<p>@molliebatmit mentioned toped ranked schools and top notch pis. How do y’all find rankings of schools (particularly for genetics research)? And how do you find rankings on PIs to know who is top notch? And within, say high ranked schools (or PIs), how do you know how much difference there is? My son is going through the process right now and, like Imm2010, is struggling to figure out how to choose.</p>
<p>@molliebatmit</p>
<p>Thanks for the input, you’re right I shouldn’t be worried about not having a set PI going into a program (I guess that’s one reason they do have programs!). This really clarifies what I need to consider, in terms of wanted to go somewhere solely because of PI or the other school because of their program…</p>
<p>Did anyone apply to Pitt’s Infectious Disease and Microbiology PhD program through the public health school? Haven’t seen anything on GradCafe but it seems like there are a decent number of people on here with similar interests to mine. If anyone else did apply, have you heard any status updates? A few weeks ago I got confirmation that they’d received all my materials and my application had been uploaded to the server for review but nothing since then… </p>
<p>The silent treatment from 4 out of 5 schools is driving me crazy! At least the one response I’ve gotten was an interview invite.</p>
<p>Just got my first rejection from UPenn for the Immunology program, i emailed the admission coordinator and they told me they wont be doing anymore interviews at UPenn for immunology :(</p>
<p>rejection from penn bgs (pharma concentration) via email…i knew it was coming but it sucks anyway</p>
<p>@hellosugaree</p>
<p>haha thanks and I forgot to add CONGRATS!! That is very exciting news…it also must be really nice to hear back so soon after the interviews 
The problem with smartphones is that you are always connected to your email account, so I have been checking my email all the time! But I’ve been trying to forget about it by focusing on my next set of interviews.</p>
<p>Just got rejected from UPenn pharmacology as well</p>
<p>Has anyone else heard from UCSD Bioinformatics or know if all of the interview invites were sent out?</p>
<p>Cheers!</p>
<p>Hi, is there anybody who has information about DSCB Program in Duke? Does it give inverview to international students? Thanks</p>
<p>
The published rankings (NRC, US News, etc.) are a place to start, but ultimately I’m talking about broad gradations in quality here, not about the difference between #2 and #5 in some ranking system. A great place to start would be to ask a trusted professor in the field – they will know where the best programs are, even if some are hidden gems.</p>
<p>
There aren’t, so far as I’m aware, explicit rankings of researchers within a sub-field, which sounds to me like it would be a complicated, ridiculous nightmare. A good place to start here would also be a trusted professor, but a proxy for that would be to look in Pubmed at papers recently published from the lab – are they publishing often? In good journals? Are the papers well-cited? The lab webpage will sometimes have good information on this sort of thing, too. And there are certainly differences between newbie really smart PIs, fresh off a superstar postdoc, and established really smart tenured professors – both young and old PIs can be exceedingly brilliant and great mentors, but differences certainly exist on average (new PIs may push hard for you to get out high-impact stories to help their chances of funding and/or tenure; old dudes might not be the superstars they once were).</p>
<p>It’s also worth considering whether you really want a top-notch lab environment for your PhD, or whether you’re just name-chasing. Do you really want to spend your 20s working 70+ hours a week, maybe getting scooped and having all your hard work count for nothing? Do you really want to be the best, or is it just what you think you want?</p>
<p>@Swamii</p>
<p>I got the UCSD invite yesterday - it was personalized (ie it didn’t look like a batch email), so don’t lose hope! Good luck! :)</p>
<p>@ImmunoNIH</p>
<p>Got acceptance from Einstein yesterday.</p>
<p>I haven’t heard anything from UCSD yet. Are you an international student?</p>
<p>I am a domestic student.</p>
<p>@sdlifesciences: Same deal! congrats to you.</p>
<p>Does anyone know if Caltech Computation and Neural Systems is done with interview invites? They sent a batch around January 15 but the interview dates are in late February.</p>
<p>@ phirah- I finally got up the nerve to email Harvard BPH and this is the reply I received:</p>
<p>“Short-listed candidates have been notified”.</p>
<p>So not necessarily a rejection, but it doesn’t look too good for us at this point… Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. Good luck with all your other apps!</p>
<p>@microcycle</p>
<p>At least you were brave enough to check!!</p>
<p>How early do you usually find out if you were waitlisted? Like for Yale BBS I have seen people say they have been rejected on the website or by e-mail and i haven’t heard positively or negatively from them at all. Do most schools wait list? Is it more common for you to be notified of it or just kept in the dark?</p>
<p>Hey guys, I just got more info about the BU interview next week. They called it a “recruitment day” instead an interview day. Is that normal for interviews or was I, unbeknownst to me, actually accepted? I just got done with my first interview last week and I was really impressed by how great the OTHER interviewees were. Now I’m clinging to the (very small) hope that I might really already be in here and can relax.</p>