Kel Varnsen

I accepted Indiana. I believe 4 of the 5 spots are now full. Good luck, everyone.

Rejected as well.

Thanks for posting here. I'm so stressed waiting. Best of luck at the LSE to you, Joe. Lol, much appreciated.

Well that's something I wrote Akeel about an hour ago and haven't heard anything.

Has anyone heard anything from Akeel regarding the status of offers and the wait list?

Are schools actually allowed to compel a decision by a certain time prior to 11:59 pm? The CGS rules state "students are under no obligation to respond to offers of financial support prior to April 15". Nothing about precise times is mentioned.

Yes, this. Sorry. I mainly just wanted to say I'm waiting at least until Friday afternoon for my WL.

To the people on the Indiana wait list: I believe I'm the last offer holder who may not accept. If you make it off the wait list, it'll be for my spot. Just wanted to say that I'm waiting at least until Friday afternoon to get off the Columbia wait list...

I visited Columbia on Thursday and Friday. Regarding the first point above, the DGS told me they admitted over twice as many applicants as they want. Considering a lot of people I had met were weighing offers from various top 10 schools, I suppose this is typical. As for the second point, he told me not to expect any movement on the wait list until April 15. And he recommended waiting til the very last hour, which happens to be 5 pm on April 15. Also, Stanford's prospective students event is on Monday/Tuesday, and I heard another top school has theirs in the middle of the week, though I don't recall which school. So yes, I wouldn't expect people with offers from top places to make decisions until very close to the deadline.

Just curious if everyone is holding onto their offers or wait lists still. Has anyone already accepted or declined?

Declined my offer from Maryland. My AOI is psych and cognitive science.

Yeah, this is really how I used the PGR. I checked the specialty rankings and then looked into departments individually to decide where to apply. Haha, that is unfortunate..I'm looking forward to meeting her!

Yep. It is stated that "...in many cases, the ratings reflect the presence of only one or two faculty in a department..." We'll see.

Definitely. Rosa has a really promising career ahead of her. I'm sure Indiana will rise in the Phil of Cog Sci ranking with the next PGR because of her.

Nope. Just got an email yesterday from a current grad student. He said they released our names to them so they could contact us if we had any questions. Still waiting on some more specific details about the open house. I'll wait til late March before I ask.

I will probably turn down my offer from Maryland, and mind/cog sci is my AOI. So you or someone else on the mind list will probably get my spot. I don't want to make any of you wait, but I have to visit Indiana before I can confidently make my decision. That'll be in two weeks.

Both of these places are well known. As someone else said, the quality of your application matters most. The choice of institution is relevant insofar as it prepares you to have a strong application. Based on my own experience, I do not think the reputation of the school is particularly important. I applied with an MA from a known but not particularly prestigious German university. You can see my results in the signature. A friend of mine applied with a BA from the same German university and did even better. He accepted an offer from USC. But as I said, both those places are well known and I do not think you have to worry about their reputation or being looked upon unfavorably. Something I might worry about, however, is the breadth of philosophy courses offered by the Berlin school. What may hurt your chances is if your coursework is overwhelmingly scientific and you do not sufficiently demonstrate an aptitude for philosophy. I considered applying there and this was one of my concerns. But if your BA is in philosophy, it may not be an issue.

Hey everyone, I'm on the wait list and will be at the open house as well. I'm broadly interested in psychology and cognitive science and particularly interested in attitudes and emotion. I honestly can't say what my decision would be if I make it off the wait list. It would depend very much on the visit and the advice of my professors who I will consult after the open house. In short, my dilemma is that Indiana is probably a better fit for my particular interests, but Columbia is a better place to train overall as a philosopher and of course much higher ranked. Unfortunately, I think the people named in this thread are all the Columbia people following the grad cafe threads. But of course it's great that we have at least all of our info in one place now. @completeurprofile

I spoke to someone else on the Columbia wait list about creating a thread for us to compile our info (AOIs, whether we're declining, how many of us there are, etc). At least two of us think it's a helpful idea. Im busy the next two days, but I'll do it afterward.

Are you going to the Columbia open house? I don't mind waiting til april 8 so much as long as I get a sense at the open house of how many people are thinking of accepting.

I looked into this because I'm on the Columbia wait list. Stipends are handled by the GSAS, and according to their website: "The standard 9-month stipend for academic year 2015-2016 is $26,286"

Good to know. If you could let Columbia know whenever you're certain, I'm sure the rest of us on the wait list would really appreciate it

Do you know yet if you'd choose Princeton over Columbia?

Sorry, I hate to keep someone on the wait list. That's what I'm dealing with as well of course. I'll message you on here as soon as I make a decision about Indiana. Unfortunately, Columbia's prospective student event is April 7-8. So whether I get off their wait list or not, I can't make a decision until after I visit on those dates.

Thanks, that is good to hear. Those of us on the wait list were told that we are not in any particular order. We will just be chosen based on AOI. Since my area is mind / cognitive science, I guess I have a chance