euges429

That just supports what I said: a 4.0 doesn't necessarily mean anything. You have to consider the reputation of the school, and the difficulty of your courses.

There's nothing related to the quote above, but I'm wondering: What's the LGBT lifestyle in Yale and New Haven? I hear there are lots of LGBT events, bars and pubs on- and off-campus. I would appreciate any experiences or advice you have regarding a gay male grad student in Yale. Thanks.

As well, you really need to consider the quality of the program/school as well. A 4.0 from a top-rate research-intensive university will definitely be better than a 4.0 from a liberal arts college. It shouldn't be, but it's just a fact of life. Similarly: I had a friend who went to Western Illinois University -- obviously not as big as UIUC or UChicago -- and he got a perfect 4.0 as undergrad, in history. He applied to Ph.D. programs; he didn't get in anywhere. He applied to UChicago, Loyola Chicago, as well as a few others. So, 4.0 truly means nothing. If it comes from a "bad" school, a 4.0 would be worse than even a 3.7 from a "strong" school. How you define "bad" and "strong," I'll leave it up to you.

Yeah, that's a huge risk. I would rather accept-then-withdraw. Professors should understand if you explain the situation to them. I mean, in the short-term, they might not like you accepting-then-withdrawing, but in some cases, you just have no choice. If you put all your eggs in one basket, you might have NO acceptances this year, and you'd have to apply again next year.

He did have nice eyes!

Well, looks like they've made a decision on your file, but there's some sort of technical error. I would e-mail or call them to ask in-person... You never know when the IT guy would be around to fix the system!

The PhD coordinator from one of my top choices recently called me up and said I was #1 on their list, and that I should be receiving a formal offer in the mail soon. That night, I e-mailed him, just wanting to thank him. But I mis-wrote. I wrote, "Of course, I am delighted to be ranked so highly by the admissions committee" (among other things). I meant to write, "Of course, I am HUMBLED to be ranked..." Among other things, I wrote things like, "Thank you so much for calling me in person to give me an update... I look forward to working with you and the rest of the faculty in the future." I think I sounded a bit too arrogant when I used "delighted" instead of "humble" or another word, which wasn't what I wanted. Did I just screw up? Or would this not matter much, since it's not a "huge" mistake? I just pressed SEND a bit too quickly without double checking my error.

The PhD coordinator from one of my top choices recently called me up and said I was #1 on their list, and that I should be receiving a formal offer in the mail soon. That night, I e-mailed him, just wanting to thank him. But I mis-wrote. I wrote, "Of course, I am delighted to be ranked so highly by the admissions committee" (among other things). I meant to write, "Of course, I am HUMBLED to be ranked..." Among other things, I wrote things like, "Thank you so much for calling me in person to give me an update... I look forward to working with you and the rest of the faculty in the future." I think I sounded a bit too arrogant when I used "delighted" instead of "humble" or another word, which wasn't what I wanted. Did I just screw up? Or would this not matter much, since it's not a "huge" mistake? I just pressed SEND a bit too quickly without double checking my error.

Yeah, he did. I kicked ass at other interviews at other schools, however! Oh well. LIFE...

Oh, I have. I just want to whine a bit, before I need to grow up for grad school. =)

True. This isn't one of my top choices anyway. =) So, like I said, I don't give a damn whether they rejected me or not. I'm just really curious about the admissions committee's decision-making processes. There was one other person there in our campus visit who's a GENIUS -- she got accepted everywhere, Stanford, Chicago, Harvard, she applied to all the Ivy Leagues and others and got all offers except for one. Not sure if she got accepted though.

Yeah, this early school, University A, is Canadian. =) A good school, but they don't care about April 15th deadlines! I should also add that Indiana University gave me an offer, with a deadline of March 28th. (This is not one of the schools I was talking about, since IU's not one of my top choices.) They said that after this deadline, I may lose funding, but would still be admitted. I just have to let them know by April 15th. (I've declined, btw.)

I should also note that I was always in touch with one of the profs at University M. When she first called me to invite me to the campus visit, she said "there was very strong support for your application." Our research interests are pretty much the same! So add this to all above, I'm not really sure why I was rejected.

I actually had a prof at my undergrad who advised me AGAINST wanting to be a prof -- because of "university politics." It's everywhere...

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I understand. But why she even think of applying for a job at the university she had un-chosen? There are tonnes of schools out there! Hmm... But in any case, I know it's a bad thing to accept-then-withdraw. But I'm kinda forced into it, or else I loose all offers whatsoever.

Actually, in the humanities and social sciences, some top schools (PhD programs) have admission rates as high as 30%. Seriously. I'm a psych person, and psychology is out of that loop. Social psych admission rates: more like 10%. At good schools like Stanford, 5%. And they say Harvard Law is hard to get into... (7%)

I am wondering about your thoughts on accepting an offer, only to withdraw it later? Before you all gang up on me, here's my scenario. I've been accepted to University A, with full funding. However, they have me a short deadline (next week), or else, if I past it, I am still admitted, but without funding. I am currently waitlisted at my top two universities, B and C. They will let me know if a spot opens up, whenever it does, up and until April 15th. I'm tempted to accept A's offer. And if B or C has a spot open, I withdraw A's offer. I know, this isn't really nice, and I really don't want to do this to University A. It's just that they gave me a very short leash, but I'm still waiting to hear from all these other schools. All universities A, B and C are my top 3 choices, really, but A would be my #3 choice. Obviously, if B or C accepts me, that would be great. What are your thoughts on this? I don't have a specific question, but feel free to post your experiences if you've done this before. If you still want to gang up on me, I guess you could do so. But it's not like I want to do this.

Do you know if their (especially Northwestern) ApplyYourself would be updated too? I know some schools, they send out their mails on paper, and THEN update their online systems... which seems odd to me, since it's easier to update a website (and faster too!) that mailing a packet out...

Well, like I said, it's marketing, not history. I assume that business PhD programs usually have better financial aid. I'm not sure what the average for history PhDs are. You're the experts... Good luck to you all!

You want me to make you guys jealous? Here goes. I got accepted to one of the top 10 PhD marketing programs in North America. $30,000 a year in stipends, plus tuition and fees. Moreover, they're nominating me for a University Recruiting Award worth $8,000 a year for four years. So, $38,000 x 4 years = rich. Jealous? (Hey, the OP asked for it!)