PhD Biomedical/Bioengineering/EE Fall 2016 Profiles

[Extra Espresso]

Also, I'm going to copy over my profile from the other thread in case applicants in the future come check out the thread!  

Undergrad Institution: Large state school
Major(s):  Chemical Engineering
Minor(s): None
GPA in Major: 4.00
Overall GPA: 4.00
Position in Class: I'm assuming around top 2-3%
Type of Student: Domestic White Female

GRE Scores (revised/old version): revised
Q: 170
V: 170
W: 6


Research Experience: 

3 years in my undergraduate research lab, Pharmacy School: independent project on chemotherapeutic drug delivery: 9 first-authored presentations-- 3 national conferences, 2 regional conferences with one award, 4 school presentations (all official symposiums), 7 second-authored presentations-- 4 national conferences with two awards, 1 regional conference, 2 school presentations

3 summer research internships, all different labs: specialized NIH internship (not the general SIP), two at a biomedical institute near home, worked on a polymer lyophilization project, a metabolomics project, and a proteomics project, four symposium presentations

First-authored publication from NIH internship

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Goldwater, three Undergraduate Research Fellowships, Top Chemical Engineering Student Award (chosen by department), Phi Kappa Phi Top Student Awards for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd years, several departmental scholarships

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Peer Tutor through library program, help found BMES chapter at school and served as VP for two years, Tau Beta Pi, Omega Chi Epsilon (ChemE honor society), Phi Kappa Phi, AIChE

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help: Band for four years (first chair on instrument for most semesters), traveled for one week internationally in two semesters on concert tours, took one chemical engineering lab abroad last summer

Special Bonus Points: Applied to NSF, super strong LOR (PI from undergrad, PI from NIH internship/publication, professor and research collaborator with undergrad research PI), large variety of research skills, took 5 years to complete degree because of band/research 

Applying to Where:

All BioE/BME

Hopkins, UCSD, MIT, Stanford, UC Berkeley/UCSF, U Penn, Cornell, Columbia, Harvard, U Virginia, U of Washington

[Edotdl]

Just got interview from JHU BME via email. Dates are 2/4-5 and 2/18-19.

[pterosaur]

I saw someone posted an acceptance from CMU BME on the results. Anyone else heard from them? Just checked the website and nothing posted. 

I've had 3 awesome interviews with Harvard profs, though, with 1 to go, so I'm really optimistic on that front.

(Sorry for spamming. CMU is the chronologically the first school I expect to/might hear back from.)

[aegis921]

Received an invitation to Hopkins as well. Also accepted to one of my top choice ChemE programs this morning -- it has been quite an exciting day!

[Extra Espresso]

Thirded on the Johns Hopkins interview! I have a concert I have to play in during the first interview weekend, so I am accepting the second one. Will I see any of you there?

[hjp932]

Anyone know if they sent out all the UCSD invites already?

[Edotdl]

19 minutes ago, Extra Espresso said:

Thirded on the Johns Hopkins interview! I have a concert I have to play in during the first interview weekend, so I am accepting the second one. Will I see any of you there?

Nope, going to the first. Second one conflicts with Caltech. Good luck with yours! 

 

[madbiochemist]

Congratulations to the students who will be interviewing at Hopkins! I'm a current first year BME PhD student there and I know that we're really excited to meet all of you during the interview weekend.

I also wanted to say that if you haven't received an interview invitation yet, it might still be on its way. I believe they're being sent individually so it takes some time to send them all. I think I got mine last year around 10-11 pm on the second day they sent them out. That being said, they should all be out by the end of the week.

[kales]

3 hours ago, pterosaur said:

I saw someone posted an acceptance from CMU BME on the results. Anyone else heard from them? Just checked the website and nothing posted. 

I applied CMU BME and haven't heard back either :/

[Haiqing]

Hi guys, 

GRE: 160V+170Q+3.5

Domestic/International (TOEFL/IELTS): International with US master degree/ TOEFL 110

UG GPA: 3.87/4

Masters GPA: 4/4

Research experience:

2 years of undergraduate research experience

2.5 years RA during master

Research publications, patents, conferences:

1 first-authored paper accepted, 2 second-authored papers, 2 first-authored papers in preparation.

2 international conferences.

PHD intended specialization: 

microbial metabolic engineering/ synthetic biology/ systems biology

University list:

Stanford BioE, Cornell BME, WUSTL EECE, Umich EEB, Yale BBS, JHU BCMB, MIT ChemE, MIT microbiology, Harvard, UCB BioE, UCLA ChemE, Caltech BioE, UCSD BioE, Boston U BME, Princeton ChemE, UT Austin ChemE,  Northwestern IbiS

[Haiqing]

On 1/6/2016 at 1:31 PM, tuckbro said:

SInce I applied to two of your choices, here is how two of the schools work (at least how it worked in 2014)

 

Rice will not contact you for an interview, they will accept you by the end of January  and invite you to an Open House kind of thing in the spring or reject you in the spring.  One of my favorite visits - they really show they want you to attend!

MIT will send invites to interviews probably this week.   They accept 80% of whom they interview.   If they interview you, they want you unless they discover you don't mesh well in person. I believe mine came via email this week on a Thursday, not sure if that will hold true this week.  Interview process is really amazing, you have to do a poster presentation and then sit around with world famous scientists and talk science.

 

Do you have any idea about the acceptance rate for microbiology@ MIT?

I emailed the program coordinator, she told me that there would be ~25 interviewees for 7 positions. Since they could not 100% guarantee all the students accept their offers so I imagine they will give more than 7 offers. 

Thank you!

Edited January 13, 2016 by Haiqing

[HopefulGrad555]

2 hours ago, hjp932 said:

Anyone know if they sent out all the UCSD invites already?

I don't know about this, but the date that I was invited to was February 12th, and they are having us arrange our own travel (and be reimbursed) so feasibly there's still more time. Good luck! 

[Tecumseh30]

2 hours ago, madbiochemist said:

Congratulations to the students who will be interviewing at Hopkins! I'm a current first year BME PhD student there and I know that we're really excited to meet all of you during the interview weekend.

I also wanted to say that if you haven't received an interview invitation yet, it might still be on its way. I believe they're being sent individually so it takes some time to send them all. I think I got mine last year around 10-11 pm on the second day they sent them out. That being said, they should all be out by the end of the week.

Look forward to meeting you too! I was wondering how important it is to interview with the professor whom you would like to work with because the professor I wanted to meet isn't available one of the dates?

Edited January 13, 2016 by Tecumseh30

[MEMP_student]

Congratulations to everyone who got interviews at JHU. I received one as well. Potentially a very, very stupid question, but how do the travel arrangements work. Should I buy a plane ticket today, book hotels, etc. right now and then save all the receipts for reimbursements later? Or will JHU take care of things like the hotel on their end?

[Extra Espresso]

Ooh, I'll get to meet lots of you this interview cycle!

5 hours ago, madbiochemist said:

Congratulations to the students who will be interviewing at Hopkins! I'm a current first year BME PhD student there and I know that we're really excited to meet all of you during the interview weekend.

So excited!! 

[tuckbro]

1 hour ago, Dr_Patel said:

 

1 hour ago, Dr_Patel said:

Congratulations to everyone who got interviews at JHU. I received one as well. Potentially a very, very stupid question, but how do the travel arrangements work. Should I buy a plane ticket today, book hotels, etc. right now and then save all the receipts for reimbursements later? Or will JHU take care of things like the hotel on their end?

I drove so didn't need airfare, but the hotel was paid upfront. They took forever to reimburse me though!  Good luck everyone!

Edited January 14, 2016 by tuckbro

[MEMP_student]

6 hours ago, madbiochemist said:

Congratulations to the students who will be interviewing at Hopkins! I'm a current first year BME PhD student there and I know that we're really excited to meet all of you during the interview weekend.

Perhaps you can tell us how important the interview is? As in, do you roughly know the post interview acceptance rate?

[Edotdl]

2 hours ago, Dr_Patel said:

Perhaps you can tell us how important the interview is? As in, do you roughly know the post interview acceptance rate?

I'm sure @madbiochemist can provide a better answer, but it was stated in an older thread that JHU typically only invites candidates they can see admitting. I'm not sure what that translates to percentage-wise, but I'd gues around 80+%.

[tuckbro]

21 hours ago, Edotdl said:

Just got interview from JHU BME via email. Dates are 2/4-5 and 2/18-19.

My year, 2014 this is what happened:

You were not accepted if you could not make the interview.

They initially accepted only first choices for each lab and put the other interviewees on an alternate list - presumably in some kind of order.  If offers were not accepted they went to the list.  I recieved an email that I was an alternate, but expected to be admittted and a few weeks later I was.

That year they went very deep into their alternate list as many offers were declined.

I think it was handled very differently the next year and they accepted way more poeple up front, though so not sure if that will hold true for you guys.

Edited January 14, 2016 by tuckbro

[Jelly]

Hi guys, new to the forum. Also got invited to interview at JHU. Couldn't be more excited!

17 hours ago, Dr_Patel said:

Congratulations to everyone who got interviews at JHU. I received one as well. Potentially a very, very stupid question, but how do the travel arrangements work. Should I buy a plane ticket today, book hotels, etc. right now and then save all the receipts for reimbursements later? Or will JHU take care of things like the hotel on their end?

I second this question. Coming from out-of-state, are we supposed to make travel arrangements are selves and fill out the preferences form? Or will they give us travel arrangements based on what dates we tell them? It was fairly vague with what they sent us. 

[Edotdl]

12 minutes ago, Jelly said:

Hi guys, new to the forum. Also got invited to interview at JHU. Couldn't be more excited!

I second this question. Coming from out-of-state, are we supposed to make travel arrangements are selves and fill out the preferences form? Or will they give us travel arrangements based on what dates we tell them? It was fairly vague with what they sent us. 

I just emailed them the dates and asked if we should fill out the form. Still waiting for a reply. 

[Jelly]

1 minute ago, Edotdl said:

I just emailed them the dates and asked if we should fill out the form. Still waiting for a reply. 

Got it. I emailed yesterday but still haven't heard back but I will be sure to let everyone know if/when I do.

[MEMP_student]

2 hours ago, Jelly said:

I second this question. Coming from out-of-state, are we supposed to make travel arrangements are selves and fill out the preferences form? Or will they give us travel arrangements based on what dates we tell them? It was fairly vague with what they sent us. 

What is this preferences form? I just replied back to the email saying that I would make the first interview date. Will they send me a preference form?

[Edotdl]

51 minutes ago, Dr_Patel said:

What is this preferences form? I just replied back to the email saying that I would make the first interview date. Will they send me a preference form?

It's on the bottom of the link that they sent with the list of professors. The dates in the form don't seem to be updated for this year though, last time I checked. 

[Jelly]

1 hour ago, Edotdl said:

It's on the bottom of the link that they sent with the list of professors. The dates in the form don't seem to be updated for this year though, last time I checked. 

It looks updated now, as it shows arrival dates for the day before the interview dates. I'm guessing that we make travel arrangments ourselves, as there is a reimbursement form on the website for after we interview. 

@tuckbroWhen you interviewed, did you arrive the day before the two interview dates? And did you stay for both days or just one? Thanks! Look forward to seeing some of you guys there!