2017 Applicant Profiles and Admissions Results

[Blahgirl]

15 hours ago, seventwo said:

Has anyone heard from UCSF BMS? also what time should we expect to hear from Harvard BBS? do they send them out all at once? or trickle through the day?

My anxiety is killing me

I emailed the program director at UCSF and he said they would be sending emails this coming Tuesday (20th).

[hihello742]

37 minutes ago, Blahgirl said:

I emailed the program director at UCSF and he said they would be sending emails this coming Tuesday (20th).

Thank you @Blahgirl. I will be waiting and praying anxiously! 

Edited December 17, 2016 by hihello742

[spiffscience]

45 minutes ago, Blahgirl said:

I emailed the program director at UCSF and he said they would be sending emails this coming Tuesday (20th).

Anyone on here other than me who applied to the Developmental/Stem Cell Bio program at UCSF?

[DGD4L]

were people receiving interviews last weekend? just wanted to know if most places stick to weekdays.

[blc073]

11 hours ago, kindsoul101 said:

Question to anyone

I don't see much discussion about Johns Hopkins Medical school graduate programs... anyone on here waiting to hear back/applied?

I guess I'm surprised to see so many people talk about Harvard while Hopkins to me seems to define medicine... interesting to hear what people have to say.... it's just I'm shocked to see more people waiting on results from Dartmouth than Hopkins medical school grad programs... but I may be missing something

Can you elaborate on what you meant when you said Hopkins defines medicine? 

[DGD4L]

12 hours ago, kindsoul101 said:

Question to anyone

I don't see much discussion about Johns Hopkins Medical school graduate programs... anyone on here waiting to hear back/applied?

I guess I'm surprised to see so many people talk about Harvard while Hopkins to me seems to define medicine... interesting to hear what people have to say.... it's just I'm shocked to see more people waiting on results from Dartmouth than Hopkins medical school grad programs... but I may be missing something

I looked into Hopkins when deciding where to apply. I liked some of the research, but nothing really excited me. Honestly, it came down to whether or not I would be willing to live in Baltimore for 5-6 years. The answer was no lol. I don't think you could pay me enough to want to live in Baltimore. The programs are great down there, but theres just nothing there for me.

[Josie817]

Has anyone heard from Michigan's microbio PIBS specialization? 

[kevinrhinoceros]

9 hours ago, ilovelab said:

mcb??

No, it was their general biological sciences program.

[jumbo1177]

14 hours ago, spiffscience said:

Didn't get a Harvard email today, but I just got a call from UC San Diego, so I'd call it a good day

Been thinking a lot recently about my undergrad application process; I don't know about you guys, but things ended up very far from what I expected at the outset and things have been more than okay. Just a thought to keep in mind.

When is their interview weekend? 

[spiffscience]

20 minutes ago, jumbo1177 said:

When is their interview weekend? 

Feb 2-5 and Feb 23-26

[haughtysauce007]

2 hours ago, blc073 said:

Can you elaborate on what you meant when you said Hopkins defines medicine? 

Dude, seriously, just  google Hopkins and read about their history in the field of medical research - really? They are sorta a big deal lol... 

When I think of medical research, particularly neuroscience or anything related to neuroscience/neurology, I think of Hopkins. 

When I think of of public policy/law/business/medical school, I think of Harvard. Furthermore, I'd choose MIT over Harvard for anything in the sciences if I wanted to live in Cambridge/Boston. 

Like seriously I've been to top schools already so I don't need a name to feel justified... so I am going based on objective criteria such as student/faculty interaction, whether or not students are collaborative, and funding/time to do your own research and not just being a PIs bitch... and hands down I actually think MIT is best for people that want to also have resources to carry out their own research as opposed to constantly rotating and being a PIs bitch. I also think MIT phds in the sciences do extraordinarily well in highly competitive postbaccs...I think they also place extraordinarily well in actually creating graduates that go on to teach and run their own labs...

There are some strong areas of Harvard BBS of course, but make no mistake about it, they definitely have drawbacks to which just getting the "Harvard" name isn't worth it...especially since I've already graduated from 2 top 5 schools. 

 

[blc073]

11 minutes ago, kindsoul101 said:

Dude, seriously, just  google Hopkins and read about their history in the field of medical research - really? They are sorta a big deal lol... 

When I think of medical research, particularly neuroscience or anything related to neuroscience/neurology, I think of Hopkins. 

When I think of of public policy/law/business/medical school, I think of Harvard. Furthermore, I'd choose MIT over Harvard for anything in the sciences if I wanted to live in Cambridge/Boston. 

Like seriously I've been to top schools already so I don't need a name to feel justified... so I am going based on objective criteria such as student/faculty interaction, whether or not students are collaborative, and funding/time to do your own research and not just being a PIs bitch... and hands down I actually think MIT is best for people that want to also have resources to carry out their own research as opposed to constantly rotating and being a PIs bitch. I also think MIT phds in the sciences do extraordinarily well in highly competitive postbaccs...I think they also place extraordinarily well in actually creating graduates that go on to teach and run their own labs...

There are some strong areas of Harvard BBS of course, but make no mistake about it, they definitely have drawbacks to which just getting the "Harvard" name isn't worth it...especially since I've already graduated from 2 top 5 schools. 

 

I was just asking for an elaboration on your Hopkins comment, which I'm not sure you gave me. However, your description of Harvard BBS and MIT has not been my experience. 

[Epigenetics]

19 minutes ago, kindsoul101 said:

Dude, seriously, just  google Hopkins and read about their history in the field of medical research - really? They are sorta a big deal lol... 

When I think of medical research, particularly neuroscience or anything related to neuroscience/neurology, I think of Hopkins. 

When I think of of public policy/law/business/medical school, I think of Harvard. Furthermore, I'd choose MIT over Harvard for anything in the sciences if I wanted to live in Cambridge/Boston. 

Like seriously I've been to top schools already so I don't need a name to feel justified... so I am going based on objective criteria such as student/faculty interaction, whether or not students are collaborative, and funding/time to do your own research and not just being a PIs bitch... and hands down I actually think MIT is best for people that want to also have resources to carry out their own research as opposed to constantly rotating and being a PIs bitch. I also think MIT phds in the sciences do extraordinarily well in highly competitive postbaccs...I think they also place extraordinarily well in actually creating graduates that go on to teach and run their own labs...

There are some strong areas of Harvard BBS of course, but make no mistake about it, they definitely have drawbacks to which just getting the "Harvard" name isn't worth it...especially since I've already graduated from 2 top 5 schools. 

 

Can we all please chill with overwrought stereotypes of major institutions? As someone who went to Harvard for undergrad and now works in an HMS lab, and is applying for PhDs, there are great things and awful things about Harvard. Also in your stereotypes, you're making a hilarious equivalence between medical research and biological/biomedical research. It's very hard and frankly incorrect to connect research into surgery techniques to research on DNA or the cell. Also just saying an institution "was amazing in the history" ignores what it currently is, frankly when a lot of those discoveries at JHU were being made Stanford was like 20 years old, so let's all chill.

I applied to only six schools, but I applied to them because there were faculty there that I wanted to work with on topics I'm working on. Most graduate programs are defined by your PI, as I've learned working full-time in a lab the past two years. If you're just choosing for "reputation" or in spite of it, you're going to miss great opportunities.

I can tell you for certain BBS is a program that will let you do anything you want pretty much, and it is incredibly student-dependent in outcomes. In that way it's similar to the Harvard undergrad experience. But the idea that you're just a PI's bitch or not doing good science... you literally can't make such broad statements because every lab is different. Let's chill with overgeneralization plz.

[haughtysauce007]

1 minute ago, Epigenetics said:

Can we all please chill with overwrought stereotypes of major institutions? As someone who went to Harvard for undergrad and now works in an HMS lab, and is applying for PhDs, there are great things and awful things about Harvard. Also in your stereotypes, you're making a hilarious equivalence between medical research and biological/biomedical research. It's very hard and frankly incorrect to connect research into surgery techniques to research on DNA or the cell. Also just saying an institution "was amazing in the history" ignores what it currently is, frankly when a lot of those discoveries at JHU were being made Stanford was like 20 years old, so let's all chill.

I applied to only six schools, but I applied to them because there were faculty there that I wanted to work with on topics I'm working on. Most graduate programs are defined by your PI, as I've learned working full-time in a lab the past two years. If you're just choosing for "reputation" or in spite of it, you're going to miss great opportunities.

I can tell you for certain BBS is a program that will let you do anything you want pretty much, and it is incredibly student-dependent in outcomes. In that way it's similar to the Harvard undergrad experience. But the idea that you're just a PI's bitch or not doing good science... you literally can't make such broad statements because every lab is different. Let's chill with overgeneralization plz.

Those were my generalizations based on my processing of information. 

You guys get easily offended over someone else's opinion. Obviously it's based on personal accounts - obviously. Even from that generalizations can be made, duh.

Your comments above, that you can do whatever you want at Harvard - are generalizations. I said my opinion - whether or not it answers your question or you believe they are correct really doesn't matter... it's my opinion - that's what an opinion is ...just like you have opinions

I think people should be able to hear someone's opinion and take it at just that...

 

[haughtysauce007]

12 minutes ago, blc073 said:

I was just asking for an elaboration on your Hopkins comment, which I'm not sure you gave me. However, your description of Harvard BBS and MIT has not been my experience. 

I answered your question in the way I wanted too... that comment was my opinion based on my experiences, however generalized... it is an opinion... so I told you to go read more about Hopkins' history of research so you could form your own opinion, however generalized

there is no right or wrong answer, there is just a question and someone's opinion 

[Epigenetics]

2 minutes ago, kindsoul101 said:

Those were my generalizations based on my processing of information. 

You guys get easily offended over someone else's opinion. Obviously it's based on personal accounts - obviously. Even from that generalizations can be made, duh.

Your comments above, that you can do whatever you want at Harvard - are generalizations. I said my opinion - whether or not it answers your question or you believe they are correct really doesn't matter... it's my opinion - that's what an opinion is ...just like you have opinions

I think people should be able to hear someone's opinion and take it at just that...

 

Just now, kindsoul101 said:

there is no right or wrong answer, there is just a question and someone's opinion 

I'm not offended, I actually am not personally crazy about BBS (most of my lab is in it, I think there's a lot of problems with it) but BBS allows you to work with any faculty over pretty much any part of the university, so it's not a small program with similar outcomes, is what I meant by "you can do whatever you want". But when you're talking about a program with hundreds of students and a massive year by year class, even several anecdotes don't add up to a full picture. I am more interested in the students I know who are in the program and have actual suggestions about it. many of them don't like it and many do. I've basically had the role of a graduate student in a BBS for two years and even I don't think I have a full portrait of it.

[haughtysauce007]

Just now, kindsoul101 said:

I answered your question in the way I wanted too... that comment was my opinion based on my experiences, however generalized... it is an opinion... so I told you to go read more about Hopkins' history of research so you could form your own opinion, however generalized

there is no right or wrong answer, there is just a question and someone's opinion 

I would love people who go to Harvard BBS to talk in detail about going to Harvard other than saying I went to Harvard. If you recommend certain labs/can elaborate on something other than the actual name "Harvard"...that would be appreciated...perhaps talk about the independence you have in a lab or your experiences

For example, I gave you examples of why I thought MIT was strong (ellowships/funding for independent research/in some cases you don't even have to rotate under PIs and can just choose a lab)

If you can speak about Harvard BBS more specifically and what areas you feel it is strong in and the level of independence of your research/help with postbacs/fellowships that would be appreciated.

Again, it's all an opinion but still isn't that what we are here for? To get generalizations and opinions? Since there is no objective way to prove any one correct? No, I just want an opinion.

[blc073]

4 minutes ago, kindsoul101 said:

I answered your question in the way I wanted too... that comment was my opinion based on my experiences, however generalized... it is an opinion... so I told you to go read more about Hopkins' history of research so you could form your own opinion, however generalized

there is no right or wrong answer, there is just a question and someone's opinion 

I guess I would just point out that your assessment of Harvard BBS is not an opinion, rather an inaccurate description. 

My advice would be to be careful being overly critical of institutions during your interviews. It's a definite red flag. 

[geneticginger]

23 hours ago, sivis said:

Congrats! Do you know if they're releasing interviews in waves/did you have to do a phone/skype interview first?

I had a skype interview last week and they called me yesterday to let me know I was invited to the interview weekend. I don't think they're doing any more skype interviews.

[.letmeinplz//]

I was really jealous that bio programs were getting results early and nothing is happening in CS yet, but this drama yo...

No one cares if your school can beat up someone else's school. Go write or read or play some games.

 

Edited December 17, 2016 by .ian//

[haughtysauce007]

7 minutes ago, blc073 said:

I guess I would just point out that your assessment of Harvard BBS is not an opinion, rather an inaccurate description. 

My advice would be to be careful being overly critical of institutions during your interviews. It's a definite red flag. 

Red flag - lol - go focus on some research please.

[Epigenetics]

3 minutes ago, kindsoul101 said:

Red flag - lol - go focus on some research please.

Dude you're the one telling us to be deliberate about where we apply for faculty and fit and shit, and you applied to 17 programs?!?

[Bioenchilada]

29 minutes ago, kindsoul101 said:

Those were my generalizations based on my processing of information. 

You guys get easily offended over someone else's opinion. Obviously it's based on personal accounts - obviously. Even from that generalizations can be made, duh.

Your comments above, that you can do whatever you want at Harvard - are generalizations. I said my opinion - whether or not it answers your question or you believe they are correct really doesn't matter... it's my opinion - that's what an opinion is ...just like you have opinions

I think people should be able to hear someone's opinion and take it at just that...

 

Can you please not take over this thread with rambles? By this point, I would think that you'd know that generalizing is wrong and you should avoid doing it at all costs. Also, basing your opinion on inaccurate information and hearsay makes it rather weak and, some would say, wrong. 

[Epigenetics]

Does anyone know about Stanford Biosciences admissions? It's my understanding that it's program-by-program, but I'm seeing a couple people have heard from them. Does anyone have intel on this? Thanks!

[Bioenchilada]

Just now, Epigenetics said:

Does anyone know about Stanford Biosciences admissions? It's my understanding that it's program-by-program, but I'm seeing a couple people have heard from them. Does anyone have intel on this? Thanks!

I think they release invites the first week of January! I think that's what they did for a lot of programs last year.