2018 Neuroscience PhD Applicants and Admission Results

[Neuropsycher]

On 12/28/2017 at 12:20 PM, minds said:

I imagine this isn't an exhaustive list, as it is just from personal knowledge, but I know the following schools' neuroscience programs' app deadlines haven't passed yet:

Baylor College of Medicine: Jan 1st

UTHealth Houston: Jan 4th

UTHSCSA: March 15th (Jan 1st - priority)

VCU: Feb 1st

Good luck! I've been wondering the same thing.

Thank you so much for this list! Best of luck to you?

[neuromemory]

Does anyone know if UCSD, Berkeley, and Columbia are totally done? It looks like UCSD sent out rejection emails on the 27th last year, but I haven't gotten one of those yet. Feeling kind of down about them :/ 

Edited December 30, 2017 by neuromemory

[cutepikachu]

Anybody heard back from the following? Desperately waiting for replies.

Harvard Neuroscience

Cornell Neurobiology

Columbia Neurobiology

New York University Neuroscience

UPenn Neuroscience

Princeton Molecular Biology

[ExpandTheBrain]

46 minutes ago, cutepikachu said:

Anybody heard back from the following? Desperately waiting for replies.

Harvard Neuroscience

Cornell Neurobiology

Columbia Neurobiology

New York University Neuroscience

UPenn Neuroscience

Princeton Molecular Biology

I am sorry to say that Harvard PiN is done sending invites and almost certain that Columbia Neurobiology is done as well

[cutepikachu]

20 hours ago, ExpandTheBrain said:

I am sorry to say that Harvard PiN is done sending invites and almost certain that Columbia Neurobiology is done as well

 

[cutepikachu]

19 hours ago, tnoelle72 said:

As ExpandTheBrain said above, Harvard PiN is done and I believe Columbia is as well. I heard back from NYU before the holidays, but I'm not sure if they are finished sending invites or not.

 

Does anyone know if JHU, Berkeley, or MIT are done sending invites for neuro?

Congratulations though. You have good options. Do you mind sharing your profile though? I guess I was way too ambitious to even think of these.

[neuromemory]

Hey all - does anyone know policies on sending Fall 2017 semester grades to anywhere? I did particularly well this semester (all A's and A+'s, which are rare at my institution, in both neuro and non-neuro courses), and figured it can't hurt for programs still evaluating my application to see those. For schools that don't have a way to include grade updates within the application, would it be odd to send an email to the program's contact person with them attached? 

[minds]

Hey everyone. I guess Icahn - Mt. Sinai is sending out some rejection emails today. I just got one. I'm kind of relieved to finally hear something, though! Good luck to those who got interviews.

[Taco cat]

1 hour ago, minds said:

Hey everyone. I guess Icahn - Mt. Sinai is sending out some rejection emails today. I just got one. I'm kind of relieved to finally hear something, though! Good luck to those who got interviews.

I just got the rejection as well. I'm glad I got interview offers from other schools before this otherwise it would sting a bit more. 

[minds]

1 hour ago, Taco cat said:

I just got the rejection as well. I'm glad I got interview offers from other schools before this otherwise it would sting a bit more. 

I feel the same way. If it would have come 3 weeks ago, I might have been a little more bummed about it. And hey, New York's expensive, so I'm designating that as my main consolation.

[Baller123]

On 1/2/2018 at 1:19 PM, tnoelle72 said:

As ExpandTheBrain said above, Harvard PiN is done and I believe Columbia is as well. I heard back from NYU before the holidays, but I'm not sure if they are finished sending invites or not.

 

Does anyone know if JHU, Berkeley, or MIT are done sending invites for neuro?

I called Berkeley, they are not done sending interview invites. MIT sent an email about interview invitations being sent in December/January. I imagined they just reconvened after the holiday and haven't sent any in January yet. 

[Neuro15]

6 hours ago, neuromemory said:

Hey all - does anyone know policies on sending Fall 2017 semester grades to anywhere? I did particularly well this semester (all A's and A+'s, which are rare at my institution, in both neuro and non-neuro courses), and figured it can't hurt for programs still evaluating my application to see those. For schools that don't have a way to include grade updates within the application, would it be odd to send an email to the program's contact person with them attached? 

You can email the contact person for the program and ask if you can update your app with your fall semester grades. Though I would ask before attaching your grades to the email. Some programs may be receptive to updates while others may not (and some are completely done looking through apps even if all the interview invites are not sent out). 

[neuromemory]

Hey all - as we know UCSD is completely done sending interviews but they just sent me an official rejection with:  "Thank you for checking in. We have completed our application review and all notices for invitation have been sent. I regret to inform you that you were not selected to interview for our program" in response to me inquiring about adding Fall 2017 grades, so they're completely done.

UCLA replied and added them to my dossier, so they're still in the review process. To my knowledge, MIT and Stanford both haven't sent out invites. No replies so far from Columbia (which is probably done), Harvard (which is completely done), or Berkeley. Hope everyone's holidays went well despite the stress, and to anyone caught in this snowstorm on the east coast, stay warm!

[synapticcat]

19 hours ago, Neuro15 said:

You can email the contact person for the program and ask if you can update your app with your fall semester grades. Though I would ask before attaching your grades to the email. Some programs may be receptive to updates while others may not (and some are completely done looking through apps even if all the interview invites are not sent out). 

What is the standard for how good your grades should be to consider updating your app? I also had a particularly good semester (3.90) in courses related to work I want to pursue in grad school. Not sure if it would be worth it to ask to update my app, but for some that I haven't heard back from I guess it couldn't hurt? 

[neuromemory]

1 hour ago, synapticcat said:

What is the standard for how good your grades should be to consider updating your app? I also had a particularly good semester (3.90) in courses related to work I want to pursue in grad school. Not sure if it would be worth it to ask to update my app, but for some that I haven't heard back from I guess it couldn't hurt? 

I think it's really up to you, is a 3.9 significantly better than your overall GPA and/or make a reasonable impact on your major/overall? For me, a 4.1 was a good amount higher, it boosted both my overall from 3.72 to 3.77 and my major GPA since they were mostly high-level neuro courses, so I wanted it to factor in if at all possible. I don't see how it could hurt to email them, as long as you're not presumptuous about it

[AllThingsBrain]

I'm seeing several posts about DBBS at WashU. Did anyone else apply to Psychological & Brain Sciences? All I could find is that they send interview invites between January and mid February. Georgetown is another one I'm curious about--as far as I can tell, they provide no information on their interview invitation timeline, although interviews are supposed to be between January and March (March? Really?).

[synapticcat]

On 1/4/2018 at 12:22 PM, neuromemory said:

I think it's really up to you, is a 3.9 significantly better than your overall GPA and/or make a reasonable impact on your major/overall? For me, a 4.1 was a good amount higher, it boosted both my overall from 3.72 to 3.77 and my major GPA since they were mostly high-level neuro courses, so I wanted it to factor in if at all possible. I don't see how it could hurt to email them, as long as you're not presumptuous about it

That's definitely a good way of putting it! I've had 3.9 and 4.0 semesters in the past, so it's not that much better than anything already on my transcript. I went from a 3.71 to a 3.74 cumulative, which was nice but not too crazy. I was only considering it because I'm still waiting to hear from 3 places, and got my first rejection today so I guess I'm getting nervous! Here's some other factors that made me lean in favor of emailing:

• I took 3 high-level courses this semester relevant to my desired field of graduate study - an advanced biochem course, neuroimmunology lab (I took the lecture part of the course last spring), and an upper-level molecular biology course 
• My success in one of these courses bumped up my major GPA (my degree is in neuroscience), effectively raising it from a 3.71 to a 3.83

I think I may send a nice email, because hey, if I'm going to be rejected from those programs anyways, I figure this can't hurt. I've never had to contact a school about this kind of thing before - does anyone have any advice on wording the email? 

[neuromemory]

5 hours ago, synapticcat said:

That's definitely a good way of putting it! I've had 3.9 and 4.0 semesters in the past, so it's not that much better than anything already on my transcript. I went from a 3.71 to a 3.74 cumulative, which was nice but not too crazy. I was only considering it because I'm still waiting to hear from 3 places, and got my first rejection today so I guess I'm getting nervous! Here's some other factors that made me lean in favor of emailing:

• I took 3 high-level courses this semester relevant to my desired field of graduate study - an advanced biochem course, neuroimmunology lab (I took the lecture part of the course last spring), and an upper-level molecular biology course 
• My success in one of these courses bumped up my major GPA (my degree is in neuroscience), effectively raising it from a 3.71 to a 3.83

I think I may send a nice email, because hey, if I'm going to be rejected from those programs anyways, I figure this can't hurt. I've never had to contact a school about this kind of thing before - does anyone have any advice on wording the email? 

I agree - I don't see how it could hurt to send a polite email their way. One nice side effect was that a few programs (UCSD, Columbia) sent me emails confirming that I didn't get an interview, so I know for sure to move on from those and focus on the amazing places I was offered them! Here's what I said in my email: 

 

To Whom it May Concern,

My name is insert name here, and I am a recent applicant for the name of program PhD Program, application ID number XXXXX. I recently received my Fall 2017 semester grades, and I wanted to inquire if it was possible for these grades and their positive effect on my overall and major GPA to be reflected via an update to my application. My updated transcript is attached for your convenience. Thank you for your time. 

Best,

My Name

[Skydram]

50 minutes ago, neuromemory said:

I agree - I don't see how it could hurt to send a polite email their way. One nice side effect was that a few programs (UCSD, Columbia) sent me emails confirming that I didn't get an interview, so I know for sure to move on from those and focus on the amazing places I was offered them! Here's what I said in my email: 

 

To Whom it May Concern,

My name is insert name here, and I am a recent applicant for the name of program PhD Program, application ID number XXXXX. I recently received my Fall 2017 semester grades, and I wanted to inquire if it was possible for these grades and their positive effect on my overall and major GPA to be reflected via an update to my application. My updated transcript is attached for your convenience. Thank you for your time. 

Best,

My Name

Did you received the rejection from UCSD and Columbia after sending that email? Or was it a mass rejection email? 

Thank you and Good luck! 

[neuromemory]

9 hours ago, Skydram said:

Did you received the rejection from UCSD and Columbia after sending that email? Or was it a mass rejection email? 

Thank you and Good luck! 

It was in reply to my email, not a mass rejection, but both of them said they were completely done reviewing all applications so if you haven't heard from them yet, you won't, unfortunately

[synapticcat]

14 hours ago, neuromemory said:

I agree - I don't see how it could hurt to send a polite email their way. One nice side effect was that a few programs (UCSD, Columbia) sent me emails confirming that I didn't get an interview, so I know for sure to move on from those and focus on the amazing places I was offered them! Here's what I said in my email: 

 

To Whom it May Concern,

My name is insert name here, and I am a recent applicant for the name of program PhD Program, application ID number XXXXX. I recently received my Fall 2017 semester grades, and I wanted to inquire if it was possible for these grades and their positive effect on my overall and major GPA to be reflected via an update to my application. My updated transcript is attached for your convenience. Thank you for your time. 

Best,

My Name

Thanks so much! This is very helpful. Cheers! 

[sk834]

Who else heard from Rockefeller? Did they send out all interviews? 

 

[RI290]

My first interview invite (finally!)

Tufts Sackler, March 2nd!

[neuronerd123]

2 hours ago, RI290 said:

My first interview invite (finally!)

Tufts Sackler, March 2nd!

Congrats!!! via email?

[RI290]

1 hour ago, neuronerd123 said:

Congrats!!! via email?

Yup. First email I opened this morning.