2017 Applicant Profiles and Admissions Results

[LadyScientist]

@sivis No no don't be sorry! There's nothing we can do at this point. I've just been stressed out over all this stuff for weeks and things are not looking good so I'm panicking and getting a little salty, haha! I think I will start applying for jobs soon  

[myhairtiebroke]

10 minutes ago, LadyScientist said:

@sivis No no don't be sorry! There's nothing we can do at this point. I've just been stressed out over all this stuff for weeks and things are not looking good so I'm panicking and getting a little salty, haha! I think I will start applying for jobs soon  

It still feels early in the application season, so I wouldn't be too down yet. However, I completely understand your feelings - this is my third time trying! I don't know what you're situation is, but if you qualify (graduated undergrad in the last two years), I would definitely look into postbac positions at the NIH. Or anywhere, but I went through the NIH fellowship and recommend it if you don't get in, or don't feel ready for grad school.

[sivis]

18 minutes ago, LadyScientist said:

@sivis No no don't be sorry! There's nothing we can do at this point. I've just been stressed out over all this stuff for weeks and things are not looking good so I'm panicking and getting a little salty, haha! I think I will start applying for jobs soon  

 

5 minutes ago, myhairtiebroke said:

It still feels early in the application season, so I wouldn't be too down yet. However, I completely understand your feelings - this is my third time trying! I don't know what you're situation is, but if you qualify (graduated undergrad in the last two years), I would definitely look into postbac positions at the NIH. Or anywhere, but I went through the NIH fellowship and recommend it if you don't get in, or don't feel ready for grad school.

What @myhairtiebroke said, it's still early on and it's discouraging to see all the interviews coming in for other people, but there's still time. And also like they said, the NIH fellowship is really great for building up experience. There's also postbaccs and MS programs geared for prepping you for PhD programs. 

Edited December 21, 2016 by sivis

[Epigenetics]

1 minute ago, sivis said:

 

What @myhairtiebroke said, it's still early on and it's discouraging to see all the interviews coming in for other people, but there's still time. And also like they said, the NIH fellowship is really great for building up experience. There's also postbaccs and MS programs geared for prepping you for PhD programs. 

Also just being a research assistant in a lab full time will get you really valuable experience, being in a lab over the summer or as an undergrad is nothing like being full time in a lab. It's a really good experience to know what it actually is like.

[LoveMysterious]

Guys, its only Dec 21st! It is easy to get discouraged when you're seeing a bunch of people get multiple invites from Harvard/Yale/Penn/etc but to put things in perspective, it has only been three weeks since apps were due, and many schools haven't even started reviewing them yet. Panic mode is for February/March ;). We got this! 

[sivis]

40 minutes ago, Epigenetics said:

Also just being a research assistant in a lab full time will get you really valuable experience, being in a lab over the summer or as an undergrad is nothing like being full time in a lab. It's a really good experience to know what it actually is like.

Exactly, there's a whole lotta options to make yourself a more competitive applicant, so this is definitely not the end all, be all. 

[cancergirl]

has anyone gotten an invite for UVA BIMS with an interest in cancer biology as their top? Also, has anyone heard from Emory Cancer Bio or Drexel molecular cell biology and genetics and Thomas Jefferson genetics, genomics and cancer bio?

[DesperadoBio]

Guys, I applied to programs at Stanford, UCSD, WUSTL, Rice, and UMD with a concentration on plant biology. I am extremely disheartened that I didn't receive interview invitations from neither UCSD and WUSTL - I am more than 80% sure they have sent out interview invitations at this point. I know my grades are not great - it is just 3.5, and I struggle for it because my school is midwest private school ranking top 20 national wide with a lot of smart people doing premeds. And the plant research I've been working on for the past three years in the same lab just got scooped by someone else this summer so my chance for publicatio is zero. I am actually preparing for not receiving any PhD offers at all. If I don't receive any offers, I have two plans: 1. quitting the field completely and teach English in my home country instead. 2. See if any biotech companies or research institutions can adopt me so that I can have a second chance. 

I don't really know where my life is going. 

[Epigenetics]

I want to reiterate how important post-graduate research is in this process. There really is no comparison between undergraduate and post-graduate research. If you applied while you're still in undergrad, don't assume they hate you, just take some time to do this full-time. It'll beef up your application massively.

[LoveMysterious]

29 minutes ago, DesperadoBio said:

Guys, I applied to programs at Stanford, UCSD, WUSTL, Rice, and UMD with a concentration on plant biology. I am extremely disheartened that I didn't receive interview invitations from neither UCSD and WUSTL - I am more than 80% sure they have sent out interview invitations at this point. I know my grades are not great - it is just 3.5, and I struggle for it because my school is midwest private school ranking top 20 national wide with a lot of smart people doing premeds. And the plant research I've been working on for the past three years in the same lab just got scooped by someone else this summer so my chance for publicatio is zero. I am actually preparing for not receiving any PhD offers at all. If I don't receive any offers, I have two plans: 1. quitting the field completely and teach English in my home country instead. 2. See if any biotech companies or research institutions can adopt me so that I can have a second chance. 

I don't really know where my life is going. 

Buddy, it isn't even January. The best thing you can possibly do for yourself is try to relax (lol I know, right?) and enjoy the holidays. I feel like you're rushing toward the worse-case scenario, which probably won't even happen. Don't feed the stress! 

[Maze]

Just got an invitation from Weill Cornell PBSB! Happy!

[jougami]

7 hours ago, ire1 said:

Just got an email for Cornell (Ithaca) BMCB

Same here!

[Kaede]

Just got an invite from Irvine CMB!

Unfortunately all of my programs are inviting me to weekends that conflict with one another...

[Actin]

On 12/21/2016 at 4:51 PM, DesperadoBio said:

Guys, I applied to programs at Stanford, UCSD, WUSTL, Rice, and UMD with a concentration on plant biology. I am extremely disheartened that I didn't receive interview invitations from neither UCSD and WUSTL - I am more than 80% sure they have sent out interview invitations at this point. I know my grades are not great - it is just 3.5, and I struggle for it because my school is midwest private school ranking top 20 national wide with a lot of smart people doing premeds. And the plant research I've been working on for the past three years in the same lab just got scooped by someone else this summer so my chance for publicatio is zero. I am actually preparing for not receiving any PhD offers at all. If I don't receive any offers, I have two plans: 1. quitting the field completely and teach English in my home country instead. 2. See if any biotech companies or research institutions can adopt me so that I can have a second chance. 

I don't really know where my life is going. 

I feel you... Luckily I received an interview from WUSTL, but I haven't received word from UCSD and UCLA yet, so I probably got rejected. Can't say I'm surprised, but I encourage you to not give up! Look into NIH post-bacc. I'm still contemplating if I want to move to St. Louis (big cultural shift for me and never been east of Idaho), so my back up plan if I dont like/get into WUSTL is I will do a post bacc or tech position after I graduate and retry next year. Though I dont know your current situation, I'd say if graduate study is your dream (like it is mine), dont give up hope! There's always another (albeit longer) way!

Edited December 22, 2016 by Actin

[Kaede]

On 12/21/2016 at 4:51 PM, DesperadoBio said:

Guys, I applied to programs at Stanford, UCSD, WUSTL, Rice, and UMD with a concentration on plant biology. I am extremely disheartened that I didn't receive interview invitations from neither UCSD and WUSTL - I am more than 80% sure they have sent out interview invitations at this point. I know my grades are not great - it is just 3.5, and I struggle for it because my school is midwest private school ranking top 20 national wide with a lot of smart people doing premeds. And the plant research I've been working on for the past three years in the same lab just got scooped by someone else this summer so my chance for publicatio is zero. I am actually preparing for not receiving any PhD offers at all. If I don't receive any offers, I have two plans: 1. quitting the field completely and teach English in my home country instead. 2. See if any biotech companies or research institutions can adopt me so that I can have a second chance. 

I don't really know where my life is going. 

Did you ask your supervisor to mention in the letter that your work was likely worthy of a publication? 

[kevinrhinoceros]

Did anybody else apply to The Scripps Research Institute? I'm surprised I haven't heard much talk about it, I thought it was a pretty decent program?

[Epigenetics]

35 minutes ago, AGradStudentHasNoName said:

 

OKay. Somehow I didn't get a UWash genome sciences invite today. I have 5 years of post grad research (within industry, so only 1 paper and 2 patents and the paper is middle author nature biotechnology). And I have an MD. Software I write is used by a non negligible number of people in the field. The only thing I could do to improve my file would be to join a more academic lab as a computational biologist or a post doc lol and try to get more publications. It's only one school, but I'm worried it might portend bad things to come. Who (besides epigenetics with multiple nature/science papers in prep) is out there who they are taking over me? Very demoralizing.

Can you explain why you're applying to PhD programs? Most people with an MD would just do a post doc, like you don't need a PhD if you want to go into academia or industry.

[Nnnm]

9 minutes ago, kevinrhinoceros said:

Did anybody else apply to The Scripps Research Institute? I'm surprised I haven't heard much talk about it, I thought it was a pretty decent program?

I applied to Scripps and just saw today that they wanted official not unofficial transcripts.. Oops.. 

[AGradStudentHasNoName]

9 minutes ago, Epigenetics said:

Can you explain why you're applying to PhD programs? Most people with an MD would just do a post doc, like you don't need a PhD if you want to go into academia or industry.

I have been over this before on these forums. And I have talked to multiple professors about this. And there is some disagreement among the professors. I think I might have a hard time getting a post doc at a top lab while I think I should have a shot at a top PhD program. And I think taking the extra time to build a strong publication history will be beneficial in the long term. If I did a post doc for 2-3 years and got 2-3 papers and then applied for faculty positions, it would be a tough sell. If I do a PhD and get 3-4 papers then a 1-2 year post doc and get another 1-2 papers and the labs I was working in were better thought of so those papers would probably be in better journals etc. It is a reasonable thing to do. I don't need a Phd to go into industry... I'm already in industry and the people with my title at my company have phds from mit and stanford.

Edited December 22, 2016 by AGradStudentHasNoName

[pepmochaa]

7 minutes ago, Nnnm said:

I applied to Scripps and just saw today that they wanted official not unofficial transcripts.. Oops.. 

I applied too! No word yet, but it looks like it past years interviews weren't released until January. 

[Epigenetics]

11 minutes ago, AGradStudentHasNoName said:

I have been over this before on these forums. And I have talked to multiple professors about this. And there is some disagreement among the professors. I think I might have a hard time getting a post doc at a top lab while I think I should have a shot at a top PhD program. And I think taking the extra time to build a strong publication history will be beneficial in the long term. If I did a post doc for 2-3 years and got 2-3 papers and then applied for faculty positions, it would be a tough sell. If I do a PhD and get 3-4 papers then a 1-2 year post doc and get another 1-2 papers and the labs I was working in were better thought of so those papers would probably be in better journals etc. It is a reasonable thing to do. I don't need a Phd to go into industry... I'm already in industry and the people with my title at my company have phds from mit and stanford.

You do understand that a PhD gets you one... maybe two papers? Especially as someone with no academic research experience that's an ambitious expectation. But good luck!

[AGradStudentHasNoName]

7 minutes ago, Epigenetics said:

You do understand that a PhD gets you one... maybe two papers? Especially as someone with no academic research experience that's an ambitious expectation. But good luck!

Wow. Thanks for the info. I never knew!! Nor did I set down this path with any better info than an internet forum poster could give me.

I did not solicit advice.

Edited December 22, 2016 by AGradStudentHasNoName

[Epigenetics]

1 minute ago, AGradStudentHasNoName said:

Wow. Thanks for the info. I never knew!! Nor did I set down this path with any better info than an internet forum poster could give me.

As someone who's spent two years now in a high-power Harvard Medical School lab, I can tell you like by definition if you get two first-author papers they graduate you, it can even only take one, that's a remarkably high rate to anticipate.

[AGradStudentHasNoName]

4 minutes ago, Epigenetics said:

As someone who's spent two years now in a high-power Harvard Medical School lab, I can tell you like by definition if you get two first-author papers they graduate you, it can even only take one, that's a remarkably high rate to anticipate.

The numbers may have been inflated. Comp bio vs bio vs cs are all a bit different. The basic reasoning remains. Like I said, I don't want your advice. I have talked to people who are knowledgeable and whom I trust in order to make my decisions. I don't know what you are attempting to prove here.

I admitted that you are an excellent candidate and the interview invites are showing that. Move on.

Edited December 22, 2016 by AGradStudentHasNoName

[Epigenetics]

1 minute ago, AGradStudentHasNoName said:

The numbers may have been inflated. Comp bio vs bio vs cs are all a bit different. The basic reasoning remains. Like I said, I don't want your advice. I have talked to people who are knowledgeable and whom I trust in order to make my decisions. I don't know what you are attempting to prove here.

I don't have anything to prove, I was just trying to provide information I have. Good luck, you'll be missed at the genome sciences interviews!