c11m07

So happy for you! Congrats!

I was also waitlisted by BC-- received an email this morning explaining that I was on the wait list for the PhD, what the funding would be if I got off it, an invite for visit day, and that I would definitely be admitted to the (unfunded) master's program if I didn't get off the PhD waitlist.

Maybe this didn't come through in my original post since I'd very freshly been rejected from 4 schools and was accepted to Wisconsin weeks ago, but I am indeed thrilled to be admitted to Wisconsin. Feels a little like I'm being chastised for being ungrateful, but perhaps I'm misreading your tone-- easy to do with just text. I'm sure I'd be happy there-- I've done my research into the program and city. I was just seeking people's perceptions of Wisconsin vs. Penn. Anyway, thanks for your input. I agree-- it seems like a great program.

I've received 4 rejections in the past 24ish hours (Michigan, Northwestern, Stanford, and Princeton-- ouch), but I'm starting to have a clearer sense of things now with the field narrowed. I have 3 offers plus one wait list-- I'm ultimately considering Wisconsin-Madison, where I know I'm accepted/funded but not sure of the funding package yet, and weighing whether I'd attend Penn if I were to get off the wait list there (if they are able to make me an offer, they've outlined the funding package, which is very competitive). Broadly speaking, my interests are gender, sexuality, family, and adolescence. I'm interested in qualitative and mixed methods. I am well aware that I might not get off the wait list and then my choice would be made for me (I was on two wait lists last year and didn't get off either), but I don't want to wait until the last minute to think through the possibilities. So with that significant and humbling caveat-- any thoughts on comparing these two programs? Just interested in hearing others' thoughts on this.

It's worth noting that this (usually) isn't how waitlists work. There are a certain number of offers-- say 20 offers aiming for a cohort of 10. So people wouldn't be getting off the waitlist unless there are more than 10 people who don't accept the offer (in this hypothetical scenario). That being said, I am not familiar with the program at UConn. However, because there are a number of moving pieces (rather than one person declines, one person gets off the waitlist), it's not unusual not to hear about getting off of a waitlist until late March/mid April.

Sent you a message but posting here in case anyone else is in the same boat as us: I emailed them on the 13th in the afternoon. No response yet.

If you're interested in different perspectives about this, take a look at the discussion here. It can be interesting how people fall on different sides of this issue: https://www.quora.com/How-does-contacting-a-professor-before-applying-factor-into-graduate-admissions I agree with your inclination that it wouldn't give your application significant negative weight in general (unless the email sent was remarkably offensive in some way I guess!), but for me a large part of it was my own pros/cons-- I knew that a generic email was oftentimes seen as annoying, I was scrambling to get my apps in and wanted to dedicate myself to polishing them, and I purposefully picked programs that were a good fit for my interests such that there were 3-5 professors per school that I could see myself working with (so it was less important that one or two professors in particular be available to work with). If you're applying to a small department or you have uncommon research interests or you have your heart set on working with a specific individual, then I think in those cases you have more of a reason to email. Again, I don't think it damages an applicant's chances, but for me I ultimately decided to try to really focus on individualizing my SOP for each school instead.

I chose to stay away from the four schools I applied to last cycle. There were better fits out there for me once I decided that I was willing to leave New England. Also, I got my undergrad across town (Amherst College), and I decided that I needed a fresh start, which factored into my decision not to reapply. It is early for them still, so I'd try to wait it out, but if time goes by and you're looking to reach out, Millie Thayer was always quick to respond and patient with my requests for information.

I didn't contact anyone (and I haven't heard anything yet). I've read a lot of different perspectives about the pros and cons of reaching out ahead of time, and ultimately I decided not to do so (though I've regretted it off and on since sending in my apps).

I'm not sure if anyone got off of the waitlist. They were very transparent and communicative about the process and their strategy, and essentially they kept saying that they didn't know how many people they were going to be able to accept if any... and then I received an email on April 15th from the DGS saying "I’m writing to you as someone on the UMass wait list to let you know that, unfortunately, we have filled our 2016 cohort and are not able to accept any more students for the coming year. I’m sorry to bring what may be disappointing news, but wish you the best of luck in your future endeavors." It was a generic email that seemed like it might have been sent to all who were waitlisted, but perhaps I'm wrong about that.

Thanks for this insight. I'm currently wrestling with a similar situation, and my knee jerk reaction is to say that it's inappropriate to ask for more, but I think that says more about my own socialization... really it's not inappropriate to advocate for yourself if you make sure the way that you ask is carefully considered/intentional.

I have been remarkably zen the last week or two, but not knowing about Stanford is getting to me. I see two acceptances by phone Jan 30th/31st (when they don't usually notify by phone), 11 rejections Feb 2nd/3rd, two waitlists Feb 6th/7th... and I've heard nothing. They usually send their notifications out all at once in previous years anyway. I was thinking maybe I'm on an unofficial waitlist, but there's an official waitlist, so that seems unlikely. And then I start to get my hopes up because there were only two admits and they were by phone rather than their usual email... but I can't imagine they'd be sitting on a batch of acceptances since rejections went out 10 days ago. (And I've obsessively checked all of my spam, promotion, etc. folders, so I know it didn't slip by me.) I know it's pure conjecture, but any thoughts on this?

Last year I was waitlisted at UMass Amherst and this was pretty much how they handled it-- they generally waited until they knew who had accepted their offer and then tried to round out the cohort. They explicitly told me that they looked not only at areas of research interest (not necessarily as specific as pairing you with an advisor, but just general areas of interest) but also at demographics. They were intentional about trying to enroll a cohort that was balanced based on gender, race, etc.

I want to echo this experience as well. I don't have any formal research experience beyond coursework as an undergrad (no thesis, publications, etc.). Research experience is of course valuable, but if you're looking to strengthen your application for the next cycle, I think that your SOP is the place to focus your energy. I have no idea what your stats are, but if your GPA is decent and your GREs are above a certain threshold, so much of it comes down to fit, which of course is communicated in your SOP. After an unsuccessful season last year, I cast a wider net and applied to 12 schools, focusing on top notch schools that were the best fit for me (10 of the 12 schools I applied to are top 20 precisely because of what's been reiterated here about the importance of rank). The only real difference in my application is that I picked schools that were a better fit and I tried to be very clear and thoughtful about why each school in particular would be a good fit for me. I'd warn against trying to make your SOP "pop" too much, as that can come off as gimmicky. A thoughtful, detailed explanation of why you're excited about each program in particular as well as what you could bring to the department makes a big difference. For my two cents, I would say it probably makes sense to rule out the school that's ranked in the 80s. But visit the school in the 20s, see if you'd be excited to go there after talking with faculty and current grad students, and investigate their placement record (which it sounds like you have been doing). My point is that I wouldn't write it off just yet, but at the same time you can apply next year with very different results if ultimately you aren't excited about the higher ranked program you've been accepted to. I think it's (unfortunately) hard to overstate the importance of rank, but I think it's a mistake to commit the next 5-8 years of your life to a program that you're lukewarm about.

I think @csot was compiling a list of schools where no one (that we're aware of) has received an acceptance yet. I'm sure there are schools that may have sent out some acceptances but have yet to send out all of their offers, but this is a list of places where no one has been accepted yet. As far as Yale goes, it seems like they've sent out their acceptances and the rejections will follow in a bit (they tend to send rejections several weeks after all of their acceptances... last year acceptances came in February and I wasn't officially rejected from Yale until March).