BME/Bioengineering 2010 Decisions

[heelandcoo88]

Soooooo, am I correct in thinking that everyone who applied to UCLA got the invite to the BME Open House with absolutely no additional information? There seem to be a couple of people on the results thread who received it, and I got an invite myself as well. I'm probably not going to attend, as I'm visiting CU-Boulder that weekend, plus I get the feeling it's not funded.

Kinda weird, I wonder if they'll be giving out admission information soon?

[dspampin]

@heelandcoo88: Thanks!!!! and yah I applied to the HST/MEMP program so maybe the Biological Engineering decision is lagging. And yah I got that same thing from UCLA, and I have no clue what it means but I won't be attending either since JHU has interviews that weekend. Thats the 3rd school that has asked me to go that weekend and I also know (my university) UCI has March day as their invitation day. Sucks because I wanna be able to see as many programs as possible but ohwellsssssss!

[FrenchytheFry]

Hi everyone,

I'm wondering if anyone can tell me what a "prospective student weekend" is exactly. What does it mean for my odds of being accepted? I've been invited to two: one via email from coordinator and one via a phone call from a perspective faculty adviser.

Thanks in advance for any info!

[toiletpaper]

it's feb 15 and still no news from any of the schools....i wonder if it's too late for any invites now.

[heelandcoo88]

@ FrenchytheFry: It varies from school to school, but my general perception is that it's a very good thing to be invited! For most schools, especially if they are paying your travel expenses, they are just checking to make sure you're not crazy and that you'd actually be a good fit for the program. It's more of a recruitment for them, and there's generally a pretty good chance of being accepted after the visit. There are a few exceptions though. I've heard that JHU is more serious about the interviews and that admission afterward is not as common. Also, there are open house events that everyone who applied to is invited to, so I don't think they have a large bearing on whether or not you are admitted. I'm by no means an expert on this topic, but this is what I've heard. Good luck!

@toiletpaper: I'm sure it's not entirely too late. I still haven't heard back from three of the seven schools I applied to (though I know Duke and MIT have sent out some interview invites). I think it depends what schools you applied to. I think that most of the big schools (JHU, UCSD, UCB, UW Seattle, UPenn, MIT, Duke, Northwestern, Rice, Stanford, Cornell, GaTech) have sent out some invites, but some of them could be doing it on a rolling basis. Waiting sucks, hopefully you'll hear something soon!

[coffee_addict]

So exactly what does this rolling basis entail? I mean, they won't know who accepts their offer until after the interviews right? Are they going to just stall people until like...May? LOL

[cheekymonkey]

Was on an interview weekend at Michigan this past weekend and really liked it. Am waiting to hear about an offer but have no idea how long it will take them. Anyone else? Haven't seen Umich in anyone's sig...

[<3Brains]

I got an invite to GaTech admitted students visit weekend March 17-19. Is anyone else going that weekend? They must have a couple visit weekends for Bioengineering....I was admitted to the program through ECE.

When are Northwestern interviews? I haven't heard anything from them.

[mattchurgin]

Hey guys. I'm interviewing at Penn next Friday. It's my first choice! I'm excited, as you can tell by the short sentences. Anyway, does anyone know about how long it takes for an admission decision after an interview?

[heelandcoo88]

@mattchurgin: How did the Penn interview go? I'm interested to hear how other schools do things. I visited CU-Boulder last weekend and really enjoyed my time there.

Has anyone else had good visit experiences? Or made any exciting decisions?

[mattchurgin]

@mattchurgin: How did the Penn interview go? I'm interested to hear how other schools do things. I visited CU-Boulder last weekend and really enjoyed my time there.

Has anyone else had good visit experiences? Or made any exciting decisions?

Penn was pretty amazing, to be honest. Every professor was so nice and I loved all of their research. It's by far the best school and program for me. I hope hope hope I get in.

[ajnu]

hey guys, brand new to the forums here, actually found this while googling bioengineering interviews.

i know it's pretty late for info, but some "inside" advice (unless you northwestern applicants already have heard back) - march 5th was "recruitment weekend". internally, we call it recruitment weekend here so if you've been interviewed already (i have no clue what they'd call it externally, i didn't apply here for my graduate degree) i'm assuming that's good news.

it seems that UW has the latest interviews that i know of. i know they typically invite around 40 or so candidates but the department seems kind of small - around 100 students (compared to like, UMich who has 200 some students). does anyone know if the UW interviews are more like the others where it's generally a good thing, or are they more intense (like JHU)?

i've been slammed pretty hard with the rejection waves - didn't even get into UM where i worked closely with a prof for undergrad research and have a presentation in their name (and i don't even go there!). my prof at UM told me that this year was pretty competitive all over and that there are a lot of good candidates, so hopefully i'm not the only person here who's applied to 9 programs and heard unfavorably from 6.

are you supposed to "prepare" for graduate interviews - like, research the profs you'll be interviewing? i was hoping i could just go to seattle and not worry too much but seeing as this is likely my only interview, i'm getting nervous.

on the other hand, anyone hear back from any fellowships yet? i heard back from the DoD SMART fellowship that i was a semi-finalist but no followup on that, and apparently the GRFP, NDSEG and SMART all give out their awards late in march...do the other fellowships have a semi-finalist process too?

here's hoping for some good news from anything. seems to be a rough year.

Edited March 15, 2010 by ajnu

[mattchurgin]

I don't know much about those fellowships, but I prepared extensively for my interviews. I tried to read (or at least skim) a paper from the professors I was meeting and come up with a few questions for each. Admittedly, I was over-prepared. But personally, I'd prefer to be over-prepared than under-prepared. One piece of advice I have is to ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS have some questions ready. If you don't, there will be some painful and deadly silences.

[heelandcoo88]

When I visited Colorado, I reviewed each professor's research before the interview (I had seven, so there was a lot to keep straight in my head!). I didn't seriously review any of their papers, since I wasn't given the names of who I was interviewing with until the day before the visit. However, I was already accepted at Colorado, and it wasn't my top choice, so the motivation to seriously prepare wasn't as strong, haha. In every interview I had, the professor didn't seem to expect me to know anything about them and happily talked about their research for a good portion of the interview. I didn't encounter any awkward silences; it was more like having a friendly scientific conversation rather than a cut-throat interview. Of course, I'm sure this varies based on the school.

I'm also interviewing at UW, and I'm curious about the acceptance rate after the interview stage. I thought that they only took about 20 per year, though maybe that is the number they enroll and not the number of admissions offers they make. I will probably put a lot more work into preparing for the UW interviews than I did CU, especially since there are fewer faculty interviews (4 vs. 7). And hopefully we'll find out who we're talking to more than a day in advance!

I applied to the NDSEG and NPSC fellowships, and haven't heard anything yet.

[licyblue]

Decisions-time is here, even though I am still waiting in a couple of schools. I was wondering what would be a good stipend for a fellowship in a PhD BME program?

I got offer 25K and I am not sure if that is bad, good or great. I think is pretty good but just want to check with people out there to see if it is really a decent number. Please let me know

[mattchurgin]

I got 28k. 25-28 seems to be the average, with more money customary in cities. I'm in Philly.

[heelandcoo88]

So it sounds like you got into Penn, mattchurgin? Congrats, that's awesome

I got 24K from GaTech and 25.4K from Colorado. I haven't heard from UCLA about funding yet. I think 25K is pretty typical. I know it's not much, but after having very little income over the last four years, I'm actually pretty excited to be getting paid at all. Especially after hearing from friends in the social sciences who have to fund their own way...

[licyblue]

Thanks for the replies. I got into the University of Rochester and Berkeley, but Berkeley offered no secure funding so that is a big no no for me. I do not want to take out more loans for grad school. I also applied to MIT but I have not heard anything back from them.

I am happy with my 25k stipend at UofR and since it is a small town it should go a long way. Plus I really liked the professors and the research.

Have you guys made all your final decisions??? What is it???

[phdhopefull]

Woaah!... Congrats to all u ppl !!!I just joined this forum today...dunno why I didnt think about this before

I got an admit to UCLA soo far...rejects from Stanford, Uwashington and Cornell !! I'm waiting for Duke and Boston Univ, ASU, UCI, UIUC....not very hopeful of Duke but we'll see... I'm hoping for funding from UCLA...haven't heard anything from them...have any of you heard anything??? No word on Boston Univ also...heard some already got rejected and some got offers already from BU...if any of you dont mind, I would like to know your backgrounds...Good luck to you all.!

[mattchurgin]

So it sounds like you got into Penn, mattchurgin? Congrats, that's awesome

I did! I have never been so excited. So if it isn't obvious, I've decided to go to Penn.

Oh and I'm an EE undergrad right now at University of Delaware.

Good luck to everyone with decisions pending!

[bloodclot]

Considering that everyone here is applying for BME/Bioengineering, I think it is sensible to post this here. So, I have admits for a Master's program in Bioengieering at Yale, UCB/UCSF and Oxford. Also, have an admit at Cambridge for their Advanced Chemical Engineering program. I have deferred my Cambridge admission and will think about it later. Now leaving me with the other three. Any opinions on what would be a better choice - between the US schools in specific. The only thing Yale brings to the table is the Ivy league brand name, UCB/UCSF program on the other hand is structured much better and obviously has the geographical advantage of being in SF. Fees/Tuition is not a concern. Also, I intend on entering the healthcare industry soon after my masters. Thanks!