2017 Applicant Profiles and Admissions Results

[Neuro15]

A lot of UK PhDs have already completed a MS before going onto the PhD. Think of the PhD as the years of research post-comps.

Edited December 15, 2016 by Neuro15

[blc073]

1 minute ago, Stemlike said:

4 years is quite a generous scholarship in the UK (where most secure funding for only 3 years). You don't have the first/two years of classes/rotations at the beginning of the PhD, so it's a whole different system from the US. Due to these differences, most students in Europe complete their PhDs in ~4 years

Ah, that makes sense. 

I had a professor in undergrad who went to Oxford for his DPhil. He stayed six years and had to find another source of funding. That's why I was curious. 

[Stemlike]

2 minutes ago, blc073 said:

Ah, that makes sense. 

I had a professor in undergrad who went to Oxford for his DPhil. He stayed six years and had to find another source of funding. That's why I was curious. 

 

I guess there's always that possibility, but I hope that's not my case

[Katyya]

11 minutes ago, blc073 said:

I looked into UK schools for about five seconds before I saw that most require that you secure funding before they will interview you. 

What is the average time to completion for that program? When I see a four-year award I think an incomplete degree or scrambling to find funding for the last year or two. 

I'm not trying to be rude or to ruin your excitement, I'm just curious. 

What about Vienna Biocenter and EMBL programs then. They technically require masters but they say you need a degree that qualifies you to enter a PhD program in the country where you got the degree. 
I have an interview coming up in Vienna at the Institute of Molecular Pathology and it's a 3-4 year program fully funded. It's one of the best programs in the world as far as the impact of publications, amount of funding, facilities and caliber of scientists and group leaders. You pick a PI even before you start research. The PI I want to work with Skype interviewed me prior. It's a little sketchy though what if you don't get along with that PI but if you get lucky it's better than spending 5-6 years on your degree 

[blc073]

3 minutes ago, Stemlike said:

 

I guess there's always that possibility, but I hope that's not my case

Right, I wasn't projecting or anything. I was just explaining my curiosity. 

The Francis Crick Institute sounds like an awesome program. 

[Bioenchilada]

2 minutes ago, Katyya said:

What about Vienna Biocenter and EMBL programs then. They technically require masters but they say you need a degree that qualifies you to enter a PhD program in the country where you got the degree. 
I have an interview coming up in Vienna at the Institute of Molecular Pathology and it's a 3-4 year program fully funded. It's one of the best programs in the world as far as the impact of publications, amount of funding, facilities and caliber of scientists and group leaders. You pick a PI even before you start research. The PI I want to work with Skype interviewed me prior. It's a little sketchy though what if you don't get along with that PI but if you get lucky it's better than spending 5-6 years on your degree 

I mean, sometimes taking that long on your degree will put you on track for a better, and sometimes even shorter, postdoc. The extra time will give time to grow as a scientist and expand your network. In fact, I've heard that short PhD's tend to lead to much longer postdocs lol

[pipette_fever]

1 hour ago, cuteDr22 said:

I'm waiting on Weill-Cornell also. They don't make this easy. 

Weill Cornell told me that invitations should start going out next week! I'm applying to neuro, not sure how much that makes a difference

[blc073]

8 minutes ago, Bioenchilada said:

I mean, sometimes taking that long on your degree will put you on track for a better, and sometimes even shorter, postdoc. The extra time will give time to grow as a scientist and expand your network. In fact, I've heard that short PhD's tend to lead to much longer postdocs lol

Agreed. When you are looking for a job, it won't matter how long your PhD and post-doc took, it will matter the number of publications you have. 

The advice I've been given regarding my time in grad school is this: PhD Years + # of Solid Publications = 7. So if you are finishing your PhD in four years, you need to have three solid publications. Also, remember that after your PhD, everything starts over. When you begin a post-doc, you will have nothing but your PhD training to help you. You might as well get as much out of your PhD as you can. 

In short, don't rush your PhD. Take advantage of the training environment before entering the...REAL WORLD. (Gasp) 

[Katyya]

Yeah but those 3-4 year programs in Europe only publish in SNC. So one Nature first author > 4 PNAS papers. The PI that I'm interested in at Vienna has like 7 publications throughout her life but she has Nature and Science first authors. Those overweight just papers that you get your name on through being in lab for 6 years.

[AGradStudentHasNoName]

I applied to both Cambridge Mathematical Genomics and Medicine as well as the Sanger Institute 4-year program. They are both 4-year programs fully funded through the Wellcome Trust Foundation which is where most of the funding for the Sanger Institute comes from. The first year is classes + rotations and then the following 3 years are research. Also many programs at Cambridge can be funded through a Gates Scholarship, but that is another difficult thing to get.

I am interested to learn more about the pluses and minuses of a UK PhD (DPhil) vs US. I talked to a professor there when I was out there for a conference but of course he is going to say their system is better and doesn't abuse grad students as cheap labor as much. Also I already have an MD and undergrad in CS so there is a certain amount of coursework that might be redundant in a US program, but then again I'm sure I can find enough non overlapping courses as well. But it might be a good idea for me since it is shorter, I'm a bit older with more experience, and have done more relevant coursework already. Having said that, I don't want to rush things and be less prepared or have fewer publications. Not wanting to rush things and building a solid publication history is why I am doing a PhD instead of immediately doing a post doc anyway.

[cuteDr22]

54 minutes ago, Stemlike said:

I know this is mostly US applicants, but received today my invitation to interview at the Francis Crick Institute in London anyone else?

Good luck!

Congrats and good luck!

[bionerd111]

Just received first interview offer from Yale BBS MCGD. I was wondering if anyone knows the post-interview acceptance rate for this program.

[blc073]

9 minutes ago, Katyya said:

Yeah but those 3-4 year programs in Europe only publish in SNC. So one Nature first author > 4 PNAS papers. The PI that I'm interested in at Vienna has like 7 publications throughout her life but she has Nature and Science first authors. Those overweight just papers that you get your name on through being in lab for 6 years.

I'm not trying to get into an argument here, but I would be skeptical of any scientist who only publishes in Science, Nature, and Cell. Some of the greatest discoveries were published in lower impact journals. This is mainly because Science, Nature, and Cell are often resistant to paradigm-shifting publications. 

In addition, I would be worried about joining a lab with a PI who has only published seven times. What are the odds that you will be a first author on one of her publications? 

[bionerd111]

On 12/14/2016 at 5:25 PM, Katyya said:

Will do! 

I am usually not this anxious about anything. I knew Mt. Sinai was coming but I didn't get nearly as nervous. 

I am most excited about UPenn because there are so many faculty with similar research interests. If I knew I had a guaranteed interview, I would honestly only apply to UPenn. It's such a dream match for me. It will be very heartbreaking if I don't get an interview  

Did you ever end up calling them?

[Bioenchilada]

13 minutes ago, bionerd111 said:

Did you ever end up calling them?

I did. More interviews were sent today, and they may even be sent tomorrow and earlier next week.  

If you don't hear back by Tuesday, then you essentially know what happened.

Edited December 15, 2016 by Bioenchilada

[Bioenchilada]

4 minutes ago, bionerd111 said:

Cool thanks for the heads up! I got into Yale BBS so I'm a little confused why Penn CAMB didn't want me, I guess every program looks for different things though.

Well, they are two different schools with very competitive applicant pools. Maybe you matched more with what Yale looks for. In the end, the difference in strength of the cancer biology programs across these two schools is essentially negligible.  

Also, by getting into I assume you got an interview.

Edited December 15, 2016 by Bioenchilada

[Browncoat5871]

1 hour ago, neurophysicist13 said:

Weill Cornell told me that invitations should start going out next week! I'm applying to neuro, not sure how much that makes a difference

Wow.  I work at that hospital and you got more out of them then I did when I asked a few of the people there.  Though, they also said that if they had to suffer through waiting, so did I.  At least it may be "soon".  Thanks for the info.

[bionerd111]

5 minutes ago, Bioenchilada said:

Well, they are two different schools with very competitive applicant pools. Maybe you matched more with what Yale looks for. In the end, the difference in strength of the cancer biology programs across these two schools is essentially negligible.  

Also, by getting into I assume you got an interview.

Yea I meant interview. Shouldn't jinx myself  

[talkativet]

I'm looking at the results page and see a lot of Harvard interviews coming in for Neuroscience...does anyone know if DMS sends out all interviews at once or do separate divisions within DBS have a specific timeline? I applied to SHBT and I'm getting kind of worried

[curious001]

Hi everyone! I see that GSK sent out a bunch of invitations today. Does anyone know if they typically send out more than one batch? Or should I assume it's a no-go since I haven't heard anything? (also, what email address did it come from?)

Thank you!

[immuno91]

5 minutes ago, talkativet said:

I'm looking at the results page and see a lot of Harvard interviews coming in for Neuroscience...does anyone know if DMS sends out all interviews at once or do separate divisions within DBS have a specific timeline? I applied to SHBT and I'm getting kind of worried

Each DMS program sends out invitations separately. Neuro went first, two more were released today, and BBS is coming tomorrow (I think?). Sadly, I'm not sure what the schedule for SHBT is so I can't be of any help.

EDIT: To be clear, the programs that do phone notifications are doing them over the course of a one or two days.

Edited December 15, 2016 by immuno91

[talkativet]

11 minutes ago, immuno91 said:

Each DMS program sends out invitations separately. Neuro went first, two more were released today, and BBS is coming tomorrow (I think?). Sadly, I'm not sure what the schedule for SHBT is so I can't be of any help.

EDIT: To be clear, the programs that do phone notifications are doing them over the course of a one or two days.

Got it, guess I'll just keep waiting then! I'm assuming it'll probably be tomorrow or early next week if it hasn't gone out already, so shouldn't be too long of a wait.

[Lurpelis]

Does BIG send out theirs when BBS does?

[kokobanana]

49 minutes ago, talkativet said:

I'm looking at the results page and see a lot of Harvard interviews coming in for Neuroscience...does anyone know if DMS sends out all interviews at once or do separate divisions within DBS have a specific timeline? I applied to SHBT and I'm getting kind of worried

I applied to SHBT and PiN last year - I got invites on two separate days. Unfortunately, their interview dates were actually the same days (which is silly since I would assume that at least a few people apply to both programs)!  BBS and PiN intentionally avoid having the same interview weekends since they know there are usually a group of students that interview at both.

 

[AGradStudentHasNoName]

7 minutes ago, Lurpelis said:

Does BIG send out theirs when BBS does?

From previous years it doesn't look like it. I really hope they go out tomorrow, but that would be 1 day earlier than any previous year. Probably have to wait for next week...

Edited December 16, 2016 by AGradStudentHasNoName