Foreveronward

Yeah, as the poster said above me, you should receive an official offer letter soon. The graduate college at the school just needs to verify your eligibility to be a grad student (3.0 GPA, received a Bachelors, etc).

That's amazing news! I bet she's totally relieved.

Boo! The weekends are awful Sorry you two didn't hear anything.

I really like this. We all are good enough, regardless of how this process ends up. As my friend says "All the students and faculty in my lab try so many times for grants and other opportunities. Trying multiple times is just a part of the process, even if no one talks about it. It's what makes them successful." 'Forever onward' is the quote I find myself drawn to. No matter what happens, you keep going onward with the passage of time. Action or inaction, life goes on.

I'm now panicking even more. I know it wasn't your intent, but it seems just plausible enough to keep me glued to my email till 7 my time. Or maybe I'll nap for 5 hours. I can do that too. There have been an absolute flurry of posts for my school (none for my dept but a ton for math, polisci, econ, art, etc). I've started actually looking to see what day their apps were due. Most were still due early to mid Dec so I'm feeling kind of okay. But if I start seeing acceptances from other early Jan programs...

Preach.

I just wanted to thank you all for existing and posting in this topic. I was feeling lonely since my major/concentration has absolutely no posts anywhere else on gradcafe (save for MBAs, which is entirely different than a PhD in Business). You guys have been keeping me sane!

In my field it's pretty common that you reach out. It helps ensure that the professor you'd love to work with isn't on sabbatical and that they're actually accepting students. It also gets them aware of you early. I think that contacting a professor early really helped me. I had initially emailed them in hopes to do research with him over the summer. My Master's requires a thesis and an internship but the director agreed to take a summer of research and a thesis given my PhD aspirations. Anyways, they (the PoI) were super nice and told me that they would spending the summer writing but offered to talk on the phone with me instead. We ended up talking for about 30 minutes and they suggested faculty at a school nearby and offered to vouch for me. I also visited them on a break and we discussed their research for about an hour. Lastly, they asked I keep them informed of all my progress and we talked on the phone to discuss the application process to that school. It was extremely useful information- I found out that they encouraged cross disciplinary work and even if a student wanted to work with someone on sabbatical the adcomm would consider them based on their overall fit to the college as a whole. Long story short, if it's not going to be seen as weird in your field, I recommend you do it. Other students on here that are in your discipline should know, and you can ask faculty too!

This made me laugh. Poor Pink Fuzzy Bunny. I don't know what information you're asking for specifically but I'm sure it will all work itself out and you'll be able to make your decision by the April 15th deadline. Plus, I'm sure everyone else is emailing them very similar things.

I'm personally not checking in because 1) I don't want to be that annoying applicant (though I seriously doubt they'd remember my name after one phone call) and 2) I really don't want to hear "Oh, we sent our interview requests/initial acceptances recently." Your mileage may vary though. Since you already have one acceptance, I don't think it would hurt. I'm sure your programs have graduate admissions assistant director or something similar that deals with most of the paperwork and questions. Why not shoot them an email or call them? It's better than bothering the professors (imo), and they tend to be less busy than the program chair.

I posted this in another thread, but I found it interesting, so I wanted to share: When searching all results for my top choice school as I do every evening out of habit, I noticed an absolute crazy influx of acceptances and interviews on the 3rd of Feb, for multiple disciplines. Interestingly enough, PoliSci submits acceptances and interviews on the same day. I guess it might be like Physics where they accept their top applicants without an interview and then maybe they had a harder time deciding between potential waitlist candidates? I have no idea, but it's interesting to think about. I thought that perhaps someone misunderstood an interview request as an acceptance (by thinking it was a recruitment weekend or something), but the sheer number of results tell me that isn't so. Oh, the crazy zany world of adcomms.

A.... few... months? I mean, I'd be glad they told me... waiting a few months without knowing what was taking so long would be a new level of torture. Even so, hurry up U W! In other news, I got to the point of writing on the huge whiteboard in my room "You're not getting into Irvine, in lieu of that, do something productive." My new stoicism fueled drive to abandon all hope is actually going pretty well. I watched a video on it and I've been thinking about it a lot. Hope really does lead to feeling absolutely crushed if you build yourself up too high. It's not easy to constantly fight back against the hopeful thoughts (especially when I imagine myself getting the call or whatever), but I do feel a lot more at peace. I've fully accepted rejection, so the wait is a (tiny bit) more bearable. It turns out this stoicism thing says nothing about impatience and anticipation. Edit: When searching all results for my top choice school as I do every evening out of habit, I noticed an absolute crazy influx of acceptances and interviews on the 3rd of Feb, for multiple disciplines. Interestingly enough, PoliSci submits acceptances and interviews on the same day. I guess it might be like Physics where they accept their top applicants without an interview and then maybe they had a harder time deciding between potential waitlist candidates? I have no idea, but it's interesting to think about. I thought that perhaps someone misunderstood an interview request as an acceptance (by thinking it was a recruitment weekend or something), but the sheer number of results tell me that isn't so. Oh, the crazy zany world of adcomms.

Med Latte, you speak to my soul. It's almost Feb Ughhhhhh

Congratulations Gingin!!!! That's such amazing news. I'm so happy for youuuuu!

I'm in a very similar situation as you. It's almost eerie actually. I could be your I/O Psych twin, if I didn't decide to run off to Management PhDs. (They publish in the same journals, so why not?). You are good enough. Imposter syndrome is a real thing, and a frustrating leech of one at that. Did you enjoy your research? Surely you did, otherwise you wouldn't have done it for so long. Those recommendations wouldn't be stellar unless you had what it took. The faculty who wrote for you have their reputation on the line when the refer you. They won't be hyper enthusiastic about a subpar student. Your GRE score is the most pressing issue. I'm in the same boat. (I scored a whopping 22% percentile in math, if it makes you feel better). My other two scores were good, but I'm going to echo the poster above- GRE scores will (often) put you out of the running before you even get on the start line. It's cruel, and studies have shown that GRE scores aren't the best predictors of graduate performance, but they're the only horse and pony show in town. If I were you, I would throw everything you can into bettering your GRE score. It might take a year, but think about all the extra research you can do as well. If you split your time between GRE and research, you'll be so far ahead of the other applicants it won't even be funny. I know waiting another year is awful, but you haven't heard back yet, so don't lose hope. If you do have to wait another year, I want to tell you that it gets better. This is the end of my 'year of waiting and GRE prep'. I was in your shoes last year, but one year isn't that bad. You can still apply to quantitative/research based Experimental Master's programs (since most deadlines for those are Feb/March) if you think that might boost your application. Or perhaps a summer REU? My last piece of advice is to reach out to any of the faculty members that have been responsive during the application process. I actually spoke to one of my top choice faculty members and he ended up calling me on the phone multiple times and visiting with me when I was at his university. I was truthful about my subpar GRE score (the exact percentile, at that). He still encouraged me to apply. My point is, if you make a connection, one of them will go to bat for you. (Though it's far better to utilize your time studying... I let my Master's thesis and general laziness get in the way). If you want to talk in pm or rant to anyone, I'm here for you. Stay strong

Yeah - totally there. I haven't heard anything on gradcafe (not that anyone posts for this particular school anyways), but since I'm applying to one school the pressure is really on. I try not to think about the fact that my concentration admits one student a year... and the fact that this is my only shot. I think I'm going to go back to playing Dota before I succumb to the anxiety.

Committees can be very forgiving about late letters. That may or may not be the case in your situation, but I've heard of people getting conditional acceptances or emails asking for the third rec letter. They can see you requested it, and they know it's probably not your fault it didn't get submitted. (After all, who would pick a completely non-responsive recommender?) I don't want to give you false hope or anything, but you should call them and see what their policy is. Explaining it might help you out. It's not over till it's over!

I'm glad I'm not the only one! I feel like a bit of a curmudgeon, but it's nice to know I'm not alone. As someone who has waited twice the amount of time you have, I wish I could tell you that waiting gets easier, but it really doesn't. I was feeling the same way at the two week mark. The school did send that "Your application is complete and we received all your materials" email, which was nice but I've heard nothing since then, Do you really think calling will help? I mean, I'm worried about 1) being annoying and 2) having the person on the phone say "Oh yeah we sent out all our interview requests last week." As much as I want information, I think hearing that would absolutely slay me. Still, the graduate admissions coordinator for my college has been really nice. She replied to my emails within hours of sending them and was the one that sent the confirmation email to all applicants. Maybe I can just email her come mid-Feb. I'll be lurking in this thread waiting to see what you do as well! Congrats! That's like, record turn around time. Here's hoping the rest of your applications work out in your favor as well. What an awful email I would have totally had the same reply (and would have likely tried to check my email while on the phone). Still, it's good to know that your application is complete and ready to be looked at - one hurdle down, eh?

Wowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww. I... don't have words for that. It's nice that he jokes around with you, but man. When you TA for him, you should send an email "Student test scores" and have an excel file or whatever that just has the first 100 boxes filled with the word Cornell. Or maybe not. But argh, that's infuriating!

@Bugaboo, Solid life choice. I might drink some now. I'm stress eating cookies. I bake two or three a night and browse gradcafe. Why is this so stressful?!

I'm really not doing well with this whole wait thing. I know it's only been 25 days since I submitted my application, and the department waited two weeks before checking and emailing everyone that their application is complete (which makes me think they started reviewing on or after that date)... but I'm still losing it. I got a few more results from Gradcafe by searching weird keywords and I found out they send their rejects via email early March. Other concentrations in the college do their interviews mid Febuary, but it says interview by email. I know they do recruitment weekends so I'm trying not to freak out that I haven't heard anything yet. And everyone who applied in early Dec is hearing back! P.S. Is anyone else annoyed by the phrase "No news is good news." So yes, I agree that hearing nothing means you're still in the running... but it isn't *good* news. Good news is an acceptance, or a friendly email or phone call from a PoI. No news is just another few days of anxious waiting.

It means they're interested in seeing how you write. You can't think too much into it- you'd be better served focusing on sending the best writing sample you can. You caught someone's eye, though.

It'll be a great experience - trust me. I went to undergrad about 3 and half hours from home, did my Master's across the country and spent a good portion all the rest of my free time travelling. You get to taste so many amazing types of food, fall in love with a new city, learn the roads and quiet coffee shops, and make friends who will drag you their apartments and hometowns. It'll be three months later in the blink of an eye, and before you know it you'll be giving directions to someone new to the area or driving a route to your favorite park that you know like the back of your hand. It's really awe inspiring. I couldn't imagine being in one area for too long- I would miss out on so many German restaurants and bakeries!

Definitely do try it. It might sway your admissions decision in favor of U.C. Davis. I second the Philz mention. If you like mint, they have a really popular mint mojito iced coffee. If you're more of a plain coffee type of person, the ecstatic iced coffee (blend of like 6 iced coffee varieties) is great. If all else fails you can go with any of the blends brewed hot. Congrats on your acceptances.

@piglet33 have you tried asking your university tech dept or library if they have an adapter you can borrow? My university library does one week loans of stuff like tablets, microphones, adapters, etc. Wouldn't hurt to ask!