I'm scheduled to chat with a PI from VT tomorrow and another next week. One emailed me and one I reached out to myself. I'm not in contact with anyone from WF other than one of their PI's who I did research with. We haven't talked about grad school at WF though, just getting LOR earlier on.
I'd say there's no harm in reaching out. I don't think anything is set in stone yet
I got an email invite on Jan 22 to Wake's Feb Recruitment event and then an email a few days later about VT's. I've been communicating with them a bit about fellowship stuff and also did the REU at Wake last summer although it was virtual.
I also applied on the last day of the deadline for every place I applied to haha. For all of my applications there was at least one recommender who sent stuff in late too. I applied to UVA, WF/VT, Penn St, U of Delaware, Clemson, and Duke.
I've heard back from WF/VT and Penn St. and invited to both virtual recruitment days.
I got the notification from the egem portal. As I said in my last post, no one has contacted me. I just happened to look at my portal one day and saw the notification. I clicked on it and had the option to accept or decline, so I accepted because declining meant declining the entire fellowship. I also signed a document. I can't remember what I signed exactly, but it was certifying that I was accepting the sponsorship.
The faq says to email GEM for help getting in contact with an employer in this situation, so I've done that and am waiting for a response.
Is it weird that I received a notification saying an employer responded to my application even though I haven’t heard from anyone? I assumed I’d be contacted by employers for interviews before that. I accepted the offer since you only get one, and my status has changed from selected to accepted, but I think it’s strange I’ve not talked to anyone about it?