kwils76

After all my applications were finished/letters sent around Christmas time I sent each a basket of cookies to their preferred address. I live abroad so couldn't do much in person. My letter writer in the country where I currently live I took out to lunch. I kept all in the loop as I was deciding/hearing back and then let them know by email as soon as I made my decision. I am meeting my advisor in my current city for coffee/lunch before I leave town and taking my advisor from home out for drinks while I'm in town for the summer. I really like the postcard idea - will definitely use that when I get to campus!

That was my undergrad cumulative GPA (though my in-major was much higher - about a 3.7). I did a masters and did very well in it and absolutely felt it was a boost to my application, for a few reasons: 1. It allowed me to have a grad GPA on my application which was much higher than my undergrad GPA. 2. It allowed me to demonstrate that I can handle graduate coursework well. 3. It allowed me to network with professors in my field and get some good LoR's from them. I absolutely believe that my grad advisor's connections helped me. 4. Most importantly I think, it allowed me to figure out my precise research area and delve into and demonstrate my research capabilities within that precise research area. My focus and competency here I think definitely showed in my applications, and it allowed me to pick specific programs to apply to that would be a good "fit" for me and explain in my SoP's why I felt they were a good fit. That said, there are many, many paths to PhD programs and others may have different insights or experiences that are vastly different from mine; so it's hard to know exactly what is right for you and whether the amount of debt you will be taking on will be worth it for what you will get out of it. For me, it was - for others, perhaps not. That's just my 2 cents!

Just committed to UNC and declined the last offer I was holding on to - CU Boulder. It's a great program; hopefully this will help someone who is on the wait list there!!

I got off the wait list over the weekend as well, and will also be accepting! Did you receive the official correspondence today? Was told Saturday to expect it today but haven't gotten it yet...

Hey all - I was accepted off the wait list into UNC over the weekend and am going to accept the offer. I'm very excited and have just started looking into housing etc. for me and my boyfriend (we are looking to rent a pet-friendly house together), but we have never been to the area and live overseas so will not be able to visit before renting. Does anyone know anything about living a bit further from campus (we are looking at Hillsborough for example) to save money? Is it worth it given that I will have to drive a bit further into campus every day? Any advice will be greatly appreciated!

Just wanted to update that this morning I was notified that I am ACCEPTED off the wait list at UNC!!!! Couldn't be more thrilled; full funding package to follow Monday and I'm expecting to accept immediately upon receiving it!!!!

I did undergrad at UConn so I'm very comfortable with living/breathing basketball!! haha Ah very cool; I hope you get in!!!!! I'll keep my fingers crossed for you.

Yes, it's my hope that I will hear from my wait listed school ASAP so that if I get in I can commit there and turn down my accepted offer for someone else to take it! I already turned down all my other offers once I narrowed it down but am still agonizingly on this wait list at my top choice (UNC)! I know you went there so I'm sure you know how great it is and why I want to go!! haha

I have to update them because last week I sent an email saying I would give them an update by end of this week, and I want to keep my word on that to avoid coming off as flaky/unreliable etc. Thanks for your input! I think that's likely what I will say!

So, as I've posted about before, I'm waitlisted at Top Choice, accepted at another school. Sent vague "waiting on things to fall into place" email a week ago to Second Choice indicating I would give an update by the end of this week, per advice I got here. In the mean time I got a call from LoR writer who knows faculty in the department at Top Choice, saying that she strongly suggests I hold off on accepting Second Choice until closer to the 15th and heavily implying that she feels I have a good chance of getting off of this wait list. So that's very good news. I now need to send that update email to Second Choice. I think I'll have to be more specific this time around but still want to be diplomatic and not make it clear that they're my second choice. I am thinking about framing it more that I'm waiting on info from another program and want to have all info laid out so I can make the most informed decision possible, making clear that I've declined all other offers besides them and one other program. Anyone have any thoughts on this? Is this a good approach or will it be clear what I'm really after? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

I sent an email restating interest - and actually I sent a quite bold email saying that if I get in, I'll come and decline the other offer I have on the table. I got an email back saying they still didn't have any information for me but they did give me a timeline of when i should expect to hear back, and it seems to have gotten some kind of ball rolling or something because this morning I got a call from one of my LoR writers saying to hold off accepting my other offer heavily implying something was in the works at Wait Listed Top Choice Program..... Could be coincidence but at the very least it doesn't seem to have hurt! So I would say send the email!

Because I am going into academia and it's helped me get into a better university for my PhD than I could have done without it, which will increase my job prospects for later on etc. "Worth it" is pretty subjective so all I can say is, to me it's worth it. Can't really help you beyond that....................

It's income-based, so at current income it's $100/month, which is doable for me. Presumably at some stage in the future I'll be making more money and will be able to pay it back at a higher rate.

I'm just shy of 90k in debt right now; from undergrad and from a masters. Not thrilling but I've been on gap year this year and have started paying some of it back. It's not as bad as it seems to be that in debt. If you are diligent about payments, and apply for income-based repayment from at least one of your servicing companies, it's very doable. My total payments at the minute are only about $100 a month. not thrilling but not bad at all! Also helps that I have a very supportive partner who has no debt of his own and is willing to help share some of my debt burden by paying a little extra in bills etc. so that I can make student loan payments. I felt it was worth it because I had no other way of paying for school! Also, not sure if this applies to you, but if you are in some sectors, you can get loan forgiveness after 10 years of minimum payments.

I sent the (admittedly very frank) email that I was debating sending, by the way. I'll post an update if/when I get a response in case anyone was thinking of doing the same and wanted to suss it out.