crackademik

Yes please also consider this! Usually there is 1 day that actually matters where you have interviews/meetings with different POIs. Try to plan it so that you are there at least on whatever day that is so you get the most out of the visit.

I agree with Bird Vision in that you probably burned this bridge already, but you could always say in your email that after further consideration you realized you can't financially pursue their program because of some turn of events (don't need to be specific). I am confident that everyone in academia understands that if you don't have the money, well that's just how life is sometimes. Sorry that this happened. As someone who is also incredibly impatient, I understand as I almost accepted my first offer thinking that I would not get another one, but luckily my mentor implored me to wait.

If you don't want to waste your time training in a job that is not going to help you develop skills for your future, then I would just put in your two weeks now (if you are financially secure). That way, you can spend your time doing something fun and productive (travel, learn a new language or skill, volunteer somewhere in your field) since you're about to be working yourself to death for the next 4+ years. If you need the money, then stay and act like you're not leaving until you put in your two weeks in June. I have been faced with this exact dilemma. I will be putting in my two weeks in late June.

Definitely do the split. I'm doing that next weekend actually. As long as you're polite and don't send an email that says "I'm not going to be here for X day because I'm at school Y's visiting weekend". Just tell them you have a prior commitment and leave it at that. I was also worried it would look bad, but no one seemed to care.

Flower power

I feel like a terrible person. My anxiety is at an all time high despite having gotten 3 funded offers from good schools. I don't know anyone else (in person) who is going through this process so they all think I'm a moron for being worried while having offers. I still have yet to hear back from 4 schools so I don't want to go ahead and accept an offer without knowing all of my options, but I know it's not polite to wait until late March to make the decision. I also don't want to accept an offer and then back out, which would be even worse. I still have not heard from my current top choice. My anxiety is so bad that it's affecting me at work and in school. I just want to be done and accept an offer so I can relax until the program starts. Also I agree with @TopofthemuffinTOYOU in that I'm definitely going to go on an application burning rampage if I get rejected from schools in April. It would be one thing if I was on a waitlist, but as far as I know, I'm not on a single one.

It’s not particularly common, but a few schools do it, which in theory is helpful when deciding where to put your money. I definitely think some schools bait and switch to make money of off application fees (even though it doesn’t seem practical). It’s pretty ridiculous considering it’s not really that much money. Let’s say a school has 700 applicants (which is pretty outrageous) that all pay 70$ for an app fee. That’s 49k, which is chump change for a chemistry program. That’s not even enough to buy a new mass spec or pay an additional faculty member. edit: the only motive I could see is if a sketchy admissions person is pocketing the fees if that’s even possible

At least it was a reach. I got rejected by the lowest tier school I applied to only two days after the deadline. This school had a preapplication to screen for qualified applicants, so I did it, and they told me to apply because I had a good chance of acceptance. It was the biggest waste of 70$ I’ve ever spent. I almost feel like they only told me I was qualified so they could take my money.

“Decline.pdf” ???? How original of them. I’m sorry ?

So I applied to GW with one of my LOR coming from a prestigious alum from that program AND an email to the department chair from my division chief at work (who is also an alum from this school) and I'm pretty certain I got rejected. I actually emailed the professor who interviewed me today, and let's just say the response was...not positive.

I wonder how many people are looking at this thread laughing

That is actual torture ? I'm one of those people who will freak out after just reading the subject line and first few words so I'd probably run around excited like I got accepted only to look further and be defeated.

Says the person who decides to flat out crap on a post for no reason. Different people cope with the anxiety of waiting differently. For me, allowing myself to only check my email during offer “peak hours” is a way to cope. As others have implied, maybe just don’t comment on a post that you think is useless?

UMD is already preparing to reject me tomorrow. It is evidently the status quo for them to change the portal status from "under departmental review" to "under graduate school review" about a day before they finalize decisions. Since I haven't gotten an unofficial acceptance from the department, I've probably been flat out rejected. Extra failure points because I offered to self-fund! Happy Valentine's Day to me. Edit: I'm a moron and got an offer letter right after this post

What about Purdue in 2017?

This is not exactly on topic with your discussion, but please don’t beat yourself up about not getting into your safety. My first rejection this cycle was my “ultra safety”, so I was then convinced I wasn’t going to get in anywhere. I was wrong. You are correct that the PhD admissions process is very different from undergrad. For example, a school that may have a high undergraduate acceptance rate may have also an incredibly low PhD acceptance rate. A PhD program at a given school generally has a completely different identity than its corresponding undergraduate school (unless it’s Harvard, MIT, Stanford). PhD admissions are a bit of a crapshoot and involve some luck as stated by others on this forum. Don’t be discouraged, as hard as it might be! You will get in somewhere based on your own merit (your GRE alone is competitive). Again, sorry this is off topic, but you deserve to be very proud of your accomplishments.

I’ve been curious about what time of day offers are generally sent. Mine have been sent in the afternoon between 2-5pm, but based on the results, it seems some people do get morning offers.

What an eloquent way to describe my current mood!

I had this exact same thought. I didn't get any results today and I said "man I hate friday's" out loud at work today. Everyone looked at me like I killed their puppy.

yup agreed. I still have no idea what the real motive was there.

Update: The school basically apologized and offered to pay for me to visit so yay!

Yeah you guys are right

As long as your grades are decent, this shouldn't hurt you, especially if all the classes are in similar fields. I have 5 different transcripts (early grades bad, later grades good), and have a few admits to some phD programs. I didn't mention this in my SOP nor did it come up in interviews. If you're applying to harvard then maybe they might take a second look, but otherwise you should be fine.

This is probably terrible advice, but here goes nothing. So I think you have every right to be offended. Regardless of the reason they should have the decency to tell you. It would be one thing if you were 1/700 applicants, but you're an employee. If you haven't already, I personally would ask people on the admissions committee why they rejected you/what you can improve on. Make sure to do this in person since it is generally harder to ignore someone to their face. Then, if they decide to write you up or fire you, that's when you can actually take legal action. Just make sure that you are polite and document everything.