Interviewed by two representative professors from Materials Chemistry track before admission.

Informal invite. Interview date will be fixed later..

I received an interview email for Fall 2023. Excited!!!

Email to check portal, rejection letter posted: "The graduate admissions committee reviews a large number of applications, and there is intense competition for the limited number of positions available." 2.9 undergrad GPA, 4.0 master's GPA, 3+ years research experience, 2 pubs (1 first author) and 2 pubs (another first author) in preparation, several presentations, 1 year teaching experience, and a few research awards.

Applied to ISB with a specified interest in bioinformatics.

Multiple first-author research papers and conference papers. 1-year lab experience. A lot of extracurricular.

(1 2nd author paper and 1 1st author paper in review. 4 years of undergraduate research experience in three different labs) Potential Pi sent me an email stating they have many applications to their lab this year and only have funding for one position. It is possible that other Pi might reach out to me if they are interested in my application, but I will say the chance is very small. So I considered myself rejected.

No GRE, no publications. OMG, the program was not lying about not needing publications and treating international students the same as domestic students!!!