2017 Applicant Profiles and Admissions Results

[Epigenetics]

10 minutes ago, immuno91 said:

That's not entirely true - while they want you to be related to your discipline, you don't necessarily have to be and the relationship can generally be very tangential. In general, the rule is that you can rotate in any lab affiliated with the Harvard Integrated Life Sciences (HILS). Doing an out of program rotation is very easy and I've never seen one get turned down. BBS students rotate in non-affiliated BBS labs quite regularly. BPH students rotate in Immunology and Virology labs all the time. Virology and Immunology students regularly rotate in BBS labs that don't really do virology or immunology.

I'm telling you that's not true, and I'm literally in a BBS/HILS lab. Yes you can rotate, but joining the lab you need one mentor in the program. "Non-BBS" labs isn't really a thing, any lab that can accept graduate students can rotate for BBS, but there are many labs that literally don't have graduate students at the hospitals. I know for a fact the reverse isn't true in Immunology from a lab mate that is in it. Programs vary in their strictness but I know some like MCO have a strict set of faculty you can work with.

[chanoschanos]

51 minutes ago, meioticmadness said:

Just got a call for an interview from University of Michigan MCDB! Interviews are January 19-21 and February 9-11.  They mentioned they will still be sending out interviews after the holidays.

 

Congratulations! I'm jealous.

[Born-to-pipette]

anyone happen to know when uchicago cancer bio interviews are?

Edited December 20, 2016 by Born-to-pipette

[MCF10A]

6 minutes ago, Born-to-pipette said:

anyone happen to know when uchicago cancer bio interviews are?

I want to know too. Haven't heard a single word from this program yet

[quietBird]

Sooo does anyone know if the Upenn invites to their immunology program are no longer being sent? Maybe I should email them... 

I applied to immunology but not CAMB. Oops.

Edited December 20, 2016 by quietBird

[hippopotamus]

13 minutes ago, quietBird said:

Sooo does anyone know if the Upenn invites to their immunology program are no longer being sent? Maybe I should email them... 

I applied to immunology but not CAMB. Oops.

I'm in the same boat.. I feel like they might be done sending invites, but I'm not sure 

[Born-to-pipette]

1 hour ago, MCF10A said:

I want to know too. Haven't heard a single word from this program yet

I just tried calling, got transferred to a few people, but no luck on an answer... perhaps will try again later.

they definitely got them out earlier last year...

Edited December 20, 2016 by Born-to-pipette

[kokobanana]

I saw a couple of posts asking about what to wear for interviews. Here's my take on things, based on my interviews last year:

Do's:

Dress for the weather. You'll be miserable if you wear a skirt on the east coast this time of year.
Wear comfortable, but nice shoes. Girls - avoid heels. You'll probably walk around a lot. At Columbia, I was walking blocks between interviews, and there was snow on the ground.
Bring a bag or folder of some kind to hold a note pad or paper / pens in and a water bottle. Some schools give you some, others don't.
Bring water, you'll be talking a lot!

For Women - dress pants and a blouse plus blazer work great. Business suit was not needed at any interview I went to. I would personally avoid skirts - it's one more thing you have to hassle with and I've even heard that dressing too "femininely/sexy" (high heels, skirts) can make some interviewers uncomfortable. So dress like your clothes make you look neat, but aren't the reason why you are remembered (they should remember you for your awesomeness instead).

For Men - dress pants / slacks, a button down shirt, or a nice sweater if it is cold. If you wear a suit, just note that you'll probably be the only one!
 

Don't:
Wear tennis shoes or anything ratty to your interviews.
Wear jeans to interviews (it's business casual, but not that casual).
 

At most, you'll probably need only two "interview outfits" per weekend. Bring some more casual clothes too for recruitment events and traveling. Don't be afraid to re-wear your interview outfits. I bought two and wore them to all my interviews. 

**And for recruitment events, some college town bar don't accept out of state licenses for people under 25, so bring your passport (if you have one).**

And lastly, just remember that you want the interviewers to remember YOU, not what you were wearing that day. So if you think it's not interview appropriate, play it safe.
 

Edited December 20, 2016 by kokobanana
Added on

[CozyEnzymes]

Just got the official rejection from UM Ann Arbor PIBS. A bummer, I was really interested in that one, too... but congrats to anyone who got an invite.

[KR Marksmen]

1 minute ago, CozyEnzymes said:

Just got the official rejection from UM Ann Arbor PIBS. A bummer, I was really interested in that one, too... but congrats to anyone who got an invite.

You got an interview invite at Duke for Biochemistry? What were the interview dates? I wonder if I didn't make the cut to get interviewed

[Josie817]

33 minutes ago, CozyEnzymes said:

Just got the official rejection from UM Ann Arbor PIBS. A bummer, I was really interested in that one, too... but congrats to anyone who got an invite.

Same here, they were in my top 3  

[immuno91]

3 hours ago, Epigenetics said:

I'm telling you that's not true, and I'm literally in a BBS/HILS lab. Yes you can rotate, but joining the lab you need one mentor in the program. "Non-BBS" labs isn't really a thing, any lab that can accept graduate students can rotate for BBS, but there are many labs that literally don't have graduate students at the hospitals. I know for a fact the reverse isn't true in Immunology from a lab mate that is in it. Programs vary in their strictness but I know some like MCO have a strict set of faculty you can work with.

Yes, and I'm telling you what I know as a former member of a BBS lab and currently enrolled student in a DMS program. There are plenty of labs that aren't in BBS. Galit Alter, Shiv Pillai, Todd Allen, Sarah Fortune, Sylvie Legall, Mike Brenner, and Ramnik Xavier are PIs that are not part of BBS - if you want a non-exhaustive list of names. Moreover, the comment about needing a mentor in your program is not entirely true. I know that I can join a lab outside of my program, the only rule is that two members of my DAC (including the chair) need to be from my program.

The point is - yes, BBS is very flexible. But most other programs, at least within DMS, are also fairly flexible. Some may require out of program PIs to join the program, but a lot don't. Plenty of MCO students join labs based in Longwood that are not part of MCO. Some BPH students join labs in Virology and Immunology that aren't part of BPH. BBS is flexible, but there are non-BBS labs. However, any graduate student with sound reason can rotate in any HILS lab if the PI is accepting students. Half of my program has done out of program rotations that were (extremely) tangentially related to the program topic, but they were signed off on without question.

[AGradStudentHasNoName]

12 minutes ago, immuno91 said:

Yes, and I'm telling you what I know as a former member of a BBS lab and currently enrolled student in a DMS program. There are plenty of labs that aren't in BBS. Galit Alter, Shiv Pillai, Todd Allen, Sarah Fortune, Sylvie Legall, Mike Brenner, and Ramnik Xavier are PIs that are not part of BBS - if you want a non-exhaustive list of names. Moreover, the comment about needing a mentor in your program is not entirely true. I know that I can join a lab outside of my program, the only rule is that two members of my DAC (including the chair) need to be from my program.

The point is - yes, BBS is very flexible. But most other programs, at least within DMS, are also fairly flexible. Some may require out of program PIs to join the program, but a lot don't. Plenty of MCO students join labs based in Longwood that are not part of MCO. Some BPH students join labs in Virology and Immunology that aren't part of BPH. BBS is flexible, but there are non-BBS labs. However, any graduate student with sound reason can rotate in any HILS lab if the PI is accepting students. Half of my program has done out of program rotations that were (extremely) tangentially related to the program topic, but they were signed off on without question.

I'm glad I got this pot stirred. *gets popcorn*

It matters so much guys.

[Epigenetics]

4 minutes ago, AGradStudentHasNoName said:

I'm glad I got this pot stirred. *gets popcorn*

It matters so much guys.

Lol true. I'd just say it's important to talk to the programs about how flexible they are about lab choice, some are much more than others!

[MCF10A]

Invite from Weill Cornell BCMB

[Browncoat5871]

8 minutes ago, AGradStudentHasNoName said:

I'm glad I got this pot stirred. *gets popcorn*

It matters so much guys.

 

3 minutes ago, Epigenetics said:

Lol true. I'd just say it's important to talk to the programs about how flexible they are about lab choice, some are much more than others!

It is an internet forum.  I think, by the laws of the internet, this kind of stuff must happen.  At least it keeps away the intense fear of no replies from schools I really wanted.

[jeanetics17]

22 minutes ago, MCF10A said:

Invite from Weill Cornell BCMB

Same. Seems we have similar interview schedules. 

[kokobanana]

1 hour ago, immuno91 said:

Yes, and I'm telling you what I know as a former member of a BBS lab and currently enrolled student in a DMS program. There are plenty of labs that aren't in BBS. Galit Alter, Shiv Pillai, Todd Allen, Sarah Fortune, Sylvie Legall, Mike Brenner, and Ramnik Xavier are PIs that are not part of BBS - if you want a non-exhaustive list of names. Moreover, the comment about needing a mentor in your program is not entirely true. I know that I can join a lab outside of my program, the only rule is that two members of my DAC (including the chair) need to be from my program.

The point is - yes, BBS is very flexible. But most other programs, at least within DMS, are also fairly flexible. Some may require out of program PIs to join the program, but a lot don't. Plenty of MCO students join labs based in Longwood that are not part of MCO. Some BPH students join labs in Virology and Immunology that aren't part of BPH. BBS is flexible, but there are non-BBS labs. However, any graduate student with sound reason can rotate in any HILS lab if the PI is accepting students. Half of my program has done out of program rotations that were (extremely) tangentially related to the program topic, but they were signed off on without question.

Just to chime in - as a student in the neuroscience program, we have access to a large number of labs too. I can't speak to the breadth of labs that students in other departments have access to. However, the labs neuro students are "allowed" to rotate in must be affiliated with the neurobiology department (there are about 100+ labs). I don't know what the exact procedure would be to rotate in a non-neuro affiliated lab and that's likely because any lab that does anything neuro related would be affiliated with the department already. I would like to also echo @immuno91 that the departments are generally very flexible.

[Bioenchilada]

3 hours ago, Born-to-pipette said:

I just tried calling, got transferred to a few people, but no luck on an answer... perhaps will try again later.

they definitely got them out earlier last year...

UChicago was very odd last year; however, they had already sent invites by this point when I applied. 

[Born-to-pipette]

31 minutes ago, Bioenchilada said:

UChicago was very odd last year; however, they had already sent invites by this point when I applied. 

What was odd about them? I've definitely had an interesting application season with them thus far.

[Pepperoni]

16 minutes ago, Born-to-pipette said:

What was odd about them? I've definitely had an interesting application season with them thus far.

how so? FYI, i also haven't heard anything from uchicago

[BasicBinImmunology]

Stanford Immunology sent out invites over email! Interview weekend is March 1-4! They stated in the email that they act completely independently of other biosciences programs so "no news is not bad news."

[Oddich55]

UCSD - Bioinformatics/Biomedical Informatics -> February 23-24 =)

[Bioenchilada]

1 hour ago, Born-to-pipette said:

What was odd about them? I've definitely had an interesting application season with them thus far.

The app was odd, I got emails about UChicago BSD that didn't pertain my app,  the invite felt very impersonal, etc haha

[pitchfork]

1 hour ago, BasicBinImmunology said:

Stanford Immunology sent out invites over email! Interview weekend is March 1-4! They stated in the email that they act completely independently of other biosciences programs so "no news is not bad news."

I got the invite, too! Congrats!!