letmein...

Very useful link - it makes me think that this may not be a crazy endeavor afterall (I am returning to school this fall from the business world). I have no source to provide, but most of what I have read also indicates that the number of students about to enter tertiary schooling will be increasing for the next decade or so because of a demographic transition. And yes, many of the baby boomers will be retiring within this coming decade, so we may be in that sweet spot for the job market....

I just remembered about your thread. What did you want to know? What subfield is your concentration? My answers about UCSD will probably be far better suited if I knew what you were interested in knowing. And fyi, I probably will be there in the fall....

When I was down at UCSD one of the Profs on the admission's committee gave me a little insight into the mystical void that is grad school admissions. He said that at least UCSD looked at your grades/coursework first to determine how well you did and how difficult your coursework was. Then they looked at your recommendations and who they were from. The next important things were your GRE scores and writing sample (or at UCSD, an abstract of a paper). Lastly, they looked at your personal statement to learn what your interests were and your motivations. Now, who knows what each schools prioritizes. I also have to imagine that the top tier schools probably use GPA and GRE scores to eliminate obviously unqualified candidates before starting a lengthier process. I don't know if this provides any comfort or only makes you one more angry, but it is some food for thought. While I was admitted to a top ten program, I know that some of these priorities would have hurt me - especially the writing sample, since I have been out of school for numerous years and do not have a research paper anymore to demonstrate my writing and critical thinking abilities. So it provided me with at least some understanding, if not comfort...

I figured as much but wanted to ask. Well, UCSD here I come...

Someone just told me about this site and I'm hoping people can provide some insights... Any clues? I've been accepted to UC Davis and UCSD. I only applied to the former as I knew I'd get in (the DGS wrote one of my recommendations as he liked me when I did my undergrad there). I've been rejected by UT Austin, WashU, and Yale. Firstly, does it make sense to get into UCSD but not Texas? Also, I see that people have heard rejections from Chicago and NYU. I still have not heard from those schools or Harvard. What does that mean? I'm not expecting too much at this point, but this whole process bewilders me. I'll be more than happy with UCSD, but I just wanted to see if anyone had any thoughts.

I'll be down in SD sometime on Monday for the Open House. If I remember to, I'll let you know the 411.