DrNutty

I had interviews with the University of South Carolina, University of Cincinnati, and University of North Texas (UNT) I received one offer from UNT. I was told that the University of South Carolina has extended their offers already. I have heard from some of my other schools that they are still reviewing applications, but will start scheduling skype interviews mid-February. Next week? I can't tell you anything about top 10 schools because I didn't apply to these schools. I have a few more interviews coming up tomorrow, Friday and most likely next Monday. So far it's been only talk..... no action. No invites to visit campus or make an offer. Nothing. I don't mind doing interviews with schools that have an initial interest in me. That gives me the opportunity too to find out if I feel like they would be a good fit for me. I am 100% sure that a lot of interview invites and campus visits will come in the next couple of weeks. This is not the time to despair even if you see things posted her under results. This doesn't mean you are out as long as they didn't send you a rejection letter. Heads up. Hang in there for a little longer. It's coming. I can totally feel it picking up. Good luck everyone.

I am an OB/Management applicant. Yes some schools have conducted interviews and some schools have already extended offers. I haven't seen that many posts of results either neither have I seen much activity here in forum. I think today is the big deadline for most programs and we should hopefully see more postings in the next couple of weeks.

Apply to the school and mention the professor you are interested in working with in your SOP. Don't email professor at this point.

@GeorgeC07 oh goodness look your program is "nuclear engineering." That by itself screams "brilliant." I could have never made good grades in your field. I was an "International Studies" major and then I got my MBA. Perfect GPA's are probably extremely rare in your field, so don't worry. You are fine. You already got accepted by one school so congratulations!

Agreed. I went back to school as an "older student" after I had already worked in accounting for 10 years. When I moved to the US I decided to go back to school and get an undergraduate degree at an American university. My reasons for going back to school were much different than those of an 18-year old. I wanted to re-invent myself so to speak and find out how good I really can be. I didn't expect to graduate with a 4.0 - not until my senior year, then I really wanted to finish with a 4.0 and I did. Since I enjoyed being a student so much I went on with my Masters and graduated with a 4.0. Now I am trying to get into a PhD program and I guess we will see if my GPA will really help me. My point is that it;s all about effort and commitment. I do not consider myself extraordinarily brilliant, I just know I worked VERY VERY hard and made school my top priority. So yes it's possible to graduate with a perfect GPA but you will have to work harder than all other students. Is it worth it? Only if you plan to stay in academia like others here have said. Your employer won't care if you graduated with a 3.6 or a 4.0. You also have to be willing to sacrifice a lot of your "leisure time" when your friends go hang out somewhere fun on the weekend you will have to read, write, study ... etc. It's a lot of work. My son will start college this fall (undergraduate) and although I would advise him to try hard to make the best possible grade I would probably not recommend aiming at graduating with a 4.0. You really have to sell your soul to your school if you want a 4.0 undergraduate. For me personally it was worth it because I love being a student. I have branded myself as a "learner for life." and that's exactly why I want my PhD now so I can continue learning about things that interest me and share my knowledge with others. I am really excited about this and hope at least one school will take me. And for the posters above me: It's not all about GPA. I bet you have a really good GMAT or GRE score. Much better than mine. That was a test I could never master for some reason. ha ha

So she said if you want to you can send an email to the chair of the department because she is my boss after all. It will always reflect well on me when a student talks good about me. It didn't seem like a weird request and I felt that was the absolute minimum I could do. So I emailed the department and praised her (my mentor) with glorious descriptions of all the things she has done for me and how incredible valuable is and so forth so forth.... It was no problem at all because I meant everything I said in that email. No clue if this will do anything for her because the department chair didn't even take the time to acknowledge my email . Strange! I even worked as a GIA for the department while I was still a student so yeah I think it's weird that she didn't even send back a "one-liner."

I offered my LOR writer who was also my incredible mentor for the last year to take her out to lunch. She has done far more for me than just write an incredible letter. Can' even start to list all the things she has done for me. Anyway, she said "No." She said as an ethics professor she cannot accept any presents from students. It makes her feel uncomfortable. Well, in the meantime I have graduated so this is not a reason anymore, but I am afraid to ask her a second time. Maybe, she just does not want to have anything to do with me in "private" and would rather keep her distance. That really hurt my feelings when she said no. I was only 2 weeks short of graduation and I never had her as "my professor" in a class, so I really don't understand the conflict here. For the other two LOR writers... one of them doesn't even count because he made me write my LOR myself and then signed it. But I thanked them officially during my hooding ceremony in December. One of them even came up to me and said "That was a nice thing you said." So I probably won't gift them anything else.

Wow they get a lot of applicants. Yeah, of course, it's a top school. I have seen statistics like these at several of my schools, but they are much lower ranked than Columbia and I am also applying to a different kind of program than you obviously. I have seen and heard from current doctoral students, that my type of schools get around 200 applications for a total spots of max. 5. One of my higher ranking schools probably gets a few more applicants and has a cohort of only 2-3 in 2017. So yes I have also read on some websites that a school's admission percentage is below 5% of the applicant pool. Columbia's is extremely low it seems like.

I applied to 13 programs. Let's see what happens. Anxiety is already running high!

Ha ha! I have tried almost every single one of these suggestions. (except for planning my wedding and a few others.) So funny! 46. Learn a new language