Megan

I really think Princeton is going to be tomorrow. If i had to lay a bet, I would guess tomorrow, 5 PM EST.

I have a question related to this, maybe for somebody already in grad school. I am currently abroad. I am coming back the week AFTER my admit weekend at NYU, and have obligations here until then. Does anybody have any idea if schools are open to people scheduling more informal visits? I'd still really like to visit the campus, meet with POIs and talk to some students, but I just don't think I'm going to be able to swing being in NYC on the 23rd. I haven't asked yet, because I've been feeling kind of bad about it, but I wonder if anybody knows if this happens, or how frequently people do it?

I literally JUST said this to a friend. Even if it meant finding out a bit later, I would still rather know that on March 12th I'm going to wake up and have an inbox full of yes or no emails. So much less stress.

"Cornell: $22,900 per annum (5 years) $4,830 per summer (4 years) Health insurance Three years of TA-ships (max. 15 hrs. per week)" Woah. That summer funding is no joke. Sweet.

I'm so with you. It would be great to get in some more places, but I'm not greedy and I'm super excited, I'd just like to decide! Also, I'm in a very complicated airline ticket buying situation right now that can't really be resolved until I have news...prices just keep going up and I just keep having to wait...

Thanks, yeah. Their placements seem really good. The grad students working in my area are producing work I'm interested in. Obviously there are profs I'm excited about. All-in-all I'm pretty thrilled with that acceptance (since I seem not to be getting into other places I applied, I'm starting to wonder if they made a mistake!). I was just wondering why it was left off that list altogether.

Seriously, the staggering is making me INSANE.

I would like to add, friends in Europe have told me that nepotism is a lot more of a problem here. My experiences are in the US. It may be quite different from other countries. What you are describing, SwissChocolate, doesn't seem very true to me on the US side. Certainly, kids with money have it easier in certain ways (don't have to take out loans, can afford unpaid internships, don't have to work while going to school, etc.), but I don't think that parents who are academics gives any particularly notable advantages here. At least not as far as I can tell.

I should add, there are downsides. My dad does some work that is about kids, and he uses me as an example. I occassionally have people I've never met say things like, "Your dad was telling us the other day about that time you did (insert super embarassing thing that I did as a small child here)." or "Oh, you're the one that bed wetting story was about!" Thanks Dad. Edited for my inability to use punctuation.

Definitely not, in my case. My Dad is in a very different field, at a not very well-ranked program, and got his PhD in the 70s from also not the greatest place on earth. There has certainly been no benefit of any kind for me in the way that you are talking about. Maybe this would be different if my Dad was in the same field as me, or was well-known, or taught at a really top-notch place like an Ivy. My dad knows some people who teach at really great places, maybe even places I might have applied to, but they would all be in a totally different field. I'm not sure it would help even if he was in my field unless he was super well-known and I was obviously his kid...I can't imagine he'd call in favors in an admit process or something... That said, there are some nice things about being a faculty kid. Generally speaking, professors don't scare me just because they are professors. I've spent my entire life around professors. I've seen what they look like when they have barbecue sauce on their faces. I think this was a bigger help in undergrad than it will be in grad school. I never felt weird about going to office hours or asking for help, which I know lots of people did. I think by the time we head to grad school, though, most people are no longer as intimidated by professors anyway, at least not in the same way. Seeing my dad work his way through his academic career makes me more certain that I am making a good choice. I have some clarity about the fact that academia is absolutely awful a lot of the time. I know what departmental politics look like, and the toll they take on stress levels/personal life. I have seen a lot of the crap and still want to do it. Sometimes my dad can provide useful perspective. For example, last year I had to take an incomplete for medical reasons. My dad was the first one to suggest I do so (followed by my adviser and program director) while I was just trying to slog through, keep working even though I was miserably ill, etc. While any parent might suggest this, my dad is able to be like, "Don't be crazy. People take incompletes all the time. It's not a big thing. Relax. You won't not get into a PhD program because of this." So, in that way, he provides perspective that maybe a parent who wasn't an academic couldn't. I guess I think it's like anything your parents do. It gives you a particular set of experiences and perspectives that shape the way you approach your future. It also probably depends on where they are academics, what they study, etc...

Anecdotally, I can say that in my polisci MA program I am the only person in my year with a parent who works in academia.

True story. My dad told me last night that people in his department have talked about the impact of websites like this on their admissions process, and whether they need to adjust things based on the amount of communication between applicants. Specifically, he mentioned that they were dealing with students assuming they are rejected because other people were accepted and they hadn't heard anything. His department apparently regularly staggers admissions. I can't imagine top ten schools give a toss, but wouldn't it be funny if this was just some weird vicious circle of them responding to our behavior and us responding to their behavior and everybody trying to outthink everybody else? For context, he is in another social science discipline and teaching at a not top-notch state school, and they only have an MA, so it's different. I just thought it was interesting that it was so on the radar.

To be fair, I only looked at the results table, but is it just me or is NYU not included in this analysis at all? Anybody know why? At first I thought maybe it just drops their rank so low, but they place pretty well, and these rankings go down pretty low. They seem to be the only school I applied to not included in that table.

By crazy I didn't mean everybody would notify, but I am thinking maybe one or two schools will. I bet Princeton is Thursday, though.

I have this feeling that at 5 PM Eastern time, things might get a little crazy around here.

I think if schools send acceptances today, they should come in the form of valentines. Like, Subject Line: Be Columbia's Valentine for the Next 5-8 years! And the acceptance letter inside typed over a big red heart.

But an acceptance would be the best V-Day present EVER!

This is undeniably true. CooCooCachoo has just semi-permanently solved all your troubles.

Thanks for the info! I'm glad some people are braver about calling these schools than I am.

I hope so too! Here's hoping we both get in! :-) Best of luck!

Anybody have any guesses when Columbia might notify?

I have no strong need to talk with them immediately, and certainly don't want to bother them, I have just been noticing that it seems like in many cases that is the standard practice on the part of people admitted. Some seem to receive emails and some seem to send them preemptively, so I was just wondering. And that is what makes me think they might "spontaneously decide to email me", because I have seen it happening quite a lot with people admitted in my field. I will likely have a few more specific questions once I see what all my options are, but I was just wondering more generally what other people's experiences have been. Why would I "just want them to see my name again"? I'm already accepted, this isn't a ploy for attention. I am just wondered if it was something I should already know I'm supposed to do, or just something some people sometimes do. Only not wanting to be irresponsible on my side, that's all.

I did my undergrad in Minnesota, and while Illinois will not be AS cold (most likely), you will probably not be warm enough with just jackets and hoodies over long sleeves. Additionally, there could be snow still in March (hard to predict). You are probably going to need to buy a warm coat. The ideal is something like this: coat, scarf, hat, on top of a sweater, on top of a long-sleeved top, with boots that have traction enough that if there is ice you are not going to wind up on your butt. Some of this may wind up being unnecessary, but then you are prepared for all temperatures. The weather in the midwest can be unpredictable. You could show up and it would feel like spring, or it could well still be below freezing, or it might be fine during the day but absolutely unbearable at night. Also, for the long term, I grew up in the south, and I can assure you that you DO get used to the weather. By the end of undergrad I actually rather liked having real winters.

I am starting this because I've noticed that some people have sent emails to their POI following admission. Is this the standard practice? I thought perhaps I should wait and allow them to make first contact given how busy professors are, but is it a better idea to get in touch with them directly? Thanks in advance for any advice!

Thanks for posting this. I had heard about the unionizing thing. While long-term I care about the political implications, I have to admit I don't really care why they changed the system. Maybe that's wrong, but I'm just glad the opportunity exists. I am interested in the fact that this has led to more trouble getting a TAship and/or 6th year funding. Are you a current student there, and if so would you be willing to talk via PM about it?