2016 Neuroscience Ph.D. Applicant Thread People Thing

[northernchild]

Sooooo what are the chances having not heard back from anywhere at this point? I had phone interviews with Maryland in December (one PI even told me mine was supposedly the most impressive application he'd seen), but nothing since. This is my first time applying so I feel like I must be doing something wrong. I applied to 6 programs (I'm restricted based on the fact that I have a fiancee applying clinical), but I thought I would at least hear back from one or two. Is there something wrong with my specs?

GPA: 3.7, Q: 163, V: 168, 2.5 years and counting as research analyst in neuroimaging research (have worked on many different projects and helped several different PIs), two pubs (one first), 2 manuscripts in prep, 3 or so presentations, won a Psi chi research award in undergrad, developed a toolbox for neuroimaging analysis. The only thing I can think is that my PI has been less than helpful in the process (definitely not detrimental though). Any consolation would be wonderful... :<

Edited January 19, 2016 by northernchild

[cbowen11]

So my post on the results search got deleted. lol Wanted to get some thoughts about the posters who recently applied to Stanford with bad GRE scores (157Q and 150V for example), and posted saying it's ridiculous that Stanford looks so heavily at GRE scores when they have so much experience and blah blah blah. Am I crazy or does it make complete sense to me to use the GRE to weed trough the hundreds to thousands of applicants? The person I am referring to said it's a test with a bunch of tricky math problems and traps and not a good indicator. To me, if it's that simple, then why can't you get above a 157? Also, I would think that someone wanting to go to Stanford can score higher than a 150 on the verbal with no practice. I'm an engineer and I scored a 161 with literally zero prep. A 150 shows an average (at best) level of reading comprehension and Stanford is an elite school. Why should they let everyone with average GRE scores and experience in? They'd have to accept nearly everyone. Just a pathetic gripe by that poster imo.

[nebulasector7]

2 hours ago, cbowen11 said:

So my post on the results search got deleted. lol Wanted to get some thoughts about the posters who recently applied to Stanford with bad GRE scores (157Q and 150V for example), and posted saying it's ridiculous that Stanford looks so heavily at GRE scores when they have so much experience and blah blah blah. Am I crazy or does it make complete sense to me to use the GRE to weed trough the hundreds to thousands of applicants? The person I am referring to said it's a test with a bunch of tricky math problems and traps and not a good indicator. To me, if it's that simple, then why can't you get above a 157? Also, I would think that someone wanting to go to Stanford can score higher than a 150 on the verbal with no practice. I'm an engineer and I scored a 161 with literally zero prep. A 150 shows an average (at best) level of reading comprehension and Stanford is an elite school. Why should they let everyone with average GRE scores and experience in? They'd have to accept nearly everyone. Just a pathetic gripe by that poster imo.

I also just got rejected from Stanford and I have to agree with you. Not necessarily that the GRE is easy, but that's a fair standard to use for grad schools to weed out students. When 300+ applicants apply, people are going to come with similar research experiences and pubs, and good rec letters. There's got to be some metric of how to weed people out at the beginning, and it makes sense that it's numbers like GRE and GPA. I think it'd be worse to use, let's say, number of publications, for that metric, or number of years of research experience, because that could be so circumstantial but everyone takes undergrad courses and everyone takes the GRE... It just makes sense

Doesn't make anyone's rejection less disappointing but you're right, they can't accept everyone. 

 

 

[Neuro PolarBear]

4 hours ago, northernchild said:

Sooooo what are the chances having not heard back from anywhere at this point? I had phone interviews with Maryland in December (one PI even told me mine was supposedly the most impressive application he'd seen), but nothing since. This is my first time applying so I feel like I must be doing something wrong. I applied to 6 programs (I'm restricted based on the fact that I have a fiancee applying clinical), but I thought I would at least hear back from one or two. Is there something wrong with my specs?

GPA: 3.7, Q: 163, V: 168, 2.5 years and counting as research analyst in neuroimaging research (have worked on many different projects and helped several different PIs), two pubs (one first), 2 manuscripts in prep, 3 or so presentations, won a Psi chi research award in undergrad, developed a toolbox for neuroimaging analysis. The only thing I can think is that my PI has been less than helpful in the process (definitely not detrimental though). Any consolation would be wonderful... :<

Where did you apply? Those seem like excellent stats. I think, as you mention, that the only thing that would hold you back would be if your LoR weren't as strong, but I don't see why they wouldn't be given that it sounds like you've accomplished a lot in your lab!

[Sonic16]

17 hours ago, BenDog said:

I'm an international student and I received invitation from Mt. Sinai pretty early (around first week of Dec). Though I'm a current student here at Sinai I don't think that's affecting the date of receiving invitations, and I've seen others posting their invitation around the same time.

That being said, I think Mt. Sinai has done sending invitations, since the interview weekend is pretty close too (earliest one being this Thursday).

Thanks for the info BenDog! and good luck with your interview!

[northernchild]

20 hours ago, Micecroscopy said:

Where did you apply? Those seem like excellent stats. I think, as you mention, that the only thing that would hold you back would be if your LoR weren't as strong, but I don't see why they wouldn't be given that it sounds like you've accomplished a lot in your lab!

I probably applied to too many top tier-ish schools (since I was more focused on fit/cities where my fiancee was also applying): Berkeley, Maryland, Vandy, WUSTL, Boston, and UNC...

[Neuro PolarBear]

2 hours ago, northernchild said:

I probably applied to too many top tier-ish schools (since I was more focused on fit/cities where my fiancee was also applying): Berkeley, Maryland, Vandy, WUSTL, Boston, and UNC...

I don't really know what your chances are at those schools, but like I said before I think you would have a shot. Maybe check the survey to see if interviews for all those programs have come out yet?

[northernchild]

56 minutes ago, Micecroscopy said:

I don't really know what your chances are at those schools, but like I said before I think you would have a shot. Maybe check the survey to see if interviews for all those programs have come out yet?

Gotcha, thanks for the info and good luck!

[proton]

@northernchild hold out hope for BU! my friend didn't hear from then until January 29th last year

[StrongTackleBacarySagna]

Black Math is the White Stripes' most underrated song.

[watsonthatcucumberpatch]

Got my first official rejection (Yale BBS Neuro) and first official acceptance (UT Austin Neuro)!

[AngryRobot!]

7 hours ago, watsonthatcucumberpatch said:

Got my first official rejection (Yale BBS Neuro) and first official acceptance (UT Austin Neuro)!

UT is better! Congrats

[watsonthatcucumberpatch]

On 1/23/2016 at 7:30 PM, AngryRobot! said:

UT is better! Congrats

Haha, thanks!

[LwT]

So...if a professor was to informally offer a position during an interview, how much weight should I be putting on this?  "If you're interested, the position is yours" seems rather straight forward, but official decisions from the committee won't be coming out until late feb I think. They haven't even had their second interview weekend either. My wife and I would love to have as much time as possible to start looking for a place, but I don't want to jump the gun and find out they found someone better during the second interview weekend or something like that. I've never heard of an offer being made during an interview so was rather thrown off, anyone else have this happen or something similar?

[bdnf_13.1]

BU GPN at least started sending out interview invites over the weekend. 

[AngryRobot!]

1 minute ago, bdnf_13.1 said:

BU GPN at least started sending out interview invites over the weekend. 

which weekend?

[bdnf_13.1]

this past weekend I got an email inviting me, for Feb 29-Mar 1

[Growth Cone]

On 1/19/2016 at 2:05 AM, Micecroscopy said:

Maybe wait until you visit or get into both first? Also, the two programs have quite different faculty and culture, so I think deciding between them may not be as hard for some people as you might think.

Would you mind sharing what kind of differences you mean? It's easy enough to compare faculty, but it's harder to get much of an idea of program cultures. Inquiring minds want to know!

[Neuro PolarBear]

51 minutes ago, Growth Cone said:

Would you mind sharing what kind of differences you mean? It's easy enough to compare faculty, but it's harder to get much of an idea of program cultures. Inquiring minds want to know!

I had the PiN interview last week, and I haven't yet had mine for BCS, so maybe ask again in March? Culture is obviously a lot more subjective, but many say MIT is much more competitive and political, which can take some skill to navigate. However, it's hard to know how much these stereotypes hold up, and your experience may certainly vary depending on which lab you end up in.

[ScreamAAAAAAAAA]

Did anyone hear back from UCLA or UC Berkeley?

Only crickets I hear, and hallucinations I see, and crazy I become.

Also, any internationals?

[ucdguy88]

Did anyone apply to UMass Boston Developmental and Brain Sciences? 

[Growth Cone]

2 hours ago, Micecroscopy said:

I had the PiN interview last week, and I haven't yet had mine for BCS, so maybe ask again in March? Culture is obviously a lot more subjective, but many say MIT is much more competitive and political, which can take some skill to navigate. However, it's hard to know how much these stereotypes hold up, and your experience may certainly vary depending on which lab you end up in.

I've heard roughly similar things, but I'm not applying this year so I haven't seen much first-hand. How did you feel about PiN?

[Neuro PolarBear]

14 hours ago, Growth Cone said:

I've heard roughly similar things, but I'm not applying this year so I haven't seen much first-hand. How did you feel about PiN?

Seems like a good program. If you get an interview the odds are likely that you'll get in. Most people that get in end up going, so their class sizes are slightly larger from year to year. Obviously they have a ton of breadth among faculty, but because of the class size some professors are definitely more popular from year to year so I could be a little harder to have the chance to rotate with them.

[kokobanana]

I can't believe I'm writing this - I'M GOING TO GRAD SCHOOL!

[northernchild]

so UC Berkeley told me last night that they could not offer me an invite for neuroscience but that I would be a great candidate for their vision science program. My interest is studying visual perception in psychiatric populations via neuroimaging so I'm not totally surprised. Since they transferred my application to vision science, I got an invite today. Questions: 1) is this normal/worth it? 2) does anyone know how different the programs are in terms of classes, funding, etc.? 3) is it better based on my interests to go into vision science at UC Berkeley (if admitted) or wait another year to try for neuroscience? 

I'm just a little skeptical about the whole situation...