jaxzwolf

I'm not sure about the humanities, but it definitely could be true in my field (biological sciences). Last year when I applied, candidates received acceptances between mid-January and early March. I didn't receive my rejection notifications until the end of March and throughout April. I'd like to think that's because I was waitlisted at all those schools, but I wasn't. I did receive a few rejection notifications early on, from high-tiered schools. So, as with everything in graduate applications, it varies school to school, program to program, and department to department. But it certainly is possible for admissions to come well before rejections.

This is what makes me nervous. I had an in-person interview at my dream school last weekend. I loved the program, liked meeting the people in the department, etc., and now I feel as if the school is an even better fit than I did before. Plus, I liked the POI a great deal, and the overlap between our research interests is solid. But now I want the admit too much. We're supposed to hear back sometime next week, but I'm so worried about getting rejected-- I would honestly be devastated. I know it's a real possibility, though-- even those who do well and fit well end up rejected. I've never felt so emotionally attached to something. I keep imagining opening up my inbox to the dreaded 'we regret to inform you' email. I thought I did as well as possible in the interview, but honestly, who can tell what they're really looking for? They interviewed a ton of candidates for a very limited number of spots. I want it SO BADLY! I wish people would applaud us for pursuing higher education, instead of telling us to go get real jobs and actually contribute to the workforce. And I wish higher education was respected enough for us to choose where we want to go, instead of settling on attending a school that isn't a perfect fit.

That does indeed sound unprofessional. The unfortunate thing about the admissions process, though (okay, there are many unfortunate things) is that unofficial acceptances are just that-- 'unofficial.' Even if a professor/department likes your application and decides you would be a good fit for their program, you application package still must be sent to the graduate school for final review. It seems a little cruel that the graduate school would turn you down even when the department wanted you... That must be terrible. I would also consider sending them a polite-as-possible note asking for clarification of some of the terms they used in their explanation about rescinding the offer.

If it's just a possibility, I would say no-- keep on waiting. If you receive news that you are definitely going to be awarded a fellowship from NASA, then it would be appropriate to contact the individual schools and let them know you've received external funding and would like the opportunity to update your application. Unfortunately, if you haven't received the fellowship yet, it's still just a 'possibility,' and schools won't make their decisions based on the fact that you might possibly get funding from NASA. Many students apply for fellowships and other forms of external funding before they apply (the NSF GRFP being one common example), so although you might be extremely fortunate and end up paying your own way through grad school, there are a bunch of other candidates out there who might be able to do the same.

Haha... I think your poll is hilarious. As for me, I recycle everything. As for acceptance letters, who knows? I might frame one, if I get an offer to my top choice program.

Ooh! I can play this game... "A fresh start will put you on your way, [towards managing a McDonald's]" "It is a good time to finish up old tasks, [because if you get accepted to grad school you won't have time for anything but work]" "A person is never too old to learn, [that he/she is not what the adcoms are looking for]" "A soft voice may be awfully persuasive, [unless you're doing a phone interview and the adcom cannot hear what you're saying]" "Accept something that you cannot change, and you will feel better, [until your parents say, 'well at least now you can get a real job']" "All the effort you are making will ultimately pay off. [The cookies you are eating will manifest themselves as extra pounds soon]" "Failure is the chance to do better next time, [even though you'll have to wait a year to apply again]" 'In order to take [rejections], one must first give [application fees]" "Do not be intimidated by the eloquence of others, [when they post on GradCafe they've been accepted with funding to yet another school]" "Feeding a cow with roses does not get extra appreciation. [because cows eat grass. Also, roses have prickly thorns they would probably not appreciate]" That's all I've got... for now.

Last year at this time I had applied to six schools, had received rejections from three, and had nothing to suggest that an acceptance might be in my future (which turned out to be the case, as I received another two rejections the last week in March and the final rejection the last week in April). This year I've applied to eight schools. I've received one rejection, but I've also had two promising interviews and have had some communication with a POI at a third school. Don't want to get ahead of myself, as nothing is certain yet, but things are looking better thus far.

Funny, because I was going to say some sort of pug/Pomeranian cross. A little small to be a chow mix. Fun fact of the day: Chows aren't the only breed of dog that have dark-colored tongues or tongue spots. There are over thirty pure dog breeds that are known to have blue/black tongues or dark tongue spots, and the trait shows up in mutts all the time.

All I can say is, I can only hope that my competition does just these things during my interview session. Sure would make the adcom's decision easier!

Ooh-- that's rough. I'm sure if the prof is interested he'll call back. He might not have left a message because it was Friday and didn't want you to try to return the call Friday evening/over the weekend. Highly likely he'll call back sometime today. I'm starting to feel a little crazy, too. Actually, I'm starting to feel insanely nervous all the time. I was SURE I was going to hear something last week, because a professor at one of the schools I applied to said they'd be in touch with me in EARLY February. Well, guess what? IT'S NOT EARLY FEBRUARY ANYMORE! I was so convinced I was going to hear something that every time I got a new email I'd sigh in relief, thinking "here it is at last!" and then become totally desperate again when I found out the email was spam or completely inane. Then on Thursday last week I got a phone call from an unidentified number in the area code of that school! I was so excited, only to come close to throwing my phone at the wall when I found it to be a recording advertising obscure political candidates in a state in which I don't even live. How cruel is that? Come on universe, give me a break (and an acceptance or two as well, please)! I have an interview coming up soon at my top choice school, and I'm really starting to become terrified about that. I would LOVE to go to this school and all I can think about now is how devastating it will be to get rejected after a.) loving the program so much and b.) having the opportunity to visit and fall deeper in love in person.

The undergraduate courses in biology will help, and if your GRE scores are great (not just good, but really, really good) that should go a long way toward piquing the interest of an admissions committee. I suppose the best advice I could offer you is to try and get some practical experience in biology before applying. What type of biology are you looking to do? For example, if you're interested in cellular/molecular biology, try to get an internship position or volunteer in a lab studying molecules/cells. Similarly for genetics, bacteriology, virology, etc. If there is a university/research lab/hospital/etc. near where you live it might help to contact them and see if there is any way you can actively participate in some of their research. If you're interested in field sciences, like botany of zoology, try and find someone in your vicinity doing field research, and ask if you can volunteer or assist them in any way. Even if you just end up sitting at a computer and assimilating data, some research experience is better than none. Since research will be your primary task in graduate school, it might be more important for potential advisers to see that you know what you're getting into and that you're capable of research than the fact that you're interested in the subject and have taken classes. The summer before you plan on applying, decide the schools to which you want to apply. Then, pick faculty members whose research interests you the most and contact them directly. In many biological science programs, students are admitted directly to individual labs as opposed to programs as a whole, so it will often be the professors themselves who get the final say in whether or not you're admitted. When you email these professors, briefly outline your background and research interests, tell them what you'd like to study in grad school, and explain why their research interests you. Then ask if they're planning on accepting new grad students for the upcoming year. This approach should get you more direct answers on your chances of admission as a nontraditional student. Some professors might welcome it, others not, so going through this process should help you narrow down your choice of schools to a list where you have a reasonable chance of acceptance. Lastly, it might be worth applying only to MSc programs, as opposed to MSc/PhD or PhD programs, especially if you lack the requisite research experience in biology. I think in general many master's programs expect you to have less research experience than PhD programs, and master's tend to be more guided. If you do a master's first you'll build your credentials in biology and gain the important research experience necessary to be an appealing candidate for a PhD. A master's program might also be more willing to accept a nontraditional student, or someone with less research experience, although I could be wrong. Hope that helps!

Dang, now along with my voicemail and email, I'm checking my FB to see if any of my schools have requested my friendship.

4! + 1

If I remember correctly, the link should be to Embark (Davis uses Embark, right?)-- to the same place you filled out/submitted your application.

When they make a decision regarding your application you will probably receive an email notifying you to check the website. Once you get this email, the site will have been updated to include your admissions decisions. Before that time period, the website will remain unchanged.

As far as I've heard, newms is right on. Typically if schools are reimbursing travel expenses you book your own flight and they'll pay you back up to a certain amount, depending on how far you're traveling (i.e. international interviewees will probably receive a greater allowance than those coming from the same time zone). Some schools ask you to keep an itemized list of travel expenses while you're visiting (meals not provided at the visitation, incidental expenditures, etc.) and will reimburse you for those costs, too. My question would be, how do schools finances these visits? Where does the money to bring all these candidates to campus for a couple nights come from?

It seems like a lot of people dream about Stanford, here-- even those who didn't apply! Wonder why that is? Maybe Stanford has secret control of the dream universe, and they are using it to subconsciously influence us to do.... something. I don't actually know what.

So-- obviously the primary reason most of us are spending so much time in this particular forum is to try and soothe frayed nerves while anxiously awaiting admissions decisions. After years of hard work, weeks or months spent assembling applications, and not a small sum of money, we're all hoping for positive outcomes, and worrying a great deal about rejection. Perhaps many of us get so wrapped up in the outcome of applications that we start associating acceptance with success and rejection with failure in life. Being admitted is, of course, a success, but we shouldn't allow admissions decisions to dictate our overall self-worth. Sometimes, though, that can seem difficult at best. This is one of my favorite videos, a bit of animation set to part of a lecture by British philosopher Alan Watts. I watched this obsessively after being rejected across the board with last year's graduate applications, and I still find a great deal of comfort in it today. I thought perhaps you all would appreciate it, too. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeRZKC27RtU

I don't hear very well, and I have trouble isolating voices from background noise, so this is always an issue for me. I know there are times when it really bugs the crap out of my friends, so I try to do my best to catch the important parts of every conversation. Sometimes there's a delay between me not understanding what someone said and my brain using the gist of the sounds to work it out. Not fun at all. I hate when this happens in interviews-- one of the reasons I hate phone interviews more than anything. Sometimes it's nearly impossible to hear someone over the phone, especially on conference calls or when one party is using speaker. I much prefer one-on-one interviews in a controlled setting like an office. That way, I have a much better shot at hearing everything said clearly, instead of having to ask, "come again?" every two minutes. Blegh.

I don't ever remember dreaming about grad school applications last year, and I hadn't this year, until last night. It was a weird mix of Grad Cafe and acceptances, rejections, where the "vote this post up or down" button at the bottom of each post on the forum was actually a admit/reject button, where the plus sign was an acceptance and the minus a rejection. I was watching the screen in real time and it said I'd received three acceptances. This afternoon I received a rejection letter from one of those three schools. Crap-- I hope my dreams aren't some kind of backward prescient, where I was actually foreseeing my rejections. My thinking overall, though? I need to spend less time on Grad Cafe.

Congratulations! That's wonderful news! I, too, hope we start hearing more success stories of the second-timers in this thread very soon. I received my first rejection letter today, but I'm hopeful that I'll hear something positive in the next couple weeks.

This happened to me a few days ago, but I received the email from the POI, so I have to assume that the other individuals addressed were those he's considering for his lab. I got to find out that my competition includes master's degrees, ivy league graduates, and people who have been working for very influential corporations. Now, I feel like I'm screwed. I'd rather not know who I'm up against, and I'd really prefer no one else know where I'm at in the process, too. My email address to multiple other people I don't know? Not something I appreciate.

The worst I got last year was, "Well you probably shouldn't have aimed so high" and "Don't worry, you'll get in somewhere." Both of these pissed me off, for different reasons, of course. Then, later on, after I received my last rejection letter, the same person that assured me I'd "get in somewhere" I overheard talking to someone else about how silly it was I applied to only out of state schools, because why would they want me, anyway? Er... despite the fact that they clearly had no clue what applying to grad school is all about, I'm still upset about that one. I, too, had a prof who became indignant on my behalf, with plenty of "F*** those a**holes" in an email he wrote after I told him the decisions of a couple schools. Probably the best response I got all year, and it went a long way toward making me feel better. So maybe that's the safest bet for something to say?