2017 Applicant Profiles and Admissions Results

[Bioenchilada]

1 minute ago, hopefulgradstudent999 said:

Haha I have been somewhat stressed about the intensity level of these upcoming interviews and you are just singing a completely different tune! You are making it sound much more like an industry interview (I have done many) than a sort of grilling about why I would be a good fit and how my research proves that. I think if it goes the way you say I should be fine. Still a little nervous for Dartmouth to be first gahh!!

I mean, the fit question is the why dartmouth question haha

There's really a limit to how much you can "prove" fit. Telling them about all the faculty that do stuff you like doesn't equal good fit, it's more about how you fit in with the general mission of the program/university and the culture there. 

There is really no grilling of any sort though, unless your interviewer really feels like it. Generally, you can control where the interview goes though  

[hopefulgradstudent999]

2 minutes ago, Bioenchilada said:

I mean, the fit question is the why dartmouth question haha

There's really a limit to how much you can "prove" fit. Telling them about all the faculty that do stuff you like doesn't equal good fit, it's more about how you fit in with the general mission of the program/university and the culture there. 

There is really no grilling of any sort though, unless your interviewer really feels like it. Generally, you can control where the interview goes though  

Well thanks a bunch for really helping calm my nerves. I feel like Dartmouth truly is a great fit for me, having gone to a very similar style, size, oriented school for undergrad.

[AGradStudentHasNoName]

12 minutes ago, systemicpoisoning said:

Is MIT Biology/CSBi known to accomodate interviewees who cannot attent official recruitment weekends because of conflicts? I've looked at several threads about interview conflicts, but wanted to know if MIT, being so selective, would actually deign to individualize interview days... 

PS: I haven't actually received MIT invite, just worried because it looks like I won't be able to attent either of their weekends

Probably they would. But that is one of the programs for which I would make no compromises. For me it looks like one of their weekends doesn't conflict with anything else so I don't have to make that decision luckily.

Some programs like Stanford biomedical informatics straight up says something like "we expect all candidates to attend from 5pm wednesday to 5pm saturday" or whatever the exact dates are. And that conflicts with Harvard/MIT HST interviews! Well I just hope that I am forced to make that decision lol.

[spiffscience]

Didn't get a Harvard email today, but I just got a call from UC San Diego, so I'd call it a good day

Been thinking a lot recently about my undergrad application process; I don't know about you guys, but things ended up very far from what I expected at the outset and things have been more than okay. Just a thought to keep in mind.

[pepmochaa]

When is it considered appropriate to email a school and ask for an update on interview invites? USC Pibbs is one of my top choices, and I saw one name come up on the survey.

[systemicpoisoning]

On 12/16/2016 at 7:19 PM, AGradStudentHasNoName said:

Probably they would. But that is one of the programs for which I would make no compromises. For me it looks like one of their weekends doesn't conflict with anything else so I don't have to make that decision luckily.

Some programs like Stanford biomedical informatics straight up says something like "we expect all candidates to attend from 5pm wednesday to 5pm saturday" or whatever the exact dates are. And that conflicts with Harvard/MIT HST interviews! Well I just hope that I am forced to make that decision lol.

 

I see you applied to Stanford BI, MIT CSBi, Harvard BIG, UWashington GS, and CMU-Pitt. Why not Yale CBB, Princeton QCB, WashU DBBS or Berkeley Comp Bio? 

Also, Harvard BIG interview date remains a mystery, and could potentially cause massive conflicts at least for me... 

 

[sivis]

3 hours ago, AGradStudentHasNoName said:

Most of my programs don't send invites until January. Only 3 of them even send in December.

Yeah. It's definitely super depressing to see other people getting interview and then not even getting an update email, but I think it's important to just remember that there's time and deadlines are specific to schools. Even more specifically, programs. Again, good luck to everyone!!!

[AGradStudentHasNoName]

I honestly didn't know Yale CBB was any good and it is in New Haven... didn't have any professors I was already aware of at Yale and I just didn't look into it.

Right, Harvard BIG is the only program for which I do not know the interview date. Hopefully we will both find out next week! Here is hoping. Obviously so many good labs at harvard but I particularly like Steve Mccarroll, Isaac Kohane, Dan MacArthur, and Sean Eddy. But really there are just tons. And affiliation with the Broad Institute opens up many more as well as tons of data generation / support / collaborators / compute infrastructure.  Damn. Waiting is tough.

[systemicpoisoning]

8 minutes ago, AGradStudentHasNoName said:

 

What's wrong with New Haven? I have never lived there, so.. 

My PhD goal is to combine web & dry labs... so your list is a bit foreign to me. I didn't major/minor in CS, so I am a bit worried that I will be blindsided in comp bio PhD. Can you recommend how I could improve my CS skills? I am learning basic algos and data structures right now, and solving online CS problems to work on my coding skills, but any tips would be appreciated haha. 

Also, why not Caltech? 

 

 

[hihello742]

Hey anyone else got the USC PIBBS interview?

They only offer 1 interview weekend in Jan 18-20th, and they want me to decide by Sunday, Dec-18! Should I just say yes and book it? Does anyone else know the interview weekends for other UC schools? I'd hate to say yes, then have it conflict with another UC.

Thanks guys!

[haughtysauce007]

Question to anyone

I don't see much discussion about Johns Hopkins Medical school graduate programs... anyone on here waiting to hear back/applied?

I guess I'm surprised to see so many people talk about Harvard while Hopkins to me seems to define medicine... interesting to hear what people have to say.... it's just I'm shocked to see more people waiting on results from Dartmouth than Hopkins medical school grad programs... but I may be missing something

[systemicpoisoning]

I personally dont want to live in Baltimore for 5+ years... but I definitely welcome to being proven wrong about this

[hihello742]

2 minutes ago, kindsoul101 said:

Question to anyone

I don't see much discussion about Johns Hopkins Medical school graduate programs... anyone on here waiting to hear back/applied?

I guess I'm surprised to see so many people talk about Harvard while Hopkins to me seems to define medicine... interesting to hear what people have to say.... it's just I'm shocked to see more people waiting on results from Dartmouth than Hopkins medical school grad programs... but I may be missing something

Yes, I applied to JHU Medical School graduate program in Immunology. Still waiting to hear back. Def a top choice. My mentor went there. THere's top notch research there that, in my humble opinion, is comparable to Harvard, Yale, UCSF and Stanford.

 

What programs in JHU did you get interview invites from? Thank you!

[haughtysauce007]

yeah i'm not trying to be an ass, i'm just curious to know people's thoughts on the program.. it's just i hardly see anything about Hopkins... i'm curious to see Baltimore..lol

 

[AGradStudentHasNoName]

33 minutes ago, systemicpoisoning said:

What's wrong with New Haven? I have never lived there, so.. 

My PhD goal is to combine web & dry labs... so your list is a bit foreign to me. I didn't major/minor in CS, so I am a bit worried that I will be blindsided in comp bio PhD. Can you recommend how I could improve my CS skills? I am learning basic algos and data structures right now, and solving online CS problems to work on my coding skills, but any tips would be appreciated haha. 

Also, why not Caltech? 

 

 

I have been in new haven a few times. I dunno. I didn't like it. Seems like an in-between place. It's not NYC. It's not in the country. It doesn't have the culture of Boston. There are some really bad parts to it as well. It's probably great but for whatever reason I am biased against it.

Coursera stanford algos courses (2 of them) are great. MIT open courseware algos class is also great (has a bit more depth but less breadth). I find its good to group algorithmic ideas into a few paradigms (divide and conquer, dynamic programming, graph algorithms, machine learning, search methods, etc) and then when you have a new problem ask yourself if any of those might work. Not sure about the  comp bio/bioinformatics open courseware. Presumably the one by Pevsner is good, but it was too basic for me and i lost interest. CS is a fast moving culturally driven thing. Honestly just being friends with people who do serious CS and/or serious comp bio is a big part of learning and keeping up. The other thing is being okay with not knowing what you are doing. Doing a new project? Write it in a new language or framework. Having a decent project is the hardest part to learning a new language. The rest is google, trial and error, and learning. Ask questions if you dont understand something! Also stats. Take more stats. Take more math in general. Take optimization, combinatorial optimization, numerical optimization, numerical methods, statistical mechanics. Take anything graph algorithms, probabalistic/randomized algorithms, probabilistic inference, machine learning, graphical models, anything with the name Markov in it lol.

Caltech I also didn't much look into. I am aware that Lior Pachtor just moved there and he is very good. I just had too many schools already on the list at that point. Also I am not a big LA fan either lol.

UCSD is the other major program that I didn't apply to. I couldnt really find anyone besides Pevsner who I would want to work with.

 

Edited December 17, 2016 by AGradStudentHasNoName

[eyesandheart]

5 minutes ago, kindsoul101 said:

Question to anyone

I don't see much discussion about Johns Hopkins Medical school graduate programs... anyone on here waiting to hear back/applied?

I guess I'm surprised to see so many people talk about Harvard while Hopkins to me seems to define medicine... interesting to hear what people have to say.... it's just I'm shocked to see more people waiting on results from Dartmouth than Hopkins medical school grad programs... but I may be missing something

I got an interview at Johns Hopkins CMM last week and a friend got one with Hopkins Immunology yesterday. I have visited Baltimore several times, and I don't feel that its as awful as people make it out to be. This is definitely a top choice for me, and personally I don't have any issue with a prospect of moving to Baltimore. Awesome program, awesome science.

[Bioenchilada]

18 minutes ago, kindsoul101 said:

Question to anyone

I don't see much discussion about Johns Hopkins Medical school graduate programs... anyone on here waiting to hear back/applied?

I guess I'm surprised to see so many people talk about Harvard while Hopkins to me seems to define medicine... interesting to hear what people have to say.... it's just I'm shocked to see more people waiting on results from Dartmouth than Hopkins medical school grad programs... but I may be missing something

I feel like a medical grad school program is different than medical school itself, though great medical schools tend to have great graduate programs. Also, honestly, I didn't want to live in Baltimore for 5+ years. Applying only because of name or what school defines medicine is unwise for graduate study. 

[haughtysauce007]

4 minutes ago, Bioenchilada said:

I feel like a medical grad school program is different than medical school itself, though great medical schools tend to have great graduate programs. Also, honestly, I didn't want to live in Baltimore for 5+ years. Applying only because of name or what school defines medicine is unwise for graduate study. 

I'm talking about research, Hopkins has a stellar research program, so much so that I am still considering them over Harvard, if admitted to both, and I'm sorta amazed that more people aren't talking about their graduate programs (not med school)... unless I'm missing something... 

I have never been to Baltimore so I will have to see, but having been in NYC for a few years, I'm yearning to get to a city that has less expenses than say another Boston/NYC etc.. but we'll see, I've never been, but honestly I was more excited to get to interview invite for Hopkins than Harvard...

 

[Bioenchilada]

2 minutes ago, kindsoul101 said:

I'm talking about research, Hopkins has a stellar research program, so much so that I am still considering them over Harvard, if admitted to both, and I'm sorta amazed that more people aren't talking about their graduate programs (not med school)... unless I'm missing something... 

I have never been to Baltimore so I will have to see, but having been in NYC for a few years, I'm yearning to get to a city that has less expenses than say another Boston/NYC etc.. but we'll see, I've never been, but honestly I was more excited to get to interview invite for Hopkins than Harvard...

 

I was also talking about research. I'm just saying that name recognition alone doesn't warrant more applications from prospective grad students. Also, I'm pretty sure that more people know about Harvard overall and would rather have that name brand associated with their name than Hopkins. Again, just judging on name alone is not good and some people value different things when evaluating grad programs. So, it's hard to know why people don't apply to Hopkins.

But, for me Baltimore was the dealbreaker.  

[haughtysauce007]

26 minutes ago, Bioenchilada said:

I was also talking about research. I'm just saying that name recognition alone doesn't warrant more applications from prospective grad students. Also, I'm pretty sure that more people know about Harvard overall and would rather have that name brand associated with their name than Hopkins. Again, just judging on name alone is not good and some people value different things when evaluating grad programs. So, it's hard to know why people don't apply to Hopkins.

But, for me Baltimore was the dealbreaker.  

well.. i hope to hear back from MIT biological engineering soon (eventhough deadline was yesterday)... I'd say that they are prob my #1 choice, but just thought the lack of discussions on hopkins research/grad programs were interesting...

anyways goodluck to everyone!

Edited December 17, 2016 by kindsoul101
grammar correction

[hippopotamus]

1 hour ago, kindsoul101 said:

Question to anyone

I don't see much discussion about Johns Hopkins Medical school graduate programs... anyone on here waiting to hear back/applied?

I guess I'm surprised to see so many people talk about Harvard while Hopkins to me seems to define medicine... interesting to hear what people have to say.... it's just I'm shocked to see more people waiting on results from Dartmouth than Hopkins medical school grad programs... but I may be missing something

Received an interview from JHU immuno!

[Blahgirl]

3 hours ago, hihello742 said:

Hey anyone else got the USC PIBBS interview?

They only offer 1 interview weekend in Jan 18-20th, and they want me to decide by Sunday, Dec-18! Should I just say yes and book it? Does anyone else know the interview weekends for other UC schools? I'd hate to say yes, then have it conflict with another UC.

Thanks guys!

I just got the USC pibbs  interview Jan18-20. 

Edited December 17, 2016 by Blahgirl

[haughtysauce007]

1 hour ago, hippopotamus said:

Received an interview from JHU immuno!

Congrats! That's awesome! I've read a lot of great research being produced in that department!

[Josie817]

2 hours ago, kindsoul101 said:

I'm talking about research, Hopkins has a stellar research program, so much so that I am still considering them over Harvard, if admitted to both, and I'm sorta amazed that more people aren't talking about their graduate programs (not med school)... unless I'm missing something... 

I have never been to Baltimore so I will have to see, but having been in NYC for a few years, I'm yearning to get to a city that has less expenses than say another Boston/NYC etc.. but we'll see, I've never been, but honestly I was more excited to get to interview invite for Hopkins than Harvard...

 

I grew up outside of Baltimore, it's not that bad at all lol. UMB is in the nicest part (inner harbor), and JHU isn't too far away. 

Applied to their MMI program!

[ilovelab]

5 hours ago, kevinrhinoceros said:

I just got an interview offer by phone for the University of Washington (Seattle) Biological Sciences umbrella program!

mcb??