<p>still waiting to hear back from bu cmb…i love it here and i want to stay! fingers crosseddd, going mad</p>
<p>@sarapp- absolutely, you still have a chance for an interview with ACCESS. When I was there they informed us that they had not even gone through all of the applications yet! Apparently they used a new online application this year and had a lot of problems with it. Crazy. And I don’t think it matters when you submitted the application because I turned mine in 30 minutes before the deadline and got the interview offer Jan 5th! They have at least 4 interview sessions, which are held every other weekend starting Jan 28th-30th. Good luck, I was totally impressed with UCLA and will likely accept their offer!</p>
<p>@amy
great!!!
Thanks…yeah its my first choice! I am in love with the campus!!!</p>
<p>Has anyone heard back from Harvard MCB? I was at their recruitment visit the first week of February and they said to expect a reply within one to two weeks. Haven’t heard anything, no email or phone call or delivery. Do they notify you if you’ve been rejected?</p>
<p>@ flutopian</p>
<p>I got the same email. If they’re gonna reject me why can’t they do it sooner?! I feel even more on edge than I did when I was waiting to hear about interviews</p>
<p>@Flutopian and @n1s2k9
I interviewed at the second weekend, and today I got the same email from UCSF BMS. I am confused by the “If you are interested in UCSF, I encourage you to stay in touch with us, and I will notify you of your status as soon as possible” phrase of the email. It seems like they are trying to gauge our interest through this email. Obviously I sent out thank you emails to each of my interviewer and the program coordinator after the interview weekend. Who do you guys think we should try to “stay in touch” with to additionally express interest to the program? The program coordinator or specific faculties? I asked my advisor, and she thinks that they are trying to make final offers to only the people that best match openings due to limited funds.
I’ve been accepted to Northwestern IGP, and UCSF & Northwestern are my top two choices. I don’t want to be greedy but I really do want to be able to consider both program.</p>
<p>@ BMEConvert</p>
<p>What do you mean by people that best match openings?
Honestly, I don’t know what to make of the email, but I responded to the coordinator’s email. I guess we should email the interviewers too? It can’t hurt. </p>
<p>It’s good that you have at least one acceptance (and congrats!), I haven’t heard back from anyone and it’s super annoying.</p>
<p>@n1s2k9, I think what my advisor meant by “openings” are applicants whose research interest closely match faculties who have actual opening in their labs. My advisor suggests emailing faculties who I would be interested in rotating once I’m there. The thing is, I did not get to meet most faculties who I would be interested in rotating with (most of them are just member of the admission committee).Would it be weird to email people that I did not meet out of the blue?</p>
<p>@ BMEConvert, @Flutopian and @n1s2k9</p>
<p>I was in the first interview weekend, and I got the same email today. In my opinion, that’s not necessary a bad sign. At least they are still considering us if they send us this email. And so far by checking both gradcafe and this site, I saw no one post that they have been accepted in the last two weeks. Maybe they only accepted the best students after the first weekend, for others, they just wait until 3 weeks later.</p>
<p>I think if will be awkward to email the interviewers now, and I don’t think that really helps because they have already turned in their evaluations long ago. I’m just going to reply the coordinator’s email and tell her that I am still very interested in their program. I think what they are trying to do is to identify the people that aren’t interested in going to UCSF. They don’t want to accept a whole bunch of people, and only a few ended up going there.</p>
<p>To those of you talking about the UCSF email. This most likely means you were not a top 10 candidate or whatever, and that they are waiting to see what kind of response they get from those they already invited. I got an acceptance email 3 days after interviewing on the first weekend. They invite top candidates right away, then slowly roll out additional spots depending on whether or not people accept the offer early on. At least this is what I think. Also, they won’t use your response to a generic email like that to gage your interest. They look at your application and the evaluations faculty wrote about you from your interviews. Communication after the interview weekends are done is nice to help you find people you would be interested in working with, but I doubt it will make a difference on admission unless you impress a faculty member connected to admissions via some great research idea you propose in communication with faculty. This is also speculation, but from what people told me and what I observed, this makes the most sense.</p>
<p>To those of you who interviewed at UCSD this past weekend, I received an offer of admission yesterday afternoon (Thursday) by email. If you got one as well, congratulations! If you are still waiting, good luck! This was the second fastest school next to UCSF in sending an offer after interview (out of Hopkins, UCSF, and UCSD).</p>
<p>To those of you who have not been getting a great response after interviews, never underestimate the power of being excited about your research during interviews. Also, make sure you can put the work you’ve done in the context of a big picture. If you tell them you know how to do a western blot and molecular biology, etc, make sure you know why you did it or how to interpret the results and why anyone should care. I got accepted within a week after each school I’ve been to so far, and I think this comes from being excited in interviews, and being able to explain the big picture about why anyone should care about the projects I’m involved in.</p>
<p>For your future interviews, make sure you know the background of your projects, as in why you or your PI or a postdoc in your lab was motivated to pursue the project. Be able to explain the data or previous work that led to the hypothesis being tested in whatever you are working on. You didn’t have to come up with the idea to understand it. But if you don’t know the background of what is going on in your lab, the interviewers will assume you don’t care enough to find out. They want people who care about science and want to be involved and understand what they are doing. They don’t want robots who add reagents to tubes based on a protocol someone handed them. During your interviews, develop a story. Give the background, the current work, and the future projections. Be excited and make them excited. </p>
<p>I used to do phone sales, and the tone of voice you used could make people go from “don’t bother me” to “I’ll pay for it with my Visa card.” Everyone said the same things more or less, but some people couldn’t sell anything, and some people were making bank on commissions. The people who did well acted excited about what they were selling. In an interview, you are selling yourself, so be excited! Be loud, be enthusiastic, maintain an edge. Don’t drone on in a monotone voice. No matter how exciting research is, if you talk about it in a boring voice, people will get bored. </p>
<p>Anyway, I’ll shut up because I think I’m going around in circles. Good luck to everyone, I hope you all get into your dream programs and have successful careers!</p>
<p>@hellosugaree - Congrats! Thanks for posting. j/w What’s your top choice? </p>
<p>I just emailed Cathy Pugh at UCSD who said that as far as she knew, admissions decisions were being sent out next week. So it sounds like you were top of the list - but no reason for me to lose hope yet. Fingers crossed! I would love to do my grad work with some of the great researchers at the Salk…</p>
<p>Well, it’s good to know that a number of others received that email. I talked to one of the grad students at UCSF and she said that she didnt know of any acceptances from the 2nd weekend that went out. It appears they really are now weighing everyone together. Although, yes, it would be nice to have Hellosugaree’s luck/acceptance turnaround…</p>
<p>Anybody from Sinai this past week hear back yet? I saw one rejection on gradcafe but not sure if it is someone who interviewed or not… im anxious already! What about those that interviewed on the 14th? Did you guys actually hear back the friday after?</p>
<p>@ahnundh, I was at the sinai interview on the 14th and I got an acceptance the Monday (night) after, so I wouldn’t worry if I were you. Best of luck!</p>
<p>@ahnundh
Hey, it’s not time to worry! I interviewed on 02/07 and I just got my answer the next Tuesday (02/15).
Best of luck!</p>
<p>@Immunol</p>
<p>thanks and congrats!</p>
<p>@laoisfire I got an acceptance to harvard mcb on Friday. I know at least 2 other people that did too but I also know a few who haven’t heard back from them yet. Good luck and let me know how it goes</p>
<p>Hey!
Are you an international student? i havent heard from any of the schools I have applied to… Is there a rigid deadline before which the schools reply? I am extremely anxious!!!</p>
<p>@ashmaniac09 : Could you please tell me which program did you apply to in Division of Basic sciences at UTSW?</p>