wandajune

Yep.

I was accepted to ASU, but I will be declining very soon. It seems I applied to an excess of "safety schools", but better safe than sorry.

I'm sure something along those lines is fine! I'm no expert, though. Perhaps run it by one of your professors if you're feeling particularly paranoid, just to make sure it comes across appropriately?

I wouldn't wait until you've been accepted to ask about visiting, simply because that news might come later in April. And I don't see how asking about a visit could necessarily hurt you.

I don't know if there's a right or wrong way to go about this, or a particular timeline you should follow. I know I would probably email them pretty early on and ask how good the chance of admission might be, and whether it would be possible to schedule a visit. I'm personally hesitant about attending a program if I don't get the opportunity to visit, and if there's any chance of being admitted off the waitlist, it only seems fair that you should get an opportunity to visit the department. Other people may want to weigh in on this.

I would email the department and express interest in visiting. But perhaps don't expect the department to fund the visit.

I'm visiting Wisconsin-Madison for the prospective student weekend on March 28-30. Feel free PM me if you'll be there.

Agreeing with this.

That was me. I believe I got an earlier notification because I'm fairly close in proximity to campus, and so they invited me to their upcoming graduate student conference.

I think my decision will depend primarily on fit, and based on my thoughts after visiting. I don't think this thread was meant for the bolded option, but rather for people to discuss their considerations. It's a bit presumptuous to suggest that's what anyone will post here.

Definitely adopting this as my new stress-relief method.

To chime in on the B.A. from unknown school situation -- I am applying with a B.A. from an unknown school, not ranked in the top 50 PGR or US news, and I have five Ph.D acceptances. I think the wise advice is to apply to several M.A. programs, but apply to Ph.Ds as well, you may get lucky. It may be a disadvantage, but they don't automatically throw out your application if you have a B.A. from an unknown school.

No, not directed towards you! I think your comment to MattDest was reasonable, and I was also wondering how someone ought to handle that type of situation.

Finish the applications early to make sure that your materials are all received by the due date. You'll save yourself much anxiety. (Did they match my GRE scores to my application? Were my transcripts received? Etc.) Develop a good relationship with your undergraduate professors, and ask them to help you with your writing sample. Really, don't be shy about this. The comments my professors gave me on my sample made all the difference. Ask your professors to help with your personal statement, too. A lot of people seem to think the personal statement doesn't matter, and it probably isn't as important as other parts of the application, but I do think a strong statement can set you apart from other applicants. I almost didn't have anyone look over my statement before sending it in, and my first draft turned out to be awful. The final version was good enough that an adcomm member at a school that admitted me mentioned liking the statement. The statement may not be as important as the writing sample, but it will be read and remembered!

I'll second this suggestion. Nobody needs to make rapid-fire decisions about something as important as graduate school.

Congrats on the waitlist! I've been hoping you would hear some good news.

Most stipends come in the form of assitantships, so many graduate students are essentially employed as teaching assistants or research assistants, etc, and are being paid for the labor associated with that. Fellowships generally don't require any form of labor from the recipients, but on my understanding, fellowships are usually only for a year or two, after which the student will take on an assitantship.

Congrats!

I am aware, thank you.

Also, congrats to the Madison waitlistees! It's very much my top choice right now, so I'm afraid I can't help you much, but good luck.

I was just accepted with an assistantship for the terminal M.A. at NIU. From the email: "...we had an incredibly strong and unusually large group of applicants this year since we had, so we have many excellent candidates on our waiting list. Hence it would be very helpful for us to know your decision as soon as possible."

I'm curious about this. Did this adcomm categorically deny all non-M.A. applicants, or did it just happen that the M.A. students were the stronger applicants and thus the only ones seriously considered?

I applied to 12 schools. Four of these are (PGR) ranked in the top 25, five in the 50-25 range, three unranked, and one terminal MA program. I chose these schools because I wanted to apply to a wide range, I felt these programs were a good fit for my interests, and I liked the location of the programs. I would consider the unranked and MA program as my "safety nets" (if there is such a thing). At the time of applying, I sort of thought all schools in the top 50 were a "reach" for me, based my weaker undergraduate institution and the belief that my writing sample might not be that good. My undergraduate adviser encouraged me to apply to a wide range, and helped make suggestions of good programs based on my AOIs. If I could do anything differently, I may not have applied to some of the lower ranked and unranked programs on my list, and I would have applied to more "reach" schools. I do think the risk of being shut out associated with applying to more highly regarded programs is worth it compared to the long-term risk of applying to an unranked university with worse placement rates. Not to say anyone should take too much stock in the rankings, but I am concerned about job placement eventually, and the better ranked programs on my list generally happen to have better placement rates. (Though I'm not regretting it too much, because I do think it's hard to estimate how successful your application might be before the results actually come out. And I've already gotten into a few programs that I would be quite happy attending.)

The advice I was given by a professor was 1.) don't go to grad school for philosophy, but 2.) if you do, don't go into debt in the process. I would not choose to go if I didn't receive a funded offer. The way I see it, I'm going to spend the better part of the next decade studying something I love while being paid (modestly), and I really see no harm in that as long as one believes in back-up plans.

The tenured/tenure track professors at my undergrad got PhD's from unranked/borderline unranked Ph.D programs, if that eases anybody's mind in here.