smoothoperator77

I was notified just now that I was moved off the Rutgers waiting list and offered admission! For all still waiting, things could still happen today and a few days after!

What are the quotation marks around the word "hoping" supposed to mean? This alone tells me the exact reason that you did not answer my question. And for your information, I am not litigating admitted vs. non-admitted students, for the reason that I know that multiple people, including me, on this thread, have offers, and some are current PhD students who want to choose a better program. As you said, we are trying to make the right decisions, as these decisions matter a lot, especially at this time.

Listen, we perfectly understand your point, we know people have the freedom to do whatever they want, we know our chances are slim, but this forum is specifically for people like us who are still waiting and hoping, and it is only natural that we have some kind of healthy expression of either frustration or hope, in here, because we are only expressing those to each other and those who might have information and are WILLING to share, not you, and @PolPsychGal11, (I am calling on you directly because you've expressing harsh negativity once already and is upvoting this latest one again, like wtf? And it seems that you are a professor, I can't imagine how your students would feel about your attitude) if you were just going to dismiss people. You are very welcome to leave if we bother you this much. One question for you and all alike: have you had no setbacks in your life, at all? Don't pretend to be some kind of successful dudes from the moment you were born and look down upon us like you do. You might be really successful, and we might be a bunch of idiots to you, so please share your successful stories and condescending attitude with those who could appreciate it.

With all due respect, I don't think Omkar is clogging up the threads and spreading inaccurate information. I wish people could understand students in this situation with more compassion. Some of us really want to do this, and this is not even a job that meets the minimum wage, which tells how much we want this, and things are pretty desperate for many. Being in the seat of an insider is not a good reason to discourage the right of an outsider to have concerns and ask questions.

For me personally, as much as I am disgusted by some of the things you described, it's more of an issue that the political chaos in the US has been and is lowering the standard of the US academia as the No.1, than an issue that the US has necessarily stopped being the best location for academics. I think there is still a long way to go before we can consider the US worse than Europe if there would ever be a day of that, especially in terms of funding. Also, a big momentum for the increasing competitiveness of getting into a good program is the trend of stipend raises for PhD students, so in some way, you could consider the financial situation in the US academia is getting better, as long as you can get into a program. But I could understand your concern as a former progressive activist. However, it's not a perfect world. I am sure there are flaws in Europe concerning progressive values and academic freedom as well, let alone in Asia. If you just cannot stand Trumpism, then I guess you can't stand it. But as you said, we can always hope and contribute to a better future. I think one of the privileges of being a graduate student is that, compared with many other jobs, you can often find enough room for yourself to be yourself while making contributions to the changes you want to make, at least, that's how I want it to be.

The situation we are facing as possible future scholars in academia is so ridiculous….

I think it 100% won't hurt as long as we keep it discretely and humbly. I mean, it should be only normal that we feel excited and look forward to being in good programs that are still interested in us. But yeah, I doubt it impacts their decisions much. I think our ranking on the waitlist is already set either way, so it should be solely dependent on whether there would be a spot opening up. But I also think not expressing interest is inappropriate because if they are ever going to make offers off of the waitlist, they need to know that this decision is worth it and that they give it to someone who would cherish this opportunity.

I've reached out to them to confirm my strong interest in early March and will contact them again in late March. But I don't think most schools will have an idea about the chances of waitlists before April or even the second week of April. So I guess it's up to us.

I know that their offers are out since I was being waitlisted, not sure about their open house though. I am waiting for an update from UPenn as well, I emailed them yesterday but have not received a response yet.

Yeah it's weird if you have not received it. They should have sent multiple emails about that regarding the travel information and reimbursement for the travel cost.

We are in this together! A lot more difficult than I expected, and I thought I'd have more than one offer as well. But yeah, fortunate enough to prevent a total disaster two years in a row. I haven't received anything from Upenn yet. I'll send an email to check with them tomorrow. If you are attending the open house of AU on March 20th we could see each other that day.

Saw some rejections of Upenn pouring in. But is anyone still waiting on an official notice?

That's great! Congratulations.

I got an email from the DGS. Yeah I think all decisions were already out. Where did you accept?

Yeah I agree. I actually tend to think that they did not over admit, or at least they did not over admit a lot, like you said, maybe 3-4 offers in CP for two spots. Because they've always kept a small cohort and there are so few results posted on the result page.