2017 Applicant Profiles and Admissions Results

[Born-to-pipette]

Y'all - for those of you who haven't stumbled into the admissions results section of this site, here's another nice little thing to obsessively refresh over the next few weeks/months: 

http://thegradcafe.com/survey/index.php

Also nice to see when your schools are notifying for interviews/acceptances/rejections. I think someone might've mentioned that in a recent post as well.

PS - if anyone's figured out how to configure notifications for that, please share  

Edited December 7, 2016 by Born-to-pipette

[Edotdl]

9 hours ago, CanadianNomad said:

Email from MIT Brain and Cognitive Sciences saying they'll be reviewing applications December/January. Interview offers will go out in January, and will take place early March. 

They sent the same email last year, but invites started coming out late Dec (12/27 I believe). This probably doesn't help reduce the stress, but hopefully some of you will find the info useful.

[Raptor Science Activate]

Undergrad Institution: 2nd tier liberal arts school
Major(s):  Biochem (BA), Music (BM)
Interdisciplinary Area:  Neuroscience
Minor(s):  Psych
GPA in Major:  3.72 (Biochem)
Overall GPA: 3.90
Position in Class: no ranking, but I graduated summa (highest honors)
Type of Student: Domestic, GBLTQ female

GRE Scores (revised/old version):
Q:  158 (70th)
V:  165 (95th)
W:  4.5 (82nd)
B:   n/a

Research Experience: 

Undergrad:  1 year part-time research in neuropharmacology, electrophys, and behavioral neuroscience  ---> one 2nd author paper

 

Post-bacc:  5 years full-time research at R1 school in unrelated field (molecular bio experience in gastroenterology)  --> one 1st author pub, one 2nd author pub, three middle author pubs, several additional manuscripts in prep/review, a bunch of abstracts/posters

 

Awards/Honors/Recognitions:  

Phi Beta Kappa

Psi Chi

Pi Kappa Lambda

Dean's List every term

 

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: tutor, laboratory instructor (in neuroscience), medical scribe

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help:  I have 2 separate Bachelor’s degrees.  Not necessarily a big benefit, but it's interesting/unusual.

Special Bonus Points: not particularly, LORs should be very strong

Applying to Where:
UCSD 

UCLA

U Michigan

Harvard

Cornell

NYU

Mount Sinai 

Emory

***My research interest is in molecular mechanisms underlying behavior  (Behavioral Neuroscience).  I picked programs based on faculty interest.  All of these schools are strong in that area with 6+ people I would be happy to work with.

My main concern is that programs will be worried about me working in a non-neuro lab for so long.  I stuck around a while to finish up my first author pub and gained a lot of molecular bio experience in that time.  My undergraduate work is all in neuroscience (published), and the GI could be useful if I do gut-brain axis someday.  I’m also a bit worried about my quant score and lack of subject test.  **Fingers crossed**

Edited December 7, 2016 by Raptor_Science_Activate
removed extra spaces

[Nomad1111]

11 hours ago, Edotdl said:

They sent the same email last year, but invites started coming out late Dec (12/27 I believe). This probably doesn't help reduce the stress, but hopefully some of you will find the info useful.

Awesome, thank you for the info  

[Nomad1111]

Email from BU GPN office saying that the committee will meet in January 

[spiffscience]

Already got an email from UConn Health and a phone call from UC Davis inviting me to recruitment weekends!

[Browncoat5871]

UW-Madison CMB program just sent an email...about how they will send responses in January.  I nearly had a heart attack.

[asdfghjkl1]

Got an email for an interview for UPenn today.. anyone else?

[BumbleB]

2 minutes ago, asdfghjkl1 said:

Got an email for an interview for UPenn today.. anyone else?

Which program at UPenn?

[asdfghjkl1]

1 minute ago, BumbleB said:

Which program at UPenn?

Immunology. My bad for not elaborating beforehand. 

[BumbleB]

Just now, asdfghjkl1 said:

Immunology. My bad for not elaborating beforehand. 

No worries . Still waiting to hear back from the BGS program...

[Neuro15]

2 minutes ago, BumbleB said:

No worries . Still waiting to hear back from the BGS program...

I think we both just held our breaths there for a bit lol. 

 

But congrats though!! 

Edited December 8, 2016 by Neuro15

[BumbleB]

1 minute ago, Neuro15 said:

I think we both just held our breaths there for a bit lol 

lol spot on

[Born-to-pipette]

Which UPenn BGS program did you two apply to? Bioenchilada did say something about a meeting on the 13th for CAMB, so I imagine we'd be hearing soon after!

[BumbleB]

5 minutes ago, Born-to-pipette said:

Which UPenn BGS program did you two apply to? Bioenchilada did say something about a meeting on the 13th for CAMB, so I imagine we'd be hearing soon after!

Biochemistry & Molecular Biophysics. Heres hoping!

[KR Marksmen]

1 minute ago, BumbleB said:

Biochemistry & Molecular Biophysics. Heres hoping!

Same here!! That earlier post freaked me out

[LoveMysterious]

9 minutes ago, KR Marksmen said:

Same here!! That earlier post freaked me out

Vandy IGP started sending out invites! I'm trying to stay calm

[Born-to-pipette]

2 minutes ago, LoveMysterious said:

Vandy IGP started sending out invites! I'm trying to stay calm

Gaaaaaaaahhhh. Stay calm? Just why are you trying to do that? xD

Also I applied to Weill Cornell's IMP as well! Apparently, they send invites late Dec/early Jan, according to previous years' trends, so we've got a little bit of a wait there  

[KR Marksmen]

1 hour ago, BumbleB said:

1 hour ago, LoveMysterious said:

Vandy IGP started sending out invites! I'm trying to stay calm

Starting to regret waiting till december 1st to submit most of my apps sigh.  

[Bioenchilada]

1 hour ago, Born-to-pipette said:

Which UPenn BGS program did you two apply to? Bioenchilada did say something about a meeting on the 13th for CAMB, so I imagine we'd be hearing soon after!

 

1 hour ago, KR Marksmen said:

Same here!! That earlier post freaked me out

 

Actually, Immunology is within BGS but not within CAMB. Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics (BMB) is also not in CAMB, but within BGS. I don't know how those two operate. And, within CAMB, different divisions might send invites earlier or later. I would expect to hear by next week though, if the process works like last year. 

[KR Marksmen]

1 minute ago, Bioenchilada said:

 

 

Actually, Immunology is within BGS but not within CAMB. Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics (BMB) is also not in CAMB, but within BGS. I don't know how those two operate. And, within CAMB, different divisions might send invites earlier or later. I would expect to hear by next week though, if the process works like last year. 

Thanks! That made me feel better, and then worse haha.  A week to wait for the inevitable

[BumbleB]

22 minutes ago, Bioenchilada said:

 

 

Actually, Immunology is within BGS but not within CAMB. Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics (BMB) is also not in CAMB, but within BGS. I don't know how those two operate. And, within CAMB, different divisions might send invites earlier or later. I would expect to hear by next week though, if the process works like last year. 

Thanks! One more week of suspense. At least I only have 1 final.

[jumbo1177]

How exactly does the interview notification process work? Like do all schools send out their interview invites in one day, or is it like spread over multiple days, or does it depend on the school? For example, if some people got an interview from Vandy yesterday, does that mean I'm not going to get one?

[BumbleB]

4 minutes ago, jumbo1177 said:

How exactly does the interview notification process work? Like do all schools send out their interview invites in one day, or is it like spread over multiple days, or does it depend on the school? For example, if some people got an interview from Vandy yesterday, does that mean I'm not going to get one?

It depends on the school. It's still quite early, give it some time. Most invites are sent out around the same for a specific program but I don't think this holds true for schools with rolling admissions.

[Born-to-pipette]

I noticed Pittsburgh sent interview offers Nov 23rd. Any of you folk apply there? Was bummed not to have gotten an invite, but hoping that it was just because they hadn't received my final recommendation yet (even if it was letter #4) :/

Edited December 8, 2016 by Born-to-pipette