2021 Neuroscience PhD Applicants and Admissions Results

[VictorZ]

International applicant with a US degree here. Heard nothing from Brandeis yet.

[willilandsomewhere]

38 minutes ago, lnrnlds said:

Did anybody who is an international applicant with or without a US degree, get an interview yet? I am trying to figure out if the interviews are sent for domestic and international applicants at the same time.

Im an international with a UC degree. Heard nothing from Brandeis yet:(((

[HoplessNeuroRomantic]

I also got asked to interview with Brandeis via email this morning!

Very excited, trying to remain cautiously optimistic. Hoping this means that they're very interested in me. I was not expecting to hear anything back this early! It seems super soon.

[ManifoldsAreMadeUp]

5 hours ago, lowestprime said:

I have heard as high as 90%. I would guess the average is 80-85%.

https://www.reddit.com/r/StatementOfPurpose/comments/9k40n9/sop_tips_thread/e72uxqo

I would definitely caution against this! It highly varies by school. I know some where the acceptance rate is 100% if you don't tremendously mess up and at several places I interviewed, it was around 30-40%. All were neuroscience schools in the top-25.

[lowestprime]

11 minutes ago, ManifoldsAreMadeUp said:

I would definitely caution against this! It highly varies by school. I know some where the acceptance rate is 100% if you don't tremendously mess up and at several places I interviewed, it was around 30-40%. All were neuroscience schools in the top-25.

Thanks for the clarification, that makes more sense.

[neuroimagining]

I saw on the results page someone got an interview for UPenn neuro — do these all come out at once or could it unfold more over the next few weeks? In the past some interviews were sent on the 15th. 

[actionpotential]

Just now, neuroimagining said:

I saw on the results page someone got an interview for UPenn neuro — do these all come out at once or could it unfold more over the next few weeks? In the past some interviews were sent on the 15th. 

I would assume one batch of interviews goes out over the course of a few days or a week or two...I could be wrong.

 

I'm dying with anxiety now though, I about lost it when one of my programs asked me to upload old transcripts they previously said were not required

[dopamine_machine]

Invited this morning to interview at Penn NGG!

So excited, but unsure on what percentage of interviewed applicants get accepted.

Does anyone know when someone should respond to/accept an invitation to interview? I'm still waiting on other schools to get back to me and don't want to jump the gun on confirming a date yet (since I don't know the interview schedules for other schools)

Edited December 9, 2020 by dopamine_machine

[snowbaby]

Damn, now I'm nervous... Haven't heard anything from NGG. Hope they are not done sending out invites...

[gliagirl]

11 hours ago, dopamine_machine said:

Invited this morning to interview at Penn NGG!

So excited, but unsure on what percentage of interviewed applicants get accepted.

Does anyone know when someone should respond to/accept an invitation to interview? I'm still waiting on other schools to get back to me and don't want to jump the gun on confirming a date yet (since I don't know the interview schedules for other schools)

Congrats!! 2nd year NGG student here; I think in the past few years about 90-95% of interviewed applicants get accepted. Unclear whether that'll change this year because of COVID financial impacts.

 

If you can, it's easier on the program if you respond sooner than later (so they can organize your interviews, etc). Given that everything is virtual this year, I suspect rescheduling will probably be easier anyway if you wind up having conflicting dates (and Penn generally tries to get one of the first or second interview slots of the cycle).

[dopamine_machine]

2 minutes ago, gliagirl said:

Congrats!! 2nd year NGG student here; I think in the past few years about 90-95% of interviewed applicants get accepted. Unclear whether that'll change this year because of COVID financial impacts.

 

If you can, it's easier on the program if you respond sooner than later (so they can organize your interviews, etc). Given that everything is virtual this year, I suspect rescheduling will probably be easier anyway if you wind up having conflicting dates (and Penn generally tries to get one of the first or second interview slots of the cycle).

Thanks for your help! Wow, so that's a pretty large percentage of interview-to-acceptance.  They said that they invited ~25 people to interview and I saw that average cohort sizes were ~20 people for the last 2 years, so I figured it had to be somewhere in that ballpark.

I appreciate your advice! After thinking about it, I'm going to accept my invitation sometime today

[gliagirl]

On 12/9/2020 at 8:14 AM, snowbabyjia said:

Damn, now I'm nervous... Haven't heard anything from NGG. Hope they are not done sending out invites...

We have two interview weekends so I *suspect* they're not done sending out invites (but can't confirm first-hand).

 

[izthewhiz]

On 12/4/2020 at 6:26 PM, beardedlabrat said:

I'd love to hear where everyone is applying! Or if you don't feel comfortable sharing that, what research areas you are all interested.

Vanderbilt (IGP & NGP), Michigan (NGP & Biopsychology), U.Kentucky (Cognitive Neuroscience), Marquette, U.Minnesota, Yale (ha!), U. Cincinnati (got an interview here – haven't heard from anyone else), UNC, Wake Forest (IPP & Neuro)

 

Interested in addiction, sex differences, obesity, binge eating disorder 

[NotDawsonsCreek]

On 12/4/2020 at 6:26 PM, beardedlabrat said:

I'd love to hear where everyone is applying! Or if you don't feel comfortable sharing that, what research areas you are all interested.

Yale, UCLA, UPenn, Emory, CU Boulder, UMich Ann Arbor, UNC Chapel Hill, UMN Twin Cities, Virginia Tech, and Michigan State all for neuroscience or biology program with neuroscience focus. I want to understand the cellular mechanisms of mood disorders. Good luck everybody, hoping for the best this year!

[Elephantonly]

Anyone heard from UPenn NGG today?

[RachelScared]

3 hours ago, NotDawsonsCreek said:

Yale, UCLA, UPenn, Emory, CU Boulder, UMich Ann Arbor, UNC Chapel Hill, UMN Twin Cities, Virginia Tech, and Michigan State all for neuroscience or biology program with neuroscience focus. I want to understand the cellular mechanisms of mood disorders. Good luck everybody, hoping for the best this year!

What labs did you apply with here? I go here as undergrad but am quite familiar with the labs! 

[NotDawsonsCreek]

6 hours ago, RachelScared said:

What labs did you apply with here? I go here as undergrad but am quite familiar with the labs! 

Which university are you referring to?

 

[Neuromantic]

Still haven't heard from anyone... ?

Also weird: my UMich PIBS/Neuro app imported my materials late? My letters were submitted before 11/30, and they were "uploaded" on 12/1. My last rec was sent in on the 1st (late, I know- this recommender is the Vice Dean of my college and had his hands full), but it says it was uploaded on the 2nd? I'm wondering if my app will be cancelled because of that? I didn't get a rejection, and UMich processed all of my materials (according to their emails). Should I be freaking out?

Edited December 10, 2020 by Neuromantic

[swtster]

2 hours ago, Neuromantic said:

Still haven't heard from anyone... ?

Also weird: my UMich PIBS/Neuro app imported my materials late? My letters were submitted before 11/30, and they were "uploaded" on 12/1. My last rec was sent in on the 1st (late, I know- this recommender is the Vice Dean of my college and had his hands full), but it says it was uploaded on the 2nd? I'm wondering if my app will be cancelled because of that? I didn't get a rejection, and UMich processed all of my materials (according to their emails). Should I be freaking out?

I wouldn't worry since you submitted everything on time. It's still early and there's a lot of time left to hear back. 

[willilandsomewhere]

Does anyone know if it's acceptable to send the schools my grades this semester? They were just posted (and way better than my previous semesters), but I'm not sure if they accept such update.

[pedrxre]

I got a call today from a professor at UNC Chapel Hill announcing my invitation to interview. Dates are February 18/19th. Anyone else get phone calls from professors this early?

[izthewhiz]

15 minutes ago, pedrxre said:

I got a call today from a professor at UNC Chapel Hill announcing my invitation to interview. Dates are February 18/19th. Anyone else get phone calls from professors this early?

Hi! Was this through BBSP or BINP? Thanks! 

[capa_detated]

On 12/6/2020 at 8:13 PM, NeuroKween said:

Has anyone here applied to CSHL? I’ve heard it’s extremely competitive, but haven’t seen many applicants on here in general.

Submitted there after randomly seeing a PI’s tweet in the last week of Nov and looking into the phd program. Looks like an amazing program (not sure why but the new laptop for each student sold it for me lol) and many of my advisors and PIs have praised their intensive training courses. I’m also personally inclined towards a generalist approach, so I’m really attracted by the breadth of coursework and range of expertise of the teaching faculty, even though I have pretty particular neuro interests. 
 

Didn’t realize it had a reputation for competitiveness... I’d assumed way fewer people would’ve heard of it. Then again we are competing against all sub disciplines in bio for the few spots rather than just neuro, and the app was free and only required one 500word statement, so I could see the applicant pool being similar to other top programs. 
 

Would love to know more about your thoughts! 

[pedrxre]

7 hours ago, izthewhiz said:

Hi! Was this through BBSP or BINP? Thanks! 

It was through BINP! 

[Neuromantic]

Applied Neuro through BBSP- still no word. What's BINP?  

Edited December 11, 2020 by Neuromantic