backstreets

They said they'll be giving more decisions in mid-March (though it's not clear that it's waitlists, rejections, last-minuted acceptances, what have you). It's weird that they'd give waitlist notifications if they weren't done with admits, but maybe it's by subfield? (I didn't see people admitted to American Politics, for example). Who knows...

I just asked Columbia about decision notification timlines and they said early to mid March. So maybe they just did the first round admits and are waiting to see what the yield rate is (or are still deliberating over some people). There might still be hope.

Ooh, very exciting! Thanks for sharing that! That would certainly be a nice piece of news at the end of the week (though all my profs say that Texas or UVA is better for what I'm studying... who knows). :-)

Yeah, I got a letter in the mail a few days ago saying I'd gotten the presidential fellowship ($18k/year for four years). I like the UVA program and the faculty, but Texas is a lot better for what I want to study (I just don't know that I can do it if they're averaging at around $14,800/year). You might very well still have funding, though. I know they've been set back a bit in terms of admissions and financial aid stuff because of the snow and everything, so hopefully you'll hear something soon! I'll keep my fingers crossed for you!

Thanks! I just wasn't sure. It feels so awkward asking for more money from a public university, but I guess the worst thing they can do is say no...

Also implicitly rejected at Columbia (unless by some slim chance American politics admits haven't yet been notified?). Really bummed. On a totally different note, does anyone know whether (or to what extent) funding offers are negotiable? I just got my funding offer from UT-Austin and it's over $3200/year less than what I got at UVA, and I'm really hoping to be able to give serious consideration to both programs rather than having it just be defined by that one factor.

any american politics admits to columbia?

Yet another Berkeley rejection. No surprise there (my alma mater) but that one really hurt. Hoping for better news from Columbia...

Yeah, I didn't mean to complain so much, especially when I've got two good offers. It's just so frustrating applying in such an incredibly competitive time when most of us would be looking at more options in most other years. Oh well.

OMG seriously? This is ridiculous. I had a 3.9 at a top university, 650V/740Q, tons of research experience (both field and legal research), great personal statement, aced a grad school course, am helping a prof edit a book right now, and there was a prof there whose interests were completely in sync with mine. I honestly don't understand why I'm getting rejected almost everywhere. Okay, that's the end of my vent. It's just really frustrating and shocking that I'm not having more options...

any american politics admits to penn? that's my subfield... :-/

i emailed uva's dga and he gave me a tentative/unofficial package.

I hope so! i just don't see the point of updating records if you know you're not going to consider someone further. i work at a university, and we don't have that much time on our hands, haha. maybe they admit the sure things first and then haggle a little longer over the maybes. i'm not totally panicky since i'm in with funding at texas and uva, and texas is perfect for public law, but it would be nice to have the extra option...

maybe i'm being too optimistic, but i've got a feeling that penn is staggering its decisions. i talked with the department yesterday and they said they added something to my file that afternoon. i don't think they'd have done that if they could tell i'm on the "no" list... fingers crossed!

what's up with the upenn rejection? as of last friday, they were still looking at apps and finalizing decisions...

I'm doing American (public law) and theory. Not sure how marketable that is, but it works for me...

Thanks! I'll be curious to hear from them. It's the only one for which I'm really holding my breath. Otherwise, I'm headin' to Austin. :-)

anyone have any idea when columbia might be notifying?

They're definitely cutting the size of the class at Cal (I work there).

I had emailed the graduate admissions assistant to update something in my application and she wrote back saying that I'd be getting a letter but that I was admitted. There wasn't any funding information (and based on what it says on the program website, I'm not counting on the funding being great).

In at UVA for American politics. Not a bad day! :-)

in at texas. phew. i'm pretty sure my blood pressure just dropped 20 points, haha.

looks like there's a ut-austin acceptance in the results page. this could finally be the day!

What a relief to hear. I'd been having mini freak-outs over not getting a decision on UVA because they said they only had unofficial transcripts. (For some reason, my UPenn application status has the same problem, but I figure that if they didn't receive the official ones or couldn't rely upon unofficial transcripts, they'd have said something... Or at least, I'd hope that they'd say something instead of just moving on to the next applicant).

I was told that decisions likely would be either today or early next week. Hoping we don't have another weekend ahead of us before decisions roll around...