Ask questions about the PhD application process!

[aquamarine]

2 minutes ago, Neuro15 said:

 

You certainly don't have to but it's a nice gesture. I'm close with all of mine so I'm going to get them something once I find out where I will be going. Two of my recommenders like reminders of where their mentees end up so I'm most likely getting them a mug/thermos with the school's emblem and a gift card to a local coffee place.

This also depends on who your recommender is. For some people, a nice card with a thoughtful message of thanks and gratitude would be plenty.

Oh, that's a great idea! Thanks. Mug + thank you note sounds good.

[Edotdl]

12 hours ago, britt2017 said:

random, but are you expected to buy gifts for your recommenders? I planned on writing a thank you card but I wasn't sure if gifts of some sort were customary.

While I don't think you're *expected* to, it's not that uncommon either. I actually gave one of my recommenders a gift during the interview at his school, since I would most likely not see him again anytime soon depending on my school choice. FWIW, I got him some nice tea, since he doesn't drink coffee.

[blc073]

On 12/6/2016 at 10:26 PM, VoidInColor said:

I'm not sure if this is where I should ask, but I'll give it a shot anyway. Does anyone have advice on how to accept an interview offer? Writing professional emails has to be one of the most stressful things in my life.

Here's an email I sent to accept an interview invitation: 

"Hi Louise, 

I have received an invitation from the University of Minnesota to interview with the MICaB program, and I am incredibly excited for this opportunity. While I do plan to interview for this program, I am not yet sure which weekend will work the best for me. I will confirm a weekend before the posted deadline. 

Best,

Name" 

And yeah, most places provide an online form. 

[AGradStudentHasNoName]

So here is a question. And I know this is probably just waiting anxiety making me want to do SOMETHING lol. But I contacted professors back in August or September and it has been a while. For the ones that I had meetings with or from whom I got some positive response, should I shoot them a quick email now reminding them who I am and to look out for my application? I know this is unlikely to change any outcomes, but who knows.

[Bioenchilada]

7 minutes ago, AGradStudentHasNoName said:

So here is a question. And I know this is probably just waiting anxiety making me want to do SOMETHING lol. But I contacted professors back in August or September and it has been a while. For the ones that I had meetings with or from whom I got some positive response, should I shoot them a quick email now reminding them who I am and to look out for my application? I know this is unlikely to change any outcomes, but who knows.

I don't really think it's worth your time and advise against it. Professors are already super busy and they would have to invest time on a student who might not make it through the admissions process, or might not attend the school. They might not even be in the adcom, so it would be out of their power. I would wait until you're invited to interview to email them and tell them you'd like to talk to them. 

Edited December 11, 2016 by Bioenchilada

[blc073]

17 hours ago, AGradStudentHasNoName said:

So here is a question. And I know this is probably just waiting anxiety making me want to do SOMETHING lol. But I contacted professors back in August or September and it has been a while. For the ones that I had meetings with or from whom I got some positive response, should I shoot them a quick email now reminding them who I am and to look out for my application? I know this is unlikely to change any outcomes, but who knows.

To give the opposite opinion, there is something to be said about building a rapport with a professor. I contacted a professor early in the application cycle and he told me to let him know when I applied so he could talk to the admissions committee. 

If you contacted professors and they responded positively, then it can't hurt to remind them of your positive interaction now that it is closer to the admissions process. You have two basic outcomes: 1) They are too busy and they blow you off, 2) They remember you, they like you, and they go to bat for you. The most important part of an application is convincing someone in the committee to fight for you. If you know a professor who knows someone on the committee, you might be able to accomplish the application dream. 

In short, admissions committees want to throw out your application. If you can have someone in the room fighting to keep you in the running, your chances of being admitted increase significantly. 

[AGradStudentHasNoName]

Thanks @blc073. I did email two people for schools that should be reviewing this week and got short but positive responses. Here's hoping. Might email a few more closer to the time they will review applications. Of course I don't know this for sure, but presumably a week or two before interview invites go out which I mostly know from gradcafe historically.

Edited December 12, 2016 by AGradStudentHasNoName
typo

[Born-to-pipette]

What's the consensus on how soon we should accept an interview invitation? Amongst my top choices, UPenn and Weill Cornell have conflicting interview weekends; however, the latter will not send out interview invites until around Christmas. Although Penn has three interview weekends, they had specifically invited me to the first one.

Should I ask if I could interview the second weekend "just in case"? Accept the invitation for now, but indicate a potential conflict with the first weekend and ask if I could confirm the particular date at a later time? I am hesitant, as I want to avoid giving the impression that I'm more interested in another school over Penn.

[Bioenchilada]

3 minutes ago, Born-to-pipette said:

What's the consensus on how soon we should accept an interview invitation? Amongst my top choices, UPenn and Weill Cornell have conflicting interview weekends; however, the latter will not send out interview invites until around Christmas. Although Penn has three interview weekends, they had specifically invited me to the first one.

Should I ask if I could interview the second weekend "just in case"? Accept the invitation for now, but indicate a potential conflict with the first weekend and ask if I could confirm the particular date at a later time? I am hesitant, as I want to avoid giving the impression that I'm more interested in another school over Penn.

I would wait until you get a Weill Cornell invite before telling anyone about a conflict, given that it's not particularly wise to assume you're going to get an invite. It takes extensive planning to effectively conduct an interview weekend, so Penn might want to hear from you about your professors of interest before Christmas. Telling them earlier might be beneficial for you since you would be first pick to be interviewed by these profs. If I were you, I'd accept the invite and plan as if you didn't count on Cornell until they get back to you. If they do, then you could message either of the schools to work conflicts out. I told Michigan that I had a conflict on all their dates and they worked with me to figure them out. As someone said earlier, if a school is not willing to work things out with you, they don't want you enough lol

Also, unless it's your last choice, try not to do Skype interviews, it takes away a lot from the interviewing experience. 

[blc073]

1 hour ago, Born-to-pipette said:

What's the consensus on how soon we should accept an interview invitation? Amongst my top choices, UPenn and Weill Cornell have conflicting interview weekends; however, the latter will not send out interview invites until around Christmas. Although Penn has three interview weekends, they had specifically invited me to the first one.

Should I ask if I could interview the second weekend "just in case"? Accept the invitation for now, but indicate a potential conflict with the first weekend and ask if I could confirm the particular date at a later time? I am hesitant, as I want to avoid giving the impression that I'm more interested in another school over Penn.

I agree with @Bioenchilada. 

Operate as if Penn is your only option, then figure things out with other programs later. If you get an interview from Weill Cornell, tell them that you have an interview already scheduled for that weekend. As I said before (take note, @Bioenchilada), "This process is about you. They judged you, now you get to judge them. Any program that will not work with your schedule is not worth your time. Full stop."

[Born-to-pipette]

23 hours ago, Bioenchilada said:

I would wait until you get a Weill Cornell invite before telling anyone about a conflict, given that it's not particularly wise to assume you're going to get an invite. It takes extensive planning to effectively conduct an interview weekend, so Penn might want to hear from you about your professors of interest before Christmas. Telling them earlier might be beneficial for you since you would be first pick to be interviewed by these profs. If I were you, I'd accept the invite and plan as if you didn't count on Cornell until they get back to you. If they do, then you could message either of the schools to work conflicts out. I told Michigan that I had a conflict on all their dates and they worked with me to figure them out. As someone said earlier, if a school is not willing to work things out with you, they don't want you enough lol

Also, unless it's your last choice, try not to do Skype interviews, it takes away a lot from the interviewing experience. 

 

22 hours ago, blc073 said:

I agree with @Bioenchilada. 

Operate as if Penn is your only option, then figure things out with other programs later. If you get an interview from Weill Cornell, tell them that you have an interview already scheduled for that weekend. As I said before (take note, @Bioenchilada), "This process is about you. They judged you, now you get to judge them. Any program that will not work with your schedule is not worth your time. Full stop."

That makes sense -- thanks for the input! I'll respond to Penn by EOD today  

[myhairtiebroke]

What's the dress code for interviews? I've been told "not a tshirt and not jeans" by most people in real life and I see similar advice online. I'm still worried, because "not jeans" is quite a range - though I'm assuming a suit and/or tie is unnecessary. Sneakers? Chinos? Any collared shirt (assuming it doesn't have a guady print or distracting color)? For guys that have already gone through interviews, what did you wear? Or, if you're not a guy, what did you observe the male interviewees wearing?

Edited December 18, 2016 by myhairtiebroke

[Bioenchilada]

6 hours ago, myhairtiebroke said:

What's the dress code for interviews? I've been told "not a tshirt and not jeans" by most people in real life and I see similar advice online. I'm still worried, because "not jeans" is quite a range - though I'm assuming a suit and/or tie is unnecessary. Sneakers? Chinos? Any collared shirt (assuming it doesn't have a guady print or distracting color)? For guys that have already gone through interviews, what did you wear? Or, if you're not a guy, what did you observe the male interviewees wearing?

The dress code is typically business casual/formal. Most men wore suits for my interviews. However, there are events where jeans are fine, just not the actual interview haha

[blc073]

7 hours ago, myhairtiebroke said:

What's the dress code for interviews? I've been told "not a tshirt and not jeans" by most people in real life and I see similar advice online. I'm still worried, because "not jeans" is quite a range - though I'm assuming a suit and/or tie is unnecessary. Sneakers? Chinos? Any collared shirt (assuming it doesn't have a guady print or distracting color)? For guys that have already gone through interviews, what did you wear? Or, if you're not a guy, what did you observe the male interviewees wearing?

I wore the same thing to every interview: casual dress pants (I have a casual pair of slacks), comfortable dress shoes, a white button up, and  a sweater. 

Remember, you will likely be walking a lot, so you need to be prepared for that. I also interviewed in really cold places (Minnesota, Chicago, Boston, Denver), so I had to wear clothes that would go well with a big coat. 

A suit is not necessary. My Harvard invitation specifically said to dress for comfort. 

I would pack nice jeans or pants for nights out, nice pants (slacks or chinos) for the interview, comfortable shoes that look good but can be worn while walking a lot, button ups, and maybe a sweater or two. 

Finally, know that will not be denied an offer of admissions based on what you wear. Honestly, any school with that philosophy is not worth your time. Dress nice, but be comfortable. 

[immuno91]

On 12/18/2016 at 4:54 AM, myhairtiebroke said:

What's the dress code for interviews? I've been told "not a tshirt and not jeans" by most people in real life and I see similar advice online. I'm still worried, because "not jeans" is quite a range - though I'm assuming a suit and/or tie is unnecessary. Sneakers? Chinos? Any collared shirt (assuming it doesn't have a guady print or distracting color)? For guys that have already gone through interviews, what did you wear? Or, if you're not a guy, what did you observe the male interviewees wearing?

Jeans are absolutely fine for events like welcome dinners or trips to any bars/house parties that students may take you to. That said, wear a nicer pair of jeans.

Most men that I interviewed with wore a tie to their interviews. During my last interview, I decided that I didn't care anymore and stopped wearing a tie - it didn't impact the decision on my application (I also wore some interesting colored clothing on this interview because I had run out of clean clothes after three interviews in one week). Generally, people wear more neutral colors/navy blue because that sums up business casual. Honestly, I don't think it entirely matters - the program administrator at Duke gave me a high five because I wore "Duke blue" pants to the first day of interviews.

In general, if faculty are expected to be present (interviews, dinners/cocktail hours with faculty), I would go with trousers (not jeans), a button down shirt, and a sweater or blazer (a tie is up to you). The great thing about blazers is that they're easy to take off and hang up if the situation is more casual. For events with students, a pair of nice jeans and a more casual shirt (button down but not necessarily a dress shirt) will usually suffice. This is more or less what I saw from those that I interviewed with as well.

[vnatch]

This may be a pretty specific request, but does anyone know anything about the interview weekend specifically for the UCSF Tetrad program? It is my very first interview but also one of my top choices, so I'm feeling a bit nervous! Any info about the post-interview admission rate would also be greatly appreciated. I read on some other forum that UCSF's acceptance rate after interview is actually a lot lower than normal, but I'm hoping this isn't true. Has anyone heard anything about this before?

[Edotdl]

5 hours ago, vnatch said:

This may be a pretty specific request, but does anyone know anything about the interview weekend specifically for the UCSF Tetrad program? It is my very first interview but also one of my top choices, so I'm feeling a bit nervous! Any info about the post-interview admission rate would also be greatly appreciated. I read on some other forum that UCSF's acceptance rate after interview is actually a lot lower than normal, but I'm hoping this isn't true. Has anyone heard anything about this before?

I haven't heard anything about the post interview acceptance rate being low at UCSF. If I had to guess I'd say it's around 80%.

[BioCat02]

This might be a redundant question during this point of the application cycle, but does anyone have any experience with post interview/recruitment weekend acceptances? I got an invite from Cornell (Ithaca) for the GGD field, which shares the weekend with their BMCB field. I've seen stats that some schools have greater than 50% acceptance after interview. Does anyone have information about Cornell specifically? Or just any information about what to expect on these weekends? 

[Bioenchilada]

3 hours ago, BioCat02 said:

This might be a redundant question during this point of the application cycle, but does anyone have any experience with post interview/recruitment weekend acceptances? I got an invite from Cornell (Ithaca) for the GGD field, which shares the weekend with their BMCB field. I've seen stats that some schools have greater than 50% acceptance after interview. Does anyone have information about Cornell specifically? Or just any information about what to expect on these weekends? 

I applied to Cornell BBS and am pretty confident about their acceptance rate being approximately 50%.

[nihchick2017]

Question for people who have gone through the grad school admissions process: I'm slightly (okay more than slightly) confused about the interview offers I've gotten. I'm applying this cycle for neuro PhD with a 3.3 GPA (which I know is low) and average GRE scores, but almost 5 years of part-time research at NIH and summer internships at Harvard and Stanford, plus an HHMI grant and a first author pub. I have great LORs (I've read them) and a solid personal statement. I've gotten interviews at UCSF and UCSD which are really highly ranked for my field (whoo) and U Colorado, but have been passed over at schools that are lower ranked/I thought were more realistic (Berkeley, NYU, UCLA). I'm obviously happy I'm getting interviews at top schools but am also really confused as to why I'm getting passed over at lower ranked schools. Is there a reason (something in my application) this could be happening? Or is it all just a random crapshoot when it comes to these things? Any advice is much appreciated!

Edited January 8, 2017 by nihchick2017

[jmillar]

14 minutes ago, nihchick2017 said:

Question for people who have gone through the grad school admissions process: I'm slightly (okay more than slightly) confused about the interview offers I've gotten. I'm applying this cycle for neuro PhD with a 3.3 GPA (which I know is low) and average GRE scores, but almost 5 years of part-time research at NIH and summer internships at Harvard and Stanford, plus an HHMI grant and a first author pub. I have great LORs (I've read them) and a solid personal statement. I've gotten interviews at UCSF and UCSD which are really highly ranked for my field (whoo) and U Colorado, but have been passed over at schools that are lower ranked/I thought were more realistic (Berkeley, NYU, UCLA). I'm obviously happy I'm getting interviews at top schools but am also really confused as to why I'm getting passed over at lower ranked schools. Is there a reason (something in my application) this could be happening? Or is it all just a random crapshoot when it comes to these things? Any advice is much appreciated!

This might depend on your SOP. I don't know about the ranking specifics of programs for Neurobiology, but in general I've heard if you are a competitive applicant and apply to lower ranked schools/depts, you may have a greater chance of being passed on if they don't think you will likely attend their school if you get accepted into higher ranked programs. The way around this is to make your SOP very specific to their school. Make a case why this program is your top choice. This can be done about talking about POI in the department, parts of the program they are unique to this school, interdisciplinary nature, things at the school that tie well into your plans after grad school, etc. You need to convince them that if you were given an acceptance letter, you would most likely go there.

[RM17]

1 hour ago, nihchick2017 said:

Question for people who have gone through the grad school admissions process: I'm slightly (okay more than slightly) confused about the interview offers I've gotten. I'm applying this cycle for neuro PhD with a 3.3 GPA (which I know is low) and average GRE scores, but almost 5 years of part-time research at NIH and summer internships at Harvard and Stanford, plus an HHMI grant and a first author pub. I have great LORs (I've read them) and a solid personal statement. I've gotten interviews at UCSF and UCSD which are really highly ranked for my field (whoo) and U Colorado, but have been passed over at schools that are lower ranked/I thought were more realistic (Berkeley, NYU, UCLA). I'm obviously happy I'm getting interviews at top schools but am also really confused as to why I'm getting passed over at lower ranked schools. Is there a reason (something in my application) this could be happening? Or is it all just a random crapshoot when it comes to these things? Any advice is much appreciated!

I think to some extent it's a crapshoot, and to some extent, slightly like what @jmillar said, it's about "fit" of the program -- both for highly ranked and slightly lower ranked schools.

I also think that, in some cases, a program being highly ranked overall does not necessarily correlate with it being a good fit for one's specific research interests. It also depends what kinds of applicants they're looking for in a particular year; for example, one of my friends who entered a neuroscience PhD program a few years ago said that a lot of cogneuro people were admitted his year to the program, and that in the subsequent year there was a bit of a bounce-back in the opposite direction.

I was rejected from UCSF (but have received interviews from a solid lineup so far), which was probably among the "best" programs I applied to, but it wasn't super high on my personal list because I am already in a rather specific branch of human neuroscience research. If I had been invited I would've been intrigued and excited to see what kind of fit it looked like from the inside, but there aren't that many faculty there that fit my interests, compared to other programs on my list. It's probably possible for the opposite to be true -- for your research interests and experience to be a better "fit" for more highly ranked programs than for some of the lower ones, regardless of your other credentials. I don't know what kind of work you do or want to do, or if this is at all the case with your situation, but it's a scenario I could imagine.

By and large, I don't think ranking is as important as the PI you're working with; although it is true that funding and resources tend to cluster in "top" programs, some of the best faculty in certain fields are at seemingly random schools.

I don't know how much of that actually answers your question (sorry haha!), but it's just something I think about a lot (especially as a full-time RA of a couple years who has had a lot of time to hone my interests)...

[SysEvo]

There will be a dinner party in the department chair's home for one of my interview. Do I need to prepare a small gift for the host? Thanks

[Bioenchilada]

6 minutes ago, SysEvo said:

There will be a dinner party in the department chair's home for one of my interview. Do I need to prepare a small gift for the host? Thanks

Not really lol

This is fairly commom during interviews. 

[cmykrgb]

this might be a silly question but how much does gpa matter after you received an interview?