Katastrophe

40 People?! Holy. It'll be a regular party.

I gave in and sent an email eventually

For anyone else who still hasn't heard from UPenn: I talked to the DGS and we are on the waitlist, just not very high on the waitlist. So take that as you will

I attend a state school that I love dearly

Anybody else hear a whole bunch of nothing from Penn?

I agree. Personally, I would only do this is I was 100% sure I wanted to go to the school. Like: I will accept on the spot if you can give more money. Because I think the academic world is small enough that it might not be great for your reputation to campaign for more money (making more work for the department) and then not go.

Yep. I said I could come and then quickly got the info. Highlights: travel agent will auto pay flights around 350, rest will be charged to you BUT northwestern will reimburse you another 350 or so if necessary. If you aren't travelling by air the max reimbursement is 300. Grad students will host

I agree with you here. I didn't spend much time on the specific faculty sections of my statement, and maybe I should have. I wish I knew when I started the process what I know now. I think I might have saved myself a lot of stress (and some $$$ on things like the GRE) Even though honestly, I am still not sure how exactly this whole process works. I didn't contact any faculty at all during this process. I had no idea people did that until I joined Grad Cafe in January. Also, I got accepted to the places I put one faculty member in my statement and rejected from some where I listed four. I don't have publications or crazy gre scores...so who knows! The one good thing about it being a little bit of a crapshoot is that everyone has a shot!

I'm going! The travel agent things is super simple. Waaaay better than when schools do reimbursement. Shoutout to Penn State for also using a travel agent. I think I'm going to go to every visit I've been invited to except Washington and Austin (conflicts).

I got invited to the visit as well, but I have been waitlisted. Just tossing in that info

NYU is one of my top choices, so I'm still on pins and needles on that one! And I will indeed be at the Cornell visit, see you there I hope!

I am in the same situation! Waitlisted at NYU and waiting to see how that plays out and waiting for that Penn rejection. Hopefully it's quick!

If I get off the waitlist based on your decline, I'll send you a thank you card and buy you a pizza

Northwestern decisions up! Starting the day with some good news

I got about 150$, I think I am close enough that they realized I could take a bus instead of a plane

If anyone headed to the Wisconsin visit is already in/cutting through Minnesota and driving there and might be interested in a little coordination, let me know! The travel stipend is a little low because I am technically nearby, so it would mean taking a bus at midnight to arrive at 5 am and leaving Madison at midnight for another overnight trip home. Just thought I'd ask

A hypothetical example of what happened to me was more like: The TA stipend-funding is 25K, but you got a fellowship that is 30K for X amount of years. The conditions of the fellowship are no TA/no RA (unless you do it for no extra money because you want experience) and you can hold no other job of any kind during the fellowship period. Little different everywhere it looks like. So now we have three options that all involve more money or less work (all amazing)! 1. You get to add your stipend and your fellowship 2. Your fellowship lessens your ta/ra hours 3. Your fellowship removes the conditions of the 'normal' stipend

I've heard something similar. At the places where I've been offered fellowships it's a condition of the fellowship that you can't hold another appointment at the same time. Could be different at different schools though!

Never mind all that, just getting funded offers is amazing!

Maybe my experience is unusual, but I have actually had a majority of offers that are nearly identical across public and private school(s), even with waiving teaching and summer support factored in. Sure there might be one or two that are bit lower, but mine all seem to be about ~1000 apart.

I'll pm you!

Just got notified I was wait listed.

Looks like we've got a couple schools (and an interest in crime soc) in common. Hopefully we hear from NYU soon, though I'm not optimistic it will be too soon. Best of luck to you!

Slight tangent, but is anyone experiencing the feeling where you've heard from some/most of the places you applied but you really wish the last few would say something? I am expecting many of the last holdouts are rejections, but it sure would be nice to just know for sure!

Just to put my experience out there: I didn't contact anyone at any institution I applied to. I actually never thought of it till I read that people on Gradcafe were doing it. Of course, I saw that after I submitted the apps If I were to do this all again, I might do it. But probably the same as @MAnthroAA in that I'd only do it if I had something specific to say rather than just for the sake of reaching out.