TheHoff

Ouch!

I have a thing against UCR after last year. I was interviewed in January and they sent my rejection for Fall '18 in October/18.
If you are charging $125 to apply, at least have the decency to notify your candidates.

After the 15th deadline, you’re going to have to get a written release from CSU since they offered you a funding package. I’d assume that they’d be willing to do so since nobody wants to have someone in their program who wants to go elsewhere but sometimes departments/grad schools can be a little petty.
Advisor fit is huge in this process since you’ll be working closely with them for the next few years so I’d definitely take that into consideration. Ranking can also matter too but it’s not everything. You have to look at which program will best set you up for the future that you want. 
Good luck making a decision! 

I was told at the open house for the program I accepted that fees are about $150. $1000 plus is insane!

This is an important conversation that we should have. Personally, I think that charging graduate students thousands of dollars of fees is ridiculous when our tuition is waived.
Recently, there has been a conversation about fees. There is a giant spreadsheet showing the yearly fees at universities around the US which you can compare to. Keep in mind that this spreadsheet is yearly fees, and you will want to add up the fees for the fall + spring plus the summer to get the total for your university in question.
Spreadsheet of fees:  bit.ly/aau_grad_fees

Excitement: Finally got my first offer today! Fully funded position at Colorado State, which I visited last weekend. The location is great (except for the cold that I don't enjoy), the projects are exciting and the faculty seems super nice persons.
Worries: Will probably have to borrow money to cover the first expenses, such as fees, travel tickets, security deposits and so on since I'm now officially unemployed after finishing my Masters

I don't know if that's common where you live but here some people tend to work as a volunteer on some Lab when they don't have anything better to do.
It's not the funniest thing but it could be helpful even to improve your applications

Princeton University Philosophy, PhD (F19) Rejected via E-mail on 26 Feb 2019 ♦ A 26 Feb 2019 report spam very sad, bigly sad, the most sad, yuge sadness.  

Princeton University Computer Science, PhD (F19) Rejected via E-mail on 1 Feb 2019 I 25 Feb 2019 Was my safe school To anyone that gets a rejection from an Ivy League and says it was his/her safety school: we could never, in a million years, be friends.

Congrats! Hope you have a great time at your new school!

My advice is don't lose hope, it's not over until you receive your results. 
I was on the same boat as you guys and haven't heard from any program at all until yesterday when I woke up with an email inviting me for an interview weekend with pretty much all expenses paid, and I live overseas! 
I also wrote to Penn State and the officer stated that offers should be made in March.

Colorado State.
Thank you, I hope you get some news soon too!

Grats man!  Hope the school is a great fit for you! 

Exactly! Here we do not work on holidays and there is a LOT of them hahaha.
I follow UCSB on Instagram and I know they are not open today, I don't know about the other 3 I've applied to.

Shoot, in F18, I applied to WashU.  In F17 I got accepted to WashU and spoke to my POI there, but wasn't able to attend.  That POI petitioned to have me accepted to the PhD program in F18 AND I knew the Director of Admissions.  As luck would have it, he was out of town and not apart of the the admissions committee that year, but put in a good word.  I still got rejected in F18 and F19. xD  Nothing is ever sure, man.

Absolutely brilliant

Excitements: Almost finishing my Master's thesis
Worries: Haven't heard a single word from all the programs I applied to. The stress and anxiety from this waiting is taking away all my motivation to continue writing my thesis

Seriously. I haven't gotten a single official rejection yet. I'm going to mentally prepare myself and start contacting people tomorrow to inquire about my status. 

Hey... I'm new here!
Just wanna say I feel so "warm and welcomed" when I read your posts... I'm not alone in this =`)

Don't want to be negative but... There was one university that I won't say the name, but I can tell you that it starts with River and ends with side, that interviewed me in Mid-January last year and I heard back in October.
Of course, by March I was already aware that it was going to be a rejection but still, paid $125 in app fees to get an automated reply almost a year later.
Good luck with your interview and I hope you get a good answer way faster than I did!

I kind of wish graduate school application portals worked the same way as postal service tracking. Like you would know when your file passed through here and there, if it's awaiting delivery to the ad comm, if its on its way to the waitlist pile, etc. etc.