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One school waited two months after I sent it to tell me that my application was received. If they hold out until April 15, it will be another two months.

I think there will be a spike in applications for about 6-8 more years because the birth rate peaked at around 1990 (echo boomers). This people are just now approaching college age. I think the economy has little to do with it, but the troops that are finishing in Iraq are coming back and many will consider graduate school. I think the Class of 2008 was relatively light, at least in my field of mathematics. I feel bad for those applying to graduate school in about 3-4 years from now, especially in English or Psychology where acceptance rates are lowest. At least there will be a good job market for all of us by the time we're finished with graduate school. For example, a large number of college professors are in the 55-70 age group so there will be a lot of retirees in academia. The same goes for industry, where there are also a lot of potential retirees.

The University of Utah is not a place you should be worried about. The social climate that you are referring to is far more prominent outside of Salt Lake City, especially at Brigham Young University. If you're interested, I believe Berkeley will be accepting more students that usual for 2009.

You will get into Utah, at the very least. I promise.

Your 3 years of research, the classified publication, and the preprint that you have is incredibly important. Also, your GPA is outstanding. The GRE is the most overrated portion of your application (even the subject test). And in your field, the Verbal GRE can almost be ignored (especially if you are a native English speaker). I did horrible on the GRE Verbal test - unheard of on this entire forum, and I still got into strong programs at the "big schools" (and my research and GPA, while good, is not nearly as good as yours). You should have no problem getting into big programs, maybe even a couple of absolute top ones like MIT or Wisconsin.

I said in another forum that it was too early to begin bugging programs until the end of March. I'm looking at the results page from 2007 and 2006 and I am seeing a lot of people find out in early, middle, and even late April. But now I'm seeing students contacting the secretaries ten times and I am wondering if I am being too patient. I am afraid to contact the schools this early because if I am wait-listed and I ask them why they're taking so long, they may figure out that I already got in somewhere else and send me a flat rejection. Programs don't really care about students not offered admission in the first round much. But the bottom line is that I am still haven't heard anything from nine programs (although I have been blessed with six offers of admission and zero rejections so far, I am still waiting for my top three schools). I want to think that I was wait-listed, but some schools reject students and don't tell you. If I should contact any schools, how should I go about doing that in a way that will maximize their chances of admitting me later? I am "on the bubble" at a few schools and this is very delicate matter. I also may want to indicate that I am in no hurry to decide and that I am willing to wait as long as it takes. Any ideas?

I don't plan to go to Purdue but I did visit them. I didn't get the impression that the town was really that small. In fact, the Lafayette area is really more of a small city. I don't quite understand why this scares so many people - there is going to be less traffic, you'll actually be able to sleep, there aren't as many stupid people. The difference between a big city such as Philadelphia or Chicago is that you will have one or two WalMarts to choose from instead of sixty of them, there won't be a unreliable mass-transit system to deal with, and the people have an incentive to be nice just like at any other small town (although Lafayette really isn't that small either). The main concern with West Lafayette Indiana is the soot people have to breath from a paper factory near campus, but the students assured me that the smell is harmless and you get used to it quickly. Also the campus (just the campus) is a little crowded, not very spacious, and built with ugly concrete and glass. I think Purdue has the best Civil Engineering program in the country, or at least one of them. Also the cost of living is ridiculously low. If you got a big enough fellowship in such a cheap place, you can afford to drive to Chicago (two hours) or Indianapolis (one hour) whenever you want to be in a big city.

You think I should contact them next week? I have no idea what to expect, and since most applicants are rejected (some for the most random reasons), I don't want to rush them.

He/she told you "I'm very excited to tell you the good news." If you actually end up being rejected, you should appeal the decision on the grounds that a professor already implied that you were accepted.

Someone reported that anyone who hasn't been accepted or rejected yet is wait-listed. They just didn't take the time to tell us because apparently they were more fixated on renovating their website. If anyone got an offer or acceptance, please make it quickly so that they can tell me whether I am accepted or rejected.

Under $15,000 in expensive Boulder is very discouraging. I got offered much more money at an equally good school that has a much lower cost of living. I'm keeping the schools I got in under wraps until I decide where I am going. I will likely turn down Colorado if I am offered that salary, but I haven't decided yet. I visited Boulder and I loved the campus. I even sat in on two classes (Dr. Martinsson's Modern Applied Analysis and Dr. Meiss' Dynamical Systems). The students were highly approachable and the chair (Dr. Curry) was helpful. Also the gas prices are the lowest in the country - which is good. The biggest problem I have with the school is the cost of living, but if you can handle it then I highly recommend them. I noticed that you're still waiting on Texas. I am also still waiting on the University of Texas' Applied Math Program. I am trying to figure out why it takes them this long to admit students, it isn't that hard to send an email to me saying that I got accepted (or rejected, if they dare try).

I haven't heard back from this program yet. How and when did you hear back? Did they mention the size of the TA-ship? I am not particularly optimistic about getting in the applied math program in Boulder (even though I visited them), but I have been fortunate enough to get into comparably good schools.

I say go to Pitt. They're paying anyway, and maybe they'll offer a massive fellowship if they admit you. For the record, unless Pitt offers one hell of a fellowship, you'd probably be better off going to Ohio State anyway.

If you're applying to CalTech, then a 3.9 is far worse than a 4.0. Aside from them, it doesn't matter much. Grades are important for admissions, but my experience is that graduate schools place more weight on the difficulty of the courses your taking and the research. Getting B's (and especially A's) in tough graduate-level courses is far more impressive than getting A's in bullshit easy electives.

I applied there too but never heard anything back. Judging from other people's experiences in the blog, "Decisions will be made shortly" translates to "We'll wait as long as possible to make a decision but we don't want you accepting other offers so we'll lie." According to the academic calendar, Spring Break just ended at UT Austin and Mondays are generally slow. My guess is that they will have decisions this week, maybe today if we're lucky. Good luck.

This was an idea that I had a long time ago... Some other constraints would have to be added in order for it to work. For instance, the school's draft board can only include interested students (if Student A doesn't want to the University of Wisconsin, then Wisconsin can't draft him). Also, efforts to protect student's privacy are necessary (some students don't like everyone knowing their GPA or GRE, even if it is good). Schools with room to admit more students will have more picks and therefore it must be spread evenly. Potential problems: Greedy top-tier programs such as MIT, Princeton, or CalTech probably don't want to be picking students in the same round as Northern New Mexico State College (or anyone else for that matter), but I'm positive that the University of Nebraska would have a problem if their first pick came after Harvard selects twenty-seven times. While I welcome the distribution of talent among schools, this would be difficult to enforce if top programs oppose this. Also, some disgruntled students can and will be undrafted so there is a risk of lawsuits. And how do we know that the process is fair? There will be people trying to cheat the system. Despite the potential problems, I would welcome such a draft as long as it is implemented effectively. It would be a lot of fun. Perhaps we could split the difference and have schools place a share into a draft so that students can choose between the old method and a draft. "Welcome to the 2008 Annual Graduate Selection Meeting... ...with the first pick in the first round of the Applied Mathematics draft, CalTech selects SIEKSUH."

bririshstudent, I am suprised too with all of the rejections, but Cornell is an incredibly good school and it looks like you're going to be alright. The schools that turned you down (UC Berkeley, UCLA, Wisconsin-Madison) are three of the most selective state schools in the country. It is especially tough to get into graduate school in your area of concentration. The last thing you should be worried about now is if you are ready for graduate school, I am sure you will do fine. Good luck with your other schools.

It is still way too early. The median date for decisions isn't until roughly February 29. If you ask them before late March, they might get the impression that you're rushing them (and impatient). The only instance where I see it being appropriate is if they don't confirm receiving your application before the deadline, and in that case you would actually look responsible.

I am sorry, I do not know the answer to your question. At least you're about to get a response from there. I'm still waiting on 14/15 schools and I am not expecting anything soon (I'm also going into applied math, by the way). Thanks for telling me this. I have a friend who applied to Arizona's Applied Math Program (his top choice) so I was able to let him know to expect something soon. And good luck, sir.