2016 Applicant Profiles and Admissions Results

[biosci]

36 minutes ago, peachypie said:

Not all interviews will be with everyone you want to work with.  It sounds like you were asked for five and they set up interviews with 4.  The one that is not on that list is likely not available to meet with you.  I don't think the misspelling is an issue, generally program coordinators work for a specific department and know all the PIs anyway and one letter mixup is not going to confuse them to that level.  I wouldn't be overly concerned about contacting again.  You probably won't hear back about anything specific until closer to the interview date, the coordinator is probably fairly busy right now with setting up interview details and the current students of the program.

Apart from taking into account faculty members you list interest in, how do programs determine who you meet with?

[peachypie]

43 minutes ago, biosci said:

Apart from taking into account faculty members you list interest in, how do programs determine who you meet with?

It likely is a mixture of availability and position in the program (are they on the admission committee, do they run a core facility, are thew newer faculty...so many reasons really).  The interviews are not solely to find specific labs, you should be well-rounded and able to talk to many different scientists.  Also it has been said here before and is worth repeating.  Don't go to a school with the intent on working with one person, you should have a few different PIs you are interested in, since many many times it does not work out the way you anticipate.  interviews give you a chance to talk to PIs you  may not have initially thought you were interested in but may be worth looking further into.

[biosci]

1 minute ago, peachypie said:

It likely is a mixture of availability and position in the program (are they on the admission committee, do they run a core facility, are thew newer faculty...so many reasons really).  The interviews are not solely to find specific labs, you should be well-rounded and able to talk to many different scientists.  Also it has been said here before and is worth repeating.  Don't go to a school with the intent on working with one person, you should have a few different PIs you are interested in, since many many times it does not work out the way you anticipate.  interviews give you a chance to talk to PIs you  may not have initially thought you were interested in but may be worth looking further into.

Thanks.  I definitely don't have one specific PI for any of these schools.  I am all about keeping an open mind.  I was just curious how they paired us up  

[YouCantBcereus]

On January 16, 2016 at 0:54 PM, Effloresce said:

I just had my first interview weekend at UVA and all I can say is that it was amazing! I psyched myself out from a week before I arrived, but it was honestly amazing. I met with six professors and the conversations were incredibly casual..we talked about research, sure, but a lot of them were more concerned with my questions about the program, and what they could do to make my visit/understanding of the program and area better. 

It's made me extremely relieved about the rest of the interviewing process and now I understand that they're trying to make a great impression on me as well. The grad students were also extremely happy, which gives me good vibes. Not to mention Charlottesville is a beautiful little town, and people are extremely friendly..

That's great to hear that it went so well! I'm even more excited to visit there now!

On January 16, 2016 at 2:59 PM, peachypie said:

I don't think when you submitted an application is going to have an impact on when you hear back.  Generally unless its rolling admissions, of which UNC is not, they wait and review all of them at once.

Ah ok. I think I assumed they were rolling admissions but that makes a lot more sense now.

[Liverbird_93]

Weill Cornell people,did you get your interview schedule yet? I was told that wed get a list of our faculty meetings by 15/01/16, but I haven't gotten anything yet.

[EaglesFan]

12 hours ago, YouCantBcereus said:

That's great to hear that it went so well! I'm even more excited to visit there now!

Ah ok. I think I assumed they were rolling admissions but that makes a lot more sense now.

I just had my first interview weekend at UVA for BIMS as well. My advice is to prepare as if it will be stressful, but the faculty at UVA are so friendly that you will probably enjoy most of your faculty interviews. I had a great time meeting with the faculty as they did not ask questions that were malicious. They also may get back to you quickly for acceptances. I was accepted about a week after the interview weekend! 

[ForScience!]

22 minutes ago, Liverbird_93 said:

Weill Cornell people,did you get your interview schedule yet? I was told that wed get a list of our faculty meetings by 15/01/16, but I haven't gotten anything yet.

Yes, I got mine last week Wednesday.

[cephnerd]

On 1/15/2016 at 9:22 AM, biogeochem said:

Has anyone heard any news from Duke Biology??  Even with a deadline extension from Dec. 1st to Jan. 15th, I've seen two interviews posted indicating the dates for recruitment weekends.

I'm guessing each of these posters was contacted by their respective POI?

The call came from the PI with whom I've been speaking throughout the application process. He mentioned that they had received so few applications between Dec. 1st and Jan. 15th that they had decided to start sending out interview invitations. Good luck! More on the way, hopefully!

[goldenbuff]

1 hour ago, Liverbird_93 said:

Weill Cornell people,did you get your interview schedule yet? I was told that wed get a list of our faculty meetings by 15/01/16, but I haven't gotten anything yet.

What department are you interviewing with? IMP sent mine yesterday afternoon.

[Liverbird_93]

6 minutes ago, goldenbuff said:

What department are you interviewing with? IMP sent mine yesterday afternoon.

Pharmacology. I have a pdf from my program coordinator (sent on the 12th) that's titled "schedule.pdf" but it doesn't have the details of who i'm meeting with. 

[biochemgirl67]

I just have to share this with someone... Accepted at Vanderbilt!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OMG so excited.  I love that they do rolling acceptances because now all the other schools are competing to wow me as much as Vandy did.  Amazing school.  I'M GOING TO GRAD SCHOOL

Edited January 18, 2016 by biochemgirl67

[biosci]

2 minutes ago, biochemgirl67 said:

I just have to share this with someone... Accepted at Vanderbilt!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OMG so excited.  I love that they do rolling acceptances because now all the other schools are competing to wow me as much as Vandy did.  Amazing school.  I'M GOING TO GRAD SCHOOL

That's awesome!  Congratulations!  

[HopefulPHD14]

1 minute ago, biochemgirl67 said:

 I love that they do rolling acceptances because now all the other schools are competing to wow me as much as Vandy did

Isn't that the nicest thing?

I have my first acceptance and now I am just so much more relaxed going into other interviews!

[EaglesFan]

7 minutes ago, HopefulPHD14 said:

Isn't that the nicest thing?

I have my first acceptance and now I am just so much more relaxed going into other interviews!

I feel the exact same way! Im am so relaxed thinking about my interviews because at this point they are competing against one of my top choice. Congrats on being admitted!

[miky]

29 minutes ago, biochemgirl67 said:

I just have to share this with someone... Accepted at Vanderbilt!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OMG so excited.  I love that they do rolling acceptances because now all the other schools are competing to wow me as much as Vandy did.  Amazing school.  I'M GOING TO GRAD SCHOOL

That's awesome, congrats!

[Immunolog]

46 minutes ago, biochemgirl67 said:

I just have to share this with someone... Accepted at Vanderbilt!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OMG so excited.  I love that they do rolling acceptances because now all the other schools are competing to wow me as much as Vandy did.  Amazing school.  I'M GOING TO GRAD SCHOOL

Congrats! That's amazing! I bet you're a lot less stressed for the upcoming interviews.

2 hours ago, Liverbird_93 said:

Weill Cornell people,did you get your interview schedule yet? I was told that wed get a list of our faculty meetings by 15/01/16, but I haven't gotten anything yet.

I received my poi list Saturday. I'm interviewing for the imp program. I got 2 with POIs, 1 with another professor, and 1 grad student. Call the coordinator. I think assigning and scheduling interviewers for each person is the limiting factor. 

Edited January 18, 2016 by Immunolog

[AngryRobot!]

18 hours ago, peachypie said:

Not all interviews will be with everyone you want to work with.  It sounds like you were asked for five and they set up interviews with 4.  The one that is not on that list is likely not available to meet with you.  I don't think the misspelling is an issue, generally program coordinators work for a specific department and know all the PIs anyway and one letter mixup is not going to confuse them to that level.  I wouldn't be overly concerned about contacting again.  You probably won't hear back about anything specific until closer to the interview date, the coordinator is probably fairly busy right now with setting up interview details and the current students of the program.

Thank you! After digging into this matter further, I found out the following. Weill Cornell Graduate Program list this professor as one of their faculty. Two of his webpages indicate he is taking students from the program that invited me for interview. However, according to google scholar page, he has moved to Maryland without association in New York. And I am certain when I was working on my PS in December his google scholar page was with different information. According to his new NIH page, his period of appointment in New York is 2011-2015. And the next period, 2016- present, only shows his current association in Maryland. What should I do? Should I contact the professor to confirm he is not taking student in Weill Cornell any more? The situation is my PS was mainly about his work but I have never been in contact with him. I guess he should have planned transfer earlier so he shouldn't have played a role in my interview invitation. And I also feel I should not ask coordinator about this since she did not reply to my last email. In fact, his old website was last updated May, 2015. So it is a little weird he did not indicate the upcoming moving of his lab.

Edited January 18, 2016 by AngryRobot!

[Microburritology]

Back from WUSTL DBBS interview last night at 1 am, and coming to work in the morning at 8 am. My head hurts so bad 

Nonetheless, COMPLETELY FLOORED. Such a great interview experience, such awesome PIs, lovely colleagues, and a bunch of extremely talented, fun loving co-applicants - had a blast! They truly went to great lengths to wine and dine us and convince us that  it actually is the place to be.

And for all the ones wanting to know anything about the interview experience, please PM me, would love to help anyone out who's in the same anxiety I was 5 days ago. Just a heads up: I was asked NO questions in any of my interviews. NONE. No why grad school, why here, nothing. Just a casual, brilliant conversation.

Now since I saw this question asked elsewhere on the forum and also this thread, I'd like to bring this up. In one of the many presentations about the university and the program, a professor specifically said, that if you have been selected, and the a reason holding you back is the application status of your significant other since you'd like to attend school together, LET THE PROGRAM KNOW. I was actually surprised, but he said that if you've been selected, and if your SO's application is so-so/in the grey area, they'll coordinate with other departments in the university and get them an interview atleast, hinting that the SO's chances increase significantly since you are already on your way here.

Also received an invite from UPenn in the middle of an interview with my favorite PI 

Fingers crossed for WUSTL decisions, they're sending acceptances out tomorrow  I'll attend all the other interviews with such calmness if they offer me admission tomorrow.

Edited January 18, 2016 by Microburritology

[peachypie]

12 minutes ago, AngryRobot! said:

Thank you! After digging into this matter further, I found out the following. Weill Cornell Graduate Program list this professor as one of their faculty. Two of his webpages indicate he is taking students from the program that invited me for interview. However, according to google scholar page, he has moved to Maryland without association in New York. And I am certain when I was working on my PS in December his google scholar page was with different information. According to his new NIH page, his period of appointment in New York is 2011-2015. And the next period, 2016- present, only shows his current association in Maryland. What should I do? Should I contact the professor to confirm he is not taking student in Weill Cornell any more? The situation is my PS was mainly about his work but I have never been in contact with him. I guess he should have planned transfer earlier so he shouldn't have played a role in my interview invitation. And I also feel I should not ask coordinator about this since she did not reply to my last email. In fact, his old website was last updated May, 2015. So it is a little weird he did not indicate the upcoming moving of his lab.

Yeah this is definitely something that happens (faculty leaving).  Webpages can be wildly out of date, as I believe you are realizing right now.  Many times a professor moves and either the graduate school or their own personal webpages do not reflect their current appointment.  This can lag from weeks to months to almost a year easily.  This is another classic reason why you do not apply to a school to work with just one individual.  Not saying you did, but this is the perfect situation that arises that leads to an unhappy student.  I don't think you  need to contact the professor.  If he/she is no longer associated with Weill Cornell then it doesn't quite matter for your purposes in relation to your Weill Cornell interview.  That is also something that if you chose to go to that school you can investigate further; however, it appears from what you've noted that this professor is no longer associated with Weill Cornell.  I don't think professors think about potential graduate students they've never been in any communication with about regarding a transfer.  People take jobs or leave jobs for a lot of reasons and they do not need to, nor should they be, expected to do so on an arbitrary timeline for something like this.  They also for reasons of job security have no need to make this known to anyone that isn't on a need to know basis.  Maybe had you contacted him ahead of time, if he was this important, you would have known many months ago about this.  I would not ask the coordinator about for a few reasons.  One it shouldn't matter.  If you are interviewing there you should be interested in the school regardless of this one person being there or not.  Don't let them realize that you are only interested in working with him.  They may still interview you but they may not admit since they would guess you'd decline if the professor is not there.  Also its not important, it happens.  I had people in my SOP that were associated with the program when I applied that I later found out had left during those few months, it happens.  Be professional about this.  If you are not interested in this school because this one person isn't there maybe you should contact them and ask to withdraw your application and cancel your interview.  If you are still interested in the school even though this person is no longer associated with the program then go ahead on the interview and drop any follow up questions about this one person. 

[biochemgirl67]

1 hour ago, HopefulPHD14 said:

Isn't that the nicest thing?

I have my first acceptance and now I am just so much more relaxed going into other interviews!

 

58 minutes ago, EaglesFan said:

I feel the exact same way! Im am so relaxed thinking about my interviews because at this point they are competing against one of my top choice. Congrats on being admitted!

 

33 minutes ago, Immunolog said:

Congrats! That's amazing! I bet you're a lot less stressed for the upcoming interviews

I am like the rest of you, totally calm about the rest of the interviews.  At the very least, I get to be at Vandy for 5- 6 years and that's not too terribly shabby.  In fact, now all the other schools are competing with them to make an impression of wanting me to be there.  I was in the middle of making travel arrangements for Princeton when I got the email... just a few short weeks until the interviews start up again.  But congratulations to everyone who has offers!  I know we all thought we'd be the people who applied and got in no where with no back up plans, but now at least we're going to grad school.  And for those of you who haven't gone to interviews yet, it is very different than a job interview.  They are really trying to convince you that their program is a fit for you and it's super casual!

[AngryRobot!]

2 minutes ago, peachypie said:

Yeah this is definitely something that happens (faculty leaving).  Webpages can be wildly out of date, as I believe you are realizing right now.  Many times a professor moves and either the graduate school or their own personal webpages do not reflect their current appointment.  This can lag from weeks to months to almost a year easily.  This is another classic reason why you do not apply to a school to work with just one individual.  Not saying you did, but this is the perfect situation that arises that leads to an unhappy student.  I don't think you  need to contact the professor.  If he/she is no longer associated with Weill Cornell then it doesn't quite matter for your purposes in relation to your Weill Cornell interview.  That is also something that if you chose to go to that school you can investigate further; however, it appears from what you've noted that this professor is no longer associated with Weill Cornell.  I don't think professors think about potential graduate students they've never been in any communication with about regarding a transfer.  People take jobs or leave jobs for a lot of reasons and they do not need to, nor should they be, expected to do so on an arbitrary timeline for something like this.  They also for reasons of job security have no need to make this known to anyone that isn't on a need to know basis.  Maybe had you contacted him ahead of time, if he was this important, you would have known many months ago about this.  I would not ask the coordinator about for a few reasons.  One it shouldn't matter.  If you are interviewing there you should be interested in the school regardless of this one person being there or not.  Don't let them realize that you are only interested in working with him.  They may still interview you but they may not admit since they would guess you'd decline if the professor is not there.  Also its not important, it happens.  I had people in my SOP that were associated with the program when I applied that I later found out had left during those few months, it happens.  Be professional about this.  If you are not interested in this school because this one person isn't there maybe you should contact them and ask to withdraw your application and cancel your interview.  If you are still interested in the school even though this person is no longer associated with the program then go ahead on the interview and drop any follow up questions about this one person. 

Thank you! I think it should be clear now that he is no longer associated with the program and he should not have played any role in the decision of inviting me. He was the reason that I applied this program. However now I have more than a few professors I am willing to work with in this program after having more time to read about their works. Looking back it might be a good thing that I did not contact him in advance, since I would probably give up applying this program learning that he is leaving.

[Neist]

2 hours ago, biochemgirl67 said:

I just have to share this with someone... Accepted at Vanderbilt!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OMG so excited.  I love that they do rolling acceptances because now all the other schools are competing to wow me as much as Vandy did.  Amazing school.  I'M GOING TO GRAD SCHOOL

Congrats!

I know this sounds a bit nutty, but I feel as if the real achievement is getting into grad school, not completing the degree. Getting into a good grad school feels like a far more difficult task than completing it. Completing grad school just requires effort and time. Both of those are usually easy to come by.

[peachypie]

2 minutes ago, Neist said:

Congrats!

I know this sounds a bit nutty, but I feel as if the real achievement is getting into grad school, not completing the degree. Getting into a good grad school feels like a far more difficult task than completing it. Completing grad school just requires effort and time. Both of those are usually easy to come by.

And the understatement of the day award goes to you.  Wait until you realize how many people master out.

[Neist]

1 minute ago, peachypie said:

And the understatement of the day award goes to you.  Wait until you realize how many people master out.

I admit my perspective is probably a bit odd. I've been working on my undergrad for fourteen years. I'm scheduled to finish this May. Fourteen years of working full-time, marriage, children, and 220 credit hours later, I'm finally ready to move onto graduate school.

To be honest, five to six years of funded school sounds like a cake walk. At the very least, it'll be easier than what I'm finishing now.  The only thing I can imagine being more difficult than what I have been doing is finishing a college degree as a single parent. I have incredible respect for anyone who can pull that off. 

[HopefulPHD14]

I noticed a rejection on the survey for Scripps California.  Anyone have any info on this?  Did anyone else get an email rejection?  I haven't heard anything yet and I am just curious.