Euler

ummm...oh my god.
oh my god.
I got accepted to my top choice with full funding & moving costs.
oh my god.
The #1 school in the world for what I want to do wants me.  
is this real?

Wooooooohooooo! Feeling high. Just kidding. POI from Oregon state offered me a position in her research group for the PhD program! I don't care about the other schools anymore as this was one of my dream schools.  But yeah, I am going here this Fall   . So far 1 reject, 1 accept. 4 more schools to hear from  
No word on funding yet though. POI says she has been working on getting me funding for sometime and is still continuing to do so. Would be so rad if I can get that  

I just logged in to receive my last admission decision this morning. As such, I am done waiting and whining.
Well, not really. Now I'm transitioning into begging for financial aid packages. 

I agree with everything but this- we're a month out from the final notification date, and I still have only two official decisions out of 11- I'd agree if schools were more reasonable about when they actually sent out their acceptances.
And those nine missing schools, only one is an implicit rejection (waitlist and acceptances already posted)- the other eight have had no results posted, so I know it's the schools taking forever.

Here's a Q&A on Stack Exchange Academia on this topic, with a faculty answer: http://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/38343/time-difference-between-admission-offers-and-rejections-in-us-phd-admissions

The thing I don't understand is, having worked on hiring committees and administrative roles, how it can take so long. When we were hiring, we looked at 150-200 applications and got back to them all within 3 weeks. There were 4 of us on that hiring team. How can grad schools justify the time period? Especially for the programs I applied to. My field is not very large, and per department accepts 2-5 people per discipline. The number of applicants isn't as great as something like business or a medicine program. The departments I applied to probably have close to 100 applications to get through. No way does that take 5 months. Even if it does take 5 months, it wouldn't kill anyone to put a "decisions will be made by mid-March" on a website. The fact is, having had applications in by 10th October, I have had no indication of when I might expect to hear from them. I've emailed an administrator once to enquire when I might expect to hear a decision, not about status or anything, and that was last week as I've reached the end of my tether. 
Sorry for the rant, I'm sure those on the ad-comms have perfectly justifiable reasons for why the process takes as long as it does, why it costs as much as it does and why we have no communication. I understand that these people are very busy, but I don't think they truly appreciate the stress that accompanies applications. Especially for those of us who may have to pack up and move large distances at relatively short notice. 
Okay, that evidently needed to be let off my chest. I hope one day to be on the other side, and have many of my current questions answered, because from the business world POV it doesn't make too much sense to me.

You can check out here (http://thegradcafe.com/survey/index.php) to see whether the schools you applied to have sent anything out yet this year.
If there are acceptances and wait lists posted for this year, and you have yet to hear anything, that does not bode well for your application in most cases. However, if nothing at all has been posted, it's more likely the school just hasn't sent out any decisions and you're still totally in the running.
Some fields take a lot longer to get stuff out than others, so I suspect you're fine- I'm in a similar situation right now, have only hear from 2 of 11, with one more expected rejection based on this year's results. Hang in there! A couple weeks from now, everything should be much better

I got my official acceptance email today  It's nothing I didn't already know but it makes me feel so happy to have it in writing. Funding gets decided in a week, and they gave me 2 weeks to respond.
I'm now going to contact the remaining two schools and see if I can get an idea on when I might hear from them.
It's finally starting to happen for me.
In other news, I didn't get the easter job I applied for (probably because I messed up the interview) and I think it's a blessing in disguise as I have way too much uni work to be doing.

So I don't know how many of you are yoga people, but I just did a home practice for stress and anxiety but it really really really helped. Feeling a lot more able to tolerate the stress that's happening around me right now. Yoga with adriene was the name if anyone wanted to try it. (I'm not affiliated in any way but I just feel so chill right now I thought I'd share for anyone else who's freaking/stressing/anxious)

Man, three good rejection quotes in one!
Right after it...
To to poster below, it's refreshing to know Harvard rejected a racist like you. ...coming from another person who was accepted to the same program. Mmmm, karma.

Depression doesn't mean you're necessarily sad. As someone who's dealt with it for as long as I can remember, my worst bouts tend to be where I'm utterly apathetic, and often cynical.
From this post, this definitely sounds like you could be depressed. Keep in mind also that depression in a lot of cases has nothing to do with whether your circumstances are positive or negative- everybody feels down when things don't go their way (i.e. they were rejected everywhere they applied), but if everything's going the way you had hoped, and you're still feeling down, it's time to see a therapist.
Trust me, it's 100% worth it.

Man, three good rejection quotes in one!
Right after it...
To to poster below, it's refreshing to know Harvard rejected a racist like you. ...coming from another person who was accepted to the same program. Mmmm, karma.

Depression doesn't mean you're necessarily sad. As someone who's dealt with it for as long as I can remember, my worst bouts tend to be where I'm utterly apathetic, and often cynical.
From this post, this definitely sounds like you could be depressed. Keep in mind also that depression in a lot of cases has nothing to do with whether your circumstances are positive or negative- everybody feels down when things don't go their way (i.e. they were rejected everywhere they applied), but if everything's going the way you had hoped, and you're still feeling down, it's time to see a therapist.
Trust me, it's 100% worth it.

Depression doesn't mean you're necessarily sad. As someone who's dealt with it for as long as I can remember, my worst bouts tend to be where I'm utterly apathetic, and often cynical.
From this post, this definitely sounds like you could be depressed. Keep in mind also that depression in a lot of cases has nothing to do with whether your circumstances are positive or negative- everybody feels down when things don't go their way (i.e. they were rejected everywhere they applied), but if everything's going the way you had hoped, and you're still feeling down, it's time to see a therapist.
Trust me, it's 100% worth it.

Depression doesn't mean you're necessarily sad. As someone who's dealt with it for as long as I can remember, my worst bouts tend to be where I'm utterly apathetic, and often cynical.
From this post, this definitely sounds like you could be depressed. Keep in mind also that depression in a lot of cases has nothing to do with whether your circumstances are positive or negative- everybody feels down when things don't go their way (i.e. they were rejected everywhere they applied), but if everything's going the way you had hoped, and you're still feeling down, it's time to see a therapist.
Trust me, it's 100% worth it.

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.

I did it....
I did it...
I got in...

He certainly could have chosen a better voice to express his point. Mentioning stuff like the acceptances in the same breath as the advice just makes the whole thing a little more condescending. I'm happy for him and hope that he's successful with whichever acceptance he takes- he, just as anyone here who pursues a PhD or masters has earned their way. I get that he's not sugar coating the advice, nor does he have to. Benefit of the forum is that we're able to rock our opinions as we see fit. But if he or anyone else here things that a healthy dose of harshness or "reality" as I've come to know it- people need to get over themselves. This process is hard enough on people who are putting a fair bit of effort into it. They don't need to be reminded even further.
Negative reinforcement is never as good as positive. Sure, they may not get into any programs, but I think that in itself is all that's necessary for them to step back and say "hey, where can I improve this?", even if it takes them a little time to get to that mode of thought. And if someone does return to the process without trying to do anything, and then gets rejected again- who cares? Sure, they may complain, but that is ultimately their problem. I doubt that someone who can't work on improving themselves (even if there is nothing to improve, which has been never been the case in the history of humanity) is cut out for grad work as it is. Especially a PhD.
Just by the sheer fact that many programs accept 10% or less on a yearly basis, with hundreds of applicants (many of which probably overlap at the same schools), it should be expected that profs are going to aim at acquiring the same general 10% as their competitors, leaving many people in the dust. And many of them, not necessarily all of them, are qualified. So if you think that using a non-sugar coated opinion to tell other people who supposedly haven't worked their asses off to apply to grad school is justified because you did so and it worked out for you... get off your high horse. Encourage people, don't step on top of them. Everyone will be better for it.
edit: @ChrisTOEFert I get where your frustration on this comes from, too. There are plenty of people, especially in the results, who say "I don't get it- I was PERFECT and they rejected ME!" Don't forget that many of these applicants are probably people who have never been rejected once in their life, or who have been perhaps fairly sheltered, or maybe they are just trying to find a way to vent their frustration. Be bigger than that and just let their whinings go. I should probably get off my own high horse at this point. I'm not a fan of telling others how to live their lives. I just don't want the good in your message to be clouded by things that may rub others the wrong way.

"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."

**sprints toward the door, trips over garbage can, barks both shins on lab table, gets back on feet, begins running again, makes it out of door into cold, night air: screams**  

EUREKA!!

Pure genius.

(PS) stop humblebragging, you're making everyone's eyes roll 

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.

So my birthday was this past Friday and I decided to go out with some friends and my boyfriend to celebrate and get my mind off of Grad School Purgatory.  Well, I left that with a boyfriend and came back with a fiance'! I'm ENGAGED lol 

So guys, I just got back from Disneyland. I rode my first roller coaster (California Screamin'), went on Pirates 5 times, and went on Hyperspace Mountain twice. Such fun! My calves are super sore though.
On the grad school front, I finally have news. I was rejected from one school on Monday (while I was at Disney surrounded by wonderful distractions) and accepted to another this morning! The school I was accepted to is more prestigious than the one that rejected me, so go figure! Nice to finally hear something and know I have at least one option. The bad part is that they wont have funding info until the summer. The good part is that they find some aid for almost everyone who wants it and I should qualify for student loans if I end up wanting to take that route. Two more schools to go!

Yeah, I think this is very strange too. If you want to attend this school but are concerned that this professor will harm your application, I would contact the department head to let the head know that you received this strange request and you will not be doing a project for free. I would also let the professor know that you cannot work for free also.
If you don't want to attend this school anymore, then it would probably be best to decline the project and move on. You could still tell the department head if you wish, but it might hurt you more than it helps.

hahaha you're telling me. I'm sitting at a Panera Bread in Ithaca and my visiting weekend starts in 4.5 hours. Totally didn't even bring anything other than jeans and sneakers. YOLO

I know a fair number of people who received this treatment for undergrad. Getting it for grad school instead is a much better deal, and would enable you to financially excel earlier on after completing grad studies. They set aside that money with the intention of enabling you, so don't think of it as childish- it's truly a generous and loving gesture. Pay it forward to your grandkids?