DiscoTech

You're welcome! "Boo hoo" beats "cry me a river." No?

For the love of God, why do people accept offers they aren't crazy about well before the deadline?
 
Boo hoo, you got an early acceptance. Stop trying to rationalize your decision by likening an early acceptance and funding offer into a stealth pressure campaign. Did want to you to accept quickly? Of course they did. Do you think they made you an early offer of admission and funding because they were ambivalent about you? They wanted you! That is OK. The school clearly told you that the deadline was April 15th. They did everything right. Nonsense rationalization is what got you in this situation to begin with. Christ!
Live with the choices you made. Don't come up with BS reasons for justifying whatever you are going to do.
As poorly as you've handled this, fuzzy is right. A PhD is a long time and you should consider what is in your long term best interest. If and when you do withdraw from the school you know informed you'd enroll at, let them know as soon as possible that you are withdrawing so that they can go down their list of applicants and get their 2nd or 3rd choice candidate. It is the least you could do even if you dread this conversation. If a phone call is too scary, at least send an e-mail. Professors are surprisingly understanding with stuff like this, especially if you are honest about your situation and timely with your response.

This might have been the problem with your application. Your replies are not actually responses. 
1. All talk of effort and hard work is pointless. A quality fellowship application is a quality fellowship application. Does not matter how much time went into.
2. I never said anything about taking rejection well. My only point is that your future in academia is full of rejection (publications, fellowships, grants applications, etc...). People who lost it over one fellowship application probably don't stick around very long. But yeah, keep up the lousy attitude. 

Yeah, I know the waiting is rough. One always wants to latch onto a glimmer of hope. I know. This happened to me last year. There are also good reasons for hope - people will decline if the NSF comes through. 
I think Epi's and Entangled's point is that you should push STI-TEC for information YOU need and not trust what STI-TEC puts out. They just want to stop the phone calls. If you need to know your status because of a particular deadline, push them hard to get an answer as to where you stand. Of the 2000+ application, 40-60% were cut during the SME review panel in early February. They have the information on hand. 

Second year grad.

This might have been the problem with your application. Your replies are not actually responses. 
1. All talk of effort and hard work is pointless. A quality fellowship application is a quality fellowship application. Does not matter how much time went into.
2. I never said anything about taking rejection well. My only point is that your future in academia is full of rejection (publications, fellowships, grants applications, etc...). People who lost it over one fellowship application probably don't stick around very long. But yeah, keep up the lousy attitude. 

If  it is not Harvard, it does not matter.

For the love of God, why do people accept offers they aren't crazy about well before the deadline?
 
Boo hoo, you got an early acceptance. Stop trying to rationalize your decision by likening an early acceptance and funding offer into a stealth pressure campaign. Did want to you to accept quickly? Of course they did. Do you think they made you an early offer of admission and funding because they were ambivalent about you? They wanted you! That is OK. The school clearly told you that the deadline was April 15th. They did everything right. Nonsense rationalization is what got you in this situation to begin with. Christ!
Live with the choices you made. Don't come up with BS reasons for justifying whatever you are going to do.
As poorly as you've handled this, fuzzy is right. A PhD is a long time and you should consider what is in your long term best interest. If and when you do withdraw from the school you know informed you'd enroll at, let them know as soon as possible that you are withdrawing so that they can go down their list of applicants and get their 2nd or 3rd choice candidate. It is the least you could do even if you dread this conversation. If a phone call is too scary, at least send an e-mail. Professors are surprisingly understanding with stuff like this, especially if you are honest about your situation and timely with your response.

This might have been the problem with your application. Your replies are not actually responses. 
1. All talk of effort and hard work is pointless. A quality fellowship application is a quality fellowship application. Does not matter how much time went into.
2. I never said anything about taking rejection well. My only point is that your future in academia is full of rejection (publications, fellowships, grants applications, etc...). People who lost it over one fellowship application probably don't stick around very long. But yeah, keep up the lousy attitude. 

@Calmly_WaitingIn short, it’s illegal and a federal violation (I’m an attorney). Further, if you had to withdrawal by your own accord for the pregnancy, federal law requires that you must reinstated following your leave without penalty. Both title IX and the ADA have specific legal instruction and accommodation for your situation. That said, what happens on the retail level can be quite different and stark.....but you have very specific legal protections.

This might have been the problem with your application. Your replies are not actually responses. 
1. All talk of effort and hard work is pointless. A quality fellowship application is a quality fellowship application. Does not matter how much time went into.
2. I never said anything about taking rejection well. My only point is that your future in academia is full of rejection (publications, fellowships, grants applications, etc...). People who lost it over one fellowship application probably don't stick around very long. But yeah, keep up the lousy attitude. 

This might have been the problem with your application. Your replies are not actually responses. 
1. All talk of effort and hard work is pointless. A quality fellowship application is a quality fellowship application. Does not matter how much time went into.
2. I never said anything about taking rejection well. My only point is that your future in academia is full of rejection (publications, fellowships, grants applications, etc...). People who lost it over one fellowship application probably don't stick around very long. But yeah, keep up the lousy attitude. 

This might have been the problem with your application. Your replies are not actually responses. 
1. All talk of effort and hard work is pointless. A quality fellowship application is a quality fellowship application. Does not matter how much time went into.
2. I never said anything about taking rejection well. My only point is that your future in academia is full of rejection (publications, fellowships, grants applications, etc...). People who lost it over one fellowship application probably don't stick around very long. But yeah, keep up the lousy attitude. 

If  it is not Harvard, it does not matter.

Seconded. However, keep your eyes open to the fact that JHU is milking you for money. There are a lot of other MS students who are also going to join you at JHU and are expecting to pick up funding ASAP as well. 

In a vacuum, staying at your UG for an MA/MS is no big deal. But your case is a little different. You applied to other schools, did not receive attractive offers, and stayed at you UG for an MA/MS. What can two more years (albeit in a Masters program) do to improve your chances. Especially if most of what you are doing is taking more classes? Maybe it can do a lot. I do not know. I just don't the answer is straightforward in your case. 
Moreover, based on your replies in other posts, it sounds like you might benefit from a chance of scenery. I would say work for a year. The ability to hold down a job and do well is not going to looked upon poorly. If it is, the people who do are not worth working for. 

You're welcome! "Boo hoo" beats "cry me a river." No?

For the love of God, why do people accept offers they aren't crazy about well before the deadline?
 
Boo hoo, you got an early acceptance. Stop trying to rationalize your decision by likening an early acceptance and funding offer into a stealth pressure campaign. Did want to you to accept quickly? Of course they did. Do you think they made you an early offer of admission and funding because they were ambivalent about you? They wanted you! That is OK. The school clearly told you that the deadline was April 15th. They did everything right. Nonsense rationalization is what got you in this situation to begin with. Christ!
Live with the choices you made. Don't come up with BS reasons for justifying whatever you are going to do.
As poorly as you've handled this, fuzzy is right. A PhD is a long time and you should consider what is in your long term best interest. If and when you do withdraw from the school you know informed you'd enroll at, let them know as soon as possible that you are withdrawing so that they can go down their list of applicants and get their 2nd or 3rd choice candidate. It is the least you could do even if you dread this conversation. If a phone call is too scary, at least send an e-mail. Professors are surprisingly understanding with stuff like this, especially if you are honest about your situation and timely with your response.

Sigh ....

You're welcome! "Boo hoo" beats "cry me a river." No?

For the love of God, why do people accept offers they aren't crazy about well before the deadline?
 
Boo hoo, you got an early acceptance. Stop trying to rationalize your decision by likening an early acceptance and funding offer into a stealth pressure campaign. Did want to you to accept quickly? Of course they did. Do you think they made you an early offer of admission and funding because they were ambivalent about you? They wanted you! That is OK. The school clearly told you that the deadline was April 15th. They did everything right. Nonsense rationalization is what got you in this situation to begin with. Christ!
Live with the choices you made. Don't come up with BS reasons for justifying whatever you are going to do.
As poorly as you've handled this, fuzzy is right. A PhD is a long time and you should consider what is in your long term best interest. If and when you do withdraw from the school you know informed you'd enroll at, let them know as soon as possible that you are withdrawing so that they can go down their list of applicants and get their 2nd or 3rd choice candidate. It is the least you could do even if you dread this conversation. If a phone call is too scary, at least send an e-mail. Professors are surprisingly understanding with stuff like this, especially if you are honest about your situation and timely with your response.

Why would they care? If anything, you are now signalling how badly you want to attend their program.

Assistant professors have no placement track record, are unlikely to have an established funding pipeline, and you will carry the weight of their tenure aspirations. 
Yes, they will be more hands on. But they could be micromanagers. They will be full of news ideas and very energetic. But they might expect you to share that energy by putting in long hours. 
Building someone's lab from the ground up would be a valuable experience. Is it worth the risk though?
 

What sub field in ECE? The rankings are meaningless for small differences in rankings. Your advisor means much, much more.
For some good data sources
https://ncsesdata.nsf.gov/herd/2017/html/herd2017_dst_55.html
http://profiles.asee.org