hgp

Harvard does their rejections by snail mail, so it takes longer.

Does anyone at Penn have advice for which parking pass I should get? I will be living on campus so I will only be using my car to go to the grocery, IKEA etc.

Yes, but I just did this weekend! I stayed at Center City over my visit, and I took the subway to campus - it was more of a walk than I had anticipated, but it could have been because I didn't know the area.

Just said yes to Penn! So many feels.

As the famed sociologist T. Swift would say, haters gonna hate, shake it off shake it off

How much does making a decision 3/20 impact students on the waitlist vs 4/10 or even the 15th. I see people on the forum asking those who are going to decline to decline early, but I've mostly heard people say to focus on your own decision. I've also heard of people getting accepted post April 15th because a cohort wasn't the size the school wanted so I don't know how much to take the waitlist into consideration.

Thank you all so much for the feedback! It has been very helpful.

I agree! I'm getting a part-time job on a golf course and will be doing some theory readings, maybe brushing up on statistics if I'm feeling really adventurous/insecure.

Do you think they are looked at differently though? In terms of prestige?

Thank you for your response!

Does living in another town make it difficult to socialize with your cohort for a first year? I am looking at condos in Bala Cynwyd but I am worried about not being in the city. Does anyone have experience with this? I'm not really a city girl but I definitely want to be easily able to participate in activities/outings.

Yes and it is so exhausting! I haven't committed yet, but if I do, I'm just going to get a Realtor. I was looking for a house in the suburbs but parking on campus is so expensive, I think I'm going to opt for a condo in center city. I found this post to be helpful for popular neighborhoods: http://mba.wharton.upenn.edu/student-experience/living-philadelphia/housing/

I've heard that top 5 only hires within top 5 (for my field - sociology) and that the next tier is 6-20. Other people have said that as long as the school is top 20 it's top tier. One of my schools is #10 (ivy) and the other is #20 (state school). Should I consider them in the same tier? I'd sincerely appreciate any opinions on this matter!

I'm in sociology so I'm not sure if what political science looks for is different - but it does seem like you have an impressive application package. If the #60 program is funded, I say take the first step and see what other doors open. Particularly for your professional goals, I think the PhD will be worth it. You're in control of the quality and quantity of work you do and the connections you make no matter what tier school you go to. I think 8 years from now when you're at your government position you're gonna look back on this time of anxiety, smile and say, hey it all really does work out.

I'm all for positive mental health so I think the biggest question is if you feel as though you need a break. If you are burnt out from four years of undergrad and the summer program is supposed to be challenging, resting your brain and establishing healthy habits might be of better service to you. A month and a half seems like a solid amount of time to recharge - although you may be surprised how quickly it goes. However, I don't know how big an advantage it would be to do the fellowship in terms of preparation for grad school - I mean, you were accepted because they thought you were prepared enough already. You could always take the summer off and do prep on your own. Everyone is different, but I know after I graduated, I didn't use my brain for a solid two months after and then slowly started back into productive, academic work thru a part time research assistant position - and now (after 7 months) I feel so ready to jump back in academia for the next six years.

I found this Ted Talk very helpful http://www.ted.com/talks/ruth_chang_how_to_make_hard_choices#t-832949 "For lots of rational modern folks, the natural way to look at truly hard choices is the same way we look at any other choice. As always, there are pros and cons to each alternative, but in the case of tough choices they're of different types, so the alternatives are hard to weigh. How do you compare the benefit of being close to your childhood friends versus the possible financial payoff of that program on the opposite coast? And what's more, how can you be sure, really, how much you truly value each until you experience both? In this view, the problem is your imperfect knowledge of your preferences and your lack of foresight about how options will play out. The natural response is to pine for more information--if only God could send you a couple of DVDs of your two possible futures and you could view them side by side, you'd be all set, is how Chang sums it up. The result of this fruitless search for sure comparisons is a whole lot of unhappiness and, in many cases, a final decision to throw up our hands and just choose the safer option. If you can't really justify the new or scarier path, it's pretty hard to pick it, after all. A Better Option But according to Chang, this isn't the best way to look at hard choices. "It's a mistake to think that in hard choices one alternative really is better than the other, but we're too stupid to know which, and since we don't know which, we might as well take the least risky option," she says.What then is a better way to think about our most agonizing decisions? Not as the rough equivalent of a really, really hard pop quiz from the universe, but instead as an opportunity to write your own identity, assert your values, and actively shape your life. Use decision-making as an occasion to create a right answer, rather than expect to find it outside of yourself somewhere. 'When we create reasons for ourselves to become this person kind of person rather than that, we wholeheartedly become the people that we are," Chang says. "We become the authors of our lives.'"

I found this 15 minute Ted Talk very helpful http://www.ted.com/talks/ruth_chang_how_to_make_hard_choices#t-832949 "For lots of rational modern folks, the natural way to look at truly hard choices is the same way we look at any other choice. As always, there are pros and cons to each alternative, but in the case of tough choices they're of different types, so the alternatives are hard to weigh. How do you compare the benefit of being close to your childhood friends versus the possible financial payoff of that program on the opposite coast? And what's more, how can you be sure, really, how much you truly value each until you experience both? In this view, the problem is your imperfect knowledge of your preferences and your lack of foresight about how options will play out. The natural response is to pine for more information--if only God could send you a couple of DVDs of your two possible futures and you could view them side by side, you'd be all set, is how Chang sums it up. The result of this fruitless search for sure comparisons is a whole lot of unhappiness and, in many cases, a final decision to throw up our hands and just choose the safer option. If you can't really justify the new or scarier path, it's pretty hard to pick it, after all. A Better Option But according to Chang, this isn't the best way to look at hard choices. "It's a mistake to think that in hard choices one alternative really is better than the other, but we're too stupid to know which, and since we don't know which, we might as well take the least risky option," she says.What then is a better way to think about our most agonizing decisions? Not as the rough equivalent of a really, really hard pop quiz from the universe, but instead as an opportunity to write your own identity, assert your values, and actively shape your life. Use decision-making as an occasion to create a right answer, rather than expect to find it outside of yourself somewhere. 'When we create reasons for ourselves to become this person kind of person rather than that, we wholeheartedly become the people that we are," Chang says. "We become the authors of our lives.'"

I've heard it's appropriate to send an updated CV. My thought is that it doesn't hurt to try, it can only help you. I think it'll also show that you are still very interested in the school - and depending on if the waitlist isn't already numbered, knowing that you're strongly interested in the program could help you be selected off the waitlist before others.

I think rising_star's post would be true if you were able to be your best scholar at program 1. If you left a day early because you felt so uncomfortable, that is saying something. PhD programs are difficult enough, you really need the social support and a quality of life that will allow you to flourish as a scholar. If you're happy and fulfilled at a program, it'll show in your work. The top 20 program still has resources in your program. And, if you do good work, the resources/opportunities will come. If I were you, and I left a visit because I felt out of place, I wouldn't even be considering that school. Prestige won't make the next six years of your life enjoyable - social support will. And it's not even guaranteed there will be a difference in professional placement (especially if you're not doing solid work at a place you're unhappy with).

It's the highest of any programs/fellowships I've been accepted to. I don't know how many people were admitted tho - sorry!

I would say it is prestigious in the realm of sociology based on rankings. Those who know, know. Meaning, if you're applying for a job (in academia, or that hires from sociology departments) they'll know Minnesota is a top program, even if the name doesn't sound that way to those outside the sociology realm. Almost everything I've read and most of the people I've talked to have focused on top 20 as the mark of prestige.

I'm interested in social psych and they're not as strong there (though I love the work they're doing with the American Mosaic Project), but it's mostly because I am looking for an institution with a top 5 mba program for my partner.

I don't know anything about McGill, but I visited Minnesota and the grad students were absolutely amazing - so kind and really went out of their way to make sure everyone felt included/enjoyed themselves at the gatherings. Their faculty was also substantially nicer and more involved in reaching out to me than any other department I've applied to. If I was selecting a school based on people who would make my every day life happier, I would select Minnesota. I think I'll be declining my offer there based on my other options, but it is very difficult to say no to such genuinely supportive people.

haha, thank you - I will try to resist but I doubt I'll be able to

I wish this thread would revive for the 2015 cycle