pterosaur

That's fantastic! Do you know how hard it is to get a decent place/find a roommate?

@anthrostudentcyn - Congrats! Sounds like he didn't give you a lot of turn-around time though, wanting to meet in person the day he emails you. Yikes!

A professor who has your back like this is awesome and gives you a huge confidence boost. And his enthusiasm and commitment to you will definitely come through in your applications and recommendations. This is actually one of the things that's drawing me to a particular PhD advisor - not only is she doing amazing research, but she seems like an incredibly awesome and supportive person.

I've taken up fountain pens and calligraphy, knitting, built a home server, and studied fencing strategy while waiting for grad school apps. I never knew waiting could make me so productive. (Not productive toward my master's research, though, of course.)

I was just accepted to a PhD at Harvard. (Yay!) It's my top choice, and since I did my undergrad in Boston I know how scary/expensive the housing in the city is. Does anyone have experience with or know anything about Harvard University Housing? Seems like Harvard taking a lot of the hassle/fear out of finding housing when you can't come to do the search, but I'm interested in what the housing/experience is actually like.

Does anyone know much about Northwestern's interview visit? Is it more along the lines of accepting 90% of the students they invite or sub-50%? I'm curious because the emails I'm getting for scheduling keep calling it a "PhD Recruitment Weekend."

I got into my top choice! It's taking all my willpower not to immediately accept and wait until I visit there and my other options. I'm super excited, but no one in my lab office right now seems to care. Also, I don't have an academia.edu page to track, but I have a personal website that I listed on my CV and applications. I can definitely tell that people have been looking at it, particularly at one school. Also, inexplicably, someone in Texas spent a lot of time on my site.

This reminds me of when my apartment in undergrad starting getting water damage from unknown sources and the landlord was a huuuuuuuuge pain about it. Or the time the toilets in the dorms kept breaking and the (all-male) maintenance staff accused us of flushing our feminine hygiene products down the toilet. I hope yours gets resolved with less damage and hassle!

A professor I Skyped with said so in our email correspondence. He said a different professor would be in contact with me very soon (I hope with good news).

My alternative career plan if the grad school/academia thing doesn't work out: start a combination bookstore bakery called The Bookery. But seriously, I'm incredibly lucky to be in a field where there are job opportunities if this doesn't work out. I've got my fingers crossed for you guys!

Harvard admissions committee met Friday (at least for BioEng, not sure about rest of SEAS).

Thankfully my family has kept pretty mum on over-optimism. Instead I'm facing my recommenders saying they're sure I'll get in everywhere. When I told one that I got an acceptance, she said "A bottle of champagne is due. Actually, get a case of champagne. It'll be cheaper." Well, I guess that means she wrote me a pretty good letter of recommendation?

Update: it's irrelevant - I just got accepted.

I got my first acceptance!! Fully funded PhD at CMU! I haven't heard from my top choice, but it's such a relief to have a good offer in the bank.

I had an informal Skype interview with a professor at a school I applied to, and he said he wanted to schedule a time for me to come visit when I'm the country (less than a month from now). The dates would be after they have historically announced decisions, but there's no word on decisions yet. So how do I interpret this? Is it an interview or a recruitment visit? I have no idea what to make of it.

One lesson I've learned: when you don't know something, admit it. They'd prefer the honesty, and there's no way you can prepare for absolutely every possibility. But be willing to speculate and think about what they've asked. PhD interviews aren't usually interrogations, though, so I wouldn't stress out about that too much. The other thing that I've felt makes a big difference is standing up straight. I usually slouch all the time, but when I make a point to stand up straight and pay attention to my posture, I end up feeling way more confident.

Unless you're going to be spending an extended period of time outside, you don't need to worry about long johns. (I'm from Wisconsin and I'd usually only ever wear them going to Packers games or winter hiking.) A warm coat, hat, and mittens are plenty. If you're female, only wear a skirt with warm tights. (From the casual dress code, I'd say not to bother with a skirt anyways. I avoid them in the winter if I can.) Make sure you have sensible shoes - something with tread that won't slip on ice! Dress shoes generally fail on this front. I have a pair of nice-looking leather boots for precisely such occasions.

My only knowledge is about the UK, where I'm currently studying. Here, it turns out to be very difficult to get funding. I'm in science/engineering, but I'm guessing it's probably at least as bad for psych. Unless there's another magical source of funding, mostly the PhD programs are fully funded for UK students (tuition + stipend), partial for EU students (tuition only), and nothing for overseas students. There are usually a few university PhD scholarships (which are of course really competitive) and outside scholarships (like Rhodes or Marshall - even more competitive). There's also a big difference between US vs UK PhDs. In the US, it's generally 5 years and starts out with courses equivalent to a master's degree. In the UK, you're generally expected to have a master's when you start, and you spend 3 years just doing research. This also means that when you apply, you're usually applying to a specific professor with a specific proposal or project. (There are exceptions, like Centres for Doctoral Training, which are 4-year programs where you don't have to have a project at the beginning.) Hope that helps some!

Based off of last year, I think the committee for my top choice program is meeting today. Also, am I supposed to be worrying about the FAFSA right now if I'm applying for funded PhD programs? I hadn't even thought of that!

Got my own question answered - Northwestern called about interviews last night, scheduled for March 3-4 (but they said they're super flexible on dates). It looks like I'll actually be able to make that! Will I be seeing any of you guys there?

I got my first official interview invite last night. Er, this morning. 2 am. The director of PhD admissions called and clearly knew my application well but somehow didn't put together that I'm the UK. He seemed kind of embarrassed and I think I heard laughing in the background on his end. But I think it also means that any awkwardness on my part could be excused by being semi-conscious.

Does anyone have experience with CMU? I had an informal Skype interview this week, and the POI I was interviewing with wanted to organize a visit while I'm in the US at the end of the month. This seems to be after decisions will have been made. How good of a sign do I interpret this as? (Seems one person on the results page heard back weeks ago, but there isn't a discernible pattern matching previous years.) Also anxious about Northwestern. Last year was the first/only year they did interviews and notifications went out the equivalent of 2 weeks ago. No one has posted results this year yet. Are they doing interviews or not?

@jjjjjelly - I've exchanged a couple emails with Harvard profs this week and was told the admissions committee meets "soon," which is a horribly ambiguous word. Based on previous years, I'm guessing they're meeting this week or early next week. But one professor I interviewed with said I'm at the among the top of their admits list, so it sounds like the professors have a sense of who they'd like. (I'm hoping this translates into an acceptance for me?)

Oh god why did you remind me about fellowships. That's months away from finding anything out... Except the Hertz interview I have coming up in less than a month. Ack.

Ooh, an entire thread devoted to the anxiety of waiting for news? Now I can get more notifications on GC so I feel like something is happening. I'm currently waiting on results for... everywhere. But especially my top choice, where I've been told I'm among the top of their list of admits, but with nothing official. And after a Skype interview with another school, the prof. wanted to find a time I can visit when I'm in the country (which would be after they send acceptances). I want to interpret this as super awesome news for both places, but I'm afraid of getting my hopes too high only to be brutally crushed.