Dry

Thanks, I know that for my MS program, they wanted me to commit literally the day of my interview with a second program. I mailed it in and said better safe than sorry. I didn't realize that there was a little flexibility. I definitely won't say yes and then take it back, after all I may want to work/post doc there and that may hurt that chance Thanks. If/when this becomes an issue I'll just make my situation known and be sure to communicate with both schools about it

So I applied (really early) to 4 places 3 PhD programs and an NIH internship. There are two programs that I really would love to get into, 1 that would probably not be ideal for me due to being in a big city, and the NIH internship would almost certainly mean moving back to the DC metro, which isn't ideal either I'm married, so I limited my searches to states/regions that my wife and I were both willing to live in. This essentially limited us to the deep south and the west coast, which is why my # of schools is pretty low. The first choice is in a great college town, and one that I'm pretty familiar with. It has great access to my intense hobby, and decent diversity. Its probably my favorite University, but the program ittself does seem a bit stuffier than some others. I have semi-similar research interests to what they do, and they have a ton of funding for many students. I have a higher MS GPA and better GRE scores than they want, but I do have 1-2 big holes in my transcripts eg they want way more chem background than I have. At this school I have e-mailed with a few professors, one of which was nice enough to invite me up to talk with him/her last year. I think it went very well and everything, and we've stayed in touch every now and then during the past year since. I try not to beat around bushes so last year I plainly asked if based on my current status if I would be a potential candidate. He said yes, but obviously that's no guarentee. I just got word from him that, "They have my materials and will make their decisions in January after they learn how much funding they have) The other top choice school is, as far as I have heard, also in a great town. I've never been. Its a little further away from diversity and urbanization, but still seems to do okay for itself. They don't have a lot of access to my hobby but with like $1k I can build whatever I need for it anyways, and I didn't have any access at my current MS program's school but I built it to something pretty cool in 1.5 years. This school has objective GPA/GRE scores which I surpass, and have no specific course requirements other than a master's in a related field. Their big thing is that you must have 1 faculty member willing to take you on and fund you, where as other programs in my discipline seem more like communal funding. But from what I can tell they seem a little bit less formal and easier going, which could be really important for me because I am huge ball of stress and when I get near other stressful people it doesn't go well At this school I've e-mailed with a few people and one has been nice enough to talk to me on the phone for an hour or so about their work and how I might fit. Another professor got their PhD from where I got my undergrad and I know (they don't remember me, probably) all of their advisors. I haven't heard a response from this person yet. A third professor shared interests with mine, but will be retiring in the spring and won't take on any more students. He ended his e-mail with, "....., I believe _____________’s program could be an ideal place for your doctoral studies. I urge you to contact Dr. ________ to discuss his/her work." So that is decidedly more positive than the other school. This University does not have rolling admissions and sends their info in Feb/March and funding info in April/May It seems as though if I do get into the first choice, I will know about funding right away, so I could potentially find out fully about that school in January. I'd assume that I'd have to commit to that school before March or potentially May where I'd find out from the other school. What do people do in this situation? Take the first one immediately because you never know about the second one? A few people in my cohort suggested you'd accept the first one, and then just take it back if the second one offered something better, but that kinda sounds like a scum bag move. tl;dr I'm counting my chickens before they've hatched and asking what to do about getting into two programs that haven't accepted me yet, and asking what to do if the commit deadline at one school is before the acceptance date at another. -I'm sorry if I'm flooding your forum with the same questions you always get. I haven't spent too much time here but I've spent a lot of time on the various forums and know how annoying that gets. I did try to search some and read the longer threads. Thanks in advance for your time/help

I'm having the same issues! I applied to my first choice PhD program, submitted September 5. Rolling application. I figured, well, I can apply there and hear from them and if its a no I can start applying to other places and still have time before the deadline. If its a yes, then I save myself like $300 bucks and an hour or two per application. My final letter of rec just submitted 10/31 so I had no choice but to move forward with other applications. Been freaking out consistently. I hope I hear something good or bad, from someone, sometime soon.