Genetic Counseling Fall 2018 Applicants

[AJM19]

9 minutes ago, RBsister said:

I wanted to revise that I did hear back from the JHU Director with a *very* nice note.  Sounds like they were slammed last week (and I'm sure the weather there didn't help!!).  Anyway, the official notices (of their declines on our applications) should come out "soon".

Best wishes to all still waiting on responses from JHU and elsewhere, but especially:
@Raerae32  @Adterry @AJM19

Thanks! To clarify, I have heard back from them and was offered an interview. Best of luck to those still awaiting news either way!

Edited March 5, 2018 by AJM19

[S-M-GC2018]

54 minutes ago, NicSL said:

Did anyone hear from McGill yet? 

Not yet! I keep checking my email and nothing...

[Joey0817]

3 hours ago, S-M-GC2018 said:

Not yet! I keep checking my email and nothing...

It's odd that we haven't heard anything yet, I called them earlier (~11:30 am) and apparently they're all in a meeting today. So I'm assuming they're finalizing the interview offer decisions as we speak...hopefully we will hear back before the end of today. If not, I would certainly call the admission's office tomorrow.

[NicSL]

21 minutes ago, Joey0817 said:

It's odd that we haven't heard anything yet, I called them earlier (~11:30 am) and apparently they're all in a meeting today. So I'm assuming they're finalizing the interview offer decisions as we speak...hopefully we will hear back before the end of today. If not, I would certainly call the admission's office tomorrow.

Some just got an interview offer from McGill on Discord! Haven't gotten anything yet sadly...

[Joey0817]

3 hours ago, NicSL said:

Some just got an interview offer from McGill on Discord! Haven't gotten anything yet sadly...

Are you referring to the online application website ?

[NicSL]

4 minutes ago, Joey0817 said:

Are you referring to the online application website ?

Referring to the GC Discord!

[Lauren423]

Hey everyone, weird question here. What age are you for those of you getting interviews?

The reason I ask is because I am 21 and graduating in May. In my opinion and in all the people I have shadowed and worked for, they all said I have a ton of experience and no doubt will get in. I applied to 5 schools and today I got rejected to the 5th.

i have heard and seen online that admissions personnel prefer applicants  who are older and not right out of school. 

I plan to apply again in the fall and get a some sort of job like a GC assistant but I’m worried that no matter what I do, I won’t get accepted cause I’ll be a “baby” at 22. 

Are of any of you my age or close that are so far successful in the application process? I’d rather be rejected based on experience cause I can improve on that but I can’t fast forward time and make myself older sooner.

[NicSL]

@Lauren423 Hello! Fellow "baby" here. I don't know what you define as "successful", but I do have interviews lined up. On the same note, I am prepared to be confronted about my relative emotional maturity and ability to relate to elderly folks.

I was talking to a GC the other day and she mentioned the landscape of GC students is changing. When she was applying (3-4 years ago), as a 27-year-old, she was the oldest person in her class. She mentioned that for some schools she was waitlisted at, the cohort was mainly people in their early twenties. Nowadays, she noticed that the cohorts are older on average. Or fluctuate by year.

[Nefelibata]

31 minutes ago, Lauren423 said:

Hey everyone, weird question here. What age are you for those of you getting interviews?

The reason I ask is because I am 21 and graduating in May. In my opinion and in all the people I have shadowed and worked for, they all said I have a ton of experience and no doubt will get in. I applied to 5 schools and today I got rejected to the 5th.

i have heard and seen online that admissions personnel prefer applicants  who are older and not right out of school. 

I plan to apply again in the fall and get a some sort of job like a GC assistant but I’m worried that no matter what I do, I won’t get accepted cause I’ll be a “baby” at 22. 

Are of any of you my age or close that are so far successful in the application process? I’d rather be rejected based on experience cause I can improve on that but I can’t fast forward time and make myself older sooner.

And @NicSL,

I think part of the reason the average age of cohorts is rising is because as the field becomes more popular, people are making career changes and those people tend to have a lot more experience and qualities favorable to being a genetic counselor simply from their life experience. And their previous job experience is usually pretty relatable/transferable to being a genetic counselor. 

I do still know and see many people applying and getting accepted right out of undergrad, but on the other side I do know of at least one program that favors applicants NOT right out of undergrad. It varies by program, but simply being young/straight out of undergrad isn't an automatic deal breaker. 

[Nefelibata]

@Lauren423 and @NicSL also forgot to mention that since it is also extremely common for applicants to have to apply 2-3 times before being accepted, that also naturally drives the average age up. 

[Joey0817]

7 hours ago, Lauren423 said:

Hey everyone, weird question here. What age are you for those of you getting interviews?

The reason I ask is because I am 21 and graduating in May. In my opinion and in all the people I have shadowed and worked for, they all said I have a ton of experience and no doubt will get in. I applied to 5 schools and today I got rejected to the 5th.

i have heard and seen online that admissions personnel prefer applicants  who are older and not right out of school. 

I plan to apply again in the fall and get a some sort of job like a GC assistant but I’m worried that no matter what I do, I won’t get accepted cause I’ll be a “baby” at 22. 

Are of any of you my age or close that are so far successful in the application process? I’d rather be rejected based on experience cause I can improve on that but I can’t fast forward time and make myself older sooner.

Yes, I can definitely relate to this. I am 22 and applied straight out of a 5 year undergraduate program (additional year due to co-op) with over 2 years of genetics research, a paper published, genetic counselling assistant experience, over 1 year at a crisis line, peer counsellor at my university AND MORE, but I also got rejected. I was not even offered any interviews at the 4 Canadian Schools I applied to. It really sucks but all we can do at this point is stay positive, reach out to program directors and improve our application for next year. It is so common that qualified applicants do not gain admissions during their first round, so don't give up! 

[RBsister]

7 hours ago, Lauren423 said:

Hey everyone, weird question here. What age are you for those of you getting interviews?

The reason I ask is because I am 21 and graduating in May. In my opinion and in all the people I have shadowed and worked for, they all said I have a ton of experience and no doubt will get in. I applied to 5 schools and today I got rejected to the 5th.

i have heard and seen online that admissions personnel prefer applicants  who are older and not right out of school. 

I plan to apply again in the fall and get a some sort of job like a GC assistant but I’m worried that no matter what I do, I won’t get accepted cause I’ll be a “baby” at 22. 

Are of any of you my age or close that are so far successful in the application process? I’d rather be rejected based on experience cause I can improve on that but I can’t fast forward time and make myself older sooner.

Your age alone won't make a difference.    I was told when I first looked into applying a few years ago, that, say, 7 years back my previous career experience and some course TAing I had done would probably have been taken to fulfill requirements.  However, it has gotten competitive so rapidly that this isn't necessarily the case any more.  So, I've spent my last two years getting other experiences and courses I needed while working fulltime and holding down the fort.  There were people at my last interview who were fresh out of college or still wrapping up their degrees, people who were applying for the second time (myself included), and people across a range of backgrounds and experiences. This honestly is like any highly competitive process, and it depends on who is in the pool with you, every single time.  Keep at it if its really what you want to do! 

[soon2beGC]

My next interview has a written component... has anyone had this before? What's it like?

[AJM19]

37 minutes ago, soon2beGC said:

My next interview has a written component... has anyone had this before? What's it like?

I've had two of these so far. They're not too daunting - typically, you'll receive a brief clinical scenario and be asked to describe how you would counsel the patient(s). I got 20-30 minutes to complete the writing exercise. My interviewers emphasized that they don't care so much about you providing the "right answer" or disease-specific knowledge, but rather want to gain insight into your reasoning process and the medical/ethical considerations you integrate. Hope that helps!

Edited March 6, 2018 by AJM19

[soon2beGC]

19 minutes ago, AJM19 said:

I've had two of these so far. They're not too daunting - typically, you'll receive a brief clinical scenario and be asked to describe how you would counsel the patient(s). I got 20-30 minutes to complete the writing exercise. My interviewers emphasized that they don't care so much about you providing the "right answer" or disease-specific knowledge, but rather want to gain insight into your reasoning process and the medical/ethical considerations you integrate. Hope that helps!

Thanks, that makes sense! I have had similar questions at other interviews, just verbal, not written. I understand the benefits to a written component because they don't have to furiously scribble everything you say as they would for a verbal question, but it just seems stressful from my angle.

[GCDad]

We got some intel from one of our interviews that the school enrolls roughly 22% of those interviewed.

Assuming all interviewed applicants about equally qualified (a big "if"), and that the 22% rate is similar at all schools, your odds of being matched can be calculated based on the number of places you interviewed:

 Probability of being rejected = 1 - probability of being accepted = 1 - 22% = 78%

Probability you are accepted to at least one program = 1 - the probability you rejected everywhere =

1 - .78^{(number of interviews)} 

So, say you are a beast like AJM19 interviewing at 9 schools, her (or his) odds of being accepted somewhere would be:

1 - .78^{9  =}  89%

Again, some candidates are probably objectively stronger applicants, so it's not a random draw from those interviewed.  AJM19 might be a particularly strong candidate even among those called in for interviews so her (or his) odds might be higher than 89%.

 

[hfj23]

1 hour ago, GCDad said:

We got some intel from one of our interviews that the school enrolls roughly 22% of those interviewed.

Assuming all interviewed applicants about equally qualified (a big "if"), and that the 22% rate is similar at all schools, your odds of being matched can be calculated based on the number of places you interviewed:

 Probability of being rejected = 1 - probability of being accepted = 1 - 22% = 78%

Probability you are accepted to at least one program = 1 - the probability you rejected everywhere =

1 - .78^{(number of interviews)} 

So, say you are a beast like AJM19 interviewing at 9 schools, her (or his) odds of being accepted somewhere would be:

1 - .78^{9  =}  89%

Again, some candidates are probably objectively stronger applicants, so it's not a random draw from those interviewed.  AJM19 might be a particularly strong candidate even among those called in for interviews so her (or his) odds might be higher than 89%.

 

Thanks for sharing this info! One thing to keep in mind though is that each school interviews and accepts a different amount, for example Ohio State interviews about 72 people for 10 spots but Cincy interviews about 48 for 12 spots, so the chances of getting in are higher there. I've been calculating my chances for each school that way and it looks like theres a ~13%-25% range of being accepted at the places i've interviewed at but because they're all different i'm not sure how to calculate my chance of being accepted in general like how you did above /: 

[AJM19]

6 minutes ago, hopetobeGC said:

Anyone have an interview on the East coast this week? A little worried about this winter storm potentially messing with my travel plans...

I live in DC, and our forecast shows relatively clear skies (no snow) after today through next week! I think you'll be okay!

[sunT]

52 minutes ago, hfj23 said:

Thanks for sharing this info! One thing to keep in mind though is that each school interviews and accepts a different amount, for example Ohio State interviews about 72 people for 10 spots but Cincy interviews about 48 for 12 spots, so the chances of getting in are higher there. I've been calculating my chances for each school that way and it looks like theres a ~13%-25% range of being accepted at the places i've interviewed at but because they're all different i'm not sure how to calculate my chance of being accepted in general like how you did above /: 

Honestly it's really hard to accurately calculate probabilities once you've reached the interview stage. There are so many subjective measures that can affect how a program ranks you. Plus with the limited number of programs spots, and the overlap in applicant pools between some schools, your chance of getting into school A isn't independent from getting into school B. Getting "rejected" by school A after the interview stage might increase your chance of getting into school B, since you're no longer competing w/that student for school B. 

[hfj23]

I know someone asked about graduate scholarships/funding earlier and Northwestern had this database on their site so I thought it might be helpful! A lot of them require you to be going into a specific field though /: 

http://staff.lib.msu.edu/harris23/grants/3gradinf.htm 

[GCDad]

2 hours ago, sunT said:

 Plus with the limited number of programs spots, and the overlap in applicant pools between some schools, your chance of getting into school A isn't independent from getting into school B. Getting "rejected" by school A after the interview stage might increase your chance of getting into school B, since you're no longer competing w/that student for school B. 

sunT - You are correct. The lack of independence of candidates does increase your chances (e.g. if the same 100 candidates interviewed at 5 schools, each of which only accepted 20 students a year, they would all get in somewhere.  So your chance for acceptance would be 100%, not what you would get with my formula (1 - .80⁵ = 67%).  So my formula should be considered a lower bound.

Anyway, daughter mortified that I'm posting on this board, so I will retreat to the sidelines...

Edited March 6, 2018 by GCDad

[pjc5054]

Johns Hopkins sent out the official interview day applicants were scheduled for today!

[FutureGC7]

Is there anybody still waiting to hear from Pitt? If you are, then have you contacted Noel or the program leadership n gotten any response ? 

[Adterry]

On 3/5/2018 at 4:26 PM, Lauren423 said:

Hey everyone, weird question here. What age are you for those of you getting interviews?

The reason I ask is because I am 21 and graduating in May. In my opinion and in all the people I have shadowed and worked for, they all said I have a ton of experience and no doubt will get in. I applied to 5 schools and today I got rejected to the 5th.

i have heard and seen online that admissions personnel prefer applicants  who are older and not right out of school. 

I plan to apply again in the fall and get a some sort of job like a GC assistant but I’m worried that no matter what I do, I won’t get accepted cause I’ll be a “baby” at 22. 

Are of any of you my age or close that are so far successful in the application process? I’d rather be rejected based on experience cause I can improve on that but I can’t fast forward time and make myself older sooner.

I just wanted to say that I definitely don't see the age being too big of a deterrent. I graduate this upcoming May and will be turning 23 in a few weeks. This was my first attempt applying, and I received 5 interview invitations. I believe where you apply has a ton to do with invitations and just depending on what that program is looking for that year. 

[JL11]

Does anyone know what we should hear back from Thomas Jefferson? I got rejections from Houston, Baylor and VCU so I'm still keeping my fingers crossed. I think I'm just getting antsy.