2017 Applicant Profiles and Admissions Results

[nile red]

I second @CalicoCat's response. There was nothing that daunting about the experience. If you're confident and familiar with your research and can express it with passion, you'll likely notice that a half hour to an hour has passed by in a blink of an eye. If you love science (which I assume you do), some of these interviews are even fun, as you may learn some really cool new things along the way. Anyway, best of luck!!

[BadWolf1321]

On 1/21/2017 at 2:15 PM, cmykrgb said:

if you made the priority deadline for vanderbilt igp but has not got an invite at this point is that a rejection?

I'm wondering the same thing. I'm assuming it's a rejection since I met people who have already had their interviews, but I know as of last week they were still sending invites. So I'm gonna hold on to some hope for a little longer, no matter how unlikely it is that I'll get an interview lol. 

[Kvothe~]

14 minutes ago, BadWolf1321 said:

I'm wondering the same thing. I'm assuming it's a rejection since I met people who have already had their interviews, but I know as of last week they were still sending invites. So I'm gonna hold on to some hope for a little longer, no matter how unlikely it is that I'll get an interview lol. 

They do have interview dates into March though.

[Drink The Sea]

2 hours ago, spiffscience said:

Hi folks! Hope you're doing swell.

For those of you who have already been to an interview weekend -- do you have any advice to quell my nerves? I'm heading to UWashington MCB this weekend and am a bundle of energy.

Thanks in advance!

I found this old thread to be pretty helpful.   

 

[meioticmadness]

4 hours ago, chanoschanos said:

when did you have your interview?

I actually just had it this last Thursday - Saturday; they got back to me within 2 days with admission.  

[cancergirl]

has anyone heard from penn state Hershey this past week? Not someone who submitted way before the deadle.

[Janiejoneswoah]

4 hours ago, spiffscience said:

Hi folks! Hope you're doing swell.

For those of you who have already been to an interview weekend -- do you have any advice to quell my nerves? I'm heading to UWashington MCB this weekend and am a bundle of energy.

Thanks in advance!

My interviews were mostly focused on what I had done -- and there weren't really any trick questions. Sometimes an interviewer will probe you with pretty detailed questions, but that's just to find the limits of your knowledge. Eventually they'll ask you something you don't know and that's where the probing ends - don't freak out when this happens, so long as it's not something you really ought to know ("So, what was  your result?" for example). Know what you did, what the outcome was, and why you were doing it. Have a handful of faculty you would want to work with in mind, and know a general field you want to work in (for me, systems/circuit level structural plasticity).

[fieldbióloga]

5 hours ago, LadyScientist said:

I currently go to ASU, and I know that they are still going through PhD applications and inviting people to recruitment weekends for biology  

Recent ASU Biology alumna here too!  Good luck with all your apps!

[emfarce]

6 hours ago, LadyScientist said:

I currently go to ASU, and I know that they are still going through PhD applications and inviting people to recruitment weekends for biology  

Well that's a relief! Good to know they're still going through applications, and thank you for the response! Are you an undergrad there or working on your masters?

[charmquarkz]

Anyone else going to UCI CMB recruiting event on Thursday? I'm surprised they only sent our schedules out tonight, I was hoping we would have them sooner. I feel like I don't have much time to prepare!

[charmquarkz]

2 hours ago, charmquarkz said:

Anyone else going to UCI CMB recruiting event on Thursday? I'm surprised they only sent our schedules out tonight, I was hoping we would have them sooner. I feel like I don't have much time to prepare!

Oops, I'm not sure if I offended with this post (I see the negative mark; Sorry, I'm new to this!); in re-reading I see how it could be off-putting... I was hoping to see some other members from here there, and also express surprise at how little notice we seem to be getting compared to the experience of previous posters on this thread. Sorry!

[blueyellow]

20 minutes ago, charmquarkz said:

Oops, I'm not sure if I offended with this post (I see the negative mark; Sorry, I'm new to this!); in re-reading I see how it could be off-putting... I was hoping to see some other members from here there, and also express surprise at how little notice we seem to be getting compared to the experience of previous posters on this thread. Sorry!

I definitely feel the same way! One school I got a week's notice and the other school only 2 days--it's really daunting to only know who you're speaking to two days before.  But, I realized that they don't really expect you to "prepare" by reading all of their work (I tried to in 48 hours it was so painful) but they didn't even ask me anything specific about what they did, plus all their current work is unpublished so I couldn't even be up to date on their newest things. The interviews were very heavily focused on my work and I got some specific questions about the methods I had used. But no specific questions on their work--although I seemed to get positive responses when I asked them a few relevant questions.  Good luck with all of your interviews everyone!!!  You'll do great!

[charmquarkz]

10 minutes ago, blueyellow said:

I definitely feel the same way! One school I got a week's notice and the other school only 2 days--it's really daunting to only know who you're speaking to two days before.  But, I realized that they don't really expect you to "prepare" by reading all of their work (I tried to in 48 hours it was so painful) but they didn't even ask me anything specific about what they did, plus all their current work is unpublished so I couldn't even be up to date on their newest things. The interviews were very heavily focused on my work and I got some specific questions about the methods I had used. But no specific questions on their work--although I seemed to get positive responses when I asked them a few relevant questions.  Good luck with all of your interviews everyone!!!  You'll do great!

I'm glad you said that because it's my first interview and I definitely panicked when I saw the list of people I'd be meeting with and have been frantically looking up papers. It sounds like it's not going to be particularly helpful to do that! Thanks.

[blueyellow]

2 minutes ago, charmquarkz said:

I'm glad you said that because it's my first interview and I definitely panicked when I saw the list of people I'd be meeting with and have been frantically looking up papers. It sounds like it's not going to be particularly helpful to do that! Thanks.

Yeah, I think my strategy for it would be to read their websites and understand generally what they are doing and from what angle they are approaching big questions from.  Then I would read abstracts from their 2 or 3 most recent/ most impactful papers and try to think of some good broad questions to ask.   haha sorry for all the unsolicited advice, I just thought maybe this would be helpful for anyone else reading too! I thought 40 minutes would be a hard block of time to fill--but it passed super fast and over half of my interviews ended up going over time (but in a good way)

[cuteDr22]

Officially rejected from Columbia   

[cancergirl]

26 minutes ago, cuteDr22 said:

Officially rejected from Columbia   

did you hear anything from roswell park? oh sorry.

[cuteDr22]

38 minutes ago, cancergirl said:

did you hear anything from roswell park? oh sorry.

Yes, i am interviewing at Roswell.  You?  Hope so!

[cancergirl]

13 minutes ago, cuteDr22 said:

Yes, i am interviewing at Roswell.  You?  Hope so!

when did you get an email and what did your app status say?

My status says "on hold," not sure what it means tho..

[cancergirl]

14 minutes ago, cuteDr22 said:

Yes, i am interviewing at Roswell.  You?  Hope so!

lol and what are the dates?

[cuteDr22]

5 minutes ago, cancergirl said:

lol and what are the dates?

2/5 - 2/6

[jumbo1177]

Has anyone heard from GSK post interview? I saw on the results thread that two people posted they were rejected on Jan 16th but I wasn't sure if this was a mistake and they meant to put they were rejected pre-interview? 

[Drink The Sea]

11 hours ago, charmquarkz said:

I'm glad you said that because it's my first interview and I definitely panicked when I saw the list of people I'd be meeting with and have been frantically looking up papers. It sounds like it's not going to be particularly helpful to do that! Thanks.

While it's definitely not necessary or expected of interviewees to intensely read up on the recent work of their interviewers, I think that doing so can demonstrate specific interest and can help facilitate great discussions about their research. Here's one approach I've been coached on for developing tailored questions to ask POI interviewers: read 1-3 of their recent pubs in depth, then come up with questions that would be good follow up projects for the study, or alternative approaches/applications they could try out. A great question about their work, not just a question for the sake of asking one, will catch their attention really quickly. They want thinkers and being able to ask a great question that pertains to the immediate discussion will only draw positive attention to you. Another strategy you can take is to look up their recent NIH grant proposals to get a pre-glimpse at where some of their research might be heading. https://grants.nih.gov/grants/oer.htm

[charmquarkz]

1 hour ago, Drink The Sea said:

While it's definitely not necessary or expected of interviewees to intensely read up on the recent work of their interviewers, I think that doing so can demonstrate specific interest and can help facilitate great discussions about their research. Here's one approach I've been coached on for developing tailored questions to ask POI interviewers: read 1-3 of their recent pubs in depth, then come up with questions that would be good follow up projects for the study, or alternative approaches/applications they could try out. A great question about their work, not just a question for the sake of asking one, will catch their attention really quickly. They want thinkers and being able to ask a great question that pertains to the immediate discussion will only draw positive attention to you. Another strategy you can take is to look up their recent NIH grant proposals to get a pre-glimpse at where some of their research might be heading. https://grants.nih.gov/grants/oer.htm

That's a great idea, I hadn't even considered looking at their active grants and proposals.

I've read a couple of papers for each interviewer mostly focusing on the intro and discussion to get the big picture idea, but I am definitely going to re-read with future directions/applications in mind as you suggested because I feel like I am having a hard time coming up with questions that aren't just for the sake of asking a question. I think that will help me feel more confident during the interviews themselves as well, as I won't just be listening to them talk about their projects and desperately trying to come up with a good question on the spot.

Many thanks for your advice!

Edited January 25, 2017 by charmquarkz
typo

[MCF10A]

On 1/24/2017 at 9:24 AM, Pepperoni said:

Not biochem, cancer. haven't received faculty list yet though.

got it. honestly though, anything to do at this point, besides quietly understand we've been rejected? Any e-mail to adcom or anything? Frankly if you're not accepted, nothing can hurt at this point right?

see you there!

I got a confirmation from the UPenn CAMB cancer bio POI that all interviews for intl students were sent out already. The whole CAMB has a quota of accepting ~3 intl students this year but they received several hundreds of intl applications. Sorry.

[cuteDr22]

2 hours ago, jumbo1177 said:

Has anyone heard from GSK post interview? I saw on the results thread that two people posted they were rejected on Jan 16th but I wasn't sure if this was a mistake and they meant to put they were rejected pre-interview? 

I haven't heard back yet. I predict that we should hear on Friday. Just a guess, intuition etc.  My fingers are crossed!