lev calderon

To the Michigan PhD Admit:  Did you receive the offer letter today? 

Did Michigan send you official acceptance notification today? 

My solution:

The admissions committee invites the "top 60" candidates to a multi-day tournament where applicants sit on panels of 5 and have to answer questions from the faculty committee based on pre-assigned reading while also being evaluated on how well they critique the others' responses as well as the questions they form.

My solution:

The admissions committee invites the "top 60" candidates to a multi-day tournament where applicants sit on panels of 5 and have to answer questions from the faculty committee based on pre-assigned reading while also being evaluated on how well they critique the others' responses as well as the questions they form.

My solution:

The admissions committee invites the "top 60" candidates to a multi-day tournament where applicants sit on panels of 5 and have to answer questions from the faculty committee based on pre-assigned reading while also being evaluated on how well they critique the others' responses as well as the questions they form.

My solution:

The admissions committee invites the "top 60" candidates to a multi-day tournament where applicants sit on panels of 5 and have to answer questions from the faculty committee based on pre-assigned reading while also being evaluated on how well they critique the others' responses as well as the questions they form.

My solution:

The admissions committee invites the "top 60" candidates to a multi-day tournament where applicants sit on panels of 5 and have to answer questions from the faculty committee based on pre-assigned reading while also being evaluated on how well they critique the others' responses as well as the questions they form.

My solution:

The admissions committee invites the "top 60" candidates to a multi-day tournament where applicants sit on panels of 5 and have to answer questions from the faculty committee based on pre-assigned reading while also being evaluated on how well they critique the others' responses as well as the questions they form.

My solution:

The admissions committee invites the "top 60" candidates to a multi-day tournament where applicants sit on panels of 5 and have to answer questions from the faculty committee based on pre-assigned reading while also being evaluated on how well they critique the others' responses as well as the questions they form.

My solution:

The admissions committee invites the "top 60" candidates to a multi-day tournament where applicants sit on panels of 5 and have to answer questions from the faculty committee based on pre-assigned reading while also being evaluated on how well they critique the others' responses as well as the questions they form.

My solution:

The admissions committee invites the "top 60" candidates to a multi-day tournament where applicants sit on panels of 5 and have to answer questions from the faculty committee based on pre-assigned reading while also being evaluated on how well they critique the others' responses as well as the questions they form.

My solution:

The admissions committee invites the "top 60" candidates to a multi-day tournament where applicants sit on panels of 5 and have to answer questions from the faculty committee based on pre-assigned reading while also being evaluated on how well they critique the others' responses as well as the questions they form.

My solution:

The admissions committee invites the "top 60" candidates to a multi-day tournament where applicants sit on panels of 5 and have to answer questions from the faculty committee based on pre-assigned reading while also being evaluated on how well they critique the others' responses as well as the questions they form.

My solution:

The admissions committee invites the "top 60" candidates to a multi-day tournament where applicants sit on panels of 5 and have to answer questions from the faculty committee based on pre-assigned reading while also being evaluated on how well they critique the others' responses as well as the questions they form.

My solution:

The admissions committee invites the "top 60" candidates to a multi-day tournament where applicants sit on panels of 5 and have to answer questions from the faculty committee based on pre-assigned reading while also being evaluated on how well they critique the others' responses as well as the questions they form.

Theory applicants to NYU: Did you get a response? I'm wondering if they're not taking in any theorists.

Theory applicants to NYU: Did you get a response? I'm wondering if they're not taking in any theorists.

I think I'm learning that dropping Professor names and showing interest-via-article abstracting is the way to get a bounce out of the SOP. I don't think you should be at all surprised that NYU admitted you -- you're stellar.

My rejections are in parentheses merely because they're not official ... But if posts of acceptances on this site are accurate,and calls to and responses from both schools indicative, offers have gone out at both schools.

I'm a theorist and applied to nyu. I called and was fairly forthcoming "the graduate website indicates offers are made by mid-february, so am I right to assume I didn't get an offer?". This call was to the dept specific coordinator and she told me she does not know/cannot comment on acceptances.

I took this to mean the acceptances went out. I didn't hear any theory admits making any noises here but who knows. Nyu pretty much accepts in one day then rejects a month later.

My rejections are in parentheses merely because they're not official ... But if posts of acceptances on this site are accurate,and calls to and responses from both schools indicative, offers have gone out at both schools.

My rejections are in parentheses merely because they're not official ... But if posts of acceptances on this site are accurate,and calls to and responses from both schools indicative, offers have gone out at both schools.

Thanks. I´ve been wanting to say that forever. I think it´s pretty obvious that the objective criteria many people are posting here (GPA , GRE and so forth) don´t go a long way towards explaining admission success. That´s good in a way, because GREs are a pretty bad indicator of academic ability, and GPAs are not easily comparable. Other professor´s opinions are probably more highly valued; for example, think of the many many ambitious and hard-working students with low to mediocre intellectual creativity (or even interest), some of which are interested in academia primarily for the career (and the title). An Adcom cannot possibly sort these people out by GPAs and GREs (they are probably even disproportionately good at those), but other professors can (and do). Of course, this does not imply that people that got rejected even though they had good objective stats are always part of this group. But, relationships with professors certainly matter (and their importance sometimes gets diminished in this board, because they are unobservable from our perspective). In terms of research interests, I ´m pretty sure that it pays to be rather specific (and demonstrate proficiency); not necessarily regarding your interest in the future, but at least about some research that you have done before. There is no better way to judge the research somebody will do than by the research he or she has already done (which is, by the way, why the writing sample, another "unobserved" component" of the application that is often neglected here, is probably pretty important).

Is this not the perfect example of why, as Mearsheimer's Minion indicates, one should start withdrawing acceptances? Not only is it ethical, it's rational: it gives the admissions committees better forecasting and therefore applicants get more efficient results.

I just called a school that gave people on this forum acceptances yesterday with "Hi, I'm a PhD applicant. Did all the acceptance letters go out already?"
Response, "No, we have a rolling admissions process and final decisions have not been made."
Me: "Do you know when final decisions will be made?"
Her: "Within the next couple of weeks"

So, according to your logic, she just told me I would see a reject letter in a couple of weeks because the offers have been completed?