Fall 2010 application season Chem responses

[chemguy]

So far I have heard from:

U of Chicago

Northwestern

UNC

U of Washington

Johns Hopkins

Yale

Got a call from a professor at Yale saying they recommended my admission to the Graduate school but the graduate school has final say and not admission is final until it comes from the Dean. They also said that the Graduate school is taking much longer than normal this year and that is why they called me personally to give me my status.

I have not heard from:

Caltech

MIT

Berkeley

[chemmefatale]

I have been following this thread for a while.

I got my first rejection from UC Irvine today and I am going for Materials Chemistry/Nanoscience/Solar.

I received an email that UC Santa Cruz wants to consider my application, but they need some more time for review.

I also haven't heard from:

U Co Boulder

U of Washington (I am sure it's a rejection now)

UC Davis

UCSB (who are lowering their admits this year)

My stats kind of suck so I am hoping UCSC doesn't let me down.

Edited February 2, 2010 by chemmefatale

[prolixity]

I have been following this thread for a while.

I got my first rejection from UC Irvine today and I am going for Materials Chemistry/Nanoscience/Solar.

I received an email that UC Santa Cruz wants to consider my application, but they need some more time for review.

I also haven't heard from:

U Co Boulder

U of Washington (I am sure it's a rejection now)

UC Davis

UCSB (who are lowering their admits this year)

My stats kind of suck so I am hoping UCSC doesn't let me down.

I toured UC Davis and was thoroughly impressed by their facilities and their faculty. It was on par with what we have here at UC Irvine.. and some of the professors have some AWESOME projects going on. Professors Guo, Larsen, Osterloh, and Land all had some awesome stuff going on, especially in regards to your interest in solar/nano

[mefailenglish]

Accepted: Stanford, UNC, UIUC, Northwestern

Waiting: Harvard, MIT, Berkeley, Texas

Figure the chips have fallen at this point, although a little surprised I haven't heard from Texas. Maybe I screwed up the application.

For visiting, if you go (a little) over their money limit do they usually pay it all or is it on you?

[Tarheel_or_Bluedevil?]

Accepted: Stanford, UNC, UIUC, Northwestern

Waiting: Harvard, MIT, Berkeley, Texas

Figure the chips have fallen at this point, although a little surprised I haven't heard from Texas. Maybe I screwed up the application.

For visiting, if you go (a little) over their money limit do they usually pay it all or is it on you?

From what I've heard it depends on the school (although many are unlimited as long as you book from them).

Also I haven't heard back from UT yet either (not that I care at this point) but I don't know anyone who did hear back from them before last week.

[sunshine9]

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone knows if Johns Hopkins has more than one visitation weekend. I have been accepted to/am still waiting to hear from other schools, but I want to begin scheduling flights. I don't want to jinx myself, but in the event that I would be accepted to JHU, I would want to have that weekend available.

Thanks!

[sunshine9]

Accepted: Stanford, UNC, UIUC, Northwestern

Waiting: Harvard, MIT, Berkeley, Texas

Figure the chips have fallen at this point, although a little surprised I haven't heard from Texas. Maybe I screwed up the application.

For visiting, if you go (a little) over their money limit do they usually pay it all or is it on you?

I have heard of many schools working with you to find a lower price, or you would have to cover the amount over the limit.

Edited February 3, 2010 by sunshine9

[gmr02]

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone knows if Johns Hopkins has more than one visitation weekend. I have been accepted to/am still waiting to hear from other schools, but I want to begin scheduling flights. I don't want to jinx myself, but in the event that I would be accepted to JHU, I would want to have that weekend available.

Thanks!

The only one JHU mentioned was 3/12-3/14.

[so47]

For visiting, if you go (a little) over their money limit do they usually pay it all or is it on you?

I also think it depends on the school. I just arranged my visits for Cornell and UNC. Cornell pays for everything, as long as you do it 21 days in advance and go through their travel agent. UNC also had a travel agent you have to go through, but they said they only cover $300, so I assume anything over that is on you. Luckily it worked out that my UNC flight only costs $209 so it's in their limit, but my Cornell one is $417 so thank god I'm not paying that one!

But pretty much you told the travel agent where you wanted to fly out of, they come back with some choices for time, and then you just give them the info and they did it for you. I have heard some schools make you book the flight yourself and then reimburse, but I haven't had that yet.

[gmr02]

But pretty much you told the travel agent where you wanted to fly out of, they come back with some choices for time, and then you just give them the info and they did it for you. I have heard some schools make you book the flight yourself and then reimburse, but I haven't had that yet.

Johns Hopkins has you book your own flight. Not sure how reimbursement works, though...

[chemdoc]

Hi,So far (Jan. 7, 2010) I've heard back from UT Austin, UNC, UW Madison, and UIUC. I'm waiting on MIT, CalTech, Berkeley, and Stanford. What about everyone else?

I've heard back from Ohio State so far. They emailed me Jan 21st. Waiting on UMCP.

[so47]

I think it's kind of odd, I heard back from my top two choices first, but no word from my "safety schools," which is the complete opposite of what I would expect. I'm obviously happy about it, just still surprised no word from the safeties and thought it was odd. Anyone else see this?

Also, I didn't have to interview at any of the schools I applied to/go accepted at. I applied to only East Coast schools, so is that just a West Coast thing? Or I just happened to apply to schools who don't interview lol. I'm kinda glad I didn't have to, but I just didn't realize chem programs did it at all until I saw a bunch of people on here mention interviews.

[gmr02]

I think it's kind of odd, I heard back from my top two choices first, but no word from my "safety schools," which is the complete opposite of what I would expect. I'm obviously happy about it, just still surprised no word from the safeties and thought it was odd. Anyone else see this?

Also, I didn't have to interview at any of the schools I applied to/go accepted at. I applied to only East Coast schools, so is that just a West Coast thing? Or I just happened to apply to schools who don't interview lol. I'm kinda glad I didn't have to, but I just didn't realize chem programs did it at all until I saw a bunch of people on here mention interviews.

Same... I had never heard of Chem Dept interviews until people started posting here. Maybe they interview on a case-by-case basis or for special fellowships? Anyways, still waiting on UPenn, MIT and Harvard. Also, I originally applied to BU as more of a "safety school", but am still strongly considering it. Does anyone know much about their department, specifically in the field of Organic (i.e anyone who is an undergrad there or has some "inside knowledge")?

[Synth]

Same... I had never heard of Chem Dept interviews until people started posting here. Maybe they interview on a case-by-case basis or for special fellowships? Anyways, still waiting on UPenn, MIT and Harvard. Also, I originally applied to BU as more of a "safety school", but am still strongly considering it. Does anyone know much about their department, specifically in the field of Organic (i.e anyone who is an undergrad there or has some "inside knowledge")?

I have a friend who applied Chem and also has to interview, most of the Chem interviews are when people are interested in biochem- the places where he applied under Biochem have interviews, i.e. Brown, UCSD, but the places that he applied under Gen Chem, I don't think he has interviews. I have yet to hear of an interview process for people interested in PChem/Organic. Though, I have heard that Scripps invites people out for interviews, regardless of what branch of chemistry they're interested in. I didn't apply to Scripps, so someone that did will have to verify whether or not this is true.

[chemikaze]

Does anyone know how Cal Tech's chem admissions work? In other words, is no news at this point bad news?

[so47]

Does anyone know how Cal Tech's chem admissions work? In other words, is no news at this point bad news?

I don't know specifically about Caltech, but what I was told by my research advisor and other faculty members, the general way it works is like this:

They split the applications into 3 big piles, the stand-outs, the weakest, and the ones in between. They accept the stand-outs right away, and reject the weakest right away. Then they spend the rest of the time debating on the ones in the "in between" region.

So, if you know that some of Caltech's decisions have gone out already, I wouldn't automatically consider it bad news. It may mean that you weren't one of the very top candidates (and since Caltech is ranked for #1 for chemistry, I'm sure they get some REALLY competitive applicants so that is hard to do anyway) but it almost probably means that you are in contention. It means that you are a competitive enough applicant that they think you might fit into their program, so take that as a compliment.

Also, that is VERY general, there are some schools that I know don't follow the pattern. Like I don't think anyone has heard from Yale yet, and looking at last year's forum it looks like they don't let people know either way until the end of February. Also, I already got accepted at 2 of my top choice schools, and have not yet heard from my safety schools yet, which makes NO sense since I should be a much stronger applicant for those schools than the top ones.

So all in all, try not to stress too much. As much as we try, there is no way to know what is going on unless you are on their selection committee!

[Synth]

Does anyone know how Cal Tech's chem admissions work? In other words, is no news at this point bad news?

No.

I'm pretty sure it means that they either

a. haven't decided on you yet

b. you might be in the upper middle tier, and they're waiting to see how many people accept/reject early, to get a better idea of class size, and then they'll decide whether or not to admit you. Which I guess is the same as a.

If you notice the gradcafe survey, they've already sent out several definite rejections. I'm pretty sure at Caltech they don't reject and then sit on the rejection for weeks.

[lbztvx]

Accepted at Yale. Directed to the website by e-mail, to see the decision. Letter with details to come.

[chemmefatale]

I have been following this thread for a while.

I got my first rejection from UC Irvine today and I am going for Materials Chemistry/Nanoscience/Solar.

I received an email that UC Santa Cruz wants to consider my application, but they need some more time for review.

I also haven't heard from:

U Co Boulder

U of Washington (I am sure it's a rejection now)

UC Davis

UCSB (who are lowering their admits this year)

My stats kind of suck so I am hoping UCSC doesn't let me down.

I should update and say that UCSC has said yes. I am still waiting on the others with bated breath. However, being a beach bum materials chemist does not seem like a bad idea.

[hollygolightly]

Accepted at Yale. Directed to the website by e-mail, to see the decision. Letter with details to come.

What area of chemistry are you going for? Thanks.

[lbztvx]

Theoretical

[Megan_Shelby]

got into Michigan (PChem), rejected from Stanford and Harvard.

[l33t]

seems like we're applying to almost exactly same schools. So far, only accepted to Scripps Research Inst., and waiting on MIT, Caltech, Berkeley, Stanford, and Harvard. Anyone heard from any of those?

Congrats on Scripps! We'll make sure you have a good time when you visit!!

[l33t]

I have a friend who applied Chem and also has to interview, most of the Chem interviews are when people are interested in biochem- the places where he applied under Biochem have interviews, i.e. Brown, UCSD, but the places that he applied under Gen Chem, I don't think he has interviews. I have yet to hear of an interview process for people interested in PChem/Organic. Though, I have heard that Scripps invites people out for interviews, regardless of what branch of chemistry they're interested in. I didn't apply to Scripps, so someone that did will have to verify whether or not this is true.

Scripps has interviews, but >90% of students invited for interviews are ultimately offered admission. It's essentially an acceptance.

[ChemHopeful]

i heard back from northwestern, ucsd, and csu in january

waiting on scripps, ucla, ucb, caltech, usc, and columbia

Edited February 11, 2010 by ChemHopeful