2021 Computational Biology/Bioinformatics/Systems Biology PhD Admissions

[Meganburk97]

Has anyone invited to interview at Washington University in St. Louis for the DBBS Computational and Systems Biology PhD program been assigned to either the January 14-15 or February 11-12 interview date? Beginning to feel like they changed their mind on me or something ?

[Crucial BBQ]

As an aside, University of Delaware has rolling admissions for Bioinformatics with the latest priority deadline being April 15th, iirc.  Currently, the GRE requirement is waived as well. 

[JarJarRuss]

  On 1/9/2021 at 3:47 PM, Gir2214 said:

Received an email for a ~15 min interview at UW Medical Informatics earlier this week. Is this interview time rather short? Does anyone have experiences when the interview slots are similar to this time?

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yeah I got this too. And I think it's 4 people interviewing us? I assume they just want to make sure you can hold a conversation. There might be another phase of interviews?

[Hisky]

  On 1/9/2021 at 5:54 PM, Meganburk97 said:

Has anyone invited to interview at Washington University in St. Louis for the DBBS Computational and Systems Biology PhD program been assigned to either the January 14-15 or February 11-12 interview date? Beginning to feel like they changed their mind on me or something ?

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Yeah the date was chosen before Christmas. I chose Jan 14-15 and they assigned an "interview buddy" and sent the detailed schedule in the past week. 

[Meganburk97]

  On 1/9/2021 at 10:31 PM, Hisky said:

Yeah the date was chosen before Christmas. I chose Jan 14-15 and they assigned an "interview buddy" and sent the detailed schedule in the past week. 

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Oh boy. That’s not very reassuring ? thank you for sharing and good luck on your interview!

[Hisky]

  On 1/9/2021 at 10:37 PM, Meganburk97 said:

Oh boy. That’s not very reassuring ? thank you for sharing and good luck on your interview!

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Thanks. In their second email before Christmas, they attached a form asking you to pick your interview date. You need to fill in that form and send back to them. You also need to go to the application portal and choose your interview professors and upload a profile photo. Did you do all that? 

[Meganburk97]

  On 1/9/2021 at 10:42 PM, Hisky said:

Thanks. In their second email before Christmas, they attached a form asking you to pick your interview date. You need to fill in that form and send back to them. You also need to go to the application portal and choose your interview professors and upload a profile photo. Did you do all that? 

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Yep! I did all of that within a day of receiving the interview invite because I was so excited ?? In the form, it said that if I had no preference for interview date, I could select both so that’s what I did, and I’m wondering if maybe that’s why I haven’t heard anything back? Man I got no idea. I went ahead and emailed the Graduate Student Coordinator for the program earlier today though so hopefully I’ll hear back early Monday. They wouldn’t spontaneously change their mind about inviting me to interview, would they? Cause that would just be cruel tbh also I appreciate your replies and kindness so much thank you!

[Hisky]

  On 1/9/2021 at 10:46 PM, Meganburk97 said:

Yep! I did all of that within a day of receiving the interview invite because I was so excited ?? In the form, it said that if I had no preference for interview date, I could select both so that’s what I did, and I’m wondering if maybe that’s why I haven’t heard anything back? Man I got no idea. I went ahead and emailed the Graduate Student Coordinator for the program earlier today though so hopefully I’ll hear back early Monday. They wouldn’t spontaneously change their mind about inviting me to interview, would they? Cause that would just be cruel tbh also I appreciate your replies and kindness so much thank you!

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Uhh I guess it's because you picked both dates so they chose to assign you to the later one. I think the early date would be a hit so they will first assign those only picked the early date to Jan 14. Don't worry, I don't think the school will waste their credit in such an ugly way haha. I'm sure you will hear back soon. Good luck with all the interviews!

[Meganburk97]

  On 1/9/2021 at 10:51 PM, Hisky said:

Uhh I guess it's because you picked both dates so they chose to assign you to the later one. I think the early date would be a hit so they will first assign those only picked the early date to Jan 14. Don't worry, I don't think the school will waste their credit in such an ugly way haha. I'm sure you will hear back soon. Good luck with all the interviews!

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That’s kinda what I was thinking as well, with the whole assigning people who picked only one date first and then filling in the rest. This is my first time applying to a PhD and I’ll be a first generation grad student, so I picked both dates to offer maximal flexibility. Good luck to you too!! We both totally got this!

[compbiodude]

im also interviewing for DBBS comp/sys on the 14th and 15th

[InferenceII]

  On 1/9/2021 at 3:44 PM, Gir2214 said:

For those who've applied to UCSD and received an interview invitation via phone, have you received any information through an email? I got the call on 12/24 but still have not received an email 

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Same here. I received a call in late December. I haven't got the formal notice yet.

Someone posted UCSD interview sent via email yesterday and I was wondering if it was an offical notice or not?

For UW BIME program, I was told they held 20-30 min interview in the past. I guess they just shrank it down to 15 mins... I also noticed that in the sign-up page, most students invited for interview are international students (I am too). I was just wondering if there would be a seperate sign-up page for domesitc students?

[Gir2214]

  On 1/10/2021 at 3:50 PM, InferenceII said:

Same here. I received a call in late December. I haven't got the formal notice yet. Someone posted UCSD interview sent via email yesterday and I was wondering if it was an offical notice or not?

For UW BIME program, I was told they held 20-30 min interview in the past. I guess they just shrank it down to 15 mins... I also noticed that in the sign-up page, most students invited for interview are international students (I am too). I was just wondering if there would be a seperate sign-up page for domesitc students?

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That's interesting that they hold such short interviews without a second round! I'm actually a domestic applicant so I don't think the interviews are separated between the two pools. 

And I also received an email from UCSD yesterday regarding a February interview -- I hope you did too or will shortly if if it different for international applicants!

[InferenceII]

  On 1/10/2021 at 4:09 PM, Gir2214 said:

That's interesting that they hold such short interviews without a second round! I'm actually a domestic applicant so I don't think the interviews are separated between the two pools. 

And I also received an email from UCSD yesterday regarding a February interview -- I hope you did too or will shortly if if it different for international applicants!

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ahh thanks!
I'm still waiting for UCSD...  probably it's because I applied in the BMI track? I will wait until next week and see...
I was also told there would be two interview slots, one on Jan, 29 and the other on Feb, 5 in the call from POI. Hopefully the school didn't rule me out...

[keke_kk]

Hello everyone! I wish u all the luck in upcoming interviews! I'm aiming to pursue computational biology once I get bachelor degree in computer science. I got couple of question for if you bother to answer ^^ 

1. what is average gpa for you people? I read the messages and everybody is aiming for the best school wonder if I can as well?! 

2. Can I apply for masters and PhD degree at the same program? or should I complete my masters before applying at PhD? 

 

Thank you all!

[yehet219]

  On 1/9/2021 at 3:44 PM, Gir2214 said:

For those who've applied to UCSD and received an interview invitation via phone, have you received any information through an email? I got the call on 12/24 but still have not received an email 

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Don't know if this has been answered already, but I got a call on 12/28 for UCSD and I received the email late afternoon on Jan 9th for a February interview date. 

[just_fine]

Got an interview from Stanford Genetics! 

[Sky_china]

  On 1/11/2021 at 5:57 AM, just_fine said:

Got an interview from Stanford Genetics! 

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you are sooooo impressive 

[crchen]

  On 1/9/2021 at 8:35 PM, JarJarRuss said:

yeah I got this too. And I think it's 4 people interviewing us? I assume they just want to make sure you can hold a conversation. There might be another phase of interviews?

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Have not heared back from UW BHI.

Guess rejected

[InferenceII]

  On 1/10/2021 at 10:52 PM, yehet219 said:

Don't know if this has been answered already, but I got a call on 12/28 for UCSD and I received the email late afternoon on Jan 9th for a February interview date. 

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Thank you for sharing this information and good luck with the interview!

I also received a call in late December from POI but I didn't get the email on Jan 9th. I applied for the BMI track. Don't know whether that makes a difference...

[Simaiinox]

Has anyone who got UCSF BMI interviews received a final schedule? I filled out the qualtics form but haven't heard back yet

Edited January 12, 2021 by Simaiinox
as -> has

[yehet219]

  On 1/11/2021 at 9:48 PM, InferenceII said:

Thank you for sharing this information and good luck with the interview!

I also received a call in late December from POI but I didn't get the email on Jan 9th. I applied for the BMI track. Don't know whether that makes a difference...

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It might make a difference! I applied for the BISB track. 

[yehet219]

  On 1/12/2021 at 12:04 AM, Simaiinox said:

Has anyone who got UCSF BMI interviews received a final schedule? I filled out the qualtics form but haven't heard back yet

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No official email. But I emailed the coordinator today about a change in my schedule after I filled out the qualtrics form and she responded pretty quickly, so I'm assuming they're still working out the details. 

[sea_cactus]

  On 1/10/2021 at 9:05 PM, keke_kk said:

Hello everyone! I wish u all the luck in upcoming interviews! I'm aiming to pursue computational biology once I get bachelor degree in computer science. I got couple of question for if you bother to answer ^^ 

1. what is average gpa for you people? I read the messages and everybody is aiming for the best school wonder if I can as well?! 

2. Can I apply for masters and PhD degree at the same program? or should I complete my masters before applying at PhD? 

 

Thank you all!

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Hard to say what the avg gpa is amongst us. Applications are reviewed holistically, so if you have other things that can offset a poor gpa then you may still be considered. But know things are very competitive and a lot of students have both great gpa’s as well as a lot of experience. 
 

Completing a masters before applying to PhD may be helpful if you feel like you lack research experience and/or are not ready to dive into a 4-6 year program. Although the largest downside is that masters programs can be expensive whereas phd programs are typically funded (or easier to get funding). 

[keke_kk]

  On 1/12/2021 at 12:38 AM, sea_cactus said:

Hard to say what the avg gpa is amongst us. Applications are reviewed holistically, so if you have other things that can offset a poor gpa then you may still be considered. But know things are very competitive and a lot of students have both great gpa’s as well as a lot of experience. 
 

Completing a masters before applying to PhD may be helpful if you feel like you lack research experience and/or are not ready to dive into a 4-6 year program. Although the largest downside is that masters programs can be expensive whereas phd programs are typically funded (or easier to get funding). 

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Hello! thats very detailed thank you! I got one question though, If I have poor gpa for my undergad(3.1 nearly) will it be a good decision to study masters for improve it and gain chances for a good school?

[KellyTD]

  On 1/12/2021 at 1:38 PM, keke_kk said:

Hello! thats very detailed thank you! I got one question though, If I have poor gpa for my undergad(3.1 nearly) will it be a good decision to study masters for improve it and gain chances for a good school?

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You can have research experience and also work experiences will help. Get high GRE would be helpful too