PASD693 Posted January 10, 2016 Posted January 10, 2016 Hi all- did anyone here apply to Systems Biology at Columbia? I received emails from three of the professors I selected to interview with- essentially, they each said that they were looking forward to meeting me and offered to answer any questions. All of my prior email communication with Columbia has been through the graduate coordinator, so I was wondering if anyone else had received similar emails. Thanks!
political Posted January 10, 2016 Posted January 10, 2016 (edited) 4 hours ago, PASD693 said: Hi all- did anyone here apply to Systems Biology at Columbia? I received emails from three of the professors I selected to interview with- essentially, they each said that they were looking forward to meeting me and offered to answer any questions. All of my prior email communication with Columbia has been through the graduate coordinator, so I was wondering if anyone else had received similar emails. Thanks! I haven't gotten any emails from faculty, but my interview is in February so I may get some later. Edited January 10, 2016 by political
PASD693 Posted January 11, 2016 Posted January 11, 2016 2 hours ago, political said: I haven't gotten any emails from faculty, but my interview is in February so I may get some later. Thanks for letting me know!
Edotdl Posted January 11, 2016 Posted January 11, 2016 Alright, I know this has been talked about before, but now with more interview invites coming out, is anyone one else becoming worried about missing too many classes? I know grades aren't really *that* critical anymore, but still...
laxgoal100 Posted January 11, 2016 Posted January 11, 2016 4 minutes ago, Edotdl said: Alright, I know this has been talked about before, but now with more interview invites coming out, is anyone one else becoming worried about missing too many classes? I know grades aren't really *that* critical anymore, but still... I guess I am more worried about what the next 5-7 years of my life are going to look like instead of the second to last quarter of classes of my undergraduate. I know we are all conditioned to worried about our grades but you are right, at this point it simply does not matter. Plus, my professors are more than understanding because this is what they hope for - to send students to grad school. ultravioletblack and gyrase 2
adiJ Posted January 11, 2016 Posted January 11, 2016 13 minutes ago, Edotdl said: Alright, I know this has been talked about before, but now with more interview invites coming out, is anyone one else becoming worried about missing too many classes? I know grades aren't really *that* critical anymore, but still... I didn't even care about my last quarter's grades, it should be fine and as long as you manage time well you can still scrape C's and graduate. (if you don't you're pretty fucked heh)
biosci Posted January 11, 2016 Posted January 11, 2016 34 minutes ago, Edotdl said: Alright, I know this has been talked about before, but now with more interview invites coming out, is anyone one else becoming worried about missing too many classes? I know grades aren't really *that* critical anymore, but still... YES! I know I shouldn't worry so much, but I have worked so hard for my GPA and want to finish strong. also eyeing some school awards... Extra Espresso 1
Extra Espresso Posted January 11, 2016 Posted January 11, 2016 On 12/18/2015 at 11:24 AM, HopefulPHD14 said: I found a spelling/biology mistake in one of mine like 3 days after submitting it! I had a massive brain fart and instead of saying genera (pl. genus) I said genre (like music or movies or whatever). I know.... I am so stupid.... I told my PI and he basically told me I was an idiot. Also, it was in the SOP for my top choice! Luckily the school allowed me to upload new copies of my SOP until they reviewed it. I had a massive freak out when I saw that. What's even worse is that not only did I miss that mistake when editing, but two of my friends in grad school and 2 other friends with BS degrees in Bio also missed it.... This. So much this.
Edotdl Posted January 11, 2016 Posted January 11, 2016 39 minutes ago, laxgoal100 said: I guess I am more worried about what the next 5-7 years of my life are going to look like instead of the second to last quarter of classes of my undergraduate. I know we are all conditioned to worried about our grades but you are right, at this point it simply does not matter. Plus, my professors are more than understanding because this is what they hope for - to send students to grad school. 31 minutes ago, adiJ said: I didn't even care about my last quarter's grades, it should be fine and as long as you manage time well you can still scrape C's and graduate. (if you don't you're pretty fucked heh) 10 minutes ago, biosci said: YES! I know I shouldn't worry so much, but I have worked so hard for my GPA and want to finish strong. also eyeing some school awards... I completely agree, biosci. Although you can argue that grades don't matter anymore and interviews/visits are more important, it would be a shame to lose your 4.0/summa/magna/etc. your last semester. Additionally, GPA will still be slightly relevant if you plan on applying for fellowships after you start grad school. I have 2 more required classes, so I'm just praying that attendance doesn't count and I'll be able to manage while missing half the lectures... laxgoal100 1
Edotdl Posted January 11, 2016 Posted January 11, 2016 11 minutes ago, Extra Espresso said: This. So much this. I've seen you post about the BME/BioE dilemma, and tbh I think you'll be fine. Although it probably doesn't leave the best impression (if they even notice), I doubt it would be a deciding factor for admissions. If they really had to choose between two candidates, I'd think they would look at LORs, research experience, etc. before nitpicking about a few typos. Extra Espresso 1
biotechie Posted January 11, 2016 Posted January 11, 2016 1 minute ago, Edotdl said: I completely agree, biosci. Although you can argue that grades don't matter anymore and interviews/visits are more important, it would be a shame to lose your 4.0/summa/magna/etc. your last semester. Additionally, GPA will still be slightly relevant if you plan on applying for fellowships after you start grad school. I have 2 more required classes, so I'm just praying that attendance doesn't count and I'll be able to manage while missing half the lectures... You guys should let your professors/TA's know you'll be missing classes as far ahead of time as possible and why... then you'll know ahead of time how badly your attendance will hurt you. I missed courses during my M.S. for interviews, and even the class where attendance was mandatory let me off for them. In addition, since I was also teaching, I had to make arrangements for a substitute.
miky Posted January 11, 2016 Posted January 11, 2016 21 minutes ago, Extra Espresso said: This. So much this. 9 minutes ago, Edotdl said: I've seen you post about the BME/BioE dilemma, and tbh I think you'll be fine. Although it probably doesn't leave the best impression (if they even notice), I doubt it would be a deciding factor for admissions. If they really had to choose between two candidates, I'd think they would look at LORs, research experience, etc. before nitpicking about a few typos. Yep. A friend of mine submitted the same SOP to all his schools, changing only the school name and the POI names, or at least that's what he thought. He forgot to change the university name in one part of all his SOPs, including the one he submitted to Stanford. He still got an interview at Stanford. Extra Espresso 1
Edotdl Posted January 11, 2016 Posted January 11, 2016 5 minutes ago, biotechie said: You guys should let your professors/TA's know you'll be missing classes as far ahead of time as possible and why... then you'll know ahead of time how badly your attendance will hurt you. I missed courses during my M.S. for interviews, and even the class where attendance was mandatory let me off for them. In addition, since I was also teaching, I had to make arrangements for a substitute. Yeah I plan on talking to them once school starts and I get the syllabus. I'm actually more worried about falling behind due to missing classes rather than the actual attendance policy, but I guess I can only do my best and see what happens.
breaker746 Posted January 11, 2016 Posted January 11, 2016 1 hour ago, Edotdl said: Alright, I know this has been talked about before, but now with more interview invites coming out, is anyone one else becoming worried about missing too many classes? I know grades aren't really *that* critical anymore, but still... I'm right at the cusp of a graduation honors and don't wanna miss out so I'm definitely a bit worried. I'm probably not gonna enjoy my senior year as much as I should. But at the same time I'm pretty sure there's a good amount of free time in grad school, so I'm not as concerned about cherishing my last few months of freedom as I would be if I were working full time next year
Edotdl Posted January 11, 2016 Posted January 11, 2016 15 minutes ago, breaker746 said: I'm right at the cusp of a graduation honors and don't wanna miss out so I'm definitely a bit worried. I'm probably not gonna enjoy my senior year as much as I should. But at the same time I'm pretty sure there's a good amount of free time in grad school, so I'm not as concerned about cherishing my last few months of freedom as I would be if I were working full time next year Basically my situation right now. I can probably afford like at most one B+. I'm definitely taking fewer classes than I did previously though. I hear grad school is more fun anyways.
shadenitro Posted January 11, 2016 Posted January 11, 2016 Has anyone heard back from the Columbia Biological Science PhD program?
Extra Espresso Posted January 11, 2016 Posted January 11, 2016 @Edotdl Thank you for the reassurance! I'm feeling a lot more confident about it now after talking to people. That was actually a mistake in quoting on my part! I didn't mean to revive a way old topic- I was actually trying to quote this: 1 hour ago, biosci said: YES! I know I shouldn't worry so much, but I have worked so hard for my GPA and want to finish strong. also eyeing some school awards... Somehow the complete wrong quote ended up in my post - oops! Sorry everyone!
biotechie Posted January 11, 2016 Posted January 11, 2016 1 hour ago, Edotdl said: Yeah I plan on talking to them once school starts and I get the syllabus. I'm actually more worried about falling behind due to missing classes rather than the actual attendance policy, but I guess I can only do my best and see what happens. Whoops. I keep forgetting everyone isn't back, yet. We started back up on the 4th. I really didn't have a problem with falling behind, even in my crazy molecular biology grad class that I was taking with the PhD students. I got permission from professors to have audio recorded from the classes I missed and I also got notes from a couple of different friends for each class. I highly recommend both of those things! pcc2129 1
Ash04 Posted January 11, 2016 Posted January 11, 2016 On January 9, 2016 at 3:37 PM, Caffeine Junky said: Is anyone waiting on University of Miami PIBS? Me
Yav Friendly Posted January 11, 2016 Posted January 11, 2016 19 hours ago, PASD693 said: Hi all- did anyone here apply to Systems Biology at Columbia? I received emails from three of the professors I selected to interview with- essentially, they each said that they were looking forward to meeting me and offered to answer any questions. All of my prior email communication with Columbia has been through the graduate coordinator, so I was wondering if anyone else had received similar emails. Thanks! May I ask what kind of research are your POIs doing?
biosci Posted January 11, 2016 Posted January 11, 2016 weird question, but as I am preparing for interviews, I am trying to read a couple of my POIs' papers, but my school does not have access to them. Would it be appropriate to email the POI and ask for a copy? Or would that be seen as annoying?
miky Posted January 11, 2016 Posted January 11, 2016 2 minutes ago, biosci said: weird question, but as I am preparing for interviews, I am trying to read a couple of my POIs' papers, but my school does not have access to them. Would it be appropriate to email the POI and ask for a copy? Or would that be seen as annoying? That's fine. People in my lab get requests for papers all the time.
GeneWeaver Posted January 11, 2016 Posted January 11, 2016 3 minutes ago, biosci said: weird question, but as I am preparing for interviews, I am trying to read a couple of my POIs' papers, but my school does not have access to them. Would it be appropriate to email the POI and ask for a copy? Or would that be seen as annoying? I think it would be understandable to request papers from their lab, it might even be a nice way to show you're interested in their latest work. Or if you feel it would be awkward to ask for a copy directly from the POI you could always request the papers through your school's Interlibrary Loan system. Most papers are delivered electronically now, so you shouldn't have to wait long.
b@cteria Posted January 11, 2016 Posted January 11, 2016 28 minutes ago, lindydhr19 said: MIT micro what took you so long :'( did you hear back? risk_unfold 1
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