brightorangesocks

Trying to respond to the post by ssv003 "I sincerely hope they don't take a peek at how many times I've gone to the portal to check..."
> This, 100%.  I'm sure most people are doing it so I wouldn't look too crazy, but oh man I check the portals way too much.

Sorry for the weird edit, I don't know why the quote disappeared when I actually posted.  

Rutgers University English, PhD (F19) Other via Website on 5 Mar 2019 ♦ A 5 Mar 2019 Meh...it's New Jersey.

Got the email yesterday that I've been accepted to Rutgers!!  They said to expect a notification from the graduate school in the next few days. 
It sounded like it just took them a while to get input from everyone on the admissions committee, so if you've applied there as well and haven't heard yet don't be too worried.
Best of luck to everyone else in this thread, given how close we're getting to April hopefully you'll hear in the next couple of weeks.

Generally speaking: stipends are income and are taxed accordingly.
Despite a close call involving shithead Republicans in congress, tuition waivers and scholarships used to pay for tuition are still tax free.

Got the email yesterday that I've been accepted to Rutgers!!  They said to expect a notification from the graduate school in the next few days. 
It sounded like it just took them a while to get input from everyone on the admissions committee, so if you've applied there as well and haven't heard yet don't be too worried.
Best of luck to everyone else in this thread, given how close we're getting to April hopefully you'll hear in the next couple of weeks.

Got the email yesterday that I've been accepted to Rutgers!!  They said to expect a notification from the graduate school in the next few days. 
It sounded like it just took them a while to get input from everyone on the admissions committee, so if you've applied there as well and haven't heard yet don't be too worried.
Best of luck to everyone else in this thread, given how close we're getting to April hopefully you'll hear in the next couple of weeks.

It's actually really comforting to hear that Rutgers (Atmospheric Science) isn't the only school that hasn't sent out any decisions yet.  I've been told informally that I'll be accepted and they're trying to secure funding, but I don't think I'll really relax until I get the letter in the mail!

It seems like some schools are just running pretty late this year.  FWIW with Rutgers I've also called the university's graduate admissions office a couple of times in the last few weeks to see if my program has sent out any decisions at all yet, and they've confirmed that no one has heard.  It's been a good way to keep an eye on the status of things without bothering my POI/department.

One of my professors gave me an awesome little precis template to fill out for each title I do for exams. It consists of:
Title, author, publishing info:
Topic:
Main argument:
Subarguments:
-
-
-
Sources and methodologies:
Contributions:
2-3 quotes:
 
She encouraged us to try to keep the precis to just one page (Word document) or two max if the work is particularly long or complex. You can keep them all in a file and print them out to play with (review, group together in different ways, think through) to help you prepare to discuss them in the broad survey--ish kind of way you will need to on your exams.
 
I hope this helps!!

I don't plan on making any decisions on my PhD choice until exactly April 10th, however, I think the absolute killer is waiting from April to August. IMO it will be way worse than waiting out November-March from the acceptances. 
Even with taking a month earlier in July to quit my job, for those of us who currently have full-time jobs with bills and rents to pay, we kind of have to stay in our jobs for a bit to pay things. There is now ZERO reasons for me to give two craps about my current job knowing I will be leaving it for the PhD in August. Any work that I start I won't have time to even see take off so there's no motivation to do any new projects. The fact that i can't also just quit now and do something fun due to bills and rent is just going make April-June absolutely brutal and boring, this is even taking into consideration that I'm working the bare minimum to not get fired.  /end rant  

That's a pretty broad question, and really depends on your individual situation.
Do you have a way to transport your stuff?  If you have a car, you would probably want to bring what fits in it and could consider renting a small uhaul trailer to tow for the rest.  That depends on what you already have (like furniture that is worth keeping) vs what you will need there - if you're living in a furnished dorm or apartment you might not need much, but if you're starting out in an unfurnished apartment you need to consider the cost of bringing your stuff with you vs. replacing it all when you get there.  Money may very well be the deciding factor.

Good luck.  Often errors like this can be worked out because the department will probably fight to save face.

Appeal.  Get on the phone with people (never underestimate the power of verbal, non-digital conversation) and appeal the decision and see if they will at least consider you for conditional admission.  Most graduate schools have conditional admission programs.  It may slow you down a year or semester, but at least you'll get into your 1st-pick program.

That's a pretty broad question, and really depends on your individual situation.
Do you have a way to transport your stuff?  If you have a car, you would probably want to bring what fits in it and could consider renting a small uhaul trailer to tow for the rest.  That depends on what you already have (like furniture that is worth keeping) vs what you will need there - if you're living in a furnished dorm or apartment you might not need much, but if you're starting out in an unfurnished apartment you need to consider the cost of bringing your stuff with you vs. replacing it all when you get there.  Money may very well be the deciding factor.

Can you appeal to the graduate school, especially considering you were admitted to the department?
Is the department willing to go to bat for you in appealing to the graduate school?
Being off .1 in GPA seems like it should be a minor thing, but I don't know the school's policy.
 
FWIW in the corporate world, when a company says they have a GPA minimum for a given job (say 2.5), and they actually reject applications based on that minimum - if they make one exception they would have to go back and re-justify all of those rejections that came before.  So for that company making an exception might not be an option... although this often is only applicable to entry level positions, so they could try to get you in a different role where it wasn't a requirement.  In the end it's really just a liability thing because it opens up grounds for them to be sued, and it does help cut down on the stacks of applications to review.  (Source: helped out in university recruiting for a company for a couple of years).

Best of luck, that's an awful situation to be in.  Hopefully you're still able to attend!!

Most of us are often humbled by our shortcomings during a graduate school application cycle.  We often learn a lot about the weaknesses of our applications that we never saw when applied back in December with stars in our eyes.  So, to your future self and the future applicants, what have you learned?  What more could you have done to make yourself more competitive aside from the usual "I should have gotten a 4.0," "I should have gotten a LOR from Obama (Thanks, Obama!)," etc. etc..  What are some realistic things you could do to make your application more competitive if you apply again next year?  What things did you do that you feel helped?
I'll start:
1. I learned that my SOP spent too much time making excuses for my shortcomings than focusing on my strengths.  After rewriting my SOP, toward the end of my application cycle, the universities I applied to started interviewing me.
2. I think I need to work a bit harder on raising my Quantitative score over 160-165.  It looks like the quantitative score is seemingly much more important than I gave it credit for.  Which seems obvious now, but at the time I was more concerned about the Subject GRE, spending my whole year raising my Subject GRE score 110 pts, which didn't make a significant difference.
3. I learned that if you have spent too much time out of academic work, simply having a job in your field doesn't help you.  You need to consider jobs that can expand your research interests and searching for R&D positions is a good start.  Though, I acknowledge avoiding living out of your car is important, too. 
4. On a closer note to #3, if you feel your application is a bit weak and you aren't able find work in your field, I learned that applying to and doing a Master's program may help your application (plus they're easier to get into).  Why?  Expand your research and you are able to prove to grad committees that you can succeed in a graduate environment.
 
I'm sure I'll think of more, but I'll add them later, as I do.  ?

SCREAMING FOR REAL WOULD PROBABLY UPSET MY COWORKERS
ALSO I MIGHT BE GETTING MY LAST DECISION AND TOP CHOICE IN THE NEXT FEW HOURS
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

SCREAMING FOR REAL WOULD PROBABLY UPSET MY COWORKERS
ALSO I MIGHT BE GETTING MY LAST DECISION AND TOP CHOICE IN THE NEXT FEW HOURS
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

I recommend asking some grad students who are already in your program what they do to cover expenses and what they can tell you about the local job market. There may be some cool opportunities that come up at the university closer to the beginning of the semester.

I was literally gonna say that to the guy from the previous one.

No offense, but getting a kitten if you have ZERO cat experience and not much time is terrible advice. Like any baby, kittens need lots of attention and care. You are much better served by getting an adult cat. Don't get a kitten. My friends work in rescue and fostering and kittens take a lot of work. Kittens are needy and want attention and some shelters insist upon adopting kittens in pairs because they NEED company and socialization. 
 
I strongly recommend adopting an adult cat. Two will keep each other entertained, especially if you look or ask for a "bonded pair" of cats who keep each other plenty of company. If you never want two, or think this is too much, look for one cat, or a cat who wants to live in a single cat household. They need food, water, attention, and love - cats aren't houseplants - but you can ask shelters for independent cats, cats who aren't highly needy, but perhaps older and calmer. Ask for a calm, independent, adult cat. 
 
Also if cats are kept indoors all their live they A.) live longer and B.) don't tend to be as needy about missing the outside. 

I haven't heard anything from my top choice and I'm afraid I've been waitlisted. Is it still too early to email and ask? 
 
My interview was a month ago and they wrapped up the last interviews two weeks ago. I know it's still February but i had the understanding that acceptances would have gone out by now.
Is there a correct way to ask?
 

Just for anyone who was more atmospheric and looking at this forum... my profile was the first one in this thread
UC Davis (Dept Land Air Water Resources) -Accepted back in mid january
UC Santa Cruz (Earth and Planetary Science)- Accepted in late january
Colorado State (Atmos) - Interviewed late january and bombed (presumably rejected)
CU Boulder (ATOC) - Accepted February
UCLA (Atmospheric & ocean science) - Accepted early February
Berkeley & Washington - have not heard from either so presumably rejected
Univ Victoria - Application withdrawn 
 
Hope this helps to next years group!

I love Ravelry! It’s so great to have a nice knitting community around. I just started getting the hang of making socks.

I came to this thread to recommend exactly this!!  If you haven't been on ravelry yet, check it out.  It's an excellent distraction, and they have a phenomenal forum community.  

Once you get pretty decent at knitting without looking you can netflix (or even read) while you knit.  It's the best.  

I’ve started taking up knitting, but I’m curious to know what others have done to keep busy while waiting for decisions!