Dark-Helmed

From what it sounds like, the question seems to be do you want to spend $500-$600 now to have a mini-vacation in city B that happens to have an academic component? A sounds like a pretty fantastic option, even if the location isn't quite as ideal as B. Frankly, from what you've said it sounds like everyting about B would be suboptimal compared to A (and, actually, pretty miserable), except for the city. Can you imagine some other opportunity that would bring you to city B in the future?

And, since you might occasionally need a change of scenery, Philadelphia also has a bar with wine on tap: https://www.triacafe.com/taproom/ ...I miss that city

Congratulations! (Phenominal staying power as well)

To echo jeudepaume's question and motivation, is there anyone around from Duke?

Congratulations to everyone with good news today! Bon courage to those who are stil waiting.

Not keeping spreadsheets with tasting notes? tisk. Edited to add: supposed to have been a joke about wine tasting notes. Might have come across too harshly.

THIS. I can't give any more upvotes today, so I'll echo James above and +1 it.

Thank you, TMCB! Also, as an aside for everyone worried about negative outcomes.... this was my third cycle of admissions. There is always hope, especially if you work (very) hard and have a few lucky breaks.

I just got the formal notification, so I'm ready to go public: I am delighed and very, very relieved to claim a Duke admit.

Congratulations!

Grats Tremblay! (Also, like the beer that your name reminds me of )

Nice tip, thanks!

Congratulations to Davis people!

Yes and no. An admissions notice is nice validation (I'm given to understand...), but, really, is just the entrance ticket to spending 5+ years striving and swimming in bigger and bigger ponds. The admissions notice isn't validation of intellect or worth. Personally, I had a crushing round last year: waitlist agony exacerbated by hard personal choices with the direction of my life. Finally, the way out was to ask myself what, exactly, it is that I want out of having a phd (besides the letters, of course) and what kinds of steps I could take towards creating an emotionally acceptable substitute. Do good, interesting, work and the rest will fall into place... eventually. I'm happy to give out more details in PM, if you want.

Charming timing, that.

pst xuejia, your North Carolina is showing...

In addition to the point about applicant pools that you raised above, I want to add that I wouldn't use that email as an indicator that it's time to worry about your Quant score. My own quant was decent, but nothing to roll the red carpet out over. You/ your advisors/ the results of frenzied pre-application internet searches concluded that the score you had in December was good enough for your applications. That Columbia is looking to pad their revenue stream shouldn't undermine your confidence in two-months-ago you! For what it's worth, I did opt-in to the ETS search.

So, Pandora just gave me "Hung Up" my Madonna. (Don't judge, clearly their algorithms are on crack! I listen to the classy stuff.) Seems remarkably appropriate.

Wow, this link (and the associated spreadsheet) were eye opening. Thanks for sharing them.

Your husband is wise!

And I am nothing if not a huge dork for ancient references.

We're still pretty early yet. (Although, my impression is that the the timelines suggested by the results database are not as predictive this year).

Ha- I actually finished a bottle of Sangiovese last night, which is uncharacteristic. Not sure what I think about the grape: bought the particular bottle as an investigatory foray. I can't say that I got anything really that notable out of it, mostly "yep, it's a red wine" but then I was drinking it while killing a box of girl scout cookies... so the sugar probably blew out my already-dicey palate.

I also got a mass email from Columbia for the Quant MA, despite not having applied to the program. My guess is that they're fishing from the ETS databases.

I think that Carménère is also relatively popular from South American vinyards (at least a few years ago, when I was drinking more in the jammy / spicy range). Of course, shiraz won the popularity contest, but I vaguely recall seeing a quite a bit of Carmémère from Chile. Might be a good place to look if you find you like the grape. My impression is that ruché is affiliated with Italy. One of these days, I'm going to splurge and buy myself a periodic table of wine poster.