astreaux

Great points, Maleficent and SocGirl!  I know I was browsing the decision threads from previous years to gain some insight into the decision-making process, specifically for sociology graduate programs!!!
 
I can't wait to post my final decision here!  I should know sometime next week!

Claiming a harvard acceptance too.

Absolutely speechless. And I know this is a luxury problem, but: This is going to be a hard choice (my only other acceptance is from MIT.)

I claim a Harvard

And this marks the end of my cycle. It's truly been a wild ride. Thanks, Gradcafe, for making it a little more bearable.

Good luck to everyone still waiting for results, and to everyone on waitlist.

I hope to see you guys at admit weekends

Still waiting. The website says not to bug them unless we don't hear by Friday 3/7.

Carzola!
 
Remember the above from three weeks ago.  It feels so good to tell you; "I told you so"!  I am VERY happy for you!  Congratulations!
 
 
Never believe the "8ball"!  Lesson learned, I hope!
 
 
 
SUPER DELIGHTED FOR YOU!!!!  Wishing you much success!

I'm only sorry I can't up-vote this twice. Congratulations!

In at UPenn. I'm at a loss for words. I'm hoping everyone else who has been shut out so far receives some good news soon (hopefully a few more today who also get into Penn).

I am!

I have had a truly unbelievable week, which is why I haven't posted on here in a while. Since last Tuesday, I've received five acceptances, bringing my record to 7 for 7 with 5 left to announce. That's about 7 more acceptances that I was expecting and I am still completely in shock.
 
To all of you who helped me through the long wait, thank you so much. You've been a godsend. 

seconding officesupplies.
 
UCLA anyone?//

It is March already folks. Let's give some of the love back to GradCafe by posting on the Let's do it for our future friends and colleagues before the current group starts leaving this forum for good. I am sure most of you benefited from the earlier versions of that thread while preparing your application. I know I did. Let's go and fill those pages. 

I demand full transparency because 1) Berkeley is a public university which is funded by taxpayers' money. So the "I reject you because I can" response is not acceptable. They need to provide equal opportunity based on merits. I am not seeing that here. There are very clear rules and regulations. They asked for a minimum CGPA of 3.0 and a general GRE (no minimum score required). I look at university application as a kind of peer review. If you reject me, you need to give convincing reasons. If you claim that there are more qualified candidates, you shouldn't have any problem disclosing the data (of course, not the private info, but what exactly do you mean by more qualified). 2) I paid an application fee. You are offering a paid service. I am the customer and you are obliged to respond to my enquiries. 
 
About the "I am better than this class" argument: I attended an Asian university, so believe me when I say that a large portion of or class had 4.0 CGPA. How did they manage to do that? I give you an example, we were taking a programming course. 50% of the marks were based on assignments. Virtually none of the students developed the algorithms and wrote the programs on their own. They simply got a copy from senior student and submitted it. They were kind enough to send me a copy as well. However I refused to do the same. I tried to develop my own program. It was only partially functional, but hey it was working. I got C+, everybody else got A. When I told the lecturer that I expected him to value my original work, he didn't care. Another example, we were taking an optimization course, I developed my own algorithm and achieved 96% correlation, everybody else copied the algorithm from the notes (developed by the professor). They got 99% correlation. I ended up getting A- and everybody else got A.One more:  In the Robotics class, my friend and I were the only people who actually solved the equations, rather than memorizing the answer. We never managed to finish answering 8 questions in 1 hour (even the professor knew there were too many questions, so he actually gave the answer a week before so everyone could memorize). Everybody else got A, we got B. I don't regret any of this. Now if you think i am arrogant, well good for you. I believe in doing science in a meaningful and productive way. I was nearly getting an F for not following the lecturer's instructions in a class. He taught us only basic HTML and CSS, I used advanced Javascript and AJAX in my website. He told me I was trying to make him look bad in front of the class! Is that how we are educating our students nowadays? We want them to be mindless slaves? Call me a bad "student", but you can't do that to me. 
 
About SOP and LOR: It's not applicable here. As I said, I only applied because the professor was interested in my work and his collaborator/ ex-post-doc invited me to. Besides, in all my papers, I am the corresponding author. LOR normally applies to those who have been working in a group as a student, so they need some sort of endorsement from the PI in the group. In my case, I was the PI myself and I have students. 
 
I only applied to 1 program because I already have 2 jobs (paid scientist by day, unpaid entrepreneur after working hours). PhD is only a title which is already carried by millions of people. I was only hoping to have easy access to the equipment. I even offered to bring my own funding for a joint research project. 
 
I guess when they were reading my SOP, they thought it was too good to be true!

So I have recently graduated with a bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering (honors). My CGPA was not exceptional (3.38 out of 4.0), however I won the best student and the best project awards from the Institute of Mechanical Engineers (UK) and I was also selected as the best student in the engineering department. I am the type of guy who refuses to copy the assignments or cheat/ memorize for the exam. If I don't enjoy it, I refuse to listen to the lecture. Grades are useless anyway. I have spent most of my time in the lab doing research on my own for over 4 years now. 
 
I have published 3 ISI Q1 papers as the corresponding author (in the field of nanomaterials), and I have 6 more under review (all as corresponding author). I am also a referee for several high-ranking international journals in Materials Science. 
I have won a number of international design awards and my works have been featured on USA Today, NBC News, ABC News, The Economist, Daily Mail, CS Monitor, etc. I have co-founded a company with a former CFO of Nokia and a former senior executive at Qatar Airways in which I also serve as the CTO.
 
Since my senior year, I have been also appointed as a research fellow (same ranking and salary as an associate professor in our University). As part of my work, I co-supervised (and still do) PhD students (yeah, undergrad supervising PhD students!).
 
Anyway, I am the first person to have synthesized this new material that was predicted to exist some 20 years ago. Think of graphene, but superior in every aspect, especially when it comes to industrial scale applications. We are still working on some of the details before we publish the results. One of my collaborators, a professor in Taiwan used to do his post-doc at UC Berkeley and he convinced me that I should apply for a PhD, so I can use the high-tech equipment at LBNL and make things go faster. So he introduced me to the professor. The professor said that he is going to take 2-3 students this year and depending on the outcome of my application, we need to talk more about my works. 
 
I had 3 very positive recommendation letters; one from that professor who was a former post-doc, another from my collaborator who is a research director at CNRS and lastly, my former supervisor and colleague who is an associate editor for one of the leading journals in the field of ceramic and composite materials.
 
I received a rejection letter yesterday from Berkeley. How on earth do you justify that? They say in their decision letter that there are so many other well-qualified candidates and I cannot be recommended for admission. I talked to the professor and he said that he was not part of the committee this year and he is very sorry. 
 
Is UC Berkeley located on another planet inhabited by highly intelligent species and comparatively, I'm actually very dumb?
No, seriously. Who makes these decisions anyway? I demand full transparency!
 

It's my first choice school, so pretty sure! (unless funding is not what I was told it would be...)
 
And, yes, the email acceptance makes me nervous too!!!

The graduate program coordinator at Harvard confirms "no notifications have been made as of yet. We hope to have admissions decisions available sometime next week -- most likely toward the end of the week."

The graduate program coordinator at Harvard confirms "no notifications have been made as of yet. We hope to have admissions decisions available sometime next week -- most likely toward the end of the week."

The graduate program coordinator at Harvard confirms "no notifications have been made as of yet. We hope to have admissions decisions available sometime next week -- most likely toward the end of the week."

It's quiet, and I think the waiting is getting to us.
 

 
At least, it's getting to me.

This. Exactly this.

Never give up
 

Yes it is.  I have imagined myself at each program I have applied to, and I wouldn't have applied if I didn't truly want to go there.  It's been harder for me to decline the program I have (or to consider declining programs I am leaning against, but have not entirely ruled out) than I would have ever thought.  
 
When you prepare an application, you identify the unique strengths of a program, you identify who you would work with there, and (at least in my case) you think about what courses you'd take in the first years and what life in that city would be like.  It is hard to give up on any of those "potential futures." 

Be a good houseguest, and bring something small and reasonable! A bottle of wine (or bourbon, if you're me) is appropriate, but I have brought pans of cinnamon rolls/other baked goods, wine, something small from the area I live in or am from, etc. Perishables that are likely to be enjoyed are best. And be gracious. Really, most of all, be gracious

Congrats to you, Gnome! Every acceptance is a reason to celebrate.

So between the Yale and the Harvard ones this may not sound very exciting but I just got into Indiana University. 
 
With this, I only have one school left that I am waiting to hear the official news from - though I know that it will be a rejection. So my cycle is basically over.
 
Thanks GradCafe folks for making this process a lot more bearable. This is, of course, not a farewell. I will be around.

Well. 
 
Happy to announce that, as someone on here mentioned earlier, hope dies last.
 
1st acceptance of the cycle. To Yale. Just sent up a prayer for everyone still waiting for good news. 
 
Specifics: IR subfield. Received an email from Susan Hyde. I don't remember mentioning her in my SOP (though I've since changed computers so don't have it easily accessible to check!). My guess is that she's sending notifications out for all in the IR subfield.