Enhydra

Fingers crossed for you!

South Lake Union is an expensive location, geared towards tech salaries.

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.

Thanks! That is helpful.

Thank you! It feels really good. Just make sure to bundle up. Did he give you any indication when you'd hear back? I'm the same way. I *hate* talking on the phone.

I think the distinction in my mind was that nerds were people into nerdy pop-culture, e.g. comic books, gaming, etc, while geeks were people who were really passionate about a particular subject. I count myself in both camps so I'm not sure where that distinction came from. I received a rejection from one of my top choices this morning--my first one. Surprisingly, when I read the email I felt relief instead of sadness--I think because I knew this place was a long shot and I was afraid of being stuck in waiting list purgatory for months and still being rejected in the end. This way, I know the result and can move forward. It helps that I was accepted to my other top choice, too. And with that result, I think I'm ready to make a final decision! Deciding between the two schools I was accepted at was quite difficult, but after campus visits it was pretty apparent which program was right for me. I still have two schools that I haven't heard from, but at this point I don't think an acceptance from either one would change my mind. Does anyone know the proper procedure for withdrawing an application before the program has sent out results?

Seconding this--I had an acceptance and an interview request land in the junk mail folder.

Congrats! I got my first acceptance last night.

Here's a study that shows similar results to your experience: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10755-014-9313-4

I've had the same thing happen to me several times, with a Seattle-area number. The calls wer coming from Expedia, not UW. >.<

I would follow this advice.

I would tell her that you are interested in the program but that obviously you can't commit to anything without an official offer.

Agree with what everyone here has said: Go with an open mind.Have a good time, network. It might become your new favorite, it might not. Only way to find out it to go.

It probably won't matter at all, but I would contact the grad school coordinator and explain that one of your letter writers became ill and was unable to send a letter, but that you have more than the minimum required. This way you've alerted them to the reason behind the missing letter, just in case it causes a system hang up or something.