<p>Rejection from Rockefeller. Oh, well, okay.</p>
<p>You’re being judged. All the time. Not always by the professors, since they’re usually more in tune with what you look like on paper – but listening to some friends in other departments talk about their experiences with this year’s batch of recruits, I thought I’d just send out a friendly reminder to everyone: be on your best behavior. </p>
<p>The visit/interview/recruitment is a valuable opportunity for you to decide how well school and program X match your interests, but at the same time the matriculated students are looking at you to see if you’d play nice with them. A few examples:</p>
<ul>
<li>Recruit goes to dinner, but spends the entire time facing the corner with his cell phone pressed to his ear, engaging in heated discussions over something. Girlfriend, drug trades, no idea.</li>
<li>Recruit from Berkeley hears that a current student graduated from [other UC not nearly as well-endowed as Cal], proceeds to bash on Little UC until he’s satisfied he’s won the argument.</li>
<li>Recruit ditches multiple social events with the excuse that “I have some friends in town I haven’t seen in a long time, so I wanted to meet up with them.” Um, we just paid $$$ to fly you across the country and put you up in a hotel for two nights to try and show you our school, and this? Hmm.<br></li>
<li>Recruit is from California and applied to entirely west coast-based programs, with the exception of our school. Recruit mentions their dislike for cold weather and dislike for separation from significant other, who is remaining in California indefinitely. So … why are you here?</li>
<li>Recruit takes advantage of all lulls in conversation to spiel about his oh-so-awesome accomplishments, often interrupting others to add his point of view or correction. If only there was a checkbox for “does not play well with others” …</li>
</ul>
<p>In my program last year, our advisor/director emailed all of us for our opinions regarding the interviewees. I generally liked the bunch of kids, but could definitely identify ones who were genuinely interested in coming and others who just wanted the free trip. So have fun and don’t be too uptight about things, but remember that peer evaluation is something to consider as well.</p>
<p>Rejection from Rockefeller yesterday. :(</p>
<p>How did you get it ? By e-mail ?</p>
<p>rgtexas:</p>
<p>For UW pharmacology, my interview weekend is on 20th Feb, but I heard there are 2 weekends last two years.</p>
<p>Undergraduate: Duke Biomedical Engineering
GPA: 3.85
GREs 560 V 740 M
Accepted: Rice, Pittsburgh (Bioengineering)
Interview: Columbia
Haven’t heard: MIT-Harvard Health Science Technology Program, Duke Biomedical Engineering</p>
<p>Has anyone heard from MIT?</p>
<p>thanks conanbot…</p>
<p>how long ago were you notified? I had emailed the department; she said that everyone will be notified on April 1st. Maybe just a way to say I didn’t get selected. I wonder if everyone (for both weekends) was notified at the same time.</p>
<p>actually I spoke too soon, also have an interview with MIT HST, on March 5/6</p>
<p>re: Rockefeller</p>
<p>Hi serbianguy,</p>
<p>It was by mail. Everyone should be getting their decision soon by mail, and do NOT be fooled by the “big envelope.” You want the big AND thick envelope, as big and thin envelope means rejection.</p>
<p>G’luck! :)</p>
<p>rgtexas:</p>
<p>I was notified on 20th Jan.</p>
<p>So what is appropriate attire to wear to these interviews? All the emails I’ve received have told me to just wear casual clothes. I know the science environment is a little relaxed, but I’m guessing I need to dress up just a little. I also don’t want to overdo it and stand out too much</p>
<p>NIURO,</p>
<p>for the interviews, I would not recommend wearing a suit - in all six of my interview weekends last year, only one or two people wore suits, and they stood out… and looked extremely uncomfortable when they realized the mistake they made. </p>
<p>I’d say try business casual - a nice button-up shirt is good (no tie if you’re a dude), plus some nice bottoms that aren’t jeans. I had a long-sleeved blue v-neck shirt that was in good condition, so I just wore that. One problem - I’m really short with big boobs, so I wish I’d been a little more aware of the cleavage factor. No need to distract from what you’re talking about! :)</p>
<p>Many of my interviews were in cold places, so I ended up wearing a puffy down vest in a couple of interviews.</p>
<p>For most non-interview events - parties, dinners, socializing with professors/grad students, you should feel free to wear what you want. I’m not suggesting you wear sweatpants and stained shirts - but good jeans and a clean shirt and you’re good to go.</p>
<p>heyy…
I am an international applicant for neuro PhD in about 10 programs… Have average to good stats but just can’t figure out why isn’t any program replying… Everyone is just keeping a mum over whats happening regarding int’l applicants.
I heard that most programs start looking at int’l apps after they are done with the US apps and interviews as most int’l can’t make it to interviews usually. Is it correct ??</p>
<p>Really freaking out. Just checking my mail daily n its frustrating. Applied in November in most progs.</p>
<p>I agree with buffkitten about the attire, but I didn’t feel uncomfortable in a suit at my first interview (at the University of Michigan). There were quite a few people in suits, and it was cold out and we walked everywhere so the extra layer was really nice. I just had an interview at the University of Iowa and did not wear a suit, and didn’t feel uncomfortable, but wouldn’t have felt uncomfortable either way. </p>
<p>I think it’s all about being comfortable. i bought a really nice women’s suit that is pretty trendy, and it is super comfortable and conservative. I don’t worry at all about what I look like and that’s the most important thing. Sometimes a sweater or just a blouse isn’t as flattering as the way a suit looks, if you buy one that fits right, so I would advise to wear something that you know you look good in so you don’t have to worry and can just focus on the interviews. </p>
<p>At both of my interviews people (myself included) stayed dressy for casual things, but some people wore jeans and I don’t think it was awkward for anyone, no matter what you choose. I am a dressy person normally so I don’t feel uncomfortable wearing slacks and a sweater. I’d much rather be dressed up than dressed down, but that’s a personal preference.</p>
<p>Hey,</p>
<p>I have my Columbia interview this Friday, and was trying to get a feeling for how it goes down. What sorts of questions should I expect from the P.Is? Is it more of a recruitment weekend or strictly ‘do well or else we don’t take you’ weekend?</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>Hi Neurodreamer,</p>
<p>I am an international applicant to neuro programs as well. Applied to 9 schools, got interviews at 2 schools and formal rejection at 2 school. I think there will likely be at least 3 more rejections that will be coming in the near future.
It depends on the school whether or not they look at international and US applicants at the same time. UMichigan for example does look at international applicants only after they’ve interviewed and likely accepted all domestic students.
Which schools did you apply to? Hang in there, it might just be that the schools that you’ve applied to do look at international applicants at a later time. No news at this point is likely not bad news, unless they’ve already held all their interview weekends.</p>
<p>Anyone visiting Harvard BBS 2/12-2/15? The interview weekend schedule looks awesome!</p>
<p>Got back from my Penn interview weekend yesterday. It went extremely well, and it’s def tops on my list now. Plus I got rejected from Rockefeller today anyways, so the list is dwindling lol.</p>
<p>rgtexas</p>
<p>I just heard a week ago about my OHSU NGP interview. I thought all hope was lost there too.</p>
<p>Hi folks, I’ve been posting regularly at Grad Cafe but thought I’d post here as well since this forum seems more bio-oriented. Here’s my profile:</p>
<p>International student
4-year BSc in Genetics (with a year in industry) from University of York, UK (graduating in 2009)
GPA so far - 59%, or 3.3 GPA equivalent.
Predicted degree classification: 2:1
General GRE scores: V: 670 (95th), Q: 740 (81st), AWA: 4.5 (58th)
No TOEFL.
No publications.
Research experience: 1 year in industry (pharma), and about half a year for my final year research project (in progress)</p>
<p>Applied to:
UT Austin (Cell & molecular bio)
Mayo Graduate School (Biomedical sciences)
UMichigan (MCDB)
MIT (Biology)
UCSD (Biology) (Pre-app)
UVA (Biology)
Brandeis (Molecular/cell biology)
UVM (Cell and molecular biology)
Oxford (CRUK studentship)</p>
<p>Accepted/Invited to Interview:
None</p>
<p>Rejected:
UCSD (at pre-app stage, didn’t make it to applications! how sad)
MIT (presumably)
Rockefeller (by post)</p>
<p>Right now I’m really hoping to get into UT. Second choice would be either Brandeis or UVM. To be honest I don’t really want to go to any of the other places and kind of regret applying to them. Oxford would also be amazing but I would rather do my PhD in the US. I might also be applying to a quantitative imaging program at the University of Bristol, the deadline is end of this week.</p>
<p>I’m quite worried that I will end up with no offers and my GPA will have been my Judas. I have no excuses for it, but I really think I deserve a PhD, and I really don’t care about prestige or anything (and regret wasting money on some of my applications that I never had any chance of getting into). I guess if I do end up with nothing I might ask whether my current supervisor would let me continue working on my current project which has generated some very exciting data and apply again next year. Maybe take a subject GRE in the meantime to strengthen my profile a little.</p>