thegirldetective

I don't know anything about the program, but I don't think doing a funded masters can hurt. I would go for it.

You were not misinformed. Every one of my schools had a April 15 date.

Here is how I would think about it: Consider it a wash between the two professors. Both are fantastic and will open a lot of doors for you. Which place would you rather live? Did you get to talk to the students in either program? Which group seemed happier, which group did you like better? What about the mentoring styles of the professors? Is one more hands off, the other more hands on? How often do they meet with trainees? Will you have a lot of flexibility in what projects you work on, or will they tell you exactly what to do? Which style to your prefer?

All of Sizzle's recommendations are great. I would also add: Make sure you talk to as many current students in the program as possible, and make sure you talk to students at various stages of their degree - I have heard of programs (in other fields) who specifically only have first and second year students talk to prospective students, because the older students tend to be less happy with the program.

Talk to his current or past students about what their relationship with him is/was like. See if that sounds like the kind of relationship you want.

If job marketability is your primary concern (and that is very reasonable!) you're probably better off with a science + policy MA rather than a straight science PhD. The DC schools, in particular, might open the door to some really good social/professional networks. Have you asked about job placements for these programs, say immediately after graduation and within one year of graduation?

All of the above advice is great (it was probably something to do with how you interviewed; there are probably more than 4 schools in the country that are a good fit for you, etc.) but I wanted to address one point: Not true! It's too late for some but not all postbac positions, and it's definitely not too late for lab monkey positions. But it will be too late soon! Start applying asap.

It's ok to email if it's been ~1 month OR longer than they said they would take to get back to you. Just keep it short and polite. "Dear _____, Thank you for interviewing me last month. I enjoyed our meeting. I wanted to check in and see if you had any information on the status of my application. Thanks, _____" Or something like that.

There are some great cafes and bookstores on 57th St, to the east of the UChicago campus.

Which school/part of Chicago?

http://graduate-school.phds.org/ is a great resource for just figuring out what is available in your field. You can also get it to rank programs based on things that are important to you (say, student outcomes or research productivity), which I wouldn't live or die by (just because a program isn't well ranked overall by certain metrics doesn't mean it won't be a great fit for you personally), but it can be helpful for thinking about programs. Also I'd like to echo what others have said about talking to your advisor.

Do you have a definite offer from another professor? Because if not this person might be your only shot into the program.

That. I don't know how many hours a week you work, or the nature of your particular project, but it's really not that unusual. My undergrad thesis ended up being all negative results. Yes, getting something publishable is helpful for grad school, but honestly unless it's a canned project (something already planned and almost certain to work, usually because it is just tying up minor loose ends from a previous paper or something) starting in a lab and getting a publication within one year is not common in most fields. It takes some time to learn the techniques of the lab, and usually takes a few dead ends before you get a publishable result (remember, most hypotheses are wrong, particularly when you are trying to answer really difficult and exciting research questions). As long as you get a strong recommendation from your research mentor, it's not a huge deal to not have any pubs.

Perhaps, given how specific your interests are, you should identify who the leading scholars in that sub-field are and see where they teach?

Just wanted to chime in to say that at all of my interviews, student-only events (usually the first night, after you travel there) have been VERY casual - jeans and nice-but-casual shirts. For the student and faculty event, definitely stick to business casual - depending on what you are wearing for the interview itself, you may just want to wear the same clothes.