someth1ngAus

Looks like my current research group is going to move to UCL (in London), which is quite nice. Therefore, not such a big deal that I was rejected from Princeton.

Yeah, same. They really could've just sent all of them earlier - oh well.

I reckon they will, they wouldn't leave just rejections to this late.

I applied for catalysis/organic/synthesis and haven't heard back. Some people have been waitlisted and accepted a while ago. Princeton used to send out rejections right after acceptances - they definitely changed their approach this year. We'll find out soon.

Holy shit, stipends are breaking 40k now?

I'd say your relative lack of research experience and low GPA is more concerning than the subject GRE. 3.6 months of full time research isn't a lot - I've had around 3 semesters of research (ie around what you have) plus two full years of research and I wouldn't even consider my application strong for your programs.

There were a bunch from Princeton on the page but I think something has changed this year...they usually send out rejections immediately after they send acceptances and there's generally very little waitlisted applicants. There's like, half a dozen waitlisted when there's like, normally none?

Yeah, the headhunting of undergrads only happens if they somehow know eachother - stupidly rare, though.

Definitely happened before but rare. I've heard of cases where pharma companies have tried to buy a grad student out from grad school but it's definitely super rare.

Yeah, I'm really sad about Princeton - pretty sure at this point, they will send out all rejections. Oh well.

Yeah, it's the only school I applied to because it had perfect research fit for me - if not, I can continue doing research where I am since I have a pretty large research budget ($10k for my project + supervisor's other funding but probably won't need to touch it...+like, $35k stipend take-home and several thousand more for teaching). We might be moving to UCL though, so I dunno.

I'm organic/catalysis/synthesis. Oh well, it's 11:35PM here (Sydney) and still in lab - maybe I'll find out when I wake up...

Given how many acceptances and wait lists have happened for Princeton, I think it's looking quite bleak for me...

Depends on the university - can be any of the above. Best bet is to look at past years and see what is normally done.

Princeton looks like they're coming out - still don't have mine...shitting bricks haha

Hmm, the wait for Princeton continues xD

Princeton does something similar - it seems to always be over the 1-3 days after MLK Day. If that's anything to go by, we should expect it out this week. Also seems to happen right before MLK day but I'm pretty sure that's not happening. Apparently, according to an email, "Admission decisions will be emailed on a rolling basis to all applicants between February 1 and March 15". Not sure what to believe...

Yeah, I decided to look up the cost of living - it's pretty high. Comparable to cities like Sydney, Seattle, Boston, and London. But hey, it's not Switzerland, so that's good. If me being in Sydney is anything to go by, 28k USD take home should be fine.

That's like 28k-ish take home? Quite nice, actually. Even though Berkeley is more expensive than most places.

Harvard is always a reach but I don't think Princeton and Yale are unattainable based on your stats - I think your research XP is a slightly low for someone starting a PhD but it's looks more like an intermediate between match and reach for those two. PS I only applied to Princeton so it's my safety, match, and reach xD

Depends on historical admissions - do they tend to do rolling admissions or does it seem like people get admitted all in one go?

As ukchemist said, it's usually higher at private universities where tuition is equal. However, you'll find that international acceptance rates are almost always lower (eg at Princeton, it's around 20% for US and around 10% for internationals). I don't think that's a result of international students being more competitive. Many non-US programs are not well-known (ie can't tell if a GPA is actually good) and a lot of applicants come from non-English speaking backgrounds (ie most of Asia/South America/Africa) which is basically a rejection by default. If you actually look at acceptance rates for applicants from the UK, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, Ireland, and some Nordic countries where applicants are usually fluent, acceptance rates are usually on-par with US acceptance rates.

Yeah, a Q score that low is a big red flag - it's definitely hard to see that as simply a "bad day". If it were like, 155, it might be brushed off as such.

Yeah, chemistry was available in Christchurch in April (and I think Auckland too).

Your application is weird, the subject test was set in NZ earlier this year - I had to fly to NZ from Sydney to take it. Also, a 4.0 in writing isn't 93% - I'm assuming you got a 5.0? Otherwise, your application seems decent for the schools you're applying to. Obviously, Northwestern and Scripps are your reach schools and Vanderbilt and Darthmouth are probably the safeties. I think you have a decent shot at Cornell, Penn, and Washington (but acceptances for UW have been out for some?).