basketballfrost

I guess it depends on a lot more than that. For example maybe C&D are cheaper cities to live in, therefore the difference in funding won't necessarily mean a lot more money for you.
7,000 more per year is equal to 580 dollars more, that sounds like a lot. Research the cities and their living costs and wheather those 7,000 less will make a lot of difference.
In my case I am deciding between my options by seeing a lot of factors, city it is located, research labs I would prefer, better fit for department, school prestige, funding and city cost. Make your own list of things that are a MUST and start ranking schools. Funding makes a lot of difference, but so do many other factors. 

> It would be really cool to see the acceptance decision timeline distributions for all disciplines on one plot, just out of curiosity. 
Great question. Here you go: https://imgur.com/a/jR53K
>  I encourage you to share your code/data on something like GitHub
I will definitely release my code on GitHub I am just undecided to do it before or after my admission results. 

Hi, I set up this account especially for you. 
First of all, I am so sorry for the plight that you are in. Please don't leave your husband at this moment; if you do, I'm worried that he will turn into something more radical. However, if you have tried everything to talk sense into him but fail or if he becomes physically aggressive, that's another story. 
Have you considered taking your husband to a psychologist? Or do you know some of his close friends/relatives who are not racist? Try to get your husband talk to them. 
Or try to (discreetly) make him read real stories of the Holocaust - to let him understand what Nazism really means. 
As a last resort, anti-depressants such as Prozac, Celexa, may drastically reduce his aggression/hatred towards "other races" or women. 
You must stand your ground firmly and must never be swayed by your husband's attitudes/behaviours. If there's anyone who can change him, it's you. I understand how frustrating it is to battle against someone who holds drastically different (and wrong) values, especially if it's someone close to you. But please, please, please, don't give up on them without trying. I guess you don't need my reminder, but never forget that what you are standing for is 100% correct: women = men; white = Asian = black = Hispanics, etc. 
Kudos. It will get better, and I hope to hear any updates from you later on.

Oh, Honey. 
If you mean Riverside, CA as in UCR you are in luck. I did my undergrad at UCR and the LGBT scene was thriving. I had trans friends who specifically came to UCR, even paying out of state tuition, because of their involvement with T*Camp and being named one of the better schools for LGBT students int he country (they also hosted the *Trans conference in 2017). I was also there when UCR Underground was hosting college-sponsored Drag events. There was an LGBT housing option (Stonewall Hall, I think), but most of my friends lived in Riverside. We were all undergrads, so I didn't notice many other LGBT with families, but they do have an LGBT Grad specific meet up, so there are lots of opportunities to find community.
Riverside itself is in the I.E., where politics can change drastically depending on area. Riverside was named the second most LGBT friendly city in the I.E. (it lost to Palm Springs which...I guess is fair haha) but if you're living outside of the city I'd avoid Fontana or San Bernardino (which are probably places you'll want to avoid anyway, suck it Sanberdoo!)  There are gay bars (VIP, and Menagerie) on main streets in Riverside. My friend and his partner opted for housing in Riverside, and were never hassled (I commuted from farther away than I would recommend anyone commuting).
Hope this rant helps!

Hi all.
 
Tired of waiting for graduate committees’ decisions I estimated decision timelines myself based on gradcafe data. For each university and program in albums below you will find three graphs:
Decision timeline as a cumulative sum of decisions (accept, reject, interview, waitlist) as a function of time between Jan 1 and May 1 for the last five years combined. Boxplots of GRE Q and GRE V for people who reported both scores. Histogram of GPAs (from 2.5 to 4.0 with 0.1 step).    
Here is the list of programs I analyzed (some important notes below):
 
Computer science PhD https://imgur.com/a/cXaEs 
Computer Science MS https://imgur.com/a/u3joC 
Electrical Engineering PhD https://imgur.com/a/ra3Eh 
Electrical Engineering MS https://imgur.com/a/KUGrD 
Economics PhD https://imgur.com/a/NzlYm 
Economics MS https://imgur.com/a/JfgSk 
Statistics PhD https://imgur.com/a/mB5UC 
Statistics MS https://imgur.com/a/tXowL 
Mathematics (applied and pure) PhDhttps://imgur.com/a/d0821 
Chemistry PhD https://imgur.com/a/U5x91 
Physics (applied and pure) PhD https://imgur.com/a/35tTy 
Chemical Engineering PhD https://imgur.com/a/Tng2r 
Literature PhD https://imgur.com/a/LDKpT 
Anthropology PhD https://imgur.com/a/d5ub4 
Bioengineering PhD https://imgur.com/a/RpTSD 
Philosophy PhD https://imgur.com/a/ihoGS 
Biology PhD https://imgur.com/a/FWhoD 
 
How to use the graphs?
I used this data to decrease my own misery. Now that I know decision timelines of universities and programs I applied to, I can refresh gradcafe less and concentrate on more useful stuff more. Also, it is interesting to explore differences between different universities/programs. For example, some universities do gradual accepts rejects/accepts and others do it in waves. Some programs start early (chemistry) and some — later (CS). Keep in mind, that there may be errors in my analysis so use this data at your own risk.  
How reliable are timelines?
I personally trust them (but I am biased). In general, it depends on curve shapes and available data. If there are more than 100 observations overall — I would consider that data to be pretty reliable. If there are characteristic ‘steps’ — it is a good sign because may indicate internal deadlines for waves of accepts/rejects. But the number of admissions/rejections records in the data is definitely inflated by question records (i.e. ‘to poster below: what program?”). I filtered some, but definitely not all of them. Also, bear in mind that department policies can change.
How reliable are GRE/GPA?
Somewhat reliable. There is noise, mistakes (i.e. switched Q/V) and self-report bias. For example, salty people with good scores may more likely report rejections and lucky people with low GPAs may less likely report accepts. But for some universities which publish admission statistics (for example, Duke), calculated GRE/GPA medians are pretty close to reported averages (I didn’t calculate means, sorry). Also, we can’t affect GPA/GRE right now, so it is mostly for entertainment.
How did you do it?
Scraped and parsed all gradcafe results. Selected all records from Jan 1 2013 to May 1 2017 and combined data for all years together, so all data is based on five year period. For each university and program in question I built a cumulative sum of decisions as a function of days since beginning of the year. For analysis of GRE I only chose records which included both Q and V scores. For analysis of GPA I used only 4-point scale grades and didn’t convert other scales to it (i.e. 10-point). Selection of universities/programs was done by regular expressions so there can be some noise added by incorrect parsing. For example, “University of Washington” may both mean Seattle and St. Louis. I tried to avoid it the best I could but there can be mistakes nonetheless. How did you choose universities/programs?
Voluntarily, so there are a lot of omissions. Sorry, if your university/program is not there. Also, bear in mind that programs may overlap (for example ‘Computer Science’ and ‘Electrical Engineering’). Finally, I excluded uni/program from analysis if there were less than 30 observations.
Will you share your code/data?
I am thinking about it, but undecided yet.

Hope it helps and good luck with the admissions!


 

@basketballfrost: I'd second what @StemCellFan said!
Also, if you have not done this already, you should do a little bit of research into any interviewers that you know the name of. I would say that this is general advice that applies to basically any time you have an appointment to formally meet with another academic! For something high stakes like an interview, I'd spend a bit of time (maybe 15-20 minutes? or even 30 minutes if you have the time) on each person. Read their website, their CV, look at their recent papers. For someone outside of your area of expertise, try to understand the basics of their research area. You should at least know: 1) what is the big picture question they want to address, 2) what are the major challenges and 3) what is their biggest contribution to this area. It's good to know these things so that you don't make a mistake I made a long time ago and basically said I don't think X is true when the person I'm talking to has done a lot of work arguing the opposite! Oops.
In the future, for less high-stakes/more informal meetings, I'd spend 5-10 minutes to at least read their website, CV, and publications list. Every time we have a seminar speaker visit our department and we sign up for meetings, I do this just before meeting them so that I have some ideas on what to discuss!
Finally, the above was all about the other person's work, but conversations are a two-way street and you'll spend at least half of your time talking about your own work (probably more if it's an interview). So be prepared to speak about your work concisely and in a way that will excite your audience! When you've spent countless hours on a project, you might be mostly thinking about the fine details. But to prepare, take a step back and think about the big picture. Start by motivating your line of work and then explain your specific contributions. This is important when talking to both experts in your area as well as non-expert interviewers. Of course, you may want to change your approach based on the audience. Extra bonus points (i.e. don't worry too much about it, but if you think of something then great) if you can draw an analogy between your work and the other person's work (but warning: make sure you're right!)

Hi everyone,
I am starting this thread to those applicants that haven't gotten any interview yet, what are your plans for next year? 
Anyone like me is re-applying for the next round? What are your guys doing to improve your application?
Feel free to share anything here about your application and thoughts on why you didn't pass we are all on the same boat guys
 

Why it means so much:
I am an international student, here in Brazil we don't have the insfrastructure nor the personal to conduct the research we want. I have high hopes in the US I would be able to use the top notch research facilities to investigate neuroscience... But aparently I am not going to

Why it means so much:
I am an international student, here in Brazil we don't have the insfrastructure nor the personal to conduct the research we want. I have high hopes in the US I would be able to use the top notch research facilities to investigate neuroscience... But aparently I am not going to

Why it means so much:
I am an international student, here in Brazil we don't have the insfrastructure nor the personal to conduct the research we want. I have high hopes in the US I would be able to use the top notch research facilities to investigate neuroscience... But aparently I am not going to

Such a inspiring story!! I do hope you get your interview invites!! And even if you don't you will find a way of helping people the way you want! Cheering for you

Thank you! I feel similarly! I applied to UCCS, Wyoming, NIU and Birmingham. All of these schools are within my range (or so I thought) GRE scores are V 161 (88%) Q 154 (55%) W 4.5 (82%) and subject 700 (76%). I have my Master's (GPA 3.7) and my undergraduate GPA was like a 3.8. I really want these programs because they are trauma based. I presently work in crisis response (I've been WAY too distracted these past 2 days) and many of our clients are trauma victims. I want to help them but feel I lack the knowledge and experience to do so. I know I have the potential to be a great therapist and I WILL contribute to the field in a big way. I just need a chance, a foot in to door. I see others are getting interview invites from UCCS and Wyoming already (my top 2 schools) and I've heard nothing. I talk to my friends about it and they say "you can apply next year", I don't see how I will be better next year. I know it's not over, I know I haven't gotten a rejection but my refresh button on my email has been pressed so much it'd be hilarious if it weren't for the crippling self doubt. Do you think UCCS and Wyoming are done handing out interview invites or that I even have a chance? I welcome your honesty here!!!

Why it means so much:
I am an international student, here in Brazil we don't have the insfrastructure nor the personal to conduct the research we want. I have high hopes in the US I would be able to use the top notch research facilities to investigate neuroscience... But aparently I am not going to

Totally in, have been incredibly frustrated with everything. I do believe talking about it would help, so count on me

Why it means so much:
I am an international student, here in Brazil we don't have the insfrastructure nor the personal to conduct the research we want. I have high hopes in the US I would be able to use the top notch research facilities to investigate neuroscience... But aparently I am not going to

Totally in, have been incredibly frustrated with everything. I do believe talking about it would help, so count on me

People always urge others to find hobbies or things to keep them busy as they wait for their admissions results BUT what if we treated the process like therapy and talked about??? What if you were allowed to get those thoughts out? Maybe you’d be less inclined to think about it every 10 min (if you’re anything like me, my friends and family are TIRED of talking about it w/me). I say we give it a try and make a thread dedicated to talking about what schools we want to get into, why, why it *MEANS* so much, our worries, or really whatever comes to mind during the application process...shamelessly(I can think of a million times where I held back on a thread b/c I was scared my emotions were overkill lol).  Anybody???

Hey everyone, best of luck with interviews and the whole admissions process. I know this is a very stressful time, but remember that you have worked hard to be where you are now and that hard work will pay off. 
If you don't get an interview at your dream school, don't worry about it. I know plenty of people who ended up at a school other than their top choice and a year or so in they are loving it. Everything will work out, and at the end of the day, it's all about how hard you work. If you're going to be a good scientist, then you're going to be a good scientist, regardless of where you do your PhD. I know people who get Nature papers at lower tier schools and people who never publish at Harvard. It's up to you to make the most out of your experience wherever you end up, so go nail your interviews regardless of the program and be the great scientist you know you can be. 
Good luck everyone! 

I know the feels! This is the second time I am applying as well! Worked a lot harder to improve my CV, but I am constantly worried about my grades. Let's see how it goes this time!! Hopw we will be able to cope with anxiety until then!