gls2814

I got rejected from UCSD on a lovely Saturday morning

Hi! My scores were 162V/154Q/5.5AW. I also applied to NYU and Penn. I haven't heard anything from NYU yet, but I got an interview with Penn (which went horribly but that's another story). I don't think a lot of weight is given to GRE scores, especially in the humanities and some of the social sciences. I saw another user on here say that they are mainly used for screening apps. 

I plan on staying on campus. I lived at home for undergrad and my post bacc classes so I’m looking forward to staying on campus and immersing myself in the college experience. I also plan on finding an on campus job I can do around classes and clinical hours. Yeah it’ll be more expensive but for me it’ll help me focus. I noticed that when i’d sleep over at my friend’s dorm during undergrad. No matter what I’d have roomates and this way I can get to KNOW a group of people before I move off campus with them if I don’t end up in a single room.

I know this question is a few months old, but still going to answer in case someone finds it useful. I went to Columbia for graduate school; for three years I lived in off-campus housing in Washington Heights and then for three years I lived in campus housing in Morningside Heights.
Morningside Heights is very much dominated by Columbia - there's a 10-block radius from 110th St to 120th St, between Broadway and Morningside Dr (and, to a certain extent, extending to Riverside Dr) that feels like Columbia's campus/neighborhood. I am a woman and I always joked that I've walked outside in Morningside Heights every one of the 24 hours of the day, and I never felt unsafe. Public Safety is very good, and I got to know some of the officers and infrastructure at Columbia and I always felt completely equipped to reach out if I needed help from campus police. I never had to, though (not for myself...I worked in student services.). Actually, because I worked in student services I actually had exposure to the sorts of incidents that happen around Columbia's campus, and there's virtually never any violent crime against Columbia affiliates. I walked home from lab (or the libraries) late all the time.
Living in grad student housing, IMO, is the way to go. You'd be hard-pressed to find an apartment anywhere in the city for the same price you can get it through Columbia, and if you can, it's likely further away than the grad student housing. I lived and attended school there from 2008-2014, so likely some things have changed, but for context: I split a 2-bedroom with one other person for $1850 a month on 172nd St. and Haven Ave., in Washington Heights, four blocks away from the Columbia University Medical Center and about a 20-minute subway ride to the main Columbia campus in Morningside Heights. (I was a dual PhD student - 50% public health at CUMC, 50% psychology at the main campus). We each paid $925, and it was a pretty decent-sized apartment by New York standards. Later, I moved into a Columbia graduate housing two-room studio (bedroom, bathroom, and another room that had the kitchen in it but also our desk) with my husband, who attended GS, on 119th and Amsterdam. I'd guess it was around 600 sqft? If that? We paid $1400/month for it. There is no way in hell you'd find a studio in Morningside Heights for that price. Both were in walking distance to a ton of restaurants, grocery stores, bars, and other amenities, and had two subway stops in close reach. 
When I was living there 5-6 years ago, the prices in Inwood and Washington Heights were rising but were pretty much the only neighborhoods left in Manhattan where you could expect to find prices comparable to Columbia's graduate housing (perhaps with the exception of some parts of Harlem, like East Harlem and Hamilton Heights). Otherwise, you were kind of stuck either going into the Bronx (which very few Columbia students do) or into Brooklyn (which more do, but you have to go pretty far out into Brooklyn to get something affordable these days. Which is baffling in and of itself - my mom grew up in Brooklyn in the 60s and 70s, and she's baffled that anyone wants to live there now, lol). There are also some further neighborhoods in Queens that might be more affordable...but they're going to be relatively deep into Queens.

Speaking as a US citizen in one of the hotspot cities right now: I think that there is next to no chance admissions offers are rescinded to international students. At worst they will probably give you an extended deadline to decide whether to defer or not. 
 
BUT look at wuhan: things there are stabilizing and the number of daily new cases are decreasing. At worst this lasts for a few months in the US. Many public officials are saying if we can properly institute testing, social distancing, and other measures, the outbreak should be on the downswing by may. I do not think it is plausible that graduate school classes will be online in the fall due to the outbreak. If by some chance I'm wrong, I strongly believe that grad schools will be accommodating with deferments. But I see that as an incredibly unlikely scenario.

Have a visit weekend coming up and was given the schedule. Have like 4 individual meetings with faculty, only one of which was a listed POI. What exactly are the expectations of these meetings? Should I assume that I was given these meetings because the program sees some parallel between that faculty and my own research? (I've checked and I don't see much alignment) Should I know these faculties work and background? 

Hi! My scores were 162V/154Q/5.5AW. I also applied to NYU and Penn. I haven't heard anything from NYU yet, but I got an interview with Penn (which went horribly but that's another story). I don't think a lot of weight is given to GRE scores, especially in the humanities and some of the social sciences. I saw another user on here say that they are mainly used for screening apps. 

Am I the only one who is reading this "Stupid enough for NYC?" Which funny enough could mean the same as "Stipend enough for NYC?" even though I guess the answers have shown that it's not...

Friends, 
 
I wish you all the best. May you remember that your value is not determined by any acceptance or rejection. I accepted my admission into BC this morning. This forum has been a place of solidarity during this grueling process. See you all around the guild. 

I'm not sure what type of writing you do in your program or what sort of help you need but have found these books very helpful:
How to Write a Lot by Paul J. Silvia
The Glamour of Grammar by Roy Peter Clark
Writing Empirical Research Reports by Fred Pyrczak

Hello,
I am starting to feel overwhelmed (end of my first semester as a PhD student). I have two papers to write. I have a book chapter to turn in as a co-author (I was invited to contribute to a book that's exactly related to my doctoral work, I could not say no). I also have my research assistantship.
 

 

Your first year in a PhD program can be tough, particularly with everything new being presented to you. I’ve found that if I focus on my passion for my research, I feel a lot better. It’s also great to have friends outside of grad school who can remind you how awesome and difficult what you’re doing is. I still remember telling my friend (who had never even considered going to grad school) that I was helping write a chapter for a book. She freaked out about how cool that seemed because it is something so unusual to a lot of people outside of academia. That instantly made me feel so much better! 

They emailed this morning my guy! I got in!!!!!!!!!! I can't believe it! I'm waiting for them to take it back

They emailed this morning my guy! I got in!!!!!!!!!! I can't believe it! I'm waiting for them to take it back

They emailed this morning my guy! I got in!!!!!!!!!! I can't believe it! I'm waiting for them to take it back

They emailed this morning my guy! I got in!!!!!!!!!! I can't believe it! I'm waiting for them to take it back

I applied to 2 Religious Studies programs for North American religions and I got one interview with Columbia. They did not ask me at all about my Writing Sample. It was a very informal-seeming interview. They definitely ask you about the proposal, and even some logistical aspects of it that you might not have thought about before (I know I hadn't). I definitely think they are looking to connect your future research to where you are currently. I found it helpful to reference my writing sample even though they didn't bring it up because it helps to show that you've done related work and that you have the ability to do what you proposed. 

So I applied for a doctorate at a school. They replied that although they could not admit me for the PhD program, they would like to offer me admission to the Masters program and recommend to the GSAS that I be granted a merit-based scholarship. 
The professor said that GSAS will be sending me the details soon. 
I am seriously considering the MA at this school, but I also want to know how my other 8 applications play out. I've had interviews at schools I haven't heard from yet and which haven't sent out results. 
The email with the MA offer didn't have details about money or anything and he did say that GSAS would follow up soon. 
I truly have no clue how to proceed or respond to this professor/offer. He also CCed my POIs (the one who wrote me is not a POI of mine). 
How do I respond to keep this opportunity open while letting them know I'd like to wait for other decisions?

Hope is a dangerous thing, my friend.
But in all seriousness, thank you for this response! Do you have any insight into how interviews would work in a scenario like this? Like if you are waitlisted and they want to "call you up" (to use a baseball term), will they interview you or just accept you? 

Do programs over admit by a few students knowing some will likely decline their offer? Or If they intend to only accept X amount of students - will they do so and then waitlist a handful of other candidates? 
What happens when they have less or more students than expected? 
(I'm in the Humanities, but answers from the social sciences and STEM are welcome  ) 

Hi all.  I applied to 11 programs.  Just received three rejections in a row, one being my dream program (sadly, I had an interview with my POI at this program, too). Feeling heartbroken to say the least...
 
The silence is also driving me mad.  What makes it worse is that other applicants have reported interviews/invites at some of the other programs already.
 
Trying to remain positive, though... best to everyone.

Why do schools wait like this? I wish it was the opposite way around where they send out rejections first and acceptances after (this is probably not logistical; I am just venting). For example, UVA Religion has sent out at least 5 acceptances based on Grad Cafe. I haven't gotten the damn rejection yet and I would really like to have some closure. They're really out here keeping us in suspense for no reason. 
Fade me y'all

Do programs over admit by a few students knowing some will likely decline their offer? Or If they intend to only accept X amount of students - will they do so and then waitlist a handful of other candidates? 
What happens when they have less or more students than expected? 
(I'm in the Humanities, but answers from the social sciences and STEM are welcome  ) 
 

I'm struggling with the same thing. All four of the professors I asked for recommendations said that they expected me to have multiple offers, including my graduate advisor saying twice that he has "very high expectations" for my results. I know they meant well but it makes it feel way worse seeing admits roll in to the programs I applied to, with two rejections already. Feels like I'm disappointing them, too, not just myself.
Anyway these last few weeks have been absolutely brutal. Sending you all hope, strength, and solidarity.

I can tell you why they do this. (Insider info.) They only send rejection letters right away to those they flat-out would never accept. If you didn't get rejected yet, it means you're still in the pool. After the committees rank the candidates, they send offers to the top however many (say five). Then they wait to see who accepts and who rejects them. It's a two-way street, both applicants and programs are playing the waiting game and both get accepted and rejected.
So say offers go out to the top five. Of those one is still waiting for their #1 to accept them, so they hold off on committing to #2's offer. Two of them reject the offer because their #1's already accepted them. Now there are two open slots for the cohort and one tentative and two who haven't bothered to respond either way. The committee moves down the list and sends out two more offers. Then waits to see if those two accept or decline.
From having worked on the programs side of things for awhile, I've seen years where programs got their top five right away and didn't go deep into the list, and years where they had to go so deep into the list that they considered reopening applications to allow more people to apply late, so they'd have enough to choose from because they'd made offers to 22 people who declined for various reasons, only had 30 in the pool to begin with, and if the "current" top five assembled after making all those offers didn't all commit, they'd be "short" for the cohort.
In other words, the TL:DNR version is, if you haven't gotten rejected right away, you have a chance up until April 15th. Even if you aren't in the top five first-round, you ARE still of the quality necessary to be considered for admission. Does it really matter if you were on their list at #30, if you got IN?
Still, it sucks to wait.