kayrabbit

My silence from NYU turned into a partially funded MA offer. At least the offer of some funding and the statement that MA students are welcome to apply to continue in NYU's PhD program afterward makes it feel a little better than the unfunded UChicago MAPH offer (not that it's not a good program — I just wonder how interested they could have been in me if they weren't offering any funding).

I'm also in the hotel. I'm arriving early on the morning of the 13th (flying in at 6:30 a.m.) and a graduate student is picking me up around 9 a.m. to take me to the hotel, so I'm not sure whether I'll be ready to go early enough to get to campus before the events begin, but I do have my heart set on seeing the library, so maybe we can connect that morning.

Yes, that seems to be how it works. They give you their most bleak assessment, and if you still don't back down, you pass the test. Very odd, as I'm not sure whether they secretly want you to pass that test and join them in fearless pursuit of your dreams or if they're hoping you'll turn back while you still can. Depends whether the professor is a pessimist or an optimist, I suppose.

I applied this year. I think the different processes by which one selects schools are interesting, because there really are so many great programs out there that at some point it starts to feel almost arbitrary which programs you look into and which ones simply never make it on your radar. I started with rankings, even though they aren't necessarily reliable, and placement records because I wanted to make sure I was only applying to schools that were likely to help me be competitive on the job market. Some rather bleak talks with my current professors convinced me (perhaps incorrectly) that I would have a hard time applying my PhD in the way I hope to if I didn't attend a program with a strong reputation. I also looked into programs specifically recommended by my professors. Full tuition remission and a stipend at or near the amount one could expect to make working a full-time, minimum-wage job were requirements for me. Many programs were ruled out simply because they didn't offer guaranteed funding. This felt unfortunate in some ways because many of the schools I looked at offered funding to some students through fellowships or TA positions that students had to compete for, so it's possible that I may have applied to one of those schools and received the funding I needed. However, I wasn't willing to gamble on that point, so I only applied to programs that offered full funding for all years of the PhD program. Location also directed my initial sweep of universities. I admit I didn't look too hard for schools in places like Texas, Arizona or the deep southern US, where I simply couldn't imagine myself living (being an Oregonian who prefers cold, wet weather). On the other hand, if I was already interested in a particular program, I didn't let location deter me. The previous factors led me to look into the programs, professors and research at particular schools, and from there it was all about how they matched up with my interests, whether there were people there I could see myself working with, and the impression the department website and outline of the program gave me. It felt odd to base my feelings about some schools on the content of their websites, but in some cases I didn't have much else to go on, and there is a very wide field of programs to narrow down, so some of these decisions are going to end up hinging on trivial things. That's pretty much how I chose my list of 10 programs to apply to. This was my first year applying, and I felt completely overwhelmed at first by the prospect of choosing a small number of schools to bet everything on. And I still made some bad decisions, like applying to Cornell and considering it one of my top choices, even though I was more in love with the location than the fit of the program for me. I also let reputation and the kind of sticker value impact of top schools sway me to apply for their programs when there were probably schools with less famous names but still strong programs that would have been more suited to my interests. I did manage to work in a few of those non-Ivy programs that made sense for me and offered great programs and reputations, which I think will allow me to end up in the right place. So for me it ended up being a mess of different priorities to sort out while trying to make good decisions and hoping for the best.

Congratulations! It's crazy to think that at this point some of the schools that we're assuming are rejections could still pull a waitlist admission out. I almost hope that doesn't happen with my remaining programs so I don't have more decisions to make. I definitely sympathize with you about having to make your choice without visiting, but I'll be happy to share my experience there with you afterward.

I haven't seen anything on the boards for U Michigan rejections. I applied and haven't heard anything yet. Have you created a Wolverine friend account to check your application status online? My information is listed in there but it all seems pretty ambiguous.

On Maryland, I wonder if anyone wants to claim the acceptance that was posted today. I was accepted into the program over the weekend after previously being emailed about being at the top of the waitlist, and another gradcafe poster told me they received a similar email about having a high chance of getting in. I'm not sure if they have received official admission yet, but it seems odd that someone else was contacted via phone for the first time, without knowing they were on the waitlist. Maybe more students have declined than they expected?

Yeah I don't think I indicated interest in the MA either. It's unfunded, so certainly not getting my attention, though it is a bit nice to be offered anything at all at UChicago, even if it is just to take my money.

Looks like Chicago is answering our pleas — I just got the rejection with a consolation MA offer haha.

I received this offer as well. It sounds like an opportunity that could lead to further work with UChicago if one was particularly interested in attending there. In my case, they were not offering scholarship assistance, so it would be all financial aid/work study help I received if any. Not a better option than five years of fellowship/assistantship in a Phd program, certainly.

Right? They appear to be done at this point so there's no need to prolong our wait. I'm not expecting anything but rejection from the schools I'm still waiting on (including NYU and Chicago), but it would be nice to know for sure so I can think about my options without hypothetical but unlikely possibilities thrown in.

Now that I've officially been admitted to a program, I'll also add that my C+ grades in calculus and chemistry did not keep me from receiving an offer. Those grades were, however, from my freshman and sophomore years, and my understanding is that admissions committees look much closer at grades from your last two years.

Yes, I was planning to already, and I'm happy to now be attending without the pressure of feeling like something I say might sway them one way or the other on me!

Just got offered official admission to University of Maryland after receiving a tentative offer a week and a half ago depending on how things played out! Excited and relieved!

Exactly. I agree with champagne that being short doesn't prevent one from being intimidating or commanding respect, but it does add another layer of complexity to how you present yourself to a class. Those who fit a certain standard (the distinguished, tall, white male probably being the highest) are more likely to receive the luxury of being respected without having to be intimidating. In person-to-person interactions, one's intelligence and personality quickly trump assumptions made based on appearance, but in an interaction between a professor and class of students, it seems like the initial assumptions become more important and more difficult to overcome. It will definitely make for a lot of conflicting thoughts the first time I find myself facing a classroom of undergrads.

I don't think a C or a C+, if you could manage it, are going to look horrible to committees who are reviewing your transcript for admission into a program in English. Math and science will be absent from your graduate career, so if you have an otherwise strong record it would make little sense for a committee to hold some less-than-stellar science grades against you. The biggest downside is the effect it will have on your GPA. If you're in your senior year with a 3.8 though, you probably have enough credits at high grades that it wouldn't have a huge effect. Or do you have a change of grading basis option at your school that would allow you to switch to pass/no pass or satisfactory/unsatisfactory grading for the class? If you feel confident that you will be able to get up to a C/C+ that would keep it from lowering your GPA at least.

Sure, you can definitely message me so we can talk about this further. I'm arriving early morning on March 13, so I'll be staying the night on the 13th rather than the 12th — not sure if that's the case for you. I believe Dr. Ray is setting up accommodations for everyone, but I'm not sure what that entails yet. This is the best news I've heard so far as well. I noticed that there were two posts on the results board about receiving this kind of email from Maryland. I posted one of them — was the other you? That would at least suggest that no others on GradCafe have had this result.

Love this! I'm 5 foot and a couple years ago when I began seriously considering graduate school as a next step, one of the first snags I ran into was that I can't imagine a whole classroom of students taking me seriously — especially if I'm standing behind a podium that comes up to my chest.

Yes, that was my concern too. I wonder how many of those emails went out. It's quite likely that they're expecting a few of the nine they offered admission not to attend with good reason, but I hope there aren't more than a few of us who have been sent tentative offers. Here's hoping that we'll both end up in — I'm coming to the visit day as well.

Dr. Ray emailed me to say there is a very high chance I'll be accepted into the program, but no official admission yet as they're waiting to see what happens with the nine they've offered spots to. I did receive a tentative offer letter with funding and program details. So I guess for now I'm just hoping one of the nine admits will go elsewhere.