2017 Applicant Profiles and Admissions Results

[Epigenetics]

Uhh first of all programs make admissions decisions before interviews, you're not stealing someone's spot. Second, if you weren't that interested in the programs you shouldn't have accepted the interviews, that's on you for wasting their money and time, there was a time to withdraw and it has long passed. Have fun bro.

[abc0111]

1 hour ago, Epigenetics said:

Uhh first of all programs make admissions decisions before interviews, you're not stealing someone's spot. Second, if you weren't that interested in the programs you shouldn't have accepted the interviews, that's on you for wasting their money and time, there was a time to withdraw and it has long passed. Have fun bro.

can you clarify what you mean by programs making admission decisions before interviews? what would be the point of interviews if the decisions have already been made

[eagb]

1 hour ago, Epigenetics said:

Uhh first of all programs make admissions decisions before interviews, you're not stealing someone's spot. Second, if you weren't that interested in the programs you shouldn't have accepted the interviews, that's on you for wasting their money and time, there was a time to withdraw and it has long passed. Have fun bro.

This is definitely false. I interviewed at programs where they interviewed 40+ people for 5-6 spots. 

Also, there's really no need for hostility. I was interested in them. I had a number one school for academic + personal reasons, I thought it was a reach...didn't even expect an interview. Visited, loved it, knew I would go if I got an offer and I got in. It's not some conspiracy...

[jeanetics17]

On Thursday, February 16, 2017 at 10:41 AM, biomednyc said:

I'm nursing a 102 degree fever that refuses to go down and coming to terms with the idea that it probably isn't a good idea to drive tonight to my interview...

And suddenly I get an email that I got into Harvard BBS!!!!!! 

Happy, feverish mess = me. 

Congrats!!!

[Nomad1111]

Columbia CMBS admissions offer!

[biomednyc]

4 hours ago, jeanetics17 said:

Congrats!!!

Thank you!! It's gonna be one heck of a decision where to commit for the fall, but an exciting one nonetheless  

[Epigenetics]

5 hours ago, abc0111 said:

can you clarify what you mean by programs making admission decisions before interviews? what would be the point of interviews if the decisions have already been made

Most of these programs know who they intend to admit before interviews. These interview processes aren't actual interviews, they're recruitment weekends. Also please don't give me nonsense about "there's only 4-6 spots" no, there's 4-6 final spots after people matriculate on average per year, but the programs admit many more people than that. I know some programs can be more narrow but that is not standard.

[Prion]

I've been waitlisted for Columbia's integrated CMBS program and it is my top choice!! If you are not planning on attending I am begging for you to let them know as soon as possible! I am praying to still get accepted if people decline their offer! 

[Epigenetics]

Also like genuinely curious if anyone has had an interview so far that you genuinely thought would be useful to someone in deciding to admit you or not. Not one of my interviews so far has resembled anything remotely as useful to admitting me as my application did. I have trouble seeing how those could/would be used as a deciding factor in admissions decisions.

[pitchfork]

15 minutes ago, Epigenetics said:

Most of these programs know who they intend to admit before interviews. These interview processes aren't actual interviews, they're recruitment weekends. Also please don't give me nonsense about "there's only 4-6 spots" no, there's 4-6 final spots after people matriculate on average per year, but the programs admit many more people than that. I know some programs can be more narrow but that is not standard.

Just out of curiosity, how do you learn about this type of information? I know for a few schools it's really obvious that they're just trying to convince people to come over the interview weekend, but that's not the case across the board. How did you know that admission decisions get made before the interviews?

[Epigenetics]

Just now, pitchfork said:

Just out of curiosity, how do you learn about this type of information? I know for a few schools it's really obvious that they're just trying to convince people to come over the interview weekend, but that's not the case across the board. How did you know that admission decisions get made before the interviews?

Oh that's not what I'm saying. The admissions committees meet again after the interview weekends, my point is that the interviews themselves don't provide significant new information aside from if people are insane. 

[pitchfork]

Just now, Epigenetics said:

Oh that's not what I'm saying. The admissions committees meet again after the interview weekends, my point is that the interviews themselves don't provide significant new information aside from if people are insane. 

Oh I see. Totally just missed your point there. 

[prospectivegrad1]

13 minutes ago, Epigenetics said:

Also like genuinely curious if anyone has had an interview so far that you genuinely thought would be useful to someone in deciding to admit you or not. Not one of my interviews so far has resembled anything remotely as useful to admitting me as my application did. I have trouble seeing how those could/would be used as a deciding factor in admissions decisions.

 

Once you get an interview invite, you've defeated 70% of the battle, and I think interviews fill in the remaining 30%. Your interview experience is highly dependent on your interviewer. I think the few people who don't get accepted post-interview are the ones who got unlucky and got interviewers who would continuously grill them. 

 

I think interviewers are looking for 3 things from you: knowledge of your own research project (based on your ability to answer the questions they ask you about your research), ability to communicate your research project, and enthusiasm/ability to ask good questions about their research. I've attended 5 interviews so far, and I think all my interviewers try their best to gauge these 3 variables. 

[Cancer]

Congrats to those accepted in their favorite program so far! Has anyone applied to MD Anderson here? I am an international and have applied there, but I haven't heard from them so far? Should I be worried??!

[Kaede]

I have been admitted to every program I've interviewed at thus far and I have yet to have a conversation about a professor's work other than them speaking with me about it at the very end. I haven't even really gotten a chance to ask intelligent questions about their work because time runs out by the time we start talking about their research. Are my experiences outliers?

[Bubbles_L]

23 minutes ago, Cancer said:

Congrats to those accepted in their favorite program so far! Has anyone applied to MD Anderson here? I am an international and have applied there, but I haven't heard from them so far? Should I be worried??!

They are sending interviews in batches(at least 4 batches as I know), not sure if they are done sending interviews. Good luck!

[Nomad1111]

7 hours ago, Epigenetics said:

Also like genuinely curious if anyone has had an interview so far that you genuinely thought would be useful to someone in deciding to admit you or not. Not one of my interviews so far has resembled anything remotely as useful to admitting me as my application did. I have trouble seeing how those could/would be used as a deciding factor in admissions decisions.

I've had many interviews that are definitely interviews. 

[Nomad1111]

7 hours ago, justv said:

I've been waitlisted for Columbia's integrated CMBS program and it is my top choice!! If you are not planning on attending I am begging for you to let them know as soon as possible! I am praying to still get accepted if people decline their offer! 

I'll be declining for sure, so fingers crossed I can get you off the waitlist

[ImmunoB]

9 hours ago, Cancer said:

Congrats to those accepted in their favorite program so far! Has anyone applied to MD Anderson here? I am an international and have applied there, but I haven't heard from them so far? Should I be worried??!

I'm an international applicant too, and I heard back from MD Anderson before Christmas. I am interviewing with them next week. I am not sure if they are done sending interview offers! Why don't you send an e-mail to them? 

[KR Marksmen]

9 hours ago, Kaede said:

I have been admitted to every program I've interviewed at thus far and I have yet to have a conversation about a professor's work other than them speaking with me about it at the very end. I haven't even really gotten a chance to ask intelligent questions about their work because time runs out by the time we start talking about their research. Are my experiences outliers?

Mine have been a mix. Most are half and half.  First half being "Tell me about yourself" (meaning research) followed by why i did certain things and why i want to come to that particular school. Second half being "I'm going to tell you what my lab does and try to pitch to you to rotate in my lab if you matriculate."

I definitely had one interviewer who did nothing but grill me. Literally asked me to draw out pathways, draw a structure, and give him an explanation on how would i tackle a research problem his lab had previously. 

On the other end I had an interview start off with "im going to tell you about two projects my lab works on. Feel free to stop and ask questions and make suggestions.  Otherwise it will be 30 minutes of me just rambling". 

[L543]

9 hours ago, Kaede said:

I have been admitted to every program I've interviewed at thus far and I have yet to have a conversation about a professor's work other than them speaking with me about it at the very end. I haven't even really gotten a chance to ask intelligent questions about their work because time runs out by the time we start talking about their research. Are my experiences outliers?

My first interview was like this - very casual and just talked about their research. My last one, however, the professors had a list of typical job interview questions that they went down and asked me (like what my PI would say I do well, what they would say I don't do well, biggest achievement, biggest mistake, etc.). I have two more so we will see how they compare

[Epigenetics]

2 hours ago, KR Marksmen said:

Mine have been a mix. Most are half and half.  First half being "Tell me about yourself" (meaning research) followed by why i did certain things and why i want to come to that particular school. Second half being "I'm going to tell you what my lab does and try to pitch to you to rotate in my lab if you matriculate."

I definitely had one interviewer who did nothing but grill me. Literally asked me to draw out pathways, draw a structure, and give him an explanation on how would i tackle a research problem his lab had previously. 

On the other end I had an interview start off with "im going to tell you about two projects my lab works on. Feel free to stop and ask questions and make suggestions.  Otherwise it will be 30 minutes of me just rambling". 

Ironically the closest I've come to being "grilled" were two professors that had genes from the regulator I study come up in their screen, and we had a 45min conversation about what it might mean and if it is real (this regulator comes up in a lot of screens...) but it wasn't what I would call grilling, more like "let's have a conversation". Also I have had no professors assume I knew what they did, I've even had a couple be like "I did not read anything about you please give me an intro". Most of these professors tbh are just professors doing their thing who have these scheduled for them by their department, and aren't doing anything too intense for this process. I think most schools schedule you with someone on the admissions committee as one of your several interviews but even then... maybe this is because I'm applying mostly to broader biology/biomedical/genetics programs that I'm getting a skewed portrait but I have no impression so far that any of my six interviews are actually interviews.

Edited February 19, 2017 by Epigenetics

[Cancer]

12 hours ago, Bubbles_L said:

They are sending interviews in batches(at least 4 batches as I know), not sure if they are done sending interviews. Good luck!

Thanks. Let's hope they are not done. thanks anyway.

[Cancer]

4 hours ago, ImmunoB said:

I'm an international applicant too, and I heard back from MD Anderson before Christmas. I am interviewing with them next week. I am not sure if they are done sending interview offers! Why don't you send an e-mail to them? 

Good for you. I hope everything goes fine with your interview. well I have emailed them, but I didn't get any answer. By the way, can you tell me your application stats?

[virionoftomorrow]

15 hours ago, Epigenetics said:

Also like genuinely curious if anyone has had an interview so far that you genuinely thought would be useful to someone in deciding to admit you or not. Not one of my interviews so far has resembled anything remotely as useful to admitting me as my application did. I have trouble seeing how those could/would be used as a deciding factor in admissions decisions.

I 100% agree. The majority of programs don't do a lot of weeding out based on the interviews at all. I had one interviewer straight up tell me that my credentials were impressive but he worried that I wouldn't actually matriculate in his program because most people from California use their school as a "backup". There was no pretense in evaluating me at all. I also had one interview where I kept trying to bring up my research but my interviewer preferred to talk about hers lol. Even when questions were asked, there wasn't always an expectation that I would have the complete answer. That being said, I have heard that some schools do a lot more weeding out in the interview stage (eg Stanford) so its possible some interviews will be more challenging than others. 

 

15 hours ago, prospectivegrad1 said:

Once you get an interview invite, you've defeated 70% of the battle, and I think interviews fill in the remaining 30%. Your interview experience is highly dependent on your interviewer. I think the few people who don't get accepted post-interview are the ones who got unlucky and got interviewers who would continuously grill them. 

 

I think interviewers are looking for 3 things from you: knowledge of your own research project (based on your ability to answer the questions they ask you about your research), ability to communicate your research project, and enthusiasm/ability to ask good questions about their research. I've attended 5 interviews so far, and I think all my interviewers try their best to gauge these 3 variables. 

Schools know who their tough interviewers are though, and they definitely take this into account. At my last interview, the graduate students were telling us about how the program had to talk to certain faculty about their interviews to make them less harsh, and how if someone interviews 6 people and all of them get terrible evaluations, its pretty obvious that its not the quality of the students thats the issue. 

I think you're probably right in the second part, my PI basically trained me before my interviews to (a) explain my research clearly and succinctly and (b) look excited/enthusiastic because when I am nervous I can sometimes look blank/bored. That being said, some interviewers clearly were not trying to evaluate me in any way and just talked about their school or their research the whole time so that was a really easy experience...