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Congratulations! Was your status changed on their site? I agree that they've almost certainly admitted more than the 2 who posted. I kind of suspect that the more personal an offer seems to be (like phone call vs. email) the less likely someone is to post it.

Or not, because this isn't a ambiguous touch on the shoulder, it's professor getting an 18- or 19-year-old student drunk and into his bed.

First of all, sexual assault accusations against faculty are not as common as you seem to think. Additionally, as others have pointed out, this is not an unsubstantiated accusation. It was found credible and a committee concluded that he should be fired because of it. The issue is not settled: there is an ongoing lawsuit. Knowingly inviting someone into your department during something like this is much worse than having an accusation made against an existing faculty member. (I want to say, though, that I suspect Rutgers was not aware of the issue at the time. We'll have to wait and see how they respond. On the Leiter thing, though, I think Leiter is pretty conservative about posting that someone has accepted an offer and doesn't do it until it's confirmed by the department or individual.) Again, it is hardly two pieces of equal testimony here. But let's say you decided to give the student's accusation and Ludlow's denial equal weight here, so you think there's a 50% chance he sexually assaulted a student and a 50% chance he didn't. Should you invite him into your department? No. Taking a 50% chance of exposing your students to someone who sexually assaulted and possibly raped a student is a completely unacceptable risk.

Since you were a little touchy about downvotes earlier, I want to be clear: I downvoted this post because you do not seem to be listening to anything anyone is saying. No one is assuming all accusations are true. Aspasia made an important point:

I think they would ask this even if departments didn't care at all. I suspect it's largely just something the graduate admissions people use to keep files straight, especially since the previously applied question was often next to questions about whether you had ever attended the school before. You don't want to have duplicate files/records/identifiers for the same person, because if your filing system goes by name, date of birth, social, etc. something could accidentally end up in the old file. From googling, it looks like for some schools you don't have to re-submit transcripts, GRE scores, etc. if you're reapplying.

That he wasn't found guilty in a criminal case means almost nothing. It's extremely difficult to prove "beyond a reasonable doubt" that someone was sexually assaulted or raped when they were unconscious or too intoxicated to consent. That's just the nature of the crime. You can successfully prosecute these things if someone walks in, maybe if you have video footage. Otherwise, good luck. If Rutgers knowingly hired someone that was accused of sexually assaulting a student (and that the university found the claim credible), yeah, I think that would definitely be a reason not to go there.

Good point. I think the student's allegation in the lawsuit is sexual assault, but it's of course very possible that it was rape.

It's funny, but because your photo is a picture of Zizek I really associate you with him. I mean I know you have his face crossed out and your username is "zizeksucks," but if someone asks me to list gradcafe users about 5 years from now I'll probably be like "oh, and there was also that guy that liked Zizek."

NBC is kind of watering it down by calling it sexual harassment… This is sexual assault.

And Rutgers applicants, since that's where Ludlow is apparently moving. (I really think all applicants, not just women, should be concerned about departments' climate for women and minorities. A hostile climate is bad for everyone.)

I know you said adult beverages but I really like the Celestial Seasonings tension tamer tea. I'm not a herbal cure person but I find the smell and taste really soothing.

I suspect they'd want her to visit if she's still considering the offer, even if she was leaning against it at this point.

Agreed. There are pretty significant cultural differences.

Oh, I think it's reasonable as well! I'm just personally hesitant to share mine at this point. He originally asked to see writing samples and SOPs, which is why I included the link to the Schwitzgebel stuff.

Like others have said, Platonist, don't assume you're shut out so soon! Uncharitable indeed. I think we all can understand the curiosity about other people's writing samples: everyone says it's the most important factor in deciding who gets in, so it's natural to wonder what a writing sample from someone who got into school X looks like. Like other people, though, I'm hesitant to send my work to an anonymous recipient online. If your worried about your own writing sample, Platonist, it would probably be easier to find someone willing to read and comment on it. Did you see the SoP samples Eric Schwitzgebel has posted (A, B, C)?

I have no relevant personal experience here at all, but Leiter does have combined English-speaking-world faculty rankings (scroll down), which put Oxford at 2 and St. Andrews at 26.

I'm curious about the UM acceptance. Congrats whoever you are!

This doesn't really seem that surprising. It's just a little over a week after their 2013 and 2012 decision dates. Looking at the spreadsheet you made of the 2013 and 2012 dates (which I really appreciate, by the way), it looks like (roughly) 22 schools released decisions less than a week apart the past 2 years, and 23 released decisions a week or more apart. I didn't count, but it seemed like most of those were 10+ days apart. I would guess the depts that look fairly consistent for the two years have the same kind of variability, because I would guess that adcomms schedule their meetings around the other things they have going on, with a rough idea of when they'd like to get decisions out by but not much more than that. Is there a reason you think they stick to such consistent internal timelines? (Also UC Riverside doesn't really seem late? They got decisions out really early last year but on Feb. 17 in 2012, so this seems well within their range...)

This makes me sad.

I just want someone to love me Having acceptances hasn't made me any less impatient, but it's made me a lot less stressed. Matt, is Mizzou your psuedo-acceptance? What happened there?

I suspect people are significantly less likely to post an acceptance recieved after several people have already posted their acceptances, so I wouldn't read too much into this. So far, I've received 2 acceptances hours after people here were thinking they must be rejected because they hadn't heard. (One did not seem to be significantly personalized at all) I know it's so easy to assume a rejection (I did both times!) but there's hope!

I suspect the kind of "fit" admissions committees are thinking about is somewhat harder to predict than we imagine. When I think about my "fit," I'm largely thinking about how many people are working in my areas of interest and how exciting their projects are to me. I suspect this does not totally match up with what adcoms are looking for, but I'm having trouble putting that thought into words. If fit was somewhat hard for applicants to predict, though, that would be a reason for the "apply widely" advice, even if applicants rarely get into departments where the fit is not great. Did anyone sometimes change their stated interests in their SOP to seem like a better fit? I'm curious.

I was going to say aww, Matt, I think you're very pretty. Then I realized I can't read.

Thanks for starting this thread, it's a great idea. I think mental health professionals are a great but too-often overlooked resource when it comes to managing stress. Many universities provide free mental health services to students. If yours does and you have been feeling a lot of stress, consider making an appointment. I very sporadically meet with a psychologist. Talk therapy is really effective at relieving stress for many people—verbalizing your worries to someone who won't feel awkward and say things like "oh you'll definitely get in somewhere!" can be a huge relief. Even if talk therapy isn't appealing to you, a therapist can be a great resource: when I meet with my psychologist, we primarily talk about different behavioral strategies for managing stress, procrastination, etc. Basically, I go to her to get the kind of advice alethicethic is providing here, except coming from an expert and tailored to me. If I try something and it doesn't work, she has many more suggestions. Regularly seeing someone can also really help keep you accountable for actually trying to implement these strategies in your life. I know many people are really hesitant to see themselves as the kind of person that could benefit from seeing a mental health professional. But really everyone could—they're not just experts at dealing with mental illness, they're experts at dealing with the rougher periods everyone goes through in life. Also… depression and anxiety are hugely prevalent among graduate students. If you end up dealing with these issues, how quickly you get help can have a huge effect on the outcome. If the idea of going to a therapist makes you uncomfortable, now is a great time to get over that.

I'm so sorry you're having to deal with this. It sounds like a really shitty situation. If you'd like, I'd definitely be willing to read the email you sent and tell you if I thought you did anything wrong. (You could send the email in a private message) I'm sure many others here would be willing to do the same.