jblsmith

I'm also worried about this. I posted a smiliar concern in the "April 15th Deadline is This Week Freak-Out Forum." I've been accepted to 1 school with funding and another, more prestigous school, where I've been waitlisted for funding. I don't want to accept School 1's offer only to find out on April 16th that School 2 has funding for me. I've let School 2 know my situation, now I just hope they take it to heart and come back with an offer before April 15th. Anyone else in the same boat? Anyone got any suggestions?

This is exactly the situation I'm in, well almost. I've been accepted to 1 school with funding as well as another, more prestigous school, where I'm wait-listed for funding. I don't want to have to accept the offer at School 1 only to find out on April 16th that I have funding to School 2. Sent the graduate administrator an email relating my predicament, hopefully they'll take it into consideration and I'll get good news before the deadline.

Shit, I have an application into that program right now! Definitely something to consider if they give me an offer.

I'm in economics, so this may not apply to Art History, but I feel that the biggest factor in determining admission to a Ph D program is the availability of an advisor, i.e. someone on the adcom who is willing to take you under their wing for 2-3 years while you write your dissertation. While a solid GRE and stellar transcripts help, these objective measures are used only for the first round of cuts, after that you really have to convince that faculty that your research interests are strongly allied with theirs. This is why you hear stories of kids getting rejected with 1600's in favor of applicants with much lower scores (that and the fact that GRE scores are not robust indicators of grad school performance). Therefore, my suggestion is make sure your SoP is outstanding, explain why you would fit in well with the faculty at each respective school, even call out professors by name writing "Working with faculty like Profs. Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum presents an opportunity for a mutually beneficial research relationship blah blah blah..." Hope this helps.

Haha, crap! Email is already on the way.

Dear Ms. X, I was truly overjoyed when I received the news that I had been accepted into the University of Y's Ph. D. Economics program as Y is one of my top choices. However, towards the end of the email it states that "Decisions are still being made for financial assistance and we will inform you of any financial aid award as soon as we possibly can." Does this mean that I have been wait-listed for funding or that indeed no funding decisions have yet been made? If the former is the case may I inquire as to my rank on the wait list? But if the latter is the case do you anticipate when these decisions may be made? Forgive me if I'm being too impatient but, once again, Y is one of my top choices and I am extremely excited at the prospect of pursuing graduate study at the university. I eagerly await your response and you may contact me at this email or by phone at Z. Warmest regards, jblsmith

So I just got word yesterday that I was accepted into one of my top choices, and I'm pretty excited about it. However, the email ended "...Decisions are still being made regarding funding, we will get back to you as soon as we possibly can." At first I thought this was a standard waitlist for funding, i.e. those with funding had been informed and I would be considered if and when someone turned the offer down. However, after reading the results section it appears that everyone got this same email and that they actually had made no funding decisions yet. My question is: do I send the POI an email inquiring about the funding decisions at the risk of sounding pushy and aggressive, or do I sit patiently and wait for a decision at the risk of seeming uninterested in the program?

This topic has been moved to the "Waiting it Out" section.

Could you not just apply for a private student loan?

Haha, nice.

Just got my first acceptance, and definitely posted it to facebook. Haha.

Here are some of my favorite albums: 1. Lamb of God - As the Palaces Burn (My favorite band. Also check out Burn The Priest, New American Gospel, and Wrath) 2. Slayer - Reign in Blood 3. August Burns Red - Messengers (Another one of my favorite bands. Also see Constellations) 4. Job For A Cowboy - Doom, also see Genesis 5. Various Artists - The Official Soundtrack to the Motion Picture "The Office" (Some great 90's rap on here) But when I study I like to listen to the Avante Garde Jazz station on Pandora.

Just saw in the results page that people have started to get word from BC; I haven't heard anything yet. Has anyone out there gotten an acceptance/rejection?

Considering the dumb shit I post on facebook anyway, I think an acceptance to my #1 school would be very appropriate.

My question to Myles is: Are you applying to MS's or Ph D's? If you're applying to Ph.D's I might be a little worried about your credentials, specifically the GRE Q score and transcripts. Like DrPepper-olic I too am applying for Econ Ph. D's and like you my my objective math credentials were a little soft (I double majored in Econ/Poli Sci and played 4 years of football and went to a liberal arts school so I didnt have the time to get the formal math training I needed). That's what fueld my decision to first go for a terminal master's where I could take grad-level Math/Stats/Econ courses and get the quant backgroung I needed before reapplying to Ph D's this year. My suggestion to you would be to entertain a similar idea. Maybe look at MS's which would allow you to get some extra training and research in before you then apply to Ph D's. I would also suggest retaking the GRE. Even in Econ/Finance, adcoms are looking for 750+ Q scores. But don't get me started on the GRE Q test, it's a fucking joke. If you know the tricks and what to look for it's pretty laughable.

Just got rejected from BC today.

Just got my first response...Rejection BC-Finance

From an economist... 1. The chief export of Chuck Norris is Pain. 2. Chuck Norris holds both Absolute and Comparative Advantage...in everything. 3. Game Theory falls apart vis-a-vis Chuck Norris because the dominate strategy is to never challenge Chuck Norris to begin with. Realizing this Chuck Norris developed his own theory dubbed Norris Theory where Norris Equilibrium is achieved once he has taken all of your property and consumed your soul. Following this discovery the Riksbank renamed the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics to the Norris Award for Unparalleld Awesomeness and awrded it to Chuck Norris for the next 1,000 years. 4. Markets are well-behaved because they are afraid of being punished by Chuck Norris. 5. Asset prices do not follow a random walk, they follow Chuck Norris. 6. When Chuck Norris walks down the street demanding compensation it's not because he's an asshole but because he is internalizing the postive externality you recieve from being in his presense. 7. The unobserved stochastic error term is not randomness, it's Chuck Norris fucking with you. 8. The market-clearing price is whatever Chuck Norris says it is. 9. The term "bubble" has come to describe the business cylce because it is literally the result of Chuck Norris blowing and popping bubbles while bathing. Similary, the Great Depression was a period of tremendous sadness after Chuck Norris accidentally roundhouse kicked his belloved horse, Buttercup, sending him into another dimension never to be seen again. 10. After reading Chuck Norris' dissertation (which was only a picture of Chuck Norris standing in a gi) both Adam Smith and John Maynard Keynes converted the Neo-Norris School of Economics. My favorite Chuck Norris fact from Anonymous: 11. It is said that Chuck Norris sold his soul to the Devil for his unparalled marital arts ability. Following the transaction Chuck Norris roundhouse kicked the Devil in the face and took his soul back. The Devil, realizing the irony, could not be mad and recognized defeat. They now play poker every first Wednesday of the month.

So I've finished applying and waited around for about a month and all I've gotten are the form letters that read: "Thank you for applying to our program. Your application is complete and under review." My question is when should I expect to hear back from these institutions? Am I correct in my understanding that higher-ranked programs make their decisions first followed by the lower-tier programs? And what about decisions within tiers? Do they let the accepted ones know first then the rejects later? Any info would be much appreciated.

Thanks for the feedback guys. Sorry for my late reply, it's been awhile since I signed on here. In the meantime I've finished my applications and all-told I applied to 13 programs, 8 Econ and 5 Finance. In semi-rank order: Boston College - Econ & Finance WashU - Econ UConn - Econ & Finance Rutgers - Econ & Finance Pitt - Econ & Finance Iowa - Econ Houston - Econ & Finance Tennessee - Econ Following BIrch Barlow's suggestion I feel like I have a good "smattering" of programs. The BC and WashU programs are Top-30; UConn, Rutgers, Pitt, and Houston are Top-50 with Iowa on the cusp, and Tennessee is pretty far down on the list but pry Top-100 (this was more of an afterthought, one of my professors is Emeritus at their program and offered to write me a letter). I should also mention that I was able to improve my GRE Q score to 750, not stellar but hopefully acceptable. Tell me what you guys think my chances are.

Anyone?

Anyone? Any suggestions?

I just took my GRE and recieved a 750q / 570v / Still awaiting AW. I'm pursuing a PhD in Econ or Finance and I realize I'll be limited to second-tier programs but just wanted to get you guys' oppinion on which schools you might think I should apply to. Heres a little bit more background: Currently enrolled in second year of an MA Econ program, current GPA 3.97 -A's in all classes including Math Econ and Econometrics I & II, save Micro Theory and a research seminar (A-'s) -Conducting research in macroeconomic growth modeling -Recipient of a full GA -In all humility I'm probably the strongest student in the program. Undergraduate: BA, cum laude with honors, double major in Econ and Poli Sci -Not positive about Econ GPA but it had to be between 3.8-3.95, overall GPA 3.75 -Took Calc I-III, Linear Algebra, Basic Econometrics, and Advanced Econometrics/Time Series Analysis -Recieved a number of grants/assistantships to conduct research, completed an honors thesis in macoreconomic growth modeling LoR's -Feel that they're fairly strong -1 from fairly well know graduate thesis advisor / Math Econ professor / Chair of the Department / Former Chair of Econ Department at another research institution -1 from graduate Econometrics II professor - not sure about this one, don't know him too well, only had one class, and he's young, not well known -1 from undergrad advisor / thesis committee chair / professor I did research for - Know's me very well, will write a strong letter but he himself is not very well known. So, where do you think I should apply? I'm currently considering Notre Dame (econ), UConn (econ & finance), Rutgers (econ & finance), Pitt (econ & finance), Houston (econ & finance) and Boston College (econ & finance) for my reach school. Thoughts?

Yeah, last night I was stressing out so bad I had to have a Jameson and water to cool my nerves so I could sleep.

...Any last minute advice?