2017 Computational Biology/Biomedical Informatics PhD Applicants and Admission Results

[desmond.bo]

This forum becomes our last hope lol. Checking the updates every half an hour.  Can't concentrate on ANYTHING.

Well, honestly if there is no gradcafe, we would be even more anxious right?

[AGradStudentHasNoName]

13 minutes ago, desmond.bo said:

This forum becomes our last hope lol. Checking the updates every half an hour.  Can't concentrate on ANYTHING.

Well, honestly if there is no gradcafe, we would be even more anxious right?

I'm convinced that gradcafe is terrible for me, but I am powerless against it.

[Oddich55]

On 12/20/2016 at 3:25 PM, AGradStudentHasNoName said:

I'm convinced that gradcafe is terrible for me, but I am powerless against it.

Haha. Lets ask the psyc people if it increases our anxiety or not =P.

[Epigenetics]

3 minutes ago, Lurpelis said:

I think UWash might have been shorty on applicants because on December 2nd they emailed me letting me know my official GRE scores weren't in and to email a pdf copy. Don't think they'd waste their time if they were flush with applicants.

If that were true then they should've reviewed them really quickly. I think you're reading too much into that, they just wanted confirmation so they could move forward, since it's a tight timetable. 

[Lurpelis]

3 minutes ago, Epigenetics said:

If that were true then they should've reviewed them really quickly. I think you're reading too much into that, they just wanted confirmation so they could move forward, since it's a tight timetable. 

Certainly possible, it's also that WashU was my first pick and they decided so early I've got a very blase attitude towards the other three. I'm not convinced there's a plethora of Comp Biol applicants with very heavy CS background like I have.

[Epigenetics]

2 minutes ago, Lurpelis said:

Certainly possible, it's also that WashU was my first pick and they decided so early I've got a very blase attitude towards the other three. I'm not convinced there's a plethora of Comp Biol applicants with very heavy CS background like I have.

I mean I'm a computational biologist at the Broad Institute so I've got a heavy CS background in addition to my biology background... Most of these programs are like 15 students, and Genome Sciences isn't an informatics program so I wouldn't think that's all they're looking for, but I can't imagine they'll have trouble filling it.

Can you explain why you'd choose WashU over UWashington? UWashington is one of the best genomics centers in the country, up there with Harvard, MIT, and Stanford, and has several big name faculty. WashU does have Ting Wang who's another big ENCODE person but on balance I would say UWashington is much better, as someone who knows a lot of people in the genomics space.

[Lurpelis]

I live in St. Louis so it's more economical for me, but also that WashU has a lot of people doing clinical work. I can develop new Genomic software but I'm also interested in novel discovery of things. My real area of interest is in microbiomics and WashU has at least 6 or 7 people whose main research area is in microbiome as it related to disease and immunity. There's also a good startup scene in St. Louis as well as bigger biotech companies like Monsanto (Bayer now) and Pfizer.

[jmillar]

2 minutes ago, Epigenetics said:

Can you explain why you'd choose WashU over UWashington? UWashington is one of the best genomics centers in the country, up there with Harvard, MIT, and Stanford, and has several big name faculty. WashU does have Ting Wang who's another big ENCODE person but on balance I would say UWashington is much better, as someone who knows a lot of people in the genomics space.

WashU has the McDonnell Genome Institute, one of the three original places that sequenced the human genome. They have some amazing resources and research. I assume if you go to WashU, you may get to interact with them?

[AGradStudentHasNoName]

On 12/20/2016 at 5:19 PM, Lurpelis said:

Certainly possible, it's also that WashU was my first pick and they decided so early I've got a very blase attitude towards the other three. I'm not convinced there's a plethora of Comp Biol applicants with very heavy CS background like I have.

Let's hope so. But I also have a heavy CS background. And I agree with @Epigenetics. These programs aren't that big. It doesn't take many excellent candidates to get shouldered out.

WashU is excellent in computational biology/genetics as well. I mostly didn't apply because I didn't want to live in St Louis.

[Epigenetics]

2 minutes ago, jmillar said:

WashU has the McDonnell Genome Institute, one of the three original places that sequenced the human genome. They have some amazing resources and research. I assume if you go to WashU, you may get to interact with them?

I mean I work at the Broad Institute, so maybe I'm not personally impressed by that. I'm more wondering on the "amazing resources and research", it's hard for me to see them as a top genomics center, given who is big in that world today, especially compared to UW and the faculty that's there now and working on the major projects like ENCODE and TCGA. I'm not trying to be a dick I'm genuinely curious what specifically puts that ranking in that order for you. Also I see you're in St. Louis so maybe that plays a role?

[Lurpelis]

On 12/20/2016 at 5:31 PM, Epigenetics said:

I mean I work at the Broad Institute, so maybe I'm not personally impressed by that. I'm more wondering on the "amazing resources and research", it's hard for me to see them as a top genomics center, given who is big in that world today, especially compared to UW and the faculty that's there now and working on the major projects like ENCODE and TCGA. I'm not trying to be a dick I'm genuinely curious what specifically puts that ranking in that order for you. Also I see you're in St. Louis so maybe that plays a role?

I posted a paragraph above explaining generally, but it's primarily down to location and specific research area. I do not care that much about prestige or projects. I actually plan to go into the industry after finishing my PhD going into consultancy or managing a Computational Biology lab division. My main area of interest is in metagenomics and microbiomics and while Washington has some people doing the former, their program is a bit less "clinically applicable" than WashU's is. A lot of WashU people are working on human disease directly using microbiomics and NGS data.

[Epigenetics]

On 12/20/2016 at 5:34 PM, Lurpelis said:

I posted a paragraph above explaining generally, but it's primarily down to location and specific research area. I do not care that much about prestige or projects. I actually plan to go into the industry after finishing my PhD going into consultancy or managing a Computational Biology lab division. My main area of interest is in metagenomics and microbiomics and while Washington has some people doing the former, their program is a bit less "clinically applicable" than WashU's is. A lot of WashU people are working on human disease directly using microbiomics and NGS data.

Interesting thanks! That's a relatively niche interest, glad you've found places that do what you want. I was looking at "genomics" in a more classical sense of big name epigenomics faculty.

[Epigenetics]

My stress level while waiting for interviews isn't helped by the fact I have one first author paper waiting to come back from review at Nature Genetics and a second author paper submitted to Science, so my entire life is basically waiting right now  I'm not a patient person...

[Lurpelis]

Just now, Epigenetics said:

Interesting thanks! That's a relatively niche interest, glad you've found places that do what you want. I was looking at "genomics" in a more classical sense of big name epigenomics faculty.

Yeah it's a narrow focus. I firmly believe microbiome research though is the next medical breakthrough area. We're already seeing results with things like fecal transplants which are essentially treating a flawed gut microbiome. My advisor in my masters does work on metagenomics and most of our projects have been cluster based computing approaches to metagenome data. I find the whole area interesting, plus very few people have the biological understanding and experience in designing software for clusters and cloud setups.

[Epigenetics]

1 minute ago, Lurpelis said:

Yeah it's a narrow focus. I firmly believe microbiome research though is the next medical breakthrough area. We're already seeing results with things like fecal transplants which are essentially treating a flawed gut microbiome. My advisor in my masters does work on metagenomics and most of our projects have been cluster based computing approaches to metagenome data. I find the whole area interesting, plus very few people have the biological understanding and experience in designing software for clusters and cloud setups.

I almost joined a microbiome lab at the Broad, but I like the lab I'm in more. I'm much more interested in being what I call a 21st century molecular biologist, working to interweave the genomics and biochemical insights. Yeah as someone who works on clusters most of the day (SLURM ftw) I can tell you most people have no idea the bare bones. It's amazing the professors that review epigenetics papers and have no idea even what questions to ask in regards to quality/interpretation/controls.

[jmillar]

18 minutes ago, Epigenetics said:

I mean I work at the Broad Institute, so maybe I'm not personally impressed by that. I'm more wondering on the "amazing resources and research", it's hard for me to see them as a top genomics center, given who is big in that world today, especially compared to UW and the faculty that's there now and working on the major projects like ENCODE and TCGA. I'm not trying to be a dick I'm genuinely curious what specifically puts that ranking in that order for you. Also I see you're in St. Louis so maybe that plays a role?

I should have mentioned my main interest is pathogenic bacteria. I didn't apply to that program in particular as I want to work more on molecular based infectious disease surveillance modeling, but they do interesting research on the human microbiome.

[AGradStudentHasNoName]

11 minutes ago, Epigenetics said:

My stress level while waiting for interviews isn't helped by the fact I have one first author paper waiting to come back from review at Nature Genetics and a second author paper submitted to Science, so my entire life is basically waiting right now  I'm not a patient person...

It sounds like they would have to be stupid to not accept you so just try to stay calm lol. With those things and the broad connection it's gonna be easy for you.

[Epigenetics]

1 minute ago, AGradStudentHasNoName said:

It sounds like they would have to be stupid to not accept you so just try to stay calm lol. With those things and the broad connection it's gonna be easy for you.

Haha I hope so, and thanks! It's always fucking reviewer 3 man. The other two reviews were in three weeks ago, they're just waiting on one person. We just had a Nature Genetics paper come out last week (I'm a middle author but still exciting for my first paper) so that may help. But we'll see!

[jmillar]

5 minutes ago, Epigenetics said:

Haha I hope so, and thanks! It's always fucking reviewer 3 man. The other two reviews were in three weeks ago, they're just waiting on one person. We just had a Nature Genetics paper come out last week (I'm a middle author but still exciting for my first paper) so that may help. But we'll see!

It's all par for the course. Reviewer 3 can be annoying, but it usually makes for a better paper in the end.

[Oddich55]

Well! Back to admissions peeps!

Got UCSD for Bioinformatics/Biomedical Informatics. February 23-24!

[AGradStudentHasNoName]

8 minutes ago, Oddich55 said:

Well! Back to admissions peeps!

Got UCSD for Bioinformatics/Biomedical Informatics. February 23-24!

Congrats. Now I wish I had applied lol. I even emailed pevsner but all I got in response was "please apply to the program and we can talk more at interviews". But it eventually fell off my list.

Now watching archer and drinking :/ lol

[desmond.bo]

38 minutes ago, Oddich55 said:

Well! Back to admissions peeps!

Got UCSD for Bioinformatics/Biomedical Informatics. February 23-24!

 

 

Congrat man! You broke the looooong silence!

When did they send out the email?

 

Modify: typo :/

Edited December 21, 2016 by desmond.bo

[Oddich55]

1 minute ago, desmond.bo said:

Congrat man! You broke the looooong silience!

When did they send out the email?

Glad I could break it

They sent it at 7:08 - did you apply?

[desmond.bo]

1 minute ago, Oddich55 said:

Glad I could break it

They sent it at 7:08 - did you apply?

 

No I didn't. But feel happy for ya! 

[Oddich55]

1 minute ago, desmond.bo said:

No I didn't. But feel happy for ya! 

lol =P. Thanks =). Interview is at the end of February too. I'm from Chicago, so it will be nice to go to San Diego then