Scarythefairy

Some impressions I had, interviewing mostly Inorganic and Analytical professors:
 
Funding is difficult: students typically do not get RA funding until after their qualifyings (end of 2nd year), and I met many 3rd to 5th year students who were still teaching, and not because they wanted to. Professors work hard. Graduate students are mostly laid back and have good work-life balance-- the vibe actually borders on unmotivated, at least from what I saw. Some exceptions in the organic division. Austin is an awesome place to live after all. Despite being a top ranked program, a lot of prospectives and students there admitted they didn't really know what they wanted to do, and largely didn't give an impression of being consummate experts in their fields. Exceptions in the 5th years. Many graduate students said that "I didn't really know anything about my project until my 3rd year." Incredible facilities for synthesis and characterization. These are very accessible and open to everyone. Labs are never closed and students can come in at night and during the weekend. Roughly 1:1 student to fume hood ratio. $400 tuition out of pocket. Not sure if this is per year or per semester, but they never brought this up until someone asked it during the initial presentation. However, cost of living is very low and you can live very well without having to drive a car, making the stipend very liveable. The graduate students are largely geared towards joining industry. Many alumni in labs have apparently gone on to tech companies in Dallas, San Antonio and Austin, plus plenty of students in Dow and the oil companies down in Houston. Anything in particular you were wondering about?

I will be joining Princeton as a grad-student in Chemistry in Fall 2014. I am an international student and would like to know about living in Princeton, mainly social life, housing, cost of living, etc. 

Congratulations! While I don't know anything about Princeton (or chemistry, for that matter...) this thread might be a useful place to start:

So I have not heard anything yet from UT-Austin, Texas A&M, Colorado State, and Colorado School of Mines. Are they just taking their sweet time with rejection notices or what? Thoughts?

Got rejected too, the only school got rejected from lol.
Definitely something to mention in a Nobel Prize speech

Same. I'll print it out and hang with my Nobel Prize one day. ;o)

Got rejected from Berkeley, but I knew it would happen. I'm just glad I finally have a decision from them.

Has anybody heard from CU-Boulder recently? I emailed a week ago and they said their "committee has until March 1st to make decisions." 
I'm wondering if all their remaining applicants will be rejected. Didn't want to pester the office again

Dude, your chances will be great, as your application looks better than mine. What you should focus on in my opinion is the things you have direct control, GRE and your essays. Your essays will help you stand out and make you memorable. You should also cultivate your LoRs. The top 10 schools are a crap shoot, but you have a chance. Also, I wouldn't look at what schools are "above average" look for schools that fit you and have research you want to do. How I started my school search was simple and basic. I took a map of the USA and blocked out states I want to live in, wouldn't mind living in, and dont want to live in. Then, I went to top 50 list, and dotted the ones on the map that weren't in "dont want to live areas." From there, I looked at school's research interests and faculties.

Grad school isn't about going to the best top 10. Yes, name brand may help, but this is a *job* essentially. You need to work and live somewhere you will be happy. But, you will be fine, and I'm sure you have chances at great schools.

Thank you! That's a great tip! I think I came off a bit pretentious and I'm sorry about that. I just read a few posts of people with amazing stats and got worried. My friends are also above and beyond and I think since I'm at the bottom of that group I tend to forget that doesn't mean I'm at the bottom everywhere. Gonna go print a map of the continental US

I'm doing physical chemistry. I'm planning on going to their visit weekend to get a feel for what the school has to offer, but I will make my decision as soon as possible!

University of Kansas, I heard back from them like 1.5 weeks ago.
I'm a chemistry/physics double major with a GPA 3.94 GRE 156V/162Q
I did 2 summers of research at my university and participated in one REU this past summer. I also have a lot of "teaching experience" from tutoring and lab TAing.
And, yes, I am an American applicant.
Since their deadline was January 15th, I can imagine they are still in the process of reviewing the applications. If it helps, the visit weekend is March 7-8. I wish you the best of luck!

I figure Caltech is done for the year, but has anyone heard anything from them on rejections? It's really frustrating to not know if you're actually on the waitlist or not (though I'm pretty confident that in their case I'm not).

This is what they replied on last Thursday that a certain sub "committee is on their second round of decisions at this point" I v not seen any Boulder admissions in results lately...

I emailed them and asked about my status and here is the response " Our decisions are rolling, and as such you can expect decisions to be made from now until about April 1st. That said, once our committee has reviewed and made a decision regarding your application, our department notifies you immediately by email."