Bioengineering/Biomedical Engineering - Fall 2017 PhD Application Profiles

[zebratography]

Seems like MIT interview invites have gone out. Anyone here got one?

[Some violinist]

Nothing yet. From what I see from previous years in the results section, they seem to be spread out through January. Keeping some hope :/

[Guest]

3 hours ago, jnfls0203 said:

Seems like MIT interview invites have gone out. Anyone here got one?

Yeah, I just saw one for MIT/Bioengineering in the results survey. Is that what you are basing this from or do you have more info?

[zebratography]

46 minutes ago, hopefulandconfused said:

Yeah, I just saw one for MIT/Bioengineering in the results survey. Is that what you are basing this from or do you have more info?

Yeah that's the only thing I saw too. I also asked someone I know that's a phd student at the BE department and hopefully he will answer me soon

[Some violinist]

5 minutes ago, jnfls0203 said:

Yeah that's the only thing I saw too. I also asked someone I know that's a phd student at the BE department and hopefully he will answer me soon

Cool. Keep us posted  

[Guest]

8 minutes ago, jnfls0203 said:

Yeah that's the only thing I saw too. I also asked someone I know that's a phd student at the BE department and hopefully he will answer me soon

Awesome. Thanks for answering!

[Bbot]

Just decided to join this form...so I'm new. Judging by these posts, I don't feel like I have a chance :/ 

Undergrad Institution: State School (R1 Research University)

Major(s): Biomedical Engineering, Applied Math
Minor(s): Chem
GPA in Major: ??/4.00 (Our school doesn't really do this...)
Overall GPA: 3.89/4.00
Demographics/Background: Asian...

GRE Scores:
Q: 161 (79%) Yeah...
V: 162 (90%)
W: 4.5 (82%)

LOR: 

3 Professors, I think they're decent...idk

Research Experience: 

Shifted to different labs since sophomore year (now on my fourth one), got a local research stipend one year, and worked at a national lab another

Publications/Abstracts/Presentations:

Presented locally and am coauthor in the past in a presentation at a national organization. Grad student at one lab said I'll be on a publication whenever it gets finished writing and published... 

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: 

Dean's list, AEMB member, Tau Beta Pi member, local school scholarship, nothing else really...

Fellowships/Funding:

I applied to the NSF-GRFP....

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: 

I TA-ed once for chem

Other Miscellaneous Accomplishments:

 

Research Interests:

Nano-bioelectronics

Institutions/Programs:

Columbia, MIT, Harvard, Tufts, BU 

Comments: I only was able to meet one professor at only one of these schools (no one else responded)...(I'm a senior undergrad)

[Some violinist]

I guess I should post myself up as well. 

Undergrad Institution: Universidad de Los Andes. Top school in my country, not that it makes much of a difference on the international level.
Major(s): Microbiology
Minor(s): Biomedical Engineering, Bioinformatics (didn't figure out I'd completed that one until after submitting, dang), Jazz Performance
GPA in Major: ?/4.00 (my school doesn't do this either)
Overall GPA: 3.81/4.00
Demographics/Background: Latin American, lived in the US a few years.
GRE Scores: Q: 164 (87%) V: 170 (99%) W: 5.0 (93%)
LOR: Three professors, two of them MIT PhD graduates, one of those MIT faculty (the other two are at my university). Each one a different area: Synthetic Biology, Biophysics, Mathematical Modeling (trying to buff up my low quant GRE score and Microbiology major). Took courses with two of them, been TA to one of them, conducted research with all of them. Hope they're strong letters, never got to know.
Research Experience: iGEM/Synthetic biology team at my university (3 years, both dry and wet lab), Summer Undergraduate Research Program at my school held with Arizona State University on mathematical modeling (2 months), SUR program at MIT BE lab (2 months), paid undergraduate researcher at Los Andes-Max Planck Computational Biology Tandem Group (6 months).
Publications/Abstracts/Presentations: No peer-reviewed publications. Two articles in O'Reilly Synthetic Biology magazine, three posters in international conferences (London and Buenos Aires; one first author and two second author), one oral presentation in Latin American symposium, one more poster in Latin American workshop.
Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Distinctions awarded by my school for best GPA in the Biology, Microbiology and Biomedical Engineering programs (I've switched majors a lot, heh). Distinction awarded to my university's top applicants upon entering undergrad. 
Fellowships/Funding: I'll take RA, TA positions? Serve coffees? Play fiddle on the subway? Didn't apply to anything
Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Paid RA in Comp. Bio. lab, TA for Parasitology, Social Practice and Quantitative Human Physiology courses. Volunteer academic tutor for low-income high school students in Bogotá?
Other Miscellaneous Accomplishments: Won a couple smallish creative writing awards? Been in classical, jazz, and metal groups? 
Research Interests: Synthetic Biology, Mathematical/Computational Modeling, Infectious Disease.
Institutions/Programs: MIT BE. 
Comments: I wasn't planning on applying this season... I was gonna finish my Biomedical Engineering double major (I'm a senior undergrad) and apply everywhere I could next year. But the professor I worked with at MIT suggested I give it a shot, so I did the whole thing sort of last minute, knowing it was a huge moon shot. Now I'm kicking myself for not preparing my GRE more carefully and not applying to more, less competitive places. Oh well. Good luck to everyone!

Edited January 8, 2017 by Some violinist

[zebratography]

On 1/3/2017 at 11:52 AM, koab79 said:

 

[zebratography]

The person I know said that he wasn't involved in the admission process, but it is very likely that they don't send out invites at the same time (so dont give up hope!), and we should hear back very soon!

[Neuronophil]

2 hours ago, jnfls0203 said:

The person I know said that he wasn't involved in the admission process, but it is very likely that they don't send out invites at the same time (so dont give up hope!), and we should hear back very soon!

Congrats on UMich interview. When did they send you the invite?

[zebratography]

10 hours ago, Neuronophil said:

Congrats on UMich interview. When did they send you the invite?

January 5! I was contacted by a POI and we had a very casual skype interview

[Neuronophil]

Just got an invite to visit University of Michigan. Exciting!!!

FYI, the visit days for UM are:

Thursday, February 16^th – Saturday, February 18^th

Thursday, March 9^th – Saturday, March 11^th

[asingleneuron]

Congrats Guys! I'm still anxiously awaiting news :). It doesn't seem like any of the schools I've applied to have sent anything yet.

[Guest]

3 hours ago, asingleneuron said:

Congrats Guys! I'm still anxiously awaiting news :). It doesn't seem like any of the schools I've applied to have sent anything yet.

I'm in the same boat. It's so nerve-wracking, specially since there isn't an exact date that I can expect the results, just that it should be coming in the following weeks, so I just keep checking every website a few times a day. And every new email notification is a minor heart attack

[Raulucollege]

I'm freaking out because the UMich interviews have been released and I'd love someone's thoughts on this. 

A PI reached out to me after I submitted my application (mid December) to do a Skype call and even had me send out a research profile. The conversation lasted an hour and seemed really positive, but she didn't mention me coming in for a formal interview at the end.

does this mean an interview is unlikely at this point or are the notifications staggered? 

[zebratography]

34 minutes ago, Raulucollege said:

I'm freaking out because the UMich interviews have been released and I'd love someone's thoughts on this. 

A PI reached out to me after I submitted my application (mid December) to do a Skype call and even had me send out a research profile. The conversation lasted an hour and seemed really positive, but she didn't mention me coming in for a formal interview at the end.

does this mean an interview is unlikely at this point or are the notifications staggered? 

Hmm I got an email from the administration office a day after my interview with the POI, telling me about the details of the recruitment visit. However, I am not sure if they sent out invitations all at once. I don't think you should be too worried about it since there are two recruitment visit weekends! 

[Neuronophil]

 

26 minutes ago, jnfls0203 said:

Hmm I got an email from the administration office a day after my interview with the POI, telling me about the details of the recruitment visit. However, I am not sure if they sent out invitations all at once. I don't think you should be too worried about it since there are two recruitment visit weekends! 

 

I'm pretty sure they don't send invitations all at once since I got mine today and you got yours on the 5th.

1 hour ago, Raulucollege said:

I'm freaking out because the UMich interviews have been released and I'd love someone's thoughts on this. 

A PI reached out to me after I submitted my application (mid December) to do a Skype call and even had me send out a research profile. The conversation lasted an hour and seemed really positive, but she didn't mention me coming in for a formal interview at the end.

does this mean an interview is unlikely at this point or are the notifications staggered? 

I think its too soon for any conclusion. The BME interviews/acceptances are just beginning to be released. I got the invite for recruitment visit without interviewing with any POI, so they are not completely correlated.

[zebratography]

26 minutes ago, Neuronophil said:

 

 

I'm pretty sure they don't send invitations all at once since I got mine today and you got yours on the 5th.

I think its too soon for any conclusion. The BME interviews/acceptances are just beginning to be released. I got the invite for recruitment visit without interviewing with any POI, so they are not completely correlated.

I got my POI interview on the 5th, but my recruitment weekend invite came in today too... But yeah I agree that they arent necessarily correlated

[knin]

Guess I'm joining the party late but here goes...

Undergrad Institution: Foreign (India)

Major(s): Chemical Engineering
GPA in Major: 8.2/10.00
Overall GPA: 7.53/10.00
Demographics/Background: International

Grad Institution: Ivy League, M.Eng

Major(s): Biomedical Engineering
Overall GPA: 3.47/4.00

GRE Scores:
Q: 165 (92%)
V: 166 (95%)
W: 4.0 (54%)

LOR: 1 From undergraduate thesis advisor. Strong but relatively unknown PI; 1 from Master's project advisor, Strong and relatively well known PI; 1 from the PI at a top state school where I'm doing a full time RA

Research Experience: 2 summers and 3 semesters of research and 1 semester undergraduate thesis but most of it related to chemical engineering
Masters Project in a bioengineering lab, 1 year - mostly mechanobiology research, lots of cell culture
Full time RA current, 6 months till date - signal processing and image analysis with some cell culture

 

Publications/Abstracts/Presentations: NONE

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: NONE

Fellowships/Funding: NONE

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: 

2 summer REUs and 1 internship at Major Government Research centers in India

Full Time RA at a top state school

Other Miscellaneous Accomplishments:

Research Interests: Drug Delivery and Cancer research

Institutions/Programs: All BME except NEU

Georgia Tech/Emory, UCLA, UNC-NCSU, University of Michigan, UC Berkeley - UCSF, UPenn, University of Virginia, Boston University, Cornell, Case Western Reserve University, Northeastern University (Chemical Engineering)

Comments: Concerned that No Presentations and not stellar GPA will overshadow my research experience. Also that I applied to too many out of reach schools. Thoughts?

Edited January 11, 2017 by knin

[Neuronophil]

1 hour ago, knin said:

Guess I'm joining the party late but here goes...

Undergrad Institution: Foreign (India)

Major(s): Chemical Engineering
GPA in Major: 8.2/10.00
Overall GPA: 7.53/10.00
Demographics/Background: International

Grad Institution: Ivy League, M.Eng

Major(s): Biomedical Engineering
Overall GPA: 3.47/4.00

GRE Scores:
Q: 165 (92%)
V: 166 (95%)
W: 4.0 (54%)

LOR: 1 From undergraduate thesis advisor. Strong but relatively unknown PI; 1 from Master's project advisor, Strong and relatively well known PI; 1 from the PI at a top state school where I'm doing a full time RA

Research Experience: 2 summers and 3 semesters of research and 1 semester undergraduate thesis but most of it related to chemical engineering
Masters Project in a bioengineering lab, 1 year - mostly mechanobiology research, lots of cell culture
Full time RA current, 6 months till date - signal processing and image analysis with some cell culture

 

Publications/Abstracts/Presentations: NONE

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: NONE

Fellowships/Funding: NONE

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: 

2 summer REUs and 1 internship at Major Government Research centers in India

Full Time RA at a top state school

Other Miscellaneous Accomplishments:

Research Interests: Drug Delivery and Cancer research

Institutions/Programs: All BME except NEU

Georgia Tech/Emory, UCLA, UNC-NCSU, University of Michigan, UC Berkeley - UCSF, UPenn, University of Virginia, Boston University, Cornell, Case Western Reserve University, Northeastern University (Chemical Engineering)

Comments: Concerned that No Presentations and not stellar GPA will overshadow my research experience. Also that I applied to too many out of reach schools. Thoughts?

Admission decisions are mostly holistic. While having publications and good GPA are important factors, they are not a necessity for getting admission. Your LORs, your SOP, and your research experience can make up for lacking publications, etc.

[Neuronophil]

Has anyone heard back from UCSD? I saw a rejection in the results.

[Guest]

Just got an invite from the UC Berkeley/UCSF Joint program!!! So excited! Interview weekends are  February 13-14 or February 27-28

[zebratography]

5 minutes ago, hopefulandconfused said:

Just got an invite from the UC Berkeley/UCSF Joint program!!! So excited! Interview weekends are  February 13-14 or February 27-28

Woohoo congrats! I think I saw your post in the results too haha! 

Does anyone know if they sends out invites simultaneously?

[skbts]

Historically they send them all out on the same day, but looks like someone reported a result a few hours before so they probably are not all at the exact same time. 2-3 more hours till the end of the business day I guess...?