2022 Neuroscience PhD Applicants and Admissions Results

[ninjasub2]

Hi all! I have offers from PhD programs in neuroscience from UIC, Northwestern, University of Chicago, and University of Southern California. My preference right now is for the latter 3, but I'm having trouble deciding which program to commit to and must make a decision by the April 15 deadline-- any insight into prestige of programs/factors to consider/any thoughts at all?? Very confused and appreciate any insight! Thanks in advance!

[aBrainDrain]

Just wanted to post an end of cycle update. I am extremely grateful for the offers I have received and I never thought that I would be in this position! 

Applied: MIT (BCS), Princeton, Stanford, UC Irvine (INGP), UC San Diego (Neuro and BMS), Yale (INP)

Interview Invite: MIT (BCS), Princeton, UC Irvine (INGP), UC San Diego (Neuro and BMS), Yale (INP)

Actually Interviewed: MIT (BCS), UC San Diego (Neuro and BMS), Yale (INP)

Accepted: MIT (BCS), UC San Diego (Neuro and BMS), Yale (INP)

Rejected: Stanford 

Decision: TBD

[neuro7]

On 3/21/2022 at 7:23 AM, ninjasub2 said:

Hi all! I have offers from PhD programs in neuroscience from UIC, Northwestern, University of Chicago, and University of Southern California. My preference right now is for the latter 3, but I'm having trouble deciding which program to commit to and must make a decision by the April 15 deadline-- any insight into prestige of programs/factors to consider/any thoughts at all?? Very confused and appreciate any insight! Thanks in advance!

Congrats! I think the thing that matters the least is the prestige... unless it is also an institution that has great research, mentors you vibe with, location you'd want to live, good stipend/benefits, career development services, etc. Just try to figure out where you will be the happiest because when it all comes down to it, that'll help you get through the challenges and uncertainty of PhD training. If you study at a prestigious university but have mean or unsupportive mentors, it could turn into one of the worst experiences of your life. I know people that got their PhD from "lower" tier schools and now work as postdocs at top institutions... hope this helps. 

[brkkmnkk]

On 3/21/2022 at 8:23 AM, ninjasub2 said:

Hi all! I have offers from PhD programs in neuroscience from UIC, Northwestern, University of Chicago, and University of Southern California. My preference right now is for the latter 3, but I'm having trouble deciding which program to commit to and must make a decision by the April 15 deadline-- any insight into prestige of programs/factors to consider/any thoughts at all?? Very confused and appreciate any insight! Thanks in advance!

Do these schools have open houses? Since they're upper tier, I'd expect them to. I recommend visiting them and getting a sense of the atmosphere, as it helped other accepted students in my program to completely change their minds.

[ninjasub2]

6 hours ago, neuro7 said:

Congrats! I think the thing that matters the least is the prestige... unless it is also an institution that has great research, mentors you vibe with, location you'd want to live, good stipend/benefits, career development services, etc. Just try to figure out where you will be the happiest because when it all comes down to it, that'll help you get through the challenges and uncertainty of PhD training. If you study at a prestigious university but have mean or unsupportive mentors, it could turn into one of the worst experiences of your life. I know people that got their PhD from "lower" tier schools and now work as postdocs at top institutions... hope this helps. 

That's a great point! Thank you for your input. This is such a difficult decision. The truth is, I have visited the universities and believe I would be happy at any of the programs... and they're all such great programs... oy. Make the decision that much harder

[ninjasub2]

1 hour ago, brkkmnkk said:

Do these schools have open houses? Since they're upper tier, I'd expect them to. I recommend visiting them and getting a sense of the atmosphere, as it helped other accepted students in my program to completely change their minds.

Agreed-- I have been to the open houses, and honestly all of the programs seem fabulous. I can see myself being happy at any of these programs. What other factors do people sue to decide where to go? I'm just confused all over and want to make the best decision!!

[brkkmnkk]

12 minutes ago, ninjasub2 said:

Agreed-- I have been to the open houses, and honestly all of the programs seem fabulous. I can see myself being happy at any of these programs. What other factors do people sue to decide where to go? I'm just confused all over and want to make the best decision!!

In my limited experience, people made decisions on faculty they want to work with. Some programs have multiple faculty with the exact same interests as those students (important if one faculty isn’t accepting more students or whether your personalities don’t go well together). Some other’s had other responsibilities as having long term commitments to other people. Thats about all the help I can give.

[BabyScientist]

3 hours ago, brkkmnkk said:

In my limited experience, people made decisions on faculty they want to work with. Some programs have multiple faculty with the exact same interests as those students (important if one faculty isn’t accepting more students or whether your personalities don’t go well together). Some other’s had other responsibilities as having long term commitments to other people. Thats about all the help I can give.

What this person said. Evaluate which school has the most faculty you'd want to work with. Talk to your top 1 or 2 favorite faculty across the schools, see if they are taking students, and if you vibe with them. 

[ManifoldsAreMadeUp]

On 3/22/2022 at 9:08 PM, BabyScientist said:

What this person said. Evaluate which school has the most faculty you'd want to work with. Talk to your top 1 or 2 favorite faculty across the schools, see if they are taking students, and if you vibe with them. 

Seconding this! I've seen students join the most prestigious school they get into and it turns out the faculty they want to join have no space or no money and the student is forced to make a huge left turn in a direction they didn't expect by joining a lab they aren't jazzed about. In worst case scenarios, they fail to place into a lab and are dismissed from the program. It's rare but I've seen it happen even at prestigious institutes especially in which the student's skillset is relatively niche.

Edited March 26, 2022 by ManifoldsAreMadeUp

[electrophys]

Hi! Has anyone committed to a program yet? I would love to hear where everyone is ending up! Glad this crazy process is almost over ? .

[Mdb.95]

Hello! Has anyone heard back from the Max Planck School of Cognition after the interview? My email has been silent for almost 2 weeks now, getting nervous.

[funnybadger]

On 4/7/2022 at 2:47 PM, electrophys said:

Hi! Has anyone committed to a program yet? I would love to hear where everyone is ending up! Glad this crazy process is almost over ? .

I committed to the university of Florida after weighing offers from UF, USD/Sanford, Wake Forest, and a waitlist spot at UNC-CH. :) I'm really happy with my decision and am so excited to start this summer.

[funnybadger]

On 3/22/2022 at 3:31 PM, brkkmnkk said:

Hi all! I have offers from PhD programs in neuroscience from UIC, Northwestern, University of Chicago, and University of Southern California. My preference right now is for the latter 3, but I'm having trouble deciding which program to commit to and must make a decision by the April 15 deadline-- any insight into prestige of programs/factors to consider/any thoughts at all?? Very confused and appreciate any insight! Thanks in advance!

Honestly, decide based on how your research interests fit with those of the faculty at each institution, location - does the city have things you want to do, food options, airport access, etc - and how it feels. Allow some of the intangible/vibey things to help eliminate schools as well.

[NeuroRanger]

I accepted my offer to McGill's Integrated Program in Neuroscience (IPN) for the PhD program.  I am super excited and thrilled because this program and my assigned thesis supervisor and my lab work are 100% aligned to my research interests.

[lsw18]

On 8/1/2021 at 6:13 PM, YourNeighborBob said:

Undergrad Institution: Boston University

Major(s): Bachelor of Arts in Biology and Math, with honors in Bio

Overall GPA: 3.76

Major GPA: Bio around 3.9 Math around 3.3 (flunked hard in sophmore year when taking grad level math classes with orgo and cellbio... hopefully they'd ignore this)

Type of Student: Asian male

GRE Scores: won't take

Research Experience: 

- 2 years undergrad researcher in a neurotherapeutics lab at BU (histology, animal behavior, network analysis)

- 1.5 year as a biostats tech in an immology/genomics lab in a Harvard affiliated hospital (high through sequencing)

- Coauthor on five or six papers on Q1 journals; one first/second author paper in preparation

Other Relevant Experience: 

- hired as an outside consultant for more network analysis

- coding + server managing experience 

Awards/Honors/Recognitions:

Dean's List + a scholarship + honors thesis (?) 

Applying to Where:

Lottery: MIT, Stanford, Harvard, CIT, UCSF, Princeton

Stand a chance: CMU Bio/CNBC, UCSD, Brown, Duke

Safety but would gladly go: UW, WUSTL

LoRs: 2 from past PIs and 1 from adviser. My PIs are very respected/well-known in their fields. 

I would really appreciate any comments on my school list! I am having a hard time positioning myself. I made the tentative list based on the admission percentages. I am interested in applying ML in brain signal processing. 

May I ask why WUSTL is considered safety? It's such a well-known biomed university - I thought it would be super competitive and have heard it is?