<p>Geez..a small town would be perfect for me..I come from a big, noisy, dusty city in India and would really welcome the change..I was wondering, however, about other things - cost of living, rents and behavior of locals towards slightly eccentric Indians :)</p>
<p>to all the people that went to weill cornell last weekend:
1) what was your impression of everything?
2) can you update when you receive a decision? I'm trying to decide on whether or not I want to proactively change my opinion of them, and doing so will be contingent on how fast/slow I get a decision.</p>
<p>i got a call from umass med too. i had been there for the interview weekend and i really liked the work environment and quality of research. i will most likely end up going there.</p>
<p>@souravrc. there are quite a lot of "slightly eccentric" indians at umass med so dont worry.</p>
<p>To sydneya,</p>
<p>I got an e-mail yesterday from one professor that I interviewed with at Cornell Weill and he told me that my application has been approved by the dean and I have been accepted into the BCMB program.
But this was a personal e-mail so if you haven't heard, it means nothing. But since they already made the decisions I assume that I will get an official e-mail or letter early next week.</p>
<p>My take on Cornell Weill:
I LOVED the place and I am pretty sure that I will go there. It satisfies all my requirements very well (good cancer bio program, big city setting, good stipend, good name). I think that Cornell Weill is a great place but you have to like the setting. If you don't like cities, you won't be happy living on Manhattan.
I personally think that the program is underrated in the rankings (#26 in US NEWS) and I think that they are doing a great job attracting better students and faculty. I would not be surprised if it moves to top 10 in rankings in next 10-20 years (especially due to Sloan Kettering expanding so much).</p>
<p>End note: If you got into any of the top places (Harvard, MIT, Stanford,...) and you like those, you should probably go there. But overall I think Cornell Weill is a good place to do graduate studies (at least for me).</p>
<p>In response to sydneya and maco0708,</p>
<p>I feel the same way about maco. I think Weill Cornell is my top choice so far. A couple of reasons include some of the things maco listed; great location, good housing, nice stipend, the school seems loaded with money, GREAT cancer research, and great research environment in general. I also think it is extremely underrated in the US News rankings, but then again those rankings don't really mean too much. Sloan-Kettering is definitely on par in terms of cancer research with many of the top names in the world, and there are tons of people I could see myself working with. They also attract a huge amount of big name scientists for seminars (and at Rockefeller too!). </p>
<p>As of now, I will most likely end up at either Weill Cornell or UT Southwestern. Both are great places in very different settings. If Weill Cornell can come through with the domestic partnership housing for my girlfriend and I, I will most definitely choose Cornell.</p>
<p>Hello everyone. I have interviewed and was accepted to Indiana University School of Medicine for the Fall of 2008, and am aware of the level of research performed in the department of Anatomy & Cell Bio and other departments, as well as concerning cancer research. However, I am interviewing at UK COM March 6-7, and I was wondering if anyone knew how their Ph.D. programs and research compared to that of IUSM in terms of quality and reputation. I was very impressed by IUSM, and loved their facilities and research options. Any comments on this issue would be appreciated.</p>
<p>Oh, and by UK COM, I mean the University of Kentucky College of Medicine.</p>
<p>ace and maco- thanks for the input! I had a great time at Cornell EXCEPT with my interviews. Shocking, I know, but I'm pretty positive that those people are not representative of the rest of the faculty. If for some reason, those profs liked me more than they let on and I get accepted, I'd have to talk to more faculty to make up for my bad experience. Obviously, if they dislike me as much as it seemed, then it is a moot point. My main concern, however, is that I have an acceptance at JHU and I would love to go there but I also love NYC. Do I go for a top school in an okay city, or try to talk myself into forgiving my interviews and go to NYC? =( I think making a decision is going to be worse than waiting for interviews.</p>
<p>sydneya,</p>
<p>JHU is a great place as well. There is a thread here somewhere talking about the concerns of safety on campus and in the Baltimore area.</p>
<p>I wouldn't let a couple of bad interviews affect your decision on where you want to go for school. Unless you interviewed with all the people you are really interested in working with and they were all total asses, then sure, base your decision on that as well. However, don't let a couple of rude faculty members determine where you end up. May I ask what those interviewers said or what happened that made you feel this way?</p>
<p>By the way, one of my interviewers e-mailed me about an hour ago congratulating me on my acceptance. Like what maco said, it was a personal, unofficial e-mail... so don't get anxious if you haven't heard yet!</p>
<p>Sydneya,</p>
<p>What was wrong with your interviews? Were they rude? Can you elaborate a little?</p>
<p>The 5 people I interviewed with were very all very nice and respectful. They asked tough questions and asked me to explain why I want to go there but I thought that they were fair.</p>
<p>Maco, what kind of tough questions did they ask or did the play devil's advocate on some of your answers?</p>
<p>I was really disappointed in the direction the interviewers decided to take. If it was only one person then I could blow it off, but my first 3 interviews all focused on the wrong thing (in my opinion). I'm used to talking about research and research interests, of the faculty and of my own. I feel like this is how they should decide if I'm a good fit for the school.. being able to talk science and show that I understand what I'm doing and what they're doing. During the conversation, they can get a feel for my personality and if I was the type of person they would want in lab. </p>
<p>Instead I got "why do you want to go here" and "why should we accept you", and then interject a lot of info about the grad program that I already heard. They are fair questions, but honestly, why should they accept me? I felt like I had to prove myself when obviously someone liked what they saw on my application. I have also been told that I had stellar LORs. My PI said that I had to expect those sort of questions but it was such a 180 from all my other interviews. Every place, including WC, said that recruitment weekend is all about how well you fit in, because obviously you have those baseline qualifications needed to even get an interview. The whole thing made me feel somewhat offended and that they thought I was silly to even be thinking about going to their school. I would not go so far as to call them rude (although one interviewer definitely rubbed me the wrong way), and overall were actually nice, but maybe more curious as to why I would want to go there? As opposed to assuming why WOULDN'T I want to go there? I'm still chewing all this out in my head as to how bad those interviews really went. It's possible that they thought I was being fanciful (ooh! NYC!) in applying there and that once I saw it, I would be overwhelmed (Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore..) and wouldn't adjust to big city life. And then quit school and run crying home or something. But then couldn't they just ask straight up, how easy would it be for you to live in NYC? </p>
<p>Sorry, I have many things to think about, and different scenarios to consider. I definitely don't think any interviewer liked me enough to send me a personal congratulatory email though. I'm not anxious about the decision because no matter what, the worst I can do is JHU and that is a pretty good place for me to be. I just don't want to sell WC (and myself) short and walk away with such a bitter taste in my mouth. I am especially jealous of all the people I heard of that had crazy fun awesome interviewers.</p>
<p>Sydneya,</p>
<p>I had a total of four interviews there. For one of them, we talked about my research and then he explained his (Chris Lima of SKI, who sent me the email). Another one, I explained my research and he asked questions, although we did not get to talk too much about his work (Enrique Boulan of WMC). The third one, we did not talk about research at all. Rather, he spent the entire time telling me how tough grad school is, how tough the competition will be for positions later on, and how the main focus of grad school is training rather than discovery. This was a nice change of pace from the other interviews and I actually found this talk to be quite helpful and thought-provoking (Min Lu of WMC). Finally, the last person (William Pao of SKI), we talked mostly about my research and why I want to go to graduate school, and talked a little bit about his work until time ran out. </p>
<p>I think most interviewers have very distinct ways of interviewing prospective students. Some like to hear about your work, others like to just talk about theirs, some like to just talk about life in general (in one of my other interviews at Baylor College of Medicine, we talked about sports for a good 20 minutes), and others are just curious why you are interested in graduate school (maybe because it doesn't offer the most glamorous of jobs later) to see if you have what it takes to survive the entire ordeal. </p>
<p>Seriously, don't base your decision on what happened during interviews. Talk to the faculty members you are interested in and see if they are a good match for you. Make your decision based on this and also all the other factors that presented itself during the recruitment week. You may never even see or speak with the people you interviewed with ever again.</p>
<p>Hahaha, if the worst you can do is JHU...I sure would like to be in your position!</p>
<p>Agreed. Sometimes it's those "unexpected" questions that let the interviewers get a glimpse of your other side -- how you control yourself when under pressure, what you're really like when you're unable to prepare from those questions, etc. I wouldn't worry too much about it, my personal feeling is that they're trying to look into your personality rather than your achievements, which are already all over your application and CV.</p>
<p>I just finished up interviews at the Wake Forest Biochem dept. and they had me talk with 8 different profs. I had selected 4 structural guys to talk with which is what my current masters thesis is more closely related to but it was my last interview with a kinetics biochemist who drilled me on my research. It was actually kind of fun to talk through my research with him but he did ask a couple questions that I really couldn't answer. The director of the program wanted to know what I wanted to do after grad school, post doc, industry etc. He also asked why I wanted to pursue biochemistry coming from a computer engineering background. None of the real generic questions though. All the research was very exciting and I was actually able to talk about compiling 64bit code with the NMR guy, pretty cool. It's really too bad the city just doesn't compare to St Louis or San Diego though. Stipend was actually pretty competitive. Going to be a tough decision. </p>
<p>Heading out this coming weekend to Santa Cruz-biochem and then out to San Diego-pchem on March 20th, anyone else going to be checking those schools out?</p>
<p>To anyone that interviewed with the University of Washington, MCB program. How long did it take them to reply with an answer following the interview weekend?</p>
<p>Just had my first phone interview with faculty at Sinai. I think it went well - was scheduled for 35 minutes but we spoke for 80 minutes. Is anyone else who has gone through these interviews obsessing over not nailing certain questions when you're given a laundry list of subject areas to cover? Do they expect you not to cover everything? Or am I the lone obsessive-compulsive?</p>
<p>Oh god no. I am fairly confident in saying that the vast majority of us are hugely obsessive-compulsive when it comes to these applications and interviews. Hell, I have already chosen what school I want to attend with 99% certainty and have already been accepted there and I am still obsessing over not hearing back from the more recent school interviews yet.</p>
<p>Anyone else? Raise your hand if you are obsessive-compulsive.</p>
<p>Now raise the other one so that everything is even.</p>
<p>Good.</p>
<p>I hear you, NU. The whole application and admissions process can make you someone you aren't usually, or at least you do not normally show it as prominently! I too have been accepted by one of my top schools, which I am almost positive I will choose to attend. Yet, I still am anxious over other schools' admissions decisions and upcoming interviews. I guess we all have to be somewhat obsessive to have made it this far in the process (and to be as determined about our chosen fields as we are).</p>