Biomedical Science PhD Applicants (Fall 2021)

[Neuromantic]

@UMich PIBS: did you all get your packages yet? Mine hasn't arrived yet, now I'm having a stroke, lol.

[helpert]

1 hour ago, Neuromantic said:

 

Hey, sorry for being MIA: had my first interview this week and was swamped!

My two cents: More importantly, I think that UNC is considered a safety net for many, many applicants. It's an "easy" first interview, is a solid umbrella program, and has a reasonable priority deadline. I got my UNC rejection on Friday along with everyone else. I would argue that UMich has a better Neuroscience program than UNC (Huda Akil vs. Tom Kash,) but it depends on your specific research interests within the field. I'm surprised that PIBS only offered 100 interviews... wow! Thanks for providing that insight- I'm also hoping to get a better idea of the applicant pool size vs. interviews offered during my interview weekends.

I think that more students applied this year because a) they had nothing to lose and b) GRE requirements were dropped by more institutions than the last cycle. Plus: there is a higher focus on DEI and recruitment of minorities. That alone spikes the applicant pool a decent amount, especially when you consider first-gen and non-traditional applicants (like myself). I'm still amazed that I got at least one interview. The competition is berserk, and we need to keep uplifting and supporting each other. It's so competitive, I can't wrap my head around it. My interview this week only had 14 students! 

After seeing those numbers in @sirtuingirl's post I was just going to say -- seems like maybe people consider UNC more of a "safety". Which of course then turns into a large application pool that inevitably makes it more competitive!

 

[helpert]

11 minutes ago, Neuromantic said:

@UMich PIBS: did you all get your packages yet? Mine hasn't arrived yet, now I'm having a stroke, lol.

I think mine will be delivered this week - at least I'm assuming the package on my USPS dashboard that shipped from Ann Arbor is the PIBS package

[helpert]

I'm surprised about PIBS too if they really only invited 100 applicants to interview. I mean, I think that's good for us interviewing to know they probably expect to extend admissions to most, if not all, interviewees. But according to their FAQ their average cohort size is ~90 -- I wonder if they are planning on a smaller cohort size this year (I mean they can't seriously expect more than 50% admitted to matriculate right?)

[sirtuingirl]

1 hour ago, helpert said:

I'm surprised about PIBS too if they really only invited 100 applicants to interview. I mean, I think that's good for us interviewing to know they probably expect to extend admissions to most, if not all, interviewees. But according to their FAQ their average cohort size is ~90 -- I wonder if they are planning on a smaller cohort size this year (I mean they can't seriously expect more than 50% admitted to matriculate right?)

I also think 100 interviews is less. I would have expected it to be at least 150. I read somewhere else that most top 20 “large” programs have invited around 12% of their applicants for interview. That supports a number higher than 150.

[ndd23123]

4 hours ago, sirtuingirl said:

I also think 100 interviews is less. I would have expected it to be at least 150. I read somewhere else that most top 20 “large” programs have invited around 12% of their applicants for interview. That supports a number higher than 150.

Last year UMich received a little over 1300 applications and made 440 interview offers. This is on their website. I'd be very surprised if they're cutting the number of interviews by more 75% this year, especially when they don't have to fly people into Ann Arbor anymore.

[icsyr]

UW Seattle (MCB) is interviewing 72 people over the course of two weekends, which, according to their invite email, is 12% of applicants. If you quickly do the math, that is 600 applicants. 

Every interview webpage i've seen says they received a record number of applicants this year, but who knows what that really means. 

[sirtuingirl]

1 hour ago, ndd23123 said:

Last year UMich received a little over 1300 applications and made 440 interview offers. This is on their website. I'd be very surprised if they're cutting the number of interviews by more 75% this year, especially when they don't have to fly people into Ann Arbor anymore.

Can you please post the link. I couldn’t find that on the PIBS website

[sirtuingirl]

1 hour ago, ndd23123 said:

Last year UMich received a little over 1300 applications and made 440 interview offers. This is on their website. I'd be very surprised if they're cutting the number of interviews by more 75% this year, especially when they don't have to fly people into Ann Arbor anymore.

https://medicine.umich.edu/medschool/education/phd-programs/about-pibs

 

they did 341 interviews last year and matriculated 90. What is unknown is how many of the 341 received offers?

Edited January 18, 2021 by sirtuingirl
Forgot to insert information

[MicroPhD2021]

Hello all,

I got an interview from UIUC MCB.

Do you know how many people were invited to interview and how many people will be accepted?

 

[sirtuingirl]

1 hour ago, icsyr said:

UW Seattle (MCB) is interviewing 72 people over the course of two weekends, which, according to their invite email, is 12% of applicants. If you quickly do the math, that is 600 applicants. 

Every interview webpage i've seen says they received a record number of applicants this year, but who knows what that really means. 

Do you have an idea when Brown will send out decisions to those that interviewed on Friday?

[ndd23123]

19 minutes ago, sirtuingirl said:

https://medicine.umich.edu/medschool/education/phd-programs/about-pibs

 

they did 341 interviews last year and matriculated 90. What is unknown is how many of the 341 received offers?

Apparently I can't do math. I believe approximately half of those received an offer. They usually make ~150-170 offers for a class of 80-90. They will probably tell you these things at the interview.

[sirtuingirl]

13 minutes ago, ndd23123 said:

Apparently I can't do math. I believe approximately half of those received an offer. They usually make ~150-170 offers for a class of 80-90. They will probably tell you these things at the interview.

I added up the data on Peterson’s, they made 204 offers and 90 matriculated. They make an offer to around 60% of the interviewees. 

https://www.petersons.com/graduate-schools/university-of-michigan-horace-h-rackham-school-of-graduate-studies-program-in-biomedical-sciences-pibs-000_10028009.aspx

looks like there is a large variation across departments on offer and matriculation percentage.

[ndd23123]

10 minutes ago, sirtuingirl said:

I added up the data on Peterson’s, they made 204 offers and 90 matriculated. They make an offer to around 60% of the interviewees. 

https://www.petersons.com/graduate-schools/university-of-michigan-horace-h-rackham-school-of-graduate-studies-program-in-biomedical-sciences-pibs-000_10028009.aspx

looks like there is a large variation across departments on offer and matriculation percentage.

Some of those acceptances within a department are for their MS program.

[sirtuingirl]

12 minutes ago, ndd23123 said:

Some of those acceptances within a department are for their MS program.

I see...then I think you are probably correct at around 50% but it seems like some departments offer to a higher % of interviewees than others.

[icsyr]

1 hour ago, sirtuingirl said:

Do you have an idea when Brown will send out decisions to those that interviewed on Friday?

Student host said if you're one of the people they want to extend and offer to, you'll hear something this coming week. She also said, remember there are still 2 interview weekends, they can't give all spots away immediately, so you might not hear anything cause you've been waitlisted. it's just a real possibility. good luck.

[ndd23123]

31 minutes ago, sirtuingirl said:

I see...then I think you are probably correct at around 50% but it seems like some departments offer to a higher % of interviewees than others.

The PIBS stats seem right though. The ones for individual departments are a bit off if you assume that they only include PhD programs.

[ssrour98]

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

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

Hi yes I did, will be interviewing next week during the second interview weekend (out of 4 dates I think)

[NeuroPhDInd]

5 hours ago, ssrour98 said:

Hi yes I did, will be interviewing next week during the second interview weekend (out of 4 dates I think)

Are you an international applicant? 

[kkasliwal]

Hi! Could someone please give a walkthrough of how the Weill Cornell BCMB interviews might be conducted? 

Any information on number of interviews/ interview length / whether they would expect a presentation from us?

Additionally, what might be the expected acceptance rate of interviewed: accepted this year?

Thanks!

[biolgurl]

12 minutes ago, kkasliwal said:

Hi! Could someone please give a walkthrough of how the Weill Cornell BCMB interviews might be conducted? 

Any information on number of interviews/ interview length / whether they would expect a presentation from us?

Additionally, what might be the expected acceptance rate of interviewed: accepted this year?

Thanks!

Hi! I am interviewing for their Pharmacology program. I'm interviewing Wednesday- Friday and I have 4 interviews that are 45 min long. They said you would receive 4-5. If you go onto the Interviewee Portal they provided us, they have a FAQ section and it says they are interviewing 250 and expecting a class of 60-65. I believe this is inclusive of all programs because its in the general section not just under the specific pharma umbrella. I don't think they expect a presentation because it should be more of a conversation. Hope this helps!

[Blood Type C8H10N4O2]

To just hop on the UNC Train, I think UNC is a good school with a large number of PIs and a variety of tracks. It wasn't on my initial list but my current PI highly recommended it and was very enthusiastic about Chapel Hill as a location. Upon further research, I found a good number of PIs doing work that aligned with my research interests so it seemed like a good place to apply for a combination of factors (PIs, reputation, location, cost of living etc.). I think its a good median between a reach school and a safety school.

Yes, there are other schools that fall in the same category but what people look in Universities differ. For example, Mayo Clinic or UMinnesota are great but I would never apply there because I know I cant live in Minnesota winter for 5-6 years?‍♀️

[HJB_4]

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. 

[winterishere2020]

2 minutes 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. 

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. 

[winterishere2020]

it may be too late to ask this question. But I'm really curious on why schools ask you what other schools you have applied to on their online applications. Does anyone know why they're asking and if this is going to change our odds of being admitted?