danseparc

Such great advice so far, everyone! And congrats to all of your successes. I will too echo the "fit, fit, fit" spiel. I am going to the school that was my best fit, even though I was anxious because of the location (nearly 1000 miles from my home state). However, now that I'm in and seeing stuff actually materialize, I couldn't be happier. Don't be afraid to go to a school that isn't first tier. The place needs to be right for you and what you want to do. If you find that you need more, or you're not comfortable going somewhere... Defer if you can, or apply to terminal MAs, as well. Study for your GREs. While I did above average after only 2 days of cramming, it made me realize I could do so much more with myself and my scores. I didn't retake it, but probably should have. If you have any doubts, study and take early, and then retake. It's a pain in the neck, but it will help you. If your GPA isn't so hot, it WILL affect you. It isn't everything, but there's a reason for this-- and a stunningly high GRE can offset this (see "hot tip" below). Try and do research if you can help it. Even if it's a small project or a one-year thesis-- go for it. It will make your application so much stronger. Revise revise revise--- your application, your SOP, your diversity statements (if application), your writing samples... Everything. Turn in something you are proud of, both in terms of minutiae and actual content. A passionate letter and a creative, well-written research paper/thesis both go a long way with adcoms, especially if your program has some cool fields. Hot tip. I've heard of a few big schools having points cut-offs. Not necessarily in terms of a minimum GPA or GRE, but a formula that combines those two (usually GPA*GRE > x). While that information is usually kept under wraps, some schools are transparent about it. If you can't get over that hurdle, then you're going to have a really hard time pushing your app forward, even if you have gobs of research experience and beautiful letters from professors who really know you (this happened to me). That said, even if you aren't totally there for a school's PhD requirements, you could get into an MA or MS in their department if it's offered. From there, you might be able to transition if they like you. If this happens, don't be afraid to consider it. It'd be a struggle for awhile, but if you really want this, then hopefully it will be worth it. Remember this: Even if you don't get in to the PhD right away, but you are offered an MA/MS, someone there really wants you. You wouldn't have had been considered for the master's program. Finally, don't give up hope, but be realistic. It's easy to get discouraged and even depressed, but remember that there's always next year. The financial hit sucks, and so does the sting of rejection, but it's really competitive out there right now... Anything can happen. Good luck everyone, and I look forward to seeing the successes of this round of applicants!

Wow, all of this talk about treating a PhD program like a terminal MA is a little unsettling. I would keep as hush-hush as possible about this, even on these fora, because in all honesty--- if your profs/advisor catch a whiff of this, it's going to look really badly on your part. At best, you might seem competitive but at worst people might perceive you to be arrogant or disingenuous. I don't even know if your transparency right off the bat will help your case. Think about it this way: this school has taken the risk at throwing tens of thousands of dollars at you to do work for them and make them look good. Leaving midstream barring extreme circumstances (horrible fit/program, illness, etc.) probably doesn't bode well for future success. If you think you can do better than the program that you're in now, then perhaps applying to a terminal MA first as a stepping stone would have been best. It just makes me think of the people on here and in my own life that applied to several respectable PhD programs that they really wanted to be at, or would have been happy with, and got rejected. Please think carefully about this, both of you. Prestige isn't everything, and you could be very happy where you've wound up (or will wind up, in the case of the future applicant). Someone there wants you and sees something in you, otherwise you wouldn't have gotten in. Just my two cents.

Anyone hear anything? Things have been oddly quiet regarding Duke... In previous years, they seem to have sent out letters of both acceptance and rejection at this point. I imagine they probably got a lot of applicants this year.

Congratulations to those accepted! Is there usually a timeline for how long it takes departments to send out all of the acceptance notifications from the start? Like, I imagine it's unreasonable to assume that everyone who's getting an acceptance has received an email since YDGS just started sending out stuff this AM. Also, those who just received acceptances, are any of you willing to post your stats?