ChrisTOEFert

Still waiting on my joint number 1 choice! Very annoying, not that I would attend because I'd be burning a very important bridge to do so. However, it's my longest application wait (Dec 1 due date) so it's getting mildly irritating that it's taking 3.5 months to review MAYBE 5-600 applications, and they've been doing this for close to 20 years, you figure they'd have a method to expedite the process a little bit. Further, little hints on the results board from previous years shows that applicants heard about accepts/rejects in early February, and they have since updated their website from "Applications for Dec. 2015 are now closed" to "We welcome you to apply for Dec. 2016"...I know it's a simple matter of deleting one sentence and re-writing a new one, but it makes me think they've chosen their candidates and me and my office who applied for the same program are in some dumb limbo!

Trust me, it doesn't. I am still waiting on more school, even though I have accepted elsewhere and wouldn't attend, it is still frustrating to be in limbo. They have a vague response deadline of "Late February/early March", the kicker of this one? It was the earliest application as well (Dec 1). I know Max Planck's are usually pretty prestigious and probably want to make sure they are making the right choice, but come on? Even if they had something like 500 applicants for 10 spots, the typical 2% acceptance rate, they definitely should know by now. I sent an exploratory e-mail towards the middle/end of February once I had heard from pretty much everywhere else to ask what's up and they sent me a stock, generic e-mail about being patient and they would let everyone know by late Feb/early March and sent a link to their website that says the exact same. What is even more frustrating is previous applicants have shown accepts/rejects by early February once a year for the past few years until nothing for 2015 and 2016. They have also updated their website from saying "applications for Dec 2015 have now closed" to "We are now accepting applications for Dec 2016". So it is possible that they have let all the interview candidates know and I am rejected, but my friend in my office applied for the same program in a different department and mum is the word on his application too. We are both laughing while pulling our hair out! What makes it even worse is I got interviewed for a newer, slightly different Max Planck institute over the summer and applied on the last day, May 31, as I only heard about it opening about 2 weeks before the deadline and I needed to scramble to get my materials ready. So prestige is the same, you would think. My POI sent me a Skype interview request in a week/week and a half saying she combed through over 350 applicants (I am assuming collectively, because that would mean there were almost 3,000 applicants for the 8 positions if the same trend is applied to every project) and was selecting 15 to interview. I was Skype interviewed on a Thursday and heard back the following Sunday that they wanted to fly me out to Germany in late July for an in-person interview. After narrowing it down to 17 candidates, they said they were going to take a maximum of 10. It took 2 weeks for them to notify all applicants of being accepted/rejected after the in-person interview days. Although, my one friend was accepted within 2 days, so I'm pretty sure they knew who they wanted the night the interviews finished as all 5/6 POIs were going to Greece for a conference and probably discussed it on the plane over. Long-winded response over, they definitely could expedite the process! I think some of the delays come down to who is going to get funded and who isn't. International students are tricky too, unless you are applying for a school/institution that is pretty much made a reputation on taking the best in the world, not just from North America or the "Western" world. I think some of it also comes down to them knowing they hold all the power and know there is basically nothing we can do. What are we going to do withdraw our applications? Cool. There's 20 other students behind you that are going to jump at the chance and we will fill your empty spot in 3 hours. Look on the bright side, absolute worst case scenario we should hear something by the week of April 15th if you're applying to a U.S. school! While I'm hoping to hear something by the end of the month, if not, I will be sending a second e-mail (screw proper student-advisor e-mail tact!) and asking what's up. I have nothing to lose since I already accepted elsewhere. I just want to know!

I was downvoted in a similar thread, but I've found the best way is to fudge it a little bit. Just say something along the lines that you have a school with an early deadline coming up and you are interested to know if results are going to be released soon/if you can know your status. I was responded to pretty promptly by 4 out of my 5 schools. The only one who didn't respond apart from a generic message I am still waiting on. They sent: "We send results out in late Feb/early March as per our website...please check this section here for more information" which you guessed it, was a copy-paste of "We send results out in late Feb/early March." I know I'm fairly lucky to have responses and options as some on this board don't have, but I really don't see any harm in telling that little white lie as the chances of you ever meeting the grad co-ordinator are pretty slim if you are not admitted to the program. Even if you do meet them, they get 200+ applications per year and e-mails from at least 100 others who don't even apply with questions, so the chances of them remembering who you are and that you possibly lied about getting into school x so you could know your status at their school are slim to none. Actually thinking about it a little bit more, you don't even have to tell them what school you potentially got into. Just a simple "Hello, I was wondering if you could tell me my status as I have an early deadline at another program and wanted to be able to make the most informed decision possible before deciding. Thanks bye," obviously in nicer terms would suffice.

That's pretty weak of the school. Maybe it's universe karma or something and you've got to fight through this really awful thing and then you're going to get accepts to all of the other remaining programs.

Nice. Good school, just finishing up my master's there in anthropology.

Yeah that could have been bad. Hopefully it was just a presumptuous IT guy that sent out the e-mail a little too early and you did get in but they hadn't sent out official acceptances yet.

Why tell them anything? All they care about is that you get your work done in the 1 or 2 years they are paying you to get you. I would just tell your supervisor and your profs that are leading your classes in September. Your supervisor likely would not care at all, unless for some reason they booked you to present at a conference or lead your lab in some sort of research immediately. I highly doubt that is the case though since usually humanities MA's are primarily literature reviews and I would be very surprised if you had some research project lined up and due immediately. However, be prepared for some backlash from your class teachers. In grad school you usually have to be actively participating in discussions, lectures, and may even have presentations to do the second week of classes. Hopefully the teachers can accommodate and schedule around your absence but be prepared to lose out on marks for classes missed. They are usually more harsh than undergrad profs in this regard because they treat grad school like a job instead of an education.

I would say the sooner the better at this point! It's getting close to a month since you've replied. If possible I would send them an email with an updated C/V and grades (if you have any). If not, just politely but firmly ask if the waitlist spots have moved at all as you are still very interested in attending.

Congratulations to all who have heard back positive news! @PattiJeane that is pretty horrible thing to have happen. Have you heard anything back yet (or am I completely mixing up my days?)? If it were me I would definitely send off a curtly worded e-mail for them to get their heads in the game if it was a mis-step. Is it also possible that they might have sent that out to allow you access to an online portal to check your status? I know I got something similar when I applied UCSC a day after I applied. Maybe their admins are just mega slow at sending out these username/passwords to check statuses?

How long have you been waiting for a response? If it is less than a week then I would not get concerned. They are busy, a lot of them are on spring breaks right now and/or finalizing offers for students. It sounds like (based off the fact you keep checking every 10 minutes, I would check twice a day...once around 10am their time and then again around 5:30pm their time...not every 10-20 minutes) that you probably haven't been waiting that long. So you have 1 rejection so far, so what? Just wait it out and stay positive. If they say early March, that is still until the end of this week, maybe creeping into next week. Check the results board for acceptances too. To be the bearer of bad news, if you see a lot of acceptances and no rejections it probably means you are rejected. However, if you see a mix of both, it could mean you are on a waitlist potentially. If you don't hear anything by Saturday morning your time (I see you are India...is that right?) that means you are probably about 9+ hours ahead of everyone in the U.S./Canada depending on where you applied. So come say 11am your time on Saturday morning, send e-mails directly to the profs whom you applied under. Keep this in mind though, they are under absolutely no obligation to reply back to you yet. As long as you get an answer by September 1, when most programs start, they are technically filling their end of the bargain....albeit much later than hoped...but they aren't duping you out of your application fee. A lot of people confound an application fee with the idea that you will hear a firm yes/no by April 16th or something. That is not the case, it is just used to help pay for the review of all the applications as it takes a lot of manpower to sift through 300+ applications every year and to rank them. So be patient, wait until Saturday, or ideally the end of next week, and then send a soft, nudging email to your POI asking about the position. Some may get back to you, others may not. If they don't, do not email them again nor do you email the department heads, SGS, grad co-ordinator etc. Just let it be and be patient as much as it sucks.

Best of luck. Post an update for me when you hear!

Bingo. Your profs wouldn't go through the hassle of writing reference letters or suggesting schools if they didn't think you were at bare minimum, make the cut off for consideration. Keep positive about a fully funded situation coming in. Worst case scenario, you re-apply next year with more research experience, a couple more classes (online or through your undergrad school) under your belt to boost your GPA, and come ready with some external funding. External funding is very very hard to get (I'm still 0/3 for my attempts for government/university sponsored funding as are many of my friends), but if you do manage to get some, it's an incredibly good thing that almost guarantees better funding from the universities and a higher chance of getting in somewhere near the top of your list. Good luck.

Wow....talk about a convenient, but sad, twist of events. I'm glad you got your extension and fingers crossed for choice #2. I am in the camp of belief that one should never accept and then withdraw. It burns that bridge so mightily, it's like sitting there watching it burn while you are giving them double middle fingers. As one person said it basically causes one person that they could have easily admitted to get a rejection e-mail and they could be left with a vacant spot in their program. Not to mention the intense awkwardness that would arise from maybe bumping into those people at future conferences, job talks, or even inter-university speaker series. I think you'll make the right decision.

Nahhhh...they just get more fun because then you get to ask for more money hahaha.

You should stay positive! You got into 2 programs and have the potential for 3 more (your two waitlists coming through and your 6th providing a positive answer). Are the master's funded at all? I guess it is country specific but in Canada, they don't even look at you for a PhD unless you have a Master's degree first or your undergrad career would make Tesla and Einstein combined look like Forrest Gump. I consider a master's acceptance a very good thing. From what I've read/been told, that U.S. PhD programs are very long to begin with (6-8 years), so that is essentially a combined MA/PhD in terms of length from where I go to school. I've also heard in some cases when you graduate you may be awarded a terminal MA out of it as well, but I think that depends on the department. If I were you I'd be very happy with the MA acceptance and keep my fingers crossed for potentially a better option (i.e. the PhD which is what you seem to really want). In a lot of cases there are many positives about an MA program and in a lot of fields they consider Master's as a good enough amount of schooling to start teaching at a college/lower tiered university or score a sweet gig in a private/public industry sector. Don't sell yourself short, you've accomplished something that many people on this forum, and even some followers of this thread, would be over the moon to have received. Fingers crossed for the PhD for you, but don't be so down about the MA....it might be a great option to get a great job with less time investment!

Congratulations. That's a great school from what I've heard around my department. Now that you're in, don't be surprised if you got into a couple of other programs as well, and then you have the fun task (read: headache-inducing task) of deciding where you want to go and weighing which school is going to be best for you! It actually is fun a little bit because you finally have all the power in your hands, but no matter your choice, even if it was a full-funded ride to Harvard or something with guaranteed publications for your entire PhD/MA career you'll still have a little knot in the back of your brain saying "did I do the right thing...?". Just remember that whatever you choose, for whatever reason, be it better funding, better program, closer to home, better prof, etc., that the decision you made is the best one for you and that is all that matters. But most importantly, have fun! I know I posted a couple things about the monotony of grad school, but if you keep a smile on your face and don't let the deadlines pile up it is actually a hell of a lot of fun. Except for grant writing, that sucks

I would just send in one quick phone call saying that you sent an e-mail with no response and you have a deadline of Monday for another program and you were just curious to your status. Worst case is they say they still have no clue, you say thanks and then accept your second choice program. I did the same thing. I am still waiting on one program that is notoriously slow to decide, and accepted another program instead. I'm taking a shot in the dark as the program I am still waiting on could possibly give me a better offer and it is where I really, really, really wanted to go....but I couldn't take the risk of taking too much time and having the other offer disappearing and then hearing from #1 that I didn't get in. Then I'm stuck with my 3rd-5th choices with significantly less funding and much longer program lengths.

Congratulations! What school and for what project?

It sounds to me like you are burned out right now. Obviously you love astronomy or you would not have pushed yourself to excel and created an application that was worthy of across the board acceptances. So first let me congratulate you, you've obviously worked incredibly hard for this and it shows to the adcom committees. You may be feeling like you're lost at the moment because you aren't sure what the correct course of action is. Maybe you are burned out and need to take a year off to really clear your head on what you want to do. There is absolutely no harm in turning down all of your offers and just thinking about it. I have even heard of some people who accept their "best" offer (and that may vary from person to person, be it better fit, better money, closer to home etc.) and then deferring admission for a few months. This is your life, not anybody else's and you need to what is best for you and only you. If you feel like you need some clarity then best case scenario is to accept your best offer and defer. Worst case scenario is you decline all of your offers and once you find out what you want to do (if you think grad school is the best choice) you re-apply again. You may not get in everywhere again, but chances are if you were this good a candidate this year, you're going to be a pretty stellar one next year as well. It sounds to me like some breathing room and focusing on yourself for a while will do you a world of good. Take up a couple of new hobbies that you were always interested in doing. Blow some cash on a wild week in Cancun or sight-seeing the Rockies or traveling Europe. Do something for you that you've always wanted to do that will kind of put everything into perspective. After you've cleared your head, sit down and really think about what it is you want out of life. Is it teaching and doing research? Then grad school is definitely your best answer. Is it teaching but maybe not doing research? Think about a career as a teacher in middle school or high school. Sure the money isn't as good as being a prof but life satisfaction is worth more than gold. Is it purely research that you want to do? If so, I'm positive that you could pull some strings with some companies and snag an entry level position given your background and work your way up to doing what you want to do. Have fun and remember to what is best for your soul, not your wallet.

Good luck!

I would send them one now. Just detail to them exactly what you said here about another offer with no extension. That is what I did a few weeks ago and heard back the following morning with positive news. Good luck!

First, if they admitted everybody, the degree would be worthless, so we wouldn't be in this boat to begin with because nobody would shoot for this. Second, I am not "sitting on my high horse", I'm trying to give you some advice on what to do to improve your application. Yes grad school sucks and is hard, but it wouldn't be worth it if it wasn't, would it? So all that aside about it being a suck on your psyche, I'll move on. I may have 4 acceptances, so far 4/4, but there is a reason I have that many. No, I'm not some rockstar candidate with perfect GREs, perfect 4.0, external funding from 3 places, etc. etc. If you have followed the thread you would realize I was rejected across the board in my first master's attempt. I was 0/3, and even got rejected from my undergrad institution by MY OWN UNDERGRAD THESIS ADVISOR!! I saw that my application was weak and I actively worked to change it to make it better. What I am trying to do is give you an idea on how to improve your applications for next year. If you got rejected all around, you are, and to put it as bluntly as possible, not a competitive candidate. Period. That doesn't mean your research sucks, or you're not cut out to be a grad student, or your project is worthless. It just is a weak application. While it could be that all the POIs who do what you're interested in aren't taking students this year. Maybe they thought they were going to have an opening (i.e. a PhD student of theirs is finally graduating and then BOOM, they hit a snag in their research or their SO dies and they need to take a leave for a couple of months which means they are still on the advisor's payroll for another year). It's just there is so much OUTSIDE of your control, so why worry about it? So focus on the things THAT YOU CAN AND DO HAVE CONTROL OVER. Such as your SOP or GRE scores, to name a few. I know when I got rejected all around my SOP sucked. It was vague, lacked focus, and probably showed the adcoms that I was not capable of completing the research I was interested in within the 2 year Master's time frame, so why should they pay me if there is going to be no breakthrough or insight? IF YOU GET REJECTED ALL AROUND, CHANGE SOMETHING. Make it better. Don't just throw your hands in the air and say I did the best I can and then re-apply the next season with the exact same project, marks, and scores, as the end result is likely going to be the same. While the scenario I talked about above (advisor thinking they had room and then suddenly at the last minute, 45 seconds before they are going to start reviewing applications their PhD student says they need one more year), is very rare, it does happen. But chances are if you aren't getting in anywhere there is a reason. And yes, I know grad school is competitive, 1-2% blah blah blah. Still, why settle when research is always being pushed forward? Push your application to be the best it can be. Yes, our entire futures are riding on people we have never met, but I hate to break it to you, that's how the world works. You don't hear the people getting in making that excuse. "Oh I just wish they could meet me and then I would be in." If "paper you" doesn't adequately explain why you are the best candidate of all the candidates, then you have a weak application. Change it. Make it stronger. I'll use myself as an example because why not, and I don't know any of you or your situations. 0/3 in Master's first try. So what did I do? I volunteered at an archaeology lab to show them my extra curricular activities were also my work passion. I took some extra credits at my undergraduate university to boost my GPA because my major GPA was fine (A- average) but my cumulative GPA was lower than I would have liked (B average), so I changed it, I strengthened my GPA. I started working on my SOP months ahead of time to make sure I knew everything about my topic of interest and I could show 1) what my project was, clearly and strongly, 2) the steps I was going to take to successfully complete it, and 3) why the project was important to the field of anthropology and archaeology. Round 2 I was 3/5 and still rejected from my undergraduate school and undergrad thesis advisor. I obviously took one of those other positions and am almost done my thesis for my Master's, but I still wasn't happy completely with where I was in my academic career. So I did what I had to do. I volunteered at a lab closely aligned with my interests, I'm taking online courses, I'm taking graduate level courses that are outside of my discipline that are allowing me to grow my interests and apply new concepts to my research interests, I am going to conferences, I am actively engaging with the public by joining societies aligned with my interests and even those outside of it because I know it will help me grow as a person, I am seeking out research collaborations with the top minds in my field because their research actually interests me. That is how I got 4/4 and accepted into the best Ancient DNA facility in the entire world without having to worry. It wasn't because I was sitting smugly in my room and given the world on a silver platter. I worked my god-damn ass off to be where I am today and I am sick of the jealousy and venom this forum spits every time someone else gets in somewhere while they are still in the dark or a person in their program got into a top school and they didn't. Stop moaning about it and fix it. Change yourself for the better and be the person who gets into a Top 5 program with a full ride with that rockstar POI and amazing lab. Or just be complacent and have the same result year after year after year and say to yourself "If only the adcoms could meet me, my application doesn't do me justice, I'm so nice, I deserve a PhD and so does everybody who applies." Good luck with everything.

best of luck then!

I accepted a joint European doctorate program called ArchSci 2020. It is split between the Denmark Museum of National History in Copenhagen in the department of GeoGenetics and the University of York in the UK. I am getting €50,500 per year, plus between €600-1,100 a month in travel benefits. I also have a full tuition waiver at the schools in where I am attending (double, possible triple PhD when I am done) plus conferences, workshops, and training are all covered by the program. I also get a free Asus Chromebook and free data storage by Google. I don't feel bad or nervous about divulging the details of my funding package since they are readily available to anybody who stumbles across the website. It's a pretty gangster program and I am ecstatic to be a part of it. Info here: http://www.archsci2020.eu/about

There is nothing to be ashamed about. Never, ever, ever tie your self worth to whether or not you got accepted into a grad program or not. Focus your mental energy into something actually worthwhile like completing the schooling you are currently finishing, being the best employee at your job etc. You may think I'm being a jerk now but this may have some more resonance to you later on when you have a clearer head....not everyone is cut out for grad school. I don't mean that your grades suck or your project is a steaming pile of crap, I mean the mental fortitude aspect. All of my friends and office mates are neurotic shells of who they were 1.5 years ago when I met them. I'll say it again, grad school is really frigging hard and not everyone has the capacity to deal with it. You are constantly under pressure to meet deadlines for research, keep up a full courseload that has at least 25 pages of reading per class per week as well as assignments, you have to keep up with TA duties, balance the ground work for your research/actual research, remember to call your mom and SO, eat, pay rent, write that grant proposal, oh yeah, write it again because you just read this paper that just proved your entire methods section is wrong, did you remember to send that email to your collaborator in the UK you've never met who's breathing down your neck about something trivial (i.e. why the colour of the graph is red instead of green like they suggested to you in that e-mail you swear you never got 2 weeks ago and they also want you to change all the "that" to "which" and vice versa), oh wait! re-write that grant proposal because now a second paper is coming out saying the first paper is wrong and lists re-trials that seem that much more convincing and it seems to have the support of those two big wigs who you love, did you buy groceries this week????, etc. etc. etc. It is a nightmare! It's also a lot of fun, but the more you go on, the less fun it is and the more you want to just leave. Good luck, but remember, there could be a better option that is much less stressful that leads to getting just as good a job if not better in less amount of time. College professors are a dime a dozen right now, the reason it is a joke that PhD's work at Starbucks to make ends meet is because in a lot of cases it is true. DO NOT TAKE A PhD POSITION JUST FOR THE SAKE OF TAKING ONE. Make sure the program is going to net you something. An advisor has always rammed this down my throat and it is the reason, I like to believe, why I still haven't run away screaming because everything is purposeful....I have an attainable end goal.