2018 Neuroscience PhD Applicants and Admission Results

[siliconchins]

1 hour ago, Dark Chocolate Mocha said:

Hello folks! It's me again. I know I have asked about the Neuroscience and Cognitive Science program of University of Maryland before, and someone has kindly replied that they were having their Open House in 8-9 February. As a matter of fact, I knew about the date of the Open House. I am asking about Maryland, because I find the entire application & admissions process a bit weird. Let me briefly tell you what happened so far: I have read in the Results section of this forum that several people received emails with instructions to check the portal and then they saw rejection messages. (This was around January 20-25.) I hadn't received an email, but after seeing those posts in the forum, I logged in to the application portal to check my status - and it said "Submitted. Under departmental/program review." Then I waited for about one week - and still got no notification whatsoever. So I contacted the department via the contact form on their website to ask whether all interview invitations had been sent out. I got a reply from the department secretary confirming that my application was (STILL!) under review, and she told me that she was hoping to "get back to me this week." This was around two weeks ago. 

I still have nothing. My application status is the same on the application portal - under review.

Since I got no interview requests, I am inclined to believe that it is very unlikely that I will get a positive response at the end. But at the same time I cannot understand why there is this delay. 

Is there anyone else who is in the same situation? 

Also, if anyone has been rejected by this program, could they perhaps give us the initials of their POIs?

Thanks!

Are you a domestic or international applicant? Generally there is a different timeline for international applications, so that may be why you are experiencing a difference.

[Dark Chocolate Mocha]

47 minutes ago, siliconchins said:

Are you a domestic or international applicant? Generally there is a different timeline for international applications, so that may be why you are experiencing a difference.

Thank you for your reply! Yes, I am an international applicant. Does that mean that I would be contacted a bit later than domestic applicants (if at all)? To be honest, it would have been a bit costly for me to travel there for the Open House even if they invited me, and they might not have wanted to reimburse me for that. So maybe that's why they did not hurry up to contact me before the Open House. But then, some other schools invited me to their Open House meetings and also offered me some money for that - so I can't be sure whether or not I should totally give up hope because no invitation arrived... I really hope there is a different timeline for international students!

[seeaseeoh3]

13 hours ago, Bouton said:

Apparently there is a very small internal waitlist for Emory.  

Emory interviews were super chill.  If anyone has an interview there at the end of Feb, don't sweat. 

We totally met this past weekend then! 

[RI290]

Reached out to Boston University GPN:

"The applications are currently being reviewed and invitations for interviews have been extended. We typically extend offers of admission only to those who were selected to interview."

FYI

[BabyScientist]

8 hours ago, RI290 said:

Reached out to Boston University GPN:

"The applications are currently being reviewed and invitations for interviews have been extended. We typically extend offers of admission only to those who were selected to interview."

FYI

They have a set interview date on their website. Feb 25. I don't imagine they'll wait much longer to be done sending out invites.

[neuro1]

Tufts still has an internal waiting list for interview invites! fingers crossed.

[JustHopefulMe]

Has anyone heard from the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC)? What about Drexel?

[RI290]

11 hours ago, BabyScientist said:

They have a set interview date on their website. Feb 25. I don't imagine they'll wait much longer to be done sending out invites.

Yeah I took that as a rejection.

[somino42]

I've been informally accepted to a program!  I won't say which one just to spare anyone anxiety since this program advertised that formal acceptances will not come out until later.  Just wanted to participate in the acceptance party, and... YAY I am PhD bound!

[neuro1]

did anyone interview at Albert Einstein? does anyone know how long it takes after the interview to inform us of their decision?

[SLEEEEEEEEP]

On 2/13/2018 at 8:45 PM, Brad Gamble said:

Has anyone recently heard from Rochester, Emory, UNC Chapel Hill, Boston University, or Albert Einstein college of medicine?

None of them sent invites for interview or sent rejections to me. Rochester said they were going to send the second batch, but that was almost a month ago.

Not sure about Rochester.

A colleague of mine has already had her interview at Emory, so if they will be extending any more it would likely be soon and only a few.

UNC already had their interviews too. I was rejected, but a friend of mine has also heard nothing (positive or negative).

I received an interview invite for BU a few weeks ago and their only weekend is 2/25 so I would assume they're likely done.

Not sure about Albert Einstein.

Hope that helped a little?!

[JustHopefulMe]

5 hours ago, somino42 said:

I've been informally accepted to a program!  I won't say which one just to spare anyone anxiety since this program advertised that formal acceptances will not come out until later.  Just wanted to participate in the acceptance party, and... YAY I am PhD bound!

Congratulations! That is such good news. At least you know now what you'll be doing next year  

[AllThingsBrain]

On 2/16/2018 at 7:51 AM, somino42 said:

I've been informally accepted to a program!  I won't say which one just to spare anyone anxiety since this program advertised that formal acceptances will not come out until later.  Just wanted to participate in the acceptance party, and... YAY I am PhD bound!

May I ask what you mean by "informally accepted"? I had an interview in which they strongly hinted to me that I would be accepted, stopping just short of explicitly saying that. The professor I would be working with has been reaching out to me, and I would like to be officially accepted before going into more forward-looking conversations. I think they are still planning to interview a small number of applicants at later dates, but I'm hoping they're not waiting for that before getting back to me.

[somino42]

19 hours ago, AllThingsBrain said:

May I ask what you mean by "informally accepted"? I had an interview in which they strongly hinted to me that I would be accepted, stopping just short of explicitly saying that. The professor I would be working with has been reaching out to me, and I would like to be officially accepted before going into more forward-looking conversations. I think they are still planning to interview a small number of applicants at later dates, but I'm hoping they're not waiting for that before getting back to me.

One of the program coordinators emailed me saying very nice things, and that there is still another interview weekend upcoming so they cannot formally send acceptances until after that, but to anticipate an acceptance.

[neuronfire94]

On 2/13/2018 at 4:36 PM, jasbee said:

@seeaseeoh3 how long did it take for you to hear back from Vanderbilt IGP? I'm waiting on NGP and its been like 2.5 weeks (which isn't that long I know) and no one has posted on here either way yet. Other applicants heard that NGP was shooting for a class of 6 and only going to make 8 offers to people out of the 28 interviewed so I'm not super hopeful but I just want to know.

Also if anyone else has heard from NGP it would be awesome if you could let me know - I'm struggling to not constantly refresh my email.  

Vanderbilt NGP sent out acceptances today. I hope this helps! 

[mackeca]

14 hours ago, neuronfire94 said:

Vanderbilt NGP sent out acceptances today. I hope this helps! 

Congratulations, if by this you mean you were accepted. Do you have any idea as to whether they send them out in batches, or all at once? I also applied to this program, and haven't heard back. 

[Cowherdingjoe]

21 hours ago, neuronfire94 said:

Vanderbilt NGP sent out acceptances today. I hope this helps! 

Bummer - are you sure they all went out yesterday? Really wish I would have applied IGP instead 

[neuronfire94]

@mackeca @Cowherdingjoe I'm not 100% sure, but it sounds like decisions were made over the weekend. My PI emailed me on Saturday saying that he heard through the grapevine that I was accepted and that they had accepted 10 people total. Best of luck to you both and I hope that you end up somewhere that you really like. 

Edited February 21, 2018 by neuronfire94

[Dark Chocolate Mocha]

It seems someone got admitted to the Neuroscience and Cognitive Science (NACS) program at Maryland. I posted a message on the Results section, asking them about their subfield, and if and when they had had an interview. I don't know whether they will see the message, though. So I wanted to repeat it here.

Also, if there is anyone else who applied to this program (regardless of whether you got a rejection or acceptance), could you please DM me? It's February 21, I still got nothing. No acceptance whatsoever, but curiously enough, no rejection either. It's confusing. I would really appreciate some feedback from a fellow applicant about how the process worked for them.

Cheers,

DCM

[JustHopefulMe]

6 minutes ago, Dark Chocolate Mocha said:

It seems someone got admitted to the Neuroscience and Cognitive Science (NACS) program at Maryland. I posted a message on the Results section, asking them about their subfield, and if and when they had had an interview. I don't know whether they will see the message, though. So I wanted to repeat it here.

Also, if there is anyone else who applied to this program (regardless of whether you got a rejection or acceptance), could you please DM me? It's February 21, I still got nothing. No acceptance whatsoever, but curiously enough, no rejection either. It's confusing. I would really appreciate some feedback from a fellow applicant about how the process worked for them.

Cheers,

DCM

I'm in the same situation for two other schools, UMich and the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC).  I know that the interview weekend for Michigan is in March, so maybe I still have time to hope,  but I was surprised to know that MUSC is already starting to send out acceptances! I'm getting very nervous and I'm afraid to call the program only to get a rejection

I know this doesn't answer your question, but I just wanted to let you know you're not alone. Hang in there!

[Dark Chocolate Mocha]

2 hours ago, JustHopefulMe said:

I'm in the same situation for two other schools, UMich and the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC).  I know that the interview weekend for Michigan is in March, so maybe I still have time to hope,  but I was surprised to know that MUSC is already starting to send out acceptances! I'm getting very nervous and I'm afraid to call the program only to get a rejection

I know this doesn't answer your question, but I just wanted to let you know you're not alone. Hang in there!

Thank you for your support! The really weird thing about Maryland NACS is that they have also already sent out several rejections. They did this quite early, in fact: around January 22 or so. I cannot realistically expect a positive outcome, as I know it would be very awkward to get a "first" interview request this late. At the same time, I cannot help but wonder why it should take them a month (and this at the very least) to notify me of a rejection.

Weird.

[neuro1]

1 hour ago, Dark Chocolate Mocha said:

Thank you for your support! The really weird thing about Maryland NACS is that they have also already sent out several rejections. They did this quite early, in fact: around January 22 or so. I cannot realistically expect a positive outcome, as I know it would be very awkward to get a "first" interview request this late. At the same time, I cannot help but wonder why it should take them a month (and this at the very least) to notify me of a rejection.

Weird.

Many schools have an internal waiting list, so they'll hold on to your application if they may potentially invite you for a remote interview or in person interview after the initial interview event in the chance they don't like everyone that interviewed. 

 

I'm in that boat for Emory and Tufts, fingers crossed  

[Skydram]

25 minutes ago, neuro1 said:

Many schools have an internal waiting list, so they'll hold on to your application if they may potentially invite you for a remote interview or in person interview after the initial interview event in the chance they don't like everyone that interviewed. 

 

I'm in that boat for Emory and Tufts, fingers crossed  

How do you know about Tufts?

I sent them an email asking about the status of my application and never heard back.

[Dark Chocolate Mocha]

27 minutes ago, neuro1 said:

Many schools have an internal waiting list, so they'll hold on to your application if they may potentially invite you for a remote interview or in person interview after the initial interview event in the chance they don't like everyone that interviewed. 

 

I'm in that boat for Emory and Tufts, fingers crossed  

I wish you good luck! I hope you get into the program that will be best for you :))

Thanks for mentioning the concept of an "internal waiting list." I had never heard of such a thing, but you may be right. It seems Maryland NACS has traditionally never sent waitlisting notifications, so maybe they do have an internal waiting list. I hope I'm on that list, then. Because this program is one of my top choices and I believe I actually have a good match of research interests with my two POIs.

Fingers crossed!

[neuro1]

27 minutes ago, Skydram said:

How do you know about Tufts?

I sent them an email asking about the status of my application and never heard back.

When I emailed them to ask, they said the application is out of the hands of admissions and that each dept has it in their hands and that until I receive a definitive email, they are still considering the application. Initial invites for their main recruiting event has gone out already - but they may choose to do a remote interview later on. 

Edited February 21, 2018 by neuro1