2012 Applicant Profiles and Admission Results

[bluebla]

Just got rejected through email from the University of Washington- Genome Science. Is this program as competitive as Stanford Bioscience, UCSF tetrad, Scripps, USC PibS, UC Berkeley, Vanderbilt, UC Irvine, UC Davis MCB, Baylor School of Medicine, and UCLA Access? If so, then I would assume I will be rejected from these schools because it's already Jan. 17 and I have not heard from them yet. What do you think?

What program at Berkeley? Some sent out all invites already but some are still ongoing. Too bad about UW

Edited January 17, 2012 by bluebla

[OldGrad2012]

Im sorry UC Berkeley MCB? For the ones that are ongoing, are they waiting to decide for the second or third tier applicant pools?

[bluebla]

Im sorry UC Berkeley MCB? For the ones that are ongoing, are they waiting to decide for the second or third tier applicant pools?

Ahh, from what I heard, MCB sent out their invites before Christmas, I'm sorry But I didn't apply to that department, so maybe someone else has more definitive answers there! For the ones that are ongoing, I think they wait to see how many people respond by some set deadline that they give the first batch sent out to see if they can afford to invite more.

Edited January 17, 2012 by bluebla

[jjw017]

Does anyone know if MIT CSBi sent out all their interview invites already?

[ryanmor]

Got an invitation to Harvard OEB "recruitment weekend." yay!

Nice. I haven't heard anything from them yet so I guess I'm not getting an invite.....The prof I was talking to was unsure of his ability to take on a new student this year so I am not all that surprised.

Anyone heard from Yale EEB yet? Any other Botany/Plant Bio people hear back from any of their programs?

[jayeyesee]

Just got rejected through email from the University of Washington- Genome Science. Is this program as competitive as Stanford Bioscience, UCSF tetrad, Scripps, USC PibS, UC Berkeley, Vanderbilt, UC Irvine, UC Davis MCB, Baylor School of Medicine, and UCLA Access? If so, then I would assume I will be rejected from these schools because it's already Jan. 17 and I have not heard from them yet. What do you think?

UW is a very good and competitive program. I'm pretty sure all (or most) of the Stanford Biosciences Home Programs have sent out all of their interview invites. Also pretty sure UC Irvine CMB is done sending interview invites for both interview dates.

USC PIBBS is not done with invites yet. They even said they might add a fourth recruitment weekend depending on the applicant pool. I also called UCLA ACCESS last Thursday and they said they have not yet completed sending all of their invites yet... Now it could be that they have completed sending invites since then but I haven't seen anything "UCLA ACCESS" related pop up on gradcafe or CC so I'd still grab onto some hope. UCSF TETRAD seems like they are done (based on how invites were sent out last year).

Just because UW sent you a rejection, don't assume you've been rejected from everywhere else. Every school looks for different things and may have different criteria. For example, I got an interview at Stanford but got rejected from UW. I'd say both programs are pretty damn good... but just because I got an interview at one doesn't mean I should get an interview at another (this ain't undergrad).

[sarbruis]

Does anyone know if MIT CSBi sent out all their interview invites already?

Looks like it . In past years there are only invite results on gradcafe from one day. It's a small program, so I doubt they'll have multiple waves.

[sysbio]

Looks like it . In past years there are only invite results on gradcafe from one day. It's a small program, so I doubt they'll have multiple waves.

There was an interview posted today, the 17th. So looks like they're still sending invites.

http://thegradcafe.com/survey/index.php?q=MIT+CSB*&t=a

Edited January 18, 2012 by sysbio

[jjw017]

There was an interview posted today, the 17th. So looks like they're still sending invites.

http://thegradcafe.c...?q=MIT+CSB*&t=a

yep was wondering if they just sent it out in one wave earlier today.

[sarbruis]

Right; I was referring to the wave on the 17th. Looks like Berkeley BioE is done as well. Rough day (for some of us, anyway).

Sysbio: Who're you interested in at Northwestern? Which weekend are you going to?

Edited January 18, 2012 by sarbruis

[NeurosciNerd]

Aaaand...rejected from UCSD. Joy.

[Business2Biology]

Hi all!

I have been more than slightly intimidated by the other stats posted here, so have just been a lurker. HOWEVER, as the good news rolls in, here is my info. Perhaps this will encourage other "square pegs" out there:

Undergrad Institution: Univ of Colorado (class of 1991!) + post-bac California Junior College (2009-2011)

Major(s): Finance

Minor(s): International Business

GPA in Major: Undergrad: not really relevant or even calculated, but VERY poor. JC: 4.0

Overall GPA: Undergrad: 2.7. JC: 4.0

Type of Student: Domestic, "mature" female

GRE Scores (old version):

Q: 770 / 87%

V: 670 / 95%

W: 4.5 / 67%

Biology subject: 820 / 91%

Research Experience: Very minimal. No publications. No presentations.

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Biology tutor at the junior college. Heavy computer skills.

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help: 10 years of corporate IT, including senior-level management. Demonstrated ability to self-teach and desire to push myself.

Special Bonus Points: All LORs were extremely strong, with 1 LOR from successful PI at Big Name U, but in tangentially related field.

Applying to Where:

USC (MEB)

U of Miami (Rosenstiel, MBF)

U of Texas, Austin (Marine Science)

And, the great news is that I have received invites to ALL THREE PROGRAMS! :-)

[sysbio]

Rough day (for some of us, anyway).

Sysbio: Who're you interested in at Northwestern? Which weekend are you going to?

Yeah, rough day for me too. I wasn't surprised about not hearing from UCSD, but I thought I had a good chance at the IPQB program and even at Berkeley. No official rejections from those two, but no invites, so...

I'm headed to the first weekend. As for profs, it's hard to say as there are several with some level of overlap with my interests. Obviously I'm interested in systems biology, but there are aspects of synthetic biology that appeal to me, especially when they interrelate. I'm doing some more in-depth reading on their work and hope to gain more insight during interviews.

[emmm]

@Business2Biology

Congratulations! Sounds as though you did a lot of work to make the career switch possible :-) Nice to see that kind of effort recognized, especially when you're not a typical applicant.

Edited January 18, 2012 by emmm

[Pitangus]

Woo, that's great B2B! Good luck with your visits.

[olfactorybulb]

Aaaand...rejected from UCSD. Joy.

me too. I heard that they only accept one or two internationals. I guess I am not one of them...

[Business2Biology]

Thanks emmm and pitangus!

It certainly has been a strange and circuitous route to get here and, as observed by one PI, it has taken me longer than most. I suppose that once I make it through this process, I should actually become active on this forum; I can be the poster child of "Keep your spirits up even when you seem to have NOTHING of what the 'Ideal Candidate' looks like".

[goldenbuff]

I've posted a few times in this thread but I haven't really done the big "this is who I am and where I'm applying" post yet. I'm applying to schools in the Northeast and I'm primarily interested in cancer biology. I'm not exactly the ideal applicant numbers-wise (3.3 GPA, good General GRE, Mediocre Subject GRE) but I have a little over 4 years of total lab experience and I'm a cancer survivor (compelling personal statement) so I have a few redeeming qualities. That said, I was planning on swinging and missing on most (if not all) of the top tier schools I applied to but you have zero chance of getting in if you don't at least try. I thought I would post my list of schools, what I know about the status of my application, and my appraisal of my chances. I haven't actually gotten a single rejection yet though so most of this is speculation and secondhand gossip I've heard.

Interview:

UCONN Health Center (Biomedical Science): I haven't heard of more than one other person who's gotten an interview here yet but I'm pretty excited to know that I won't be left completely out in the cold this application season.

Programs I have given up on:

Harvard (Cancer Biology): Didn't get invited and they're done sending interviews

MIT (Biology): Seems like only one wave and I was not part of it

Programs I have pretty much given up on:

Rockefeller: I've heard that people have gotten invites and that some more will probably continue to trickle out but I'm not very hopeful for me personally.

Sloan Kettering: I have no idea what's going on here. I saw on the survey here that one person got an interview invite a few weeks ago but I think they were either trolling or an internal applicant. That said though, also according to the interview date thread, their interview weekend has already happened. I'm not really certain of anything but I don't think I've heard of any one else getting news from them.

Cornell Weill (Allied Programs): These started trickling out a few days ago but seem to have stopped. Perhaps there will be another wave?

Yale (BBS): Invites seem to have stopped flowing but I know that they review applications based on the track you apply to. I applied to Molecular Medicine Track and I haven't heard of anyone who's gotten an invite from them so I haven't counted them completely out.

Programs I'm still hopeful for:

UMASS Medical School (BBS): I've heard of a few invites coming out in the survey but they seem to be scattered and my application still says "Under Review" when I log into it.

Dartmouth (PEMM): I haven't heard of any interviews going out from them yet but their deadline was only January 15th. Also, I got an interview with Dartmouth MCB 3 years ago straight out of undergrad so I think I have a pretty good shot here even though I didn't end up getting offered back then, supposedly due to a lack of experience.

[aberrant]

Hi all!

I have been more than slightly intimidated by the other stats posted here, so have just been a lurker. HOWEVER, as the good news rolls in, here is my info. Perhaps this will encourage other "square pegs" out there:

Undergrad Institution: Univ of Colorado (class of 1991!) + post-bac California Junior College (2009-2011)

Major(s): Finance

Minor(s): International Business

GPA in Major: Undergrad: not really relevant or even calculated, but VERY poor. JC: 4.0

Overall GPA: Undergrad: 2.7. JC: 4.0

Type of Student: Domestic, "mature" female

GRE Scores (old version):

Q: 770 / 87%

V: 670 / 95%

W: 4.5 / 67%

Biology subject: 820 / 91%

Research Experience: Very minimal. No publications. No presentations.

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Biology tutor at the junior college. Heavy computer skills.

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help: 10 years of corporate IT, including senior-level management. Demonstrated ability to self-teach and desire to push myself.

Special Bonus Points: All LORs were extremely strong, with 1 LOR from successful PI at Big Name U, but in tangentially related field.

Applying to Where:

USC (MEB)

U of Miami (Rosenstiel, MBF)

U of Texas, Austin (Marine Science)

And, the great news is that I have received invites to ALL THREE PROGRAMS! :-)

congratulations. you just impressed me, a lot!

[PrescribedBurn]

Anyone heard from Yale EEB yet? Any other Botany/Plant Bio people hear back from any of their programs?

Got an e-mail from a POI from Yale EEB today about a phone interview/chat. He said that they just met for an application pre-screening today.

[cwt]

Anyone heard from UW-Madison Zoology or LMS?

[risingsun11801]

Undergrad Institution: Average State School

Major(s): Biology

Minor(s): Chemistry, Psychology

GPA in Major: 2.8

Overall GPA: 3.1

Position in Class: middle I think

Type of Student: domestic

GRE Scores (old version):

Q: 740 (86%)

V: 600 (80%)

W: 4.5 (67%)

Research Experience: A few months in 3 different undergrad labs; 2 years post-graduation with several abstracts, 1 pub; 1 year at current job

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Dean's list a few times- that's pretty much it

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: undergrad TA 1 quarter, several years FT research after college

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help: worked in industry a bit

Special Bonus Points:

Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter: I took several years off after undergrad to gain a lot more research experience to offset my low GPA. At the one interview I had so far, several interviewers mentioned my GPA, but didn't seem too concerned. One didn't even want to hear an explanation- just told me I should think of one for future interviews. BTW, my GPA had a huge increase at the end of my junior year- explained by taking classes I was more interested in, plus getting involved in research helped me understand course material much better.

My advice for those with lower stats is to gain more experience to really understand how research works. Most undergrads are shielding from the worst parts of politics and funding issues and troubleshooting for months. I should also mention that I took the GRE 5 years before, and my score jumped from 1210 to 1340 with almost no additional studying, other than maturing as a scientist.

[obot]

Accepted to UCSD Bioinformatics and Systems Biology today! Really pumped!

[glow_gene]

Thought I would finally post one of these just in case it's helpful to anyone:

Undergrad Institution: High-ranked but small liberal arts school

Major(s): Biology

Minor(s): Genomics concentration

GPA in Major: 3.51

Overall GPA: 3.53

Position in Class: erm...top 25%?

Type of Student: domestic

GRE Scores (new version):

Q: 161 (86%)

V: 166 (97%)

W: 4.5 (72%)

Research Experience: Been working in the same lab since the summer before my Junior year. (currently 3+ years of research). Also did one semester of research in haloarchaea genomics and a brief study in creating a new protocol for Xenopus neuronal staining

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Graduated cum laude with Honors in Biology, Beta Beta Beta Biological Honors Society

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Currently working as an HHMI Research and Teaching Assistant at my undergrad institution in the same lab where I researched/wrote my Honors thesis

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help:

Special Bonus Points: Several of my LOR writers are widely respected and (I believe) wrote me pretty excellent letters. I'm lucky to have had classes/research experience with them.

Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter: Audited several classes including Immunology, Biostats and Biochemistry, while working as a Research Assistant in addition to undergrad courses.

Application/interview info below in my sig.

Heading To WashU tomorrow! Kind of terrified but mostly excited

[sarbruis]

I'm headed to the first weekend. As for profs, it's hard to say as there are several with some level of overlap with my interests. Obviously I'm interested in systems biology, but there are aspects of synthetic biology that appeal to me, especially when they interrelate. I'm doing some more in-depth reading on their work and hope to gain more insight during interviews.

I'll be at the first weekend, too. And that's largely what I'm interested in as well, but mostly synthetic biology over systems biology (though you can't really have the former without the latter). Northwestern has a fairly sizable synbio group (Leonard, Jewett, and Tyo). Should be a fun, busy weekend. See you there.