2016 Applicant Profiles and Admissions Results

[Agent Orange]

Nothing better than getting a phone call acceptance from your top choice 10 minutes before a test!

All I need to do now is graduate and I'll be a grad student this fall!

 

Edit: and second acceptance email 1 hour later... Today is a good day (well aside from probably bombing that test)

Edited February 17, 2016 by Agent Orange

[levodopa]

3 minutes ago, Agent Orange said:

Nothing better than getting a phone call acceptance from your top choice 10 minutes before a test!

All I need to do now is graduate and I'll be a grad student this fall!

Congrats!

And good luck on your test!

[Dank]

@glow_gene Just put the thread up, sorry for derailing. 

 

 

[glow_gene]

38 minutes ago, Agent Orange said:

Nothing better than getting a phone call acceptance from your top choice 10 minutes before a test!

All I need to do now is graduate and I'll be a grad student this fall!

 

Edit: and second acceptance email 1 hour later... Today is a good day (well aside from probably bombing that test)

Congrats! Especially on that WashU acceptance!

[biochemgirl67]

2 hours ago, cytok said:

I was just at the UW immunology first weekend. It is one of my top choices (along with Wash U) and sounded like most of the people I talked to would accept an invitation there. The current students seemed to imply that they're interviewing about 10 more students than they usually do and said it will be more difficult to get an acceptance this year than in the past.

Oh no!  I wish I hadn't had a conflict and could have gone last weekend.  I was going off what they said in their email a while back but certainly the percents will change.  I really really hope that everything turns out okay.

[Immunolog]

On February 17, 2016 at 8:09 PM, laxgoal100 said:

I think that your speculation of 50% is high. Most programs expect 20-30% to accept.

Yes sorry. I meant they offer 50% acceptances expecting 2/3 of those students to actually matriculate. 

[PASD693]

A few people received offers from Columbia systems bio today- did anyone else receive one/know if they are done sending offers?

[adiJ]

51 minutes ago, Immunolog said:

Yes sorry. I meant they offer 50% acceptances expecting 2/3 of those students to actually matriculate. 

Wait what. Most places offer around 75% acceptance rates or nearly everyone, where they expect 25-50% to matriculate. I've asked this at literally all of my interviews and that's what they've told me. Obviously top top tier schools are different, i.e. the Harvard BPH program has only 0-2 people not accept every year.

Maybe because half of the programs I've talked to are umbrella programs, but most people get at least 3 interviews, so 30% doesn't sound too bad.

Edited February 18, 2016 by adiJ

[StrongTackleBacarySagna]

9 hours ago, adiJ said:

Wait what. Most places offer around 75% acceptance rates or nearly everyone, where they expect 25-50% to matriculate. I've asked this at literally all of my interviews and that's what they've told me. Obviously top top tier schools are different, i.e. the Harvard BPH program has only 0-2 people not accept every year.

Maybe because half of the programs I've talked to are umbrella programs, but most people get at least 3 interviews, so 30% doesn't sound too bad.

It's not even the prestige of the university. Some mid-tier places invite an excess then accept a minority just because that's how they like to do it. The policies of programs vary wildly.

[cookiepasta]

Hey, I feel super late to this application process. Hopefully, I will get in somewhere. 

Undergrad Institution: ivy
Major(s): Biological sciences (computational biology)
Minor(s): Horticulture 
GPA in Major: 3.5
Overall GPA: 3.5
Position in Class: average? 
Type of Student: domestic female

GRE Scores (revised/old version):
Q:168
V:161
W:4

Research Experience: 

3 years in a horticulture lab at school. 

graduated in May 2015 and worked at a government research lab since. 

Applying to Where:

Cornell Plant genetics phD

MS bioinformatics- georgia tech, BU, Carnegie Mellon 

[Gram Neutral]

I finally got rejected by Vanderbilt, which isn't a big deal at all cause I knew it was coming. That was like the best rejection letter ever though. None of that "record applicants, can only take so many, etc etc" BS. Just straight up and then they said if I want to reapply next year they would be happy to discuss my application and things I can work on, but to just wait till the late spring. It was super nice and no program has ever done that (and I've gotten 19 rejection letters). 

[Dr. Brains]

Accepted to my top choice with funding for 6 years + summers!!!! So fricken' happy!!!

[T1T2FMMZ]

On Wednesday, February 17, 2016 at 10:45 AM, biochemgirl67 said:

Oh no!  I wish I hadn't had a conflict and could have gone last weekend.  I was going off what they said in their email a while back but certainly the percents will change.  I really really hope that everything turns out okay.

I can't speak to whether the number of interviewees this year is higher than normal, but I do know that the "graduating class" at UW Immunology right now is one of the biggest they've ever had (9 students) and many of them have either defended or are planning on defending their theses within a matter of months. So I don't think it's strange for them to be interviewing more people as there are likely more openings that they want to fill this year than in the past. Don't lose hope quite yet!!

[Jackie Hu]

On 12/11/2015 at 1:21 PM, StemCellBio said:

My first interview invite, UC Santa Cruz Molecular, Cell and Developmental Bio! I was getting so nervous, such a relief to have one!

Hi I was in the MCB track PBSE interview recruitment event too, 1/21-1/23. But I haven't hear them back yet. Have you heard them back?  

[Earl]

Missed a call from a school I interviewed at....they didn't leave a message.... do I call back?? or just wait for them to call back?  Will they call back???? AHHH>>>>>

Edited February 19, 2016 by Earl

[Hexokinase1]

@Earl - I would call back!

[Earl]

29 minutes ago, Hexokinase1 said:

@Earl - I would call back!

Rah, no one answered..... phone tag it is *SIGHHH.  I hope they call back lol

[Tusenpo]

3 hours ago, Earl said:

Missed a call from a school I interviewed at....they didn't leave a message.... do I call back?? or just wait for them to call back?  Will they call back???? AHHH>>>>>

May I know which school it is? 

[StemCellBio]

7 hours ago, Jackie Hu said:

Hi I was in the MCB track PBSE interview recruitment event too, 1/21-1/23. But I haven't hear them back yet. Have you heard them back?  

No, I haven't heard back yet. I got an acceptance from my first choice yesterday so I'm not going to accept UCSC anyway. 

[Immunolog]

21 hours ago, adiJ said:

Wait what. Most places offer around 75% acceptance rates or nearly everyone, where they expect 25-50% to matriculate. I've asked this at literally all of my interviews and that's what they've told me. Obviously top top tier schools are different, i.e. the Harvard BPH program has only 0-2 people not accept every year.

Maybe because half of the programs I've talked to are umbrella programs, but most people get at least 3 interviews, so 30% doesn't sound too bad.

Makes sense about Harvard. 

This is just from what I've been told from my interviews as well...mix of umbrella or non-umbrella programs. At one school I visited there were a little over 30 applicants for immunology program, 15 got offers, but they only expect about 10 to actually accept. The previous year only had 8 students accept offers. 

[ndp13]

On 2/11/2016 at 4:53 AM, tcmazer said:

Hey, just got a skype interview for Baylor college of medicine, never done one before, anybody have experience with them?

Hey! Sorry I noticed your post now, hope I am not too late. 

I have had two skype interviews so far. One was pretty friendly and laid back, the prof asked me my motivation for pursuing research and what I enjoy the most. He did most of the talking, explaining about their program and stuff like that, it lasted for about 20 minutes.(I got accepted 2 weeks later)

I had another one, incidentally with Baylor and  I have no idea what to make of it. He asked me my motivation again, other schools which I applied to, whether I have any other offers and then started grilling me about my research projects.
I have 3+ years of research experience and he asked me to describe the 2 major projs I was involved in. He challenged almost every thing I spoke of, the design of our study, the methodology, our results. He was not rude or anything, he wanted to test my knowledge by pushing my limits and just directed me into thinking about them with a different approach.
The discussion of my first proj ran a little longer than expected and he spent relatively little time on my second project. 
Over all, I felt it was a very interesting discussion.  At some points, I felt his qns were a little intimidating, but maybe that was my nervousness.
He closed the interview saying he enjoyed speaking to me and I will be contacted by two more faculty members for interviews soon.
It lasted for about 45-50 minutes.

I hope this helps and did you have yours yet? I also found a thread you can follow

 

[Jackie Hu]

10 hours ago, StemCellBio said:

No, I haven't heard back yet. I got an acceptance from my first choice yesterday so I'm not going to accept UCSC anyway. 

Thanks for letting me know!

[Tusenpo]

Anyone heard back from Yale BBSB?

[Ferroportin]

Got an acceptance call from my top choice - UCSF BMS!! So excited!

[Earl]

34 minutes ago, Ferroportin said:

Got an acceptance call from my top choice - UCSF BMS!! So excited!

grats! me too!!