Musmatatus

Congrats on Brown, and many more! Looking at your signature, you are a CAN'T MISS applicant!!!

First off, I agree with the previous suggestion to focus on your acceptances. I would also like to add that admissions are very much about fit--and then, also, a bit of a numbers game. Looking at the US news rankings, I'm lucky enough to have 2 acceptances from top 10 programs. I've also received explicit or implicit rejections from 3 other top 10 programs. Further, I've been waitlisted at a program a little outside of the top 20. I hope this helps as an example of fit/randomness. EDIT: For anyone there who is looking at a shutout, I wanted to weigh in with just actual things I do to cope, in order: 1) I tell all my friends/family "[school] doesn't want me!" -- This allows me to whine, BUT more importantly they won't ask me if I've heard back from [school] 2) I watch absurd amounts of Brooklyn 99. No, but, really...Absurd. 3) I go read a book. I'm just finishing up The Library Book by Susan Orlean, and would recommend it!

LOL, I like how I can tell which post is yours on the results board. Good riddance, UVA! @toxicmoss - I'll post my general tips to interpreting offers just so it's public knowledge and anyone can weigh in with their tips, too. Basically, sometimes offer letters are a little confusing at first glance. Depending on the institution, sometimes they state the amount of money they are covering in tuition, student fees, health insurance, which is all included in part of your package. However, the only amount of money that you'll ever see (i.e. be able to use to pay rent/buy food) is the stipend--which is much, much less. Be sure you're using the stipend only when you're trying to check out the cost of living in an area!

Welcome to send it to me. I'm not a grad student, but I'm a university employee that has hired TAs before so I have some experience with contracts

Can't see them either! @Warelin, could you take a look?

Oooh, we should get @emprof to weigh in on this!

I just graduated last year and I am currently working as an event coordinator at my alma mater. I do think it's very normal (in my case, not for prospective students, but for guest speakers, job candidates, etc.) for schools to share the cost, but I would really recommend checking with the schools beforehand. If you get the OK, then send a single email with all the receipts to both schools to show who is paying what in a table/spreadsheet (and, of course, fill out any school-specific forms!). It's really helpful for the person doing the reimbursements! My interpretation of the "double reimbursement" would mean that they were being reimbursed for over the amount of money it would cost to have taken the trip. If, for example, the trip to LA in total cost $400, and then they tried to get $400 from both UCLA and USC for a total of $800, then that seems rather shady. Edit: I think it's really helpful to have you weigh in; since this is a pinned thread, I am sure others will benefit from your advice!

My visit forms included a space for me to indicate professors I'm interested in meeting---I think departments are contacting professors. You might check with the department first to see what they have planned, so you're not overlapping.

I don't understand why you would want to keep your full-time job; I'm not sure this should be a consideration. Are they not both fully-funded?

Officially rejected from Penn, but I'm glad they at least had the courtesy to tell us all. The results board is bleeding red with our tears! Edit: Also, at the very least, I now know my portal works!!! Silver lining.

Interesting how application deadlines play in! I think my first application was actually pretty decent because it was due the week before any of my others, so I focused more on writing for that one (which had a separate statement of purpose & then a personal/diversity statement). Then I scrambled in the next week to craft one solid standalone statement of purpose, which I think made later applications suffer.

Big congrats to the Brown acceptance! I've never received a call, so I'm wondering...do the professors who are calling take into consideration time zones? I assume they are calling students in earlier time zones (I'm on the west coast, it's just turning 8am here) right now...or has anyone received a call at a wildly early/late time?

Hi friends! I've realized that I've been so focused on hearing back from all the schools I've applied to that I haven't truly celebrated my acceptances. Is anyone else in the same boat? I would love to talk about how we are celebrating, and bring a little joy into our forum

For one of my programs, I had seen on GradCafe that acceptances went out in the afternoon. I refreshed madly then, but when I didn't hear anything I stopped checking email for the day. I was texting my friend later that night for pity, and she asked if there was any chance that they just didn't get to mine yet. I had already replied no, and almost went back to binging Netflix when I decided to check my email just once--found my acceptance! I was so, so pleased. The other times were mainly normal--I was on my way to the bus stop and then having dinner.

Have you seen the "Campus Visits" thread that's pinned? On the first page, there's this excellent list of questions to ask/factors to consider when evaluating! I'm definitely taking into account the placement rates (especially in my field) and the funding package, but those are things that I have available to me remotely. During the visit, what I plan to focus on is quality of life and atmosphere (which is tied to funding, in a sense). I've heard a few stories from my mentors about having to compete for funding where people in their cohorts were just trying to sabotage each other, and in some cases the professors were encouraging that competition. I'm very fortunate to come from an incredibly supportive undergrad program, and it's something I really value and would like to have going forward. What about you? Edit: Aside from the implied rejections (because I would like an official rejection given all the $$$$ I threw their way!), I'm just waiting on Brown... They're MIA!

Same! I tried really very hard not to have a dream program going into the application season because I knew the chances of being ~ghosted~ were so high, so I am very thrilled to have received the options I have. I'm lucky enough that all my programs are providing travel stipends and my job is relatively flexible right now (as an event coordinator, as long as I'm not missing any actual events then I'm good!) so I am looking forward to visiting. I think that will be really crucial for me, personally. Fingers crossed!! Are you waiting on many more schools or just a couple?

Wow, 6 programs is super impressive! Do you have a sense of any top choices, or are you waiting to see with the visits?

Just want to throw in some real numbers re: GRE. Ohio State has a faculty grad coordinator that posts over in the PoliSci board: If there is a cutoff by grad school administrations (though, as it says, it's not a hard cutoff!), then at one institution it's the 75th percentile. The grad coordinator also says in another post later that it applies to the history program as well, so I would think it's for all grad programs. Presumably, the cutoff would be about the same at other places, if anyone is looking for a goal. That said, to add to the ancecdata, I was a little bit below the 75th percentile for the quantitative section and I don't believe it hurt me.

Very much in agreement with @trytostay, though also wanted to give some other thoughts, While I do know someone in another field who didn't visit their program, I do know they talked on the phone with their POIs beforehand. I think if you don't visit or otherwise show interest in the program, you run the risk of seeming like you're not excited about the school. In my friend's case, funding for travel was offered and current grad students were putting up the prospectives, so I think it was much more likely for that program that most people would visit. If funding isn't offered (and I do think you could ask--perhaps call to see?), I imagine it's much less likely that people visit, but I would still try to Skype with your POIs and ask to be put in touch with current graduate students to get a sense of the program. It's also important to make sure that they would have enough funds to support you through 5 years (which is being quite optimistic, I think, since the normative time for all the programs I've looked at seem to be ~6 years!).

I know plenty of people who went straight from undergrad into PhD programs, so I don't think that's the case at all.

You are too kind--so sorry, did not mean to turn this into a pity party when we are supposed to be celebrating acceptances!! Sending lots of good vibes your way, and congrats again! If I hear back from them now, it will just be a pleasant surprise!

Yes, definitely agree with this. Two of my offer letters explicitly mentioned that if we couldn't make the visit date that they would try to make alternate arrangements.

They're really excited to have you! And thanks for the info--I can chalk this one up as an implied rejection then.

Huge congrats!!!!

First comment on the pinned thread about funding packages! Not trying to be rude, but also just want to throw it out there in case anyone else wants to add stuff they know where to find it later on, too!