Gram Neutral

Since I work full time and am in grad school, I fully plan on taking at lesdt 2 weeks to relax and decompress. I had a PI reach out to me but they don't make formal set ups till later in the summer.

Funny story. Yesterday I got an email from one of my programs saying an official decision has been made on my application and I remember thinking Hm that's weird, I was accepted there 5 months ago and declined it. Well the official letter said that unfortunately my application had been rejected....nice try school. Haha.

I was actually on the 2nd interview weekend, so perhaps we met. I was torn between SLU and Notre Dame but I'm more infectious disease stuff. I was happy with the stipend and the type of research being done there. I didn't notice any red flags and funding is pretty secure. In the end I chose Notre Dame but it was a tough choice. If you feel there are 3 professors whose work you can see yourself doing then I say go for it. It's hard enough getting into a program in the first place and there's no guarantee you will get in next year. You can message me if you wanna get into specifics of the program. I think ABC is actually going there, but I'm not sure they check the forum anymore.

You know, it's shocking that I only just heard from a program yesterday, and one still hasn't given me a decision since the interview. I've already accepted another offer but like come on. You can't give even an estimated chance of getting in? That's embarrassing. God forbid I was some kid waiting to get in somewhere without anywhere else to go... It's actually kind of unprofessional.

Random question, does anyone know when stipends normally begin? Like if I start school august 20th will I get paid that day, a month from then, August 1st? Does it vary?

Hey, We have moderately similar stats, but your undergrad GPA is better and your verbal is 5 points better. I didn't finish my masters and elected to just start my PhD, but have been working full time as a researcher. I have to say my research experience was really my strong point, and I think schools really liked that. I didn't get an interview to Vanderbilt, but I did to Notre Dame and that is where I'm attending. I say go for Vandy and some reach schools. Your master's GPA and research puts you at a bigger advantage than I think you're realizing.

Best part about a new @school.edu address is 6 more free months of Amazon Prime.

I accepted the offer from Notre Dame. Excited to start my PhD!

UIUC just doesn't want to take back its own ;-) haha. The whole University of Illinois system also didn't want me(fellow UIUC). Don't feel too bad. I am sure after your master's you will get into a good school. You actually applied to mostly super competitive programs. If you had thrown in some safety schools you might have gotten into them, so don't think of yourself as a bad candidate.

Just got accepted to Notre Dame. Pretty jazzed up if I say so myself. 3/3 so far!

I thought it was standard procedure to write thank you letters to the professors you interviewed with. It helps show interest. Otherwise it could seem like you don't care. I also got positive feedback from some which made me feel good. I didn't email any program directors etc unless I interacted with them. Sending an email more than a few days after you interviewed is also mostly worthless because by then they have already submitted their review of you to the AdComm, unless you want to rotate in their lab or something.

Got my second acceptance during my last interview. That was a fun surprise. Now I just have to wait for decisions from the other two. Still strange thinking I will actually be going to grad school after applying 3x.

I'm fairly certain that although a school can push you to commit, they cannot actually rescind funding or an offer of admission until April 15th.

I finally got rejected by Vanderbilt, which isn't a big deal at all cause I knew it was coming. That was like the best rejection letter ever though. None of that "record applicants, can only take so many, etc etc" BS. Just straight up and then they said if I want to reapply next year they would be happy to discuss my application and things I can work on, but to just wait till the late spring. It was super nice and no program has ever done that (and I've gotten 19 rejection letters).