2017 Applicant Profiles and Admissions Results

[sqxz]

15 hours ago, myhairtiebroke said:

Berkeley, and Cornell. I haven't heard from Berkeley, and there's a couple entries on the results search so I'm guessing I didn't get it.

I did get an invite from Madison, so I'll still visit. Is there an elegant way to ask about the financial situation? On an individual level, I doubt the program or a professor will take on more students than they can fund, but I am worried about the education quality declining if professors are leaving.

You should absolutely feel free to ask tough questions about a program or university during your interview weekend. These interview weekends exist in part for you, the candidate, to evaluate the program and university. When asking about this, I would be general and ask something like, "How has the situation with Gov. Walker and the state legislature affected things here at the University of Wisconsin?" Most current graduate students will likely be fairly candid in their responses to questions, while professors may be a bit more strategic. It also may be worthwhile to ask the program coordinator(s) about this subject during your visit.

I suggest being general and also asking administrators this question because of my experience with a similar (though less extreme) situation at the University of Illinois. Gov. Rauner and the state legislature have been at an impasse over the state budget for a long time now, and this has resulted in significant cuts in state funding to the University of Illinois. These cuts have been passed along to the university administration, which has had not-too-obvious effects on graduate research.

For example, the way PIs spend money from their grants is now being scrutinized at an excruciating level. (Remember that most grants are awarded to PIs' home institutions, not PIs themselves, so the home institution gets a say in how the grant money is spent.) PIs have had difficulty purchasing expensive equipment for their labs because they have had to convince administrators (who obviously have little to no background in science) that the purchase is absolutely necessary for them to conduct their research. At the same time, some of the better administrators have left the university to find more hospitable work environments, which has made dealing with the administration even more difficult.

[Giant_Squid]

Hello all, I realize that I'm quite late to this but I'm on break and bored and need people to talk to about all of this.

Undergrad Institution: Top 5 science and engineering school 
Major(s): Bioengineering
Minor(s): Philosophy
GPA in Major: 3.76
Overall GPA: 3.79
Position in Class: Top 25% among engineering majors, top 2 or 3 in Bioengineering
Type of Student: Domestic white female

GRE Scores (revised/old version): revised
Q: 170
V: 166
W: 5
B: None

Research Experience: 

• About four months in a chemical engineering/bioengineering lab working on a protein engineering project. Most of it was full-time summer research. This took place at my home institution.
• Two or three months full-time summer research in a bioengineering lab that studies fruit fly behavior/flight dynamics. Also did some part-time work during the fall term. This also took place at my home institution.
• Three months in a bioengineering/biophysics lab that engineers microtubule systems in vitro. I participated in the BIOMOD competition as one part of my project.This was at a different university.
• No publications. I just wrote research reports for the summer research and gave presentations at my school's seminar day, plus I gave a presentation at the BIOMOD competition at UCSF.

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honors Society, a small award from the BIOMOD competition, academic honors from the Association of Collegiate Water Polo Coaches, a summer internship award for women in STEM

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: I'll be TAing for the first time next term. I did some mentoring of high schoolers/undergrads in my lab last summer.

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help: I've played NCAA water polo for the past 3 years, and I'm now one of the team captains. It's not that big of a deal since we're DIII and no one really takes athletics seriously here, but I dunno, maybe it shows commitment or something.

Special Bonus Points: Female. Two of my letters of recommendation were from my last two research professors, and they are fairly well-known and accomplished. The other is from a lecturer who I've known since my freshman year, has taught four of my classes, and has asked me to TA for him next term. 

Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter: I made sure to put a lot into my statement of purpose about why I wanted to go to each particular program/which scientists I wanted to work with in each program. I also discussed an interest in teaching and reforming biology education.

Applying to Where:

Princeton Quantitative and Computational Biology (QCB)

UC Berkeley Biophysics

Stanford Biophysics

Harvard Systems Biology

MIT Computational and Systems Biology (CSBio)

UCSF Biophysics (iPQB)

UCSD Bioinformatics and Systems Biology

UC Santa Barbara Biomolecular Science and Engineering (BMSE)

MIT Bioengineering 

 

So far I've gotten interviews at Princeton, Berkeley, Stanford and Harvard. Haven't heard back from any of the others. Does anyone know if UCSD is done sending out interviews? I see some people got one already.

Edited December 23, 2016 by Giant_Squid

[DGD4L]

Emailed university of Chicago yesterday asking if invites had been sent out and they said yes earlier this week. Bummed about this one. U of Chicago was my top choice

[SysEvo]

1 hour ago, Giant_Squid said:

Hello all, I realize that I'm quite late to this but I'm on break and bored and need people to talk to about all of this.

Undergrad Institution: Top 5 science and engineering school 
Major(s): Bioengineering
Minor(s): Philosophy
GPA in Major: 3.76
Overall GPA: 3.79
Position in Class: Top 25% among engineering majors, top 2 or 3 in Bioengineering
Type of Student: Domestic white female

GRE Scores (revised/old version): revised
Q: 170
V: 166
W: 5
B: None

Research Experience: 

• About four months in a chemical engineering/bioengineering lab working on a protein engineering project. Most of it was full-time summer research. This took place at my home institution.
• Two or three months full-time summer research in a bioengineering lab that studies fruit fly behavior/flight dynamics. Also did some part-time work during the fall term. This also took place at my home institution.
• Three months in a bioengineering/biophysics lab that engineers microtubule systems in vitro. I participated in the BIOMOD competition as one part of my project.This was at a different university.
• No publications. I just wrote research reports for the summer research and gave presentations at my school's seminar day, plus I gave a presentation at the BIOMOD competition at UCSF.

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honors Society, a small award from the BIOMOD competition, academic honors from the Association of Collegiate Water Polo Coaches, a summer internship award for women in STEM

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: I'll be TAing for the first time next term. I did some mentoring of high schoolers/undergrads in my lab last summer.

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help: I've played NCAA water polo for the past 3 years, and I'm now one of the team captains. It's not that big of a deal since we're DIII and no one really takes athletics seriously here, but I dunno, maybe it shows commitment or something.

Special Bonus Points: Female. Two of my letters of recommendation were from my last two research professors, and they are fairly well-known and accomplished. The other is from a lecturer who I've known since my freshman year, has taught four of my classes, and has asked me to TA for him next term. 

Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter: I made sure to put a lot into my statement of purpose about why I wanted to go to each particular program/which scientists I wanted to work with in each program. I also discussed an interest in teaching and reforming biology education.

Applying to Where:

Princeton Quantitative and Computational Biology (QCB)

UC Berkeley Biophysics

Stanford Biophysics

Harvard Systems Biology

MIT Computational and Systems Biology (CSBio)

UCSF Biophysics (iPQB)

UCSD Bioinformatics and Systems Biology

UC Santa Barbara Biomolecular Science and Engineering (BMSE)

MIT Bioengineering 

 

So far I've gotten interviews at Princeton, Berkeley, Stanford and Harvard. Haven't heard back from any of the others. Does anyone know if UCSD is done sending out interviews? I see some people got one already.

Congrats! Your profile is pretty strong! BTW, do you know if Princeton QCB has sent out all invitations? Thanks!

[MCF10A]

35 minutes ago, DGD4L said:

Emailed university of Chicago yesterday asking if invites had been sent out and they said yes earlier this week. Bummed about this one. U of Chicago was my top choice

Which program???

[bionerd111]

Penn CAMB Cancer Bio is still sending interview invites! Just got one today.

[Pepperoni]

33 minutes ago, MCF10A said:

Which program???

judging from his sig, looks like microbiology - still not cancer yet though, whew

21 minutes ago, bionerd111 said:

Penn CAMB Cancer Bio is still sending interview invites! Just got one today.

[jumbo1177]

Does anyone know if theres an alternate Cornell Weill biochemistry interview date other than Jan18-20?

[Josie817]

Just got an interview email from UVA BIMS!

[britmact]

2 minutes ago, jumbo1177 said:

Does anyone know if theres an alternate Cornell Weill biochemistry interview date other than Jan18-20?

Just found out BCMB also has a February 8-10 interview

[Epigenetics]

3 hours ago, sqxz said:

You should absolutely feel free to ask tough questions about a program or university during your interview weekend. These interview weekends exist in part for you, the candidate, to evaluate the program and university. When asking about this, I would be general and ask something like, "How has the situation with Gov. Walker and the state legislature affected things here at the University of Wisconsin?" Most current graduate students will likely be fairly candid in their responses to questions, while professors may be a bit more strategic. It also may be worthwhile to ask the program coordinator(s) about this subject during your visit.

I suggest being general and also asking administrators this question because of my experience with a similar (though less extreme) situation at the University of Illinois. Gov. Rauner and the state legislature have been at an impasse over the state budget for a long time now, and this has resulted in significant cuts in state funding to the University of Illinois. These cuts have been passed along to the university administration, which has had not-too-obvious effects on graduate research.

For example, the way PIs spend money from their grants is now being scrutinized at an excruciating level. (Remember that most grants are awarded to PIs' home institutions, not PIs themselves, so the home institution gets a say in how the grant money is spent.) PIs have had difficulty purchasing expensive equipment for their labs because they have had to convince administrators (who obviously have little to no background in science) that the purchase is absolutely necessary for them to conduct their research. At the same time, some of the better administrators have left the university to find more hospitable work environments, which has made dealing with the administration even more difficult.

Alongside this, talk to the professors you're interested in working with to make sure they're not about to disembark to another university. I've had several friends who got screwed by professors leaving right after they joined a program.

[Epigenetics]

12 hours ago, Cervello said:

I'd love to know what percent of Harvard PiN applicants got an interview this year and how many will be admitted. They supposedly got a record number of applicants.

What is PiN

[Cervello]

17 minutes ago, Epigenetics said:

What is PiN

Harvard's Program in Neuroscience, through the med school.

http://dms.hms.harvard.edu/neuroscience/

Edited December 23, 2016 by Cervello

[DreamHigh]

Does anybody know what the post-interview acceptance rates for Stanford Biosciences (Immunology) and UPenn Immunology are? 

[rockyMicrobe]

I'd also like to ask, does anyone know the UCSF BMS acceptance rate for interviewees? 

[RaganSmash]

25 minutes ago, DreamHigh said:

Does anybody know what the post-interview acceptance rates for Stanford Biosciences (Immunology) and UPenn Immunology are? 

Unfortunately I can't answer your question, but would you happen to have heard anything from University of Washington Immunology?

[DreamHigh]

I didn't apply to the Immunology program and only their M3D program so I would not know.  Sorry about that but it seems like the interviews haven't gone out yet for the program.

[systemicpoisoning]

Harvard BIG 1/25-1/27

[cancergirl]

2 hours ago, Josie817 said:

Just got an interview email from UVA BIMS!

what is your research interest?

[Josie817]

19 minutes ago, cancergirl said:

what is your research interest?

Microbiology and infectious diseases/biodefense...email was sent from a microbiology/immunology professor.

[Katyya]

3 hours ago, bionerd111 said:

Penn CAMB Cancer Bio is still sending interview invites! Just got one today.

What  Dang 

[sivis]

Aaaand just got my rejection email from UWashington. The holiday cheer is dead

[DGD4L]

4 hours ago, MCF10A said:

Which program???

Microbiology

[Katyya]

19 minutes ago, sivis said:

Aaaand just got my rejection email from UWashington. The holiday cheer is dead

Same same

Officially rejected from UW MCB

[VoidInColor]

Just got an invite from UC Davis Immunology. Interview weekend is Friday Feb 24th through Saturday Feb 25th, arrive Thursday and leave Sunday.