magnetite

Congrats! Is that your first acceptance?

@TakeruK If you don't mine me asking here, I'm curious what age would start putting you at a disadvantage against other PhD applicaants? I'm unfortunately the wrong side of 30, but I've got a bit of research experience and extensive work experience. I've only heard back from one of eight programs I applied to, but I'm not optimistic that I'll be accepted anywhere this time around. I'm mainly looking for ways to improve my credentials for the next cycle, but at that point I'll be a year older obviously, which might be held against me even more.

@Neist If you think 300 words is a lot for an abstract, look up what's required for the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference abstracts. Two full pages, which is practically a mini-paper. After doing one of those, I was very relieved to find that for the American Geophysical Union meetings, a few paragraphs is all you need. I about fell out of my chair as I was preparing to write that abstract.

I'm sorry to post this, but the discussion about Indiana made me recall this commercial from 1999. As an aside, I have fond memories of Iowa, though I've never been to Indiana.

Another acceptance posted for Arizona State's astrophysics part of SESE. Still no word from the professor who interviewed me.

@Demeter I'm feeling it, too. I'm starting to second guess my life choices for the last 4 years. I just had to go back to finish my degree, turning down job opportunities to do so. I shudder when I think about how much of a monetary swing four years of working is, taking into account what I've taken out in loans.

I feel all of your pain. I applied to eight programs and so far have just heard back from one (which was a rejection). Open house invitations and acceptances have been posted on the results page for several of the other schools. Speaking of Better Call Saul, I imagine if I get rejected from all eight, I'd consider myself lucky to get a job managing a Cinnabon in Omaha.

Saw that someone got invited to Arizona State's graduate student visitation weekend, but for the astronomy/astrophysics part of SESE. Anyone know if the admissions for department and geological sciences are combined, or do they do things separately?

@Pink Fuzzy Bunny Do they have on campus housing there? And (more generally): Do most schools have that option available for graduate students?

@flop I'm about to do the same thing. Thanks for the idea!

Tonight Dough by Ben and Jerry.

So, why the sad face?

@pterosaur Good advice. Thanks.

Had a phone interview with a prospective advisor on Tuesday. I sent a thank you email the following day, with an innocuous question about the project I'd be working on. Haven't gotten a response. Probably a bad sign, right? I didn't think to ask what the next steps would be during the interview, either.

@CornUltimatum Nice. Congrats, and good luck!

Looks like Washington's Oceanography department sent out interview requests to an open house the first week of March. I guess I'll polish my resume and go to my school's career day this week.

Rejection from Caltech, my first. Would have been nice to have an acceptance by now. Oh well. Haven't heard back from the professor at Arizona State. I'm pretty sure I didn't adequately answer why I've attended four different colleges, over a span of 14 years.

@SickSlickensides Congratulations!

Well, I had my interview and it went well, I think. It didn't occur to me at the time to ask about what the next steps in the process would be. Is that something that's typically asked? Also, for schools like Arizona State where admissions are "professor heavy" as mentioned earlier, would receiving an offer from one professor preclude other professors at the school from considering my application? And if the professor I interviewed with doesn't extend an offer, that wouldn't necessarily mean I'll be rejected from the program right?

Today a professor at Arizona State emailed me to set up a phone interview to talk about my interests and experience. I didn't mention this professor in my SOP, but he's involved in some projects that look interesting, though not exactly what I've envisioned myself doing. Regardless, I'm pretty excited.

That's good news! I've been in contact with a POI at WHOI who has a funding proposal pending, but won't know until April. I've seen an acceptance today for Arizona State's geology program, and two rejections for Washington's oceanography. I applied to both, so I've got really mixed feelings right now.

Something similar happened to me the other day with the University of Hawaii. The email was to inform me that they had everything they needed and my application was finished. The word 'Congratulations!' was in the middle of the paragraph. My eyes read that first and I thought I'd been admitted, only to come to the realization that the email said they should have a decision ready by April (!!).

I was mainly curious if it's customary for applicants for this internship to contact potential advisors beforehand. Since I'd contact people I've applied to work for in graduate school, I thought I'd ask the question here. Getting two recommendations submitted by the deadline won't be a problem. My advisors have told me they more or less use the same letter for everything but change the addressee.

I've just come across an internship/REU that's available to undergraduates who've just graduated: NASA's Planetary Geology and Geophysics Undergraduate Research Program (PGGURP). The application process seems a bit strange to me, probably only in the context of my graduate school applications. There isn't a list of potential advisors, but the PIs send a request for an intern by the same deadline as the deadline for the internship application. Does anyone have experience with this particular program? As part of the application process, you can specify someone you'd like to work with. But without knowing which PIs are going to actually request an intern, this seems like a curious prospect. Would it be out of line for me to try to contact a POI at a school I applied to, in order to see if he'd be requesting an intern so I can name him in that application? The timing of this deadline is tricky, too, as the results page shows this particular school sends out acceptances at about the same time as the deadline for the program. Is it even a good idea to try this, if there's a chance I would end up doing a PhD at the same school I'd be doing this internship? Any help would be appreciated.

Strange. Now LinkedIn won't even load for me. Are there enough people following this thread to crash their site, everyone scrambling to make sure nothing untoward is on their profile? And I need to try the running to exhaustion thing. Constantly hitting F5 on the results page isn't gonna get me there.