CandideCoating

I'm so confused about this stipend business. If we have to pay taxes on it, because we are 'employees' of the school, then why is it considered 'aid' for calculating your "estimated financial aid"? It isn't aid - it is work.

Hi, I got an offer of admission and I'm still trying to understand the answer to this question. So if the school says their cost of attendance is $27,000 and they're waiving $6,000 worth of tuition - is the maximum PLUS loan $21,000? Or, since they're offering a teaching assistantship, which is a job, right? of $14,000/year is the maximum PLUS loan only $7,000? I tried talking to the loan officer at the school financial aid office, but they didn't seem to follow the question.

After 3 rejections. I just got an offer from my backup school. BUT it only comes with a partial tuition waiver. (79%). I'm hardpressed to turn down my only offer, but I'm also unsure if I can fund that. Tough decisions ahead. Guess all the GRE prep will pay off for the much math I have to do now. LOL.

I have managed to move into a zen place where I don't care anymore. I didn't even check gradcafe yesterday, a first in weeks. I have 2 decisions left to hear official responses from and I firmed up my backup plan. If I decide to reapply it will very likely not be next year. This was a very weird emotional rollercoaster. I genuinely grieved for my lifelong dream when the results were (admittedly surprising) rejections. But all I can do is all I've ever done, take this in stride and keep on keeping on at being my awesome self. I wish you some goodwill and some perspective. It has been said tritely by several already accepteds, but we are more than our applications and we are more than our rejections. Academia is elitist and expensive and their not wanting what we have to offer says a lot more about them than it does about us. Feel welcome to PM me if you want to chat further and keep your head up!

This has really been helping me get through. My dream program hasn't told me anything yet. They sent out about 13 acceptances, but I have to take the silence as not a no. There will be a waitlist and there will be an answer in the future (I did call, not identify myself, and ask when they expect to notify people and they said everyone should hear something by mid-February). But holding on to "this could still happen" has been pretty crucial.

Google news was alerting Dave, and presumably every other human on the eastern seaboard, that a spaceship the size of Manhattan had landed in the Atlantic ocean, just off the shore of Cape Cod. Upon reaching the other room, he screamed incredulously to his roommate Sylvia, "have you seen this?!"

I got a generic rejection letter from Emory on Tuesday. My other two schools are UNC Chapel Hill and UT Austin. Both have 8 admits to the program each on the results page. Congrats to all the happy admits. But I feel like that's a big no for me. Total despair has set in. I scored in the 160s on both quant and verbal, and had strong recs. I don't know what I could do to improve my portfolio so I really don't see myself applying again. This throws a huge wrench in my life plan, and at 33, that's a not great feeling. I'm trying so desperately to hold out hope that they haven't sent me a no yet but 8 admits is quite a few....

Here's some happy little trees to carry us all through

Nothing I do really fills the void of this limbo period any more. I can play all the Gran Turismo in the world, paint a dozen Bob Ross pictures, spend hours at the gym, but my mind is always on whether there's been any news, and my eyes are always on my phone waiting for that blinking notification light. I feel like I'm going crazy.

I submitted my last app on Dec. 15. I thought then "6 weeks of waiting is going to kill me". I also thought then, based on previous years survey results for my schools, that I would have heard from all of them starting around 1/15 and all of them for sure by say 1/26. This last week has been killer. I feel like I'm in actual purgatory. I don't know what is happening with my life. I just want to know. Every second of every day I'm like "this could be the moment" but hanging on the edge like this for weeks is terrible on my nerves, my job performance, my relationships, my sleeping and eating habits, just all around terrible. Add to the waiting the anxiety that they might all be rejections that I'm waiting for and I just feel crushed and unable to put myself together. I have never felt like I have this little control of my life before ever. I'm very thankful for this forum as a place to commiserate and see others facing the same struggles. Gaahhhh, just tell me already!!!

Yep. Basically every person in my life is like "have you heard anything" and I'm like it could be any second, and day now; I'm holding my phone....lol

Someone posted that they were accepted to Harvard in intramural underwater basket weaving for phd. How is this helpful? Why would this person post this?

That UNC acceptance is breaking my little heart right now. The fit for me at that department is magic. I want it so bad I can literally taste it. Congrats to the person accepted - take some breaths!

OMG same! I'm having some...tumult in my work life (I'm sure it will be fine but it is stressful nonetheless) and all I think about is these apps. One of my schools says they do an interview weekend in "early February". It is far to travel and I'm employed so further notice would be better, so I've got myself convinced they have to be sending interview offers soon. I've never felt so in limbo. Of course as I'm seeing other applicants, both in and out of our field, say they wished they had added more 'safety schools' I freak out a little more each day.

I'm social movements too! I just started doing The Joy of Painting with Bob Ross and joined a gym.

I was not prepared for how much this is freaking me out. I applied there. No word yet. Site still says under review. Gahhhh.

Enough that on January 24th if I still haven't heard anything I might just die. LOL.

Same - going mostly crazy, at my 40/hr computer based job where I check GradCafe 2-5 times a day. I try to stay off of the school application pages (one of them changed statuses today and I almost fainted - all it says is it has been forwarded to the committee for review). I'm definitely working out more, trying to save money to relocate for grad school, trying to work on my hobbies a little - but mostly failing. I spend a lot of time just fantasizing about the future. I have been trying to formulate a Plan B lately, but I want to believe that that is a waste of mental energy. It is going to be a tough 25 days.

I thought it was funny that in the description is said jobs not for 'commanders' are mid-level administrative jobs with no power - that's what I do, lol. Commander, or ENTJ, certainly has strengths that are benefits, but they come with a lack of empathy, or social intuition that can be somewhat of a handicap. I'm working on it. It certainly does help me achieve at academia, so hopefully the admit committees will see that ;-)

ENTJ-T "commander"

Exactly - I only applied to three schools, so I'm doing the same freak out everyone is where I vacillate between certainty that it will be all rejections to certainty that they'll all accept me. Based on the results page from previous years I shouldn't expect anything from 2 until 1/24 and 1 until "mid-January" but I'm still every day like "maybe today".....ugh, I wish I could put it out of my mind entirely, but it is...my entire future on the line, no big deal, right lol. Reading other people stressing makes it a little easier to calm myself. I'm just trying to keep busy with hobbies and hope the time will pass quicker if I'm happy.

Submitted to UNC-Chapel Hill, UT-Austin and Emory. I feel pretty confident - the fit is strong at all of them, I have non-academic work experience in the sub-field I'm interested in (social movements) and my scores and recs were good. I have to just stay calm and confident - I am so ready for this to be my next step. Everyone's long lists makes me wish I had felt the fit as strongly at more schools, but my advisor told me not to apply anywhere I wouldn't be super-thrilled to spend 5 years. Good luck to everyone.

Hi all, Longtime lurker, first time posting. I just finished sending off all of my applications last week, I'm hoping to get into a PhD program in Sociology with a full tuition waiver and a stipend offer (who isn't, right?). Even with those generous offers I will likely have to take out a PLUS loan to support myself and my partner through this process. I am wondering something about the language - it says you can take out up to what the school lists as your "cost of attendance." Most of my schools put cost of attendance for an out of state candidate like myself around $50K. When they report this number to the federal government, or the loan originator, I've read here that they will reduce it by the cost of tuition, since that's being waived for me. What I can't seem to find a clear answer on is will they reduce the number by the amount of my stipend as well? Hypothetical math here - for example, if School A lists total cost of attendance at $55,000, of which $15,000 is tuition, and they offered a $24,000/yr stipend, would the maximum grad PLUS loan available per year at that school be $40,000? Or $16,000? (That's a big difference). Thanks for any light you can shed on this issue, I'd like to bring as much research and knowledge to the table ahead of time once the offers start rolling in and I have to make life decisions.