1PhDplz

Just to let everyone know, it looks like MIT decisions are out!

You guys.... I won!! No joke! this is so wild!

No award or honorable mention, but I will be applying again to show them I mean business! Congrats to all of those that got the award or honorable mention!

No award or honorable mention, but I do have a great funding offer from my school still at the end of the day

I got the award!!! Wow, was absolutely not expecting to get it, just check out my post history to see how f***** hard of a time I've had adjusting to grad school this year. I know it's like 50% luck, but I'm so freaking relieved to have one fucking thing from this whole year that I did right. 

I got the award!!! Wow, was absolutely not expecting to get it, just check out my post history to see how f***** hard of a time I've had adjusting to grad school this year. I know it's like 50% luck, but I'm so freaking relieved to have one fucking thing from this whole year that I did right. 

I got the award!!! Wow, was absolutely not expecting to get it, just check out my post history to see how f***** hard of a time I've had adjusting to grad school this year. I know it's like 50% luck, but I'm so freaking relieved to have one fucking thing from this whole year that I did right. 

I just got the award!!!

I'll post my statements later, I'm so excited. I've worked so hard for this day and to finally get a big payoff like this is a huge relief. Almost makes the tragic story in my past worth it.

Honorable mention...Not getting it is painful, but i'm not alone and my work is still meaningful.
*Takes deep breaths
Congratulations to the awardees. Celebrate like there's no tomorrow!!!!

The way I look at it, no one is getting it because it's the freaking NSF-GRFP. We all put down amazing applications, though. It's a crap shoot! No need to freak out!

On a slightly different note:

Before my first semester started, I gave myself some time to get my living space well in order. Especially since I had moved across the country to start my program, I had a lot of work to do in terms of acquiring furniture, organizing all my belongings, etc. It was totally time well spent. My living space isn't large, but it's well-organized, functional, and beautiful; it's an optimal environment for getting work done and for relaxing at the end of the day. If you have the time and even a little money to invest in organizing/decorating your living space before school starts in the fall, I strongly encourage you to go for it.

I asked one of the ABD's in my department what she did to survive her first year. She said "I bought a good, comfortable reading chair and a very large bottle of vodka, and made good use of both."

It's weird to have not heard either about an acceptance or rejection from Stanford yet. 
Even though I probably won't be accepted, and I am ~85% sure I will attend another school I visited, it would be nice of them to at least send out a notification after paying $125 for the app fee :/

I emailed and they FINALLY told me this week that I don't have funding. I'd ask if I were you, they didn't seem bothered with me asking before the end of March at all. 

I emailed and they FINALLY told me this week that I don't have funding. I'd ask if I were you, they didn't seem bothered with me asking before the end of March at all. 

I saw a lot of structural engineering rejections today. I applied for MST (Transportation). I don't see any MST posts in the results page. A friend who also applied for that program told me that he received a waitlist email at noon, but I still got nothing... I don't even know what to expect now. I just want this to be over.

They sent out a decision email yesterday saying "The graduate admissions process for the 2018-19 academic year is now complete." (Didn't get in but not really surprised). At this late in the game, you never know, but I wouldn't expect anything. Best of luck!

Yea, I know what you mean. I turned down Georgia Tech, which is a higher ranked program. For me having gone to Michigan for undergrad and a masters I felt like Georgia Tech was a bit too much like Michigan, and not in a good way. I've gotten the sense that higher ranked schools like that get by on their ranking instead of actually giving students focused attention and support. I've even heard of poor experiences at programs like MIT and Stanford. These programs think, well you're already at a high ranked school what else do you want? At least that is how I felt at Michigan. No one really wanted to see me succeed during my graduate studies, they just wanted to take my money and leave me with minimal job prospects. Plus everyone was so competitive with each other. Definitely not what I am looking for, I want a more collaborative environment. But that's my personal preference based on my needs and goals, which is different for everyone. 
I also think the supervisor you have is one of the most important aspects of deciding where to do a Ph.D. You have to interact with this person for a long time. People keep telling me you have to be passionate about the research. If you don't like them or their research, it's going to be a tough 4-5 years. Not only that, but I also considered the connections the professor had for getting me potential internships and overall networking. 
Btw, I don't think Virginia Tech is a bad option at all. I thought of applying there and got shut down outright by a professor because my GPA was too low in undergrad, lol. No matter what, I think you'll be in a good place regardless of what you choose. Good luck!!!

What the grad students told me was that if you were admitted with the expectation of going from MS to PhD, a professor would have contacted you by now. When I said "Really? That's like the exact opposite of what we've been told all day" the current PhD students said that even though they've asked the professors and people in charge of admissions to be more honest and upfront about this, they just aren't. So they get a bunch of people to come for the unfunded masters because "people will pay for a masters from Stanford." I found this super dishonest. Honestly, just directly admit to PhD if that's the case. 
I emailed the graduate coordinator on Saturday asking if I'm being considered for funding or not (I was originally waiting until the end of march to be polite). My guess would be not since I haven't been contacted yet, but I'm checking because they did offer to reimburse some expenses from the visit day. I'll let post on here whatever I hear back. 
A few other negatives I got from the visit day:
-It  seems like funding is incredibly scarce in the department. I had one professor mention that it's not usual, but definitely possible, for your advisor to run out of funding for you, say during your last year as a PhD student. It kind of makes sense because when an advisor takes you on, they financially provide you the tuition and stipend money. But you'd think the university would wave your tuition so that each PhD student doesn't literally cost the advisor half a million dollars of grant money (not an exaggeration). 
-I heard a few other grad students say that their advisors are never around "because they're really important people." That might be true, but I'm looking for an advisor who has enough time to be a mentor, just not my cup of tea.
-The master will cost $99.7K and TA and RA positions are reserved for PhD candidates so that their advisors aren't paying tuition from their own grant money. I was told there is practically no possibility of getting TA or RA positions as a masters student.
-I got the feeling that MS students who do join in on the research groups (what they recommend you do to advance to the PhD) are pretty much free lab work (i.e. undergrads) and the likelihood of doing your own project is slim. I got this vibe from hearing some PhD students talk about MS students in the lab.
Positives:
-The program requirements are really flexible. The head of the department said you can even substitute the "mandatory" program requirements for whatever you want as long as you can make a reasonable appeal to your masters advisor.
-Most of the PhD students seemed to enjoy the program, they just really don't like how the department handles admissions and the whole MS thing.
 
My whole take on Stanford at the moment is a little jaded and I do realize that there are probably a million great things about the masters program and to be fair, one of the professors there started as a masters student with no funding at Stanford, so I guess transitioning to the PhD isn't impossible.
 

@fallfish I'm sure it's relieving to finally know where you're going! I'm jealous lol
 
I'm still somewhat undecided but heavily leaning towards VT for the opportunity to work with a particular professor. The other school I was seriously considering was Stanford but as people mentioned, I think there are some issues in the department that make me pretty uncomfortable. My only concern about choosing VT is I don't want to prevent myself from being able to land an awesome faculty job in the future by choosing a lesser ranked program. But I think I can do some really awesome work there so maybe it will balance out, idk. If it wasn't for that, I would probably accept already. It's the perfect research fit. 

@1PhDplz thanks for sharing that info and perspective. My brother went to Stanford for his MS in Env Eng fully funded + stipend (I think he hear back about funding kind of at the last minute, so don’t lose hope!) but this was back in 2007 or so, so I’m guessing things could have significantly changed (though he did mention it was soul sucking). My view on Stanford has also changed. It used to be my dream school but now I’m not sure, at least for the MS level. Nowadays as a married student, I’m more concerned about cost of living, relationships with and support from professors, and mental health, and have been seriously thinking about the consequences of the Stanford Duck Syndrome as a well. Your experience puts things into perspective for me, and I’m not as concerned about hearing back from th program. Will most likely accept my other offer.

What the grad students told me was that if you were admitted with the expectation of going from MS to PhD, a professor would have contacted you by now. When I said "Really? That's like the exact opposite of what we've been told all day" the current PhD students said that even though they've asked the professors and people in charge of admissions to be more honest and upfront about this, they just aren't. So they get a bunch of people to come for the unfunded masters because "people will pay for a masters from Stanford." I found this super dishonest. Honestly, just directly admit to PhD if that's the case. 
I emailed the graduate coordinator on Saturday asking if I'm being considered for funding or not (I was originally waiting until the end of march to be polite). My guess would be not since I haven't been contacted yet, but I'm checking because they did offer to reimburse some expenses from the visit day. I'll let post on here whatever I hear back. 
A few other negatives I got from the visit day:
-It  seems like funding is incredibly scarce in the department. I had one professor mention that it's not usual, but definitely possible, for your advisor to run out of funding for you, say during your last year as a PhD student. It kind of makes sense because when an advisor takes you on, they financially provide you the tuition and stipend money. But you'd think the university would wave your tuition so that each PhD student doesn't literally cost the advisor half a million dollars of grant money (not an exaggeration). 
-I heard a few other grad students say that their advisors are never around "because they're really important people." That might be true, but I'm looking for an advisor who has enough time to be a mentor, just not my cup of tea.
-The master will cost $99.7K and TA and RA positions are reserved for PhD candidates so that their advisors aren't paying tuition from their own grant money. I was told there is practically no possibility of getting TA or RA positions as a masters student.
-I got the feeling that MS students who do join in on the research groups (what they recommend you do to advance to the PhD) are pretty much free lab work (i.e. undergrads) and the likelihood of doing your own project is slim. I got this vibe from hearing some PhD students talk about MS students in the lab.
Positives:
-The program requirements are really flexible. The head of the department said you can even substitute the "mandatory" program requirements for whatever you want as long as you can make a reasonable appeal to your masters advisor.
-Most of the PhD students seemed to enjoy the program, they just really don't like how the department handles admissions and the whole MS thing.
 
My whole take on Stanford at the moment is a little jaded and I do realize that there are probably a million great things about the masters program and to be fair, one of the professors there started as a masters student with no funding at Stanford, so I guess transitioning to the PhD isn't impossible.
 

What the grad students told me was that if you were admitted with the expectation of going from MS to PhD, a professor would have contacted you by now. When I said "Really? That's like the exact opposite of what we've been told all day" the current PhD students said that even though they've asked the professors and people in charge of admissions to be more honest and upfront about this, they just aren't. So they get a bunch of people to come for the unfunded masters because "people will pay for a masters from Stanford." I found this super dishonest. Honestly, just directly admit to PhD if that's the case. 
I emailed the graduate coordinator on Saturday asking if I'm being considered for funding or not (I was originally waiting until the end of march to be polite). My guess would be not since I haven't been contacted yet, but I'm checking because they did offer to reimburse some expenses from the visit day. I'll let post on here whatever I hear back. 
A few other negatives I got from the visit day:
-It  seems like funding is incredibly scarce in the department. I had one professor mention that it's not usual, but definitely possible, for your advisor to run out of funding for you, say during your last year as a PhD student. It kind of makes sense because when an advisor takes you on, they financially provide you the tuition and stipend money. But you'd think the university would wave your tuition so that each PhD student doesn't literally cost the advisor half a million dollars of grant money (not an exaggeration). 
-I heard a few other grad students say that their advisors are never around "because they're really important people." That might be true, but I'm looking for an advisor who has enough time to be a mentor, just not my cup of tea.
-The master will cost $99.7K and TA and RA positions are reserved for PhD candidates so that their advisors aren't paying tuition from their own grant money. I was told there is practically no possibility of getting TA or RA positions as a masters student.
-I got the feeling that MS students who do join in on the research groups (what they recommend you do to advance to the PhD) are pretty much free lab work (i.e. undergrads) and the likelihood of doing your own project is slim. I got this vibe from hearing some PhD students talk about MS students in the lab.
Positives:
-The program requirements are really flexible. The head of the department said you can even substitute the "mandatory" program requirements for whatever you want as long as you can make a reasonable appeal to your masters advisor.
-Most of the PhD students seemed to enjoy the program, they just really don't like how the department handles admissions and the whole MS thing.
 
My whole take on Stanford at the moment is a little jaded and I do realize that there are probably a million great things about the masters program and to be fair, one of the professors there started as a masters student with no funding at Stanford, so I guess transitioning to the PhD isn't impossible.
 

What the grad students told me was that if you were admitted with the expectation of going from MS to PhD, a professor would have contacted you by now. When I said "Really? That's like the exact opposite of what we've been told all day" the current PhD students said that even though they've asked the professors and people in charge of admissions to be more honest and upfront about this, they just aren't. So they get a bunch of people to come for the unfunded masters because "people will pay for a masters from Stanford." I found this super dishonest. Honestly, just directly admit to PhD if that's the case. 
I emailed the graduate coordinator on Saturday asking if I'm being considered for funding or not (I was originally waiting until the end of march to be polite). My guess would be not since I haven't been contacted yet, but I'm checking because they did offer to reimburse some expenses from the visit day. I'll let post on here whatever I hear back. 
A few other negatives I got from the visit day:
-It  seems like funding is incredibly scarce in the department. I had one professor mention that it's not usual, but definitely possible, for your advisor to run out of funding for you, say during your last year as a PhD student. It kind of makes sense because when an advisor takes you on, they financially provide you the tuition and stipend money. But you'd think the university would wave your tuition so that each PhD student doesn't literally cost the advisor half a million dollars of grant money (not an exaggeration). 
-I heard a few other grad students say that their advisors are never around "because they're really important people." That might be true, but I'm looking for an advisor who has enough time to be a mentor, just not my cup of tea.
-The master will cost $99.7K and TA and RA positions are reserved for PhD candidates so that their advisors aren't paying tuition from their own grant money. I was told there is practically no possibility of getting TA or RA positions as a masters student.
-I got the feeling that MS students who do join in on the research groups (what they recommend you do to advance to the PhD) are pretty much free lab work (i.e. undergrads) and the likelihood of doing your own project is slim. I got this vibe from hearing some PhD students talk about MS students in the lab.
Positives:
-The program requirements are really flexible. The head of the department said you can even substitute the "mandatory" program requirements for whatever you want as long as you can make a reasonable appeal to your masters advisor.
-Most of the PhD students seemed to enjoy the program, they just really don't like how the department handles admissions and the whole MS thing.
 
My whole take on Stanford at the moment is a little jaded and I do realize that there are probably a million great things about the masters program and to be fair, one of the professors there started as a masters student with no funding at Stanford, so I guess transitioning to the PhD isn't impossible.
 

Was anyone else super disappointed in the Stanford visit day? I had professors telling me one thing about transitioning from MS to PhD and the grad students not just saying the opposite, but telling me the professors weren't being honest! Also, it was an 8 hour visit in one building. There wasn't even a campus tour for PhD applicants in EES and no one showed up to lead my lab tour!! 
I always thought I wanted to go to Stanford  (like, for the wholr duration of my undergrad), but not any more. At least this makes my grad school decision easier.

Was anyone else super disappointed in the Stanford visit day? I had professors telling me one thing about transitioning from MS to PhD and the grad students not just saying the opposite, but telling me the professors weren't being honest! Also, it was an 8 hour visit in one building. There wasn't even a campus tour for PhD applicants in EES and no one showed up to lead my lab tour!! 
I always thought I wanted to go to Stanford  (like, for the wholr duration of my undergrad), but not any more. At least this makes my grad school decision easier.