4givn1

I don't know, I don't think anyone could pack up and get ready for starting a new school year in two weeks. Maybe if you were in the same state or already lived nearby, could fit everything in your car on one trip, or you didn't need to move or ship stuff. To wait that long without something probable means you also couldn't apply for jobs until around then or have to make decisions on them before you hear from the school. Sounds like they're stringing you along just to ensure their piggy banks are filled. I didn't think I'd get admitted anywhere this year because of the economy and competition (and it was my second year applying). Somehow I don't think the competition will get any better--probably worse. 35 spots? Wow! Both programs I got in took 5. One I was waitlisted for took only 3. One I applied to but didn't get in took only 2.

I've been looking at Amtrak prices and times because of gas prices, the economy, state of the airlines, etc. It looks like if it's an indirect trip with a transfer in Chicago you'll also be waiting at stations all day. Not timely at all.

I took subject test for my field since we had to take the subject GRE or the MFT for undergraduate comps. I chose to go for the paper version (I prefer and often preform better doing that than testing on computers). The paper version was offered twice during the Fall (one in Oct. and one in Nov., and I think once or twice during Spring, and once or twice during the Summer. I registered for it after my senior year started and I found out about the requirement, and took the exam during October (the earliest of all the dates so I could retake if necessary). I had no problem although I can't remember if it was at my first choice in location or not.

It was because of a nightmarish experience in off-campus housing previously due to noise as well, that I no longer consider off-campus housing. I don't have a car and can't ride bikes so I also need it on the bus route or within walking distance. On-campus housing I found is generally better because they have pretty strict rules (including noise ones) that are enforced by the university (who has more control, and not by cops or management who just don't care). I will happily go with a much smaller, bare-bones apartment, deal with the stricter rules, etc. just for the quiet. I don't have any pets (don't have time for them) but if I did I'd let it stay elsewhere and go without just to avoid off-campus housing. And I know all the on-campus places are accessible w/o cars or bikes. In my previous housing nightmare, I had to pay almost $2000 extra to bribe them to get out of my lease, even though it was destroying my mental and physical health, and pay rent for two additional months at two places, after being forced to play secrecy games and move all my stuff by hand down the street (in the summer heat down South) while being nosed around and harassed by the management at the place while doing so--just to get any sleep, recover some of my health and sanity back, and work on my schoolwork--because of the constant and serious vibration, noise, and thumping from all the apartments around me at one time or another. Not to mention all the doctors' and counseling bills I had to pay. The extra $100 or $200 for on campus housing for me is nothing compared to that, and so worth it. This was also during and after having dealt with live squirrels in my apartment (not just in the walls)--hissing and growling at me, and getting killed in my laundry--while the management was slow to do anything.

It really depends on how competitive your discipline is and how competitive you are. I didn't do the whole safety-regular-reach thing because there were very few schools with faculty with interest/experience in my specialization of interest. So I applied to every school I could find (eight) where the faculty member(s) could possibly take me on regardless of tier or level. They weren't the highest ranked (probably third or second tier). I don't know where my qualifications would have otherwise put me, but I did what I could. I also had pretty much no time to do well on my apps. I got on one waitlist and never got off, got directly admitted to one (which could only offer every new student half of a typical assistantship), and one off a waitlist which offered me more, and also a better fit.

There is one school I had that just didn't get back to me at all. For weeks and weeks phone calls and e-mails were ignored. I had multiple family members tell me that I should ask for my money back. I didn't bother--most likely they would have ignored that as well. I do think there should be some mechanism in place to hold the admissions committee accountable and/or protect the applicant especially if it is serious and nothing is done about the situation. Maybe someone should develop a RateMyAdcom site.

I got accepted about a month ago (UNR social) but declined it for my other option due to funding (I was told they couldn't give any new student more than half the usual 20-hour assistantship, at least by the 15th when I had to commit some way on the other), but also due to ranking and other "fit" factors. But there is (or was) at least one open spot, if they decide to take someone else and not just save or re-distribute the money. From what I know about the others in the cohort I met and/or heard about, they ranged from more probably to definitely going.

I agree about the short-term lease. Try to get one for a month or so, so that if it's unbearable you can move out with relative ease. Also ask for a copy of the lease in advance so you can evaluate it, and not just the place. You will want to make sure you can get out if for instance the place becomes detrimental to your health in the future. I had to move all my stuff across the country last year. It cost a bunch and of course took a lot of time to be settled, but I didn't get stressed out about anything except my guitar. The one I have with me (and really like) I would have to go to Japan to replace. I have to move back (more) east to my school at some point this summer. I'm still working things out and calculating costs. Concerns are my guitar still, and my television which I had to expensively replace after my previous got busted in shipping. This time I won't have to deal with furniture, though, since my school has grad housing I can get into somewhere.

I still have a Ph.D. program that is AWOL in terms of a decision. I've already accepted elsewhere

I got waitlisted at two schools, one of which ranked participants and placed me high up, and straightaway accepted at a third. I eventually got admitted off of the waitlist I was high up on and decided to go there because of higher rankings, funding (the straight admit ended up only being able to half fund everyone in the new cohort), location, housing availability, and fit factors. I withdrew from the other waitlist, although as late as I could wait with enough time to decide if necessary, because I had to decide at the other before April 15th (no extension granted). They did say it was very unlikely I would get a spot beforehand.

I couldn't visit the school I am going to. They had an open house earlier but I couldn't go at that point due to a bad injury and work. I tried as soon as possible I got in--the middle of the week before the 15th, but they absolutely wouldn't give me an extension. Nobody could take me to the airport (kind of far, no bus service there, and I don't have a car). No student could be found to put me up while I was there, and air fares were extremely expensive at that point to fly out. The end result was that it would have cost me over half my monthly salary to visit (and I'm out of school and working full time) and furthermore nobody could or would help me any in terms of the cost. I've asked extensive questions before I got admitted, seemed to get along with faculty and students that I did speak with, and other factors did make the decision somewhat easier (higher ranking, availabiltiy of housing, more certainty of full funding, a less favorable than expected impression at my other choice, etc.) but I have been very badly burned by making quick, uninformed decisions in this manner before and the decision was extremely stressful.

Have you tried looking on Craigslist? The other school I got into didn't have any grad housing at all, but some of the students there found decent rooms for rent in houses, or apartments they liked off of there. You can search for cat- or dog-acceptable. The grad student I stayed with while visiting had found a room for rent in a house off of there, and her and her house-mates had a cat.

I'll also be going there this Fall. They also have a limited amount of graduate housing there. Some of them are kind of far, but that was one thing that was a plus for me. I don't know how that compares to off-campus or in the surrounding area though. I did my Master's at a school in another Southern college town. The thing that bothered me the most was the typical Southern bureaucracy, but I've learned to cope with that.

I was really nervous about making my choice because I didn't have the time or money to go visit one of the schools that sent me an admissions offer. I would have had to pay over half my monthly salary to do so. Otherwise it was an easy choice. They were really gracious about it, though, and actually told me it was wise to choose the other school because they couldn't give anyone a full assistantship. Now I am very much at peace with my decision. I got waitlisted at a third school, and I'm really glad though I never got accepted off it. If they pulled an acceptance on me today or yesterday I would have had a nervous breakdown!

I got into the school I'm going to off the waitlist, so I still haven't got the official mail letter from them. Chances are I won't until next week at some point because I live quite far from them. But I e-mailed them and told them I was coming. At least that can act as a written record. But, call your program.