[Only One Acceptance - Now What?]

3 hours ago, Mugi Mila said:

I'm facing a similar dilemma. I applied to 3 schools for their respective masters program. Only three because of budget reasons, couldn't apply to more. Was accepted into my third choice. My second choice rejected me today. And the other, my dream school hasn't given a response, but let's face it, if my second choice rejected me, then my dream school will probably do the same. What's the point in waiting? However, my third choice that accepted me, required me to call in regards to funding inquiries. Apparently, I did not qualify for funding, therefore it leaves me in a tight spot. I don't know whether to ask if I can receive financial assistance since I was already told I didn't qualify for funding. So I don't know what to do. ? Any thoughts? 

I wouldn't go into an MA that has no funding. My MA luckily had full funding and I don't know what I would've done without it. I think the sensible thing is to wait for your top choice because you might get a pleasant surprise. However, if you don't end up getting in, I would do more research on which MAs would give you funding and reapply next year. Good luck! 

[Funding Email Before Admission - Why?]

For future references, I just received an acceptance from the program that sent the recruitment fellowship emails so it is indeed now confirmed to be a good sign.

[Only One Acceptance - Now What?]

6 hours ago, DogsArePeopleToo said:

Unless you have a particularly strong reason to do your PhD soon and start this year, I would hold off for a bit. Simply because you might enjoy this school to me doesn't sound like it is all that compelling - it's not your first-choice school, it's far from home, the city isn't that great, etc., and you know you could avoid your application cycle mistakes from this year and possibly end up in the school of your dreams.

You can get a job, gain some "real world" experience, make some money, possibly travel, etc. before embarking on four or five years of grueling PhD work. Some young PhD candidates tell me that the PhD years come with the opportunity cost of missing out on work experience, which is a feeling some of them get when they see their non-doctoral peers go from job to job as they toil away on their thesis.

So, in sum, I wouldn't rush it.

Thank you very much for this advice. I definitely agree with it and I appreciate the insight. The fear of missing out on gaining more work experience is actually another factor that is troubling me about rushing into the PhD. At this point, I'm leaning more towards holding off on the PhD for next year.

[Only One Acceptance - Now What?]

6 hours ago, thelionking said:

Are there any other reasons why this program doesn't feel right, other than the location? Or is it just the location?

Have you visited the city and campus? If you haven't, then you definitely should before making a final decision. 

If you want to get into academia afterwards, keep in mind that you will probably need to move for your career and also for a post doc. So you'd only be delaying the inevitable. But ultimately it is your choice. 

It's not just the location. It's the lowest ranked out of all of the places I applied to and I'm worried about my job prospects after I graduate. I also feel like there isn't really any one particular prof there that I'm really that excited about working with. There are many people who kind of do similar research to me but no one who is really a strong fit to be my supervisor.

I haven't visited the city or the campus but I don't really have enough time to do so because I have to make a decision in less than two weeks and I've been waiting to hear from all of the places I applied to before doing that.

I do want to get a career in academia and I am willing to move for that. It's just that this was the place that I was least excited about moving to and it would be difficult to get around places without a car there, which I cannot afford. A PhD is a huge investment and I feel like I can afford to be a picky with it but postdocs and jobs are much more difficult to come by so I'd definitely be much less picky about the location at that point.

[Only One Acceptance - Now What?]

7 hours ago, Blackwater said:

Can you further describe the mistakes that you made on your application? It's difficult to gauge whether correcting these would really increase your chances next year.

For starters, I had no idea how difficult the GRE would be for me and I only tried it once with only about a month of practice for it so I did quite bad on it. Also, because of the condensed time span, my GRE subject test score was abysmal and I only had the chance to take it once so I couldn't redo it.

Also, my proposal was too specific (it focused only on the work of one author), and I really didn't know much about other authors in the same field. I really didn't have a chance to explore them much during my education because there were never really any courses at the universities I went to that were on the topic.

Finally, I couldn't properly gauge how well I would do during the application process because I aimed really low for my Master's and I overcompensated for that this time by applying to mostly first tier universities, which now seems crazy when I think about how many mistakes I've made with my application.

[Only One Acceptance - Now What?]

I applied to many schools during this year's admissions process and only got one acceptance. While this school is not that bad, it was my last choice and my safety school. I was optimistic that I could get into much better programs but I didn't. With that being said, this is my first year applying and I am very young compared to other people who go for their PhDs. I just got out of a Master's last summer and felt very rushed in the application process, which was occurring simultaneously with an extensive job hunt. Throughout this application process, I learned a lot and discovered a lot of mistakes that I made. I'm wondering whether I should go to the place that accepted me or try again and fix the mistakes that I've made. This offer from the place I got into is very competitive, but it just doesn't feel right and I am not very happy with the prospect of going there for multiple personal reasons (for example, it's very far away from home and not in an ideal location). However, I know that if I do end up going there, I will likely feel different and enjoy it there because the program itself is great (although there are no guarantees because everything besides the program itself is not ideal). I need some suggestions on which decision to make: should I stay or should I go? To go or not to go? (Sorry - I just had to put that in there). Basically, I just want to know whether I should go anyways even though I have a lot of doubts or go through the application process again now that I know more even though the applying and waiting game is painful as well. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Edit: There's also the option of deferring my acceptance to Fall 2018 but I'm not sure if I would be allowed to do that and whether that would mean that I would lose any funding that they've offered to me.

[Funding Email Before Admission - Why?]

22 minutes ago, fuzzylogician said:

I would assume it means that they think you have a shot at these fellowships and wanted you to try and get them. If you win this funding, that would both make you more attractive to the program, and more likely to accept an offer from them. Both net positives for the program. I would imagine it also means you have a fair shot at getting in, but I don't think anyone can make you any promises. 

Thank you, @fuzzylogician, for your opinion on the matter. I was thinking something like what you said for a while but I've a grown much less confident after facing multiple rejections from other universities. I don't want to get my hopes up too much, but I think it's still important to stay positive about the process.

[Funding Email Before Admission - Why?]

This is a throw-away account (hence the name) because I don't want it to be tied to my other gradcafe account in any way. I got an email a few weeks ago that prompted me to fill out a recruitment fellowship application BEFORE I actually got an acceptance from that university. I still haven't heard back from the university but they indicated when they would get back to their first choices (which is coming up soon). I thought that maybe they sent this email to all of their applications but I know a few other people who applied and only one other one has gotten the same email. Just for the sake of my anxiety, I am very curious about what this could mean. Why would a university ask people to fill out extensive scholarship forms (they took about 4 hours to complete) before actually sending out acceptances? Does this mean that they are interested in me and that I am likely accepted or that I'm more like a waitlist kind of person and they just want to see if they have enough funding to afford adding me to this cohort? Any thoughts? I'm certainly very confused.