SgtDonut

Hey, I was admitted to Penn last Thursday I believe. I just got the initial email from the director of graduate studies and then had an exchange with their graduate coordinator about the visit day, which is 3/19-20. They asked for us to let them know if we were attending by 3/5. So I think it's possible they haven't admitted everyone yet? Not really sure. Sorry that's not super helpful but let me know if you have any questions I might be able to answer!

Yeah, now I'm like what am I supposed to do all day at work?

So where are we all waiting to hear back from? I've heard nothing from Harvard, UChicago, Columbia, or NYU! Expecting rejections at this point.

❤️❤️❤️ that's how we do it in Iowa

Grinnell prepared us well for applying to grad school!

This cycle has been brutal. But are you excited about UC Davis?!

OMG message me!!! Hopefully we aren't enemies lolol

You earned it. Congratulations x100! How will you celebrate this weekend?

Same here! I went to high school in Skokie. Hbu?

Yes!!! Congratulations bud! Great outcomes for you across the board

For sure, haha. You live in Iowa? I went to school there (Grinnell) for undergrad.

I'm sorry to hear that. I know you were really looking forward to finding out (as was I). But you got into UCLA, right?! We should say hey at the visit day.

Just got rejected from Northwestern!!!

:0000 harsh lmao

Congrats to the Brown admits! Woohoo

Did you all see this story a couple of weeks ago about a graduate director at Duke telling Chinese students to speak English? This talk about TOEFL reminded me of it. I feel like bias against international students is pretty widespread in the U.S. It definitely was an issue at my undergrad college among both students and faculty. And I would bet like @Vldksh said, what part of the world you come from probably affects how you're perceived, along with where you did your undergrad/grad. Like maybe they'd overlook a student from a non-English-speaking European country who went to an Ivy not sending their test scores, but not let it go for a student from East Asia or the Global South who may not have attended a prestigious and/or non-US school. Not sure if anyone's read Inside Graduate Admissions by Julie Posselt at USC (it's on my list), but admissions committee members are often quite frank about their biases. Apparently in the book there's an anecdote where committee members write off / joke about a Christian applicant simply because they're religious (and apparently faith doesn't jive with elite academic culture).

https://grad.ucla.edu/programs/social-sciences/sociology/#program-statistics Average number of students in a new cohort = 15 Average number of total students in the program = 113

You'll be at the visit day as well? Awesome! And I agree, the larger cohorts make me a bit nervous. So that's a big plus with Penn. Philly is a cool city though. I think it flies under the radar since it's in the Northeast and there's such a high concentration of cities there.

Thanks so much! Right now, I'm debating UCLA vs. Penn, assuming I don't get into either. I love LA so much, but it is pretty expensive to live there, especially on a grad stipend. Philly is much more affordable by comparison, and Penn has more professors whose interests align with my own. My partner is from Boston and I'm from Chicago, so Penn definitely makes more sense as far as being near family and friends. I guess I just figured out my preference lol I am still waiting to hear back from Northwestern and UChicago (assuming I've been implicitly rejected from Columbia, NYU, and Harvard). I would probably pick Northwestern over Penn because of the location. But now who knows? I really wasn't anticipating getting into Penn (or anywhere really, given the randomness of this process).

It was an email from Jason Schnittker, the graduate chair, not a personalized email from a POI. Good luck!

Just got an email from Penn two seconds ago. I'm in!!!! Can't believe it.

Yeah, there have been a few. But we don't know if they're sending them all out at the same time or spacing them out. This varies by school to school and year to year, so unless someone had insider information or spoke to someone at Harvard, we have no way of knowing whether they're done sending acceptances. Clearly, they're using both email and phone, which makes it even more unpredictable, rather than just sending out a ton of acceptances at once via email or on a portal.

None of us really have any way of knowing this, unfortunately. It's way too early to call.

I actually think it's heartening to see other people getting into a lot of places. It shows that the unexpected can happen. Like for the Stanford admit, they're clearly surprised at how well things are going for them. It gives me hope that there might be some surprises on the horizon for me (and the rest of us). And looking back on this thread, there's plenty of congratulating one another going on. It's mostly positive vibes. Everyone engages with this site differently. I also do think there's an importance difference here between bragging and celebrating. The original post didn't read as bragging to me at all.

I honestly would rather just never know the outcome than actually call and be told I'm rejected over the phone