2021 Neuroscience PhD Applicants and Admissions Results

[corticostriatal]

28 minutes ago, Just_Alice said:

About Sinai: I did not get an interview invite and I did not get a rejection either (I am an international applicant). Do you think all the invites have already been sent out? Is it possible that they will send invites to international applicants later?

International here having the same question for many other programs (e.g. Harvard, Yale, NYU...etc). Hearing ppl saying these programs have sent out invitations but barely see a international without US degree (‘I’) report on grad cafe. Welp could also be that these schools aren’t giving many chances to ppl w/o US degrees.

Edited January 8, 2021 by corticostriatal

[Smoothbrain]

9 hours ago, sirtuingirl said:

It’s possible but a number of people are reporting that they have not heard anything and no one has posted that he/she got a rejection. From what what I saw, everyone that got an interview applied to the Sackler Institute track. I didn’t see anyone post that they got an interview from the Neural Science track. That makes me think they are not done. 

I got an interview invitation from NYU on Christmas and I'm pretty sure I applied to neural science. I was a little confused because in the email they say it's neuroscience. 

[Smoothbrain]

4 hours ago, neurokenzie said:

Hello everyone! ik I've seen some stuff going out for the following schools, but I was wondering if anyone has heard directly from the programs. one of my friends is applying this cycle too and I told her I'd check on these schools.

has anyone heard from the neuro programs at OHSU, Scripps, and UCSD? interviews, rejects, or news from the schools?

I received an interview invite from OHSU on December 21st and just recently got more information about their dates and process

[Just_Alice]

23 minutes ago, corticostriatal said:

International here having the same question for many other programs (e.g. Harvard, Yale, NYU...etc). Hearing ppl saying these programs have sent out invitations but barely see a international without US degree (‘I’) report on grad cafe. Welp also could be these schools aren’t giving chances to ppl w/o US degrees.

This whole situation is a bit sad... well... too bad if it is true and international applicants are not really considered by most schools.

[OldFire Mamba]

23 minutes ago, Just_Alice said:

About Sinai: I did not get an interview invite and I did not get a rejection either (I am an international applicant). Do you think all the invites have already been sent out? Is it possible that they will send invites to international applicants later?

The Dean of Admissions at Mount Sinai told us in a webinar in the application season that all applications are pooled together and "ranked" based on everything (LOR, CV, publications, academic record, research experience, etc) and they set a cut off value based on how many interview invitations they want/can send and they didnt discriminate by country, sex, gender, background or anything. But, seeing the results page 90% of accepted students are american in most universities and institutes, so they accept more US applicants than international applicants so I dont think thats necessarily true. I have no problem in giving preference to students from their own country, but they should specify it in the admissions requirements so we know the probability of being accepted is lower, even if we have better cv than US applicants.

[sirtuingirl]

16 minutes ago, Smoothbrain said:

I got an interview invitation from NYU on Christmas and I'm pretty sure I applied to neural science. I was a little confused because in the email they say it's neuroscience. 

In that case, some that have not received an invite from NYU yet are wait listed and the rest will receive the rejection in March or April. 

[corticostriatal]

32 minutes ago, Just_Alice said:

This whole situation is a bit sad... well... too bad if it is true and international applicants are not really considered by most schools.

Yeah...my biggest fear now is that they received too much applications that they decided to only look at internationals who has a US degree in the first round. I'm currently working at a top5 school in the US as a lab RA but guess that doesn't help much.

Edited January 9, 2021 by corticostriatal

[corticostriatal]

4 minutes ago, OldFire Mamba said:

The Dean of Admissions at Mount Sinai told us in a webinar in the application season that all applications are pooled together and "ranked" based on everything (LOR, CV, publications, academic record, research experience, etc) and they set a cut off value based on how many interview invitations they want/can send and they didnt discriminate by country, sex, gender, background or anything. But, seeing the results page 90% of accepted students are american in most universities and institutes, so they accept more US applicants than international applicants so I dont think thats necessarily true. I have no problem in giving preference to students from their own country, but they should specify it in the admissions requirements so we know the probability of being accepted is lower, even if we have better cv than US applicants.

I mean what the Dean said might be true, the question is how they "rank" things. It could simply be that US degrees are ranked higher than degrees outside of the US, or LoR from a US professor is ranked higher than a LoR from other countries. It's a bummer for ppl who studied outside of the US, but totally understandable.

[Just_Alice]

This situation makes me hold onto hope that maybe international applicants are invited later than the American ones. I wonder when I should let go of this hope and accept that I am not actually going anywhere... Someone in the thread said Sinai would be sending interviews next week. Maybe these are not the only ones? However, there have been posted quite a lot of them and it looks like all are out already?

[Immunogenic]

I wouldn't give up or settle for a school you're unhappy with. This is my second year applying and I have every intention of applying again next year if I'm not chosen. 

Edited January 9, 2021 by Immunogenic

[OldFire Mamba]

10 minutes ago, Just_Alice said:

This situation makes me hold onto hope that maybe international applicants are invited later than the American ones. I wonder when I should let go of this hope and accept that I am not actually going anywhere... Someone in the thread said Sinai would be sending interviews next week. Maybe these are not the only ones? However, there have been posted quite a lot of them and it looks like all are out already?

Checking last year results, 5 people posted their invitations, 3 american and 2 unspecified all on december 13rd. 9 people posted their rejections, 4 international, 3 american and 2 unspecified all on january 6th. Now you tell me what are the odds

[Just_Alice]

Just now, OldFire Mamba said:

Checking last year results, 5 people posted their invitations, 3 american and 2 unspecified all on december 13rd. 9 people posted their rejections, 4 international, 3 american and 2 unspecified all on january 6th. Now you tell me what are the odds

Yeah, this is frustrating

[Neuromantic]

I'm sorry, just_alice. I know how badly you wanted Sinai. I really hope that international students get their invites next week. ❤️

[Sky_china]

1 hour ago, OldFire Mamba said:

The Dean of Admissions at Mount Sinai told us in a webinar in the application season that all applications are pooled together and "ranked" based on everything (LOR, CV, publications, academic record, research experience, etc) and they set a cut off value based on how many interview invitations they want/can send and they didnt discriminate by country, sex, gender, background or anything. But, seeing the results page 90% of accepted students are american in most universities and institutes, so they accept more US applicants than international applicants so I dont think thats necessarily true. I have no problem in giving preference to students from their own country, but they should specify it in the admissions requirements so we know the probability of being accepted is lower, even if we have better cv than US applicants.

Sinai is actually very international student friendly when compared and I did my research...   they say they don't discriminate by country of origin and its true but that's different from if you can get funding in the US like NIH T32.. 

[Just_Alice]

31 minutes ago, Neuromantic said:

I'm sorry, just_alice. I know how badly you wanted Sinai. I really hope that international students get their invites next week. ❤️

Thanks! Maybe I am just not that competitive as an applicant, I guess I will find a way to get over it. 

[dopamine_machine]

I wouldn't say that SInai is "for sure" done yet.  Historically, they have sent out interviews all on the same day.  However, several POIs that I reached out to have told me that they think interviews will be sent out next week potentially.

[Zoey_q]

10 hours ago, OldFire Mamba said:

Well that's the problem, I already have my bachelor in biology (3.57) and a MS in biochemical sciences (3.93) and have +5 years in research with two publications in preparation both in high impact journals and as first author, my "deficiency" is I'm an international applicant. I guess I'll just start the phd in my own country or just quit science and work as a teacher full time. Thanks and good luck in your phd

I am an American student and I have my bachelors in psych (3.69). I have 4 years of neuroscience research experience as an undergraduate, and 2+ years of neuroscience and brain imaging research experience as a full time research specialist. 1 first author publication and two other publications in prep. Have lots of involvement in the field and was invited to give talks at formal conference and other relative things. 
 

And yet i did not receive a single invitation this year.. the problem seems to be with this cycle not being an international student. Most schools waved their gre requirements because of covid and a lot more people applied. Also, most schools have limited spots for next year, so that seems to be a huge problem too. I know it’s super disappointing but please don’t give up on your dreams. There are a lot of people who apply twice and three times to get in and it’s totally fine!! 
 

Edited January 9, 2021 by Zoey_q

[d0lorezhaze]

On 1/7/2021 at 11:46 AM, neurokenzie said:

UPenn NGG is still sending invites, not sure about the others! My app to UPenn still says that it's "successfully submitted" and under review still ? reject me already pls

Where can you see the status of an application (i.e. "under review")? On applyweb? Thanks!

[NutsaN]

I'm gonna rant here if it's not a problem as I saw international applicant getting rejected.

I myself am an international undergrad applicant from a small post-soviet country and small, new (but the best) college from my country. My major GPA is 3.96 (Biology), my minor GPA (in chemistry) is 4.0, I have three different research experience - two of them at my university labs and one of them at the most prominent research center in my country. Before applying I've contacted every school I was interested in to see what the international applicant situation was, explained my situation (new college, my country's scientific situation not being great because we have trouble recovering from post soviet environment and stuff) and all of them seemed very excited about me applying and all of them said that they don't discriminate between international and local applicants. My LoRs were pretty strong (2 from the lab heads where I worked, one from the head of my faculty). My SoPs were looked at and corrected by current Ivy neuro students. Also I've published conference speech in a national scientific journal.

However, I've already received rejection from WashU and UCSF and something is telling my that NYU is not gonna accept me either. I've got interview from PennState, but I doubt whether the neuro program there is a strong one. I've also applied for 2 masters degree scholarships in Europe and waiting for their results. It's just kinda sad, how every university during the graduate fairs and stuff like that goes on and on about how they want to diversify their environment and give everyone a chance and in reality good schools accept grads from other good schools and it's a closed circle. Like how am I gonna get a LoR from a Nobel laureate if my country never had a nobel laureate or from a top field scientist if in my country the field is represented by only like 5 scientists?

Sorry for the long comment, my romantic Hollywood movie-watching self really thought she had a chance at the grown ups table.

[NutsaN]

At least UPenn was honest and they said: hey you know what you can apply of course but we're accepting only very small number of international applicants this year so don't get your hopes up if you'll apply

[d0lorezhaze]

1 hour ago, NutsaN said:

I've got interview from PennState

Sorry for the long comment, my romantic Hollywood movie-watching self really thought she had a chance at the grown ups table.

Congratulations on the PennState interview!!! That's amazing news ?

[SalamNeuro]

Anyone knows if Stanford is still sending invitations???

[NutsaN]

15 minutes ago, d0lorezhaze said:

Congratulations on the PennState interview!!! That's amazing news ?

Thank you so much! I'm getting doubts though, there are few professors who are doing the research that I'm interested in but I'm not sure about the program itself. I've seen very few people applying to this program and I wonder is it because that this is a public, non ivy school or is there something else ? I'm not trying to be ungrateful I swear, it's just very hard to figure out from the other side of the ocean ?

[neurokenzie]

4 hours ago, d0lorezhaze said:

Where can you see the status of an application (i.e. "under review")? On applyweb? Thanks!

Yeah! click view checklist and it's under application status. mine says "ready for review"

[Neuromantic]

This may be controversial: I don't think that it's worth investing your heart and soul into the Ivies or the UC's. For domestic & international students alike, it's a game of 3D chess to determine who they call to interview. More often than not, it's domestic students with connections and/or legacy. I feel for international students because they are going through rings of fire due to our current administration and the lack of available spots in the Ph.D pipeline throughout the U.S. Going to lesser known and/or top 50 programs, doing a killer job, then kicking ass in your postdoc may be the most secure route for now. I know that this is a path that non-traditional domestic students consider since we're also in a difficult position here when competing against your stereotypical "strong" applicants. Don't lose the faith and keep pushing for your dreams. It's going to happen one way or another. ❤️