2023 Neuroscience PhD Applicants and Admissions Results

[nm_ml]

42 minutes ago, coffeebean736 said:

Hi everyone, just thought I would share my experience and where I applied.

I have a year of experience as a research assistant at Northwestern in the Neurology department. I have a BS in Psychology from a local university and a MSc in Neuroscience from King's College London. I applied to Northwestern, Yale, UCSD, UC Davis, UC Berkeley, Max Planck, UCLA, and the Scripps Institute. So far, I haven't heard from any schools but I am trying not to get too down just yet. Wishing everyone lots of luck and a big congrats to those who have secured interviews so far!

I also applied to UCSD, UC Berkeley, and Max Planck and no word either! Good luck to you as well!

[bearkick]

4 hours ago, ManifoldsAreMadeUp said:

Yes, they really do (http://www.rdgao.com/blog/2021/12/23/). I've never served on committee but I've spoken to about 3 people who have for neuro. Here's a hypothetical admissions review process:

1) Committee convenes and the director pairs up faculty/student reps with each pair having someone who's already done admissions once. If faculty have messaged the committee to "keep an eye out" for a particular student, these may be flagged.

2) Each pair (sometimes trio) is given 50-100 applications to read and they're given 1-2 weeks to discuss and rank. Each team picks their top candidates (maybe 5-10) to discuss in open session. All others don't make the cut.

3) All the teams reconvene and the top candidates are discussed and balanced and approved for the director.

4) The director then takes that list and extends invites.

The whole process can take only a week or two. Applications are read to varying degrees which is highly dependent on the reviewer. Maybe a student rep remembers what it's like to apply and really takes their time reading all of the material; maybe it's a busy junior faculty member with a newborn and they blow through the apps in one night; maybe it's a senior faculty member that is fixed in their views of what a "high-quality candidate" is and just checks off boxes. You never really know. I've heard of people who never read statements of purpose or only focus on LoR's or some other method etc. It's why it's so crucial that if you have a bad circumstance (poor GPA for instance), that you are upfront about it in both your statement and LoRs because then it makes it hard for the reviewer to look at that number and trash your app. 

Why do committees do it like this? It's essentially the same format as NIH grant study sections and (I think) initial screening for search committees (new TT-professorships). A lot of the strategies for a good PhD app mirror what's taught in academia and is known as "grantsmanship". In an ideal world, they'd take their time and carefully review each applicant but in reality, professors are busy people who (mostly) eschew committee work. At least from my time in a neuroscience institute helping screen techs for hiring, it's extremely clear a large proportion of applicants are unqualified so it's pretty easy to chop it down. The remaining people are all excellent and would succeed so it's just a matter of discussing them.

It's also why there's so much randomness in the process even if you are a high-quality applicant. Maybe the committee is trying to balance out all the computational people with wetlab and as such, disproportionately many comp. neuro. people get cut despite being a good fit. Maybe the program just hired two new computational faculty and will want to make sure that these new hires are likely to get students and thus go for a computational heavy set of interviewees. Maybe the lab an applicant wants already took a lot of students last year or they failed to get demonstrable funds this year and would be available for students. There's a huge number of hidden factors.

Wow! Thank you so much for your insight. Dang, I realize now how much more intricate and rich this process is. 

[ph.d.wannabe]

Only applied to state schools. Invited to interview at Michigan State (neuro), good luck everyone!

 

 

[Neurolucida]

I've applied to 

Harvard PiN (rip)

WashU Neuro (Interview invite this past saturday)

Yale Neuro

Columbia Neuro

NYU Neuro

Rockefeller Bioscience

Johns Hopkins Neuro

Princeton PNI

UPenn Neuro

UCSD Neuro

Stanford Neuro

 

The only school i've heard back from is WashU which is my second top choice (behind Harvard PiN), so I'm very excited so far. Hopefully more interviews come through soon.

 

[aspiringphd01]

2 hours ago, neurophdwannabe said:

I heard in past years Harvard PiN sent out multiple rounds of email invites, but tbh I'm not sure if they will do that again this cycle! FIngers crossed! 

Oh I accidentally left Harvard off my first post, but I received an interview invite for PiN! Based on what the administrator mentioned over email, I believe they are done sending out interviews.

[ManifoldsAreMadeUp]

40 minutes ago, aspiringphd01 said:

Oh I accidentally left Harvard off my first post, but I received an interview invite for PiN! Based on what the administrator mentioned over email, I believe they are done sending out interviews.

Yeah I'm not sure who has said they saw PiN release over multiple days but I've followed them for 3-4 cohorts (I have friends in the program that I chat with at times and I always have friends begging me to ask the former when interviews go out/are done sending them) and I haven't seen/heard of them ever doing that. I think people are looking at the dates things get posted on the Results page and extrapolating but keep in mind that people do not post they got an interview as soon as they get them. I feel the need to push back on this because it gives people false hope. It's definitely the most desired program in the world for neuroscience if GradCafe means anything.

Don't ask me why I'm on GradCafe.

Edited December 20, 2022 by ManifoldsAreMadeUp

[coffeeneuro]

The schools that I know so far have sent out their interview invites are: Harvard PiN, Princeton PNI, Columbia NB&B, Cornell NBB.

[lowestprime]

1 minute ago, coffeeneuro said:

The schools that I know so far have sent out their interview invites are: Harvard PiN, Princeton PNI, Columbia NB&B, Cornell NBB.

UCSF, UCLA, UCB and several others too.

[astra]

Have interview invites been sent out for UCLA already? I haven't seen anyone post about UCLA but ah well :')

[holmosaint]

Can just more people confirm whether Columbia has done sending out interviews?

[Neuro99]

I got my UChicago interview invitation last night! 

[coffeeneuro]

2 hours ago, holmosaint said:

Can just more people confirm whether Columbia has done sending out interviews?

given their 'first round' interviews happening relatively soon (Jan 9-10), they are probably done sending out invites...

[SmolSword]

Were Columbia, Northwestern, and Princeton's neuro invitations sent out in a bulk email or directly from PIs?

[holmosaint]

23 minutes ago, SmolSword said:

Were Columbia, Northwestern, and Princeton's neuro invitations sent out in a bulk email or directly from PIs?

For northwestern, I think it was sent in a bulk from the committee

[coffeeneuro]

23 minutes ago, SmolSword said:

Were Columbia, Northwestern, and Princeton's neuro invitations sent out in a bulk email or directly from PIs?

As far as I know. the email was from the head for Columbia, a PI from Princeton

[dotty]

3 hours ago, Neuro99 said:

I got my UChicago interview invitation last night! 

Congrats!!! Was this for the neurobiology program?? If so may i ask when the interview dates are?

[Neuro99]

Just now, dotty said:

Congrats!!! Was this for the neurobiology program?? If so may i ask when the interview dates are?

Yes! The dates are Jan 30/31 virtual. They may or may not still be calling applicants as I haven’t gotten the official email from the university yet, and they said it would take a few days. 

[dotty]

1 minute ago, Neuro99 said:

Yes! The dates are Jan 30/31 virtual. They may or may not still be calling applicants as I haven’t gotten the official email from the university yet, and they said it would take a few days. 

Oh word! Thanks for the response. Did a PI call you to tell you you're invited or was it the admission committee folk?

[Neuro99]

Just now, dotty said:

Oh word! Thanks for the response. Did a PI call you to tell you you're invited or was it the admission committee folk?

It was someone from the admission committee! I think they call everyone before the official email goes out 

[neurobrainiac]

Vanderbilt coming out today or tomorrow ?

[snorkmaiden]

To those of you who’ve emailed graduate admissions directors about interviews, what did you say? I’d like to ask a school whether interviews will come out on a rolling basis or all at once, but I’m worried about sounding neurotic (?).

[coffeeneuro]

1 hour ago, snorkmaiden said:

To those of you who’ve emailed graduate admissions directors about interviews, what did you say? I’d like to ask a school whether interviews will come out on a rolling basis or all at once, but I’m worried about sounding neurotic (?).

it’s just my personal opinion but i wouldn’t risk asking about it at this stage… I think the faculties remember individuals more than we think and I certainly wouldn’t want to come across impatient… although I also feel anxious waiting for the results.

[neurosciencePhD]

I'm feeling like there haven't been too many new updates here. I was wondering if anyone has received an interview from Brown NSGP (not NIH), UNC BBSP, Duke Neurobiology, Harvard BBS or Yale INP? If so, I was wondering what days these were received 

[lowestprime]

19 minutes ago, coffeeneuro said:

it’s just my personal opinion but i wouldn’t risk asking about it at this stage… I think the faculties remember individuals more than we think and I certainly wouldn’t want to come across impatient… although I also feel anxious waiting for the results.

Emailed earlier this week, they were very vague:

UCLA:

"Applications are currently being reviewed for the Fall 2023 cohort. If there are any updates regarding your application or interviews, our program will reach out to you directly."

Harvard (emailed general admissions, because the PiN contact was a specific person. I'll prob email her now):

"Some, but not all, of the 58 graduate programs of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences offer interviews. If you have questions, you may reach out to the contact for your program of interest to determine whether any further guidance is available."

 

Edited December 20, 2022 by lowestprime

[BartBot.EXE]

Not seen people talk about these programs much, so wanted to put out that I've heard from Virginia Tech, Emory, and Thomas Jefferson. No word yet from NYU, CSHL, or UPenn.