MathCat

Not necessarily, it depends on the program (and probably also whether you are domestic or not). I only got hard copies from two programs.

If you've completely 100% decided not to attend, it's definitely nice to decline it. But I'm keeping my options open because I'm not yet entirely sure - I have an idea, but I don't want to decline early and then change my mind! One program asked for tentative decisions if we had them, even if it was not yet final - in that case, I did tell them I'm not likely to accept but have not yet decided. I guess they probably make a waitlist offer based on that? Or perhaps they tell people there's a good chance they'll get an offer, I don't know.

Most Canadian schools just don't have that much money. The government cuts funding pretty often, at least in my province. Some Canadian schools can offer more funding than the lower stipends in the US, but I'm not aware of anyone with $30k stipends in Canada without it being from external funding. There's also (as far as I know) no such thing as a private university in Canada. That's where most of the big stipends come from in the US (of course this is not exclusive. My best offer is actually public.)

I'd upvote this if I wasn't at my cap. Is this the professor you have in mind to work with if admitted, or is it just some random professor assigned to interview you? If it's the first, I'd be seriously turned off by this, personally.

I'd probably go with my brain over my gut, but that's a personal choice. I'm pretty risk averse - if I choose a program logically (which still includes soft factors like personal fit), I think I'm probably less likely to seriously second guess myself later. I'd go for A, because you don't know how the ranking of the second program will be, you don't know how well the PI will do, and it's risky to sign on with somebody who is untenured. Also, the harder coursework and quals of A might be unpleasant, but you will probably be better for it. I'd feel a bit more optimistic about job prospects there too. But it's hard to say if you'll be happier at A or at B. For me, the question would be if I'd be unhappy at A. It all sounds great, logically. Do you think you could be happy there? At least content? Unless the answer is no, I think I'd recommend A.

I don't think accepting who somebody is necessarily means approving. It just means not trying to change them. I don't see any inconsistency in the post.

Yeah, I'm probably biased by my field.

Whether or not it's reason to worry really comes down to how confident you are you will maintain your GPA above that level. If you think it's likely you will struggle to, I would hesitate to accept the offer.

Is your UIUC offer funded? If so, it's no question to me - go to UIUC instead of Stanford. It's a good school, and Stanford won't offer you enough in opportunities to make up for the extremely high debt you'd take on.

Congrats on the scores, and overall this is probably good advice for people struggling with the GRE. But what you said here bothers me. I think the GRE is generally a pretty good measure of how well prepared you are just by your education and lifestyle, really. Somebody who reads for pleasure and has good critical thinking and numerical reasoning skills should score pretty well (probably not as well as you) without too much prep. Thus, it's not worth the time or money for this person to prep as you did. In that situation some of this time (and money) could be better spent on other aspects of applications - e.g. SOP, writing sample, or researching schools. I don't say this to brag, but rather to illustrate - I prepped for verbal on and off for about a month (learning vocab, as part of daily routine), quant for a few days, and practiced a few essay topics over two days. I paid less than $20 on prep materials - I just bought the official guide for practice problems on Amazon. I scored 170Q, 166V, 5.0 AW. I don't think I needed to spend any more time at this, because as a math major the quant is a breeze, and math hones your critical thinking too, which helps with verbal. People in other majors may need to spend more time on quant, though. I think in general the GRE is given too much emphasis on webpages like this. It can certainly hurt you if you bomb it, but I'm not convinced it gets you into a top program unless the rest of your application is at that level. In that case, you're probably somebody who can score well enough on the GRE without too much stress, at least on the sections most relevant to your major, which is what the admissions team will care most about, I think. I could be wrong here, and I'm not counting people who get test anxiety. It is worth some time for anyone to learn the tricks of the test, though.\ edit: I also spent a couple of days doing the official practice tests (2 online, 2 in the book). That's definitely time well spent.

When you say you didn't get any recommendations, do you mean letters of recommendation from professors, or you didn't get recommended for admission anywhere? The first is extremely bad - they are required for applications! If the latter, I'd say the main thing holding you back is your GPA. UCLA and UCSD are probably completely out of reach unless you can improve that somehow, or have something else very strong about your application (fantastic LORs, research experience, something like that). I'm not sure about the rest. You might like to read the "sub 3.0 GPAs acceptance thread" It's not math specific, and you're GPA isn't actually sub 3.0, but there's lots of stories in there of how people overcame their GPA and got into a good program. Good luck.

This. It might not be what you want to hear, but I think it's the truth. It's not worth going to debt for a PhD in general, and especially if the job prospects are extra grim (in this case, because it's not a top school and the English academic job market is especially bad, I think).

Well, I'd personally want to meet or at least speak to a PI on the phone before accepting. They might not be a good personality match for you, even if they are good people. Also, university webpages can be out of date - one school looked perfect for me, and when I visited I learned much of what appealed to me is not actually there anymore, so now I will likely not attend. If you have other options, I'd wait it out and decide after visiting. You can still look into the logistics and planning, but there could be a nasty surprise when you visit.

I don't think it's a good idea to delay or cancel the interview - just say "sorry, my allergies are acting up." Any medications that can help?

I understand this concern, as I was worried about it too. If it's reassuring for you, I got a 170Q despite getting two questions wrong (you can see how many you got right and what type of question they are with their general GRE diagnostic service). Also, I don't think 168 vs. 170 would be the deciding factor for admission. I don't think I'd want to go to a program where it was.

That's not what the question means. It's asking how many ("the number of") integers in the set {100, 101, 102, 103, ..., 499, 500} (assuming inclusive) are divisible by 11. Remember that this is multiple choice, so it's probably "The number of integers between 100 and 500 that are multiples of 11 is... <5 options>."

Well, it's not spring break everywhere (although maybe it is for all the schools you're waiting on).

I had the same annoyance with the general GRE - I think it is inclusive, but I also believe they will give questions where it doesn't make a difference.

Yeah, visiting completely changed my opinion of one school because of this... it went from my top choice to pretty much guaranteed that I'll decline their offer. I'm also surprised by how much I learned about myself in this process.

I think it is a very good idea to contact current students! I can't answer the second question, since I have no experience with advisors yet.

Yeah... this sounds like something that should be reported to ETS. Don't test there again.

No, there are many schools that give more funding, especially when you take into account the cost of living - there's not many places in Canada as expensive as Toronto. Their funding is actually quite low compared to other schools I got offers from, and others I considered and ultimately decided not to apply to. I think they feel that they have enough name power to not have to lure students there with good funding, while the lower ranked schools have to compete in that way. I think most (if not all) of the Canadian schools have money problems, since the government keeps cutting their funding. It also depends how the particular university allocates funds - I'm sure some departments are more flush than others.

If you want to go into academia, probably not. Unfortunately, the ranking can impact your job prospects a lot - and there is a significant difference between top 10 and top 70. If they were all top 30, then I'd say ranking should not be the deciding factor, but that's not the case here. The funding situations sound tenuous at all the places - that is worrisome. Definitely look into the details of that. This is a very important factor (unless you are loaded and could afford to keep going if it fell through, I guess).

If it's going to be out of pocket, you should probably narrow the list down before visiting, or it would get pretty pricey. You also have to decide if it's even worth it to you - how much do the factors you can't gauge on paper matter to you? If it's about personal fit with your PI, maybe you could simply arrange a skype or phone call, which would probably be about as real as a brief meeting for gauging that, and thus save yourself the time and money.

I'm still checking my email compulsively, even after hearing back from all my programs.... Now I'm corresponding with current students and professors, waiting on funding information, and waiting to hear about visit days. Will it ever end??