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My future roommate and I will both be starting PhD programs in the fall and will be visiting during the first week of June to sign a 2br+ lease that starts in August. Our ideal neighborhoods are Harrison West, Victorian Village, Short North, Italian Village, and southern Clintonville; we are also looking northern Clintonville, Grandview, and the extreme north of Arena District. We have searched Craiglist, Trulia, Zillow, and the listings of leasing companies listed in the undergrad housing survey. Aside from taking note of signs when we visit, any other suggestions on how to find residences in these neighborhoods?

Looks like there will be 11 of us.

Now that Decision Day has passed, would any of the lurkers care to come out of the woodwork and claim a spot in OSU's incoming cohort?

Made the decision that I had been expecting since before I submitted my application. Looks like I'll be a Buckeye in the fall!

They may begin taking people off the waitlist before reaching a specific threshold of declines, for fear that too many will decline just before 4/15. Then again, that is a fairly small program, so they may not have the ability to risk accidentally taking on more than 5 students. You could try emailing your POI/the DGS/the Graduate Coordinator to ask about how they handle waitlists. Worst case scenario, they can't tell you anything you don't already know, but they will see that you are seriously interested in the program.

As has been said, it depends on the department; they might permit, discourage, or outright forbid it. I can say that the grads I have met who are working another job tend to take on something that is 5, 10, or 15 hours a week. 20h/wk on top of roughly 50h/wk can be quite a commitment.

There's always money in the bananastand...

Would you mind sharing what subfield that is (here or via PM)? I'm in the same boat and think getting off their waitlist may be the only thing that would make me reconsider my planned course of action. On the acceptance/rejection front, I got denied from the PhD program at NYU but offered entry into the Master's AQR program. All responses are in, so the ball is now in my court. Just made my first declines - AQR at NYU, MAPSS at Chicago, and Duke.

I'm pretty sure I know where I will end up, no matter what happens between now and 4/15. However, I want to delay my final decision for the sake of funding and waitlists. My school of choice is recruiting me really heavily and even upped my funding again last night. How do I convey that I am very interested in the program (off-the-record, I'm pretty certain I will attend), but that I am not yet ready to make a decision? I don't want it to sound like I am stringing them along; I just really want to keep my options open and make as informed of a decision as possible. EDIT: Reading back over this, I may have answered my own question. Still wouldn't mind input.

Waitlisted at Cornell; might attend if I got in but probably not. Also waitlisted at Duke but it's not a good fit. Debating how much to drag this out since I'm pretty certain that I won't get off Cornell's waitlist and also fairly certain I wouldn't attend even if I did.

I'm not sure there's much of a risk to singling out faculty IF there are others in the department who are clearly also a close match. However, you'll probably want to avoid wasting space on assistant professors (who may up and leave) or particular older and/or highly-regarded faculty (who may not be taking on students). I'm under the impression that fit matters a lot for many smaller programs but not very much for bigger ones. Anyone want to weigh in?

Anyone know when Cornell's visit day is? Also, rejected from Sociology and Social Policy at Harvard a week and a half back. Earlier this week rejected from UChicago but offered MAPSS with 1/3 funding. Wasn't expecting to get into either, but an acceptance at Harvard would have been nice.

Speculation about Ohio State? From what I understand they haven't lost anyone since just before the last round of rankings came out (i.e. five years ago). In the same time they've halved their number of grads and while rising in various measures assessing faculty publications. Based on other things I've heard, I'm betting the most significant changes will happen in the 20-35 range.

According to my faculty mentor, 6-10 is pretty typical. Not sure if she was referring to a certain tier of schools, though. I applied to 8 that were fairly evenly distributed amongst the top 20. Two acceptances, two waitlists, three rejections and will probably get a fourth from NYU today.

I was told business casual but was actually overdressed on the first day of my first visit (nice button-down and khakis). By the last day of my final visit I was in jeans and a T-shirt. Generally people seemed to be dressed in nicer casual clothing.

josh4511 - check your inbox

Had two back-to-back visits this week that cleared things up for me. Realized department A was very strong in my main subfield interests while department B was strong in what is only of tangential interest. Throw in that A is offering me much better funding, is located in a more favorable city, had nicer faculty, has a better program structure... YMMV, but by the end of my second visit I was pretty sure where I will end up. 90+% now; just waiting to hear about waitlists and better funding (and even that probably won't change my mind).

Great post and definitely one I will be referring back to between now and 4/15. Can anyone (you included) offer a little more advice when it comes to funding? Right now I'm looking at programs where I could have as little as $350/mo after rent and utilities or as much as $900. I don't want financial concerns to be a deciding factor, but that is a pretty huge difference. On a related note, isn't there some way (rankings?) to comparatively assess student health insurance plans? Obviously I'll take a look at them myself, but it's nice to see feedback from current/former students.

Congrats to the both of you as well! Though this now means I can add Cornell to the list of schools that may or may not be making secret waitlists and tiered admissions. Sill haven't heard one way or another from UChicago...

Cornell, Princeton, and UT-Austin are all big on Developmental Sociology but, as someone previously stated, it's hard to gauge what exactly you might be looking for.

So, UChicago sent out acceptances (over?) a week ago and rejections this week. If I haven't received either, what does that mean? What is your status regarding UChicago?

Finally got the email from Duke today - waitlisted. Assuming I will be rejected from Cornell and Chicago. Still no word from Harvard or NYU.

Did your POI state whether they were done making decisions or had merely narrowed down the list to a group of finalists? Sorry to hear about the bad news. On the bright side, with an MPH from Cornell you're still pretty much guaranteed a bright future no matter what the outcome of your applications

I imagine the most appropriate answer is "it depends", but paint in broad strokes if you can: Do schools ever consider the rankings of related departments alongside sociology when a graduate did not directly work with that department? I'm thinking of the influence of public policy programs on social policy graduates: cross-listed faculty, interdisciplinary research centers, etc.

I didn't apply to either, but a friend told me last night that she hadn't heard anything from/about Brandeis yet.