Wander

I agree with Eigen, but would also say that running it by a POI is extremely helpful. I'm doing that this time around (almost done writing it) and I plan to run it by my POI twice. I've done it once when I had the proposal fully developed, but not written and plan to do it once more when I have a final written draft. Ultimately, the advice I got was primarily on how to emphasize my ideas so that a reviewer skimming my proposal will pick up on everything and nothing will fall through the cracks.

I agree with Eigen, but would also say that running it by a POI is extremely helpful. I'm doing that this time around (almost done writing it) and I plan to run it by my POI twice. I've done it once when I had the proposal fully developed, but not written and plan to do it once more when I have a final written draft. Ultimately, the advice I got was primarily on how to emphasize my ideas so that a reviewer skimming my proposal will pick up on everything and nothing will fall through the cracks.

I got accepted to both CUNY and UT Austin today!! I am over the moon!

You may have already had your meeting, but I wanted to post this resource anyway for anyone else reading the thread (I'd be shocked if it hasn't come up elsewhere on this site): theprofessorisin.com. It's mainly geared at current graduate students and those seeking positions on the academic market, but you don't have to think very hard to see why nearly all of this advice applies to students looking to get into graduate school.
 
How not to act in an interview: http://theprofessorisin.com/2013/05/10/the-six-ways-youre-acting-like-a-grad-student-and-how-thats-killing-you-on-the-job-market/
 
Working Conferences (the "don't cling" advice really applies at conferences, and less so for this sort of meeting): http://theprofessorisin.com/2011/08/17/how-to-work-the-conference-part-one-of-two/
 
The Campus Visit: http://theprofessorisin.com/2011/11/22/dr-karens-rules-of-the-campus-visit/
 
The Informal Chat: http://theprofessorisin.com/2011/11/09/chat-ching-dealing-with-the-informal-conference-chat/
 
 
It's worth poking around everything on the site also, I found it all very helpful.

A lot of people across disciplines are posting about their admissions decisions. They're panicking when they don't get admissions, they're thrilled when they do, even without funding. But there's something people aren't talking about and should be. Is it even a good idea to pursue a PhD?
 
Obviously we all want to, which is why we've applied. But Karen Kelsky has a great reminder in her interview on the Anthropology blog Savage Minds today. Especially about funding and only going to an 'elite' school - not becuase you're a snob, but because that's the only degree that is going to get you a job when you come out!
 
"This is the advice that I keep in a file as a boilerplate response to all of those who write asking me whether they should do a Ph.D. in the humanities of social sciences:
 
I generally advise caution about applying to phd programs. Make sure you are fully funded, and that the so-called ‘full funding package’ is actually adequate for your real-life living expenses in the location of the program.  Go only to an elite or high ranking program, and take on absolutely no debt to do the entire program start to finish.  If all those are possible and you are under 40, then it’s not a bad choice.  While there, firmly strategize for the job market from your first year, by reading my column, Graduate School Is a Means to a Job, and doing what it says.
 
I elaborate on this in my blog post, “Should You Go To Graduate School?”
 
The Ph.D. in the Humanities or Social Sciences is an extremely bad financial decision for many people at this point in time, certainly for those without a working spouse or family wealth. The reason is not simply the inadequacy of most full funding packages, which have not even remotely kept place with rising costs of living, but that the years in the program are — or should be — a person’s prime earning years when they could otherwise be earning a full-time income,  paying into social security, perhaps accruing the funds to buy a first house, and otherwise laying the financial foundation for later years.  All of those things are out of the question for most Ph.D.s in the humanities and social sciences (as opposed to Engineering, the hard sciences, etc.).  So the financial repercussions of the decision do not stop at the years of “grad student lifestyle” [ramen noodles, etc.] in the program, which may seem like a reasonable and even appealing sacrifice when you’re in your twenties. Rather they extend outward into a person’s thirties or forties and beyond, when the stakes become urgent of having massive debt, no job, no security, and no financial cushion."
 
She wisely reminds us to ONLY accept if we have a full, and generous funding package. This is the advice I've gotten from all my professors and from PhD students as well - but it's easy to ignore when you're trying so hard to gain admission and you just want to go 'somewhere' - 'anywhere.'
 
The truth is though, if you don't get complete and full funding (more than the usual funding package which doesn't usually cover everything) - then you're signing up for a lifetime of struggle. You're much better off waiting, applying again next year and only going when you get funding that will actually get you through debt-free.
 

I got into Yale but rejected from Harvard for undergrad, so it happens. They're not interchangeable just because both are highly ranked, and are actually sensitive to those types of comparisons. I think you will come off in a really negative light if you go out of your way to email Harvard at this point about your acceptance into Yale. At best, they'll tell you what I just did above. At worst you'll annoy someone in the decision making process and actually hurt your chances because they'll think you're a braggart with an ego. Just my two cents.

I might not understand what you mean by "leverage". From my interpretation, I would say I don't think it is a good idea to use other admits as "leverage" on other schools. Few schools are going to care that University XYZ already made their decisions, so they should make their own decision faster. Also, few schools will think "well, this person was accepted by Top University X, so we better accept them too, if Top University X wants them!"
 
I think it's a very terrible idea to just flaunt your acceptances at other schools and hope something good happens to you.
 
Here are instances where I think it would make sense to tell other schools about other offers:
 
1. It just comes up in a conversation between you and the other school. No need to hide your results.
 
2. The school that accepted you (let's call it A) has given you a short deadline and you want to know an estimate of decision timelines from the other schools. Then, you can politely let the other schools know that A has given you a deadline and you want to know approximately when a decision will be ready so that you can ask A for an extension. [i would not do this until about 2 weeks before the deadline though]
 
3. You are visiting School A and you know from the past (or from the website) that another school in the area is having a visit weekend at near the same time. You might want to ask the other school about their decision timeline so you know when to book flights etc.
 
4. You are ready to make a final decision and you like School A the most, however, another school, B, has offered you a better financial package. You can then ask A if they can match or at least increase their offer. However, in my opinion, you should only do this if you will absolutely say yes to A if A agrees to increase your offer. You should not try sending the best offer to all your schools and seeing which one will give you the highest value. The whole argument for an increase in stipend is that "you like A the most, but need more funding", and you can't say this truthfully to all schools.
 
In my opinion, you don't have to keep your offers a secret, but I don't think you should try to use your offers to force other schools into any actions other than ones that are necessary (e.g. to extend a deadline). Don't wave another offer around just so the other schools get back to you a week earlier so that you panic less etc. Calm down and relax! Also, don't just wave other offers around in an attempt to make yourself look better to other schools. I am pretty sure this will not work. Instead, think about what you want (matching offer? finding out about visit days? etc.) and ask for it directly, mentioning your previous offers if relevant.

Just received an email from my prospective adviser at UNM. He told me to expect an acceptance letter in the mail with full tuition, health insurance, and a $16,000-$18,000 TAship that will turn into an RA as soon as he gets funding. 

UMD AOSC just emailed to say that I was accepted!

Just got the UCI offer via email, first response is a good one!

I keep having two daydreams about the Committee... in one, a professor runs in with my application, and as he bursts through the doors exclaiming "this is the one!" a shower of confetti explodes from the ceiling and a curtain pulls back to reveal a choir singing the Hallelujah Chorus as the dean wipes a tear from his eye.
 
In the other, the Committee has my application pinned to a wall and are throwing darts at it while laughing.

You may have already had your meeting, but I wanted to post this resource anyway for anyone else reading the thread (I'd be shocked if it hasn't come up elsewhere on this site): theprofessorisin.com. It's mainly geared at current graduate students and those seeking positions on the academic market, but you don't have to think very hard to see why nearly all of this advice applies to students looking to get into graduate school.
 
How not to act in an interview: http://theprofessorisin.com/2013/05/10/the-six-ways-youre-acting-like-a-grad-student-and-how-thats-killing-you-on-the-job-market/
 
Working Conferences (the "don't cling" advice really applies at conferences, and less so for this sort of meeting): http://theprofessorisin.com/2011/08/17/how-to-work-the-conference-part-one-of-two/
 
The Campus Visit: http://theprofessorisin.com/2011/11/22/dr-karens-rules-of-the-campus-visit/
 
The Informal Chat: http://theprofessorisin.com/2011/11/09/chat-ching-dealing-with-the-informal-conference-chat/
 
 
It's worth poking around everything on the site also, I found it all very helpful.

You may have already had your meeting, but I wanted to post this resource anyway for anyone else reading the thread (I'd be shocked if it hasn't come up elsewhere on this site): theprofessorisin.com. It's mainly geared at current graduate students and those seeking positions on the academic market, but you don't have to think very hard to see why nearly all of this advice applies to students looking to get into graduate school.
 
How not to act in an interview: http://theprofessorisin.com/2013/05/10/the-six-ways-youre-acting-like-a-grad-student-and-how-thats-killing-you-on-the-job-market/
 
Working Conferences (the "don't cling" advice really applies at conferences, and less so for this sort of meeting): http://theprofessorisin.com/2011/08/17/how-to-work-the-conference-part-one-of-two/
 
The Campus Visit: http://theprofessorisin.com/2011/11/22/dr-karens-rules-of-the-campus-visit/
 
The Informal Chat: http://theprofessorisin.com/2011/11/09/chat-ching-dealing-with-the-informal-conference-chat/
 
 
It's worth poking around everything on the site also, I found it all very helpful.

So do we switch to the 2014 forum

I definitely second the idea of skyping with professors! I think meeting my POIs face-to-face made a huge difference in how my application will be viewed and how well I know each program and POI. It will also show that you are sincere in your desire to meet with them and are willing to work around problems (in this case financial) to do so.

You may have already had your meeting, but I wanted to post this resource anyway for anyone else reading the thread (I'd be shocked if it hasn't come up elsewhere on this site): theprofessorisin.com. It's mainly geared at current graduate students and those seeking positions on the academic market, but you don't have to think very hard to see why nearly all of this advice applies to students looking to get into graduate school.
 
How not to act in an interview: http://theprofessorisin.com/2013/05/10/the-six-ways-youre-acting-like-a-grad-student-and-how-thats-killing-you-on-the-job-market/
 
Working Conferences (the "don't cling" advice really applies at conferences, and less so for this sort of meeting): http://theprofessorisin.com/2011/08/17/how-to-work-the-conference-part-one-of-two/
 
The Campus Visit: http://theprofessorisin.com/2011/11/22/dr-karens-rules-of-the-campus-visit/
 
The Informal Chat: http://theprofessorisin.com/2011/11/09/chat-ching-dealing-with-the-informal-conference-chat/
 
 
It's worth poking around everything on the site also, I found it all very helpful.

I definitely second the idea of skyping with professors! I think meeting my POIs face-to-face made a huge difference in how my application will be viewed and how well I know each program and POI. It will also show that you are sincere in your desire to meet with them and are willing to work around problems (in this case financial) to do so.

On the other hand, there are more worthy applicants than there are awards, even with the numbers having been significantly bumped up. Those 2nd years that weren't awarded in previous years and are trying again aren't necessarily "worse." A lot of work goes into meeting that bar of 'award worthy' but in the end there's always an element that is outside of an applicant's control, like getting unlucky with a reviewer (someone whose other applications make your z-scores less competitive, someone who doesn't like your subfield and won't advocate for you, someone who is tired because your application was at the bottom of their stack, etc) or getting tanked by a letter writer like PhDplease! In a sense, these applicants are stiffer competition because they're starting with already strong applications from the previous year and making them even stronger. Several people here will tell you that they won on their second try and can articulate how they learned from the experience and addressed the reviewers' feedback.
 
I know my undergraduate application was a trainwreck. I think replacing the 'tossed together in the last week' with 'meticulously crafted using knowledge from 5,000+ GradCafe posts' probably helped. I've always believed my 1st year application was stronger than my 2nd year would have been because I didn't get any papers accepted my first year while I'm sure other applicants did. Further, would the growth in sophistication of my proposal 'kept up' with the growth in everyone else's? Who knows!?
 
Also, I had heard that while the awards are given to fields of study in proportion to applicants, they're given out by year roughly in thirds. I would guess that there are more 2nd year applicants than undergraduate applicants, making it a tougher pool. [ Does anyone have hard data? ] I know several people in my program who didn't apply until their 2nd year because they either didn't know about it or thought it impossible until they were encouraged by people who pointed out the acceptance rate lately has been too good not to try. Some people come from undergraduate institutions or labs that don't emphasize the award.
 
Finally, graduate school is a time of learning and growing. Someone who might not have been 'competitive' as an undergraduate may be quite competitive by the time they're a second year. We're not always going to be roughly the same level of "competitive" with respect to each other as we were in undergrad. It could be finding the right research project, coming in contact with great mentors, being in the right kind of environment, or having better resources to do either research or outreach that can help someone really shine. (At the same time, the reverse can be true making some "competitive" folks less so. It feels weird saying that because we're all graduate students which makes us all pretty strong to begin with.)
 
In summary, your competition isn't necessarily worse. Of course, I still believe your chances are too good not try. Good luck everyone!

Here's some good advice from one of last years finalists.

How did you score a 159 verbal, but not know how to spell ''weak''?
interesting you aced calc 2, and did meh in pre cal algebra(never heard of pre cal algebra or pre cal trig)

Jesus...where do I begin....
 
1.) Don't worry about whether you'll get into a PhD program this early in your undergraduate. For now, focus on improving your grades, studying hard, and maybe picking up some internships/research experience. You may have the GRE to worry about later too.
 
2.) GPA isn't everything. It's only one aspect of your application. Those people with perfect GPAs who got rejected, admissions probably saw something else in their application that they didn't like, i.e. irrelevant work & research experience, bad letter writers, bad impression during interviews, etc. 
 
3.) On top of that, different schools weigh GPA differently. Some schools look mostly at the last 60-90 units, others only major GPA, some science GPA, some look for improvement trends, etc.
 
4.) Calm down and enjoy your undergraduate years!

I sincerely hope that was sarcasm, otherwise we've taken a flying leap into the realm of Grad Student Neuroticism.

I sincerely hope that was sarcasm, otherwise we've taken a flying leap into the realm of Grad Student Neuroticism.

I sincerely hope that was sarcasm, otherwise we've taken a flying leap into the realm of Grad Student Neuroticism.

I sincerely hope that was sarcasm, otherwise we've taken a flying leap into the realm of Grad Student Neuroticism.