2014 Applicant Profiles and Admissions Results

[Science_Nerd]

Thanks! 

 

 

 

Just curious, what was the interview at UPitt IBGP like?  I know its kind of vague question, but I was wondering since I'm going there for interview as well in few weeks.

[RR1]

Okay, thanks for calling.  Nice to have a timetable at least.

Just a heads up: Got official rejection from Northwestern DGP:

 

"The DGP Admissions Committee has now completed the review of all files from applicants within the USA.  The large number of applications (over 250) has made this a very long and difficult process.  I am sorry to inform you that the committee has chosen not to offer interviews to any more applicants for admission in Fall 2014, and we can therefore not consider your application further.

Officially, your admission decision will be recorded as "denied" by the Graduate School.  You can see the official status of your application at the Apply Yourself web site later. This is our only mechanism for closing your file.

Thank you for applying to our program and please accept our best wishes for a successful career at your chosen school."

[tcmazer]

Just a heads up: Got official rejection from Northwestern DGP:

 

"The DGP Admissions Committee has now completed the review of all files from applicants within the USA.  The large number of applications (over 250) has made this a very long and difficult process.  I am sorry to inform you that the committee has chosen not to offer interviews to any more applicants for admission in Fall 2014, and we can therefore not consider your application further.

Officially, your admission decision will be recorded as "denied" by the Graduate School.  You can see the official status of your application at the Apply Yourself web site later. This is our only mechanism for closing your file.

Thank you for applying to our program and please accept our best wishes for a successful career at your chosen school."

 

Yeah.  Same email. 

[Signal transduction]

Anyone else at Penn CAMB this weekend?

Hi nns91 I was wondering if your UMass med interview was in January, and if so, how was it, if you don't mind sharing. Is your program there is BBS? I'm waiting to hear from them, hence the curiousity!

[aba1984]

Is any one still waiting to hear from University of Houston, Graduate school of biomedical sciences? I have not hear back from them yet. I dont know if this getting close to rejection. I had been trying to email them couple of times and have not heard back from them yet. 

 

I haven't heard from them either. Kinda strange that I was invited to Baylor but not there...thought it would be the other way around.

 

I left a voicemail for the director (Karen) and will let you know if I hear anything. 

[hopefulengineer]

Yeah.  Same email. 

 

Just a heads up: Got official rejection from Northwestern DGP:

 

"The DGP Admissions Committee has now completed the review of all files from applicants within the USA.  The large number of applications (over 250) has made this a very long and difficult process.  I am sorry to inform you that the committee has chosen not to offer interviews to any more applicants for admission in Fall 2014, and we can therefore not consider your application further.

Officially, your admission decision will be recorded as "denied" by the Graduate School.  You can see the official status of your application at the Apply Yourself web site later. This is our only mechanism for closing your file.

Thank you for applying to our program and please accept our best wishes for a successful career at your chosen school."

 

Got the same one..hard to tell if we didn't meet the criteria or if they just didn't get to our applications in the pile..good luck with your others!

[aba1984]

If you get an acceptance after your pre-interview but the acceptance letter only gives you a few days to respond, how do you politely tell them that you would like to take more time to decide? I don't exactly want to sound rude by calling them out on the April 15 date since this is my current school and I don't want to burn any bridges, but I still would like to indirectly imply that they should give me more time since this is an important decision for me. Any advice? Did any of you have this situation?

[tcmazer]

Got the same one..hard to tell if we didn't meet the criteria or if they just didn't get to our applications in the pile..good luck with your others!

 

Thanks, you too!

Edited February 4, 2014 by tcmazer

[nns91]

Hi nns91 I was wondering if your UMass med interview was in January, and if so, how was it, if you don't mind sharing. Is your program there is BBS? I'm waiting to hear from them, hence the curiousity!

Hey, I did apply for BBS. The interviews were extremely casual. It was my first one so I came in pretty nervous but after the first one, everything turned into casual convos about science. They love talking about their science so 30 mins will fly by really quickly. The grad students were very honest too so it was helpful to hear from their perspective. In general, it was a good experience. The only thing is that they put everything on Friday so it could get exhausting (there is a dinner on Thursday evening as well).

[Signal transduction]

Hey, I did apply for BBS. The interviews were extremely casual. It was my first one so I came in pretty nervous but after the first one, everything turned into casual convos about science. They love talking about their science so 30 mins will fly by really quickly. The grad students were very honest too so it was helpful to hear from their perspective. In general, it was a good experience. The only thing is that they put everything on Friday so it could get exhausting (there is a dinner on Thursday evening as well).

Thanks nns91 for sharing your experience. I hope to hear from them soon. Good luck to you for your other interviews!

[somanyphage]

Just a heads up: Got official rejection from Northwestern DGP:

 

"The DGP Admissions Committee has now completed the review of all files from applicants within the USA.  The large number of applications (over 250) has made this a very long and difficult process.  I am sorry to inform you that the committee has chosen not to offer interviews to any more applicants for admission in Fall 2014, and we can therefore not consider your application further.

Officially, your admission decision will be recorded as "denied" by the Graduate School.  You can see the official status of your application at the Apply Yourself web site later. This is our only mechanism for closing your file.

Thank you for applying to our program and please accept our best wishes for a successful career at your chosen school."

 

got the same rejection letter. pretty bummed, i really had my hopes on it.

[hopefulengineer]

First acceptance to Emory's cancer biology! Came on a great day when WashU and Northwestern both sent out rejections.

[MackF]

First acceptance to Emory's cancer biology! Came on a great day when WashU and Northwestern both sent out rejections.

Congratulations!

[Activationenergy]

MackF,

 

when did you hear from Pitt MCDB? I haven't heard anything from them, and I'm beginning to think I am rejected as well....

[mvp713]

Preparing as well as possible and getting more and more anxious about the UTSW interview this weekend.

 

I love my project, can talk a lot about the science involved (rationale, current published literature, techniques i'm using, and future directions)...yet i am still pretty nervous.

[TheCubaLibre]

Earlier today, I called the BBSP office at UNC-Chapel Hill to inquire about my application status. The lady who picked up the phone (Sue) said ALL the interview invitations have been sent out for the BBSP training programs and informed me I was rejected. She also said that many applicants will not receive formal notification of rejection for several weeks, mentioning some crap about how it will come through the UNC graduate school. I was betting on an interview invitation from UNC-CH, and am very disappointed in the outcome. On another note, does anyone know if UTSW is done sending out interview invitations? Also, I applied to a joint molecular biophysics and structural biology program between Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University. Has anyone received any news from that program? Thx

[Sulay Patel]

I haven't heard from them either. Kinda strange that I was invited to Baylor but not there...thought it would be the other way around.

 

I left a voicemail for the director (Karen) and will let you know if I hear anything. 

I had left voice mail to karen. I have not heard anything from them. It is just making me nervous that it might turn out into rejection. I had called admissions office and they said karen is busy with interviews.

[aba1984]

Earlier today, I called the BBSP office at UNC-Chapel Hill to inquire about my application status. The lady who picked up the phone (Sue) said ALL the interview invitations have been sent out for the BBSP training programs and informed me I was rejected. She also said that many applicants will not receive formal notification of rejection for several weeks, mentioning some crap about how it will come through the UNC graduate school. I was betting on an interview invitation from UNC-CH, and am very disappointed in the outcome. On another note, does anyone know if UTSW is done sending out interview invitations? Also, I applied to a joint molecular biophysics and structural biology program between Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University. Has anyone received any news from that program? Thx

 

You know, I think these final interview dates will not make sense to us sometimes. As I said before (esp. with the snow storms and strange weather), I'm sure some of us will get rejections not because we were not qualified, but because we were in that final stack of applications they couldn't get to. It sucks if you paid for an application fee, but that's why we apply to so many schools. Congrats on the Minnesota interview. That's an awesome school - went there to visit last summer and it was a really nice campus. That place was huuuuuge and they have this supercool art building!

[RR1]

Hey guys,

 

quick question for those that are more well informed about the interview process. When I requested to meet with a few faculty members for the interview, a couple of them were on the finalized list whilst 2 others were added. Does this mean that the others I requested are not interested/dont have spots or could it have just been a scheduling issue and I could approach them if and when I get admitted.

 

Thanks in advance!

[0908]

Hey guys,

 

quick question for those that are more well informed about the interview process. When I requested to meet with a few faculty members for the interview, a couple of them were on the finalized list whilst 2 others were added. Does this mean that the others I requested are not interested/dont have spots or could it have just been a scheduling issue and I could approach them if and when I get admitted.

 

Thanks in advance!

   Its usually a scheduling issue. Maybe those faculty were not available on that specific interview weekend. Or they were busy. Just approach them later if you get admitted.

[Monochrome Spring]

Hey guys,

 

quick question for those that are more well informed about the interview process. When I requested to meet with a few faculty members for the interview, a couple of them were on the finalized list whilst 2 others were added. Does this mean that the others I requested are not interested/dont have spots or could it have just been a scheduling issue and I could approach them if and when I get admitted.

 

Thanks in advance!

I'll add to what wolbachia said. Sometimes, professors only have a certain number of students that they can meet on a given interview weekend. You just may have just not have made it into their slots.

[jl2782]

Hey guys,

 

quick question for those that are more well informed about the interview process. When I requested to meet with a few faculty members for the interview, a couple of them were on the finalized list whilst 2 others were added. Does this mean that the others I requested are not interested/dont have spots or could it have just been a scheduling issue and I could approach them if and when I get admitted.

 

Thanks in advance!

I was wondering the exact same thing when I received my interview schedule. Well I'm just going to go ahead and prepare as if I'm going to meet with all five of them. Good luck during your interviews:-)

[nermah1]

I was wondering the exact same thing when I received my interview schedule. Well I'm just going to go ahead and prepare as if I'm going to meet with all five of them. Good luck during your interviews:-)

I am wondering, too. Some of interviewrs are my PI but some are not.

In an extreme case, entire interviewrs are the ones that I did not mention in SOP.

[LMac]

Often the additional interviewers are on the admissions committee

[sqxz]

I was supposed to fly to Princeton today for my interview (not the main weekend - I'm visiting on my own since I couldn't make any of those) and lo and behold there is a snowstorm in Newark! My flight is 3 hours (and still no word yet in departure) delayed, and I was supposed to go to a really cool departmental meeting tonight

I have learned a valuable lesson: when picking interview flights, especially in the Northeast and especially during winter, be sure to get in as early as possible! I picked an afternoon flight so I could make my morning class, but in retrospect it wasn't worth it

 

Have you made it out yet? I'm going to Princeton on Thursday. I just barely made it out to St. Louis last week, and I don't want a repeat this week.