crackademik

To be fair, since you're already accepted, you can wear anything you want and it isn't going to change anything. I think what you were planning on wearing is fine though   Usually the only time it's necessary to wear business casual is if 1. they explicitly tell you to or 2. you're interviewing prior to acceptance. At accepted students weekend, I've seen everything from someone wearing ratty sweatpants to a prom tux (yes with vest and all it was ridiculous). Congrats on your acceptance!! 

I'm in the exact same boat. I absolutely love the school I'm going to be attending but I still haven't heard from two schools. I have this internal conflict of "was my application so bad I'm not even worth a rejection?" and "this school is crap for being disorganized". I spent a lot of time on one of the applications (more than the rest) for one of these schools. I even wrote an additional essay to give the admissions committee a better picture of my background. I've emailed and called both schools multiple times and they've done the equivalent of giving me the bitch button. It's so unbelievably frustrating. 

That is very unusual. I had 3 interviews and none of them ever asked detailed questions regarding my areas of interest. I've also never heard of this happening. When you say you proposed your own topic, do you mean that you did so in your SOP or at the beginning of the interview? 

I'm in the exact same boat. I absolutely love the school I'm going to be attending but I still haven't heard from two schools. I have this internal conflict of "was my application so bad I'm not even worth a rejection?" and "this school is crap for being disorganized". I spent a lot of time on one of the applications (more than the rest) for one of these schools. I even wrote an additional essay to give the admissions committee a better picture of my background. I've emailed and called both schools multiple times and they've done the equivalent of giving me the bitch button. It's so unbelievably frustrating. 

Finally, I got off waitlist at Emory!!
I was notified to be waitlisted for the interview in January. Yesterday, I was invited for an interview and today I got an admissions offer. Please, dont give up-there are more 4days until April15

Here is a list of things (gathered from personal observation throughout my own application process) that you can do to stand out:
1. If you can afford it, take graduate level courses  at a nearby university in chemistry or biochemistry (it's better to do them at a different school than the one you went to for undergrad) It's especially good to do this in the subfield of chemistry that you are looking to do. 
2. It will definitely help to get that research position. Even if you can get a job in industry, it would help. You may also find the added bonus of getting a third recommender by going this route.
3. Have some career goals that are well described in your SOP. and how grad school will help you achieve them. Admissions committee look for people who are going to grad for a reason, not because they don't know what else to do to kill time until they become a real adult. No one really knows what they ultimately want to do, but having a sense will go a long way in the admissions process. Try to avoid cookie cutter things like "I want to do synthesis because that's what I did in my undergrad research". 
4. Try to contact your POI ahead of when you submit your application. Never underestimate the power of human interaction and networking. If you are going to a conference, try to talk to the POI at that conference. 
5. Get involved. Join ACS if you're not already a member. Go to local meetings. Ideally if you get a job, they will pay for you to do this. 
Hope this helps!
Edit: Getting a Masters is an incredible investment that allowed admissions committees to overlook my low undergraduate GPA. Getting a masters also means that you will not need as much time (generally speaking) to complete your phD

Well unless you are certain that you will get funding from Oxford, I would immediately remove that from your list when you have other fully funded options. The other two are in two different countries so if you've decided that the research, reputation, and quality of people are the same, I would make the decision based on what country you would like to spend time in. 

Well that's the other thing. If you're working at a school where you're teaching kids an actual vocation that will require them to venture out in the real world and get a job, then you should be capable of returning an email in a timely fashion. I can't think of a business where that won't be important.  Answering emails, even ones that have to negotiate difficult subjects, and doing it in a timely and professional manner, is way up there on the necessary skill sets list for life in 2019, whether you want to work in Pharma or on Wall Street or make and sell your own homemade kombucha.   If you're a philosophy professor who is training students to sit in a windowless room reading Kant, and smelling their own farts, I might cut you some slack, if not you should do a bit better.  
That's some steam blown off. And now I'll take a deep breath and remind myself to be more generous. There, that's better.

I feel this on a spiritual level. I've had my fair share of roommate drama from a low-key drug dealer (who was the son of the landlord) to a friend who ended up stealing over 400$ from me. I've had roommates from off of craigslist and ones that I've known well before, and it never has worked out well. Even when I didn't have crazy roommates, I've definitely experienced passive aggression from "leaving bread crumbs on the counter" per se. I've also had the opposite side of spectrum where I've found myself scrubbing slime off of my roommate's george foreman to mitigate the foul stench of the kitchen. 
Even if you screen your roommate there are plenty of other things that can go wrong. From my own experience, I notice that landlords who rent multiple rooms to college kids tend to be sketchier than those renting apartments (obviously there are exceptions). For example, I had a landlord who didn't screen potential tenants prior to visiting the house, so it ended up getting burglarized by criminals who scoped it out and used fake emails and names. I've also had landlords who have refused to fix things or deal with pests. I've had a much better experience with renting my own apartment from a reputable company. 
TL;DR screen screen screen the roommate if you can't afford to live alone 
If you can't live alone for financial reasons, living with a significant other is a good option if you're at that point in the relationship. 

Secure a job that is best fitted for what you will be doing your grad school work in.  Application committees will want to know what you've been doing all the time since UG and if you've been just following money, (unless you're a wallstreet or business capitalist) chances are they won't find those as hiring skills.  Do what you enjoy, but also consider what your two years will look like on an application to grad school

To be fair, since you're already accepted, you can wear anything you want and it isn't going to change anything. I think what you were planning on wearing is fine though   Usually the only time it's necessary to wear business casual is if 1. they explicitly tell you to or 2. you're interviewing prior to acceptance. At accepted students weekend, I've seen everything from someone wearing ratty sweatpants to a prom tux (yes with vest and all it was ridiculous). Congrats on your acceptance!! 

Mmmmmm this is what I was a little bit worried about. That is how my MA program handled their acceptances - one prof even paternalistically told me "if we know a student has a good adoptive parent [school] we let our kids go and select someone else who doesn't." I got a heads up that someone was going to reject their offer to the school where I'm waitlisted a few weeks ago, so I'm guessing they are now choosing who to select in their place now. Just not sure how to navigate this one.

Hey I'm in the same boat.  15 apps, 4 waitlists, no acceptances. I predict we will be accepted from a waitlist on April 7.
@crackademik Try not to worry It will all be over soon! I don't like uncertainty that much either.

I also had an F on my transcript in a course unrelated to my major that I didn't address. I was in a motorcycle accident and withdrew that semester and the professor refused to allow me to submit work to change the incomplete once I resumed classes, which caused a default F. If I were you, I would not address it unless they ask you first because honestly I really doubt they will. Let the improvement in your transcript speak for itself because it will. 

From my own experience, secretaries does not much about waitlists. I guess, they are kind of "connectors" between admissions commitee and students. Try to email program director. 
P.S. I do envy you. In a positive way, of course  You have several admits and worrying about waitlist. Unfortunately, I have no admits at all and have just three waitlists:(

Depends a lot on school and field and the habits of the director of graduate admissions.
It would also be sensible to e-mail the director of graduate admissions at the institution where you are waitlisted and ask them if they typically admit students from the waitlist, and/or when you are likely to hear back (this is early April for most places). You might also ask if the waitlist is ranked and if so what place you are on it. Obvously, top people on the waitlist have a much higher chance than someone further down.
Also of course check the acepted students page on this website for previous yrs waitlist reults
 

To be fair, since you're already accepted, you can wear anything you want and it isn't going to change anything. I think what you were planning on wearing is fine though   Usually the only time it's necessary to wear business casual is if 1. they explicitly tell you to or 2. you're interviewing prior to acceptance. At accepted students weekend, I've seen everything from someone wearing ratty sweatpants to a prom tux (yes with vest and all it was ridiculous). Congrats on your acceptance!! 

This is a bit of an outlier in terms of your tech startup.  I don't believe tech startups are really the field you got your degrees in.  That's more of an ambition thing.  But, correct me if I'm wrong.

The answer is simple: D.C. will require you to breath the same air as the likes of Donald "Why Don't People Worship Me?" Trump and Philadelphia is a literal garbage fire of a city.  ?  Maybe it is a difficult answer after all.  Live in a garbage fire or near one.  ?  Real head scratcher.

I think people should stop insulting programs that they get rejected from, or get in to. If you get rejected and dis the school, it just comes off as desperate and immature. Even something like "accepted, waiting to hear back from better programs" come off as elitist, and can make someone feel like shit if that was their reach school. This might come off as overly sensitive, but the insecurity of grad school applicants is already sky high.

So I did make it in, but I also learned a lot about the process. I was (likely) rejected from every school I applied to before January, which was before I revamped my SOP, but then I had a lot of success after changing a few things. Here are some things I learned:
1. Like @Ternwild said, try not to make excuses for your short comings, ESPECIALLY if it requires you to go into detail about your personal life (unless the school specifically requests this). I had a graduate admissions committee member at a school look at my SOP and say the she was horrified by the personal information I had included. 
2. Remember that "safety" school is not a real concept when applying to Ph.D programs. I was convinced I was out of the game after being rejected from the lowest ranked school I applied to in early January. You can easily get into a top 20 and be rejected from a bottom 10 in the same cycle. This happens because each school has a very specific criteria, and because admission is also a lot of luck. This criteria can be based on what subfields they are looking to recruit in a given cycle, how many students in a given subfield they already have, personality, nepotism, and much more.
3. Write your SOP in a positive tone of voice. The last thing the admissions committee wants is a negative nelly who will likely flounder under the stress of a PhD program. Also, be sure to highlight your strengths without coming off conceited (I know this is difficult as I struggled with this). It can be difficult to be humble without underselling yourself. As hypocritical as it is, Arrogant professors don't want arrogant students. They want bench slaves who will be at their beck and call. 
4. CONTACT your POIs early in the process. This was one of my biggest shortcomings. It does not matter if they don't respond because at least it shows initiative. I have friends who were accepted at schools that I was rejected from simply because they became buddy buddy with their POI throughout the admissions process. It doesn't even have to be about their research necessarily. Any foot in the door is better than a cold application. Big schools get more than 800 applications, so they are more likely to keep applications from individuals who they have had personal contact with. Don't be afraid to use your connections to get into a school either if you have a coworker, boss, or PI that knows a PI at a given school. 
5. Graduate education and work experience matter more than undergraduate record in many cases. Almost every school overlooked my 2.5 undergraduate GPA because of my Masters and work experience. It doesn't necessarily even matter where you get your masters as long as you perform well and aren't applying to Harvard. 
6. TAILOR your SOP to each school even if that means slightly changing your interests and goals to a more attractive angle for the school. This alone got me into the best program I was accepted to. You can even go as far as proposing a prospective project with a specific professor. 
Hope this helps people for next cycle. There's a lot more I could say but then I'd need a TL;DR

I guess we don't have a lot of people who feel comfortable talking about their shortcomings for the sake of helping themselves or others from making the same mistake, I see. xD

It sounds like the only reason you want to go to Chicago is because of the city itself, which should not be the most important consideration when choosing a school. It seems like Georgia state has research that aligns with your interests (you didn't mention research interests when talking about the other 2 schools), AND it is the cheapest (seems like a double win to me). GW is in an extraordinarily expensive area in DC, so if you don't have good funding, you will be broke. I think you may also want to consider how much you like the environment of the program itself (i.e. are the professors psychos? Are the students cutthroat-competitive?) 
If you look at UChicago and LOVE the environment (professors, students) and it is a perfect match research-wise, then definitely go there. Otherwise you will be financially struggling for nothing and regret it. The other thing is that getting a masters at a given school does not guarantee phD admission to the same school, so that should not be a reason for consideration. 
All that being said, you say you want to go into academia, which means that pedigree matters.  
 

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. 
 

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.