NotaDoctorShh

Yeah, not sure what is going on with UCLA. I got an email to check my portal status on Tuesday, but I also got a formal offer today with funding information as well. Hard to say what's really going on, but it is definitely not over until you get a real rejection!

Just got an offer from UCLA! Apparently UC's just love sending out their decisions in the dead of night lol. IR Subfield I'm so excited I don't think I'll be able to fall asleep any time soon but I hope you all wake up to good news ❤️

Waitlisted at Berk as well. IR Subfield 4a/1w/2r

Hey uh can we take it down a notch please? This is a very stressful time for all of us and I liked it a lot better in here when we were supporting one another instead of taking jabs. Let's all just take a deep breath and cool off.

Hey y'all congrats on the interview! I spoke with Vanderbilt last week and I believe @Indeed did as well. I'll give the same advice as such. Was honestly pretty relaxed, but I do think that they will ask you more than the generic questions. There was the normal, why a PhD, what do you want to do in the future, etc, but was also probed on application specific stuff. For me, I have not taken many method/quant classes formally so she asked about my research and how it prepared me for grad school. For context, I am applying straight out of undergrad and only took one class on methods/stats and everything else I learned "on the job" either through my thesis or as a research assistant which I explained as such. Other than that it was super conversational, just talked about what naturally came up. Know your application strengths and weaknesses as well as why you want to attend Vanderbilt specifically and it will go swimmingly. Drop me a message if you have any other questions and I'd be happy to help out! Godspeed.

I think @gradpumpkin is CP, and although it may not be exactly up your alley, I believe SIAS, Fletcher, and SIPA are also still accepting applications depending on the program you are applying to. No matter what happens, you should be proud to have even applied during such a tough year. I believe in you

Claiming Emory admit and Princeton rejection. IR Subfield. What a rollercoaster this week is going to be hahahahahaha I can feel my bp rising.

This is what a current grad student told me when I asked the same thing. "1. Make sure you get to have a 1-on-1 meeting with the faculty member(s) that you'd most like to work with. Maybe this will be part of the scheduled programming (it was when I was a prospective), but if it's not, I recommend e-mailing the faculty directly to schedule a zoom chat. I think even just casual conversation can help you get an idea of whether you would get along with them or not, but it also might be good to ask questions like: "What are you working on these days?" "Are you open to collaborating with grad students on these projects?" "How often do you interact with your advisees, and what does that look like?" 2. It's good to have candid conversations with current grad students (like you're doing now). It's particularly useful to speak with the students who are currently working with your potential advisor, because they can give you more info on what it's actually like to be advised by that person. Try to also speak to a combination of more junior and more advanced grad students – remember that first-years will have only been in the program for a semester and a half as of visiting weekend, so their experience is more limited (though still relevant). 3. Where possible, try to connect with your fellow prospectives as well. You might not get a chance to do this during visiting weekend, but even exchanging e-mails with other admitted students can be quite useful. First, if you get along well with them, it's a good sign that your cohort will be friendly with one another. Second, they can give you information about other schools' offers, other visiting day experiences, and additional data points that can help you compare to other programs. Plus, you'll end up seeing them at conferences and things in the future even if you don't end up at the same program." Hope that helps!

In speaking with some grad students, it seems like there is some amount of negotiating power you have, mostly around summer funding or getting a program to match a year of fellowship support. Seems like stipends are more difficult to negotiate, but still worth mentioning. Definitely not a price match guarantee though. Otherwise people would just be applying to places where there is a high cost of living to get a higher stipend and use that to negotiate a better deal elsewhere. A line I've heard a lot when speaking to admissions faculty is that since they have put in a good amount of work to give you an offer in the first place and they would not want to lose you if you feel you wouldn't be able to support yourself financially in their program.

Hey huge congratulations! I did my undergrad there and it has a beautiful campus.

Hello, I can claim the interview for Vanderbilt. If I remember correctly, an initial email says that they will be interviewing until the 12th and that admits will be notified ~15th so I'm sure there are many more coming. Been trying to stay off this thread, but I can also claim a UW Madison admission for IR. Good luck to all and thank you to everyone in this thread for keeping things positive! Has definitely helped me stay a little bit saner.

Looks like with was directly to me and not a BCC mass message. Portal also indicates that my application is still under review.

I can claim one as well. I was admitted this morning for IR. Definitely surprised with how early it came too.

I also just interviewed with Madison. Very similar set of questions with the only difference being that I was asked about my research interests broadly and was not asked to differentiate. I applied as IR/Comparative for Madison. However, no mention of decision timeline. The overall atmosphere was pretty relaxed and very friendly. Only advice would be to make sure you are familiar with your interviewer and your own application material.

Hi, I can claim one of the UIUC acceptances. I'm in the IR subfield if that helps. I got my offer from email, but my portal has not changed so make sure you check all your spam filters and whatnot.