<p>linkage85, we pretty much are on the same boat. Hope we hear from the remaining three soon. :)</p>
<p>RDWRER:
i think that you’d find that many here take their careers far more seriously than their love-lives.</p>
<p>I also want to put in a plug for not considering this particular season of apps to be life-determining. When I finished undergrad, I knew I wouldn’t get right into grad school (I was a psych major and didn’t have all the classes nor the research chops). So I took two years off and did some traveling, some classes, and worked at odd jobs, and also spent several months volunteering at a neuro lab. Grad programs have been generally enthusiastic about it - consider that from their perspective, the biggest risk is that they admit (and shell out a stipend and tuition fees for) someone who eventually leaves the program because they don’t like the research culture, etc. Putting in some time, even a month or two, doing full-time research might really help show them (and you!) if you’ll really stick with research.</p>
<p>In short, don’t be afraid to take some time off, relax, and come back with some RA experience. Waiting a year to get into grad school will absolutely not derail your career.</p>
<p>Best of luck!</p>
<p>@oncogene
how did you learn about only 8 internationals being invited? yale is my first choice and I’m an international from europe and would like to know for sure, if i should give up on yale…:S</p>
<p>ah! i just checked thegradcafe and it seems like from years past MIT biology doesn’t send invites in waves but rather in one batch. Seeing that I didn’t receive anything I guess this means a rejection. <em>poop</em></p>
<p>molbio: I doubt they did all the calls in one day – it takes a while to call that many people.</p>
<p>That said, please don’t feel bad about yourself if you don’t get an invite. Like Momwaitingfornew said, this year was INSANE for admissions (worse than it’s been in a long long time). First, there’s the fact that way more people are opting to go to grad school do to the economy. But also, and perhaps more influential (for CA schools) is the fact that the budget has been thrashed. Schools cannot afford to send out as many invitations (believe it or not, you are EXPENSIVE to interview). I know at UCSF they are only interviewing 60 or so people instead of the usual 80 because of these cuts. Add from that an applicant pool of 480 instead of the usual 300… you can see how competitive it really is this year.</p>
<p>That said, don’t give up hope yet! I’d at least wait through next week to see for sure. I’m sure that different people on the adcom were assigned certain people to call. And lets face it, some people are lazy and like to procrastinate :-D</p>
<p>Edit: I was also told straight up that they couldn’t invite lots of students who, in any other year, would have been a shoe-in.</p>
<p>Congratulations, brains! </p>
<p>I speak from experience when I say that first year of grad school is the best one to plan a wedding in. 
My wedding happened about a month and a half after I joined my thesis lab, and for those six weeks when I was trying to start thesis research and finish wedding planning, I kind of thought my head was going to explode.</p>
<p>Hey all you neuro people out there. Just heard from Emory Neuroscience. Got an interview. First weekend is Feb 11th but my message cut off after that so I’ll have to call them back.</p>
<p>Good luck all!</p>
<p>looks like i missed the boat for UCSF BMS and UCSD Biomed sciences as well and there is no way I am getting an interview invite for Stanford Biosciences…seeing there is so much more competition this year–oh well…so long California! </p>
<p>But on the bright side–at least we all have interviews to at least one or two good schools…hopefully we will all get acceptances!! </p>
<p>Cheer up everyone and look at it this way–even if we don’t get in or get invited to our top choice schools–we can always visit them at conferences, network and apply for post-docs later on… </p>
<p>Good luck and enjoy everyone on your upcoming interviews…! I know I am getting excited and anxious about my first Penn interview next week!</p>
<p>And congratulations brains, on your engagement…double celebrations for you…enjoy!</p>
<p>i think i was just making an assumption about the rest of the schools i applied to given no invite from princeton qcb + harvard systems bio. i’m gonna have to find a way to keep myself occupied over the next week…</p>
<p>Congrats brains!</p>
<p>Called to interview at Emory’s Neuro program. Primary weekend is Feb 11th. The other weekend is Feb 25.</p>
<p>pretty impressed by emory calling people on a weekend…</p>
<p>gremot:
I don’t think Yale is done. It could be their first round for internationals. Hope the invitation comes your way soon. Good luck.</p>
<p>@microphd:
I applied to the cancer bio program at einstein. I do think they send out their interview invites in waves though. But my interview invite also showed up on the application page, so maybe yours is there too? good luck!</p>
<p>Hey folks, I have a few questions about Rockefeller’s Biology PhD program. Looking at the page for it on grad cafe: [rockefeller</a> • thegradcafe.com](<a href=“Grad School Admissions Results for 2006–2024 • thegradcafe.com”>Grad School Admissions Results for 2006–2024 • thegradcafe.com)
it looks like they don’t do interviews for this program; it’s just acceptances and rejections. Is this the case? If you get in do they invite you to come tour the school?</p>
<p>Also a grad student in the lab I currently work in says that Rockefeller has a reputation as a very cut-throat place for students. This is not really my style as I’m a very social, co-operative, non-competitive type person so I am a bit concerned about this characterization. Is there anyone on the board who is at Rockefeller now and can say a bit more about the school and its student experience?</p>
<p>My research advisor, who received his PhD from Rockefeller, very much shares that opinion. Perhaps not so much the cutthroat part (who would ever denounce his or her own graduate institution?) but certainly that Rockefeller may not be so desirable for someone who prefers a research environment wherein inter-laboratory collaboration thrives.</p>
<p>That’s part of the reason I didn’t apply to Rockefeller.</p>
<p>That is the word, just a straight accept/reject notice. They do invite you to visit/interview after that, the application asked if you couldn’t make either the first or second week of March. So… we should hear any time now.</p>
<p>Also, I’m not a huge fan of the initial notice by fedex. Waiting on a phone call instead of email is bad enough, but with fedex you even have to be home to sign for it (I think). I feel like a hostage afraid to leave the house because I’ll miss it and have to wait longer. Ugh. Seriously, grad programs, use email. After that, send it on a golden plaque or post-it note by carrier pigeon for all I care, just use email first. Actually, I do appreciate the effort to send something nice by mail, and it’d be nice to have something to hold on to, but jeez.</p>
<p>Yeah, Rockefeller seems like a good place to post-doc.</p>
<p>thanks phDhopeful! I was just wondering as my app page says under review for the past 3 weeks so wasn’t really sure how much longer I would have to wait for that. congrats on the interview!!</p>