<p>I feel silly doing this, but I am what I am... What are my chances for the Ph.D. programs at elite BioE grad schools (MIT, UCSD, Johns Hopkins, Harvard, etc.)?</p>
<p>Major: ChemE
GPA: 4.0 (at a top 5 university)
GRE: Q800, V700, AWA6.0
Two research experiences in biology and engineering (not bioengineering per se), forthcoming authorship on a publication
Strong LOR's (or so I hope!)</p>
<p>Also, I have a couple of questions. I know MIT has an interview weekend in March. Do other top BioE graduate schools generally have interviews? I don't see any indication that they do based on the websites of the other schools I am applying to. </p>
<p>Lastly, do grad schools see senior year fall semester/quarter grades? I already sent out my transcripts, but do they usually ask for a new updated transcript later on in the admissions process? Again, I have seen no indication from their websites that they do.</p>
<p>I think you have a good chance to get into all the elite BioE grad schools. The 4.0 from a top 5 university will go a long way. Plus the forthcoming publication will look good. </p>
<p>The grad BioE grad schools I applied to did not conduct any interviews. I applied to most of the elite schools with the exception of MIT. </p>
<p>Grads schools never asked for an updated transcript. However, they request your transcript the first year of grad school. I think its mainly to confirm that you graduated.</p>
<p>Are you only looking at BioE programs? or also BME?</p>
<p>Thanks to everyone who replied. It makes me feel better that updated transcripts are not requested later on, so I can breathe a little easier on classes right now. Also, not having to do interviews will save time and money. </p>
<p>I am just applying to BioE Ph.D. programs, although at UCLA the BioE program only admits applicants through the BME dept.</p>
<p>Pippyvan, based on your location, are you at Cornell now? What were your impressions of the top schools? Any advice about the application process? Thanks.</p>
<p>Not having to do interviews will save time, certainly (I went to 6 interview weekends last year, which was a huge time sink during my final semester of undergrad) -- but you don't really need to worry about the money. </p>
<p>Generally the school will pay for your airfare/travel, lodging, and food expenses during the interview weekend.</p>
<p>crepusculo,
I thought the applications process was really time consuming. I had a lot of problems with my gre scores and transcripts getting to the schools. As long as you don't wait till the last minute you'll be fine. </p>
<p>How come you are limiting your applications to only BioE programs? </p>
<p>Yes, I'm at Cornell right now. I didn't base my decision on solely on rankings. First, many BME/BioE programs are new and are still expanding, so their rankings aren't really high yet. Places like Cornell and Stanford are new, but are still good engineering schools even though they are relatively young. Second, different schools have different research interests. Some schools didn't have the research topic I was interested in. Lastly, the overall feel of the school, whether the current grad students like it there, etc, was a big factor on my decision.</p>
<p>All the schools I visited gave a good impression about their programs. They try to match you up with professors that you may be interested in. In many cases, you tell them which professors you want to talk to. You'll get to talk to many grad students and see what their impressions of the program are. Every program is different. For example, some programs required you to take many more classes and tests than other programs, which I didn't really care for. </p>
<p>They try to when they fly you in for the weekend. It's actually pretty fun to get wined and dined on their expense, lol. They fly you in usually around April..or March?? (i forget), so hopefully if you're not busy, you'll get to go to many of them.
GL on applying!</p>
<p>
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Generally the school will pay for your airfare/travel, lodging, and food expenses during the interview weekend.
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<p>You know, what's funny is that I found that if you are a candidate from far away, they will pay for everything. But if you're from a local school, they won't pay for anything, not even for the bus ticket for you to get over there. What's up with that? It's like you're being punished for being local. So you end up meeting all these other candidates who had flown in from around the world and were just about to take a taxi to downtown to a Zagat-reviewed restaurant to have a nice dinner with drinks, which they would expense back to the school, and you're stuck going home on the bus (for which you had to buy a ticket with your own money) and eating your own 'gourmet' Raman, because you don't get to expense anything because you're local.</p>
<p>That might be for some programs but not all. A major reason that the program takes you to the "zagat reviewed restaurant" for a nice dinner is to spoil you and have you accept their offer. So it wouldn't make sense if you had to pay for the expenses. I'd be pretty damn bitter. I got into my undergrad school's graduate program in BME and all my expenses (dinner & drinks) were paid for. I obviously didn't have any travel expenses since I lived a mile from the campus.</p>
<p>Well, I think it depends on the program -- I interviewed at two local schools, and they both paid for my meals, although not lodging. (I really think I should have been able to prorate the charge for my dorm room, frankly. ;))</p>
<p>I also could have submitted a reimbursement form for my bus fare, but I wasn't particularly enthused to get a check for $5.</p>
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A major reason that the program takes you to the "zagat reviewed restaurant" for a nice dinner is to spoil you and have you accept their offer.
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</p>
<p>Well, in the scenario of which I was referring, it wasn't the PROGRAM that was taking you to the Zagat-reviewed restaurant. It was the CANDIDATES THEMSELVES, on their own volition, going to that restaurant, for the purposes of networking (a.k.a. drinking and carousing) and also, quite frankly, because the program had given them an expense account with a max limit for their total costs (travel, lodging,food), so obviously anything that they didn't spend on their trip, they would lose. So if that's the case, might as well take what's left in the account and burn it up with a night on the town. Heck, if somebody told me that I had $X that I could use to eat, but if I didn't use it, I would lose it, I'd be heading to some fancy restaurant too. Why not? </p>
<p>But of course there were local people who, because they were local, didn't get an expense account and therefore didn't have any 'extra' to burn on a night of drinking and fine food, and so were stuck riding the bus back home to their meal of Raman.</p>
<p>Personally, what I think should happen is that all candidates should just be given a sum of cash, no matter where they are located, and each candidate has to use that cash to travel to the interview. Anything left over is theirs to keep. Right now, people have no incentive to be frugal. If the guy wants to take a cheap Greyhound to town and sleep on the floor of his buddy's dormroom so he can keep more of that cash for himself, let him do that. If a local guy doesn't have to use any expense money at all and just wants to pocket the whole thing, he should be free to do that.</p>
<p>I was given a maximum $500 towards the plane ticket (if it went over, it would come out of my pocket) and meals were pretty much paid for (except for one breakfast I opted to pay for myself). I</p>
<p>'m starting to feel jipped though...it seems like many programs outside of my field will put you in a hotel. Not so with most geology programs, they make you stay with a current graduate student. Normally it's ok because you get to know what it is to be a graduate student at that school.</p>
<p>However...</p>
<p>When I visited here I was placed with someone who was very bland and wouldn't socialize with the other graduate students after hours. I had to get rides from all sorts of students to go out with the other students to see what the town was like.</p>