Biology applicants Fall 2010

[ScreamingHairyArmadillo]

For what it's worth, I've visited every university you applied to, and CWRU and Yale have the worst locations by a long shot. I haven't spent a lot of time in New Haven, but it's definitely not as nice or as interesting as SF, Boston, or Ann Arbor. I certainly wouldn't let that color your impression too much though, and if cost-of-living is important, SF and Boston will be way more expensive.

Aw, come on. Show Cleveland a little love.

[gremot]

Aw, come on. Show Cleveland a little love.

:D:D I agree! and Cedar Point is also close by !

I have actually been to Cleavland, Ann Arbor, SF and Boston and have so so overview of the places. Unfortunately not New Haven... but as I come from a small place myself, I don't like living in huge places anyway... The criminality is of course troublesome (if it is really as bad as some say), but when it comes to free time, I'd rather get out of the town into the woods/mountains etc.

[genome]

Has anyone been accepted to Washington University's Molecular Genetics and Genomics program (DBBS) ? If so, when did you interview and when did you hear back from them? Thanks!

[biosci3c]

I just noticed that the embark site for caltech now has new items on the "track status" list, including things like patent agreement, health forms, etc.

Can anyone confirm this? Is this a good sign, or is it meaningless?

[MarA]

I just noticed that the embark site for caltech now has new items on the "track status" list, including things like patent agreement, health forms, etc.

Can anyone confirm this? Is this a good sign, or is it meaningless?

Yea, I have seen more stuff on it. However, they are all still listed as "no current status" (except for trancripts )even though I have already been offered an interview. I have got this feeling that they never update this page and I don't think it's an indicator of anything.

[afritz87]

Wow, it seems the genetics/cell/molecular crowd heavily outweighs the ecology/evolution group around here! Haven't seen more than a couple other people interested in the "big biology" side of things.

Any aspiring ecologists out there?! If so, where are you applying?

[2121]

Hey m new here... all the threads look very useful n helpful so decided to post my question.. i got a call for interview from mount sinai for phd in biological sciences. since I am an international student i have also been given the option of a phone interview. Can anyone tell me if doing a phone interview reduces my chances of getting accepted as opposed to an in-person one? also if anyone has been to a mount sinai interview it would be great if they could tell me what to expect..the kind of questions asked ..etc etc.. Plzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz help!!!!

[nutmeg1284]

Has anybody that interviewed at Tufts Sackler (Immuno) heard back from them yet? I remember others here were interviewing there.

I noticed more than one person in the results section has gotten accepted, which leaves me a bit perturbed since when I interviewed, they said decisions would not be made until March.

[danicalifornia]

On 2/22/2010 at 9:27 PM, afritz87 said:

Wow, it seems the genetics/cell/molecular crowd heavily outweighs the ecology/evolution group around here! Haven't seen more than a couple other people interested in the "big biology" side of things.

Any aspiring ecologists out there?! If so, where are you applying?

Hey! I'm with ya fellow. I have applied to Columbia, CUNY, Washington University (WUSTL) and RGGS-AMNH. Just heard from Columbia, a nice kick in the butt.

Hang in there!

[ScreamingHairyArmadillo]

On 2/23/2010 at 11:29 AM, danicalifornia said:

Hey! I'm with ya fellow. I have applied to Columbia, CUNY, Washington University (WUSTL) and RGGS-AMNH. Just heard from Columbia, a nice kick in the butt.

Hang in there!

Another here! Sort of - I applied to just two (supplementary) ecology/evolutionary biology program, but it is really my overarching focus for entomology. I also have a friend not on the gradcafe applying to ecology programs.

We are a wee subset of the bio people.

[disco]

Update, since I've now finished all of my interviews and heard back from everywhere.

GPA: 3.45/4.00 (major in Biochemistry/Biophysics/Molecular Biology) from a small liberal arts college

GRE: V: 81% Q: 67% A: 4.5

Experience: I've been working for the past ~2.5 years as a technician in a lab studying chromosome segregation in S. cerevisiae. I also did a 5 month summer internship in a Drosophila lab studying germline stem cells.

Publications: 3-- all 2009 & 2nd author (Genes & Development, Current Biology, & Genetics)

Manuscripts: 1 in review at Nature (4th author)

Presentations: 2-hour long seminars & a poster presentation, no meetings unfortunately

Applied: UCSF (Tetrad), Berkeley (MCB), Santa Cruz (MCDB), San Diego (Biomedical Sciences), UW (MCB), Colorado (MCDB)

Accepted: Santa Cruz (MCDB), San Diego (Biomedical Sciences), UW (MCB), Colorado (MCDB)

Rejected: UCSF (Tetrad), Berkeley (MCB)

Really unsure of where I want to go this point. UCSC/UCSD/UW all seem to have great programs...it's going to be a tough decision. Not entirely sure what field I'll end up in, I'm interested in studying Cell Cycle/Epigenetics/Aging/Molecular Evolution.

If anyone has any advice/info on any of these schools, I'd love to hear it.

[ozugo]

 I'm another eco/evo person.

3.56GPA in Zoology at an R1, 800Q/690V/5.0AWA, 91st Biology. A year of research experience in 2 labs.

Applied: Stanford, UC Davis, Michigan State, Minnesota, UT Austin, U Georgia, Columbia

Interviews: Stanford (next week!), UC Davis, Michigan State, Minnesota

Accepted: Michigan State, UC Davis

Rejected: Columbia (no interview), Minnesota (post-interview)

No response: UT Austin, U Georgia

[Lousy Test taker]

I'm into Macromolecular Crystallography and Drug Design. My GRE isn't stellar 60% Q and V with a GPA of 3.2.

Got 4 years of research experience.A manuscript in preparation and only a couple of days back one of my pubs got rejected,sending it again after revisions to another journal. so that's 2 in total.

Applied : Northwestern, Einstein, UW Seattle, WashU, Kentucky, South Carolina and Rutgers.

Rejected : Northwestern. Called them and found out that I was given the boot.

I really wish to get into Einstein or UW

[afritz87]

I'm another eco/evo person.

3.56GPA in Zoology at an R1, 800Q/690V/5.0AWA, 91st Biology. A year of research experience in 2 labs.

Applied: Stanford, UC Davis, Michigan State, Minnesota, UT Austin, U Georgia, Columbia

Interviews: Stanford (next week!), UC Davis, Michigan State, Minnesota

Accepted: Michigan State, UC Davis

Rejected: Columbia (no interview), Minnesota (post-interview)

No response: UT Austin, U Georgia

Hey there. Who are you thinking about working with at Georgia? SUCH a great program there, tons of great faculty. Were you at the recruitment weekend?

Good luck with your Stanford interview!

[Blue Lotus]

Hello!

New to this forum, my first post...

Is anyone applying to molecular microbiology programs?

Washington University in St. Louis, has anyone heard back from Microbial Pathogenesis and Host Defense Program? Has anyone been offered admission???

I am curious because I really like the program.

Tks!

[ozugo]

I'm pretty sure I've been rejected outright by Georgia, I haven't heard a peep from them and wasn't invited to interview. It doesn't really matter as UC Davis was higher on my list anyway.

Why the eyerolling? 

Hey there. Who are you thinking about working with at Georgia? SUCH a great program there, tons of great faculty. Were you at the recruitment weekend?

Good luck with your Stanford interview!

[bnm]

Hey guys,

This is my first time here..

Anyways I have been admitted into a state college in Buffalo for my master's but am not necessarily too happy there, therefore I decided to apply SUNY Buffalo for the Phd in Molecular Biology after contacting the admissions director and him telling me its not too late to apply. I am a little worried though, the reason I applied to the master's program was because my gpa in undergrad was low (below 3.0, biochemistry molecular biology from Boston University). I have done very well on my gre's and have worked for 1.5 years at harvard med school and am in the processing of publishing and have good letters of recommendations.

Do you all think that my gpa will be a huge deterrent in my admission or do you think that my work experience, letters of recommendations and gre's will be able to balance out my gpa?

Also has anyone else applied to suny buffalo?

Thanks for your help!!!

[afritz87]

I'm pretty sure I've been rejected outright by Georgia, I haven't heard a peep from them and wasn't invited to interview. It doesn't really matter as UC Davis was higher on my list anyway.

Why the eyerolling?

Haha oh sorry... Wasn't intended to be an eyeroll, just a smile.

[futintgrad]

Hey,

I am international student interested in computational biology/ biophysics/ structural biology

Here are my stats:

GRE: 770Q, 730V, 5.0 A

TOEFL: 115

GRE Biochem : 600 (75%)

M.Sc. Biotech, IIT Bombay (GPA: 8.88/10)

M.Sc thesis project - protein-ligand docking (comp. str. biology)

1 year research exp (doing it now)

Writing a research paper as a first author - comp biology/bioinformatics

I guess my LORs are good enough.. the prof I am working with now is well known in her field, plus she was a student of G.N. Ramachandran.

I am really worried as I have not heard from most places. But people tell me that international students hear late.

Has any international student got a reject from Harvard BBS yet.. I haven't heard anything from them yet!

[ddnp]

Hi-- has anyone who interviewed for Caltech Biology heard back from them yet? I know both of their interview weekends are over. I think they might be meeting this week though.

[fly9125]

Hi-- has anyone who interviewed for Caltech Biology heard back from them yet? I know both of their interview weekends are over. I think they might be meeting this week though.

Yes. The admissions decisions have been made and students have been notified.

[Tsujiru]

Decisions, decisions....

So since it seems like many people here have heard/are hearing back from places, what criteria are helping you pick a program? It looks like my choices are going to end up being Johns Hopkins BCMB, Watson School of Biological Sciences, WashU, and NIH-JHU graduate partnership program. There were elements I liked about each, and it bothers me a little when people who don't know anything about the type of biology I want to do say what they think the top school is. Thoughts?

[AlexM451]

I've been to 6 interviews so far, and I can tell you that every one of these schools has had a plethora of interesting labs to work in. I want to do microbiology/pathogenesis/immunology research right now, but I'm trying to remain cognizant of the fact that a lot of people change their research interests in their first year of graduate work. So I've resolved not to make my decision solely based on how many PIs are studying pathogenesis at each school, but to consider the intangibles a little more. A few schools had extraordinary research atmospheres, and I just got great vibes from them; some schools emphasized the community aspect of the grad student population more than others. It is very possible to shift your research interests during the transition from grad student to post-doc; my PI studied renal physiology as a grad student and now studies immune cell function, so you won't pigeonhole yourself into the research area you do your thesis work in. I think what really matters is that the school (and location) provides an environment that makes you enthusiastic about research and happy to be there.

[choijae]

Hey so nice to see fellow eco/evo people here

Im also done some studies in evo stuff and hope to get into grad school in this area

International student

GRE: 800Q/490V(yikes)/3.0A(more yikes!!!)

GPA: 3.7

Research: about 3years or so. Have a paper coauthored getting ready now.

Applied: Harvard(OEB), Princeton(EEB), Yale(EEB), Cornell(G&D), UChicago(EEB), UMichigan(EEB), UArizona(EEB), NYU(Biology), Duke(Biology), Stanford(Biology), WashU(Biology)

Interview: Cornell, UChicago, UMichigan, UArizona, NYU, 

Rejected: Princeton, Yale, Stanford, WashU

I've done my interviews except Cornell like at Feburary and havent heard back anything yet. The waiting is killing me. Has anybody in the programs above heard back???

[gremot]

I heard from UMichigan 10 minutes after my phone interview, but I applied to PIBS though...