MammaD

It's an irony that the places closest to universities in DC are some of the most expensive places to live (i.e. Georgetown and the West End around GW), and also not really the best places to live for graduate students.  Georgetown doesn't offer much in the area of lower-cost restaurants or upper-20s nightlife, and the West End has the same problem.  So don't be afraid to look farther afield.  DC is not a large place, you can get point to point in most places within 30 minutes if you know how to travel.  And, as I think someone else mentioned, don't be chained to metro stations. DC's buses are pretty easy to navigate (especially if you get the NextBus iPhone app).  If you're considering a place, go to the WMATA website and enter it and your university into the trip planner to get a sense of your commute (make sure to select Bus OR Metro as your trip planner option).  In terms of safety, I wouldn't give too much credence to people who say "X neighborhood is dangerous/sketchy", they tend to be people who don't really live there.  DC overall is a pretty safe city, despite it's reputation, and as neighborhoods gentrify, it's not a monolithic thing.  You might love one block and dislike the next, but you have to visit each individually to really know. 
 
The Columbia Heights/Mt Pleasant/U Street/14th Street area is a fun part of town to live in, very hipster, and you can still find some good bargains in areas of Mt Pleasant and Columbia Heights.  U Street/14th Street is getting pretty expensive and Dupont and Logan Circle are two of the most expensive parts of town, but if you share a 1 bedroom you can sometimes find affordability (In DC, cheap is defined as $1000 per month per person or less).  Adams Morgan is also quite nice though also pretty expensive. Petworth, Bloomingdale, and Ledroit Park are also good neighborhoods with more to offer all the time.  A little less established than U Street/14th Street, so you can find some good bargains and since they're not as dense you may be able to find a place with off street parking (ideal if you plan to bring a car). 
 
Capital Hill is lovely, maybe not as "hip" as other neighborhoods, but very beautiful, great parks, good restaurants, access to metro and bus public transportation. It's easy to get to U Street or Dupont from the Hill by bus, plus the H street area is a great up and coming hip neighborhood.   And rents on the Hill seem to be slightly cheaper than in other parts of town. 
 
If the idea of living in a large, new apartment condo building appeals (as in you want a door person/secured entry/in house gym etc), check out Navy Yard or Waterfront.  Navy Yard is all high rise buildings now, most of them are pretty expensive but also pretty nice.  They have roofdecks and some of them have rooftop pools.  The problem with the big new buildings is that rents tend to go up year after year and there can be a lot of hidden fees (including moving fees, fees to pay your rent, amenity fees, etc). 
 
I don't spend that much time in the "red line" areas (Glover Park, Friendship Heights, NOMA, Rhode Island Ave, etc.), but there are good places there as well. And if you want to check out the Virginia suburbs, Georgetown runs a shuttle bus from the Roslyn metro station to campus (Roslyn is ironically closer to Georgetown than the Foggy Bottom stop in DC).  You could also live in the Maryland suburbs like Takoma Park or Silver Spring and take the Red Line to Dupont and catch the Georgetown shuttle from there.  Keep in mind though, the Red Line is notoriously the least reliable of all the metro lines (it's the oldest and can be problematic).  Again, just check out your commute and try to decide how much time you want to spend getting places.  I'd strongly recommend looking for a place where you can commute by public transportation. Both parking and traffic in DC are terrible.  I've lived here for years and never owned a car, I mostly use metro, bus, Car2Go, or Uber to get around.   
 
One tip: when you visit apartments, ask where people do their grocery shopping.  Finding a good grocery store in DC can be a challenge, and any place that's close to a new or newly renovated grocery will be a bonus.  

Hugs, MammaD. I know how upsetting that is - I was rejected across the board a few years ago. Afterwards, I found out that most of the people I know with doctorates were also rejected during their first round of applications. Definitely take a year (or more...) and regroup. I waited two years before applying again, and was able to get a few more publications through and worked on a few successfully funded grant applications - that experience definitely strengthed my application the second time around.

Thank you so much!

Ethnomusicology, eh? I was a music major in undergrad. Left my career as a professional clarinetist a year ago (after 17 years). Good luck to you!

I got my rejection letter about an hour ago. I am extremely relieved and looking forward to the pause. I will apply again next year and see what happens. If I'm rejected again, there will be tears and devastation but this year? I'm A-OK.

Thanks to all who've pulled for me these last few weeks and I sincerely wish all the best to each of you.

Thank you so much!

Ethnomusicology, eh? I was a music major in undergrad. Left my career as a professional clarinetist a year ago (after 17 years). Good luck to you!

I got my rejection letter about an hour ago. I am extremely relieved and looking forward to the pause. I will apply again next year and see what happens. If I'm rejected again, there will be tears and devastation but this year? I'm A-OK.

Thanks to all who've pulled for me these last few weeks and I sincerely wish all the best to each of you.

MammaD, I'm sorry to hear that! But if you are indeed rejected, the plus is that you now stand free and clear to plot your next move. And you've got the right idea; hit them harder next year! Never say die, we've all put too much blood, sweat and tears into our respective endeavors to just quit at this point. I wish you and everyone else dealing with this rough impasse the very best in all academic undetakings: myself included... I'm STILL waiting!

I emailed my program today to see if I'm ranked, what the situation is, etc. I just want to KNOW!

If I have to, I'll reapply for 2014; with the hard-earned insight and lessons learned from this menagerie of emotional carnival rides. Temperance. I didn't come this far to just give up. Excelsior!

In the "people are going a little nuts" department, I gave one last look to the Results page before closing the iPad and going to sleep ... and I noticed "paleontology" as a major listed. I thought, "huh? Really. People get PhDs in paleontology?" Saw that the school was NYU and before I could finish my thought, read the notes section: "Dr. Ross Geller called me today. I'm pretty stoked!"

So yeah, I should have tapped "report spam" but it made me so happy.

If any of you are reading this and don't get the Ross Geller reference, please don't tell me. I don't need any reminders that I'm *not quite* old enough to be your mother ...

Sorry about the typos in my last post! Yikes on the autocorrect!

So, I had class tonight and my advisor asked me to stay after. She wants me to send an abstract for my thesis to APHA for consideration for October's meeting/conference. Sort of makes me feel like maybe there's life after a rejection or two if I don't get into the programs I applied to ... unless APHA rejects me too!

About your dog: I think that depends entirely on you and your program. I am in a social science program where the majority of my analysis and writing can be done from home, and I prefer to work from home or from a library (as opposed to my cube in the windowless cube farm). When I was taking classes I was generally there from 9-6 or so, but now that my coursework is finished I am rarely at the school itself. I go for meetings, seminars, interesting kinds of things and I do most of my work remotely. My time is verrry flexible, and if my building didn't prohibit it I would get a dog in a heartbeat. Another thing to keep in mind: a dog can be a great comfort when you're all stressed out over graduate school.

Advice?

Age:
-Don't feel like you have nothing to offer just because you are younger. I was 22 when I started graduate school. You got accepted to the program for a reason, and chances are you are just as equipped as any older students are to successfully complete the program, just in a different way.

-Your older classmates may be just as terrified as you. Talk to them. You have a lot in common. You are, after all, in the same place.

-You will feel like an imposter, like you don't belong, or like you are constantly behind. Or all three. It's normal. It will pass. (Well, sort of.) People of all ages go through this.

Adviser related:
-If you are lucky enough to get both research interest fit and personality fit perfect, congratulations! But sometimes, personality fit is more important than research interest fit as long as the research isn't too different. A great adviser is interested in your career development, likes you as a person, advocates for you, and wants to hear your ideas. Even if his or her research is quite different from yours, they may give you the autonomy to work on your own projects and just supervise you. A bad personality fit will drive you nuts, even if you love his or her research. Consider that when evaluating your adviser fit. (This will vary by field: research fit may be less important in the humanities, more important in the natural and physical sciences. Social sciences are somewhere in-between.)

-Don't be afraid to be straight up blunt with your adviser when it comes to asking about your progress. Ask if you are where you should be both academic program wise and getting-a-job-after-this-mess-wise.

-Be proactive. Advisers love when you draw up an agenda for your one-on-one meetings, come with talking points and progress to share, have concrete questions to ask, and have overall shown that you have been thoughtful and taken control of your own program. Of course, this won't immediately come easily to you, but in time you will work up to it. Every semester I type up my semester goals, and at the beginning of the year I type up annual goals. I show them to my adviser and we talk about whether they are too ambitious, or whether I need to revise them, and how I can meet them.

-Don't expect your adviser to actually know what courses you have to take to graduate. They will know about comprehensive exams and the dissertation, but a lot of professors don't really keep up with the course requirements, especially if their program is in flux. Get you a student handbook, and find out what you need to take. Map it out in a grid, and check off things when you finish them. Show this to your adviser every semester. You may have to explain how such and such class fills a requirement.

-Nobody loves you as much as you, except your mother. Keep this in mind as you take in advice from all sources, including your adviser. Your adviser is there to guide you, but that doesn't mean you have to do everything he says.

Studying:
-You will have to read more than you ever did before, in less time than you ever have before, and you will be expected to retain more than you ever have before. The way that you studied in undergrad may need some tweaking. Be prepared for this.

-Corollary: you may find that your methods change with age or interests or time. I preferred to study alone in college, but in grad school, I prefer to study in groups. It keeps me on task and the socialization keeps me motivated. You may find that you shift from being a more auditory learner to a visual learner or whatever.

-You will feel behind at first. This is normal.

-At some point you will realize that your professors don't actually expect you to read everything they assign you. This, of course, will vary by program, but there will be at least one class where the reading is actually impossible to do in one week. The point is to read enough that you know the major themes and can talk intelligently about them, and then pick some of the readings to really dig into and think more deeply about.

-For most programs, don't worry so much about grades. If you stay on top of your work and do what you're supposed to, you will probably get an A. How much grades matter varies from program to program. In some programs, a B is a signal that you are not up to par, and more than a few Bs will warrant a discussion with your adviser or the DGS. My program isn't like that - A, B, it's all meaningless. My adviser doesn't even know what my grades are. But at almost all programs, a C means you need to retake the course, and two Cs means you have to convince the DGS not to kick you out.

Extracurricular activity: What's that? No, seriously:
-A lot of your time will be unstructured. You will have coursework, but most grad classes meet once a week for two hours and you may have three classes. You may have meetings with your adviser every so often and some seminars or things to catch (like we have grand rounds and colloquia that are required), but a lot of time will be unstructured. However, since you have so much more work than you had in undergrad, you actually will have less free time than you had in undergrad. This may initially cause you great anxiety. It did for me. Some people love unstructured time, though. (I don't.)

-Because of this, you'll have to be planful about your non-grad school related stuff.

-TAKE TIME OFF. DO it. It's important for your mental health. However you do it doesn't matter. Some people work it like a 9-5 job. Some people take a day off per week (me) and maybe a few hours spread across the week. Some people work half days 7 days a week. However you do it, there needs to be a time when you say "f this, I'm going to the movies."

-Find your happy place, something that keeps you the you you were when you came in. I love working out. It gives me energy and I feel good. I stay healthy. I also love reading fiction, so sometimes I just curl up with a good book, work be damned. You have to give yourself permission to not think about work, at least for a couple of hours a week. You may also discover new hobbies! (I never worked out before I came to graduate school.)

-Your work will creep into all aspects of your life, if you let it. This is why I hate unstructured time. You will feel guilty for not doing something, because in graduate school, there is ALWAYS something you can do. ALWAYS. But since there will always be more work, there's no harm in putting it aside for tomorrow, as long as you don't have a deadline.

-You may need to reach outside of your cohort for a social life. None of my close friends are in my doctoral cohort. I've met master's students in my program, master's students in other programs, and I know a few non-graduate students I hang out with, too. Go to graduate student mixers. (If your university doesn't have any, organize some, if you like planning parties.) Join a student group that doesn't take up too much time. I had a doctoral acquaintance who kinda laughed at me because I joined some student groups other than the doctoral student one, and I was usually the only doctoral student in those groups, but I met some close friends (and future job contacts) and had a good time.

-DO NOT FEEL GUILTY FOR WANTING A LIFE OUTSIDE OF GRADUATE SCHOOL. This is paramount. This is important. You are a well-rounded, complex, multifaceted human being. NEVER feel bad for this. Everybody wants some kind of life outside of work. Yes, you may loooove your field, but that doesn't mean you want to do it all day long. Some other doctoral students, and perhaps professors, may make you feel bad about this. Don't let them. Just smile and nod. Then disappear when you need to.

Career:
-This is job preparation. Remember that from Day One. Always be looking for ways to enhance your skills. Read job ads and find out what's hot in your field, what's necessary, what's in demand. For example, in my field statistics and methods are a hot commodity, and they're not a passing fad. I happen to really like statistics and methods, so I have pursued that as a concentration of mine.

-Don't be afraid to take on volunteer work and part-time gigs that will give you skills that will be useful both inside academia and out, as long as it's not against your contract. Your adviser may be against it, but he doesn't have to know as long as it doesn't interfere with your work.

-If you want to work outside of academia - if you are even *considering* the possibility - please please definitely do the above. Even if you aren't considering it, consider the possibility that you won't get a tenure-track job out the box and that you may need to support yourself doing something else for a while. You will have to prove to employers that you have developed usable, useful skills and this is one of the easiest ways to do it. But don't overdo it - get the degree done.

-For more academic related ones - always look for opportunities to present and publish. Presentations look good on your CV. Publications look better. When you write seminar papers, wonder if you can publish them with some revision. Write your seminar papers on what you maybe think you may want to do your dissertation on. Even if you look at them three years later and think "these suck," you can at least glean some useful references and pieces from them. Discuss publication with your adviser early and often, and if you have the time and desire, seek out publication options with other professors and researchers. But if you commit to a project, COMMIT. You don't want to leave a bad impression.

-If you can afford it, occasionally go to conferences even if you aren't presenting. You can network, and you can hear some interesting talks, and you may think about new directions for your own research. You can also meet people who may tell you about jobs, money, opportunities, etc.

-Always try to get someone else to pay for conference travel before you come out of pocket. Including your adviser. Do not be shy about asking if he or she can pay. If he can't, he'll just say no. Usually the department has a travel fund for students, but often it's only if you are presenting.

-If you are interested in academia, you should get some teaching experience. There are two traditional ways to do this: TAing a course, and teaching as a sole instructor. If you can help it, I wouldn't recommend doing a sole instructor position until you are finished with coursework. Teaching takes a LOT of time to do right. You should definitely TA at least one course, and probably a few different ones. But don't overdo it, if you can help it, because again, it takes a LOT of time. More than you expect at the outset. If you are in the humanities, I think sole instructor positions are very important for nabbing jobs so when you are in the exam/ABD phase, you may want to try at least one. If your own university has none, look at adjuncting for nearby colleges, including community colleges. (I would wager that the majority of natural science/physical science students, and most social science students, have never sole taught a class before they get an assistant professor job. At least, it's not that common n my field, which straddles the social and natural sciences.)

-Always look for money. Money is awesome. If you can fund yourself you can do what you want, within reason. Your university will be thrilled, your adviser will be happy, and you can put it on your CV. It's win-win-win! Don't put yourself out of the running before anyone else has a chance to. Apply even if you think you won't get it or the odds are against you (they always are), as long as you are eligible. Apply often. Apply even if it's only $500. (That's conference travel!) Money begets money. The more awards you get, the more awards you will get. They will get bigger over time. If you are in the sciences and social sciences, you should get practice writing at least one grant. You don't have to write the whole thing, but at least get in on the process so that you can see how it's done. Grant-writing is very valuable both in and outside of graduate school.

-Revise your CV every so often. Then look and decide what you want to add to it. Then go get that thing, so you can add it.

-The career office at big universities is often not just for undergrads. I was surprised to learn that my career center offers help on CV organization and the academic job search, as well as alternative/non-academic career searches for doctoral students. In fact, there are two people whose sole purpose it is to help PhD students find nonacademic careers, and they both have PhDs. This will vary by university - some universities will have very little for grad students. Find out before you write the office off.

-It's never too early to go to seminars/workshops like "the academic job search inside and out", "creating the perfect CV," "getting the job," etc. NEVER. Often the leader will share tips that are more aimed towards early graduate students, or tidbits that are kind of too late for more advanced students to take care of. This will also help you keep a pulse on what's hot in your field. It'll help you know what lines you need to add to your CV. And they're interesting.

Other:

-Decide ahead of time what you are NOT willing to sacrifice on the altar of academia. Then stick to it.
I'm serious. If you decide that you do NOT want to sacrifice your relationship, don't. If it's your geographical mobility, don't. I mean, be realistic, and realize that there will always be trade-offs. But you have to think about what's important to you for your quality of life, and realize that there is always more to you than graduate school.

-If you don't want to be a professor, do not feel guilty about this. At all. Zero. However, you will have to do things differently than most doctoral students. Your adviser will probably never have worked outside of the academy (although this may vary depending on the field) so he may or may not be able to help you. But you have a special mission to seek out the kinds of experiences that will help you find a non-academic job. Test the waters with your adviser before you tell him this. My adviser was quite amenable to it, but that's because I told him that my goal was to still do research and policy work in my field just not at a university, AND because it's quite common in my field for doctoral students to do non-academic work. If you're in a field where it's not common (or where your professors refuse to believe it's common, or it's not supposed to be common)…well, you may be a little more on your own.

-Every so often, you will need to reflect on the reasons you came to graduate school. Sometimes, just sit and think quietly. Why are you doing this to yourself? Do you love your field? Do you need this degree to do what you want to do? Usually the answer is yes and yes, and usually you'll keep on trucking. But sometimes when the chips are down you will need to reevaluate why you put yourself through this in the first place.

-To my great dismay, depression is quite common in doctoral students. Graduate work can be isolating and stressful. Luckily your health insurance usually includes counseling sessions. TAKE THEM if you need them. Do not be ashamed. You may be surprised with who else is getting them. (I found out that everyone in my cohort, including me, was getting mental health counseling at a certain point.) Exercise can help, as can taking that mental health day once a week and just chilling. Don't be surprised if you get the blues…

-…but be self-aware and able to recognize when the depression is clouding your ability to function. Doctoral programs have a 50% attrition rate, and this is rarely because that 50% is less intelligent than, less motivated than, less driven than, or less ambitious than the other 50% that stays. Often they realize that they are ridiculously unhappy in the field, or that they don't need the degree anymore, or that they'd rather focus on other things in life, or their interests have changed. All of this is okay!

-You will, at some point, be like "eff this, I'm leaving." I think almost every doctoral student has thought about dropping out and just kicking this all to the curb. You need to listen to yourself, and find out whether it is idle thought (nothing to worry about, very normal) or whether you are truly unhappy to the point that you need to leave. Counseling can help you figure this out.

-Don't be afraid to take a semester or a year off if you need to. That's what leaves of absence are for.

Lastly, and positively…

…graduate school is great! Seriously, when else will you ever have the time to study what you want for hours on end, talk to just as interested others about it, and live in an intellectual community of scholars and intellectuals? And occasionally wake up at 11 am and go to the bank at 2 pm? Sometimes you will want to pull out all of your hair but most of the time, you will feel fulfilled and wonderfully encouraged and edified. So enjoy this time!

So, last night I noticed that my application status changed from "currently in review-blah-blah-blah" to "congratulations on your acceptance!"  Huh?  Interesting...never received that golden email/letter.  I already knew where to go for my statement of intent, so I go there.  Log in with my ID and birthday (as it directs).  My information comes right up....signed it, got an email confirmation that I signed it, and then got my login information for the schools email.  I actually used the email this morning.  While that is all good and dandy, I STILL have not got an official letter.  On top that, I contacted my admissions advisor and was told "it's still being processed and I should receive a decision soon."  REALLY?  Anyone else out there going through this?  Is it just system error?  Or is it my never-ending luck?
 
Thanks for reading my rant...

Thank you so much, MSW13!

I have been in touch with the faculty member I hope to work with, but she says she knows nothing and really hopes I get in. She is not yet tenured and isn't part of the admissions committee but she does bring a lot of funding to the school in research grants ...

This program is very small and you are right, they know me by name. I will email on Monday and see if any details are available. My application next year would be undoubtedly stronger because I've done original research for my thesis (from which we hope to publish a few journal papers), and I'll have graduated (after taking and doing well in some important skills classes).

Thanks for your insight and encouragement. Did I mention this process has been awful?

What an awful lot of stressful uncertainty to carry.  I'm sorry, I don't know much about PhD application processes so my suggestion may be totally wrong.  But I wonder if you can call the school and find out what the chances are of being selected off of the waitlist at this point? Perhaps you can email your POI and get a general idea of where you stand?  Depending on the answer, you can decide if you are willing to hang in there just a little bit longer.
However, if you decide that the uncertainty is just too much to bear regardless, would you feel comfortable sending an email to your POI/school and say that due to the amount of time sensitive adjustments you would need to make in order to relocate your family for September, unfortunately you can no longer stay on the waitlist past the end of April/May (?).  However, you are still very interested in the program and will be reapplying next year...you'll spend the following year strengthening your application and hopefully will have better success... 
 
It is my understanding that PhD programs have pretty small waitlists so chances are they know you a bit more personally. For this reason I think it is important to send an email to explain your decision-making process rather than just pulling yourself out of competition without warning, especially since you plan on applying again next year. 
  

I didn't hear anything from the program I'm wait-listed at, but I got an email today to the account for the study I'm conducting, asking me if I'm hiring any postdocs in 2014 ... seems someone who participated in my study would love to join me in research. She's finishing her 4th year in the program I was rejected from a couple of months ago.

Good times.

My thoughts exactly.  Not to minimize your problems, but babies are so amazingly wonderful!
As others have mentioned, I've heard dissertation phase is actually a relatively good time to have a baby, because you have the most flexibility in your schedule.  Our department is more family-friendly, I think, as some of the students had kids before they joined the program.  Another person in the program had a baby in what would have been her second year of classes; they arranged for her to do more in the summer, to make up for not getting a stipend one semester.  Now she's back in classes, and besides all the normal mom craziness is back to the normal routine.  So, even when it's at a less convenient time, it can be done.
All this to say that your DEPARTMENT is the problem, not you or your baby.  If they want to be sexists (I don't use that term lightly) and seek to further limit the opportunities of women to be in academia, you don't have to apologize to them.  (I'm really ticked off on your behalf right now.)
In addition to scoping out your school's policies (the graduate student center or student senate may point you to the right sources, if you don't know individuals), it's worth scoping out what benefits your boyfriend has for "paternity leave" -- some companies are actually pretty generous.  If you come to your adviser with a plan in place -- how much time you'll need off, how your boyfriend is also making sacrificing, how you will arrange things after maternity leave, etc. -- then I think you will still appear like your professional self.  Rumors do spread quickly though, so I think it's best to tell your adviser once you have a plan in place, before it spreads to everyone else in the department.
Lastly, you need to buy this:
.

I would first educate yourself on university policy regarding maternity leave, protection for your position, and any anti-discrimination policies.  If you encounter problems, definitely document them.  Stay polite, but firm and consistent.  If you get a hard time, go up the chain.

I got into my schools off the wait list today with funding!! I'm so excited I can't believe it. Fingers crossed everyone!!!

My sense is that there isn't one thing that most people do. Many people jump straight in after the master's (or skip the master's entirely and jump straight in from undergrad), but many other people also take some time off between degrees. It could be one year, two years, or more. Some people are reapplying to graduate school after being out of school for over a decade. It really depends on your own circumstances... there is no one path that is overwhelming more common than the others. I know plenty of people who jumped straight in and plenty of others who waited. As for me, I waited a year between my MS (graduated last year) and my PhD (which I will start this fall). I didn't do it by choice, however. I had applied to a PhD program for the Fall 2012 season, but was rejected because of an unsupportive LOR.
 
Personally, I wouldn't have taken the year off if I had more control over the situation. I have had an incredibly hard time finding a temporary job in an area even remotely related to my field. Many of the jobs that I have applied to are traditionally positions intended for people like me who only have MS degrees, but since there are so many jobless PhDs on the market now who are willing to work for much less money than they should, I constantly found myself out-competed. Also, no one wants to hire someone who is just going to leave for a PhD position within the year. I suppose that one could always just lie or not mention the PhD plans to my prospective employer, but I didn't want to lie to people in my field... there's a good chance that I'd see them and possibly even need to work with them in the future, so why risk burning bridges by being secretive and untruthful?
 
Anyway, now I'm kind of stuck in this weird state where I've essentially put my life on hold. It's like I've lived these past few months just waiting for the next stage of my life to start, and it's terrible... but there's not much I can do because this is a transitional stage in my life, which means that I can't make any commitments to anything that would last beyond the next several months. I don't like it. Many of the other people I know who took time off between degrees did so voluntarily because they had sweet jobs or other experiences (volunteering, trips overseas, etc.) lined up that would be valuable to them when they applied to programs in the future. In that case, I think that taking a year off is a great idea. But that wasn't my situation; my hand was kind of forced by that one lousy letter writer.
 
This is just my experience, though. I've known what I want to study for a while now, and always knew that I wanted to get a PhD. In retrospect, the entire master's program was probably a waste of time... I probably should have jumped right into a PhD. I had years of research experience from my undergrad, so I didn't really even need the MS or any time off to build up my CV. Your situation sounds different. If you're not sure what you want to work on for your PhD, then you should take all the time you need to figure that out. A doctoral program isn't something that you should jump into without a reasonably solid idea of what you want to study and what you want to do when you graduate. Doctoral research is an unforgiving mistress, and if you aren't working on a project that you're genuinely passionate about, things will get overwhelmingly stressful and miserable fast. Taking time off to think about this carefully could be good for you.
 
So, my advice is to take a year off if you don't know what you want to study by the time that the application deadlines roll around. Just make sure that you have a temporary job lined up for your "off year," or at least some way to support yourself financially. And don't worry about what most other people do... there are so many different paths to a PhD, and everyone you talk to will have a different story.

I got off the waitlist and am in. I am in shock. I actually took a picture of the email and asked someone to read it and verify that I read it correctly. Now I am afraid to check my email now in case they change their minds.

All that worrying and now a weird feeling of shock and a different type of fear. This process is nuts. To think of the emotions I have gone through and I still haven't gotten excited. Maybe tomorrow...

The person I want to work with (faculty) just got a NIH grant for $2.9M over 5 years. I am so excited for her and for our field! I want to get in even more now!

Short term, I want to be on faculty somewhere so I can pursue research and teaching activities. Long term, I want to be the Secretary of Health and Human Services. You should have seen the look on my undergrad career counselor's face when that came out of my 19 year old mouth

research on physical activity interventions during pregnancy and the outcomes of child development and growth. I'd also like to work internationally on health program design and promotion for pregnant women.

Refreshing to know...I am an African trained RN who has worked hard and travelled the world to get an education; I aged along the way, but acquired even more interesting and varied healthcare experiences, and my desire to pursue a career in the global public health arena has only gotten stronger. I am very confident about what I can achieve with graduate education, and this year, I made my debut applying to SFU MPH program. @ the back of my mind, I worry that my age may stand in my way- and its refreshing to read this! I plan to go on to a PhD, and really do not want to spend years trying to get into a masters program. Thanks @ Jkabo, you are an inspiration!

I declined an offer today because of insufficient funding. It made me really sad, but then I cheered up when I realized someone on their waitlist is going to get an offer now. 
Now I'm just hoping someone at the school I'm waitlisted for does the same! 

I respectfully disagree. 
 
I was waitlisted last year, and it almost physically HURT. I got on the waitlist of my (at the time, #1 program) on April 4th. Yes. I remember the day, and the sour weekend following that. I was happy thinking "Hey, they kind of liked me. Almost there!" Then by that Saturday, April 7th, my thought turned dark "Why?" "How long will I have to wait?" etc. I finally decided to email them on Monday April 9th. They (secretary/coordinator) CALLED me back saying that they definitely wanted me -- funding issues -- my POI was running a crowded lab but may try to take me on etc. Now starts the most painful rollercoaster ride of my life. April 10th, this time the department chair emails me a super sympathetic email. "I know how hard it it to wait, but good news is there is a high possibility that someone will come off the waitlist, and it has happened in recent years.." and a similar vein. It was also obviously not a form email (in different font/style from previous form emails he had sent before). April 11th. The secretary confirms with me that I am on the waitlist through email. I shoot back an email replying Yes, and asking "why" she lets slip that one/two of their accepted students show hesitancy, and that again this is a good sign for me. April 12th. Radio silence. I'm letting myself feel happy around this point. "Maybe.. there's a chance!" April 13th. The Department chair and secretary sent me emails saying that one spot was vacated and the waiting list's first person got accepted. At this point they inferred that I was the second position on the list -- well now the first. Then April 14th. Keep in mind, this was a SATURDAY. I received a call saying that "I regret to inform you.." My heart dropped, and I really couldn't hear what he had said and had to ask for him to repeat. He said that "We will be unable to offer you admission to our PhD program this year. I'm sorry to disappoint you, but this year had an extremely competitive applicant pool." I thanked him and sort of phoned it in that day. I was planning to set up lesson plans for my TAing gig, and run some analyses for my thesis project. I did not have the functioning capabilities to do that. Instead, I indulged in comfort foods. I recall calling my mother and sister crying, but I can't remember what I said. I was devastated. I had been rejected everywhere else, except for one school that was way down the list, and I was considering saying No to regardless of the results. 
 
This school had raised my hopes and then brought it crashing back down on reality. I would have been happier not being in almost daily communication with them (though granted, they initiated it on some days. But I got the ball rolling). I really am not the sort of person to just fall apart like that, but the emotional rollercoaster just made it happen. I really think now I would have been happier if I had been flat-out rejected. I WISH I had been rejected. 
 
Sorry for the long story. Just ignore it. This was a bit cathartic for me (it still kind of hurts). I just wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy, let alone you congenial people of TGC. Good luck to anyone waitlisted out there, and I hope you don't go through the mental hell I went through in just a little over a week's time last year.