Euler

AAAAAH I got invited to a (reimbursed!) school visit! Finally, some positive news!

I mean, it was a horrible rejection letter, but I'll take a fast response over a courteous one at this point!

There were already some acceptances and wait lists that people posted, so I was pretty sure I was going to be rejected. And that's all been within today I believe (maybe yesterday as well?) so at least the turnaround time was quick!

This is devastating, I'm so sorry it hasn't worked out for you! First, it's not a stupid question, it's just really hard to answer as someone who doesn't know you personally. I can't imagine having gone through an unconventional educational path, especially with incredible success as you have, is a negative. Even though it's bordering impossibility, you should try not to take rejection personally as an insult from the school. The application process is brutal for almost everyone involved, and what an admission committee has from you is a tiny, perhaps only mildly representative idea of who you are. And as people often discuss here, the process for the committees to come to a decision on who to accept or reject is nonlinear, subjective, and imperfect. It's unfortunately the way the system works, and if your hands are tied such that you can only apply to one school, the odds may work against you even if everything on your end is the best it could be. Anyway, wine and company is probably your best recourse. Now is likely as good a time as ever for you to consider plan B, but that's not something I can help with from here!

Welp: " As of February 25, 2016, we have completed our admission and wait list. Unfortunately you are not on either of those lists. " I guess at least "no" is an answer. That puts my tally at 1 acceptance, 1 rejection, 9 to go!

Congrats, that's crazy! As if the stress of grad school applications wasn't enough

Going for an intermediary MS with the intent of going for a PhD afterwards is definitely a good plan in the physical sciences. I applied to one back-up master's in math, and that's my plan as well. Plus, it'll make it quite a bit easier to get into a better PhD program having proof of ability to do graduate-level research, and recommendations from master's professors and advisors. @PhDinPublicHealthHopeful, I know how you're feeling. The Dartmouth pure math PhD program has apparently given out both offers and waitlists I'm pretty down. I just want ANY good news from any of my other programs, but all I have right now is a bunch of silence.

Ha! Civilization is overrated- everyone knows it's all about the hermit life.

Dartmouth apparently sent out acceptances and I haven't gotten anything It was my top choice, but I guess I'll have to pick a new one.

They rejected me even though my mile PR is 6:02. Interesting. I guess I really did need to go sub-6.

That sounds like a nightmare- but it's good to hear you have a more supportive advisor now!

Glad I could help a bit! I've been trying to remind myself of that fact, but this waiting is getting hard, especially with no specific end date.

Euler equations as in fluid dynamics? That's a really cool field, but nothing I actually know anything about. It's great coming across it for your first time! Definitely one of the most universally useful equations out there.

I'm in pure math. Only a couple of the schools have sent out anything, so I'm expecting a couple rejection letters in the mail soon, but eight of the 10 are still no-contact so far

That's for sure! I've been putting off actually comparing which schools I like best, since I don't want to get my hopes up on programs that I don't get into. The one I got into is still my lowest right now, though, since it's a master's and I want to go straight into a Ph.D. program.

I'll hop in the waiting boat with you! Still waiting on 10 here, having gotten an acceptance to one (unfortunately my back-up school).

The process on the school's end is intensive, which is likely why you haven't heard anything back. While it may seem easy for them to just accept you and give you an offer when you've gotten favorable feedback from the professor, keep in mind they're juggling dozens of other applicants as well. Not to mention funding, which can slow things down to a large degree. The waiting process sucks big time. We're all trying to get through it in one piece (or perhaps as few pieces as possible). Hope you hear back soon!

When you know that the only grad school mail coming could be rejections, but you still watch for the mail truck like a hawk.

Whether it's late or not depends on the programs- I've heard back from 1 school out of 11 applied, whereas some here have heard from every school where they put in applications. If it looks like acceptances are being done in waves, I would just wait it out. If there are a whole bunch of acceptances/waitlists at once, and you haven't heard anything back, there's no harm in emailing though.

It sounds like you've done as much as could be reasonably expected as far as communicating with them. I know it's easy to overthink everything in this whole process/waiting period, but from what you've said, I can't see anything more you could've reasonably done. You're deciding something pretty major, that is likely a several year commitment- definitely don't make that decision based on guilt!

If you haven't committed, there's nothing wrong on your end. I'm not sure on the ins and outs of fellowships, but I expect that if you have a fellowship from the overall grad program, that means your department wouldn't have to fund you, so you're an extra "slot" for a student if you will. But either way, if you receive a better offer from B, I see no reason for you to feel guilty turning down A if you haven't given any true commitment.

After doing some hunting, I found these on the fellowship application instructions: "This fellowship will begin with the nomination of a student by the academic unit that has admitted the student." "This fellowship will begin with the nomination of a student by the academic unit that has admitted the student, or will admit by the endorsement deadline. " And those are on two separate ones. I wish they would just give me an official decision, especially since it's one of my top choices!

Hoooold on there- is this true of fellowships in general? I had a couple emails saying I was nominated, and put in the applications, but I just took it as a positive sign a few weeks ago, but I haven't heard anything outside of that. Either way, CONGRATS!!!

Someone posted about Dartmouth: "We are on the verge of sending out offers of admission to our graduate program, and wish to make sure that all candidates we are considering are still interested in being offered the chance to see if our program meets their needs." I didn't get that email... I don't want to read too much into it, but Dartmouth is my top choice, so I'm kind of broken up about this.

Spreading some blueberry sauce on a muffin sounds even better than blueberry muffins! That doesn't sound like a mistake to me.