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I started at the School of Public Health this fall and have not "needed" a vehichle at all. I have made use of my car but I have not needed it. I ride the shuttle to school in the morning during peak hours and typically wait for less than 5 minutes for a shuttle to come by, and leave later in the evening, so I just have to plan out my work in order to catch the shuttle without a significant wait. The shuttle runs from Charles Village (neighborhood adjacent to the Homewood campus), through Mt. Vernon and to the SPH/Med school campus in East Baltimore. I have friends who live near Patterson Park who walk to school everyday, the neighborhood is not the nicest but they all have nice places for reasonable rent (with roommates). I also have friends who live in Mt. Vernon, Fells Point, at Reed Hall (student housing on the East Baltimore campus) and Charles Village as well. If we want, we are all able to make it out to social events in each other's neighborhoods and get around town with relative ease. There is also the Charm City Circulator which takes you to other neighborhoods, I don't ride it at all but it may be worth looking into. Baltimore does have plenty of crime and uneasy neighborhoods so walking alone at night is generally ruled out for many destinations. Mount Vernon seems like an ideal neighborhood if you dont have a car, as there is the best mix of restaurants, grocery stores etc. nearby, but all of the neighborhoods I've listed are doable without a vehicle. In short: I drive about once a week or less, and I get to school with relative ease on the Hopkins Shuttle. A significant proportion of the students do not have their own vehicles; 3 of the 7 in my cohort do not have vehicles and we all get around fine. if you are at another campus it may be a different story. Walking late at night, especially around the East Baltimore Campus, should not be done by yourself but can be avoided.

I'm kind of in between on the first-generation classification, I grew up in a house with my grandma who was the valedictorian of her college graduating class but never was able to utilize her teaching degree as she worked two or more full time jobs as a single mother to avoid the perceived indignity of using food stamps or government handouts to raise a family of six by herself. My father earned his GED and works as a mechanic and my mother was a housewife who graduated from a teen mothers high school program. One one side of my family, I do have an aunt and uncle who earned Masters degrees and a great-uncle who was a literature professor, so I think I've managed not to experience the lack of support or understanding that many other students on Pell Grants experienced as undergrads. However, as I go forward I find it harder and harder to relate to some members of my family about my professional/academic life, the easiest conversations at family outings were when I worked construction. When I started working in the lab one of my uncles asked me what I was doing; after I tried to explain why it mattered what genes were being expressed by a species of metal-resistant bacteria he simply replied, "So what you're saying is that I won't understand a single word out of your mouth in a couple more years." Half of me felt like it was a compliment given his tone and body language but the other half of me knows that I'm perceived to be putting on "airs" and that I'm a bit out of place. Coping with the difference between my family and myself is no easy task, I struggle to not insult them by "dumbing down" or being dismissive about what research I'm interested in or talking about specifics that I'm really interested in a manner that a results in "not a single word being understood." I'm sure there is some happy medium and I will learn to find it with time. My concern as I get ready to move more than 1,500 miles from home to a city where I know exactly 0 people, is that my life will be built around my academic career and accordingly I'm going to interact primarily with people from a wealthy background attending a private university. I want to have friends who are "real" people with "real" jobs, I value my family and the jobs they do and respect the lives they live (as I value the life/career I'm choosing to build for myself), and I'm afraid I will lose touch with reality and find it hard to live in "the bubble" that I never thought I'd be willing to enter. I think someone already said what I'm trying to, but just a bit better "I'm proud of my background, the women in my family were all smart, independent, tough-as-nails Dustbowl refugees who went through hell to see me do this, but it doesn't leave me a lot of common ground with my upper middle class 24yo classmates. I'm afraid the next 5-7 years are going to be painfully lonely at this rate."

Actually just received an acceptance from this school, so I can firmly say that yes being a male can help.

CGS Resolution click on the .pdf version to get a list of schools Acceptance of an offer of financial support *(such as a graduate scholarship, fellowship, traineeship, or assistantship) for the next academic year by a prospective or enrolled graduate student completes an agreement that both student and graduate school expect to honor. In that context, the conditions affecting such offers and their acceptance must be defined carefully and understood by all parties. Students are under no obligation to respond to offers of financial support prior to April 15; earlier deadlines for acceptance of such offers violate the intent of this Resolution. In those instances in which a student accepts an offer before April 15, and subsequently desires to withdraw that acceptance, the student may submit in writing a resignation of the appointment at any time through April 15. However, an acceptance given or left in force after April 15 commits the student not to accept another offer without first obtaining a written release from the institution to which a commitment has been made. Similarly, an offer by an institution after April 15 is conditional on presentation by the student of the written release from any previously accepted offer. It is further agreed by the institutions and organizations subscribing to the above Resolution that a copy of this Resolution or a link to the URL should accompany every scholarship, fellowship, traineeship, and assistantship offer. The following list includes CGS member institutions that indicated their support of the Resolution. This Resolution was renewed September 2009.

I'll post the text of the CGS resolution below, but in the real world what does the April 15th deadline really mean. For example my only offer so far comes from a school not listed as signing on in support of the resolution, and they are requesting a decision by March 31st. The offer letter lists the support under a teaching assistantship and states that late acceptances (after March 31) are not guaranteed an assistantship. So I can definitely say that the April 15th deadline is not universal; and this is no small program, it may not be well-known nationally but it is very well funded and respected in the field and there are 100 graduate students in the department so it's not as though the school would have slipped through the cracks with CGS. I think I may be able to get them to extend the offer another week or two if I need the time (also factoring in concurrently applying significant other into the equation), but I'd like to hear what other dates are being given to others to respond to offers and whether or not those schools are signed on to the CGS resolution.

I interviewed at a program that currently has 16 female and 7 male students, and at the interview weekend there were 2 (counting me) male and 13 female interviewees for about 5-6 spots in the program. A member of the admissions committee let it slip that they were looking for students like me referring to me being male, but also to me being a first-generation student. Additionally, at the ripe old age of 27 I was actually older than most of the current students and interviewees - it seems most were fasttracked through a 4 year undergrad and went straight into starting the Ph.D. at 22-23. I can't remember exactly what was said but it was something like, "we are looking for a few more guys in the program, and some more mature or older students who have done things other than just being in school," Sounded like good news to me, as it is one of my top choices, yet I have still to hear back from them a month after going to interview. I thought, gender aside, that I had done well during the interview and that the program was great fit for me and vice versa. I think that my only chance may be that they've extended an offer to someone else, not likely the other guy as he was interested in a completely different group of researchers, and if the other person declines I may receive a second-round offer. So all-in-all, I can say from my experience that much like what has been stated in the thread, Adcoms do acknowledge all kinds of skewed numbers in the applicant pool but it is no guarantee.

I think this forum is for those who are neurotic and unsure about the process, so yes maybe there is the possibility that an adcom from a mid-level program that wants to know if a certain student is being honest when they say, "oh yes you are my top choice but I'm not ready to accept an offer just yet." I know there is likely some stress on the other end about getting commits from enough well-qualified candidates.

Last year I was waitlisted at one of the schools I applied to, and I sent an email that said: "I am writing to reaffirm my interest in being a part of the XYZ program at XYZ university. While I am dissapointed that I was not among those initially offered admission I am still very excited about the possibility of studying at XYZ University. Please let me know if there are any question of my that I may answer and I have attached my updated CV which now includes blah - blah - blah that I have engaged in since the time of my application in December." Within 24 hours of sending the email I received a phone call and was scheduled for a conference call/phone interview with 3 faculty from the department. My situation was a bit different as I did not have any other offers, and I ended up figuring out during the course of the interview that the labs I was interested in were wildly popular and plenty of offers were already extended so my chances were slim. However, I've had nothing but positive results when making contacts of any kind with schools, perhaps because I err on the side of not being pushy/annoying so my contacts tend to be few and far between. I would say that it is definitely a good idea to remind them that they are your top choice and try to push your way up the waitlist by also letting them know that you have another offer to respond to.

You should start prodding the other schools to find out when they will be making a decision on your application. I don't have a scholarship deadline as all my potential offers will be funded, but I do have one offer on the table and felt I interviewed very well elsewhere in addition to having another interview next week. The one school that has offered seems to want me to decide by the end of the month and I plan on letting the school I'm going to interview at that I would like to know within a couple of weeks. Perhaps it will be too aggressive on my part to try and demand that the school make a decision on my time table, but April 15th is only 2 weeks past what I will be asking for. Furthermore, I think that in both of our situations it is very telling if we were to find out that a department was not willing to communicate openly about the decision process. If a department cannot treat you with the respect to give you the opportunity to make an informed decision that has such huge implications, then I likely do not want to work with that department in any case. That's not to say that I wouldn't understand if they were frank about letting me know that they as a matter of fact cannot or will not make decisions until X date. Additionally, in your case I would let the other schools know that you have been offered funding. If they are very interested in you they may take the extra steps to try and get you funded as well.

<br /><br /><br /> I would definitely approach it as though you are interviewing them. You should be a bit bothered by the mistake and the flippant attitude. I would definitely want to gauge whether or not the potential adviser is a scatter-brain who thinks that his mistakes can be laughed away rather than apologized for when appropriate.

Another potential pro for withdrawing an application is that it shows a level of professionalism to the other schools. If you may potentially collaborate with PIs at the institution from which you withdraw an application this may go a long way in establishing a much better first impression than if they were to extend you an offer and you had to reply, "Thanks, but I've already accepted another offer weeks ago," *between the lines* but for the sake of my own vanity I'm very flattered to receive more offers than any one person can accept* I'm not saying it isn't tempting to wait it out; but in the grand scheme, 5-7 years from now is the number of programs you were accepted to going to mean anything in comparison to degree you'll be receiving from an institution that you obviously are excited about attending as you've already accepted before receiving a final status notification from the other programs?

After speaking with my advisers from my undergrad institution I've decided to hold off prodding the other program until I get back from my interview next weekend. Among my post-interview thank you emails I had asked the head of the recruiting committee when I might expect to hear back and was told "At this moment all I can say is that you should be patient for our decision. The committee is still working on your status." I don't want to seem bothersome and I think another week will not hurt anything; and after this next interview I should be able to have a better idea where I stand at an additional school. My instinct is to say something like: "I am writing to reaffirm that I am very interested in the opportunity to become a student in your department, but I have received an admissions offer from another institution that is also a very good opportunity for me. I would like to make a final decision by early April and would like to know what my status is, or when I should expect to know my status so that I may evaluate all of my options." I know there is some level of collaboration, including co-authorships on papers, between the faculty in these three departments (as well as the two others that I have yet to hear anything from). As such, I do not want to put myself in a bad position by saying X is my first choice, Y is my second, and Z my third or so on. Not to mention that I may want to collaborate or look towards a potential post-doc with a number of the advisers from these programs. The phone conversation seemed to go very well with the prof who offered me a research assistantship, although I did let it slip that I am fairly committed to being able to rotate through labs in my first year. He was not too excited to hear that, but did do a good job of telling me that it was an offer and there were no strings attached or reprecussions were I to not accept the RAship. I let him know that my plan of action was to go to the interview next weekend and to start prodding the other programs give me an update on my status, then hopefully be in a position to know concretely what my options are. A big part of the decision process involves my significant other and I don't feel that any details of that should enter into these professional discussions with faculty about my admissions offers.

I applied to 7 schools. 3 I considered top-choices for my interests; 2 good, perhaps not great fits; and 2 safer schools I was not as strongly interested in. As of today my status is: 1 - outright rejection [so much for safety schools ] 2 - waiting to hear from (my neurotic side thinks waitlisted at best) [one mid-level choice, one top-choice] 1 - phone interview with a professor who keeps failing to dial my number correctly (very odd) [one of my so-called safeties] 1 - completed interview 4 weeks ago that I have not heard back from [a top choice] 1 - interview next weekend [one of my mid-level choices] 1 - acceptance offer 5 days after the interview [a top choice] I received a phone call from the program chair to offer me acceptance to the program, and I told her that I came away from the interview weekend feeling that I could be successful and happy at their school, but that I needed time to consider my options. Two hours later one of the professors I am interested in working with called to offer a research assistantship in his lab so that I would not neccessarily have to teach, whereas the standard is that all first-years are supported through TA-ships, and occasionally into their second year. I had a great meeting with the prof who offered the assistanship, but I also had two other really good meetings with others in his department; and 3 really good meetings where I had previously interviewed. I really want to wait for my next interview and to hear back from my prior interview; as well as try to sort out the continually failing phone interview before I commit. I also really want to have the flexibility of rotations to evaluate advisers and lab-groups, so the assistanship offer really isn't sweetening the pot for me all that much. Not to mention, that I actually want to teach. The assistanship was offered over my voice mail and I feel comfortable talking with this prof when I return his call tomorrow, but I appreciate any feedback on how I should tactfully explain my reservations about immediately accepting an offer.

I agree, the year off may be tough but not as tough as being somewhere you don't want to be. Even though the year may be tough it can be very helpful to crystallize your interests and re-affirm you commitment to pursuing a Ph.D.