2017 Computational Biology/Biomedical Informatics PhD Applicants and Admission Results

[Oddich55]

Hey all!

Just thought we should start a thread for Comp Bio/Bioinformatics/Biomedical Informatics to track all of the programs and what's going on and stop us from hunting everywhere for news! =).

I applied to 12 schools and the only one I have heard back from, so far, is Duke Computational Biology/Bioinformatics - interviews Feb 9-12 or Feb 19-20.

[AGradStudentHasNoName]

Yo. I'm still waiting on all of my programs. There is a possibility that tomorrow has some news from Harvard BIG, Cornell tri institutional program, or UWashington genome sciences, but a slim one as it is 1 day before any of them have previously sent out invites...

[Oddich55]

Ah geez. The stress is real. I applied to all three of those =P. Which other schools did you go for?

[AGradStudentHasNoName]

5 minutes ago, Oddich55 said:

Ah geez. The stress is real. I applied to all three of those =P. Which other schools did you go for?

see my signature lol.

My list is embarrassingly top heavy. But I have an MD (cs undergrad, currently working in algorithms R&D) and already have a job at a well respected biotech "startup" (we were, now 130 ppl) in the same position/same title as many people with phd's from places like stanford cs, mit csbi, etc. So If I dont get in to any of them, then I stay in a good position or move to some other good industry position...

Edited December 16, 2016 by AGradStudentHasNoName

[AGradStudentHasNoName]

14 minutes ago, Oddich55 said:

Hey all!

Just thought we should start a thread for Comp Bio/Bioinformatics/Biomedical Informatics to track all of the programs and what's going on and stop us from hunting everywhere for news! =).

I applied to 12 schools and the only one I have heard back from, so far, is Duke Computational Biology/Bioinformatics - interviews Feb 9-12 or Feb 19-20.

I don't see your "profile" (quick outline of your application/background) in your previous posts. Why not throw it up with a list of schools and we can waste time/agonize a bit more lol. You got an invite at duke which says you are at least that good.

Edited December 16, 2016 by AGradStudentHasNoName

[jmillar]

The only one I've heard from so far is UMich Bioinformatics. Hopefully hear from more next week.

[AGradStudentHasNoName]

Maybe this thread will get some of the lurking comp bio ppl out of the woodwork. There must be more of us, tho I wouldn't mind in the least if the competition was less fierce this year.

[Oddich55]

16 minutes ago, AGradStudentHasNoName said:

see my signature lol.

My list is embarrassingly top heavy. But I have an MD (cs undergrad, currently working in algorithms R&D) and already have a job at a well respected biotech "startup" (we were, now 130 ppl) in the same position/same title as many people with phd's from places like stanford cs, mit csbi, etc. So If I dont get in to any of them, then I stay in a good position or move to some other good industry position...

lol! I'm totally new on here - been stalking, but never piped up. Decided we, more comp-oriented people, need a place to hang out and talk. I'll pop it up right quick here.

Undergrad Institution: Liberal Arts College
Major(s): Double Major: Bioinformatics and Biology
Minor(s): Biostatistics, Computer Science
GPA in Major: 3.85
Overall GPA: 3.7
Position in Class: Top 
Type of Student: White Male

GRE Scores (revised/old version):
Q: 166 (91%)
V: 160 (85%)

W: 4 (or 4.5 don't remember) (59%)

Research Experience: 

One lab @ undergraduate institution for two years - two genome reports as publications, software submitted as a publication, at least 1-2 publications a month or so out.

Another lab @ medical school for a year now - genome-scale network analysis software/microbial annotation pipeline projects/RNA-seq analysis project.

Another lab for summer - Computational Neuroscience paper published, Signal Analysis paper will be submitted in a few weeks

Lots of posters at 3 different conferences, as well as a few talks at smaller research meetings

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: 

Several undergraduate research fellowship

National Research Award - Honorable Mention

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: 

Many different jobs - programmer, web developer, tutor for disadvantaged kids.

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help:

Special Bonus Points: 

Foreigner, technically. US Permanent Resident Status.

Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter: Don't know (?) 

Applying to Where:

Columbia University - Biomedical Informatics
University of Chicago - Genetics, Genomics, Systems Biology
Stanford University - Biomedical Informatics
Northwestern University - Biomedical Informatics
Vanderbilt University - Biomedical Informatics
Duke University - Computational Biology/Bioinformatics
Harvard University - Biomedical Informatics (under BIG)
Cornell Tri - Computational Biology
University of California: Berkeley - Computational Biology
Yale University - Computational Biology
University of Washington - Biomedical Informatics
University of California: San Diego - Computational Biology

[AGradStudentHasNoName]

On 12/15/2016 at 10:00 PM, Oddich55 said:

lol! I'm totally new on here - been stalking, but never piped up. Decided we, more comp-oriented people, need a place to hang out and talk. I'll pop it up right quick here.

Undergrad Institution: Liberal Arts College
Major(s): Double Major: Bioinformatics and Biology
Minor(s): Biostatistics, Computer Science
GPA in Major: 3.85
Overall GPA: 3.7
Position in Class: Top 
Type of Student: White Male

GRE Scores (revised/old version):
Q: 166 (91%)
V: 160 (85%)

W: 4 (or 4.5 don't remember) (59%)

Research Experience: 

One lab @ undergraduate institution for two years - two genome reports as publications, software submitted as a publication, at least 1-2 publications a month or so out.

Another lab @ medical school for a year now - genome-scale network analysis software/microbial annotation pipeline projects/RNA-seq analysis project.

Another lab for summer - Computational Neuroscience paper published, Signal Analysis paper will be submitted in a few weeks

Lots of posters at 3 different conferences, as well as a few talks at smaller research meetings

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: 

Several undergraduate research fellowship

National Research Award - Honorable Mention

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: 

Many different jobs - programmer, web developer, tutor for disadvantaged kids.

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help:

Special Bonus Points: 

Foreigner, technically. US Permanent Resident Status.

Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter: Don't know (?) 

Applying to Where:

Columbia University - Biomedical Informatics
University of Chicago - Genetics, Genomics, Systems Biology
Stanford University - Biomedical Informatics
Northwestern University - Biomedical Informatics
Vanderbilt University - Biomedical Informatics
Duke University - Computational Biology/Bioinformatics
Harvard University - Biomedical Informatics (under BIG)
Cornell Tri - Computational Biology
University of California: Berkeley - Computational Biology
Yale University - Computational Biology
University of Washington - Biomedical Informatics
University of California: San Diego - Computational Biology

Nice. Looks like you know whats up for sure.

I applied columbia cs instead of comp bio because my POI said he has basically full control over the students he admits through that program. And I like the idea of a CS PhD + MD. And I really almost applied at UCSD. Good program. Pevsner among others.

Didn't know about the BI program at University of Washington. Personally I think the genome sciences program is where it is at. But I'm biased.

Vandy and Duke. Are you a southerner? I'm originally from the south and my parents wanted me to apply to vandy (2.5 hrs drive from them) but I just decided that I'd rather keep my current position than do that. Nothing against them. Is the vandy program good? I couldnt find many profs whose research clicked with me.

And berkely. According to us news and world report they are top 4. But I could just not find enough professors with common interests to justify the extra essays lol. After Lior Pachtor left for caltech...

Why no MIT? UCSF? CMU-Pitt? (edited in) and Princeton QCB? (I didnt apply to the latter, but probably should have)

[Oddich55]

Haha. I guess the question lies in whether you want to pursue more computational biology/bioinformatics or translational bioinformatics. I've been leaning towards more translational work for a while now (coming from a largely bacterial genomics background).

U Washington is reliably one of the top programs in the country (generally) for bioinformatics and for BMI. They have a strong Precision Medicine group that is of interest to me.

Duke was more of a, hey, why not? sort of school that I felt like I would have a decent chance of acceptance. I'm from the midwest, so not a southerner. Vanderbilt actually has a super strong biomedical informatics program and a lot of faculty are moving there from other universities (they sequence a lot of genomes in their hospitals and have a giant databank, not to mention are getting some killer money right now). One of the professors I know has connections there and strongly recommends their program (she's from Stanford originally though). Just saw a great talk from one of their professors at a conference a week ago as well.

Berkeley - I agree. What I found interesting is more on the bioengineering side... *shrugs*

I was throwing around Princeton/UCSF, but my PI told me to just stop, because at that point I think I was just applying out of stress. They have a lot of strong faculty who use a lot of machine learning and different computational techniques - that sounded cool to me.

MIT - didn't because I didn't think I would swing it (I felt like I was already aiming high with Harvard and Stanford). So yeah! ?

[AGradStudentHasNoName]

Fair enough. I do recall that vandy has a big sum of money and is trying to sequence a ton of their patients. They are also the biggest hospital for a very large region.

I entered with an all or nothing/got nothing to lose mentality. We will see how that works out for me.

My background is very genetics heavy tho have done some work on ML on EMR data as well as ML on a few other data sources (histology slide images, cerebral blood flow velocities). I have POIs who work on both biomedical informatics and genomics and in between. Hope to see you at Harvard, Cornell, and Stanford.

Edited December 16, 2016 by AGradStudentHasNoName

[desmond.bo]

Big congrat!

Finally we got our own comp-bio post!  Still waiting (keenly) for the interviews that supposed to come out tomorrow.

Bad sleep for quite a few days. Jesus! Applications are literally killing people...

[AGradStudentHasNoName]

3 minutes ago, desmond.bo said:

Big congrat!

Finally we got our own comp-bio post!  Still waiting (keenly) for the interviews that supposed to come out tomorrow.

Bad sleep for quite a few days. Jesus! Applications are literally killing people...

Let's not get too hasty. The ones I mentioned have previously released December 17th at the earliest. Only if the week structure and holidays of this year pushed them to release earlier or some other factor changed will they send interviews tomorrow. While I am hoping that they do go out tomorrow, I am assuming they will go out early next week.

[Lurpelis]

Got my interview invite at WashU last week. Waiting on Harvard BIG, JHU (from their medical school), and UW.

[Oddich55]

9 hours ago, AGradStudentHasNoName said:

Fair enough. I do recall that vandy has a big sum of money and is trying to sequence a ton of their patients. They are also the biggest hospital for a very large region.

I entered with an all or nothing/got nothing to lose mentality. We will see how that works out for me.

My background is very genetics heavy tho have done some work on ML on EMR data as well as ML on a few other data sources (histology slide images, cerebral blood flow velocities). I have POIs who work on both biomedical informatics and genomics and in between. Hope to see you at Harvard, Cornell, and Stanford.

Thanks man =). Best of luck to you as well. Let us all know how the applications/interview play out here =)

9 hours ago, desmond.bo said:

Big congrat!

Finally we got our own comp-bio post!  Still waiting (keenly) for the interviews that supposed to come out tomorrow.

Bad sleep for quite a few days. Jesus! Applications are literally killing people...

I know right?!? I figured it was about time to start something for comp-bio. The anticipation is real.

[Oddich55]

Just got the invite to interview at Yale's Computational Biology/Bioinformatics Program. Interviews February 3rd - 5th

[desmond.bo]

20 minutes ago, Oddich55 said:

Just got the invite to interview at Yale's Computational Biology/Bioinformatics Program. Interviews February 3rd - 5th

Big congrat! 

[SysEvo]

Got mine for Yale Physical and Engineering Biology via BBSB track too. One day longer than the Comp Bio one... Feb 2-5

[desmond.bo]

27 minutes ago, Oddich55 said:

Just got the invite to interview at Yale's Computational Biology/Bioinformatics Program. Interviews February 3rd - 5th

 

1 minute ago, SysEvo said:

Got mine for Yale Physical and Engineering Biology via BBSB track too. One day longer than the Comp Bio one... Feb 2-5

Congrat guys! Still waiting for mine for the BBS-MCGD. Sounds like they have already sent some of them.=(

[Oddich55]

5 minutes ago, SysEvo said:

Got mine for Yale Physical and Engineering Biology via BBSB track too. One day longer than the Comp Bio one... Feb 2-5

Congrats~! I think they said they would fly me in February 2nd in the evening - so it'd be the same dates haha =). See you there? =)

1 minute ago, desmond.bo said:

 

Congrat guys! Still waiting for mine for the BBS-MCGD. Sounds like they have already sent some of them.=(

Good vibes!! Crossing my fingers for ya!!

[desmond.bo]

2 minutes ago, Oddich55 said:

Congrats~! I think they said they would fly me in February 2nd in the evening - so it'd be the same dates haha =). See you there? =)

Good vibes!! Crossing my fingers for ya!!

 

Thanks buddy! I'll just keep waiting!

[henryshm]

Congrats guys!! I did not apply these top programs. I was wondering if anyone applied Brown and BU......

[AGradStudentHasNoName]

1 hour ago, Oddich55 said:

Just got the invite to interview at Yale's Computational Biology/Bioinformatics Program. Interviews February 3rd - 5th

Nice. Looks like you are hitting every one so far! Best of luck.

[Oddich55]

2 minutes ago, AGradStudentHasNoName said:

Nice. Looks like you are hitting every one so far! Best of luck.

*fingers crossed*.

Still a lot more to go!

[Born-to-pipette]

Hello all! Would any of you happen to know what's a good way to cluster RNA-seq data based on whether they express a pre-defined set of genes? The software I'm using / finding just seem to do unsupervised clustering / pair-wise / differential expression etc. My only informatics education has been generously (and solely) supplied by Google, so any suggestions would be appreciated! Apologies for the entirely non-relevant post -- I promise this will be the only one. Please message if y'all have a minute to spare