2014 Applicant Profiles and Admissions Results

[AhsumPahsum]

Given the amount of lurking I've done, I figured putting in my profile is only fair...

 

Undergrad Institution: Big Flagship in Midwest
Major(s): Biology, Anthropology
Minor(s): Math, Art
GPA in Major: 3.91
Overall GPA: 3.81
Position in Class: Near top, 10%?
Type of Student: Domestic white male

GRE Scores (revised/old version):
Q: 164
V: 165
W: 4.5
B: None


Research Experience: Graduate seminar in cultural phylogenetics (pub got rejected,) summer bioinformatics program, 1.5 years in current lab developing image processing tools, poster at international conference, 2nd author on paper, should have at least one first author before I leave.

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Dean's list all semesters, graduated with honors, Magna cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: See research experience? Unless they care about 2.5 years of working in a dining hall...

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help: I'm a hell of a painter!

Special Bonus Points: Recommenders connected to a few of the schools, but not especially well known.

Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter: Did well in PDE/Numerical Analysis type courses, good letters, boss says I operate like an advanced grad student.

Applying to Where:

UCSF - IPQB/Bioinformatics
University of Washington - Genome Sciences
Stanford - Biology/Biomedical Informatics

University of Pennsylvania - Genomics and Computational Biology

University of Michigan - PIBS/Human Genetics

MIT - CSBi

Boston University - BIoinformatics

Columbia University - Systems BIology

Edited December 13, 2013 by AhsumPahsum

[antibody89]

Hi...how do you determine if a program is extremely competitive or not?? 

[Leuco]

Hi...how do you determine if a program is extremely competitive or not?? 

Best advice I have is asking profs.  One of my professors seems to have a particularly good sense of how hard a program is to get into, and is a great source of advice in that sort of way.

[Azia]

I think it would help if everyone who is obsessively refreshing (including myself) realized a few things:

 

1. A very, VERY small subset of people who apply to bioscience programs post their stats and results on this thing, and they tend to be people confident enough with their numbers to post. Therefore your sample is skewed and there is no way to know if you'll get in anywhere based on the stats listed. Perspective: Many programs receive 500-1000 apps, and there are a great number of programs out there. So there are at least 10,000 people applying to US grad programs. We're not seeing that many posters within the bioscience results, more like a couple hundred at most every year.

 

2. It's not all about numbers anyway, they take people they like based on research experiences and fit and that magical x factor. Basically, they accept people who they think they can work with and who will be good at research.

 

3. Schools do whatever they want when it comes to notifying, and it varies year to year. They email people when they feel like it. I know people who have been admitted months after others heard back from interviews

 

4. If you submitted an app and haven't heard back in five days, it DOESN'T mean they hate you. People on admissions committees have other jobs and many apps to go through. Don't you want them to take their time reading apps carefully anyway?

 

In summary: Chill. Stop refreshing. Read a book. Watch some tv.

 

Sources: The many Ph.Ds I work with, faculty I have spoken to, grad students, and students who have applied and gotten into grad school.

Thank you pstar465! I posted my stats here but am at the bottom in rank compared to everyone. It's nice to hear that I'm not the only one who feels that grades and scores aren't everything that matters.

[RatsWithHats]

I got invites to MSU BMS-physiology (jan 9-12 or feb 20-23) and Emory GDBBS-BCDB (feb 20-23) this week

[Thesbane]

Got an invitation to Columbia for Cellular Molecular and Biomedical Studies program via email (interview dates: JANUARY 16-19, 2014). I am very excited for this!

[nns91]

Penn CAMB interview on Jan 30-Feb 1!!!! Really psyched

[username1824]

I know last year, the week before Christmas was a week when a ton of interviews were sent out. Hopefully that means a ton of good news for all of us next week

[perfectionist]

I know last year, the week before Christmas was a week when a ton of interviews were sent out. Hopefully that means a ton of good news for all of us next week

 

Do you mind if I ask why you applied to 17 schools? You obviously have good qualifications if you already have 5 interviews.

[elanorci]

Congrats to the many people who got interviews today!! 

Edited December 14, 2013 by elanorci

[immuno555]

University of Miami PIBS interview . Hello sunny South Florida!

[elanorci]

Congrats immuno! 

 

To anyone with familiarity with WashU admissions: I submitted my application at like 4 am on the 2nd. Do you think that will impact admissions?

[ab2003]

University of Miami PIBS interview . Hello sunny South Florida!

 

I thought the committee doesn't make decisions about who to invite until after Dec 15? The admissions reps told me that on two occasions, but oh well, maybe they told me wrong.

[Chimeric Phoenix]

Undergrad Institution: State school, largest medical school in the state.
Major(s): Bio
Minor(s):  Nope
GPA in Major: 2.6
Overall GPA: 3.2
Position in Class: average I'm guessing
Type of Student: male minority
Grad Institution: State school nobody knows about
Overall GPA: 3.8

 

GRE Scores (revised/old version):
Q: 159
V: 165
W: 4




Research Experience: Research for my MS, 1 year of research in undergrad

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Minority fellowship in grad school, won 2 awards for poster presentations in grad school, 1 public policy fellowship in undergrad

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Graduated with 2 years experience working in a lab, 2 years working as academic support in housing

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help: 2 abstracts at international meeting in hematology

Special Bonus Points: minority

Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter: cancer survivor with record of volunteering with cancer patients.

[LMac]

Yes, it is. I'm not sure if they have different committees for each sub-section, though. The person that called me said they were the director of admissions for Neuroscience =)

 

They are different departments under the GDBBS umbrella, so I doubt the interview invite timelines are connected

[immuno555]

I thought the committee doesn't make decisions about who to invite until after Dec 15? The admissions reps told me that on two occasions, but oh well, maybe they told me wrong.

Received email last night. focus area of immunology.

[NeuroGirl042]

University of Miami PIBS interview . Hello sunny South Florida!

 

Me too!!! I'm so excited =)

[ss2player]

Hey user Chimeric Phoenix, we met at ASH last week, Transplantation poster area! Congrats on your WashU interview, that's so exciting! Hope I also hear some good news soon.

[tcmazer]

Just submitted my last application, Health Science Center San Antonio.  Gah feels good to be done, but I still am nervous about waiting!

[RatsWithHats]

Hey guys, figure I'll go ahead and post my stats

Undergrad Institution: Flagship state research university
Major(s): Biochem
GPA in Major: 3.8

Overall GPA: 3.6
Position in Class: above average i guess

 

GRE Scores (revised/old version):
Q: 163
V: 160
W: 4.5




Research Experience: 4 years at graduation divided between 3 labs (including a funded summer program). One first author pub and a half dozen posters/meeting abstracts

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: a couple private scholarships for academic/research achievements 

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: TA experience,

Special Bonus Points: none really

[RatsWithHats]

Calls from UCSD and UT Austin this weekend! So excited, two of my top choices!

[byt2104]

Undergrad Institution: Ivy
Major(s): Biochemistry, Jewish History
Minor(s):
GPA in Major: 3.53
Overall GPA: 3.6
Position in Class: Middle of the pack
Type of Student: Male Canadian

GRE Scores (revised/old version):
Q: 165
V: 164
W: 5.5
B: N/A


TOEFL Total: N/A

Research Experience: 2 summers at UBC, 1 semester project lab class, 1 semester in cancer lab, starting full time as lab tech in January

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Some semesters on Deans' list

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: See above research

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help:

Special Bonus Points: Spent summers with Canada Research Chair, currently working for director of institute

Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter:

Applying to Where:

Columbia Pathobiology and Molecular Medicine (Interview offered 12/13/13)

NYU Sackler Open Program

Rockefeller

Mount Sinai Biomedical Sciences

Sloan-Kettering

Weill Cornell Immunology and Microbial Pathogenesis

Einstein

Edited December 15, 2013 by byt2104

[katethekitcat]

Has anyone heard about interviews from the University of Chicago? Someone had an interview notification in the results search about the molecular sciences, but they have quite a few "clusters" - trying to determine if all interview invites were sent out already.

[biotechie]

Every program has different committees looking at applications, so it probably varies for each one. It seems that at least some departments do sort of a rolling review of applications until the final deadline while others review all at once. Last year was the first year that they had two deadlines on December 1 and January 1. I applied there last year on Dec. 8th and was notified by December 20th.

[charlesxavier]

Has anyone heard about interviews from the University of Chicago? Someone had an interview notification in the results search about the molecular sciences, but they have quite a few "clusters" - trying to determine if all interview invites were sent out already.

I got a response from Chicago today, this is the program I applied for:

http://molbio.uchospitals.edu/index.php