crossedfingers Posted January 18, 2008 Posted January 18, 2008 As of right now, i hate my life!!! Diagnosed with senioritis, infused with immese insecurity and plaged with the worst form of restlessness - i cant even curl any more:( ive read so many posts on this site, but still havent found a niche for Fall 08 BME prospective applicants. any of you out there? Its about that time of the year, that we get together and discuss who's called whom! It will most def suck, but might as well know right? I applied to 9 schools, a lot of them amongst the top tier, but am not really sure when these people begin making calls or sending emails. It doesnt help that I check my own inbox almost every 10 minutes. Any one out there, whose heard from BU/Pitt/Duke/Stanford/ and all those wonderful biomedical schools! I wish I knew more of how their system worked. How do they decide, I mean really - do professors just pick who ever seems to fit their interests? I was told once that if you said you wanted to work with some big shot in the department, with really hi - fi research, you probably have zero to no chances of getting in, cuz if he doesnt like you - u missed your chance at that school! Sucks eh! Anyhow.. just wanted to know whether fellow BMEs were the in the boat as I. We should paddle together... sigh*
Minnesotan Posted January 18, 2008 Posted January 18, 2008 I'll move this over to Life Sciences for you (since you asked), but leave the shadow topic up, so nobody gets lost.
crossedfingers Posted January 19, 2008 Author Posted January 19, 2008 thanks from a fellow minnesotan.. PS: i beg to differ, but BME is very little LIFE SCIENCE and still VERY much engineering:) hope its not as cold in your side of the world as it is here..
Minnesotan Posted January 19, 2008 Posted January 19, 2008 Ermm... I believe you. I'm just not sure where you want me to stick this thread, now. (No suggestions from the peanut gallery, a'thankyou!) Well, I'm south of my home town in Minnesota, but north of the U.S. border, for the time being. Cold, but nowhere near Minnesota cold! ***Edit: I have been here for two years now, and have never noticed the applied sciences forum. Hrmm... I've got my humanities blinders on, I guess.
ahug030 Posted January 20, 2008 Posted January 20, 2008 Hi crossed fingers, Im applying for BME/bioengineering for Fall 2008 too. Im guessing you're from Aus or NZ? Just got an invite from Berkeley to interview there. Hope your applications are successful
ahug030 Posted January 20, 2008 Posted January 20, 2008 My advice is to be patient... even though I also check my email repetitively. Also, after applying I sent emails to each of the professors whose work interests me to ask them to look at my app personally... not sure whether this is helpful or detrimental to my chances but might just make my name stick when my app comes up in the pile
crossedfingers Posted January 20, 2008 Author Posted January 20, 2008 hey hug30, so u heard back frm UCberk? Are u a biomed person too? Where all did u apply? (if u dont mind my asking!) I am beginning to loose faith. This whole process is so long. I was thinking of emailing the profs, but then I thought- dont they get a zillion similar emails? Whats the point? I applied to Pitt/ Duke/UMN/Purdue/UC Davis/Stanford/BU. I dont know if they conduct interviews, seems like they do have recruitment weekends though. good luck with ures..
ahug030 Posted January 20, 2008 Posted January 20, 2008 Yup got an email from Cal on the 19th, Ive applied to bioengineering or biomedical engineering (depending on what they call it) at Cal, Caltech, Harvard, Stanford, Duke and Johns Hopkins. I must admit out of the 5 profs I emailed only 2 responded, but those 2 were positive about looking out for my app. The worst that can happen is that the email is deleted right?? I think Cal responds unusually early as far as engineering schools are concerned, I don't expect the others to reply at least until the end of the week - so hold on! Yeah I wonder if their meet and greet weekends involve formal interviews? Or maybe theyre just to check that the social skills are there before the stamp of approval is applied (hopefully?!)
bme_dude Posted January 20, 2008 Posted January 20, 2008 hey guys, just wondering if normally one is supposed to contact a prof. before applying?
ahug030 Posted January 21, 2008 Posted January 21, 2008 Not normally I don't think... unless you really want to work with someone in particular I suppose
crossedfingers Posted January 21, 2008 Author Posted January 21, 2008 hey hug so i did send my second prof email today. quick question though - do u just bluntly ask: would u look at my application personally? I mean all i really wanna say to to them is : DUDE GO SEE MY PROFILE: I LOVE URE LAB/WORK, LOVE ME BACK!!! but really is there a more round about way of saying that? I had sent Duke on the Nov 15 deadline and they are taking forever. oh and no Im from good old MN ( brrr)
ahug030 Posted January 21, 2008 Posted January 21, 2008 I just 'invited' them to look at my app, its a good way of asking without appearing too blunt. An email of this kind will probably appear blunt anyhow. But then again my experience with Americans is that they know how to get something if they want it, even if it means stepping on a few toes! (NB I was born in the U.S. and lived there until I was 11) After the initial 'invite' you could just talk about how good you are, how much you're interested, and how well you'll fit in
crossedfingers Posted January 21, 2008 Author Posted January 21, 2008 hmm thanks. I'll keep u posted on the good news ( an optimists view) where did u move to after US?
bme_dude Posted January 21, 2008 Posted January 21, 2008 i don't really think 'inviting' the prof's would make a difference. Usulally when you pick a concentration, your application would go to the specific faculty in this area.
crossedfingers Posted January 21, 2008 Author Posted January 21, 2008 hmmm no i think otherwise. remember when we applied they asked us to list faculty we want to study under? We'll if you really like their research and email them,you have planted a seed in their minds!! i mean they are human after all. so when they sit down and review applications and see ure file and like u : VIOLA! of course all that is wishful thinking. but as hug said, i dont think it would hurt. even if it might improve chances by .1% why not take the risk of an invite!! where all have u applied bme_dude?
bme_dude Posted January 21, 2008 Posted January 21, 2008 I applied to BU, Duke, JHU, WUSTL, (Vanderbilt, and Rochester) they have free application so why not. where did you apply?
crossedfingers Posted January 21, 2008 Author Posted January 21, 2008 Duke/Stanford/BU/Pitt/UMN/Purdue dunno where i'll get in!!!! what sorta BME are u in for? mine weremostly biomechanics
bme_dude Posted January 21, 2008 Posted January 21, 2008 I would like to go into imaging. for BU and JHU i would like to go into nanotech kinda work
crossedfingers Posted January 21, 2008 Author Posted January 21, 2008 surprise surprise. he did email me back. dont know what to make of it, it was mostly neutral: we usually take ME or BME undergrads ( i'm ChE) blh blh. He wasnt totally discouraging, infact said if my interests matched it could be a 'good fit'? what do i make of that? oh btw anyone interested to know that BU will not be sending invites until mid Feb. so the waiting continues
ahug030 Posted January 21, 2008 Posted January 21, 2008 Nice to hear you got a reply... Im chemeng too. I think this field is so new though that people like us have a chance... here's hoping anyhow.
bme_dude Posted January 22, 2008 Posted January 22, 2008 Good thing you got a reply. Most of the people that i emailed didn't even bother telling me to piss off. I saw a couple of people got in wustl. I hope IÂ can hear something from them. Why do you guys want to go from chem E to bme?
ahug030 Posted January 23, 2008 Posted January 23, 2008 Because making other people lots of $$$ is not what I signed on for... plus I did a conjoint degree with pharmacology so I want to be able to keep up the bio side of things.
crossedfingers Posted January 23, 2008 Author Posted January 23, 2008 ive always been a bio person as far as i can rem. i have a biochem enggg degree as well. i'd like to think of Che as the advanced plumber's life! No attachments what so ever! what bme field are you interested in hug? btw i did get some i'm really not interested in you email replies as well. I guess u learn to live! one of them wanted to speak to me in person, without an admission decision - ( at my own expense?) what do u think I should do?
ahug030 Posted January 23, 2008 Posted January 23, 2008 what bme field are you interested in hug? Not really sure... don't have anything specific, seems like each professor is working on their own thing. Probably something more to do with modelling than imaging, nanotech etc. though
ahug030 Posted January 23, 2008 Posted January 23, 2008 Good news all - I just received an email from a professor at Duke saying I'm on the shortlist!
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