dormcat

Hi Dormcat,
Congrats on your admissions letter!! This is what my thank you letters have been (they're a bit more short and sweet since I previously sent thank you emails following my interviews that were much more detailed):
"Dear __________,   Thank you so much. This is very exciting news and I am thrilled to hear from you! I was so impressed by the atmosphere and the great work being done at __________. I will be sure to let you know as soon as possible when I have made a decision. I will also let you know if I have any additional questions. Thank you again!   All my best, "

Imposter syndrome is very common among women, particularly in academia. I looked up imposter syndrome as it relates to black women and found this article, which you might or might not find resonates with how you're feeling. 
If you think it might be imposter syndrome, it can just be helpful to know that soooo many other academics (and I'm sure people in industry) feel the same way. I got into a great university after excelling at a small liberal arts university and I feel like I'm going to fail within the first month. There are countless mentions of imposter syndrome on TGC, search for it and I'm sure there are many threads with great advice. For me, knowing most, if not all, of the folks I know in grad school feel the same way helps in some small way. I also plan on getting into therapy once I start grad school to help deal with what the feelings of inadequacy and stress I'll be sure to experience. 
In general, I think people who want to pursue to "next step" have doubt, but you can't know if you'll succeed if you don't try. Which is cliche, but there's truth in there because you do usually have to push outside your comfort zone to achieve your goals. 

I'm STILL trying to shake off the gross-ness of it all. Really goes to show that the name of the school doesn't mean anything when their students lack humility and courtesy. Also, this is a helping profession (clinical/counseling psychology) so it makes me think how they process information/behave when they're with their clients 

So something that can really show (especially when you're meeting with current graduate students in the program) is if you're overly competitive to the point of being cold to the other applicants or trying to suss them out or stuff like that. 
I was chatting with a grad student in a program I interviewed for and she was actually really candid with me about how she was so happy I seemed focused on the program and myself rather than what all the other applicants were doing, and that it meant something when applicants (even those interviewing for the same POI!) made an effort to be nice and considerate to each other. 
One of my previous mentors gave me what I think is the best piece of advice I've ever gotten about your entire graduate career: "In the end, you're only in a race with yourself." It's really stuck with me and that's the mentality I've gone into my interviews with. If the POI wants you, they want you! So just go in and be you, rather than trying to be better than everyone else. 
Also! Remember that the interview is a bi-directional process. Not only are you being interviewed by the program, but you're interviewing the program to see if it's a good fit for you! I found once I let go of worrying about what everyone else was doing, I was able to relax and just be myself. And man that felt super great when I was able to connect with the POI and even share a laugh or two over our common research interests!
Just my two cents

My email verbatim. Quite honestly though, both schools are 2/3 of my dream schools so I suppose you could maybe tone down the excessive excitement.
Hi ____,
Thank you for this AMAZING news!!!! I feel honored that you and the other faculty would be interested in working with me, and I was so, so happily surprised by how easy it was to get along with the students and the prospective students. Would you potentially have time to talk later, perhaps between February 22nd and March 8th? I could email you to set up a date a few days before.
I was invited to the __________ recruitment weekend and will need some time to think since both programs are dream schools for me. But I will try my best to figure out what opportunity is best for me by early March so I don't inconvenience people too much.
Again, thank you so much!! 

Nothing like a rejection email to start your Saturday Am I the only one who uses these types of emails as motivation? At least now I have a clear-cut number 1 school on my rankings. 

Sorry, I was trying to maintain some sense of anonymity (not that having a posting history helps) but they're different areas of psychology. Michigan is interdisciplinary, while UVA is just a more unusual area that doesn't have as much TT "pull" as say, social, developmental, cognitive. 
Anecdotally, it seems almost everyone who goes to school in AA loves it, which is great. My husband will be touring apartments while we're there, so we'll get an idea of what's realistic for us. I really appreciate your feedback! 

Without knowing anything about your field or your research interests, it's kind of tough to provide a nuanced answer to this. That being said, it sounds like the cons of UVA (worse placement, worse fit) are significantly worse than the cons of Michigan (far from home, housing costs) if your goal is to get an academic job. Plus, having grown up in Ann Arbor, I can say that it is expensive to live near the university but significantly less so if you move towards the outskirts. It's a really fantastic place to live, too, although the winters are pretty brutal.
 

AHHHH I GOT ACCEPTED INTO TWO OF MY THREE DREAM PROGRAMS!! When I got my first acceptance a few weeks ago I just started bawling. And then I just got accepted to my other dream school, laughed because nothing this amazing happens to me ever, and then started crying again. I'm just bewildered and overwhelmed. Almost can't believe the programs I've gotten into with a 2.98 GPA, although I do feel like I've spent quite a bit of time trying make up for that. Been on this forum for four years and am glad to have finally be "graduating" from it.

You want to kill someone for doing something that confused and inconvenienced you? Can we just pause and note that that's not okay? 
Changing the grading scheme mid-way through the course shouldn't be ok. At most institutions I know, that wouldn't be allowed. More to the point, why don't you schedule a meeting with the professor to ask what prompted the change, and how he wants you do deal with precisely the questions you bring up here? What happens when someone doing as well as before gets lower grades on an assignment, and someone who has even improved still gets what looks like a lower grade? Maybe the solution is to have the professor explicitly discuss this change in his policies in class. Either way, it should be his responsibility to address this problem, and your job is to do what he tell you. 

One of my labmates was invited to interview and flown out late last month. It was just a meeting with their POI, not like a whole interview weekend. However, their research interest area is social psychology related. 

Well, last night I checked my email and my POI let me know that I'd been recommended for acceptance to the social and personality program at UH Manoa! I wasn't expecting this at all, as I hadn't received any interview invitations to anywhere I had applied. It still hasn't sunk in

Indeed it is, as those are the key concepts I research. I use those theories and political movements to critique state power n violence. 

Hahahaha, I feel like thats just throwing out a lot of key words, what specific thing are you into that ties them all together? Know what I mean? 

I just had an interview weekend where I met with 7 faculty and 3 grad students, each for 30 minutes. I thought I was doomed because I get nervous and then forget things lol. (Once I even forgot what my undergrad thesis was about.) However, I learned very quickly they were just chats and had a very casual vibe. Overall, everyone was so friendly, gracious, and excited to meet the prospectives, which naturally felt great. Almost everyone asked about my interests then pitched their research to me in a way that appealed to me/suggested avenues for collaboration. It was very pleasant and I ended up having a great time! I don't think they'd be paying for you to travel to meet them if they weren't serious about you, so take solace in that and remember you're really the one with the power at this point  

I just had an interview weekend where I met with 7 faculty and 3 grad students, each for 30 minutes. I thought I was doomed because I get nervous and then forget things lol. (Once I even forgot what my undergrad thesis was about.) However, I learned very quickly they were just chats and had a very casual vibe. Overall, everyone was so friendly, gracious, and excited to meet the prospectives, which naturally felt great. Almost everyone asked about my interests then pitched their research to me in a way that appealed to me/suggested avenues for collaboration. It was very pleasant and I ended up having a great time! I don't think they'd be paying for you to travel to meet them if they weren't serious about you, so take solace in that and remember you're really the one with the power at this point  

You bet! I hope you find something soon that works out for you! If you have other questions, don't hesitate to ask.
Ann Arbor is a great place to live--a lot to look forward to!

Yep--that sounds about right for South Campus. Burns Park is just south of the Tappan/South Campus areas so the closer you are to those areas the more undergrads or other students and Greek life you'll find. As you get farther south, and also probably farther east, you get away from that and start seeing quieter streets with bigger, expensive houses, families, etc. If you take the two maps below together, that should give you a decent idea of where Burns Park/Lower Burns Park sits relative to other neighborhoods. Housing in Ann Arbor definitely isn't cheap--it's not New York or San Francisco, but for a Midwest college town prices are pretty high! 
https://nextdoor.com/neighborhood/burnspark--ann-arbor--mi/
https://www.scribblemaps.com/maps/view/UM-Neighborhoods/
I don't have any experience with Northwood graduate housing, but they do have some family or multiple bedroom options. The other graduate housing is the Munger Graduate Residences--brand new (2015) graduate housing that is incredibly nice, but for singles--each unit has 6 to 7 bedrooms (with bathrooms) and a common area. There are no windows in most of the bedrooms, though! 
Late August or very early September is common for a move-in date. While it would be frustrating to have to move twice, the good news is that you shouldn't have any trouble finding a temporary place to stay over the summer, and probably at a decent price--students with 12-month leases will be looking to sublet over the summer. You might be able to find earlier move-in options though--I wouldn't give up on it!

Kerrytown and Old West Side would both be great choices! A lot of grad students and young professionals live in Kerrytown--it's close to a lot of stores and coffee shops and the Ann Arbor's farmers market. You'd still be close to all of these things on the Old West Side, too. Burns Park is also very nice--closer to campus it's occupied by undergrads, but as you move south it's quieter with more families--a lot of professors live there. There aren't really any "bad" areas in Ann Arbor, though. Choosing a neighborhood depends a lot on what is important to you. If cost is a concern, for example, you might try looking a little farther from campus, around Briarwood Mall etc. (Nowhere in Ann Arbor is going to be cheap!) If fitness is important to you, check out what gyms are close (UMich gyms are IMSB, CCRB, NCRB--IMSB just got renovated, the other two need some work) or if you're a runner an apartment close to the Arboretum might be a good fit. If you're looking for quieter areas, probably best to avoid South University or Tappan neighborhoods--these areas are loud and lively, filled mostly with undergrads, sororities, fraternities. The Elbel/East Packard/Yost neighborhoods are also home to a lot of undergrads, but again, this shifts as you get farther from campus. 
I'm not sure about smaller places vs. apartment complexes, but you could start with CMB and J Keller Properties--both have good reputations. 

https://www.scribblemaps.com/maps/view/UM-Neighborhoods/

From what I heard from Professors, it is getting very difficult to get tenure track positions as a lot of departments are getting rid of them. He advocated that the ranking of the schools make a big difference as there are a lot of people getting their PhDs and only a few tenure track spots. By going to a top school you would have a better chance at getting a good Professor position. In my opinion however, I feel that you make your own destiny in terms of the work you accomplish in Grad School. I think it depends on who you ask.

I worry about two things with this administration:
1) international student visas: I didn't work over 5 years to get to this goal only to have some cheeto who's never had to work hard toward anything in his life destroy my dreams when he changes the rules about international student visas
2) my clinical/research work: I plan to work with/conduct research with offenders with mental illness. With Trump being elected, I can see a dual "tough on crime"/defunding of the CJS happening at the same time, and it worries me. 

AHHH!!! I JUST GOT MY FIRST ACCEPTANCE! I went to the interview weekend earlier this week and didn't feel like I did too hot. Totally convinced myself that I wasn't going to get in but literally....Three. Days. Later. I GOT AN EMAIL SAYING THAT I GOT IN!! Still have a couple of more interviews to go before deciding on schools, but no matter what happens... I'm going to grad school!!!! 

@TakeruK, please read the thread more carefully. I did not presume to know what a stranger has to worry about. I asked DBear what she was worried about--why she would feel she would need to be more vigilant of her surroundings in the light of Trump's election. She responded by saying that there has been an uptick in hate crimes against people of color, and she feels that she would be an easy target as an Asian female. I pointed out that (1) there has not been an uptick in hate crimes and (2) hate crimes against Asians are overwhelmingly not committed by Trump voters.
I would encourage you, as an Asian, to reconsider whether liberals or conservatives care more about your "basic human rights." I went to one of the most liberal colleges in arguably the most liberal city in the US. Hate crimes were regularly committed by blacks against Asians. The liberals on campus always refused to recognize these as "hate crimes" no matter how obvious it was that race was a factor. When an Asian student was chased into the street and killed (by a black person), there was an article in the student newspaper saying that we shouldn't judge the perpetrator harshly, and he didn't really mean to do what he did. One night a group of blacks walked down the street attacking every Asian they came across, and the liberals refused to call it a hate crime.

@rphilos  http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/crime/uw-shooting/  Shooter had a MAGA hat, was there to see Milo Yiannopoulos, and his Facebook page says he is a Trump supporter.  The guy who was shot was there to protest the Yiannopoulos event.

Let's take your airplane example and break it down. Here's the difference, in my opinion:

What I'd consider a reasonable response when one disagrees with a stranger:
Person A: I don't like flying on airplanes because I fear for my safety, so I prefer to travel by car whenever possible.
Person B: Here, look at this statistic that shows there are less fatalities per passenger-mile in a plane than in a car. What do you think? (or Person B can say something like "This is why I feel safer on an airplane" etc.)

What I'd consider an unreasonable/inappropriate response when one disagrees with a stranger:
Person A: I don't like flying on airplanes because I fear for my safety, so I prefer to travel by car whenever possible.
Person B: Here, look at this statistic that shows there are less fatalities per passenger-mile in a plane than in a car. Therefore, you have nothing to worry about when traveling on an airplane.
What if Person A feels claustrophobic on an airplane due to tight spaces? What if they have a fear of that feeling you get during take-off and landing? Or maybe they had a really bad previous experience on a plane (extreme case: they survived a plane crash). There are a lot of things that Person B doesn't know about Person A's experience, so why would Person B feel they have the authority to deem that Person A does not need to worry. Person A can decide for themselves whether or not they need to worry about their safety.