CarpeDiemOmniDiem

P.S. Nativenewyorker I just realized I never directly answered your question: yes, they answer pretty late. Right around March 15th (the approx. time most schools list that they respond by).

No problem Nativenewyorker- glad to help Rutgers and CUNY were both around the second week in March... I received a call from the grad director at Rutgers who wanted to have a phone conversation about my desire/intent to go to Rutgers. Based on that, I think that they either make one decision wave at the end of Feb/ beginning of March and a second wave decision by the second week in March on people they are "on the fence" about (which I believe I was one of). Also, my friend did apply to Rutgers and got a rejection in Feb.- so I am pretty sure they do a "reject as they go" - if you haven't heard, you are still in the hunt probably. Both of us just checked on the online site - they post your admittance decision on there BEFORE the email notification came (this probably only fuels your desire to check the site every other minute-sorry). As far as CUNY I am pretty sure that the earliest they send acceptance letters are early March and in fact, the funding letter comes separate 2-3 weeks later near the end of March. The other thing is, generally CUNY unfortunately does not have a lot of guaranteed funding- but you may already know that. You are usually able to get TA positions and their tuition is relatively "affordable" compared to other schools if you do want to attend without funding. Good luck! I will continue to check the Grad Cafe in case anyone else has questions.

I am currently a 1st year Ph.D student and used grad cafe last year...so as I was reminiscing about how a year had already passed since I was accepted I decided to take a look at Grad Cafe. That being said, I decided to post to help alleviate some of the anxiety everyone is having (completely understandable). I applied to nine schools last year: SUNY Albany, UMass Amherst, Princeton, Yale, Rutgers, Graduate Center CUNY, Columbia, UConn, and NYU. I have to say that anyone who has hears back this week or next is receiving relatively EARLY notifications...so fear not. And usually if you hear now, it is an acceptance or rejection. The next few weeks are usually additional "cuts." Last year at this time I had heard back from three schools: 2 acceptances and 1 rejection. Hope this helps. One note to UPenn applicants- a good friend of mine applied last year and they were pretty late (late March) in responding with a rejection. Hope this helps. I may occasionally check Grad Cafe (during work breaks ) to see if anyone has any questions. Good Luck! And it is okay to check 10 times a day- I did and got my wanted acceptance notification at work!