Tinyboss

heymanyo, what does it say on your page for UT? Mine says "We have received all credentials required to process your application. Your file has been forwarded to the Graduate Committee for review." Is that where the result is supposed to show up?

Far-left hard scientists, yeah!!

It would be nice to get constructive feedback with every rejection. But realistically, the admission committees are incredibly busy, and writing an essay for every rejected application would take an unreasonable amount of their time. What would be reasonable would be to indicate how far the application got before being weeded out. That wouldn't take any additional time, and would provide some useful feedback to unsuccessful applicants.

They probably want to fund everyone they possibly can with fellowships from outside the department, budgets being what they are this year.

How many years? What will your duties be? Under what conditions can you lose your funding? Health insurance? Are you paid for 9 or 12 months? If you aren't paid over the summer, do you have to pay your own health insurance for those months? Can you get a TA over the summer for some extra cash?

Oh, man, that's what I used to do, too. I understand completely. Best of luck!

I had a problem like this, too. The department secretary scanned the letter (she had it on file) and emailed it to the department.

Even the smallest scholarship often carries an out-of-state waiver. I got a $1,000 scholarship to one of my schools that provides such a waiver. Not that I can afford to go anywhere without full funding anyway...

I got the following acceptance email today:

Exactly. Those of us who are married with a kid are in a quite different situation from the guy with a six-month girlfriend (or vice-versa). Then there's everything in between.

Wow! Are you on the west coast? What timezone did the acceptance come from?

I would wait till you hear about funding from #1. Then you can tell #2 that you are very interested in their program, but that you need to know about funding, and that this other school that you would also be interested in attending has offered you a funding package.

I got an email last Sunday. It wasn't an acceptance, but they wanted to know a few things about me. They were definitely reviewing files that day. Probably the only time they can all get together!

I'm applying to mathematics programs, but I think I can answer some of your questions at least: 1) If you applied to a Statistics PhD program and got accepted to an MS/PhD, is that the same thing as getting accepted to a PhD? Pros? Cons? Very few mathematics programs combine the MS and the PhD programs, but some do. UIC, for example, requires an MS in mathematics in order to apply to their PhD program. More commonly, a school may have an MS program primarily for PhD applicants who have gaps in their preparation. In that case, someone might be admitted to the MS program with the understanding that with satisfactory performance in certain classes, they can advance to the PhD program. 2) Rankings. I am a bit confused as to what Stats PhD programs are top 10 or top 20 versus top 50 or 100. This site may be helpful: http://graduate-school.phds.org/rankings/statistics 3) Is there a distinction between Bayesian and Classical? Can't help you here. :wink: 4) What is the typical size of an incoming PhD Stats class? Any thoughts about that? This depends entirely on the school; some are big, and others are small. If you know what your specialization will be, a small school with faculty who are into that same area could be great. If you aren't sure where you want to concentrate, then a large school with lots of diverse faculty research can give you more options.

I think what people aren't understanding is that the freshman intro class they took, that was called "Rhetoric", has very little to do with what actual rhetoricians (do they call themselves that?) study. Likewise, if you ever took a class called "Math", I can assure you it's not what is studied in mathematics programs.

I was asked point blank in an email whether XYZ school was a top choice, or a safety. It's not fair, but it happens. I said they were a top choice, and I gave concrete reasons why. I hope they're convinced. Departments are really worried this year about tying up scarce funding, making offers to students who ultimately won't enroll.

If you want to do math for 40 years, you should be looking at PhD programs, not MS.

Talk to the professors at your school who work in those areas. They know.

If I didn't get in with funding anywhere, I'd have to get some kind of job for a year. In my off time, I'd do nothing but train for the subject GRE, which is the weakest part of my application this year. I'd also pray for the recession to be shallow and short, so that 2010 won't be even worse than 2009 for admissions.

It's not only laid-off professionals who are swelling the applicant pools. It's also good students who under normal circumstances would be entering the job market, who instead are deciding to wait out the recession in grad school. And the nationwide funding cuts are probably the most harmful thing of all. Someone upthread said that schools are looking for firm commitments before making offers, and I've seen that myself. I got an email from the grad director at XYZ University asking straight out whether they were a top choice or a backup. Looks to me like committees are very anxious not to tie up their funding with students who are likely to enroll elsewhere. It's bad news all around. I wish all of us luck!

I apologize to those of you who thought Sundays were safe, and thus were able to relax somewhat. I got an email at 4pm from a professor here at my current undergrad institution (I applied here for grad school, too). He says my file looks good, and wants to know if I consider them a top choice or a backup. I'm taking that as a good sign! Sorry if I've ruined Sunday, though.

Are these results via email or telephone? Saturday results via postal mail wouldn't indicate that.

From what I understand, it's the easy decisions that come first, whether acceptance or rejection (although some schools may not bother informing the rejected applicants). It's the middle-of-the-road ones that take forever to sort out.

My wife turned me on to Borges--I'm reading a bunch of his short stories.

The only one I've really thought of seriously is making some nice handwritten thank you notes for my recommenders.