stupidcat

I am, I'll be joining the physics department.

Have you visited both schools. If so, how do you feel about the professors and fellow grad students?

That's one of the main things that appeals to me actually.

That sounds good, a lot of the professors at the school are fairly young in their careers but come from highly regarded (see phds.org) phd programs and postdoc positions. Yeah, I've checked out that and phds.org. Since Merced opened up around 2005 there isn't any ranking/placement data on the school in general. I'm in the physical sciences.

I was accepted to UC Merced and attended an open house for the department recently. I liked the entire experience there and I think it would be a great fit, but I'm worried about the job hunt afterwords. My hope is to get on the tenure track at a research institution and I know that it's already hard to begin with, would I just be completely shooting myself in the foot going with UCM?

my cat was walking all over my keyboard as i was signing up to this forum

Wow, this morning has been crappy. Got 3 rejections from UCSB, UCLA, and UCD when I checked their respective websites. Ah well, there's always next year.

Thanks, I'm hoping. I've still been checking twice a day since I got the email yesterday (morning/night) and still nothing.

Good sign? Bad Sign? Why they tell me now, bah. The wait is the worst part.

You could try emailing the other programs late this month or early next month (if you haven't heard back from them) telling them that you have an offer from #1 school with $x funding for y years and that you were wondering what the prospects are for you in their (school 2 and 3) department. It would be good to wait and be able to visit all the schools that accept you to make a fully informed decision, but it sounds like you're already sitting in a very good position, congrats.

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I would ask my adviser/professor at my current institution for advice and/or email the department secretary of the places I've applied about the situation. Ask in the email if you would need to submit a change in your app because of that reason; most likely you won't have to.

What is this Berkeley, never heard of it.

I am celebrating (got acceptance notice last night) by continuing my research project. Analyzing my results right now in fact.

Inquiring minds would like to know.