greenertea

I don't mean to prolong this discussion, but just my two cents: obviously ethnicity have a contribution to your application, but I think what everyone is saying is that it is a much smaller part of your application in grad school admissions compared to undergrad admissions or applications to summer research programs. Professors on the committees are looking for people who will be competent workers in their own laboratories and will be able to contribute to the program by bringing in funding, publications and getting faculty positions after graduation. They also need people who's research interests align with those of the faculty. So certainly ethnicity is considered, but if you think anyone gets admission who isn't a good fit for the program, skills or interest-wise, then you're deluding yourself.

Congrats on everyone who's getting invites this week! I have a feeling next week will also be a lucky week for everyone!

@kiwilove, Agreed about Stanford. And their application was super expensive!!

jayeyesee

@greenertea couldn't have put it better myself. I just wanted to point out that ethnicity is considered to some degree after someone said it's not considered at all.

and regarding stanford's app fee... my friend's adviser told her that stanford has the highest application fee because they can lol.

eneffKbee

Although I haven't seen anyone else on this board who applied, I received an interview invitation for UT Houston (MD Anderson) GSBS cancer biology program today. Can anyone comment on this program? I know MD Anderson is a major force in cancer research, but since I haven't seen anyone post about it, I was wondering if anyone has any info about it.

seniorspring

and unfortunately for many im sure, asians are not usually considered "traditionally underrepresented minorities" and therefore gain no advantage, and sometimes even a disadvantage.

and unfortunately, to whoever asked before i have heard from ucsd biomedical sciences, but only for the first visiting date and they have a later one which they did not tell me

pumiliod

kiwilove;

i heard back from ucsd bms last week, interviews are 2/9-12, 2/23-26

Biophysical

The NIH funds a significant number of these programs, and in the past few years there has been a big push to encourage underrepresented minorities--as determined by the NIH--to pursue careers as research scientists.

I'm fairly certain programs that depend on NIH funding (such as large, public research institutes) get extra money/benefits for having minorities in science. I'm not so sure about the private schools.

Stanford's application fee was ridiculous--considering how much money they already have. I got a fee waiver but I had to write a couple of essays for it.

jayeyesee

okay.. i am absolutely stunned..

i got an interview for stanford's Biology home program..

interview is on February 29th – Saturday, March 3rd

I don't know what to do with myself.. holy ****.

kiwilove

Same here. I just got an e-mail for an interview with the Stanford Biology home program. That's crazy because we were just talking about it.

kiwilove

@jayeyesee, congrats! See you there I guess.

greenertea

Congrats to both of you! Hopefully they'll make up for the app fee w/ caviar at your dinners or something!

kiwilove

@greenertea, caviar lol. One of my friends went kayaking as an activity during the interview. Who knows! I hope I didn't just throw that in everyone's face about getting in. Best of luck to everyone else too.

flutterfly_28

Looks like I got rejected by MIT. Not too disappointed, although I'm much less optimistic about chances at Harvard/Stanford now lol.

And affirmative action definitely plays a role in graduate admissions, most Ivies have sections on their websites about how important minority enrollment is to them. It's not as bad as during undergraduate admissions though, probably because not too many unqualified students apply for biomedical PhDs.

seniorspring

flutterfly did mit say you were rejected? or you mean you didnt get an email from them?

evobio

is the stanford email an official mass email or is it from a PI?

kiwilove

@evobio, it was from the grad student services for bio.