geographyrocks

Congrats! EDIT: Did you ever post your stats? I can't remember.

Monster mash

I did the same thing. I think it was all of 2 or 3 sentences. I thanked him for his email and told him that I would probably have questions later (he ended his email by saying I could contact him with any questions). I just might be emailing him soon with questions seeing as I received his unofficial email. I received the official letter from the department a couple of days later, but I STILL haven't received anything from the graduate school. The letter was dated February 6. I'm not sure if I should give it more time or find out what's going on.

This was my first thought as well.

I fall into the opposite category. I hate cold weather and ice so that plays a big part in where I wanna live for the next 4 years. This winter definitely convinced me to move to the SW! lol

We have an entire discussion going on admits and rejections here:

Congratulations! I would add weather into your decision making process. Wisconsin gets ridiculous cold weather and ridiculous amounts of snow.

Notices are going out for CU Boulder now. I got a big, fat rejection. The only way the rejection could have been more generic is if they would have left my first name off of the top of the email. I met all prereqs so I'm gonna guess it was a research fit problem. There really wasn't any research going on that match my interests exactly although I felt that my scope of interests was wide enough to circumvent that. *shrug* The program is ranked #1 so you gotta try. I can't imagine getting one of those rejections letters before receiving an acceptance.

I always get supremely amused by people who attach little end notes that contribute nothing to the conversation other than to try and boost their "coolness" factor by trying to distance themselves from the potentially uncool portion of a conversation. Anything to feel special, I guess? And Gnome, sometimes you are helpful and relevant. Sometimes, you should just remove your fingers from your keyboard and go grab a Snickers. Seriously, this is a GRADUATE school forum. The people on this forum are generally intelligent. Is there any need to try and belittle people or their interests when responding to these kinds of questions? You're smart, I'm smart, we're all friggin smart. The problem seems to lie in the jerk ratio. Some of you are working with some huge numerators. I'm just thankful that you are the minority and not the majority. With that out of the way, I'm hoping this thread can go back to discussion in an intelligent and peaceful manner. I need to go get some much needed coffee.

I was thinking more along the lines that the state would reduce funding to the educational institutions to pay for the damage which could affect funding. Just saw an acceptance on the results page for CU Boulder's Environmental studies program. They were admitted to MS, but they applied for a PhD. I'm still hearing nothing.

I'm in a different field, but all of that sounds like a great way to get yourself rejected rather than accepted. They've already decided that you're good enough to attend or they wouldn't have wait-listed you. If you keep sending emails or having emails sent, they may decide that you're needy and desperate. And unless you had previous contact with those PIs and they said they'd help you get in, they may see that as arrogant. They are part of the admission process after all, so they had their chance to fight for you while decisions were being made. I don't think there is anything that you could do at this point to increase your chances of being accepted.

I was accepted into a 4 year PhD program so I hope it's possible! lol Although I'm in a different field, I've seen averages of 5 years as well.

I generally test INTJ. I take that test for funsies about once a year. My type hasn't changed in 6 years or so. It's my own mini-experiment. I'm interested in the responses as well since INTJ is suppose to only make up 2%-4% of people that take the test and the other INs are all less than 5%.

Do you have a BS or MS? Did you contact any professors before you applied? Also, which department did you apply to at CU? I think CU likes to interview candidates who want to go from a BS to a PhD, but that could be department specific. I applied to the Environmental Studies program, and I know they have very limited funding. I think that they have to "borrow" TA positions from other departments to give funding to their candidates. I wonder if they're having more trouble this year because of the government shutdown postponing decisions on NSF grants and with all of the damage CU suffered from the flooding. I wonder if all departments at CU had their funding cut due to that last one... I wonder a lot of things since there don't seem to be any answers yet

At least some people who applied at CU are getting answers! lol Judging from past results, it'll be this week or next week. Or mid-March if rejected.

I would think the emails would be similar to the emails sent to professors before applying. I haven't had to write one of these so this is advice that isn't based off of experience. I would look through all of the faculty and see which professors have interests that are close to yours. Then send them an email that introduces yourself, your background, your experience, and most importantly the question: do you need a RA? Make sure that you indicate that such and such recommended emailing professors. Hope that helps a little! Edit: It does sound like you are accepted but without funding.

Was just accepted into DU's MA program. No funding information is availalbe yet, but they did say I'm being considered for a Graduate Assistanship. I probably won't accept unless the funding offer is spectacular, but still YAY!

Come on

Just to throw another timeline out there: I received an unoffical email on 2/3 with hesitant funding. I received an official department letter via snail mail on 2/13 with what they thought funding would be. I still haven't heard anything official from the graduate school. Nothing has changed on the website, and I keep getting mass emails from the financial aid office informing me that I'm not officially admitted yet so they can't do anything with the FAFSA information I sent them. This process is just so darn fun!

The physical Geography departments are behind as well. I'm guessing that's a trend this year. I wonder if it has anything to do with the government shutdown messing up funding? My POI at UNM said that all of his grants from NSF that should be in are still pending. I wonder if that is happening across the board...

Thanks! I applied to the Environmental Studies department. I know the two departments share professors, but they may make decisions at different times. Who knows. I'm still too tired from my end of January stress-fest to stress out any more! lol

I had this happened. My scores were sent to the graduate school and not the department which made it hard for the department to find...for some reason. This stuff happens all the time (too often for the prices we pay for this stuff!).

That's what I'm thinking. There's a reason why so many people get rejected from their "safety schools". I think most people choose a safety school because they think it's easy to get into, not because it's a good research fit.

I just noticed your signature. Which department did you apply to at CU Boulder, if you don't mind me asking?

I visited the schools, but not the programs or professors. I would say contact is the most important part. I think visits before applying are more for your benefit. A visit to CO State's campus made me decide that I didn't want to apply there.