ysi2010

As a user said above, Meijer IS awesome. I grew up in Ann Arbor and miss it a lot. It may have changed since I was there, but A^2 is incredibly liberal and diverse. The university is ever present since it is essentially a college town, but slightly bigger. Good libraries. Kerrytown is a famous and fun area with cute shops and a farmers market. The public bus system is very comprehensive and was free at least back in the day. (Or the U of M bus system). Lots of university-related housing options. A couple of beautiful parks to go to during weekends, including Gallup Park which is awesome and big, I remember going there with my family and playing badminton a lot. Lots of geese though...maybe too many. Winters are rough although these days it's hard to say what winter will be like anywhere. 
 
Ann Arbor is awesome, and very family-friendly, so you will see a lot of families around. The downtown/university area is lovely and walkable with good places to eat and shops. Active nightlife with lots of university students. Very bike-friendly. Finally...not sure if they still have this, but the Ann Arbor summer Art Fair is famous! It's so much fun and was one of my favorite things I looked forward to every year. They close down streets downtown and artists come and present their work and also lots of vendors. 
You will definitely enjoy it there, and people tend to be friendly and relaxed. Congratulations and best of luck!

We should def start a thread letting each other know where we end up. I got an offer from GMU, one of my top choices, which I accepted. It was a tough call because there were several programs I interviewed at that I loved, but this was the best fit. After four years of uncertainty over my future, it is strange but wonderful to know where I'll be, and that I am moving toward my goal in a very concrete way. If anyone else is going to be at GMU, we should get in touch!
Good luck everyone with your decisions :-)

We should def start a thread letting each other know where we end up. I got an offer from GMU, one of my top choices, which I accepted. It was a tough call because there were several programs I interviewed at that I loved, but this was the best fit. After four years of uncertainty over my future, it is strange but wonderful to know where I'll be, and that I am moving toward my goal in a very concrete way. If anyone else is going to be at GMU, we should get in touch!
Good luck everyone with your decisions :-)

We should def start a thread letting each other know where we end up. I got an offer from GMU, one of my top choices, which I accepted. It was a tough call because there were several programs I interviewed at that I loved, but this was the best fit. After four years of uncertainty over my future, it is strange but wonderful to know where I'll be, and that I am moving toward my goal in a very concrete way. If anyone else is going to be at GMU, we should get in touch!
Good luck everyone with your decisions :-)

We should def start a thread letting each other know where we end up. I got an offer from GMU, one of my top choices, which I accepted. It was a tough call because there were several programs I interviewed at that I loved, but this was the best fit. After four years of uncertainty over my future, it is strange but wonderful to know where I'll be, and that I am moving toward my goal in a very concrete way. If anyone else is going to be at GMU, we should get in touch!
Good luck everyone with your decisions :-)

We should def start a thread letting each other know where we end up. I got an offer from GMU, one of my top choices, which I accepted. It was a tough call because there were several programs I interviewed at that I loved, but this was the best fit. After four years of uncertainty over my future, it is strange but wonderful to know where I'll be, and that I am moving toward my goal in a very concrete way. If anyone else is going to be at GMU, we should get in touch!
Good luck everyone with your decisions :-)

We should def start a thread letting each other know where we end up. I got an offer from GMU, one of my top choices, which I accepted. It was a tough call because there were several programs I interviewed at that I loved, but this was the best fit. After four years of uncertainty over my future, it is strange but wonderful to know where I'll be, and that I am moving toward my goal in a very concrete way. If anyone else is going to be at GMU, we should get in touch!
Good luck everyone with your decisions :-)

I think you have every right to connect with your POI to clarify any doubts that you have about accepting the admission offer. Honestly it will be good for both of you. Its a 5 year journey (at least). It's crucial that you are totally aligned with the lab you choose to join. No one minds answering questions really. If you can speak with some grad student in that lab first it might be more helpful but definitely you should feel free to address all doubts before taking a final call. Congratulations on the multiple hits. Hope they are all so good that the final decision about where to finally join gets really difficult for you to make

Totally with you all...I am an extrovert but it's still exhausting. I have my most concentrated weekend/five days ahead of me...Baltimore to Ny to Chicago. No idea why I did this to myself but again, good problem to have. I wanted to only apply once so i did a good amount of schools and accepted every single interview offer, luckily they magically had non overlapping options.
Definitely joining you on that alcohol and cake. For now to keep energy up, I've just been eating straight up meat and Greek yogurt. And coffee. Hahaha. But yes, I've been spoiling myself with sweets during this entire process and plan to continue doing so..I'll worry about fitness in March
Thank you and good luck to you too!! Positive vibes for all :-) I look forward to learning where everyone ends up.
 

Totally with you all...I am an extrovert but it's still exhausting. I have my most concentrated weekend/five days ahead of me...Baltimore to Ny to Chicago. No idea why I did this to myself but again, good problem to have. I wanted to only apply once so i did a good amount of schools and accepted every single interview offer, luckily they magically had non overlapping options.
Definitely joining you on that alcohol and cake. For now to keep energy up, I've just been eating straight up meat and Greek yogurt. And coffee. Hahaha. But yes, I've been spoiling myself with sweets during this entire process and plan to continue doing so..I'll worry about fitness in March
Thank you and good luck to you too!! Positive vibes for all :-) I look forward to learning where everyone ends up.
 

Totally with you all...I am an extrovert but it's still exhausting. I have my most concentrated weekend/five days ahead of me...Baltimore to Ny to Chicago. No idea why I did this to myself but again, good problem to have. I wanted to only apply once so i did a good amount of schools and accepted every single interview offer, luckily they magically had non overlapping options.
Definitely joining you on that alcohol and cake. For now to keep energy up, I've just been eating straight up meat and Greek yogurt. And coffee. Hahaha. But yes, I've been spoiling myself with sweets during this entire process and plan to continue doing so..I'll worry about fitness in March
Thank you and good luck to you too!! Positive vibes for all :-) I look forward to learning where everyone ends up.
 

Preach! Even as an extrovert, this is pushing my limits of socializing haha. I'm excited to get this last interview out of the way this weekend and enjoy a celebratory glass of wine.

Congratulations to everyone who has already received admissions offers! I'm playing the waiting game as well, and not yet through with my interviews. I feel fortunate to have gotten multiple invites, but is anyone with me that being constantly exposed to evaluation and at least just...extra attention paid to your presence, is exhausting? It's impossible to fly under the radar at times during interview weekends.
These past few weeks have been kinda emotionally draining even though it's been exciting and fun to meet established psychologists, future colleagues, and learn about each other and the programs. One of my favorite and most refreshing parts of all this has actually been talking to fellow applicants in person :-) seems like everyone has great contributions to (hopefully) make to the field. But, and I say this with  full acknowledgment of my own gratitude...in some ways I really can't wait for this to be over hahah. Having a community to commiserate with is great (regardless of the anxiety-fueled tension that can come up).
Best of luck to everyone!!

Congratulations to everyone who has already received admissions offers! I'm playing the waiting game as well, and not yet through with my interviews. I feel fortunate to have gotten multiple invites, but is anyone with me that being constantly exposed to evaluation and at least just...extra attention paid to your presence, is exhausting? It's impossible to fly under the radar at times during interview weekends.
These past few weeks have been kinda emotionally draining even though it's been exciting and fun to meet established psychologists, future colleagues, and learn about each other and the programs. One of my favorite and most refreshing parts of all this has actually been talking to fellow applicants in person :-) seems like everyone has great contributions to (hopefully) make to the field. But, and I say this with  full acknowledgment of my own gratitude...in some ways I really can't wait for this to be over hahah. Having a community to commiserate with is great (regardless of the anxiety-fueled tension that can come up).
Best of luck to everyone!!

Congratulations to everyone who has already received admissions offers! I'm playing the waiting game as well, and not yet through with my interviews. I feel fortunate to have gotten multiple invites, but is anyone with me that being constantly exposed to evaluation and at least just...extra attention paid to your presence, is exhausting? It's impossible to fly under the radar at times during interview weekends.
These past few weeks have been kinda emotionally draining even though it's been exciting and fun to meet established psychologists, future colleagues, and learn about each other and the programs. One of my favorite and most refreshing parts of all this has actually been talking to fellow applicants in person :-) seems like everyone has great contributions to (hopefully) make to the field. But, and I say this with  full acknowledgment of my own gratitude...in some ways I really can't wait for this to be over hahah. Having a community to commiserate with is great (regardless of the anxiety-fueled tension that can come up).
Best of luck to everyone!!

Congratulations to everyone who has already received admissions offers! I'm playing the waiting game as well, and not yet through with my interviews. I feel fortunate to have gotten multiple invites, but is anyone with me that being constantly exposed to evaluation and at least just...extra attention paid to your presence, is exhausting? It's impossible to fly under the radar at times during interview weekends.
These past few weeks have been kinda emotionally draining even though it's been exciting and fun to meet established psychologists, future colleagues, and learn about each other and the programs. One of my favorite and most refreshing parts of all this has actually been talking to fellow applicants in person :-) seems like everyone has great contributions to (hopefully) make to the field. But, and I say this with  full acknowledgment of my own gratitude...in some ways I really can't wait for this to be over hahah. Having a community to commiserate with is great (regardless of the anxiety-fueled tension that can come up).
Best of luck to everyone!!

Congratulations to everyone who has already received admissions offers! I'm playing the waiting game as well, and not yet through with my interviews. I feel fortunate to have gotten multiple invites, but is anyone with me that being constantly exposed to evaluation and at least just...extra attention paid to your presence, is exhausting? It's impossible to fly under the radar at times during interview weekends.
These past few weeks have been kinda emotionally draining even though it's been exciting and fun to meet established psychologists, future colleagues, and learn about each other and the programs. One of my favorite and most refreshing parts of all this has actually been talking to fellow applicants in person :-) seems like everyone has great contributions to (hopefully) make to the field. But, and I say this with  full acknowledgment of my own gratitude...in some ways I really can't wait for this to be over hahah. Having a community to commiserate with is great (regardless of the anxiety-fueled tension that can come up).
Best of luck to everyone!!

I thought we all hugged and made up? May I suggest we Full House the hell out of this and hug to melodramatic music? 

Accurate representation of me the past couple of days on this thread..

I just got back from my first interview and it was SO much less scary than I anticipated. No one asked me any of the questions that I had prepped for. They pretty much said "if you are here, we already know everything we need to know about you-we just want to see if it feels like a good fit" 
so if you are anxiously preparing for your interviews, take a breath and relax  

Their were some customized portions of the email (ie. name, personal address) but the rest was a stock email.
 

It is also my first round applying too, but I would saying getting an invite from a professor who is accepting students (and does research relating to your interests) is a good thing. From what I've heard from grad students in my lab, profs will often "compete" for top students between one another, or where appropriate co-mentorship is possible. For example, for one program I am interviewing at for clinical psych (don't want to publish name for anonymity), my POI reached out to me to invite me to interview back in December. However, there's also a lot of experimental profs who do similar research as my interests, so I've also been randomly contacted by two experimental profs who want to meet and talk with me. 
 
I think someone talking to you is a good thing, especially if your interests match! You may or may not meet the other profs (they may or may not be taking students). I'd ask the grad coordinator or other professors directly about their taking status since you now have an interview. Say something along the lines of "Dear Prof X, I see prof Y has invited me to interview at university and I am honored. Since our interests match, I am wondering if I can also meet with you in addition to prof y on grad student day."
 
Hope this helps and congrats on the interview!