XVIIA

Congrats! I'm down to deciding between my top two options, and UCSD is one of them! Maybe I'll see you next year.

I'm in a very similar position. I emailed the outstanding program and asked about timelines for the remaining applicants. They said that they admit people in waves, with another wave coming out before mid-April. I responded asking if they also sent out rejections in waves and whether they had a waitlist, mostly to try to gauge what my chances are/what it means to still be in the applicant pool. I'm still waiting for a response, but hopefully knowing whether the current applicant pool is more of a waitlist or if it includes everyone who hasn't been offered admission will at least give me a feel for my odds. I felt a bit bad, like I was bugging them with questions, but programs in my field overwhelmingly have mid-April decision deadlines. I figured that, by this point, reaching out for the first time to inquire is perfectly reasonable...

I'm married, and my husband and I are considering relocating the SD next year so that I can pursue my PhD at UCSD. I'm a bit older than the standard student, so my husband and I have been working in industry for several years. My husband would find a job in the SD area while I pursue my degree. I was offered SHORE, and it seems like a good deal compared to the standard rent in the area. The main draw of on-campus housing would be primarily taking advantage of the subsidized rent as well as avoiding purchasing a second car, extra flexibility for my working hours, etc. I know it's not uncommon for married grad students to live on campus, but what about "older" couples where one person isn't a student? Do people tend to have success with this arrangement? Or do most people in my situation tend to find that living off-campus works better? We plan on having children while I'm in my PhD, so living where at least one of us is very close to work and childcare would be helpful. I know parking on campus can be rough, but is this an issue at places like Mesa? How close are the closest grocery stores to campus housing?

I will have been married for 2 years when I start my PhD program in the fall. I've been a bit worried about fitting in, because on recruiting visits some of the others in my cohort seemed to treat me a bit differently after learning that I was married. I also got very tired of people acting surprised that my husband will be moving with me ("Oh, that's so awesome of him!"). A PhD in my field is a 5 to 6 year commitment, and I don't know many people who voluntarily choose long distance marriages if they can avoid it. I will be in my mid-30s by the time I complete my PhD, so my husband and I are likely going to have a kid by the time I'm done. I'm hoping I can connect with some older grad students/postdocs in addition to the primarily younger people in my cohort so I can have a variety of people to relate to.

I'm in a very similar position! It's starting to stress me out a bit! I keep thinking of Pros and Cons to each... it's going to be hard to turn down one of them, no matter what I decide. I haven't even heard from all of my programs yet, only the two that I've visited.

I feel you... I haven't even interviewed yet (I have two in the next 2 weeks) and the pessimist in me is already thinking about next year's application cycle.

I am a millennial, and I find memes obnoxious >90% of the time. And Fireball Whiskey. Ew.

I honestly didn't expect this waiting game to be as profoundly frustrating as it has been. Shortly after I submitted my applications, I got promoted into a new position that I currently enjoy. With such a strong Plan B, I figured I'd avoid a lot of the anxiety that comes with this waiting game... Nope. The uncertainty is starting to eat me alive. Only 2 of my programs have required interviews, and I found out about them in early January. The interviews aren't until March. At the time, I felt pretty good about my chances in the remaining programs. Since then, I've heard back from exactly 0 of those outstanding, non-interview programs. I've sat in limbo, watching each week pass, watching acceptances AND rejections show up on the results pages for most of the programs, hearing absolutely nothing. Every week that passes comes with lower odds of admission, so with each passing week my anxiety, disappointment, and frustration builds and builds. It gets harder and harder to keep my plans hidden from my managers at work. I'm stuck in this awful pit of uncertainty, now I've begun to stress about my interviews because I'm forced to face the music that the radio silence likely means I'm not a top candidate for ANY of my other programs. It's truly borderline cruel that these programs shroud their admissions with such mystery. I had to ask current grad students to figure out if my programs even HAD interviews, because the websites were so cryptic about the process. There's absolutely nothing out there about when we can typically expect to hear, or HOW we can expect to hear. Nothing on any of my portals to suggest where my application is in the process. Am I waitlisted? Will they notify me if I am or wait until they have a formal decision? Who knows, the websites/portals certainly don't answer any of those questions...

I'm glad this board exists! For a lot of my life, I've felt sort of isolated, never quite fitting in. I've spent a lot of time being torn between feeling proud and excited by all of these "white-color experiences" I was getting to live, guilty that my parents made so many sacrifices to get me there and will never experience it themselves, and a bit resentful for how my peers seemed to just cruise into things. Don't get me wrong, my peers definitely worked hard and I don't doubt that most of them deserved all of the success they've achieved. But it's hard to be struggling to find an internship during undergrad and then watching how easily some of my friends got internships at their uncle's company or by having their family friend who works at a good company put in a good word for them. I had never met a single person who worked in the industry I wanted to pursue prior to my first internship, and it was sometimes a bit of a battle to not be jealous of my friends and their many useful connections. I've been out of school for a number of years now, and I've found that many of the same experiences apply in the white-color workforce. I'm sure that this is something I will continue to face as I return to pursue more education... Thank you to @Blurry for posting the links to those books! I ended up meeting my husband during my undergrad, and he grew up quite privileged. He's been wonderful, open minded, and tries to be understanding of my roots, which I am so grateful for, but often times, he struggles to truly comprehend how it feels to be torn between your past and your present/future like this. I'm looking forward to reading them myself, and possibly sharing them with him to continue to broaden his perspective.

From back when I was applying for fairly prestigious schools for undergrad, I was always encouraged to avoid disclosing the other schools I was applying to. I was told that some elite programs might waitlist you if they think that you will have other offers from competitive programs because they want to buff up their statistics on matriculation and that less "competitive" programs might assume you will treat them as a safety school. Not sure how true that actually is, but I had been wondering if there are similar concerns with graduate programs? If asked this in an interview, though, I'm planning on answering honestly. Hopefully by the time I've been able to talk face-to-face with those in the department it should be evident how serious my interest in the program is.

I had a dream that an interview I have scheduled in March got moved up to this week! I woke up panicking that I would have barely any time to prepare! I have a bad feeling that this is just the start of the anxiety dreams...

That's great news! I'm still waiting to hear from them. Also, congratulations!

My research interests and academic background overlap with BioE programs as well, and I applied to a mix of both. I have a couple of interview invitations from programs outside of ChemE, so I heard back from them really early. It's making waiting for my ChemE decisions really frustrating. I haven't heard anything from any of the ChemE programs though, which I'm starting to think is not a good sign...

Yeah. Northwestern seems to admit/reject in large waves... I'm just hoping for another wave of acceptances, preferably soon! Where else did you apply?

I hope so. I'm also tired of waiting! I'm trying to find comfort in the fact that they seem to be sending out rejections lately, so every day that passes that I don't receive a rejection is at least a reasonably good day.

I've been lurking for awhile, but decided to finally setup an account in order to (hopefully) settle some of my anxiety. I applied to the ChemE PhD programs at Northwestern and Johns Hopkins. I've noticed that there have been results reported for both, but the status of both of my application still says "Submitted". The apps are marked as completed, but since decisions are coming out, I'm nervous that they should say "In Review" or "Pending decision" or something... Is this normal for these programs? Is there anyone else whose applications are still just "submitted" even though decisions have been coming out?