. This means that the review process for international students might take more time (many qualified applicants only several spots)... 

That does not mean that I'm not hearing from my programs for this reason. They could have very well rejected me and are waiting until later to send out notifications like you said. 

[DRMF]

23 hours ago, flippase said:

Thank you for your advice!

Actually a lot of programs started sending out rejections already (according to the results page at least). The timeline difference with international students has more to do with your second point, not with scheduling interviews. Programs usually have only a few sport reserved for non-US students while at the same time have comparable numbers of international and domestic applicants. This means that the review process for international students might take more time (many qualified applicants only several spots)... 

That does not mean that I'm not hearing from my programs for this reason. They could have very well rejected me and are waiting until later to send out notifications like you said. 

You're probably right about Skype interviews for international students being later in general. Now that I think about it, the "early interviews" I had in mind were mostly initiated by applicants contacting PIs directly and asking to talk over Skype with them (i.e. not officially organized by the program/adcom).

I just looked through my emails and realized almost all the rejects I got were sent to me in mid Jan - early Feb. It probably felt like later to me b/c I already had offers at that point and was in a "I'm done! I don't care!" mental state lol. There are a few schools that never sent me any communication about decisions, including UCLA, Columbia, and (my home school) UChicago, all Immunology programs. Literally nothing at all after 12/1, according to my email search. Judging from past TGC posts, this type of ghosting behavior isn't uncommon, so sadly you'll probably have to be prepared for it.

Congratulations and good luck with the Notre Dame interview!