<p>Congrats everyone for getting all the interview invites!</p>
<p>Update on my apps: </p>
<p>Applied: UCSD, UCSF, Stanford, Baylor, UT Southwestern, UMD-Baltimore, UVA, Northwestern, Weill Cornell, Mt. Sinai, UMich PIBS, UPenn, Hopkins CMM</p>
<p>Interview Invites: UPenn, Baylor, UT Southwestern, UMich PIBS, UMD-Baltimore
Still waiting to hear back from some more schools…b/f I decide where to accept/decline! </p>
<p>Happy holidays and Happy new year everyone!</p>
<p>GCN2: For instance, if you get accepted into one program but would like to wait to hear on others, are you able to stall with telling them? For one med school my friend applied to, he told me you have to tell them within 3 weeks if you will attend. Is this not the case for PhD programs? Don’t they need to know pretty quickly after you are accepted so if you don’t attend, they can offer the spot to someone else?</p>
<p>I’m putting my stats here (I put them on another thread awhile back). Just have the one interview so far although am trying not to worry this early (VCU School of Med, Pharm/Tox). I hope I get a couple others but I am starting to think I am smoking crack to have even applied to some of these Ivies although I looked back at last year’s thread, and people with lesser GREs seemed to have gotten into some Ivies (and got interviews early on too…) Maybe it was less competitive last year.</p>
<p>Last 4 years at public state school: 3.93 GPA (although took classes over ten years ago for a year and got bad grades so my cum. GPA is 3.68)
GRE: 660 Q, 600 V, 3.5 AW (the AW, I am afraid, is getting my app shelved early on and I have no idea what happened, usually I write pretty well)
9 months doing research at top memory lab in country (on a UROP grant for the summer), 5 months doing research in psychology
No publications, 
2.5 years student teaching chemistry and biology
Organization president, lots of service projects/honor societies/awards, psychiatrist shadowing (one semester), study abroad, tutoring incarcerated youth, etc.</p>
<p>Applied to:
Princeton Neuroscience
Brown Neuroscience
Yale Psych
UCLA Neurobio
USC Psych
VCU Pharmtox
U of Texas Austin Neuroscience
ASU Neuroscience
Harvard Psych
FSU Neuroscience
Univ Maryland Baltimore
UCSF Neuroscience
UNC BBSP
UVA Psych
U of Miami Neuroscience
U of Ill - Chic</p>
<p>I tried to include some schools that weren’t as tough to get into, but now I think I just might be ultra-lucky to get in anywhere. One of my friends told me that she got an interview by following up 2 weeks beforehand (after decisions had been made) and they threw her in the pool at the last minute… I thought that might be a handy tip… :)</p>
<p>Congrats to all of you guys getting interviews!!!</p>
<p>my yale friend was told by yale administration before his first interviews, i believe (i.e. during his actual visit). not in the invitation e-mail/call. i’ll be seeing him tonight so i’ll try to confirm this.</p>
<p>Molecular Biology at Princeton has started giving interview invites, according to someone on Grad Cafe.</p>
<p>yaygrady, what track did you apply to at UPenn?</p>
<p>Yes! Thanks xxxxxx, you’re the best, I appreciate the help, let me know what he says :)</p>
<p>Neurohopes:
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>Apparently UPenn made some invites today (gradcafe) for their Neuroscience Phd program. Hope I hear something from them soon. Applied to: UPenn, JHU, and Emory.</p>
<p>lexexee -> Last year, I went to the Yale neuroscience (BBS program) interview. We were not accepted before interviewing. Not everyone that was interviewed got accepted. This contrasts with my UCLA psychology interview, where it was an accepted students’ weekend or something, and I had an acceptance in hand before visiting.</p>
<p>Thanks neurograd, I thought it was too good to be true. Although, it may still depend on the emphasis within BBS. Whatever. Thanks :)</p>
<p>Actually, now that you mention that, do you have any advice for the interview? (ie: what NOT to do, what to prepare for, etc.)</p>
<p>The main piece of advice for interviews is to remember that you are on an interview. The school usually sells itself pretty hard, and it is easy to forget that you haven’t been accepted yet. So don’t drink too much and make a fool of yourself, even though it seems easy to do so as often the grad students use the interview weekends as an excuse to party on the departments dime. But departments tend to be relatively small, and the professors will hear about it if you do anything stupid. Also be considerate of your hosts, who have taken time out of their busy lives to show you around-- and we have to work the day after your interviews! Other than that, relax and have fun</p>
<p>
Most/virtually all schools are members of the National Council of something-or-other, which means they can’t require a decision before April 15. Some will ask for a decision ASAP, but they can’t force you to make one until that date.</p>
<p>Thanks ec1234. I was actually referring particularly to the Yale interview. Do you go to Yale, or did you interview there?</p>
<p>There are hardly any school-specific pieces of interview advice.</p>
<p>Okay then. I wouldn’t know.</p>
<p>got invite from Baylor today. pretty surprised considering one of my recommenders just submitted his LOR last tuesday.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I agree with ec1234. I’ve e-mailed a few of the coordinators at the schools I’ll be applying to, and the general advice has been:</p>
<p>1) Make sure you know your research (i.e. the focus of your lab, how your work relates to it, and WHY you were doing what you were doing (and this is less important than the actual results).
2) Make sure you know at least the basic background of your interviewers’ research. Having some questions ready to ask them (one professor suggested some, such as, “Where have former students ended up?”, “What’s the average time to completion of the PhD in your lab?”, “What are the average number of publications your students have gotten?”, “How many students do you prefer to keep in a lab?”) wouldn’t hurt, either.
3) Reinforcing what ec1234 said, don’t drink yourself stupid and make an ass of yourself. That rarely ends well!</p>
<p>But, aside from that…remember that the interviews aren’t all ‘serious business’. Although I haven’t been to an official interview, the PREVIEW weekend I went to at UMich PIBS was structured much like one, and it was an absolute blast: it was invigorating talking science with dozens of intelligent, friendly, and downright interesting people. Faculty meetings were a great mix of science and friendly chatter (one of the faculty I “interviewed” with was also a comic book geek, and we had a great time talking about how his current research was the basis of some prominent comics in the 1990’s). They also made sure we were entertained: Whirly Ball was an absolute blast, and they did not skimp on the food or entertainment provided.</p>
<p>The school’s evaluating you, true, but (in general) it’s making sure you’re the same person your stats and application made you out to be. They’re interested in you, and the interview weekends are designed to be FUN: don’t skip out on the optional events, get to know your fellow interviewees, and try to be enthusiastic. You’re being given the chance to meet some great people in a program you’ll likely want to join; run with it!</p>
<p>Hey guys, a quick question…I am an international student, hence the interview will be a video conferencing one…someone had suggested to me that its always better to give interviews in person…is that the case?? If it affects a lot then perhaps it would be a better idea for me to go there?? (For now I have just one interview at GSK.)</p>
<p>Thanks a lot!</p>
<p>also from what the postdocs and grad students in my lab have told me:</p>
<p>though you absolutely never want to make a fool of yourself by getting drunk, don’t be antisocial either. parties are there to see how the students interact with you and whether or not you get along. often, if you’re particularly weird or have some sort of social stigma, that information will get passed on to your interviewer. they are checking to see that you’re a real person, not just some perfect numbers on a piece of paper.
this might sound trivial to you guys, but there have been many people who have not been accepted because of their personality during their interviews.</p>