@JuicyMango it is fine… do you live close enough to do face to face interview ? If not, phone interview is almost guarantee the PIs will do with you. In the meantime, do some research to find out what the PIs do in their lab… just to prepare yourself for the interview.
@mokamaki Yup, I live close enough. Thank you for the tip! So your daughter already had the phone interview? If you don’t mind my asking, did the PI ask about what she wanted to research or the sort? Was it casual or formal?
Advanced! How many PIs should I contact? I’ve sent emails to 4 but I’m interested in 7 of them total.
Can we email any PIs not on the list? I really wanted to work with Mr. Salvaterra (the program director :P) since he’s doing research in the exact area I want to study but he wasn’t listed…
@JuicyMango The phone interview is casual, be prepare to tell what you want to do in the lab and let them know what lab experience do you have.
@lpapadakis3 Email the PIs who are on the list only. My DD mentioned Dr Salvaterra on the application saying she wants to work in his lab also. But I guess he is too busy to mentor the summer academy.
Do the PIs accept on a first come first serve basis? Do they take into consideration any factors?
^^^ same. How many PIs should we contact? Also @mokamaki when did your daughter hear about her acceptance if she’s already had her interview? Did she email PIs before the 2 round was sent out?
Also, if a PI works in two places, is there any chance we could work with them not at the Duarte location? A few of my top choices work in Pasadena, which is literally 10 minutes away from my aunt’s house, so then I wouldn’t have to pay for housing…
How long does it usually take for them to reply? I’m scared all the spots have already filled up, but I only emailed the PI’s yesterday so maybe they haven’t seen my email yet :/.
@JuicyMango me too! But I just found out at 8 last night and 4 of my emails were out by 11 pm and I sent two more this morning. I don’t know how people already have PIs since the results only came out last night unless they went against the rules and contacted them prior to advancing…Is 6 an ok amount to have contacted?
Out of curiosity, what fields do people want to do research in? Here’s mine:
- Neurosurgery (1 PI)
- Neuroscience (2 PIs)
- Cardiothoracic surgery (2 PIs)
- Clinical Cancer genetics (1 PI)
@Ipapadakis3 Browsing through past threads, I think 6 seems to be a common number of PI’s contacted. I only sent 3 because there are only 3 PI’s in the department I’m interested in, but I might send an email to more PI’s later today.
I really hope people didn’t already contact the mentors prior to advancing because that would be very unfair. I think this is literally a first-come first-serve basis, so I really hope both of us get an email back. Keep in mind that most of these mentors are Ph.D’s, so they’re probably too busy to check and reply to their emails right away. At least that’s what I’m hoping :(.
@Ipapadakis3 I only contacted the Neurosurgery and Neuroscience people right now. I was wondering, how do you contact people from different departments? Are you allowed to change what you want to research when you get to city of hope? I specifically said I want to research Alzheimer’s Disease, which seems to only relate to Neuroscience and Neurosurgery, but can I also, say, email the oncology department PI’s and say I’m interested in researching tumors? I would be up for it, but I don’t know if I’m allowed to or not.
@JuicyMango I’m sure you can contact whichever professor/PI doing work that interests you.
@JuicyMango hey same! AD and neurodegeneration are my top choices but only Dr. Salvaterra works in that and he’s not on the list, so I expanded to the three PIs in neuro on the list and second to that is cardiothoracics since I grew up surrounded by respiratory medicine (huge medical history 
) but it’s an area I’m really interested in. One of my PIs might have met a dr of mine since he did his fellowship at the hospital I go too and one of my doctors heads peds cardiothoracics lol. Third, I chose clinical genetics because genetics really underlies nearly every field, and I’m really interested in neuro-genetics within the realm of neurodegenerative diseases. Choose 3 areas you like and email a few more PIs that sound interesting! On the topic of research ideas, however, do we need to follow the project in a PIs lab or do we choose and conduct our own?
What should I include in the email? Should the email be like a business letter or something more informal? Made the first round here too.
Hmm still no replies :/.
@Ipapadakis3 Did you get any replies yet?
@JuicyMango no…starting to get worried :-/ anyone get anything? @mokamaki how soon did your DD hear?
@Ipapadakis3 I hope its because its Spring Break so they’re busy or something. Best of luck to us :/.
It’s probably because it’s the weekend. They’ll probably reply on Monday when the work week starts back up.
Yeah I think you’re right @MissfutureENT , so don’t lose hope @JuicyMango !