caffeinated applicant

This is so heartbreaking, and it's absolutely appropriate for you to mourn the loss of these months! Please also remember that even though you're not able to go to the conferences or accept the awards to applause (i.e., take the honors that you deserve!!), you have still achieved all these things--I mean that both in the sense that you should feel just as good about your accomplishments, but more to the point, all of this still belongs on a CV, like so:
Invited Presentations
"Title" at Conference, Location, Date *
"Title" at Conference, Location, Date*
*These conferences were not held due to global health crisis from COVID019.
You'll not be the only one with an asterisk--everyone's careers will be in the same boat. So don't worry about that.
But in the meantime... it sucks so much that you're missing these things, as well as just your remaining months at university. It's cosmically unfair, and I'm very sorry, in the sense of being quite sad for you and for your peers. Also I will personally eat anyone who quips "Life isn't fair" in response to college seniors' sadness at the things they're set to miss out on. 

I'm heading to UNC in the fall! My decision was tough but after talking to a number of students and faculty members at my two top programs, I really believe this is the best choice for me. Super excited! 

Officially signed my SIR for UC Irvine, and I'm super excited!!! 

Accepted off the Michigan waitlist! Beyond thrilled.

After much deliberation, I have decided to accept UNM's offer! Albuquerque, here we come!  
Best of luck to everyone else who is still considering their options, and a BIG congrats to everyone who has already made their decision!

Very happy to announce that I have accepted Washington University's offer of admission! It was an immensely tough choice, but I am thrilled to be joining such a welcoming and supportive program.  

I've accepted NYU! In light of the pandemic, staying close to home is a big plus for me right now. And, having the ability to commute (though I'd really rather not) in light of the present day-to-day ambiguity is a versatility I couldn't say no to. 
The funny thing is that NYU was my dream choice for undergrad and they rejected me. A no isn't a no forever

I have a lot of hard emails to write over the next few days, but I will be officially committing to Yale on Monday. It really hurts my heart to walk away from all the lovely people I met at both Northwestern and Michigan (not to mention Michigan's Rackham Merit Fellowship!), but I think deep down I've known Yale was where I most wanted to be since even before I applied. In spite of all the turmoil in the world right now, this really is a dream come true.
Best wishes to all who are making tough final decisions in the next few days!

Heading to Yale!!!!!!!!!
Was genuinely so tough to decide between Yale, Princeton and Columbia, as they were all legitimately tied as #1 in my mind and each had unique strengths for me personally, but something about New Haven just already felt like home. Whether that was just because they had their visit days and Princeton/Columbia didn't, it's a little hard to say, but at one point I just had to say to myself that counterfactuals aren't helpful in this scenario, it is what it is, and I have to go with my gut. If I'm honest I'm going to feel pretty sad about turning down Princeton/Columbia for a long time, but still feels like the right decision, if that makes any sense... 
Good luck to everyone in the next few days! Hang in there.

I've officially accepted my offer to Tufts!
What a wild ride. I was quite petrified when I decided to decline the deferral Oregon offered me for 2020, but deep down I knew I wouldn't attempt that move for a second time after the first was such a nightmare. I think Tufts is a better fit, and I'm looking forward to having a more personal experience with my POI's and the department in general. The substantially higher stipend and lighter teaching load don't hurt either! Thank you to everyone who has endured my complaining, poor attempts at humor, and obsession with my cats over the last few months. Not being alone this time made the experience much more tolerable. For those of you who have a place to go in the fall, I wish you the best of luck! For those who will be trying again next year, don't give up if this is truly the path you want! It doesn't always work out the first time (even with offers!), but each setback provides new lessons to learn and overcome.
You know what this means? Celebratory cheesecake!

Annnnd I just accepted my offer from the University of Pennsylvania. This was an agonizing decision but I'm convinced that I've made the right choice. So pleased to be joining a program featuring so many brilliant and generous scholars in and beyond my field. Equally thrilled to be doing a PhD in a city that I know and love. My path to the PhD has been rough, and for a long time I did not expect to get here at all, so this feels especially sweet. 

This is so heartbreaking, and it's absolutely appropriate for you to mourn the loss of these months! Please also remember that even though you're not able to go to the conferences or accept the awards to applause (i.e., take the honors that you deserve!!), you have still achieved all these things--I mean that both in the sense that you should feel just as good about your accomplishments, but more to the point, all of this still belongs on a CV, like so:
Invited Presentations
"Title" at Conference, Location, Date *
"Title" at Conference, Location, Date*
*These conferences were not held due to global health crisis from COVID019.
You'll not be the only one with an asterisk--everyone's careers will be in the same boat. So don't worry about that.
But in the meantime... it sucks so much that you're missing these things, as well as just your remaining months at university. It's cosmically unfair, and I'm very sorry, in the sense of being quite sad for you and for your peers. Also I will personally eat anyone who quips "Life isn't fair" in response to college seniors' sadness at the things they're set to miss out on. 

After a solid two months of agonizing, I am beyond thrilled to say that I've accepted my offer to the MA/PhD program at Penn State! If anyone else winds up PSU-bound, hit me up--I'd love a chance to get to know some of the incoming cohort since we weren't able to meet at the open house.
Also, good luck (thoughts, prayers, the best of vibes) to those of you still deliberating--whichever way you go, hopefully there's some comfort to be found in the fact that there are only nine days left of this part.

Well, I just received an offer from UNC off their waitlist. I am now officially going to have a heart attack.

Accepted to Johns Hopkins off the waitlist. So thrilled!

Yes, as I just formally accepted my offer  In the end, I had no other options (my other wait list turned into a rejection), but I couldn't be happier with how it turned out! And not having to choose between programs allowed me to direct all my neuroses towards the plentiful other targets in the world right now lol. Good luck with your choice, and I hope to see you in the fall!
I hope The Other School in NC comes through for you!! Fingers crossed that I'll see you in an inter-institutional class, either via Zoom or (hopefully) in person! (I'm learning this semester that graduate seminars do not transfer well to an online setting....)

I’m so excited to say that I officially accepted my offer at University of Oregon today! It felt so weird to submit the acceptance letter; I stared at the screen for like ten minutes before I finally clicked send. It’s such a good fit for me, though, and I think I’m going to absolutely love it there. The faculty and students that I got to chat with were all wonderful. I can’t believe this is finally happening!
Thanks to everyone here for all your advice and kindness!

This is so heartbreaking, and it's absolutely appropriate for you to mourn the loss of these months! Please also remember that even though you're not able to go to the conferences or accept the awards to applause (i.e., take the honors that you deserve!!), you have still achieved all these things--I mean that both in the sense that you should feel just as good about your accomplishments, but more to the point, all of this still belongs on a CV, like so:
Invited Presentations
"Title" at Conference, Location, Date *
"Title" at Conference, Location, Date*
*These conferences were not held due to global health crisis from COVID019.
You'll not be the only one with an asterisk--everyone's careers will be in the same boat. So don't worry about that.
But in the meantime... it sucks so much that you're missing these things, as well as just your remaining months at university. It's cosmically unfair, and I'm very sorry, in the sense of being quite sad for you and for your peers. Also I will personally eat anyone who quips "Life isn't fair" in response to college seniors' sadness at the things they're set to miss out on. 

My heart. I'm sending you all the good vibes I possibly can that it borders on being creepy. Take time to heal. I will say this from my own experience: At 22 I had to drop out of undergrad. Cut to me at 29, sitting on my living room floor sobbing, holding a rejection letter from a local state school I tried to get into to restart my education. In that moment I thought I was completely f'ed and would never achieve my dream. After my sob-fest, I reevaluated and called the school asking how to improve my application - started cc 3 months later - graduated at a better state school 3 years after that. Last year, I got into a bomb PhD program, but the move didn't work out. I thought I was completely f'ed again because I had to walk away from my one chance. But, I reevaluated again, redid my personal statement and applied to even more schools. I've been lucky again to get into one PhD program, and one that suits my personality/lifestyle better than the one from last year. 
What I mean to say in all this rambling, is that if this is truly the path you want, don't give up. If it's not going to be financially/mentally/spiritually harmful to you to do this again next year then go for it. Reevaluate your materials and see if something needs improving. You can only control what you have in front of you. And I'm sure you've learned many lessons this time around that next year might be more manageable (also, you'll know not to apply to BU, so there's that!). I wish you the very best and hope you know that it'll work out how it's supposed to in the end, even if the journey takes longer than you originally hoped. You're not alone!

Just got that UVA rejection. I have mixed feelings, but to be honest the most telling moment for me this entire cycle is that when I got the "check your portal" email, I thought "Noooooooo!" And I wasn't thinking about rejection, I was thinking about acceptance. So...I didn't really want to go there in the first place, although it's an amazing program and by all accounts a wonderful place to be. I'm okay with this

I got through Cambridge, English for a PhD, with the Gates scholarship! So excited for what comes next.  

Protip: Maybe try to develop psychic abilities or something so you can do your best to not apply immediately before a pandemic hits. Just a thought. 

Just got a very kind and understanding email from Michigan (looks like it was sent to all waitlisted applicants) talking about how they understand the frustrations caused by these delays, expressing thanks for our patience, and also answering some common questions about deadlines, etc. I think I just fell a little bit more in love. 

as a current third year, choose the school where your stipend is union protected (i really cannot emphasize this enough, uw's union has steadily fought for increased pay, we have no copay for mental health, and a strong contract enforcement protocol to protect against infractions), where grad students are nicer and seem organized, where faculty seems like you can really talk to them (this you may or may not have a feel for) and the city where you will feel excited to live for 5-8 years! the job market is such that no school can promise placement, so you should choose the place you *feel* is a good place to live in. that's just my two cents ?

As a current grad student at a university with a very strong and active union, I can heartily endorse their importance. The current pandemic is obviously unprecedented and a relatively unique event, but the union here has gone to great lengths to successfully protect not only its members, but also graduate students on fellowship and other staff--actions that simply would not have happened without their work. Without a union, rather obviously, your labor can be more easily exploited by the institution, and grad students are near first on the exploitable list. Recently, the union here has negotiated with the administration over the implementation of a ridiculously short sighted class scheduling system that would have seriously impacted the commuting cost for instructors who don't live in the immediate area (many don't), and they've also made sure grad instructors are compensated fairly for the extra work of suddenly shifting a class online. There were some concerns about changing healthcare benefits for TAs earlier in the year, and the union was able to prevent any serious problems. I don't know how these issues would have been solved, at least as quickly as they were, without a union. 
 
More generally, a department in which both faculty and students are actively involved in the union creates an atmosphere of openness and engagement around labor or funding issues, as opposed to regarding these topics as impolite or even crass. I would be more concerned about the attitude of faculty toward their students' funding and well-being at an institution that "brutally crushed" unionization. This is not to say that without a union you will definitely be exploited and your advisor will wave you away when you come to ask for advice about funding, and more to emphasize that a union can have a very positive impact on your experience. Frankly (and ignorantly, without knowing more about the situation), I would be wary of an institution that so strongly opposed to unionization--not even trying to look like you act in the best interests of your employees is not promising.