LJK

If at all feasible, I would wait on buying a computer until you know what your program is and know whether they routinely supply students with computers. Both programs I interviewed with do buy computers for students and it was a side-note, duh kind of thing - even though my current program does not buy computers for students routinely and therefore it is not a discipline wide practice. Psychology can be pretty computer intensive with experiment programming and/or modeling which could be driving this tendency among my potential schools. I know all fields and all schools are different, so this may not even be a consideration for you guys in particular but I thought I would point it out as a consideration.

I think that it was perfectly fine for you to talk to the prof - you now know who you would be working with should you choose to go there and it will factor into your decision. This prof knows that you are admitted, not in attendance and have not made any promises... thats how the admissions dance goes. I would reply by saying that you are seriously considering attending the program and that you will let him know what your decision is once it is made. If you have any other questions about the program or his research feel free to ask them - this prof is interested in you and presumably would want you to choose his school so asking questions that will affect your decision should not be too much of an imposition.

I totally agree that a physical visit would be best - if you get encouragement from your meeting request, see if you could get the contact of a current student who works with that professor to set up a meeting with when you visit as well. You will want to know what its like to work with this professor. If there are any schools that you are unable to visit, I don't think an email out of the blue identifying yourself as an admitted student who is interested in there work is at all strange. There is a very limited number of people who will be admitted into their program this year, and if they are thinking they want to take on another student, they will want to get to know you and see how your interests mesh.

I would straightforwardly ask 'Why me?' Presumably your SOP identified other professors and other research that you thought was a good match. This professor is seeing something different. Probe into why he thinks you would make a good addition to his lab - maybe there is a new project going in a new direction, or he needs some skills you already have and would not need to be trained on. Rather than dismiss this opportunity outright, start a dialogue, get more information and think about whether you could be happy there in that lab (at least to start).

I totally understand that money is awkward. I think its ok to ask, pleading is a little much at this point. Just explain that you are most excited about their program, that you would love to accept the offer, but that financially it doesn't make sense to pass up fully funded offers at other programs to take out loans at their program for two years. Is there anything they can do? If they say yes, yippee! If they say no, don't plead - they know what they can do. After that its up to you to decide whether the loans are worth it.

People talk. I hosted a prospective graduate student who is applying to work with my current advisor and the advisor asked for my impressions. The prof I TA for asked what I think of the applicants - I shared what I knew. Showing up, talking to people, and making sure that they know you were there and interested is a huge positive. It might be awkward, and you might have butterflies or whatever your body does with anxiousness, but it will totally be worth it if you get in. My current advisor said this to me yesterday: You only need one acceptance, you can only go to one place, right? Do what you can to turn the silence into an acceptance.

I totally do! At least there are good programs that want us! I had a large break between interviews and it is hard to keep from imagining life at Accepted U which is a real possibility. I want to give Interview U a fair shake as well, but I won't allow myself to really imagine life there until I have an acceptance. I had a very strong first choice for undergrad and was really really sad about getting wait listed. I won't allow my imagination to cause a re-occurrence of that situation but now I am stuck in this strange tension for weeks. So, the acceptance letter is a good reminder that I'm wanted as a grad student without bogging myself down in the details while I continue to wait this process out

I think it is absolutely essential to acknowledge an acceptance. The school wants to know if you are considering them seriously, but will understand if you are not able to make a decision. I think the school would take it as a good sign if you are looking for answers to questions at this point and I think responding to the acceptance with questions or even asking to be directed to the person to ask questions of is appropriate. It is early on for applicants to be committed to a program at this point.

I got a kindle for Christmas this year and really like it. In my discipline most journal articles have two columns and amazon's conversion software can't tell and reads straight across the two columns (at least currently), making a converted document over which you have font size control unfeasible. You can still read pdf's in pdf format and you can turn the kindle display on its side to get more width. I don't have any problem reading the type that small as the kindle has great resolution, but it might bother other people. You are able to zoom in also so that you could have just one column showing at a time. I really like it, but I would definitely suggest finding someone who has a kindle to see if you can deal with these issues before getting the kindle if pdfs are going to be your main reason for owning it. They have a bigger one but it is a much higher price I believe.

The general model in Psychology (I have heard of some alternate formats but this is the majority one I believe) is to write multiple journal quality review papers for the written portion. I have heard of some schools requiring 2 and some requiring 3. The general format is coming up with a question for each paper and a list of articles that should be read and become part of each paper. It is the point in the PhD process where students need to go broad and develop some berth in their psychology knowledge, so there is usually a minimum conceptual distance that the topics must be from the main line of research the student is doing (in the case of schools that have 3, usually one is able to be more closely related to their research). The oral component is usually a defense of the student's written positions.

It sounds like you are sure. I would decline the admission offer. It is nicest to the school who won't waste money on bringing someone out who won't attend and it's nice to the student who will get an offer in the slot you are currently occupying and will never know that they didn't get initially invited to the revisit (or their first visit if they didn't go to the interview). If you were the person waiting rather than the person with multiple offers to choose from, wouldn't you want that? If you are more hesitant than the 99% sure you posted suggests, don't decline admission but decline the visit and be frank with the school - maybe they will try to sweeten the pot if they are really interested. Would that potentially change your mind? Regardless, congratulations on your success!

I concur with most of what DrPepper-olic said but as long as you are capable of being respectful and gracious now, I don't see why you would need to wait. You want to give yourself as much time as possible to deal with any perceived holes in your application. Make 5 non-crazy people (non current grad applicants) read anything you decide to send to make sure that you are coming through with the tone you intend and you should be fine.

Did you get official rejections? (Not implied rejections by not getting an interview?) If so, I think it is most appropriate to email now, when it isn't that much of a stretch for them to remember reading your application sometime in the past month or two. Also, you may want to consider taking the GRE again. Anything above 1200 is probably adequate but you would probably be on the low side for many programs. Why not take the time to improve the score? If you line up a job getting research experience and don't have time, fine, but if you don't have any other way of seriously improving your application the GRE seems like a likely target.

I only have done one interview and have just one more, but am in the midst of running participants every possible hour to get my thesis experiments done so my life is resembling yours from the sounds of it. I totally understand being tired, etc. but this is your future. I'm going to call upon Robert Frost for some wisdom here. You have a couple of different paths open to you and you owe it to yourself to look down each of them before making your decision. Besides, it is always a good thing to meet professors who are doing work related to what you want to do. Maybe you don't want to go to that school now but in 5 years your POI could be looking for a post-doc, or further down the line, this professor might get asked to do an external tenure review for you (presuming you are looking to be a professor). Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth; Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim, Because it was grassy and wanted wear; Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same, And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back. I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.

As a general rule, associate professors are tenured. If the professor was an assistant professor at the same university, it would be really strange for the department to promote them to associate but not give them tenure (though I won't claim it can't happen, it would just have to be a very strange set of circumstances). If a 4th/5th/6th year assistant professor gets hired to a new university, they may be hired as an associate professor and do the tenure review very soon after arriving. The hiring of a professor as an associate professor pre-tenure implies that the department expects to be giving the professor tenure in short order. So you can generally infer that associate professors have tenure, and if they don't they are very likely to get it and not much of a risk. As for associate vs. full professor, its a promotion. There are some committees that only full professors are able to be members of. There are some positions such as department chair (depending on the specific department's rules) that may only be open to full professors. I think it is also a way of preventing newly tenured professors from resting to much on their laurels - there is still more to strive for and more reviews to go through.

1) The exact timeline can vary a bit but it is generally 5 or 6 years after hiring so this prof is likely to come up for tenure in '13 or '14. If s/he had a medical leave or had a new baby (as a mom or as a dad depending on the school) that can 'stop' the tenure clock for a time, pushing the review back. 2) When the prof comes up for tenure review, they either get it or they don't is my understanding. That one review in the 5th/6th year is when they receive tenure and become an associate professor. There is still room to be promoted to straight 'Professor' but generally associate professors have tenure (there is a little bit of wiggle room for people hired into an associate professor position who then immediately go into tenure review, but generally associate=tenure). 3/4) It could be a touchy topic but you can present it right: "I'm very interested in working with you, but I am concerned about the fact that you are an assistant professor rather than a tenured professor, as the advise I have been getting is to go with a tenured professor. I know that this can be a touchy topic but I want to have as much information as possible before making my decision. I know that at this point you haven't come up for review. When do you go up for review? What would be the plan for me if the unthinkable happens and you don't get tenure?" I would also broach the topic with other professors or current graduate students. They would know how the professor is doing relative to the universities tenure standards. At some places you can be doing good steady work and not get tenure and at some you would get it. The fact that this is one of the best programs might mean that tenure is harder for the prof to get. I think that being concerned about this and asking the right questions shows that you are serious and thoughtful. Edit: I would consider emailing the graduate director or the department chair to get a 'official' idea of what is going on with this prof in addition to less formal opinions. That way if they make any assurances that you will be taken care of should you come and the prof not get tenure, you have it in electronic writing.

Where is this prof in the process? If s/he is brand new, you will be able to defend before they come up for tenure so getting it or not won't effect your time as a graduate student (though there is the issue of recommendations after you graduate). If they are further along, you can ask a tenured professor to be frank with you about the assist. prof's chances of getting tenure. If you are being co-advised that will mitigate the risk to you as someone else will know what you are doing and you will be able to keep going on your project(s) without much interruption should the assist. prof leave.

I haven't received an official acceptance yet, but I did get two emails from different POIs that heavily suggest an admit will be forthcoming from one particular program. I received the second of said emails (which was the one that convinced me I wasn't reading too far into them) at 6:30am on a Friday, after it was sent late the night before. I was hosting a prospective student for my current school who was staying on a spare mattress on my bedroom floor. I took my computer out of the room with me so as not to disturb the prospective and brought it to the bathroom where I could perch on the (closed) toilet while reading my email prior to taking a shower. That's right, I found out that I will be going to grad school next year while sitting on a toilet! Then I had to sit around for 2.5 hours in just my bathrobe (didn't think to take any clothes with me when leaving my room) before anyone was awake to tell!

I would agree that the wrong use of titles is generally ignorance rather than purposeful disrespect, but it can feel disrespectful. I f*ing hate being called Miss; it implies that I'm a little girl. I know that the students probably don't mean anything by it but that doesn't mean I don't end up annoyed while reading the rest of their email. Similarly, the prof I TA for has gotten Mrs. She is a professor, has a phd and is unmarried. It shows the student's stereotypes and feels disrespectful even if it is cluelessness. On a somewhat related note, my roommate was joking that she and her fiance could be Dr. & Drs. --- once they graduate. I forbade it. I think the whole Miss, Ms., Mrs. business leads to people using the wrong one and giving unintentional disrespect. She actually wants to put her marital status on par with her degree in her title! Ugh.

Just don't mention the other school(s) you are leaning towards during your visit unless asked where else you are seriously considering. There was one fool who visited my current program last year who just talked about how he was expecting an acceptance from *wicked awesome prof* any day now. So why the hell was he there making us listen to his preference? Be Switzerland during the interview, learn about the profs, program and school. If you are sure you are not interested after the interview, even before visiting your top choice, send a thank you note that withdraws your application politely.

Maybe they have already accepted some students on an unfunded basis? And therefore if the funded slots get turned down, the funding goes to the students already accepted without funding before those being taken off the waitlist? Rather than speculating, I think that it is completely reasonable for you to respond to a waitlist notification with a request for clarification, especially on the funding issue.

I would send an email to your POI if you have been in contact, or to the grad coordinator/graduate director, whoever notified you of waitlist status, expressing your firm interest in the program and inquiring about the waitlist timeline. I would think that letting them know that you are really really interested would give you more of a chance than others who potentially have other offers that they are equally or more excited about and are likely to choose before this school gets back to them about the waitlist. Schools want to accept people who will come there. Undergrad admissions and graduate admissions are completely unrelated. They are conducted by different people and have different criteria. I wouldn't use the statistics of one to guess the behavior of the other. I would say not hearing means that either a decision hasn't been made or that they are sitting on their decision for some reason. If you decide to inquire, I would phrase it as inquiring about the status of your application, rather than asking why it is delayed. Delayed sounds negative and subtly accusatory to me and you want to present professional and pleasant to the program.

I hope that you are using "Professor" or "Dr." rather than "Mr." or "Mrs./Ms." when it comes to people with PhDs. Since Mr./Mrs./Ms. is simply incorrect, I would interpret it as ignorance or disrespect rather than primarily formal were I receiving the email. Addressing the main topic of this thread: If all the professors used their first names, and all the students called the professors by their first names, and you are looking to become one of those students, I would use the first names. In my grad program, sometimes I get a little confused if someone comes in and says Dr. C and Dr. G all over the place. I have to take an extra mental step to associate all the last names to the profs I always think of by their first name. At the same time, one prof that I interviewed with at a 'first name program' always signs emails with his last name so I reverted to Dr. A for the thank you note to be safe.

I sent thank you emails after the visiting weekend. My methodology was to thank them for taking the time to talk to me, then follow up with something I found interesting from our conversation or a research idea that was inspired by the things we talked about. They talked to a bunch of people this weekend, why should they remember you more positively than the others? Use the thank you email as one more way to differentiate yourself and be on their minds as they make those admissions decisions.