H Bond

Does anyone know whether I can/how much it costs to extend a dorm stay over the summer? The contract I received has seemingly self-contradictory terms, saying I must move out by May 24th, but can receive a reduced summer rate if I move out or can sublet. Has anyone else stayed in their dorm over the summer? Thanks!

I don't know how it is in Speech Pathology, but in Chemistry, unless the department is fairly sizable, it's frowned upon to do grad and undergrad at the same place...

1. Well, Dad, who knows something about the process, told me to shoot as high as possible and that everyone would accept me. But really, I dismissed that because that's what Dads are supposed to say. 2. Adviser told me that I needed more safety schools (which I applied to per his suggestion). I suspect he thought I'd get accepted to about half of the schools I applied to and mostly in the mid-range. 3. Adviser turned too-busy-dean said "You're going to the ivies!" Result: I got into 7/9 and wait listed at 1/9, including a three ivies and one that's practically an ivy. What I didn't expect was that neither the places I interned gave me an straight admission.

Really, I think it depends on the student, although I should hope it is never based solely on prestige. Ranking is difficult to determine. Do you use school, program, or professorial ranking? Even the rankings published by the NRC are rather fluid and based mainly on the opinions of professors at other universities. In any case, if you give up a school you like better for the sake of another's reputation, you're going to have to live with that decision for the next 3-8 years, depending. However, if you can do that, the prestigious school was probably a pretty good fit, anyway. For most, I think the the decision is a mixture of fit and prestige (which is why the decision is often difficult).

Physical chem. Considering UChicago, Yale, Cornell, UIUC, and Princeton(waitlisted). I'll whittle the list down after making more visits.

Most of us have? I haven't. I did have a nice Skype conversation with a professor at A&M on Thursday, though. I expect to make a decision a few weeks before the April 15th deadline.

(TAMU's visit weekend isn't until Mar 6-7th so I doubt there's anyone who has visited both TAMU and UTA (or UTD?) unless they're already a grad student, in which case there are fewer already attending than applying students frequenting this thread.)

I did an REU at Princeton a couple of years ago and was waitlisted for their program. I'm no expert on their grad program, but the campus was absolutely beautiful, and all the profs I met were rather nice. There were also several different places: dorms, apts, etc for grads to live, and a Walmart shuttle on the weekends. I look forward to visiting again.

Rejected by MIT! The uncertainty is over lesser. Let the decision-making begin!

Hopefully, if you turn them down early enough, they have a chance to find another student. The thing is, it's quite likely that you'll feel bad either way. My adviser sort of harangued me today for turning down a good offer at school A which I didn't think I'd take due to the other offers I'm getting. I wondered whether I'd made the right decision there, but I've also been questioning how I can say no after I visit school B which it's likely I won't accept. Visits are a good way for them make sure you are committed and for you to get a feel for the town (or so I've heard, having not taken any of my planned visits yet). For example. UTAustin doesn't make a formal/official offer and doesn't mention funding until *after* you've visited. So you're going to feel guilt either way. One way you've taken a risk, but they get to save money; and the other way you've wasted your time, but they feel like they've had a chance to sell it to you and to save face. Pick your poison. Also, TakeruK has a point. As long as you don't offend anyone in your rejection letter, this is just business for them.

No, it's from MIT, sorry about the confusion.

Yup. I have friends who were told decisions were all made, but in response to my inquiry a few days ago, I got this: "Our admissions committee is still in the process of reviewing a significant portion of applications, including yours. While we hope that you will have a final decision soon, it may be a few more weeks before all of our applicants receive their decisions."

Will it be detrimental to my application if I call MIT and ask when decisions will be made? There's another quite good school whose profs are encouraging me to visit, but their visit weekend is the same weekend as MIT's...

I'm going for Pchem. In my application, I mentioned two faculty from the chem department and one from the DMSE.

I didn't get any sort of notification for MIT either. Oh well, I'm not getting any hopes up, but maybe that means we're possibilities: good enough to get past the first rejection round, but not good enough to be chosen immediately. As for Yale...an unofficial notification? No idea what this means, but it sounds like you're in.

If by Carolina, you refer to UNC-CH, those dates are Mar 14-16 and Mar 28-30

I don't know how much of a factor drinking plays in going to faculty lunches, but some places will offer alternatives for the underage and the teetotalers. Yale, for instance, offers bowling as an alternative to a bar-going event.

So glad I wasn't the only one who noticed this. Has anyone called the department to inquire?

Thanks!

So I've been admitted to several places, among them University of Chicago (full funding+fellowship). There are some professors doing really interesting physical chemistry research there, and I thought it was a good option. One of my professors got his doctorate there and has been mentioning how good U of C is for the past four years. Yet when I told him that I had an offer, he told me that studying there was "like trying to get a glass of water from a fire hydrant", that it was sink or swim, that no one would take me seriously until I became a doctoral candidate, and that pretty much that the next few years of my life would be miserable if I went there. Hard work isn't a problem, but depressing professors and impossible expectations are. Current/former University of Chicago grad students out there: is a doctorate as undoable as he implied or was this just a well-intentioned warning to stay on my toes? Thanks for any advice.

I just got waitlisted for Princeton. *~* If I accept x waitlist position, I'm essentially gambling that x number of people will decline, right? But if they don't, I've essentially thrown away the Fall 2014 application season...

unrepeatable experiment

Checking email a ton. Reverting to highschool habit of taking forever on everything, read: spent like six hours just on PDEs today. It shouldn't have taken that long. Hey look, new episodes on hulu!

Physical. Got the email the Jan 9th, so there's a chance they're still wading through applications.

Hey, I'm a US chemistry student. I got fairly comparable scores GRE scores with an abysmal 670 (39%) on the Chemistry GRE. If you've still got time, I think you should send your scores. If your grades are good enough elsewhere, it shouldn't matter too much what your scores are, and it's better to send average scores to the admissions committee than let them wonder if you're hiding even worse scores. You've still got a fighting chance.