InquilineKea

^Well, I took the plunge and mentioned my online outreach. It might have helped with Chicago and it might have hurt with Caltech (even though Quora has lots of connections with Caltech - though this could work in a bad way as well). That's all I'll say for now.

Oh - and I forgot to say - thanks very much for the congrats! [sorry I was really tired!] I know some people in the department who got acceptances as late as March. Good luck on UChicago - I really hope that you can make it in! ===== PS: The faculty vote for the first round of Columbia EESC decisions is coming on Friday January 27th (and the first round of acceptances will come out the following week).

Wow - that was great advice!

I have issues with severe chronic neck pain and while I'm trying to find means to address it (by correcting my posture), it's going to be a very long road before my neck starts to recover. What should I do if I have that sort of issue during an interview? It's not debilitating, but it does often mean that I have to sit in somewhat awkward positions (with my head tilted back) Maybe wearing an ice pack pre-interview could help? Is it also ever helpful to tell them that I might have those issues?

What if I interviewed a professor via Skype before applying, and now in the process of waiting for decisions?

Okay - I'm bumping this (anyone else applying to these programs this year?)

Are professors ever offended if you take several days to reply to their emails? I suppose the greater risk might be that they might forget about you and then be less likely to reply to your reply though...

This is an amazing thread - and I'd really like to bump it since I'm now facing a very similar decision myself. Does anyone know how I could ask "what percent of professors in department X get tenure?" My impression is that the tenure process is more brutal for some departments than for others.

How did they phrase the email? In my field, at least, the professors all encourage me to not make any decisions until I've visited all the campuses. With that said, I'm in a field that's unusually nice to its grad students. But maybe just tell them that you've been strongly advised by multiple sources to hold it off until you've visited all the campuses? Even if it's your top program.

Special case: McCormick fellowship. Apparently, mine was sent at the same time as someone's fellowship in the Astronomy department - it might be the case that they feel pressure to inform applicants of these fellowships early. I got an email from the professor I talked to at the AGU (and who will most likely be my adviser).

Hm okay. What about living in the surburbs and then commuting via train? Or is that not worth it? The $4500 is on top of my stipend (as it was a fellowship for top students).

I got some really good messages by posting my decisions - I even get messages from people I haven't talked to in a long time. I wonder if the number of "likes" gets diluted with each announcement though. Or I wonder how school prestige (from the layman's perspective, anyways) affects "likes". Though one thing's for sure: I don't get "likes" from people who are also going through the same process and stressed about their applications. That's fine though - I totally understand.

haha that was a hilarious post

Thanks! Thanks as well! I'll PM you his name. Most acceptances are sent far later than mine - I was a special case. Geophysical Sciences. Hmm - a lot of the Physics majors are jealous of me because I got some of my decisions really early. But I understand.

Just got into UChicago! Just wondering - are there special dorms for grad students? Also, how much would a $4500/year fellowship help defray living costs?

Just got accepted by Chicago with the McCormick fellowship for being one of the top applicants. Rejected by Caltech (I ****ed up the personal statement since it was the first one I wrote, but I also made some other questionable decisions =/). Though it could be for other reasons too.

Ha - they're discussing gradcafe here: http://www.reddit.com/r/GradSchool/comments/otkam/thegradcafe_useful_or_endless_spiral_of_madness/

If so, which subreddits do you browse? I mostly browse AskScience, gradschool (ha), and a few others.

That, combined with Airbnb? hotelmaps.com is showing a lot of hotels that are far cheaper than what Google Maps ever showed me.

Updating for now (though things could really change in the upcoming week.........) Undergrad Institution: University of Washington (top-5 in atmospheric science, where I'll be getting most of my LORs from) Major(s): Astronomy, Physics, Math Minor(s): Applied Math GPA in Major: 3.77 Astronomy, 3.76 for all Physics courses beyond freshman year (but it drops when I include my bloody freshman year) Overall GPA: 3.58 for last two years (overall is lower, but complicated situation due to early entrance) Position in Class: Unknown as school doesn't report. But definitely one of the top students in the Astronomy department. Type of Student: Domestic Parrot GRE Scores: Q: 167 (95%) - 800 on old GRE. V: 166 (97%) - 700 on old GRE. W: 6.0 (99%) Biology: 810 (89%), completely self-studied without taking any courses asides from a grad-lvl neurophysiology course Cellular & Molecular Biology: 82% Organismal Biology: 89% Ecology/Evolution/Population Biology: 91% P: (will give later - all I'll say is that it's competitive for Tier-1.5 Astronomy grad programs...). Quora took up the time I wanted to study for it, but it may not matter that much anymore. Research Experience: - Several years Awards/Honors/Recognitions: - National AP Scholar (8 self-studied APs) - Early Entrance @ University of Washington Pertinent Activities or Jobs: - Attended a grad-student summer program (CASS 2011 - http://www.ifa.hawai...UHNAI/CASS2011/ ) as an undergrad last summer - Quora Reviewer (have really built up the science sections on Quora up over the last few months), and am a top answerer on Astronomy, Biology, Neuroscience, Planetary Science, Atmospheric Science, Animal Behavior, Scientific Research, and Academia Special Bonus Points: - Grad-lvl courses in Neurophysiology, Planetary Atmospheres, Objective Analysis (aka Digital Signal Processing), High-Performance Scientific Computing, Numerical Linear Algebra, Causal Modelling (in statistics), Chinese Geography, and Ice/Climate (atmospheric science) - all with 3.4 GPA or above Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter: - My overall GPA got nuked by my idiocy when I was 16, but I'm still glad I did early entrance. - Intense interdisciplinarity may help with earth/atmospheric/planetary science programs (even though it may be seen in a negative way by other programs) - Numerous other factors, but best not to elaborate here. Applying to Where: Mostly programs with active professors who do 3D modelling of exoplanetary atmospheres. Caltech - Environmental Science and Engineering (ESE) - Chicago - Geophysical Sciences - Columbia - Astronomy - Columbia - Earth and Environmental Science (EESC) - MIT - Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences (EAPS) - Yale - Geology & Geophysics - Invited for visit/interview 1/12 - UCSC - Astronomy - Brown - Geological Sciences -

I'm seeing some people get accepted/rejected by websites. Do schools that do this notify people that their decisions might be posted on a website? Do some schools notify people via the website without notifying people that their decisions might be posted on the website? I'm curious as to whether Caltech, Columbia, Yale, MIT, Chicago, UCSC, or Brown do it at all. I haven't seen anyone applying to those schools get notifications via the website, but it's possible that their decisions might still end up posted on the website (and that they didn't check).

And if so, how did it end up there?

Oh wow - thanks for all the advice, everyone! Yeah - I was in UHawaii - Manoa for 2 weeks last summer, and still felt like I barely got to know the campus at all. With that said, at least I got to know all the basic things.

How did you get disastrous results with your campus address? Which campus were you on? My results with campus deliveries were far better than with home deliveries (since at home, they're always at risk of theft). At campus though, there's none (they just inform you that you have a package over email, and keep the package for you for at least a week).

Yay - thanks so much! =) Interesting. I wonder how true this is (it might depend on how much money Yale has available, and how much of the funding comes from the geoscience department, as opposed to Yale itself). Though I do know someone else who said that they definitely do take over 50% of students who interview. Thanks for all the advice. Yeah - I think I'm actually planning on attending several days before the event. I'm not taking any classes this quarter, so that's plenty of time (so that I can also get acquainted with the Astronomy department too).