PhDerp

Thank you for the input! However I am still worried about housing for my first semester because initially, I'm going without a car. I'm going to need to have a good transit option, or live close enough to walk / bike safely. If there are still many options given these restrictions, then I agree it won't be an issue. But there are no promises that this will be the case according to the students I met who were in the same boat last year! And before anyone says "It's not that bad, just be smart about it and you can commute from a further area..." I've thought about this and discussed it with a few people from the area. I really think being right by campus is the best option for me, within the patrol boundaries, if not a further away place with a direct line to campus. I'd prefer the closer option for my first semester, and these are the places that don't last long! EDIT: And to answer the question why am I waiting for San Diego... That's the whole point of this thread! Should I even bother? I don't think so, but maybe there's something I haven't thought of. I'm asking if anyone can offer their opinions on my situation. So far the verdict is: Why not wait for San Diego? But I want to know: Why wait for San Diego?

Thanks for the response! And you're right, I didn't mention why I'm in such a rush: Housing. I'm trying to clinch a sublet for the fall, and those are harder to come by than regular apartments. They keep popping up and getting grabbed before I have a chance to reply. I'd like to start looking sooner than later, and to be able to register for sites where they post them with a USC email address!

I was going to respond in a similar way, then I realized "Yeah, no, I'm only going to notify them because I read this thread." I never thought to contact my family about something like this before, but now I can't know I'm not doing it for the money since I only thought to write them since reading here! Lol. Either way, no loss of self-respect on my end!

By the April 15th rule, you can accept now and rescind it later. It sounds like you may be notified of funding soon after you accept. As long as it happens before April 15th, you're good! I told someone else about this earlier, so here's a link to my earlier response (which includes a source): Congratulations, by the way, and good luck! I hope you get that assistance-ship.

Definitely contact them and make sure it's not a mistake, before anything else. It could be a clerical error. You may be surprised!

The program at USC is an amazing fit for me! They have arguably the third best NLP research in the world (according to Microsoft Academic Search), are ranked 15th in AI by USNews, have many professors in NLP and at least one in speech processing (who will be my initial advisor), have novel methods of imaging speech production in that professor's lab (critical for my dream research project), accepted me pretty early in the process with an initial 2-year fellowship (so I can work with whoever I want to, as long as they want to work with me!), and my brother hates the school, so the running joke is pretty great. [Take this all with a grain of salt: I've never done research before, and I'm easily excitable. I'm sure I'd think any program that accepted me is an amazing fit for me!!] I'm also waiting to hear back from UCSD. I'm sure I'm not invited to their visit day since it's later this week. I'm clearly not a high-up choice for them... Though this may be because I applied under a professor who was still getting back from sabbatical. Anyway, the research I'd like to do at UCSD isn't really supported by their CS department, rather their biomedical engineering department (which I ironically found out during the USC visit day). The POIs I contacted were kinda just the people I thought to be most interdisciplinary. Still, for all I know, someone's going to contact me to work on the exact project I'm interested in any minute now! That's why I'm considering waiting to hear back from them. I didn't really understand this whole application process until recently. (I only know anything about it now thanks to this website!) My applications were so mixed-up... I didn't really think about POIs or research labs, I just looked up interdisciplinary researchers who sounded interesting, even if they had nothing to do with my actual research interests. Computational neuroscience? Check! Language processing? Check! Let's apply here. tl;dr: I think USC is a great fit for me, and I haven't heard back from UCSD yet. Since I don't know what I'm doing anyway, should I just accept at USC at this point? Or should I wait to hear back from UCSD?

It sounds like this person really has your best interest in mind, if he's as nice as you say, so I think he would understand your decision. I would e-mail him once you know for sure that you are going to decline this school's offer. Maybe he'd even give you some advice about your decision, but don't lead him on if you know you're not going to consider this school any more, and don't explicitly ask for it. You may want to iterate that you would like to keep in-touch when you e-mail him; if he responds positively, he may still foster a kind of mentor relationship with you from a distance, though probably with only occasional correspondences (e.g. a few times a year). Don't let this feeling of obligation to a single professor bind you to your program. He should understand your decision as a professional, and he may even be more understanding than you realize as a potential mentor.

I didn't know what research was until about a year ago. I applied to a few REUs and decided to attend the one at my school so I could continue into the fall. The "research" I did (and am still doing) is just coding new features into someone else's software. I don't actually like it that much. But I don't think this is what grad school is going to be like, and am excited about the idea of trying actual research! I hope I really do like it. If not, I'll just leave with my master's in a few years. EDIT: And before anyone asks, I have no idea how I got into such a great PhD program, either. But let's not look a gift horse in the mouth! XD

To add on to the same question, when are the loans offered the year of your application? Is it a full year-long window? Or do you need to accept as soon as you enter the program?

My safety school rejected me then told me that if I applied under a different professor I would have gotten in for sure (which I had known before I applied), and I just found out recently that I could then switch into something I actually wanted to do after being accepted. It's so weird... The professor who would have accepted me knew I wanted to do AI, but thought I should cheat the system like this anyway! It's OK. That school was my absolute last choice anyway.

Ooh, I might have to try this...

Someone posted this in the results: appstatus.grad.ucla.edu/Account/Login.aspx Hopefully that works!

I don't think these are quite comparable. You have until April 15th on most American schools to decide. Decisions aren't finalized until then. Don't worry, there's very little chance this hurt anyone. And as for the reputation, I don't think this is quite so bad if you're not going for a PhD. (Let's cite my source here: "In those instances in which a student accepts an offer before April 15, and sub-sequently desires to withdraw that acceptance, the student may submit in writing a resignation of the appointment at any time through April 15. However, an acceptance given or left in force after April 15 commits the student not to accept another offer without first obtaining a written release from the institution to which a commitment has been made." https://www.cgsnet.org/ckfinder/userfiles/files/CGS_Resolution.pdf ) Definitely let them know right away. I'm sorry I don't have much more to offer on how... But I don't think it's bad to write a polite e-mail about how you sincerely apologize (which you should!), how the situation has changed, and you cannot join them for the coming semester. Maybe check with someone from the department that you trust before sending the e-mail. I know it's too late, but if anyone reads this down the line: you can try to use your news of funding from another school as a bargaining chip for funding at a preferred school. Something to look into! (But at this point, for you in particular ceeceeroni, I think it would be considered a bit rude and probably not worth it.)

Anyone wanna room for fall semester? I'm mostly looking for the fall semester only, but would consider a full school year lease as well. I'd like to live in an area where I can commute without a car; so either one with a train / bus line, or one right by the school but within patrolled grounds for safety. I'm a girl. I'm really boring. I'm clean. I'm quiet at my work station but will talk to you if we hang out. I'm good at putting up with pretty much everything. I have a lot of references and people who could recommend me as a roommate. I'd like it if my SO could visit occasionally on weekends, but he's way more quiet and boring than me, and we would hang out outside the apartment space. Feel free to message me if you're interested!

Auburn University Clinical Psychology, PhD (F14) Wait listed via E-mail on 10 Mar 2014 ♦ A 10 Mar 2014 If you were accepted and don't want your spot - feel free to decline, I'll give you a dollar

Thanks everyone for the wonderful advice!! The visit day went amazingly and I got a lot of information while I was there! The best part was after the day officially ended, a student entirely uninvolved in hosting us offered to show me to a building, since I thought I'd visit the lab I'm interested in. He sat down with me for a while and explained why he chose USC over other schools (including arguably the 5th best school in America by USNews), and showed me some amazing statistics. He also gave me honest answers about what he doesn't like about USC. It was great! Between the great campus tour, meeting my potential lab-mates (all of whom I got along with very well), visiting a lab meeting for a related group (my work is going to be interdisciplinary and I plan on keeping up with at least 2 groups' work), and my own tour of LA with a friend who lives in the area... It was a very successful few days. I was seriously out of questions by the time I was done! And I got info about the romantic areas, commute recommendations, and entertainment spots out of all this to boot! What an informative (and exhausting) weekend!

I regret applying to so many schools... I was only interested in 4 based on their location, then only 2 after looking into their programs a bit more. But I paid for 8 (5 longshots, 1 safety, and the 2 I care about) because my advisor pushed me to do it. It's just a drag because I could've really used that money... >_< Needless to say, I didn't get into the longshots. Maybe I wouldn't be complaining if I did. But I don't think I would really be as happy at one of them anyway! EDIT: I guess I should point out that I already had a guaranteed funded master's program and that I didn't expect to pursue my PhD until after I got my master's, since I'm not really involved in research yet. So I didn't think I'd get in anywhere, and only wanted to apply to schools that could get me where I want to be! I recognize that this makes my situation weird for a few reasons!

I finally gave up waiting and sought out a response. I kinda just want a rejection so I don't have to think about anything and take my only real offer lol.

I really wish they would give out the bad news sooner! Glad to hear the silver lining. Good luck!

Finally cracked and e-mailed the last school I'm waiting on. I just want to start looking for apartments already...

Wow I'm sorry to hear some of these. At least you know what to appreciate, and at least you're getting further away from some of these people!

I'm looking for resources for finding apartments in LA. I'm aware of craigslist, padmapper, and westsiderentals. Has anyone found a convenient way to find a split account on Westside? I'm thinking of asking on these forums to split one come July. I'm aware of the risks this poses, trusting strangers on the internet and all. :x Also, I'd prefer a sublet for the fall for my first move. The only thing I've found that's any good for searching sublets is ULoop (craigslist is loaded with spam and no one's been posting for the fall semester there). Has anyone used ULoop? Are there any other tricks to finding sublets around campus? My friend said that people tend to find apartments at the last second in LA. Has anyone else noticed this? It might be less true for students, especially grads.

Most schools let you submit more than 3 letters of recommendation, they just require a minimum of 3. So why not both?

Ooh, I have a lot more material for this thread! "LA? That's like 2 hours from San Francisco. The weather isn't that great." "It's always so hot out there... Like, 100 degrees, year-round." "It's very humid. You'll hate it!" Why do people in New England have these inaccurate views of Southern California?! It's funny, because they say it with so much conviction, even the people who have never visited the area. And they really won't hear any corrections to this! And the one thing I hear the most: "I could never live without any seasons." I'm a vegetarian, and I hear the phrase "I could never stop eating meat" all the time. I kinda understand, the person is trying to relate to my situation... But really, I don't care. It's kinda the same thing when I mention moving to LA. Wow, you couldn't live there? That's great! No one's asking you to. I mean this all in the best humor possible. I point this out to my friends when they say it, and I mention they just need to want to visit LA. They're always like, "Oh yeah... I guess it really doesn't matter!" And we laugh. XD As long as people don't say: "You're going to miss seasons." I really don't think I am. I might be wrong, but I applied to schools based on location first, then program... I wanted to end up in SoCal. So I definitely don't expect to miss the weather. Besides, it's temporary. I won't stay in LA unless I really love it! And as a grad student, I expect to have one season year-round: it's called "being indoors". It's a lot like Massachusetts winter.