dells_of_bittersweet

Stanford is a top tier program. The others fall into the category of "top ten, but not top 5." How important is prestige to your future? Are you looking for a tenure track faculty position?

I applied to UW, UPenn, JHU, TAMU, USCD, and ND. I got accepted to UW and JHU. Rejected from UCSD and ND. Still no word, officially, from UPenn or TAMU. The professor I am corresponding with has told me my chances aren't very good at UPenn. That was over a month ago. I am rather shocked as to there not being an official decision yet. If I get accepted to UPenn, I will chose between them an UW. If not, I will choose UW. Are you also planning to go to UW if you don't get accepted to UPenn?

I have been accepted to UW Madison and JHU, but I am still to hear yes or no from four programs: UPenn, TAMU, UCSD, and ND. Is this normal? How could these places possibly not know whether or not they are going to let me in by now?

I hope it's not too late to reply to this - consider transferring graduate schools. I was in a similar position to you guys. Didn't work out with my lab group. Turned out my research interest was a niche my program didn't offer. I networked with the professors at other schools (basically emailed them and said why I was interested in their research), and so far I have two acceptances at peer institutions.

Just got into UW Madison! My premature panic was unwarranted.

Which professor? I did my undergrad there

Is there a way of knowing when a school is done sending out acceptances based on the results search? Several UW Madison admissions have been posted, and I haven't heard back from them. Are they likely done sending out acceptances? I am a graduate transfer student, applying to transfer to: -UW Madison -UCSD -Texas A&M -UPenn -Johns Hopkins -Notre Dame I am yet to be accepted or rejected from any of these. Starting to get a bit antsy.

Is there a way of knowing when a school is done sending out acceptances based on the results search? Several UW Madison admissions have been posted, and I haven't heard back from them. Are they likely done sending out acceptances? I am a graduate transfer student, applying to transfer to: -UW Madison -UCSD -Texas A&M -UPenn -Johns Hopkins -Notre Dame I am yet to be accepted or rejected from any of these. Starting to get a bit antsy.

You are not being overly ambitious. You have at least some chance at every one of those schools. Seize the opportunity and see what comes of it. You need to cover all your bases though. You have some very hot and very cold parts of your application. Your GPA is a problem, the ranking of your undergrad institution is a problem, and your time out of school could be considered a problem. On the other hand, you have great research experience and results. You need exceptional LORs to get into the schools you have listed. You might get them. You might not. You won't know because most professors don't share letters with you. If you have any doubt about any of them ask "can you write me a strong recommendation" before you put them down on the app. With the risks inherent in your application, I recommend casting a wide net. The schools you have listed are ranked between 6 and 41 on US News and World Report. That's a pretty good spread. I recommend adding one more school ranked 40 or below for security purposes. Vanderbilt, Boston College, Colorado State, USC, Arizona State, UC Riverside, and Notre Dame are all respected programs where you might have high odds of admission. With a wide net of top ranked schools and good but easier to get into schools, you should at least get in somewhere. Don't let money blind you into mortgaging your future. With GRE submission fees and application fees, you can estimate around $100 for each application. But what's $500 or even $1500 in the grand scheme of the rest of your life? Be parted from the money and be thankful for the opportunity to have invested it in your future. In my experience, I applied to 8 programs with so far only 1 acceptance and 2 I haven't heard from. The one I got accepted into was actually ranked in the middle of all the schools I applied to. Putting my finger into a lot of different pots was definitely worth it. I recommend that you apply to at least as many schools as I did. Finally, I'll say that working in industry for a while is unlikely to significantly increase the strength of your application and is likely to make your letter writers slowly forget their fond memories of you. With your background and experience, your ambition will be rewarded with an acceptance somewhere. I recommend that you apply for 2017, cast a wide net, hope for the best, have somewhere you can get in for sure, and start researching schools. Go through the faculty pages of every school in the Top 25 and see who has multiple faculty doing research that you think is exceptionally interesting and impactful. Apply to those schools. Do the same thing for at least a handful of schools ranked 25-60 to select your safety schools. Also skim read the past year of JACS and note who is doing really cool research.

If you want a deep safety school, I think UC Davis at number 35 is underrated

Get 3 great LORs and my gut tells me you'll get into all three schools. If you want safeties, Northwestern, Texas, Michigan, and Colorado are great programs where in the right research group you'll be the equal of the students at Harvard and Caltech. Princeton is ranked 15 in chemistry which kind of already makes it a safety school for you. You have better stats and experience than me and I got accepted into a program ranked in the low teens. I was 167/159 V/Q with a 3.53 GPA, no pubs although one in the works. I got 33% on the chem GRE so most places I didn't even report it to. The only advantage I had on you was that I got all As in chem classes and destroyed my GPA elsewhere. US News and World Report is a flawed system and I'm sure the next poster is going to be like "ranking doesn't matter." I will say that I found it to be a helpful guide though. Go through each school that is ranked in the top 25, and look for schools where there are multiple professors doing research you think is interesting. Research you could spend your life doing. Apply to those schools. I recommend applying to about 10 programs. There is a fair amount of luck and random chance involved and your odds improve the more pots you put your finger in . http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-science-schools/chemistry-rankings

I am also still waiting. Thier website says that notifications are generally made in March. I find this frustrating. CU Boulder is also taking waaaaaaaaay too long to get back to me.

75th percentile and above should be fine for GRE. Amazing subject tests should help. The bottom line is that schools care about test scores as a tie breaker or an eliminator more than a determinator. They want to see amazing LORs and amazing undergrad research experience. GRE will get you into trouble if it is below the schools' minimum or if you are on the bubble and they are trying to decide between you and somebody with higher test scores.

Shooting from the hip here: Your resume will either be reviewed during a due diligence phase or it will be completely ignored. Decent chance the AdCom didn't seriously look at anything other than your LORs. In my field, after you have been recommended for admission, your application materials are verified. My guess is that this is to catch blatant falsehoods - forged LORs, transcripts, lied about your GRE scores, etc. The odds of them even noticing this are pretty small. Get the paper submitted before they do due diligence. If they ask about it, you have a story I think anyone would accept. Meanwhile, don't ask, don't tell.

Yeah from what I understand this is what you are expected to do. I emailed my POI, said I was interested in his research, and asked if we could schedule a time to talk about it. We ended up talking about over the phone twice and he indicated that I could join the lab if I chose that school. If they let you in, they want to hear from you. Specifically, if you talked about anyone in particular in your SOP, there is a chance that you were admitted because that professor read your SOP and thought you were good.