Jessiewicz

I don't think it will matter too much. All of my undergraduate research experience is in organic synthesis but I applied to many PhD programs with the intent to do biochemistry research. If you think organic synthesis is what you want to do you could always ask to help with a project that involves more synthesis work in the future. The key is that you have experience and it will show that you have the ability to be trained and can work independently.

I didn't get the official letter either so I don't think you're missing anything

I would hope they would not see it as desperation. You're a student who has already shown interest in the program but have yet to hear anything. This is late in the game and everyone is getting anxious about schools they haven't heard from. It might be different if you had not already reached out but you already have once. Professors look at a lot of applications, maybe in this case all you need is to remind them of your name

Has anyone heard anything from Vanderbilt? I noticed in the results thread that there have a few acceptances and rejections but I still haven't heard anything.

The fact that you are applying into the same region that your school is in could be good since you said your school has a well known reputation for making it hard to get an A. It is hard to recommend schools without knowing what field you are interested in though. Your mentors in this case are a good place to go for suggestions. They should have an idea of what schools you should aim for with your record and also what programs are currently doing good research. Applied:6 Accepted: 2 Waitlisted: 1 Rejected: 2 Waiting On: 1

I say do it. There is no harm in contacting professors to follow up, they get a lot of e-mails everyday and reminding them you are interested can only improve your chances. The same can be said for UMich about the interview since they did give you a timeline. Even if they can't give you a final decision they may be able to tell you when you can expect one.

Not sure if anyone has heard anything stipend wise but I managed to do some digging and last year it was 32k for the 12 months

I think $500 is a good number to aim for. I live in downtown Pittsburgh now for undergrad and I maybe spend $125 on food a month but of course that depends a bit per person. The first few months you may not have as much of the $500 left over while you are getting set up but I still think you should be okay.

I am going to their visitation weekend.

I e-mailed them last week to ask about the status of my application and they just got back to me.

Update on UMich: they have finished going through applications and people should know by the end of the week what their status is.

I heard back from boulder Friday and it's a no. Apparently official rejections will be coming in the mail because my status on the website still says reviewing. If you're not seeing anything in the mail you could always try emailing them because you might be on the waitlist (they got back to me within a day). Good luck.

@agirlhasn0name thanks for the heads up. that is the same weekend as Johns Hopkins so looks like I will have to find my own time to go visit if i'm accepted. They got back to me and said that they should have all decisions made sometime in February (probably sooner rather than later).

So I finally broke down and emailed all the schools I'm still waiting on (CU-Boulder, UWisc, UMich and Vanderbilt). UWisc got back to me and said they've made comments on my application and my application is on hold so I'm guessing I've been waitlisted but they didn't have a timeline as to when final decisions would be made. I applied organic to most places (I'm somewhere between organic and biochem though). I have been accepted to Penn State and Johns Hopkins.