poweredbycoldfusion

Things have gone a bit quiet around here. It feels like it's at the point where most of the first round acceptences have been sent, and everyone is either waiting on a school or is in the process of making/finalizing their decision.

First thing: anyone who will exclude you because of your religion or clothing is not someone you want to be around anyway. If you encounter any of these people, pity them for their ignorance and narrow mindedness.

Now that we have that out of the way, I wouldn't worry about feeling excluded from your cohort because you don't drink or party. If you have a very young cohort (lots of students around 22 or 23), it's possible many of them will want go to bars and parties. Not everyone lives that lifestyle, though. Besides, as people reach their mid and late twenties, they tend to realise that there are better ways to spend their time than getting blasted. Plus alcohol metabolism tends to slow down in your late twenties, causing horrible hangovers that no one wants to deal with.

So don't expect that all your cohort will want to do is drink and go on dates. In my own program, we like going out to eat as a big group every month, and we tend to hang out in smaller groups the rest of the time. We might go hiking, to the coffee shop, out for lunch, to the movies. Sometimes we just sit and study together. We do have a few students who enjoy drinking, but they do that on their own time. They don't ever suggest that we all hit the bar.

Don't forget that besides doing activities outside of school with your fellow grad students, you may find opportunities on campus to spend time with them. You can go see a guest speaker or a seminar, attend a workshop, go to social activities that different clubs and organizations put together. All you have to do is stop someone in the hall or pop into their office (if you have grad student offices) and ask if they'd like to go.

It is very field dependent I guess. I didn't contact professors and have 6 interviews and 1 acceptance so far. My current PI told me to avoid emailing because it annoys professors. I followed the advice it worked well for me.

Most of the grad students that I know live either in Green Lake/ Phinney Ridge or Ravenna. Capital Hill is a great neighborhood, but pricey. South Lake Union has a lot of new apartments, but they are geared towards Amazon employees. My advice is to look at the bus routes connecting various neighborhoods to the UW and go from there (assuming you'll be taking public transit, as driving and parking are a pain in the ass in Seattle).  For future planning, the light rail system is being extended to connect to campus, which should open up in 2016 or so.

LOL ^ I can relate to this. I kept whining about which program I should choose and everyone I talked to were like "it seems PRETTY obvious which one you're leaning more heavily towards, what's the hesitation?" They just don't understanddddddd
 
P.S. Congrats on committing!!!

I felt the same way eteshoe!
I knew UChicago was the best overall choice for me but for some reason I couldn't hit the accept button! I had to talk with all of my friends/family about the pros/cons of every school and each one of them were like "well it sounds like your mind is made up..." but its hard taking that step. my family was fed up with me because i wouldn't stop talking about it haha.
i wasn't even that excited to accept the offer after a point because i felt like i was beating the horse to a pulp!
 
but man, can i tell you how nice it was right after hitting the send button. it was a whole new wave of excitement! within an hour after sending in my submission i had e-mails from the dean and most of the professors i spoke with e-mailing me how excited they were to have me! it was such a good feeling, especially to know what i will be doing for the next few years! 
so guys don't be afraid to make that leap. if your heart is set on it and your head tells you its the best choice, hitting send is a HUGE weight off of your shoulders!!!
 
 

It sounds like you wouldn't have a good personal fit with this POI. That is something to consider, if you do get an offer. I think that is more important than research interest fit. In any case, definitely wait until you have formal funding offers from your other programs before doing anything.

Oh God, can you believe it that I got an acceptance after all??
I'm so shocked!!
Sorry, I just had to share this, I'm smiling like an idiot here.

This is a comment by someone who works in admissions. Full thing here, but here's pertinent quote:
 
 

Huh. That was a nice insight into the wait list process.
 
That "hey we want YOU, but if you don't want us please let us know" email? One of my schools sent me an email of that variety in mid-Feb, just two weeks after I visited the school! They've then proceeded to contact me about once every 5 days. It's a little off-putting. (I don't plan on going there and am emailing shortly to let them know.)

oh please please please if this is your dream school than thats the answer. this is your decision about your future, so i would really do what is best for your education and what is the best fit. never compromise. i understand that its your significant other, but this is YOUR dream! 
if i would have chosen my significant other over my dream school, i would have ended up resenting him. we went through a long distance relationship over my master's but it was the best choice for my education and i never looked back. but i would really go for the dream school, a LDR isn't that bad (it might even give you more time to study and work on your thesis lol!)

How much longer is he at his school? how far apart are the schools? I have to say from 4.5 years of first-hand experience, long distance relationships SUCK. Thankfully my fiancee will be able to move in with me when I go to grad school because he will be separating from the military and going to undergrad wherever i go. But you have to look at your situation: How long have you two been together? Could you survive the distance? Do you see yourselves having a long-term future together? I can't say which option is better for you but these are some things to think about. 

The main reason I recommend waiting until close to the deadline is that many schools will expect you to. They may not have finalized your funding package, they may have extra university fellowships that won't be announced until a later date, etc. Part of the CGS resolution is in giving schools that extra time to put together admissions packages and schedule interviews and visits- it's mainly targeted towards allowing fair competition among schools, rather than allowing fair appraisal by students. It's there to let students wait until the middle of April to weigh the final offers from everywhere, and decide where they want to go. 
 
Similarly, I highly recommend visiting all of the schools you can that you have a significant interest in- visiting a school that might not have been your top choice can show characteristics of the school that might change your mind, as can meeting with professors and students in person. 
 
Personally, my bottom-ranked choice became my top-ranked choice, and one of my other options e-mailed me an offer for a hugely increased fellowship literally the day after I declined their offer and had accepted somewhere else. 
 
I'm of course working off of the assumption that you didn't apply to schools you would not want to attend, and accordingly, all of the schools who would accept you are valid choices. If you applied to schools that were really only there as safeties and you have no interest in attending, and no faculty you fit with, then you don't need to hold onto those, but if there was a reason you applied, or faculty you wanted to work with, I think you owe it to yourself (and them) to see if they really are the best fit. 
 
This of course goes hand-in-hand with Takeruk's very well written post, and obviously if you're 100% sure you don't want to attend somewhere, you shouldn't keep it on your list "just because".

I know that this phase is often the most stressful time, when we might not have any offers, or we have some offers to some of our lower choices but still waiting to hear back from some of our top choices. But that doesn't mean we have to aggressive towards each other about this! 
 
I suggest these guidelines, which can really just be summarized as "don't be a jerk":
 
1. Don't be a jerk and procrastinate on making your decision. Once you do have enough information to make a decision, go ahead and make it. For example, if you know for a fact that you will go to one of your top 3 choices and you got into all 3, it's a good time to decline/withdraw all your other schools. Or, if there is a safety school that you no longer need, go ahead and decline it. Don't rush yourself though and give yourself time to visit the school and think carefully about how you want to spend your next 5-7 years. It's fine to take time if you need it to make the best decision for yourself, but don't be a jerk and just procrastinate until April before you seriously start thinking about your future. That is, don't treat this like a homework assignment--just because the deadline is April 15 does not mean you should wait until then to decide (unless you need the time).
 
2. Don't be a jerk and rush others into making a decision. They deserve your acceptances and have worked hard to get here, just like you. Every accepted applicant deserves the time necessary to make the right decision for them. And sometimes that means waiting for other offers. For example, there might be a 2-body problem so one partner has to wait until the other hears back from the schools in the same area to decide. Or, other information might be missing, such as waiting for the announcement of national fellowships (I believe these get released in early April). It's also important to realise that just because a waitlist exists doesn't mean that if someone declines, someone from the waitlist will get in. A school that wants 20 new students might make offers to 30 students, knowing that usually only, say, 40% of offers are taken. So they might only fill a few spots from the waitlist even though many people will be declining. Or, they might change their mind and just take a smaller class after all. You also don't know if the waitlist is something like 10 students, or all 200 students that met all minimum qualifications. Don't count on waitlist status meaning anything. Don't be a jerk and blame/guilt those with offers for the decision that the school made. We're all in this together.

This is also the stage where 1) the final 'first round' of offers are just being offered for some schools 2) additional funding packages may be offered around this time 3) people are contacting profs to make their final decisions. Believe me, I'm on a wait list and want off it ASAP, too, but either it'll happen later this month or it won't.

As an alternative PSA, I'd encourage people with multiple offers to be patient, make sure the full offer is in, and don't rush deciding where your best fit for the next 5-7 years of your life will be.

First of all, the people who were accepted have all the right to hold onto their offers as long as they please (before the appropriate deadlines of course), because as others pointed out on this thread, choosing a graduate program is a major decision, possibly one of the biggest in one's life, and selecting a choice out of their acceptances cannot be done overnight. If you were accepted to all those schools you were interviewed at, do you think you could make your decision rapidly so that you might make room for others on the waitlist?

So, I was on the "very small" interview weekend for the Integrated Program at Columbia (Feb 6) and it seemed to me that this was a weekend for all those that they wanted to invite but that couldn't make it the previous recruitment days. We were mainly internationals and for me, they basically invited me on that weekend because I was invited for Weill Cornell the weekend afterwards and wanted to make it easier for me, so that I can make the whole thing one single trip from Germany to the US, rather than having to come to New York twice within a period of three weeks or so.
 
Anyways, what they told us is that they are offering admission on a rolling basis, so that it is very possible to receive an offer at a pretty late stage. They also told us, that it can be a good idea to clearly communicate to them if this is your first choice school, especially at a later stage of the process, because at that point they want to make sure that they fill up their spots.

If you're an international student I would advise against applying to too many public universities. Their funding mainly comes from the federal/state government which usually limits the support to US citizens or permanent residents. Private universities, on the other hand, oftentimes have other channels of funding in addition to NIH/NSF funding (private donations, university fellowships, etc). In fact, my advisor told me out right that 'if a department boasts huge amounts of training grants of any sort, you're out' (oh forgot to mention, I'm international too). It might also be a good idea to ask the department you're interested in before applying as to whether or how many international students they plan to accept, if the department has not indicated already on its website. UW Genome Sciences, for instance, states very explicitly on its website that due to funding limitation it only takes in 1 or 2 international folks every year. Some private universities I applied to, on the other hand, despite having indicated on their websites that they have limited funding for internationals, offered me admissions and in one case an additional fellowship.

No one should be pressured to make a decision hastily, but this is a good point. If you have multiple offers and know that there is a school or schools you don't want to attend, let them know sooner rather than later. Funding can often be on the line, too. Hanging onto multiple offers until the last, bitter hour of April 15th isn't fair to anyone. It actually can screw lower ranked schools out of taking full-sized recruitment classes, too. If you're waiting on your #1 program, hold onto #2, but maybe let the others go?

Hi Jalish-
I think they are in the process of waiting for people to turn down offers before offering more. I was one of those accepted right after the January 16 weekend and was asked to either accept or reject them by March 15. I would assume that another wave of acceptances will go out around March 15 as people turn down the offer. I got an email recently reminding me to tell them of my decision as soon as possible. I think that as much as it stinks, you should wait it out another week or so and then maybe email the coordinator again, by then they should know if they are going to send out more offers.
I hope all goes well for you!

You have a moral obligation to attend School B since you've already accepted, but it's still possible for you to back out of the deal. Just explain the situation, and they should let you off the hook, especially if it's early. Whoever is on the waitlist for School B will be ecstatic too.

Thank you everyone for your responses! 
 
@drownsoda: Thank you for the congratulations.
 
I had not thought about the fact that the email is still an unofficial acceptance. In the professor's email, it does say that the formal offer of admission will arrive in the coming weeks. I have no reason to suspect my offer would be revoked, but nonetheless it is better to be safe rather than sorry. I will wait till I receive my official letter of acceptance before withdrawing any other applications. 
 
I am quite certain that the program is a good fit. I lived on the campus for a month this summer while participating in a workshop run by the professor who would be my advisor if I attend this program. I have spoken extensively with students who are in the program, and who applied to the program, and have friends who are in related programs at the same school. I know that the funding offered by this school is the best in the field, and while I was there I spoke to other professors who I plan to work with. Unfortunately the city it is in does give me pause, but I have promised my husband I will wait to hear back from my second choice school anyway since he would prefer the other city. Long story short, I am extremely familiar with the program, and feel confident about it, but will still wait to receive my official acceptance letter, just to be safe. And then I will withdraw my applications from any programs I have not yet heard back from.

I agree with everyone else that:
 
1. Do not consider any offers as official until you get an official letter of acceptance with the details of your financial offer (i.e. dollar amounts) in writing. Even a "written" letter like an unofficial email is not enough.
 
2. It is a good practice to withdraw your applications once you know for certain (like actually 100% certain) that you will say no to them no matter what their program is like or what they will offer you. If you still have some possibility of attending, then don't withdraw your application.
 
3. Related to the above, keep in mind that some schools can look very different on paper than in reality. Two of my schools were very different than I expected after actually visiting them (one became a lot more appealing, another became a lot less appealing). 
 
For me, I did not make any decisions until I visited my top choice and determined that yes, I would actually be happy there. Once I confirmed that, I turned down / withdrew remaining schools that I knew for certain I would not choose over my current top choice. 

I withdrew several applications once I was accepted to my first two choices and it became clear to me that I would not attend the other schools whose applications were still pending, in case I got accepted. I also made sure to decline offers from schools as soon as I wasn't considering them anymore, in case that could be helpful to anyone. I wasn't entirely sure whether these schools had a waitlist, but anyway I thought the decent thing to do was to save others the uncertainty of being on the waitlist or possibly getting rejected. I understand how it would be nice for one's ego to be able to count those applications as acceptances, but to be honest in the long run I've drawn a lot more satisfaction from knowing that I didn't deprive anyone else of the chance to go to grad school than from knowing that I might have been admitted to these schools (and immediately declined). After all, I got into my top choices and had a great grad school career. Once you're in school, no one really cares what other offers you had. I think it might have been discussed in the beginning of our first year, but it's not really been a topic ever since.
 
As for your second choice, I think you need to sit down and be very honest with yourself. Are you considering this option at all? If you might consider it, then you should give yourself a chance to get the offer and evaluate it then. If you do get the offer, you will have earned it fairly. As long as you are still considering it, I think it's fair to wait and see. However, if you are definitely going to attend your first choice school and you don't see any chance you'll change your mind, then I think the mature thing to do is to let go of it, despite the possible "damage" to your pride.