PhD Biomedical/Bioengineering/EE Fall 2016 Profiles

[2yuexue]

  On 2/4/2016 at 2:27 AM, jjjjjelly said:

I e-mailed! Didn't get a response yet since I e-mailed after business hours. Yeah, I'm still waiting on Harvard and UCSD, but I think their interview dates already passed.

 

Congrats to you too! Did you happen to get a specific date of an alternate weekend? My March is pretty booked as well! And yeah, since Columbia is so match based, I imagine the interview is mainly dependent on who wants to speak to you anyway.

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Thanks.  Got word from UCSD finally.  First reject :(.  Any one knows the acceptance rate after interview for upenn and Columbia?

[pterosaur]

@jjjjjelly - I've exchanged a couple emails with Harvard profs this week and was told the admissions committee meets "soon," which is a horribly ambiguous word. Based on previous years, I'm guessing they're meeting this week or early next week. But one professor I interviewed with said I'm at the among the top of their admits list, so it sounds like the professors have a sense of who they'd like. (I'm hoping this translates into an acceptance for me?)

[tuckbro]

  On 2/3/2016 at 11:13 PM, 2yuexue said:

Anyone know how Columbia handles the date conflict for their interview weekend?  On the email, it says if you do have conflict let them know and they will try to arrange a different date.  But I don't see any where that they have another interview weekend.

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My year they were extremely flexible  They let me come in a day early and fly out a day early to meet a committment at another school.

[2yuexue]

  On 2/4/2016 at 5:37 PM, tuckbro said:

My year they were extremely flexible  They let me come in a day early and fly out a day early to meet a committment at another school.

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Thanks for you r information!

[pterosaur]

Does anyone have experience with CMU? I had an informal Skype interview this week, and the POI I was interviewing with wanted to organize a visit while I'm in the US at the end of the month. This seems to be after decisions will have been made. How good of a sign do I interpret this as? (Seems one person on the results page heard back weeks ago, but there isn't a discernible pattern matching previous years.)

Also anxious about Northwestern. Last year was the first/only year they did interviews and notifications went out the equivalent of 2 weeks ago. No one has posted results this year yet. Are they doing interviews or not?

[jjjjjelly]

  On 2/4/2016 at 5:34 PM, pterosaur said:

@jjjjjelly - I've exchanged a couple emails with Harvard profs this week and was told the admissions committee meets "soon," which is a horribly ambiguous word. Based on previous years, I'm guessing they're meeting this week or early next week. But one professor I interviewed with said I'm at the among the top of their admits list, so it sounds like the professors have a sense of who they'd like. (I'm hoping this translates into an acceptance for me?)

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Great to know! And sounds like a very, very positive sign for you

[pterosaur]

Got my own question answered - Northwestern called about interviews last night, scheduled for March 3-4 (but they said they're super flexible on dates). It looks like I'll actually be able to make that! Will I be seeing any of you guys there?

[MEMP_student]

Stanford added a a second interview weekend!!! Now I can go there in person and hopefully ace the interview!

[pterosaur]

Harvard admissions committee met Friday (at least for BioEng, not sure about rest of SEAS).

[HopefulGrad555]

  On 2/7/2016 at 10:29 PM, pterosaur said:

Harvard admissions committee met Friday (at least for BioEng, not sure about rest of SEAS).

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How do you know? and did they send out the interviews to everyone already then? 

[pterosaur]

  On 2/8/2016 at 2:14 AM, HopefulGrad555 said:

How do you know? and did they send out the interviews to everyone already then? 

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A professor I Skyped with said so in our email correspondence. He said a different professor would be in contact with me very soon (I hope with good news).

[msimbirsky]

For those who applied to UW and didn't get in, I exchanged a couple emails with them regarding my rejection and here's what they said:

"""

Thank you for your email and interest in UW Bioengineering. We had nearly 600 applications, with only a few spots to offer this year, so many highly qualified applicants have not been offered admission.

Our average GRE Verbal/Quantitative scores were above 90% for applicants offered admission, and average GPA was 3.7.

Looking at your application, your GPA was lower than those applicants offered admission, otherwise you had a very strong application. I can only say that we did not have enough spots for all qualified applicants.

I wish you luck in your academic pursuits.

"""

 

Definitely disappointing, as this was my top choice school, but it sounds like they had a pretty large number of applications this year.

Edited February 8, 2016 by msimbirsky
Wording was factually inaccurate

[aegis921]

To those who attended the first JHU interviews: what was your experience like? Looking forward to visiting next week. 

[Edotdl]

  On 2/8/2016 at 9:37 PM, aegis921 said:

To those who attended the first JHU interviews: what was your experience like? Looking forward to visiting next week. 

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It was pretty fun overall and not that stressful, but it could be a bit tiring. Some of us ended up getting to see an impromptu brain surgery which was super cool. Also, everyone there was super nice. 

Edited February 8, 2016 by Edotdl

[pterosaur]

Does anyone know much about Northwestern's interview visit? Is it more along the lines of accepting 90% of the students they invite or sub-50%? I'm curious because the emails I'm getting for scheduling keep calling it a "PhD Recruitment Weekend."

[MEMP_student]

  On 2/8/2016 at 9:37 PM, aegis921 said:

To those who attended the first JHU interviews: what was your experience like? Looking forward to visiting next week. 

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I found it enjoyable, if not a little bit dry. I had four interviews (one of which I bombed spectacularly). Lab tours were fairly boring and lasted way too long in my opinion. Having 5 straight hours of tours is just too much, and I was really only interested in a few labs (which made it all the worse).

As Edotdl said, everyone was super nice, and genuinely wanted to get to know us. I kind of wish there was more time to speak with current graduate students one-on-one, but I guess that is why they give us big siblings.

[Jelly]

Did anyone hear back yet from Columbia about alternative interview dates?

[jjjjjelly]

  On 2/9/2016 at 10:21 PM, Jelly said:

Did anyone hear back yet from Columbia about alternative interview dates?

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Nope. Sent a follow-up e-mail yesterday but have not heard anything. I did e-mail the coordinator the professors I wanted to interview with, so I'm guessing he's trying to figure out a schedule based on their availability!

[Jelly]

  On 2/9/2016 at 11:34 PM, jjjjjelly said:

Nope. Sent a follow-up e-mail yesterday but have not heard anything. I did e-mail the coordinator the professors I wanted to interview with, so I'm guessing he's trying to figure out a schedule based on their availability!

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Alright, thanks. I imagine they're busy coordinating everything, but I will probably send a follow-up email tomorrow too just to confirm. 

[LlamaNirvana]

Hi lurker here,

How much would it hurt my chances if I can attend the main interview day for Columbia but not the brunch the subsequent day? Thanks!

[tuckbro]

  On 2/10/2016 at 4:15 PM, LlamaNirvana said:

Hi lurker here,

How much would it hurt my chances if I can attend the main interview day for Columbia but not the brunch the subsequent day? Thanks!

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I had to do that as I had to catch a plane cross country for a previously scheduled interview.  They were very understanding and I was accepted immediately after the interview.

 

 

[pterosaur]

They realize that a lot of people are juggling a lot of interviews/visits with jobs/schoolwork. Everywhere I've talked to has been incredibly accommodating and understanding. They're not going to penalize you if you've got a good reason.

[Extra Espresso]

Sitting in the airport getting ready to fly out to my first interview! This whole process just got very real!

[Edotdl]

  On 2/11/2016 at 2:45 PM, Extra Espresso said:

Sitting in the airport getting ready to fly out to my first interview! This whole process just got very real!

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Good luck! I actually got my first acceptance to one of my top choices before most of my interviews, such a relief.

[h8thewinter]

So, I'm not hearing back from my schools. Do you guys think it is a good idea to email the Professors I contacted before I submitted my application to ask about the status of my application? And does anyone know if things changed after people got nsf?