milox

No it isn't.  Graduate School is an apprenticeship.  This is a business as well as an educational agreement and the students are entering with far less knowledge and power.  Again, I reiterate that students should apply for Ph.D. programs because they will be valued more by the professors, the program, and the university. Why in the world would you put yourself at a disadvantage vis-a-vis your peers?
 
More importantly, I don't think you have any understanding of ethics and norms in post-graduate studies.  If you haven't done it, you're talking out of ignorance.

I guess I am just frustrated when people on the board post a rejection with something like "haha got into a better school anyway." My thoughts on this are: ok, good for you, you've made it. Now what is the point of your comment?
Are you arrogant enough to think that if you got into "a better school" you also automatically should be accepted everywhere?
Are you frustrated with this rejection—why would you be if you already got good options? So why being bitter/condescending? 
 
P.S. unless the comment is a joke. Jokes. I get those.
 
 
Edit: grammar

I don't understand why you guys are calling it paradoxes. All of those are good schools with lots of very qualified applicants. Somewhere you're picked, somewhere you're not; it seems to be an absolutely normal part of the process.
 
Implying that it's impossible to be rejected from Northwestern (why, because it is a lower ranked school?) after being accepted to MIT doesn't seem right to me.

Dammit.
Chicago, have the decency to reject your applicants.
Yale/Columbia, stop acting like a teenage girl and make a choice.
 
P.S. no offense to teenage girls.

There's also some question floating around as to whether or not there's really any value added by going to "top tier" schools--the ones that the hires all seem to come from. And, frankly, going to a top tier school guarantees you nothing. All that hard work is still going to show in the final product (your dissertation, your future research, your professional demeanor). I think you're on the right track with your work-ethic!
 
And a caveat on my view of things: I landed on the schools I applied to by following the people I liked (where they got their degrees, what schools they were at, what my personal limits were) + a couple of applications because they're good programs (Michigan). My view on things is also a little skewed because I attended a tiny, insignificant teaching school for undergraduate that no one has ever heard of and had the most amazing experience with it. I went on to a graduate school that valued hard work above all else, with people who worked in their fields and wanted to show it to us. If it weren't for academics like that (who wanted to teach, who wanted to research the things they valued without concern for prestige, who had so few students that they genuinely cared when my personal life went to pieces during my undergraduate--then graduate--career and tried to help), I wouldn't be remotely interested in academe. So, I'm in this for doing things that way, and for doing research on a subject that I'm so passionate about, I'm going to find a way to research and work on it, even if I'm not a PhD.
 
tl;dr: yay, work ethic!

Sorry to hear that. I guess that's a rejection for me as well
 
 
 
Over here, I think:
 
https://gradstatus.northwestern.edu/

Claiming a Rutgers and a SUNY Binghamton admit. I'm pretty much in shock. The Rutgers email was sent on the 14th and went into my spam folder, which I have been checking. Not sure how I didn't see that until today.

I've never understood why people are always concerned about what to wear to admit visits... it's not like the department/uni has a dress code, and the profs are more interested in your abilities and research than in your sartorial choices. I'd just wear whatever makes you feel comfortable. Personally, I would wear jeans and a tee shirt, because idgaf.

I called Northwestern and was told that notifications should be coming out in the third week of february, which means it'll be someday next week. This was somehow confirmed to me by a faculty member who told me the committee should be soon releasing decisions, as the Department is planning to hold the prospective students visit in the first days of March. Hope they decide soon!

I called Northwestern and was told that notifications should be coming out in the third week of february, which means it'll be someday next week. This was somehow confirmed to me by a faculty member who told me the committee should be soon releasing decisions, as the Department is planning to hold the prospective students visit in the first days of March. Hope they decide soon!