Hi everyone! After lurking on this forum as a guest in the months following the application send-off, I finally created an account so that I could participate in this thread! I received an offer of admission yesterday (unfunded first year) after checking my status page and, following the advice of others, emailed Jennifer and Kathy for more information. Wow--it seems like an incredibly caring department!
skybythelight, if you had a spare moment to send me the same information requested by others earlier in the thread, I would love to hear more information about the atmosphere of the department. Thank you for sharing your experiences with all of us!