Quigley

Apparently Madison is doing it old school

Spending time doing this over and over was really helpful to me for the second time around. And, my strongest full-length practice essay turned out to be the essay prompt I got on the test! You can imagine how excited I was because some of those prompts make me go "seriously...?"

ice queen

Congratulations to whoever got mail from Madison! Was your online status updated as well or does it still say pending?

My biggest downfall was time management. When I practiced at home, I never had a problem running up against the clock. The actual test is nothing like practice though. This is the real thing and the stakes are high, so my problem was that I was too thorough. I would check and re-check my answers to the point of squandering my time. At the end of both quantitative sections, I realized I had about 4 minutes left to do maybe 4 more questions, when I should have already been done and checking my answers. I had unanswered questions on both math sections because I was too nervous to realize I should have spent the last 15 seconds just checking the boxes on unanswered ones. Other tips to get you in a good place mentally -- Both times I took the test, I also took water and advil and left them in my locker because I didn't want some random headache to come out of nowhere and sabotage my test. I also exercised on the day of the test and listened to some relaxing music on my way there. Everyone is different but I've actually heard to avoid caffeine. Your adrenaline will keep you alert and caffeine will likely just make you jittery. I avoided doing much studying the day before. I think I ran through my Kaplan vocab flash cards twice and that's it. And then glanced at a few of them while eating breakfast on the morning of. I found the testing environment very distracting so it's good to have an understanding of what it will be like. You will have your ID checked every time come in and out of the room. They'll make you copy this really long oath in cursive (seriously... who has used cursive since the third grade?) which I think is just to annoy you before going into the testing room. You'll have 2 video cameras watching your desk and all you'll hear is the sound of several other people pounding on their keyboards and clicking their mouses. Your testing center will have those headphone things available that hunters and airport flaggers use, which I found incredibly helpful. Don't worry too much about running out of scratch paper. At least if your testing center has good staff. When mine was full, I raised my hand (my desk was not in view of the staff through the window so they must have seen me through the video camera) and they had new scratch paper to me within about 8 seconds of raising my hand. I read in a few places that while obviously your AWA section should be well structured, cogently argued, and provide meaningful and relevant evidence to support your claims, that there is also a strong correlation between word count and score. I didn't put much effort into practicing writing the first time around. I figured I've written hundreds of essays, no big deal. I got a 4.0. When I took the test again, I really worked to prepare for the writing and I had practiced enough and had really gotten into a rhythm of how to write a decent essay in 30 minutes. I probably wrote twice as many words as I did the first time around, too. I got a 5.5 that time. One key piece of advice I found helpful was to just keep moving forward. Don't get bogged down by trying to think of a really clever way to say something. I read that the scorers will spend less than a minute reading each essay and are going to be looking more at the big picture. So, really make sure you get all of your ideas on the page before going back to agonize over word choice because you'll end up wasting too much time without any gain. At the same time, it is probably helpful for your score if you can get a couple of good vocab words in your essay somewhere. I hope this is helpful. Good luck with your test this week.

"You got in? Oh. I told you so. I'm not sure why you were worried." I've heard this at least a half dozen times in the past 2 days. I know it's supposed to be a compliment, but feels more like a dismissal of how unbelievably competitive PhD programs are and the hundreds of hours invested during the past year to make this happen.

hit man

right wing

turn off

I got one at 9pm on Friday night, but it was midnight where the school is located. It could happen.

I've had that dream at least a few times! Last night, I dreamt that I was invited to an interview dinner with the admissions committee and the professors named in my SOP for one of my top choice schools. Only my mom somehow ended up at the dinner and kept interrupting and trying to answer their questions for me. It took me a few seconds after waking up to realize it hadn't actually happened!

red scare

I hope this week treats everyone well and brings good news to you all soon. Good luck!

Another weekend down. I'm hoping everyone has something to celebrate by Friday. Good luck this week!

American subfield Maybe more from Ohio State and Illinois too?

No problem

Thank you sm321. Here is the site I had been using to check my status. I think I had to go through some registration process to set up access. The application site you are referring to (through ApplyYourself) is the one that actually has my acceptance letter though. https://sso.unc.edu/idp/Authn/UserPassword I got to that page by going here: http://admissions.unc.edu/Apply/Portal.html and you will find this link: Already submitted your application and created your UNC Guest ID? Log into MyCarolina for Applicants. Please refer to the Guest ID Registration instructions that we emailed you after you applied. Email us at unchelp@admissions.unc.edu if you would like us to re-send your instructions.

The UNC email was a generic message from the graduate school saying that any information about funding and campus visits would come from the department at a later time. Logging into their status checker still says no decision available but if I log into the application itself with the UNC pin ID, thats where the decision letter is available to read. I was surprised that it came at midnight in their time zone but it was right on the button so maybe because it was computer generated? The Davis email was a personal note from the grad coordinator during work hours. I'm really hoping that everyone here also receives good news soon if you haven't already. Good luck everyone. PS Chaetzli - I love the proton/electron/neutron signature!

Yes, I'm the UNC admit as well. Thanks Got the email around 9pm Pacific / midnight Eastern on Friday evening.

Good luck!

Congrats!

Thanks everyone

Thanks! I'm the Davis acceptance, American subfield. I'm so excited to have one acceptance before the weekend, I can't even describe the wave of emotion and relief that came over me when I opened the e-mail and read "Congratulations...". I hope everyone else gets good news soon!

Interesting. Did they say if they plan to interview all finalists? Do you mind sharing your subfield? Good luck with the interview!

I'm apparently in a different mindset than you guys but maybe it's because I'm working full time and not a student. Once I get in somewhere, I think I'm going to be far more checked out than I am now.