jmu

It's hard to say as it's specific to the program you're applying to. I have IDs for 2 schools that I have not been accepted to yet, they just use it to keep track of me in their system. Other schools only assign an ID on acceptance. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- I was rejected from a program today. I was expecting it, but it hurt a bit. However, within 15 minutes of that email, I received another from the DGS at my current program letting me know I was nominated for a very decent fellowship. I had, apparently, been getting hints that this would happen but have been completely oblivious to them (one of my professors asking me a few weeks ago if I had heard from him, the department secretary jokingly saying that they would bribe me to stay with a lot of money.) Apparently I'm bad at this whole good sign thing.

There is a GRE specific sub-forum where you can search and get answers on this. I wouldn't sweat the 4 though. It wouldn't hurt to do it again but the GRE is only one part of an application and you did really strongly on the other parts.

Welp, at least I know. On the bright side, 13 minutes after getting that, I got an email from the DGS at FIU letting me know I have been nominated for a presidential fellowship ($30k/yr stipend for 3 years, tuition waiver, insurance, with a 1 year TA requirement.)

Gave in and called Clark, just asked very broadly and used my partner's phone to try to ward off any "bad luck" that might come with asking. If you applied and haven't heard anything you should by this afternoon or tomorrow.

In the social sciences, entering a PhD program at 21-22 means you're most likely going to be in your low thirties before you are able to take on any kind of full time position. Typically it goes 6-8 years for the PhD (assuming you don't already have an MA), a year or two of post-doc, a year or two as a visiting professor, then you can start to apply for full-time, tenure track positions. Since you're unlikely (but not impossible) to have any kind of fulfilling life experience with a social science degree and most people in the US want to get on with having a family and what-not it's not that unreasonable. At 27 I'm looking at my late-30s before I can really start my carer and even though the starting a family thing is not a major concern for me, I still wish I had started earlier sometimes.

One of my schools now has three responses in the survey, two waitlists and an acceptance. Previous years all applicants have heard back within a two day period but I still haven't heard anything. I'm ready for this to be overwith so I can knock this school of the list one way or the other.

Another day, another Clark waitlist. I'm not sure if I should feel really good or really bad about the fact that I haven't heard anything from them.

I wrote them thank you cards and apologized for the incessant emails over the past few months. No gifts because I can't fit them in their mailboxes and hardly see them. Maybe once I get accepted somewhere I will get them a gift.

Allocate a little extra for sending transcripts again and for shipping by mail just in case and you should be set.

Owning both a laser printer and a nook, it's worth it to have the nook. The simple touch regularly goes for like $80.

I have the nook and converting files in calibre really depends on the files. Sometimes it works and sometimes it is awful. If the PDF is textflow there is also not much advantage to doing it as the nook will be able to zoom anyway. That being said, I use it to read any regular PDFs and print pagescans and others that don't show up well. You can't annotate PDFs with the nook but I just take notes on another sheet. Isn't an issue.

Fee waivers are good but not all programs offer them unless you are in very specific situations so look closely and ask before spending time trying. Time goes by quickly once you start the process. My fees averaged to be about $120 per school including the costs of sending transcripts and sending two additional GRE score reports.

Absolutely!

I also haven't heard anything but only one person has posted anything about any of my schools in the results, and that was done today (in the last few hours.) So, while not a totally analogous situation, I feel your pain.

Interested in more info on the Clark waitlist posted today. Can anyone claim it?

Some advice from the "other" side. One of my BA's is in Sociology/Anthropology, which I focused on Anthropology and only took a few (3) sociology courses. My other BA is in Geography, from the same department. Being in an interdisciplinary department means people take classes in all of the fields within it and, likewise, professors teach in all of the fields based on their sub-disciplines. A lot of the S/A students I've talked to never really had a feel for the difference between the disciplines coming from this department and neither really understood Geography, outside of the physical aspects. (Which has left people perplexed when I told them that I don't know all that much about geomorphology, which comes up a lot for some reason.) Because of my ties with undergraduate student groups and my role as an unofficial undergraduate mentor, I've stayed in contact with a number of graduates from both sides and, after starting an MA or PhD in their chosen discipline, they realized that the other is actually a better fit for what they want to do and planned to change programs. In a few cases they realized that Geography was actually the right choice for them. All three disciplines are so close that training and understanding all three should really be considered. Also, it may not seem like it, but you are really early on in your undergrad... I promise you that your research interests will change. That's totally normal and actually a good thing. It will not hurt your grad school chances if you have a broad understanding of the field/sub-field. You don't want to apply for grad school with really narrow interests nor do you want to shut out broader sources of information which can help you formulate ideas. Sorry if these seems rambling or choppy or is otherwise not helpful...

Good luck! I received an email from my top choice last night... only to find out it was an auto-response from their financial aid office about receiving my FAFSA info. Never have I felt such a rapid rollercoaster of emotions.

Most likely will be waiting until March until I hear anything from all of my schools except for the stretch school I applied to (Clark). I expect to hear from them sometime in the next week or two.

27, will be 28 shortly after the fall semester begins. I also don't think age is that big of deal, every grad program I've seen has been highly varied.

I've had a few dreams about being accepted and one about being denied. Not only are you not alone, but there is someone else in Miami doing the same thing!

It depends on the program. For geography several of them have top sports teams. When I told my friend (UFl grad) that I applied to Georgia he immediately told me that I should apply to UF too so I could make the SEC schools compete, even though UFs program is completely outside of what I research. People are weird about sports.

Thanks! He is the closest fit out of all the programs I applied to and was recommended by one of my LORs who knows him so I'm hoping that those things work in my favor. My partner thought I was crazy when I told her I wasn't sure how to react to the email.

To be fair, it can, in some instances, lead to better funding offers if you make it clear that you have a more competitive offer from a competing program.

I had this happen at two schools. One said they never got a transcript but when I called the admissions office they found it and fixed it right away. The other the grad secretary retired right before applications were due which delayed the process of updating the system but they told me the application was actually complete, despite what the system said.

I'm probably reading way too far into this but, one of the people I had contacted to be a POI recently had an interesting article published that I had contacted him about. When I had first contacted him the tone was pretty formal, he told me he wouldn't be taking on any new grad students anytime soon and recommended a couple other people to contact and strongly encouraged me to apply anyway as he thought that my research was well aligned with the program. After reading this article I emailed him the way I would any author, figuring he had forgotten about me. The tone of this email was noticeably different; very casual, conversational, and signed with his first name only. It's been bothering me for a week now but I'm hoping that it's a good sign.