<p>Need some advice here…I am start to panic a bit now. I have applied to Neuroscience/umbrella biomedical PhD program at 8 different schools (Yale, UMich Ann Arbor, Rockefeller, UCSD, Harvard, UPenn, NYU and Mount Sinai), and haven’t heard anything back yet. It seems that all interview offers for Yale and NYU neural science have already been given out and many interviews offers have been given out for Harvard and UPenn. Given my international student status, my hopes at UCSD or Michigan isn’t too high, so that leaves Rockefeller and Mount Sinai, and could result in a very likely scenario where I don’t get into any schools. My fallback would be either to stay at my current lab and do a PhD at my undergraduate institution or to apply to other Canadian instititions, however I am having trouble finding PIs doing research that excites me at these institutions and my current PI is advising me not to stay at my current lab or instituion for PhD work for future career purposes. So should I work as a tech for one year to strengthen my publication record or do a PhD at my current institution (I know several PI who has successful career having done undergraduate and graduate education all at the same institution, but my current PI strongly recommends against it). However, there’s no guarantee i will be accepted at these schools if I reapply next year, so what do you guys think? Any opinion is appreciated! </p>
<p>I will include my stats here for reference:
4.0 GPA at a top 3 Canadian University
GRE: 680V/800Q/4W Subject: 760 (99%)
Research: 1/2 year of non-neuro research, 2 year of academic neuro research, 1 year of
neuro research at a major pharmaceutical company
Publication: One abstract(non-first author) at ACNP
in the end stage of acquring data for two publications, thinking of potentially submitting one to Neuron (But didn’t include those in applications info)
References: One from current PI, Two from supervisor at Pharmaceutical company. Haven’t read them, but was told they were very strong.</p>
<p>Anyone know if Columbia sends out multiple rounds of interview invites? I already know I didnt make it for the first round but just wondering if there may be a second wave.</p>
<p>leukemia, thanks for the kind words, we’ll see what happens.</p>
<p>Yokel, see you in Houston.</p>
<p>neurokid, no need to panic, your profile is excellent, especially your numerical stats. When was your application complete? I’d say you are an excellent candidate for Rockefeller, since they do not distinguish between domestic vs. international students like us. Also Mount Sinai should be pretty much guaranteed admissions if you ask me. As for staying in Canada for PhD, I definitely think Canada has very strong research schools such as McGill and Toronto, so its all about how your research interests match theirs. I personally like the idea of moving down south for a PhD because of better funding and new environment.</p>
<p>I am nervous about interviews. I have my first interview in 2 weeks (Columbia’s Biomedical Informatics program) and I am not sure how I shall prepare myself for that. please let me know how you prepared or will prepare for interviews!! also how shall i dress for such an occasion? </p>
<p>Also say, if an applicant was successful with an interview and subsequently accepted as a phd student, what does a timeline look like? Will we have enough time to consider all other options? (i.e. waiting on other school’s decision which could come out as late as march)</p>
No need to worry. You get to talk about science with a bunch of really smart people – it’s supposed to be fun! </p>
<p>If you are given the names of the PIs with whom you will interview before the interview, you might consider looking up a few of their papers and being familiar with the basic outline of their work. This isn’t required, though, and nobody will quiz you on the details. In an interview, the PI will talk about his or her work, and then you will talk about the research you’ve done. Be sure you can talk about your previous research in depth, but in a manner that’s accessible to someone who’s not necessarily in your subfield. Be able to explain your motivations and experimental strategies.</p>
<p>How you dress is largely up to you, but it doesn’t need to be super-formal. By a few weeks in to interview season, most recruits are wearing khakis and sweaters (with variation depending on personal taste). I wore a skirt and sweater sometimes. You don’t need to wear a suit. Basically, you want to be dressed up to the point that you feel professional and competent and able to talk about science – the dressing up is for you, not for the professors.</p>
<p>
Schools will often notify accepted students within a week of the interview, but students who haven’t been accepted may not hear for a few weeks. You will probably have all of your decisions in hand by the end of March, and the national reply deadline is not until April 15. If you know you’re not going to attend a school, though, you should notify them earlier so they can consider accepting students from their waitlists.</p>
<p>i don’t know how they do admissions at berkeley and maybe they haven’t reviewed most applications yet, but i do have a friend who was admitted yesterday. this is the MCB dept. i’m sure other departments handle admissions decisions differently.</p>
<p>So I’m guessing Gerstner Sloan-Kettering is out of the question since I haven’t heard from them yet and their interview weekend is Jan 20-22??? :(</p>
<p>just so you know- i interviewed last year at Berkeley (MCB) and they sent out their invites around mid-January, interviewed early February and sent results a week later</p>
<p>Hi guys. Just wanted to let you know that I started (albeit a little early) a new thread about interview weekends. Might be a good forum to talk about your interview experiences, and how things turn out. </p>
<p>My hope is that everyone will write really detailed descriptions of their visits, so the thread will be dense with useful info for us (and future generations!) to use when deciding and preparing.</p>
<p>hey brainlab,
i submitted my emory application on december 29th and was pleasantly surprised by an email at midnight on Jan 3rd. But I had gotten my transcripts and gre scores in very early, around november. it did have the same jan 3rd deadline, i believe.</p>
<p>morningmist10
Congrats. You must have some impressive stats seeing that you got that email so quickly on a Saturday and especially since they extended the deadline to the 5th. They must have been going through the apps before the deadline also. I’m still hoping though. Thanks for the info.</p>
<p>Thanks PhD-Bound. I tried searching the archives, but these forums get so cluttered I gave up trying to find the right into.
FutureNeuroGrad: no other interviews yet. I applied to JH, Georgetown, UMCP (safety ), Stanford, and UCSF.
Guess it’s time for stats:
GRE V770, Q750, W4.5
GPA 3.5
7 years of full time research work in academia and biotech (yeah, I know, a little late, but on the up-side, the main part of my application is my resume)
No authorships - unfortunately, they don’t put my name on the FDA reports and grant submissions I help prepare.</p>
<p>Anyone applied to Northwestern IGP? I saw some people got interview invitation already. I’m wondering if there is a way to check if my application is completed? I can’t find any online tracking system. I emailed the graduate coordinator several times and no response.</p>
), Stanford, and UCSF.