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Just my two cents, I was in a similar position a few years ago when considering changing careers (I didn't expect that it would push me down the PhD route). One of the advantages and disadvantages about applying as an older applicant is that you probably have a more narrowly focussed research question, as in it's not a broad generic area in which you are interested, which makes fit even more important. (That's my experience at least, my areas of interest are the result of 10+ years of professional and personal experience and they are what are driving me to do a PhD that focuses in a very specific issue.) (On the other hand, it took a master's in the US for me to appreciate I probably needed to do a PhD to answer these questions! And I'm not sure I would have gotten into a PhD program without the master's as I'd been out of the education system for a long time. While this doesn't appear to be the case for you, doing the master's likely made me a stronger candidate as I came away with an understanding of the US graduate school system and LoRs from US based professors who also understand what needs to go into the letters and could give me pointers on my SoP.) Feel free to PM me if you want anymore info.

If you're at UCD then certainly the Wicklow area makes sense. If you end up at TCD you can also look north along the coast as it's easy to get to TCD from any of the city centre train stations (Connolly, Tara, and Pearse) that the commuter trains go into. I even know of people who commute to Dublin from Drogheda, depending on your course commitments that would be an option.

Official rejection from Chicago - probably the nicest letter saying "we don't want you"! I have quite a few to compare it with

@krapp likewise - glad to finally get the "Denied admission"! One more off the list

Similar to @TakeruK my approach was to say something along these lines: - delighted to be admitted and very interested in the school/program/ faculty - all things being equal X is my preferred choice (or Y or Z) - still waiting for Y and Z schools - give some details on what would change the calculus (could be funding, could be a school believes you could get through the program in less than five years etc) - if you're planning on going to the visit days mention that as well hope this helps @I_mix

Re ND. I just spoke to a friend there who said that the process hasn't finished and different sub-fields are running at different speeds. (I see a new ND offer was posted on the results page, suggests there's some truth to what I was told.)

Thanks @StrengthandHonor - I was almost happier when I thought radio silence meant a rejection

Sorry, it wasn't very clear. I received an acceptance email and letter from the department last week, yesterday the formal offer from the university was updated on the portal.

I just posted in the Welcome thread as well - my ND portal was updated with a formal offer letter. Gives a little more detail on the info the department sent me last week.

Got an email that my ND portal was updated. The admission letter has a bit more detail on the info the department sent last week. Not sure that it means anything though in terms of people waiting to hear back from ND.

@Bibica I'll keep my fingers crossed for you (and everyone else waiting)!

@Bibica when I interviewed I was told that it could be up to two weeks before offers go out. It would be two weeks ago today that I interviewed.

I was glad to see another ND acceptance! @Bibica I got a follow-up email about whether I could make the visit days on 30/31 March so it seems like they are trying to firm up numbers for the visit. @philpot all I can tell you is that my follow-up email also gave me some new updates, which suggests to me that my offer went out in an early "wave"... Good luck!

@Historiaeros @krapp I'm also getting the silent treatment from Northwestern and have written it off as a rejection.

Re-read your SOP or, better still, re-read it and have it to hand. I didn't and was a bit worried I looked unprepared as there were a couple of points that I sort of talked around, which I know I dealt with in my SOP. (But it was, overall, a very pleasant chat.) Good luck!