KingScilla

Congrats Kingscilla! I'm so excited for you.

Thanks. I did accept. They wanted to know ASAP because if I didn't take the GTA then they wanted to pass it on to someone else before the deadline. Its a grad teaching assistantship with full tuition and fees + stipend and health insurance. Very similar to my offer from LSU. It was the hardest decision of my life. I liked both schools so much, but I'm confident I made the right choice.
 
It's been a long ride. So glad to be done.

I thought LSU was set in stone. I got a curveball of an offer yesterday, and now I am officially going to UCF. What a difference 24 hours can make! Congrats to everyone else on their good news.

And congrats on your offer

I'm going to be moving to Baton Rouge this summer to start grad school. I'm looking for an apartment in a good area (ex: Highland area) with an in-unit washer and dryer for a reasonable rent. Any recommendations?

Congrats!! I'm out of upvotes, but I'm sending internet high-fives your way!

That's great KingScilla! Excellent and congrats!

Oh man, I know that feeling about work, but CONGRATULATIONS - that is huge!

I'd give Kentucky until the OSU acceptance deadline. If UK doesn't get back to you by then, accept OSU with no regrets. Congrats, btw.

While I don't support sending threatening emails or harassing graduate departments, I sincerely do not see any issues with asking for constructive criticism from departments that did not admit you.  I think these things can really help us to improve our applications in the future.  I understand they may not have time to respond to every person, and in that case a form letter may be acceptable.
 
I wonder if we will be this jaded and talking about "entitlement of the youth" when we're on graduate committees one day.

Thanks for sharing that anthroflea! 
 
I find it very interesting that some of the posters on that forum seem to have forgotten just how hard and uncertain it is to be an applicant to grad school… I get really frustrated with the narrative (that comes out in those posts, but can be seen in a lot of other places like: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/wait-but-why/generation-y-unhappy_b_3930620.html) that refer to 'people born between the late 1970's and mid-90's,' to use the phrasing of the article, as entitled and unwilling to work hard. I think if those people spent some time, for example on this forum, they would see lots of people in that age group who work incredibly hard in their school work and jobs, go through the long/expensive/difficult process of grad applications and spend some of their free time on a forum supporting each other and sharing reading lists and book recommendations and the likes -  and they would have to reconsider. On top of the hard work that we've put in to prepare for and apply to grad school, I'm sure many of us have been in the position of seeing academic and professional opportunities disappear due to the economic downturn. (I, for one, graduated college in 2008 and had several exciting job interviews cancelled due to hiring freezes that year, and ended up waiting tables and interning, which I really enjoyed, but it was hard to see my 'dream jobs' move out of reach).
 
Anyways, I apologize for that rant, but I think the people who publish articles like that and say those things on their faculty forums, don't realize that it takes a lot for us to keep our heads up when the opportunities we were hoping for vanish or a harder to get than they were before the economic downturn or before moves like this: http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2013/09/30/cantor-gop-budget-science-spending-column/2896333/. I wish they would take a more supportive tone and point to all the people in whatever-generation-they-want-to-call-us who are working hard despite the odds, rather than pretending that they were better/more humble grad school applicants than we are: 
 
"Frankly, when I was applying for grad schools, I think my "default" expectation was not to get in. Sure, I had a 4.0 GPA and almost-perfect GREs...I think they are wasting THEIR time and effort by refusing to move on…" - Quote from the first poster on the Chronicle Forum thread

DigDeep and Sara, You guys are amazing.  This is such a great resource, and should definitely be added to the wisdom repository once all the data is gathered.  I love this site and all the support here I'm going to recommend it to my students when I'm a mentor and/or professor some day.

I'll paste some advice I gave to a student facing this dilemma a few weeks back, she/he wanted to go to a school but did not have any funding. This was my advice and I think it applies to anyone having to make that hard decision. In brief, I think if you are going to your dream school with no funding  you should go for it - but be prepared to do what it takes to get funding! I know multiple people who have made this happen.
 

The big thing for me was doing more research and picking colleges that were a better fit and not so much based on "prestige". I also applied to more places. The biggest thing though was contacting or attempting to contact each POI ahead of time before submitting my application. About half were able to talk with me on the phone and allow me to pitch myself to them as a candidate. I've found that I can really portray myself and my interests well to overcome for any shortcomings like average GRE scores, etc.

Have you applied to safety schools?  I mean, I see you have applied to Harvard, Penn, Michigan, Cornell.........these schools are ridiculously tough to get into. Are you opposed to state schools? 
 
Also, I have seen a lot of disregard for Masters programs, and I think it is silly. The MA/MS allows you the opportunity to gain valuable research, publish, go to conferences, network, learn new analytical techniques, learn multivariate statistics in various software, make colleagues, the list goes on. I get it, a MA/MS does not do much for a job, BUT it DOES do a lot for your future career as an academic. Education is a marathon, not a sprint. I would suggest not looking down on Masters programs (if you are) and apply to some. Maybe even state schools. If you ARE qualified enough for those schools you are applying to, then you can probably go to some state school with a GREAT funding package for an MA. It's not unheard of, I am doing it as we speak (Ok, so it's not a great funding package but it's free+ school). 
 
As for your decision: First, there are tons of opportunities for external funding. You should be applying to as many of these as possible anyways. Second, if you do go to Cornell without funding then I would have to say that it needs to be under the strict rule that you HAVE to be ready to do everything in your power to get funding. Talk to faculty, join research projects, apply for scholarships, fellowships, TA positions in other departments, OR even try to get a job at a local community college to offset costs. On that note, you need to KICK ASS that first semester and quarter and go WELL out of your way to do so. Turn heads. So, what I'm saying is you have to dominate your coursework (4.0, no ifs ands or buts), volunteer at a Center or Institute to get the "in" on a research group, or try to get job if you have previous experience, and try to get involved in independent research. Furthermore, you have to excel in all of these endeavors. If you do this, you WILL get funding. I guarantee it, but it's not easy....
 
You will be amazed at how many people come out of the woodworks to help genuine individuals who care about learning and share a passion for it. If you're willing to do those things, then I think you will do fine. You just have to work [bleeping] hard. I would seriously consider if you can make this happen, if not then I wouldn't do it. Time is a luxury, that not many have (especially when you have dependents) and everything I just said takes lots of it.
 
Good luck with your journey, and good luck with your other schools!