2015 Applicant Profiles and Admissions Results

[tito balisimo]

I felt ethically obligated to answer "yes" and explain on the app that directly asked about any incidents. For schools that did not ask, I did not mention or explain it. But I'm not sure what to do about an app that does not directly ask "yes or no", but does provide a space to explain any situations.

You are in a catch-22 situation. If you are honest, there is a good chance it will negatively affect you, and if you omit the information and they find out it's probably automatic termination. If we are going by academic honesty and integrity, than you can put it in your app. They may even think you are a better person now because of it, who knows? Or, it will hurt you for trust reasons. I don't know it's hard. I wish I could give more insight, but I think go with your instinct on this.

Edited November 30, 2014 by Ted Binsky

[shadowclaw]

I labeled it as a academic probation because the poster in question said he was placed on probation and that the resulting incident had something to do with asking/posting a homework-related question through social media. 

 

In case I was not previously clear,  I am in agreement with your second paragraph.  

 

If it is not reported on the transcript, then yes they can ask.  However, if it is not reported on the transcript then the school has to inform you of the request.  You can say yes, or you can say no, to the request.  The school cannot not move forward until you sign off or deny access. 

 

They probably would not ask unless they have suspicion to do so.  

 

I think the issue of clarity has to do with it being very late and me staring at the computer all day working on my thesis and grad school apps.

 

I get what you're saying about cheating and academic probation, but cheating falls under the category of a disciplinary infraction. Academic probation and dismissal are the result of poor grades only, while disciplinary probation and dismissal result from breaking some code of conduct.

 

Also, I believe your statement that chibimolinero will have to sign off on any requests is incorrect. There is a nice summary of FERPA on the US Department of Education's website, and it essentially says that a school can release your student records to a school which you are applying for enrollment without your consent. It does say that they must notify you about this (either in the school's annual notification of rights or by way of e-mail, snail mail, etc. if it's not listed in that notification), but there is no requirement for you to sign off on it because they do not need your consent. So chibimolinero may or may not get a notification. If the school lists this policy in the notification of rights, then there's no way to know if any grad schools have requested the record. Either way, there isn't a way to stop the grad school from receiving it. However, FERPA does require your school to let you know what information was sent if you request it, so you could in theory find out if any grad schools having requested your student record.

 

[chibimolinero]

An update: I finally heard back from my academic adviser, and she told me that the information will never be released without my knowledge and consent. Records are sealed and it won't show up on any documents needed for applications. In fact, no one on campus knows about academic misconduct other than COAM. So that's a relief to hear.

 

On another note, Happy December 1st, everyone! I feel like it's acceptable now to obsessively check emails and application statuses.

Edited December 1, 2014 by chibimolinero

[tuckbro]

This is the hardest time I think - waiting to hear.  Just focus on finals and the holidays, if you celebrate, and soon results will start to come in.  By in large, inteview invitations came out from mid Dec to end of Jan.  Many of mine were the first week in January.

[Vene]

On another note, Happy December 1st, everyone! I feel like it's acceptable now to obsessively check emails and application statuses.

I doubt any professors will be examining applicants until after finals are over and their grades are submitted.

[GABA-daba-doo]

Does anyone know if it is possible to send in updates to your application? It looks as though I will have two additional manuscripts that will be submitted in the next two weeks. 

[Chrissymisha]

Does anyone know if it is possible to send in updates to your application? It looks as though I will have two additional manuscripts that will be submitted in the next two weeks. 

 

I'm in the same situation. I only found out about the manuscript submission after I had already submitted a few applications including one of my top choices. I emailed the contact person for the program, but I've been passed around from the graduate school to the recruiter for my specific program. Apparently it's really difficult to make changes to the online form once submitted, but I sent my updated CV so hopefully someone will eventually agree to print it out and slip it in. I would go ahead and give it a shot. It can't hurt, and you might get lucky.

[GABA-daba-doo]

I'm in the same situation. I only found out about the manuscript submission after I had already submitted a few applications including one of my top choices. I emailed the contact person for the program, but I've been passed around from the graduate school to the recruiter for my specific program. Apparently it's really difficult to make changes to the online form once submitted, but I sent my updated CV so hopefully someone will eventually agree to print it out and slip it in. I would go ahead and give it a shot. It can't hurt, and you might get lucky.

 

Great, thanks! I will try sending an updated CV as well. I have submitted all of my applications, but I don't think any will start reviewing until tomorrow

[gliaful]

Great, thanks! I will try sending an updated CV as well. I have submitted all of my applications, but I don't think any will start reviewing until tomorrow

We're applying to five of the same programs!

I have yet to experience this degree of similarity with anyone else on here.

 

OHSU was very responsive when I emailed them, but try the lorgrad@ohsu.edu email AND ngp@ohsu.edu. I had quicker replies from lorgrad.

[Crucial BBQ]

Does anyone know if it is possible to send in updates to your application? It looks as though I will have two additional manuscripts that will be submitted in the next two weeks. 

Not sure about neuroscience, but for my field it seems that it is okay to send updates as needed as long as the updates are important to your application and have occurred after you hit submit (final semester grades for those graduating in December, new GRE scores, for example).  

[Chrissymisha]

Not sure about neuroscience, but for my field it seems that it is okay to send updates as needed as long as the updates are important to your application and have occurred after you hit submit (final semester grades for those graduating in December, new GRE scores, for example).  

 

As an update, If I'm reading the e-mail correctly, I think that my updated CV will be considered since I sent it to the head of admissions and she was given permission to include it in the review, but they are unable to fix it online (which I don't care about as long as they get to see it). I think it helped that the deadline hadn't passed yet, so it was just a case of my procrastination not kicking in for that one. Like I said, give it a shot, but you might have to talk to a few people. 

[Appsitude]

Does anyone know if it is possible to send in updates to your application? It looks as though I will have two additional manuscripts that will be submitted in the next two weeks. 

 

I did this last year and had no problems, if that helps. If you have a significant change that could help you, make sure to report it!! It can allow you to be re-evaluated before (or after) interviews.

[notsaxophones]

Undergrad Institution: Big 10
Major(s): Microbiology BS
Minor(s): Chemistry, Spanish
GPA in Major: 4.0 (Scale: 4.0)
Overall GPA: 4.0
Position in Class: Top? Depends on if rank depends on how many credits taken and level of credits taken.
Type of Student: Domestic, female 

GRE Scores (revised):
Q: 167, 94%
V: 163, 92%
W: 5.5, 98%
B: N/A


Research Experience: At my school, since the summer before my freshman year (so, a little over 4 years by graduation). Full-time in the summers, my program requires 10 hours per week during the school year but I am always in lab. I am in a microbial (bacterial) genetics lab, and have an independent project. I am working on writing a first author manuscript on a three or five author paper (depends on if we publish data from a collaboration I had with another institute). I hope to publish this by graduation. I am also doing an honors thesis on this research (because, why not).

 

I have given 5 poster presentations, 4 through my undergrad research program and 1 at our departmental seminar, for which I won best undergrad poster.

 

I have given two talks, one at an international (if a mexican lab attending makes a conference international) conference, and one at our microbiology weekly departmental seminar. Only a handful of undergrads have talked at the seminar, I was the only undergrad to give a talk at the conference.

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Multiple academic scholarships, including those for "grade stats" and some for a study abroad program. Member of two undergrad research programs that accept <20 high school seniors each year. "Executive" Deans list, meaning GPA is above 3.8 or something like that. Will be inducted in Phi Beta Kappa next week (Can anyone tell me if this is "worth anything", or if it is just another "pay membership fees for a resume builder" type of thing? My university is covering my membership fees so I felt like I might as well do it)

Special Bonus Points: Not sure if this would go here, but I mentored a high school student last summer in the lab, teaching him how to do microbiology benchwork. I also applied for an NSF grant, which I won't know the results of before I interview but hey, at least I tried - my goal with that is to hopefully improve my chances of getting the grant in the future because I will have feedback from the NSF committees and will have a better handle on how applying for a grant works. (Did not mention the grant in my applications)

 

 

Applying to Where: 

 

For all Universities, my research interest is studying basic biology in bacteria. Specifically, I am interested in microbial nanomachines and bacterial interactions, but I also am interested in molecular genetics and things like transcription and translation.

University of Wisconsin-Madison - Microbiology
The Ohio State University - Microbiology
University of Washington - MCB

University of Washington - Microbiology

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign - MCB

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Getting ready for the 2015 application season!

(Planning to Apply): Wisconsin-Madison, Ohio State, U of Washington MCB, U of Washington Microbiology, U of Illinois MCB

(Applied: 4/5): Wisconsin-Madison, Ohio State, U of Washington MCB, U of Washington Microbiology

(Accepted: 0/5)

(Rejected: 0/5)

(Attending: 0/1)

[Bonez]

Does anyone know if it is possible to send in updates to your application? It looks as though I will have two additional manuscripts that will be submitted in the next two weeks. 

 

If you think you will get the manuscripts back for revision soon after submission, then maybe you should wait until after you've heard back from the journal to notify the graduate coordinator of the change. I know that some of the Elsevier journals have a really quick response time for review--like 1-2 weeks. If you think it will take longer, I'd let the programs know about the manuscripts as soon as you submit them.  My reasoning is that it looks better to have a paper "in revision" then just "submitted". At least the graduate committee will know the paper was good enough to be reviewed.  

[Owlet]

Undergrad Institution: National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan (top 3 schools in Taiwan)
Major(s): Psychology & Life Sciences (double major)
GPA in Major: Psychology: 4.0/4.0; Life Sciences: 3.9/4.0
Overall GPA: 3.96
Position in Class: 1/56
Type of Student: Female, US citizen, undergraduate

GRE Scores (revised)
Q: 168 (95%)
V: 159 (81%) (afraid this might be too low)
W: 4.0 (56%)

 

TOEFL iBT: (overall: 113)

R: 28/30

L: 29/30

S: 30/30

W: 26/30

Research Experience:

Undergraduate research assistant for three years

2 government funded undergraduate research grants based upon proposals I wrote

Poster presentation in 2014 Vision Sciences Society

1 first-authored paper published in Journal of Vision

Multiple domestic conference poster presentations

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: 

Outstanding student award *3 (top 10% highest GPA in class each academic year)

President Wei-Nong Wang Memorial Scholarship (top 9 students in the university)

Foundation for the Advancement of Outstanding Scholarship Travel Grant

National Cheng Kung University Travel Award

Teaching experience:

TA in fMRI laboratory

Student lecturer in a psychology camp for high school students

Special Bonus Points: 

Attended York University Centre for Vision Research Summer School

 

Technical Skills:

Matlab, Psychtoolbox

Matlab, Neuroelf

BrainVoyager QX

E-PRIME

Applying to Where:
Duke -- Cognitive Neuroscience Admitting Program

Duke -- Psychology & Neuroscience

UC Berkeley: Neuroscience

UCSF: Neuroscience

Yale: Psychology

Stanford: Psychology

MIT: Brain and Cognitive Sciences

Brown: Cognitive, Linguistic, and Psychological Sciences

Johns Hopkins: Psychological and Brain Sciences

 

Backup plans if I don't get in:

Find a research assistant job for 1-2 years and apply again

Suggestions?

[GABA-daba-doo]

Thanks for everyone's help! I am sending an updated resume to all of the schools I applied to

[ballwera]

If your application says incomplete at Case (BSTP), don't freak out. Apparently they were overwhelmed with the number of applications that were received. Admissions said it could take a day or two for the application to update!

Edited December 2, 2014 by ballwera

[lilbert5]

Undergrad Institution: Large private research institution
Major(s): Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Minor(s): Spanish
GPA in Major: 3.52 (Scale: 4.0)
Overall GPA: 3.66.
Type of Student: Domestic, male

GRE Scores (revised):
Q: 163, 86%
V: 156, 71%
W: 4.0, 56%

Research Experience: Have done two summers of research in different chemistry labs, one during high school and one after my freshman year of college. I have worked for the past year and a half in a molecular biology lab testing a small molecule inhibitor of liver cancer in mice and simultaneously working on my honors senior thesis. 

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Member of the honors college of my university. Three-time recipient of a student research award by my school's undergraduate research program. On the dean's list every semester. 

LORs: One from my PI, one from the director of the honors program, and one from a science professor. My PI is very well known in her field and has worked at both Harvard and MIT. I am confident that she will write me a very strong letter. 

 

 

Applying to Where: 

 

For all Universities, my research interest is the forefront between the hard sciences and medicine. I am specifically interested in cancer research, and therefore have applied to PhD programs in the biomedical sciences:

 

Sloan-Kettering
Mount Sinai

NYU Sackler

Columbia Biomedical Sciences

Rockefeller

UPenn

Johns-Hopkins

GW joint program with NIH

UMiami

 

I have no idea what my chances are! Any thoughts?

[Bonez]

lilbert5-

 

I think your stats are good and you have a competitive application at any of those schools. Keep in mind that all of the schools you're applying to are extremely competitive and even strong applicants might not get in or even get interviews. It might be in your interest to include a few mid-tier schools that still fit your research interest. I vaguely recall someone mentioning Ohio State as a good school for cancer research...maybe check that out?

[lilbert5]

lilbert5-

 

I think your stats are good and you have a competitive application at any of those schools. Keep in mind that all of the schools you're applying to are extremely competitive and even strong applicants might not get in or even get interviews. It might be in your interest to include a few mid-tier schools that still fit your research interest. I vaguely recall someone mentioning Ohio State as a good school for cancer research...maybe check that out?

 

Really? I didn't think miami, upenn, or GW were that competitive. The only top-10 school in my list is Johns Hopkins. Originally I was only applying to the 5 NYC schools and then my advisers told me what you just told me so I added the other four. Even if they are competitive I should at least get into 1 out of 9, right? I am also very personable so I think that if I get interviews I'll have a pretty good shot. 

[ss2player]

Really? I didn't think miami, upenn, or GW were that competitive. The only top-10 school in my list is Johns Hopkins. Originally I was only applying to the 5 NYC schools and then my advisers told me what you just told me so I added the other four. Even if they are competitive I should at least get into 1 out of 9, right? I am also very personable so I think that if I get interviews I'll have a pretty good shot. 

 

Penn is super competitive, don't kid yourself (also don't mix it up with Penn State!). Miami is less so, no idea about GW, but I would think the NIH would have high standards. Also rankings don't mean much; the US News were made by polling professors, and only 9% responded. It was based on no metric, just their opinion. (http://www.usnews.com/education/best-graduate-schools/articles/2014/03/10/methodology-2015-best-science-schools-rankings) 

 

I don't put much stock in that!

Edited December 3, 2014 by ss2player

[lilbert5]

Penn is super competitive, don't kid yourself (also don't mix it up with Penn State!). Miami is less so, no idea about GW, but I would think the NIH would have high standards. Also rankings don't mean much; the US News were made by polling professors, and only 9% responded. It was based on no metric, just their opinion. (http://www.usnews.com/education/best-graduate-schools/articles/2014/03/10/methodology-2015-best-science-schools-rankings) 

 

I don't put much stock in that!

 

So then how is one supposed to know how competitive a given school is?

[gliaful]

So then how is one supposed to know how competitive a given school is?

There is no definitive list, but you can check the gradcafe Results Search for a school and look at the self-reported admissions/rejections.

And you can go here: http://www.petersons.com/graduate-schools.aspx

and search for your program of interest. Admission rates for Fall 2014 are listed for most of the schools I looked at.

[person5811]

So then how is one supposed to know how competitive a given school is?

If you go to the FAQ section for each school you applied to, it will most likely have the number of applications they expect to receive (or received the previous year) and how many they are likely to accept. Sometimes they also post average GRE scores and GPAs for their last incoming grad student class. You can get a rough idea of how competitive that program is in that way. I think that's actually going to be faster than the webstie pasteltomato recommended (I just visited it).

I have gone to the FAQ section for some of my schools and they pretty much correlate with the info that you see in the News & World Report rankings. The schools ranked the highest there have the lowest acceptance rates, and highest average GRE and GPA scores. I wouldn't actually think that NWR can discrimate between a school that is #3 vs. #4, but I've seen that they are pretty accurate in saying that the braket of #1-10 is more competitive than the braket #20-30.

[thelionqueen]

Undergrad Institution: Large private research institution (Top 50)
Major(s): Biology
Minor(s): Ethics
GPA in Major: probably around 3.8
Overall GPA: 3.89
Position in Class: Not sure
Type of Student: Domestic, female 

GRE Scores (revised):
Q: 160, 78%
V: 166, 96%
W: 5.5, 98%
B: Didn't take


Research Experience:

2 summer research internships at biochemistry lab during high school

Two semesters working in a microbiology lab at my university 

One semester working on a independent research project under another prof at my university (got funding for this project from a special grant for undergrads, and presented poster from this at a undergrad conference, and at my school's research symposium)

1 year research position at Harvard School of Public Health. 8 months full time (I took a semester off school to do this internship), and 4 months part time (while taking classes). Co-presented 1 poster at a conference, and 1 first-author paper in a (low-impact) journal

 

 

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: 

Nothing major. Received an research award for funding for my independent project. Named runner-up for an Outstanding Research Award at my school research symposium. Received community service award and a travel scholarship award.

Special Bonus Points: Rec letter from very well-known microbiologist (who was the PI in the microbiology lab I worked in).

Lots of volunteer work with science outreach programs.

 

Applying to Where: 

Interested in ecological and environmental microbiology

 

MIT Microbiology

Cornell Microbiology

University of Washington-Seattle Microbiology

University of Wisconsin-Madison Microbiology

UC Davis Microbiology

UC Berkeley Microbiology

Georgia Tech Biology

 

 

 

I'm reading everyone's awesome stats and it's making me nervous! Good luck to us all