VoidInColor

I was waitlisted by my first choice school and accepted to my safety school. I accepted my safety school's offer on the 15th, and today (17th) they sent me the GRA contract. I have not signed it yet, since I wanted to check with my first choice to confirm that there was not a slot for me. However, after everyone had ended up choosing where they wanted to go, the internal fellowship I was waitlisted for at my first choice had open slots. Since they got more funding, I've been accepted to my first choice. I haven't signed anything for the safety school or put down any deposit, just sent an email saying I'm attending. How do I go about telling my safety school that I'm no longer attending? Do I just thank them and vaguely refer to changing plans? I'd like to do this as politely as possible.

I fairly recently heard back from a program that I had previously interviewed with. I was rejected, and the grad coordinator said it was mainly because the adcomm didn't think my research interests were a good fit. However, I was very specific in my personal statement about my (fairly niche) interests, so they knew what I was interested in before I interviewed. Why would they bother interviewing me if they knew my interests weren't a good fit? Did they think they would change my mind or that I would have reconsidered in the two-ish months since I submitted an application? I'm not super crushed, just very confused.

I've seen several people mention that they called the admissions office to find out if they were still sending out interview invitations. How did you go about it? Who exactly did you call and how did you phrase it? I don't want to seem pushy but for some programs its been a long time and historically they've sent out both invites and rejections by now, and I'm still in limbo.

@hopefulPhD2017 I've applied to six, my seventh is mostly done (app is in, waiting for them to send me my ID number so I can upload supporting documents and such), and my eighth is nearly done and will be in shortly (very late deadline). I've had one outright rejection and one I'm pretty sure I'm out of the running for.

Now that it's the new year and schools are opening back up, I'm reaching the point where, for some of my schools, if I don't get an invite in the next few days I'm not getting one at all. Trying to decide whether to try to make a few of the January 15th deadlines...

Thanks for the VTech mention, I didn't see it when I first looked at the school and the program actually looks like it might have some research that matches my interests (which is a rarity). Depending on how things go in the next week I'll definitely consider applying.

Waiting for responses is frustrating. What's almost worse are the schools that have Jan. 1 deadlines. Because of course the schools are closed for winter break leading up to the deadline, so it's impossible to contact anyone if you have any problems

Being with family this season actually stressed me out more and is why I actually went back to my apartment a week an a half before break was over. All my relatives kept asking me was where are you going, what do you want to do, which program is your favorite? I don't know dad, I have to visit them, that's what interview weekends are for. Stop hounding me and making me freak out about it. I'm not "going" anywhere yet, since nowhere has accepted me yet.

Just got an invite from UC Davis Immunology. Interview weekend is Friday Feb 24th through Saturday Feb 25th, arrive Thursday and leave Sunday.

Ah, nevermind. Just checked my email and I got an official rejection from Cornell yesterday :(.

I know Penn CAMB cancer bio is probably done, but is there any hope left for CAMB MVP? And I haven't heard about anyone that applied to comparative biomedical sciences at Cornell (Ithaca). Just getting a bit worried and wondering if I should maybe try to apply to some schools with later deadlines just in case.

Ok thanks, it's nice to have a time-frame.

Has anyone heard more about Emory? I saw one person got an IMP invite, but that's about it. Still waiting anxiously... Also, did anyone else apply to UC Davis immunology? They had a Dec. 15 deadline, so I'm wondering when we'll start to hear back.

I'm planning on distracting myself by cleaning. I need to anyway, and it's nice to come back from winter break to a clean apartment.

I'm just sitting here forcing myself not to mindlessly refresh this thread and telling myself "Void, you still have one more final to go, just give it a day and you can freak out all you want." Plus some of the schools I'm applying to have Dec. 15th or Jan. 1st deadlines (or later), so I'll be waiting for a while...