A calling to all BME FALL 2008 Applicants:):)

[christina_bme]

i talked to the good people at umn today and they said they haven't started looking at applications at all yet.

I guess it's not that bad since their deadline was Jan. 15 - but still, that was like 2 weeks ago!

Someone on another forum said they got a rejection from Northwestern BME. I guess in that case it's a good sign that I haven't heard anything.

Still no word from Case Western on their Open House. They said they were "finalizing" invitations in their last email, so it didn't sound like I was definitely invited. If I don't hear from them by the beginning of next week, I'm going to assume I'm no longer in the running.

[red_dragone]

Someone on another forum said they got a rejection from Northwestern BME. I guess in that case it's a good sign that I haven't heard anything.

Fwaa, that was me :cry: Hope you have better luck! On the bright side I got nominated for a 2 yr fellowship at ASU, w00t

[crossedfingers]

good for u red dragone~~..

i didnt know one of my safety schools had already begun sending acceptances. guess i didnt make teh safety cut: shocker~~ didnt wanna live in iowa anyway.

bme_dude: who did you talk to in UMN? Was this the lady who handles all BME calls? (jennifer?) When i talked to them earlier in Janurary (before the deadline), they told me that my file had been sent to the committe? do they begin looking at files before deadlines? I don't know.. didnt seem to make any difference though, cuz i still havent heard back.

on a different note, I was wondering if you guys had any input on Open Houses. I mean what do they want in these sessions ( apart from getting u there, letting you see the town, college and your prospective classmates?) I mean the one I have scheduled had a ton of lab tours and one on one interviews with PIs. If i'm already in, does this interview matter? Or should I read up, just in case, its the deciding factor between a TA/RA?

[miketakena]

crossedfingers said:

Sounds like an invite to me. I received a call where the person said I had been admitted, and an email would follow. The email said, " my application had been favorably reviewed" . I think by wording it in this weird fashion what they mean is: the department has sent ure recommendations to the graduate school. its upto them to send you an admit. Usually they always do. Have you receive information on the Open House yet? That would be a sure give away. Especially if they are paying for your trip there.

It seems like MIT and UCSD have finally begun their calls. I wish the rest would STEP UP! this whole process is getting really nerve wrecking

miketakena: did u hear back for an interview from the prof u were talking about?

No .. no news from Duke yet ... But I received a rejection from Princeton Univ (Chem Eng PhD). someone from gradcafe has received interview invite from WUSTL!

[crossedfingers]

miketakena said:

someone from gradcafe has received interview invite from WUSTL!

yup i saw that too !!! its crazy how much my life revolves around the gradcafe results page...!!!

[anonymous_]

hey i've been lurking for the past couple of days after some people i know started hearing back from places while i was still left waiting..

until today that is- i come back from a meeting and there's a missed call on my cell from a number i don't recognize. so i google it and it's the graduate contact in the BME dept at UT Austin! ahh! so i quickly call back hoping to catch whoever called, get the machine, and leave an awkward "hey, just calling back" message (i hate hate hate leaving messages) and now i'm left pondering my fate until Monday I s'pose..

so anyone know what this all means? i'm guessing they don't call all the people they reject so it should be a good sign, right? but then i missed the call and left that awful message.. ugh, suspense, suspense, can barely stand it!

[christina_bme]

Yeah, I saw that WUSTL interview too...I was like HOLY CRAP WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY...can you give me some of your admissions karma?

anonymous, good luck with UT-Austin! The suspense would be killing me right now too. A friend of mine did his undergrad there and loved it. Austin's a fun place, too.

[bme_dude]

yeah, that is me that got the invite. it is an informal invitation from a prof. that i have been talking to. I was told that I will get the official invitation soon.

[bigsid05]

Congrats! But, I don't think you should post it in the results section until it's official. It throws a lot of people off thinking they missed out.

[crossedfingers]

congrats bme_dude. I hope the interview goes well.

[bme_dude]

thank you

I was waiting for this. I hope everything goes well on your side.

[123456789]

I suppose it's a little late for this now, but on the issue of emailing profs, I did so ad nauseum and think it worked out well. The main reason I did so was because I am specifically interested in a particular area of BME, and wanted to make sure there would be positions available at the schools I applied to. The way I put the question was more along the lines of "I have been reading about your work and was wondering if there would be any opportunities to take part in that research". That way it's not a blatant, annoying advertisement (well, at least I hope not), you get to massage their egos a bit, and find out whether or not they're interested.

I ended up emailing somewhere around 60 professors (applied to 13 programs), and heard back from maybe half. Some positive, others saying they didn't have RA positions available this year (stupid Stanford... wasted $105+GRE/transcript mailing fees). I sent some of these emails a week before I submitted the app, some a little bit after. A fair number of the professors seemed to like the idea of someone showing a particular interest in their work, told me about some specific projects they are working on, and asked me to tell them more about my interests, or send a resume (before they had received the app). One professor in particular emailed me to tell me he would be pushing for the committee to accept me, which they finally did (w00t Northwestern!).

So yeah, especially if you have some particular focus in mind, it is worth it to see whether it's available AND to flatter the profs a little and put your name in their head.

Goddamn this process is going to kill me, though, I swear. I still have one more app to complete, too. Ugh. Good luck everyone.

P.S., I'm definitely a little bit relieved to hear that the Hopkins interview invite was informal. I'm not really expecting to get in there, but I guess it's not ruled out just yet.

[miketakena]

I ended up emailing somewhere around 60 professors (applied to 13 programs), and heard back from maybe half. Some positive, others saying they didn't have RA positions available this year (stupid Stanford... wasted $105+GRE/transcript mailing fees). I sent some of these emails a week before I submitted the app, some a little bit after. A fair number of the professors seemed to like the idea of someone showing a particular interest in their work, told me about some specific projects they are working on, and asked me to tell them more about my interests, or send a resume (before they had received the app). One professor in particular emailed me to tell me he would be pushing for the committee to accept me, which they finally did (w00t Northwestern!).

Hey 123456789 - are you an American?

[123456789]

Hey 123456789 - are you an American?

yup. why?

[miketakena]

Americans have an edge in admission - hands-down.. especially in public schools, and especially public schools in California!

[123456789]

Americans have an edge in admission - hands-down.. especially in public schools, and especially public schools in California!

Oh I don't doubt it. I've heard about all the stupid hoops international students have to jump through. Not just admissions preferences either... Visa issues, bank statements... The only thing I would say, is that the research in any of our universities is largely supported by taxpayer money, and the taxpayers tend to demand that their kids have an edge. Of course, without foreign talent, American research would grind to a halt, but shhhhh. When I was applying to California public schools for undergrad from out of state, I had the same problem. For undergrad most states even have laws limiting the % that can be accepted from out of state. I doubt the same is true for grad programs, but I'm sure it is still tough.

Anyway, best of luck!

[christina_bme]

Has anyone else heard back from either Purdue or Case Western?

This is really agonizing! I don't care if you reject me, just TELL ME. The fact that I haven't had either an acceptance or rejection from either of these schools is making me feel very "second string." Like, "We'll let you in, maybe, if the people we REALLY want don't want to come here." :evil:

[crossedfingers]

Americans have an edge in admission - hands-down.. especially in public schools, and especially public schools in California!

i agree. not because I am an international student myself. but over this entire process, I have noticed that it is easier to get acceptance if your American. Same goes for the GRE scores. I always wondered why some AMericans I knew, didnt really care much about their GRE. If they crossed the 700 threshold in Quant, they called it good. Verses international applicants, who have to compete against the great minds in china and india, who for some reason refuse to score below 800!

Plus when they admit an international student, 9 chances out of 10, he wants full funding. Not to say that that Americans are loaded, its just they know that they have an alternative if they dont get that funding ( aka fedral govt!)

[crossedfingers]

ps: idont know if this is good news or not, but a lady from Duke emailed me saying that only a FEW interview calls had been made. Majority of the professors were still going through the application. which means.. there is still that slight ray of hope

[bigsid05]

Just spoke to Linda Scott in the Bioengineering dept. at Caltech. Apparently they're doing something different this year and not extending interview invitations to all of their 'possible admits' due to some problems that occurred last year. If you call her up you can get your application status. She wasn't sure how it was going to work but she did tell me that an interview did not necessarily mean a higher chance of admission.

MIT is also still reviewing applications.

[red_dragone]

Hmm, so I talked to Linda and apparently after the interviews happen, they'll accept/reject from that group, hand out money and then reevaluate us kids that didn't get invited. I had assumed I was just rejected but apparently both of my reviewers gave me strong ratings so now my hopes are back up again. Darn it! :roll:

[123456789]

Anybody else get an email about Duke's Master of Engineering Management program last week?

I suspect I'm just on their mailing list now, but some small part of me wonders if it was some kind of lame consolation prize for those thrown in the Ph.D. reject bin. No disrespect to anyone interested in the program, of course. Just not my thing.

[123456789]

yeah, that is me that got the invite. it is an informal invitation from a prof. that i have been talking to. I was told that I will get the official invitation soon.

Can you let us know when you get the official invite, so we all know it's time to panic?

[crossedfingers]

some small part of me wonders if it was some kind of lame consolation prize for those thrown in the Ph.D. reject bin. .

lol!!!! that was funny..

i get stupid mails from DUKE biomedical SCIENCES program.. burn..

didnt know two words (sciences & engineering) could cause such a havoc!

[vogecm]

To the guy that asked about Purdue I got in and they are having the visit to campus on Feb 15, so you should call if you're really interested.

How come I always hear about these posts on GRE and GPA, because honestly they don't count that much for BME, its all about your research backgrounds and fit with a particular faculty. I already got into WashU and I only have a 3.41 GPA from RPI.