Biomedical Science PhD Applicants (Fall 2021)

[HJB_4]

1 minute ago, winterishere2020 said:

It depends on the school/ departments. As far as I know, some schools separate international students from local students (especially schools with huge NIH-funded programs) and review two different pools separately. Since international students are not eligible for NIH or NSF fellowships, they only have limited school funding for international students. It may take them more time to decide who and how many of them to invite for interviews. 

I see! this makes sense I was told international students have a lower intake as the government doesn't provide university funding for them. 

Thanks for the update it makes me feel more comfortable knowing some places split the applicant pools. 

[Blood Type C8H10N4O2]

On 1/18/2021 at 11:25 AM, HJB_4 said:

Slightly off topic to the conversation here but as i have applied for the course described in the title. Does anyone in this thread know if international students hear back later than Americans? I am from the UK and am seeing people on courses I have applied to get accepted/rejected and I have heard nothing. 

Depends on the school, for example UTSW apparently has two separate pools. It was also a thing during physical interviews as they wouldn't fly in International candidates and schedule them for online interviews. 

On 1/18/2021 at 11:33 AM, winterishere2020 said:

It depends on the school/ departments. As far as I know, some schools separate international students from local students (especially schools with huge NIH-funded programs) and review two different pools separately. Since international students are not eligible for NIH or NSF fellowships, they only have limited school funding for international students. It may take them more time to decide who and how many of them to invite for interviews. 

Yep, what they said^. Some will take very few candidates depending on funding and a few dont even fund International students (Eg. UWashington-Seattle M3D).

[HJB_4]

That makes sense! I know Yale said on their forum this year that they are admitting a low number of international students. 

[thepuncess]

On 1/16/2021 at 6:01 PM, st21 said:

 

Nope. Radio silence!

 

Also, anyone hear from UC Santa Barbara MCDB? 

My friend and I applied to UCSB and got interview invites on 1/6. We didn't get our emails at the exact same time so it's possible they're doing rolling invites if you haven't heard back yet!

[wings101]

2 hours ago, HJB_4 said:

Slightly off topic to the conversation here but as i have applied for the course described in the title. Does anyone in this thread know if international students hear back later than Americans? I am from the UK and am seeing people on courses I have applied to get accepted/rejected and I have heard nothing. 

where did you apply? i'm also from the uk

[HJB_4]

Just now, wings101 said:

where did you apply? i'm also from the uk

I applied to Emory, GSU, FIU, Drexel, Princeton and Yale. How about you?

[stem_ness]

Does anyone have a good sense of what is discussed during interviews with PIs? Obviously they want to talk about your past experiences a bit, but what else? Classic interview questions like "Why this program" and "Why a PhD", or others?

[ssrour98]

13 hours ago, NeuroPhDInd said:

Are you an international applicant? 

No I am from the US. I remember reading on their website that very few International applicants are invited for interviews. However it seems like their admissions is very nice and willing to help when emailed, maybe you can reach out to them about their timeline. Good Luck!! 

[ssrour98]

3 hours ago, avkeer said:

I got stuff like tell me about yourself, why x school, what is your prev exp, what is your research interest, what techniques are you most comfortable with, what techniques would you like to learn about, I have x projects in my lab... what type of project would you like to work on, etc

Always have questions ready to ask them at the end !!

same with me; many started by them saying "tell me about yourself". I was told that the best way to answer this question is to prepare a 2 min elevator pitch: start out with an introduction (my name is... the degree i have is... from...) then talk about your research experiences sequentially and briefly (like 2 sentences each), give a sentence about how these experiences led you to ur main interest topic (i said "the skills I learned from both of my experiences contributed to my interest in molecular bio. and more specifically cell signaling and metabolism), close off with a sentence or two about why this program would help you to pursue that interest (like; you like how program is interdisciplinary, the program is known for your interest, the program has professors who specialize in your interest...). 

otherwise prepare a long long list of questions for the PI about the program and about their lab that way if the convo goes stale you still seem interested in their lab and the program. (some questions that interviewers responded positively for me was; "what type of mentor are you hands on or hands off" "during rotations in your lab do you pair them with current grad student or post doc or are given independent project" "do your lab members socialize outside the lab and do they get along with each other on more then a professional level" 

Good Luck! 

[helpert]

3 hours ago, stem_ness said:

Does anyone have a good sense of what is discussed during interviews with PIs? Obviously they want to talk about your past experiences a bit, but what else? Classic interview questions like "Why this program" and "Why a PhD", or others?

Prepare for those classic questions - why do you want a PhD/what are your career goals, why are you interested in this program, and what research questions are you most interested in exploring. Also know your own research experience front and back, know the “why” of it and prepare to be asked questions about it.

The actual interviews will definitely vary in style/structure.. for instance, I’ve had a faculty member ask me very specific questions about a particular technology I’ve used in lab. On the other hand, I had one interviewer start out the interview with essentially telling me that I’ll likely be offered admission unless I just don’t want to talk to him, and then we proceeded (after I gave my quick spiel about my own research/goals/interests) to just talk about the city the school is in for the entire interview.

[sirtuingirl]

16 hours ago, stem_ness said:

Does anyone have a good sense of what is discussed during interviews with PIs? Obviously they want to talk about your past experiences a bit, but what else? Classic interview questions like "Why this program" and "Why a PhD", or others?

It depends on who you are talking to. You will most likely be interviewed by faculty who are conducting research  in your area of interest as well as faculty whose research is in a completely different area. Both will want to know a bit about your research but usually the latter won’t spend much time talking about their research. They will mostly tell you things about the town (public transportation, bike friendliness, restaurants, festivals etc) or ask you some of the standard questions like why PhD, why that program/school, what is your career goal etc. You will also get to talk individually with a grad student which again won’t be much about science.

I think majority of the students will answer questions like why PhD well and they probably have heard the same thing again and again, just in different words. But they still ask you these questions because they want to see at least a basic level of preparedness on your part, which is somewhat indicative of your success in a graduate program.

 

Edited January 19, 2021 by sirtuingirl
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[Pasi]

Hi guys, I just want to ask has anyone heard from Harvard BBS, Stanford Genetics or Emory Genetics and molecular biology ? interview or rejection? I am just confused I have not heard anything from them and I have seen people getting interviews invitations from them. (I am kinda freaking out a little). also I am an international applicant. Thank you.

[crystal322]

Hi guys, wondering if anyone here applied to Cold Spring Harbor Lab and heard from them? I saw two interview invites on results, don't know if they're done sending out invites? Thank you! 

 

 

[winterishere2020]

5 minutes ago, crystal322 said:

Hi guys, wondering if anyone here applied to Cold Spring Harbor Lab and heard from them? I saw two interview invites on results, don't know if they're done sending out invites? Thank you! 

 

 

I also applied to CSHL but I haven't heard anything from them. 

[winterishere2020]

3 hours ago, sirtuingirl said:

It depends on who you are talking to. You will most likely be interviewed by faculty who are conducting research  in your area of interest as well as faculty whose research is in a completely different area. Both will want to know a bit about your research but usually the latter won’t spend much time talking about their research. They will mostly tell you things about the town (public transportation, bike friendliness, restaurants, festivals etc) or ask you some of the standard questions like why PhD, why that program/school, what is your career goal etc. You will also get to talk individually with a grad student which again won’t be much about science.

I think majority of the students will answer questions like why PhD well and they probably have heard the same thing again and again, just in different words. But they still ask you these questions because they want to see at least a basic level of preparedness on your part, which is somewhat indicative of your success in a graduate program.

 

Exactly like what others have said. A few things that I have heard candidates being asked are who else they want to do rotations with, what they want to achieve in the rotations, what kinds of classes they're planning to take, etc. If the PIs want to go deep to the nitty gritty details, they would probably ask you more specific questions on your research goals, eg. your expected thesis area, how you're going to approach certain potential problems, what kinds of experimental techniques you'd like to learn, whether you expect to set up new collaborations, whether you'd expect an internship elsewhere to complement with your career goals, and things like that. 

[StemCells4Lyfe]

On 1/15/2021 at 8:45 PM, MicroPhD2021 said:

Hello, is there anyone who got an interview from the UTSW BBS? 

I did. My interview was Friday

[tyb97]

Has anyone hear anything back from CU Denver Biomedical or Immunology? 

[ChocolateOrange]

Anyone heard back from NYU Vilcek?

[asull]

34 minutes ago, tyb97 said:

Has anyone hear anything back from CU Denver Biomedical or Immunology? 

Nope not yet, still patiently and eagerly waiting. I haven’t heard back from anywhere yet, actually, which is a little nerve wracking. Good luck my friend! 

[jakeperalta]

6 minutes ago, ChocolateOrange said:

Anyone heard back from NYU Vilcek?

No! My god are they stressing me out T_T What track did you apply for? I did Microbiology! Just as an aside, in case you're new: multiple people have emailed NYU in the last few weeks and the admins have said that they can send interview invites anytime between now and end of February since they interview now through March. Also, I believe I have seen interviews go out for Genes Cells and Organisms and Mechanisms of Disease, and also Immunology and Inflammation but not Micro!

Edited January 19, 2021 by jakeperalta

[ChocolateOrange]

@jakeperalta I haven't quite figured out how to reply to comments yet but I applied to genes, cell, and organisms!

[ChocolateOrange]

11 minutes ago, jakeperalta said:

No! My god are they stressing me out T_T What track did you apply for? I did Microbiology! Just as an aside, in case you're new: multiple people have emailed NYU in the last few weeks and the admins have said that they can send interview invites anytime between now and end of February since they interview now through March. Also, I believe I have seen interviews go out for Genes Cells and Organisms and Mechanisms of Disease, and also Immunology and Inflammation but not Micro!

I applied to genes, cell, and organisms!

[pompompurin]

Has anyone heard from MIT Microbiology? Seems like they sent rejections but haven't heard anyone got interviews? 

 

Also anyone applied to Northwestern iBIS or Boston University MCBB? 

Haven't heard back from NYU Vilcek either, I applied to Micro.

[wiz1810]

did anyone else here apply to Brown MPP? it's a tiny program and I have yet to see anyone.

[biolgurl]

4 hours ago, crystal322 said:

Hi guys, wondering if anyone here applied to Cold Spring Harbor Lab and heard from them? I saw two interview invites on results, don't know if they're done sending out invites? Thank you! 

 

 

I also applied and havent heard!