OhMySocks

Some schools have it listed on the website. Some don't make it public, in which case, I don't really know how you'd find out.

Yeah, I've been wondering how the financial situation in the US would affect graduate admission and funding, especially since sequestration threatens to cut scientific research funding significantly over the next decade, I think.

I think its better than receiving an acceptance from a school and getting asked "Why would you want to live there?"

Guys, I'm depressed and I really want to complain, so bear with me (or ignore this post). I figured out yesterday that I forgot to upload a document to my application for my top choice school, so its been marked as incomplete this whole time. And somehow, despite the fact that I've checked the status page multiple times, I've managed to miss that that part was missing (...its a really poorly designed status page). So I talked to the grad secretary today and she had me upload the document and she told me that final decisions were being made this week and that they will look at my application now that its complete. So presumably I still have a chance, but I feel as though if a grad committee had already been deliberating (and I know they sent out a few interviews already) and suddenly they get a new application they won't look at it too closely. Really though, I applied to 11 schools and of all the applications for me to make a mistake on, it had to be my top choice. On the application that I probably double checked 15 times before turning in. It really sucks. More than just being rejected for not being a strong enough applicant. Not to mention that this school is my last chance to be anywhere near my SO because he's getting his Ph.D. at a different school in the area. So as silly as it is, I feel like if we break up because of distance now, it might be because I forgot to upload a dumb document onto an application. Anyway, that is all. I'm having a stressful day.

I have a greyhound, which is basically the definition of an apartment dog. Quiet and beyond lazy. I live in a 300 sq. ft. studio right now, and I could probably fit another 2 greys in here and nobody would even notice until I take them outside.

Yep. Especially since I'm moving with a large breed dog, which complicates the renting situation significantly. Which is silly. Many breeds of large dogs are often much better apartment dogs, they're quieter, calmer, have larger bladders and far less likely to destroy anything than tiny yappers, but so many places have 30 lb limits. Frustrating.

Here is an example of a score report that the institution might receive: http://www.ets.org/s/gre/pdf/institution_score_report.pdf All it has is the raw scores. No other information.

There is no way to know, so really, you might as well not panic. I had an experience recently when I started seeing interviews trickling out to one of my schools for a few days, and then stop, and I completely gave up and was depressed about it for a like a week, and like a week after the last one was posted I got an interview notification. Point is, you don't know until you know so there is no use in worrying about it.

I'm currently working as a research assistant, and my boss has been trying to convince me to stay for another year, so I know that is always an available option. I'd really like to get out of this city though, so depending on where my boyfriend gets in, I might pack up and move after my lease expires and try to find a similar job there.

My boyfriend and I are both going through Ph.D. applications at the same time. While its nice that we can understand the process and relate to eachother, we are both incredibly stressed out and its not super fun. It doesn't help that admissions results will largely determine the future of our relationship, since depending on admission results we could end up living together in the same city, or we could end up 3,000 miles apart.

The only acceptance I've had so far, the subject line was "[school name] Application Status Update" and it was one of those generic pointer to the application website emails which had the actual acceptance. However, when I checked my email, I had that one and another one from the school which had arrived at the same time which read "[school name] graduate housing options" and my email setup shows me the first line of emails without opening them and it read "Congratulations on your acceptance to [school name]!" so the surprise was ruined.

Haha, I'll confess that I sometimes still check. It can be a bit difficult not to. But I don't check it 20 times a day like I was for a while. Maybe every few days.

It is possible to get into a school without research experience, however it is difficult. The idea is that when professors look at your application, they are looking for research potential. One of the best indicators of research potential is research experience. Without research experience, they are taking a large and expensive gamble on an admission, and you'd really have to convince them in other ways that you are cut out for research and know what you are getting into in a research program. My best advice would be that its not too late to get research experience. Professors in general like to help people that are interested in graduate school, so if you reach out to people in your area in your field and ask them if you can volunteer part time for them, it will give you a huge boost. As far as the GRE goes, its only valid for 5 years, so you'll have to retake it.

I'v I obsessed for a bit, but I've forced myself to stop looking at search results. I realized that absolutely no good could come of it. At best I won't learn anything, but I'm likely to see that other people had gotten accepted or gotten interviews to my schools and it would just ruin my day. The experience that forced me to stop was that I had been obsessively checking results and after seeing one of my schools had sent out a bunch of interviews, I got seriously depressed for about a week. I had completely written the school off, as well as my chances at any other school. Then out of the blue I got a phone interview request from this school, and now I'm invited to visit. Yeah, I don't want to have that experience again. Having the information is not worth the anxiety. I'll find out when they've made MY decision.

Don't worry about whether you screwed up by asking and telling them about other schools. Remember that this isn't only a large decision for you, its a large decision for them. They're about to drop 50-100k per year on a grad student (thats the estimate that I've heard from departments at least. Its more than just your stipend), so they're not going to change their mind on a whim for some arbitrary reason. You're just going to have to be patient though. These are busy people and while it would be nice for you to know now where you are going sooner rather than later, they need to take their time making their decisions, and all things considered, it is still early in the game and there is a lot of time left before April 15th.

I'm only familiar with Champaign as a city and not the program. Its definitetly a small college town experience and kind of dominated by undergrad life at U of I. Its not bad, but its not really super exciting and definitely not a cultural center. The good news is if you ever get bored you can hop a bus for around 10 bucks each way and hop up to Chicago or down to St. Louis for a weekend (its about 3 hours to either).

Yep. No matter what happens, at least you know that he wanted you and that he fought for you. At the least, it will be a good professional connection in the future. And if you keep in touch, and end up reapplying next year, you'd be that much more likely to get in next year, since I would think it would be unlikely for the professor to get passed over two years in a row, and you've shown your interest and dedication to the program.

I haven't been able to decide, though I've been thinking about it. I'm definitely going to get myself a nice school hoodie from where ever I'm going. There is a great LONG thread from last year on this: I'm glad you started a new one.

Given that they have enough funding. Some schools won't admit unless they can fund you, and so not every professor can get every student they want each year.

I think the problem with that math is that the outcomes from each school are, by no means, independent. So there will be a much larger percentage of people that get accepted to every school, or most schools that they apply to than by pure chance alone, and vice versa. That means that while you start with no information, and can assume a random distribution where you get into each school 5-10% of the time, with each acceptance that you get, the expected outcome at your remaining schools gets better, and with every rejection it gets worse.

I only think this would make a difference if it was a course that was a prerequisite for the department, or if it was directly applicable to the research that they are admitting you for. Nobody will care, or even notice that you dropped Underwater Basket Weaving.

There are fellowships and such that you might qualify for if you are of certain minority statuses. On a completely unrelated note, why is the plural of status, statuses. Shouldn't it be Stati or something?

I can vouch for Cornell and Princeton. The only extra one I had was Boulder.

Its hard to say. It can mean that they are interested, or it could just be SOP for them.

I have gmails priority inbox, so I've pretty much marked everything but grad school related and work emails as "not important". I get irrationally annoyed when I get an email from my boss now.