Owlet

I offer a general yes, although it really depends on the field. The number of programs in a field is going to impact this a lot. For example, one of my fields (public health) is relatively small with a small number of PhD programs, so top 15 programs are definitely perceived in a different light than the 16-25 programs. But my other field, psychology, is very large with a lot of PhD programs in many different subfields. There's not huge perceptional differences between the top 20 programs, I would say - a top 25 program graduate with publications and an otherwise outstanding package would have good prospects on the market. I mean, yes, there's definitely a prestige premium for Stanford and Michigan and Princeton (top 10), but I have seen grads from Duke, Ohio State, Penn State, Indiana and NYU (20-30) teaching at great schools as well.
 
The other factor is going to be how tight the market is in your field. I've read in areas that English literature is such an impacted field that even graduates from the top 10-15 programs sometimes have trouble finding good positions, which means that people from outside the top 25 really have trouble entering academia at all. But I've also read that economics PhDs even from top 50 programs are getting good jobs, because economics is such a lucrative field that many PhDs leave for industry and so the academic job market is not as tight. And right now, several top research universities have standing open ads for nursing professors. I mean that they basically have a permanent advertisement on their website saying that they need nursing professors, and by "top" I mean place like Penn and Emory - because there is such a shortage of faculty in that field.
 
It also totally depends on what YOU want to do. It's definitely true that prestigious departments tend to hire only from other prestigious departments - that's true across most fields (there was just a minor academic kerfluffle about a Science Advances paper that showed just that). If your goal is to be a famous sociologist doing cutting-edge scholarship at a top university - training the best doctoral students, teaching a few graduate seminars per year, organizing speaker series and colloquia of top sociologists, and maybe only occasionally teaching undergraduates - that #10 Ivy is probably going to be better at getting you towards that goal (although going to a top 20 school won't necessarily prevent you from doing it - it'll just be harder). But if your goal is simply a good academic job - and non-elite departments, teaching colleges and regional comprehensives are also on the menu - a top 20 school will work just fine for that.

They tweeted "Results should be announced in early April" in response to someone asking about decision timeline.

I liked the "around" early April better on the website, since that at least suggested it could be late-March as in some past years. I hope this isn't one of the later release date years.

You might, however, have to take the IELTS (or other approved test) for the visa. I've heard there was a fraud incident with the TOEFL in the UK and that the UK government would stop accepting the TOEFL test for visa purposes. Here is what the government page has to say:
 
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guidance-on-applying-for-uk-visa-approved-english-language-tests
 
And here is ETS' information on the issue: 
 
https://www.ets.org/toefl/ibt/about/who_accepts_scores/uk/

I'd echo everything said above, especially about the paper trail comments and honesty to individuals rather than the group.
 
However, there is a small incentive for us to get you to come to our program. If we think you are a good student / researcher, it is in our best interests to get you to come. If you come and do good work, it will advance our department/school's reputation and the more people that think "wow, students from school X are really good", the better it is for us, when we apply for jobs with School X on our CVs.

Try asking questions like this:
What was your favorite and least favorite thing about the program?
During the process, did anyone in your cohort become unhappy, and why?
 
That way they will need to give you some negatives as well that will better help you compare.

So, I am lucky enough to have been accepted to two PhD programs. This might sound impressive but for the record, I did apply to ten programs all in all and I've received six rejections so far, none of which were pleasant but mostly expected. 
 
My perspective and priorities have all changed dramatically throughout the process, and that's why I'm posting this. My first acceptance was from an absolute top university in the UK. It's one of the highest ranked universities in the world and I was almost certain I was going to accept it when I first found out. But since then a lot of my impressions have changed. My advisor-to-be has been practically impossible to get in contact with, and as is common practice in the UK, no real course work is involved. The funding situation is also very unclear. 
 
And a few weeks ago, I got admitted to my second program. It's at the history department at a US Ivy League school -- one of the lower Ivy's, but the department seems fantastic. Full funding is included for five years and I've gotten a great impression of the faculty, who have all been very encouraging, eager and welcoming. In stark contrast to the UK school, that is.
 
I guess the main question I have for you guys is a very classic dilemma: prestige and name brand value vs other crucial factors. The US school has great name value as well but I know that many would be more impressed by the UK one, employers as well as others. 
 
I know prestige shouldn't be a decisive factor but I'm still interested in hearing what you guys think. 

Does anybody feel as lost about the decision-making process?

It's incredible how informative site visits and interviews are, and how little I knew on what to look for during the application process (beyond research content, of course).

I talked to Cambridge about this. They said TOEFL was fine still but you should probably check that with your department. 

It took a few days for my status to change, but I'm sure it depends entirely upon the department and the overall workload of whoever is making sure that admitted applicants speak good enough English and don't have terrible grades. If your department admitted you I have a hard time seeing how you could have any results below the baseline requirements. 

Oh, sorry, I thought you got the conditional offer because of your signature. If I'm not mistaken, they took around 7 business days to send me the conditional offer once the status changed to "application with Board of Graduate Studies". Unless there is some issue with your TOEFL/IELTS results, you should get your offer soon.

There's also this article that's relevant:
 
Stenstrom, D. M., Curtis, M., & Iyer, R. (2013). School Rankings, Department Rankings, and Individual Accomplishments What Factors Predict Obtaining Employment After the PhD?. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 8(2), 208-217

I'm just going to leave this here. T-~5 weeks.
 
2014: Tuesday, April 1, 2014 @ 2:00 AM
2013 : Friday, March 29, 2013 @ ~2:00AM
2012: Friday, April 1, 2012 @ ~2:00AM
2011: Tuesday, April 5, 2011 @ ~12:50AM
2010: Tuesday, April 6, 2010 @ ~1:00AM
2009: Friday, April 10, 2009 @ ~1:00AM
2008: Tuesday, April 1, 2008 @ ~2:00AM
2007: Monday, March 23. 2007 @ ~11:20 PM

If it didn't feel as horrible as it does, then it wouldn't feel as rewarding in the end!  That being said, I'm dying inside. NO SLEEP! CAN'T THINK OF ANYTHING ELSE BUT GRAD APPS! I'm going cray cray!!! 

It sucks, and it could happen to me again this year, but getting shut out is not the end of the world. I'm still standing. You decide if it's worth it to apply again. If its not worth it, then it may not be as important to you as you had originally thought. I met quite a few people last year who were in the 2nd and 3rd times of applying.

You did what you could this season, and now you have to see where it got you. If you need to do more next season, you will. Its like a breakup, it's raw initially, but you'll get over it and come away with a new understanding thats affects your next relationship.

I'm a "glass is half empty" kind of person, so if I'M saying stay positive, then you can do it too.

I will say i read at least 1-2 papers for all my interviewers.... but again i was probably over preparing.  It went well for me, because I actually had PIs tell me I got extra points when I referred to something they recently published.  It also made it super easy to ask questions about their research.  
Pro tip: if you can get a prof talking about his/her research...your interview will be over in what feels like 5 minutes.  
If it is your top choice I'd at least read abstracts of a few papers of your interviewers.  It will do wonders for you.  You have time in airports and sitting around, so there is plenty of time to look at some recent pubs.  I just went to pubmed, put in the pi for author and looked at recently published.  sometimes someone else is publishing, like a grad student (Good signs!) and they are the last author.  if this is your top pick and these are the PIs you are interested in working with...this won't feel like work, it'll actually be interesting and fun to you!

This should be totally fine. At one school, I asked them to reschedule my visit to a few days later so that I can visit that school on a Mon-Tues and another nearby school on a Thurs-Fri of the same week. They were fine with that because I can then split costs with the other school and everyone wins. Also, at the other school, I asked if I could stay with a grad student I already knew there to save them some money. I also spent an extra weekend there to visit my friend and see the city a little longer. Of course, I made it clear that all of the expenses not related to the visit would be on my own dime!
 
It's pretty common to do this in academia. When my school pays for me to go to a conference, I often tack on a few extra day (or a week) and have a mini-vacation. I pay for the extra days myself and as long as the return flight is the same price as returning immediately after the conference, the school still pays for the return flight and there is no problem. In fact, this was how I got half of the flight costs for my honeymoon to Paris subsidized (we paid for my spouse's ticket of course).

It shouldn't leave a bad impression. Not everyone will be able to meet their preferred times because of flight availability (for example, I grew up in a small-ish town in the USA where there are only a few flights in and out each day). They understand that and will probably be glad that you made your own lodging arrangements, which saves them the effort of doing so.

I doubt your travel arrangements would leave a bad impression! You're an international student and you are coming from very far away. International flights don't fall into the neat and orderly schedules that domestic flights often have. Besides, if I was in your position, I would want to arrive an extra day earlier anyway. I flew to Japan this past summer with several connecting flights resulting in a total travel time of about 18 hours, and I was completely exhausted when I arrived, partly because I didn't get much sleep the night before and partly because of the travel time. Coming home was a little easier because my flight left later in the day (allowing me to get more sleep), but it was still rough. I imagine the program will be very understanding of this.

Thanks for all your answers!!
I finally plucked up the courage to ask. They quickly replied it would not be a problem, and in fact, that they have lots of vegetarians and vegans. 

Sigh, I know adcoms probably just got back to work and all, and I'm sure this question has been asked before, but I still can't help feeling anxious.
 
When would be "too soon" to start emailing administration about interviews? I know one of the programs I applied for at UCSD has one interview weekend coming up in 3 weeks, and a second interview weekend for the same program about 2 weeks after, and one of my friends has already heard back from that program before Christmas (I've seen a few interviews on the results page, too), so not sure if I should start panciking since UCSD is my top choice D:

I would just contact one of the organizers there who is in charge of the visitations and interviews and inquire about the meals, explaining your restrictions. We vegetarians are a rare breed, but we're not THAT rare.
 
As an undergrad I went to a really liberal university and remember them having vegetarian lunch options during my orientation day. We actually had a cafe on campus that served 100% vegan food as well, so I was always taken care of in that regard.
 
Since vegetarianism is fairly common (and since colleges tend to be fairly liberal places overall), I think most universities would accommodate this. I've been a vegetarian for eleven years and have seen the prevalence of vegetarian dishes in social settings grow significantly. It really wouldn't be that strange of a request anyway.

I was asked about it by all of my schools, and I just said something like, "I'm a vegan, thank you for your consideration/thoughtfulness/accommodation".
If you aren't asked about it, maybe you could ask them if vegetarian options will be available.

This shouldn't be a problem. I have two rather weird food allergies that were always accommodated on visits. They almost always ask if you have any dietary requirements when they're planning things. If they don't then you can definitely mention it when corresponding about the arrangements for your visit.

Most of the schools that hosted me asked about any dietary requirements right when they invited me to visit. I think some places will be very open and be very conscious of different diets while others will not be. At one school, I would say that over 60% of the grad students were vegetarian (in a very "hippie" city). At other places, vegetarian diets might not be as common, so you might only have one or two choices. But hopefully, if you tell them well in advance, they won't schedule a social event at a BBQ restaurant (or catered by a BBQ place), for example, since some cuisines are just naturally less vegetarian friendly!

No dreams, but just a never-ending, nerve-wrecking cycle of thoughts 24/7 which goes something like this: 
 
1. I wonder when I'll hear back. 
2. There's nothing I can do. My applications are done, so I may as well just try to enjoy the downtime. 
3. But what if I don't get in anywhere?
4. But I worked so. hard. on everything! There must be at least ONE program that will see that and take me. 
5. Oh but what if there is some mistake on my application that causes all the programs to reject me? 
 
Repeat 4 & 5 several times before going back to 1 to start the cycle all over again. I wish I could just hiberate until the decisions came out.