cm125

Oh well, can't change it. What's another two weeks anyhow. Thanks for calling Dodovov.

Has anyone else been contacted by Brandeis? I've heard nothing. Also, Goober. I think I am in the exact same situation with Wisconsin--the acceptance was great...but the funding selection in basically another admittance since I can't attend without aid.

Good luck! The more I contemplate my chances, the less I like them. But, let's hope both of us get good news.

Wow, it seemed like things moved faster last year. Decisions made in a couple weeks? So we're not finding out until March basically?

Cornell. That's the only one really on my radar right now. A rejection from there would hurt more than the rest- although I would rather just find out right now either way.

I finally just wrote my potential advisor at Wisconsin an email saying I was grateful for the offer of admission and hoped that the funding situation would work out so that I could work with them next year. I didn't want to say anything until I heard something on the funding front, since I can not attend without it, but decided that I should at least establish some dialogue. And I'm glad I did since I heard back right away from the potential advisor. Didn't get any inside info, not that I was expecting it nor did I ask for it, but it still was nice to get in contact.

I did not receive any such email. That certainly sounds promising from a funding perspective.

The issue I'm dealing with is that on one hand, I want the days to go by fast so that I can learn all my admissions results and, you know, figure out what my life will entail next year. But at the same time I need to be writing my honors thesis and I dread every day it gets closer to my deadline. So, I am hoping for time to speed up AND slow down depending on what I am concentrating on at the moment. Ugh. It's also a lot harder to concentrate on writing when I know that decisions are impending. At least in November I knew they were months away.

Has anyone heard anything lately from/about Harvard RSEA?

Just curious, is that a guess/hunch, or based on something you heard? Looking at last year's results it appears that Cornell won't get going until the 19th.

Virgin

None of the professors I contacted gave me an assurance or hint towards admission, and I think that is a good sign. Most of the people went out of the way to emphasize the competitiveness of the applicant pool and the obvious constraints in offering admission-- funding, only taking on one advisee, ect. And I think that is because the people I contacted were high caliber academics, because honestly it is irresponsible for any professor to hint to an applicant that they have a really good chance. How can they intimate such a thing when, as mentioned before, they have yet to see every application? On a visit to one school the professor I met with spoke to me for over an hour about the program, his research, and so on, but he took care to mention that admittance was hyper-competative and that the field I was applying to would take one person at most, but very possibly zero. Not encouraging, but I'd much rather receive an honest appraisal from a professor than nice, but misleading, encouragement. If I'm accepted to a program then all the better, if I am rejected...well at least I was conscious of the odds. I would be wary of a person that took that kind of irresponsible approach--unless your admission is certain and forthcoming, they should not be getting anyone's hopes up.

Looking at last year's result, we should be hearing some news tomorrow.

I have the exact same problem. The one that is really distracting me is Harvard's RSEA. I know from the results search that any day now I could hear something, so...I can't stop checking.

Yeah, obviously the letter said 4-5 weeks for a final decision, so I was just waiting for that time to hear what funding was being made available. As far as writing the department, I just sent my contact info to the grad. asst. as the letter asked. I actually didn't even contact the professor who was placed as my advisor before, solely because I was way too intimidated to send him an email and basically afraid of being rejected in a personal format. Odd, but I guess we all are.

While I agree that it is not the most important aspect of an application, it is more important than that-- I had professors at several Ivy league departments tell me that having a good GPA from a prestigious school was an integral component of an application they would accept. I also had the same reaction to the Harvard post. There is no way to log in to check status and as mentioned before, who is shocked to get rejected from one of the top programs in the country?

scurvy

Have these early Wisconsin admissions made anyone else overly anxious? Now I am compulsively checking every website to see if others are ahead of schedule.

I also received the "Your department has recommended you for admission. The Graduate School will be reviewing your file. Please refer to this page for updates." message. I can confirm that early submission was not a factor because I submitted my application at midnight on Nov. 31st.