InquilineKea

it's FUN i wish i could stay for longer!

At least two ppl from the Yale G&G open house this year have heard back.

Like, almost Randy Marsh funny? It seems that whenever they get a crazy story when working in the field, they never fail to mention it. One guy at Yale today even posted the Yahoo Answers-like comments to one of the popular media articles describing his research. And another guy talked about how a mummified (poisoned) puma cat somehow died in Pantagonia, and then a bunch of random animals took bites out of it and then died (and became mummified) as well.

Kay, I'm meeting lots of prospective applicants at Yale G&G open house today (around 26 of them came to the event), and have lots of results to report. Case 1: Female, domestic from Harvard (climate dynamics/ice). Applied to Yale, MIT, Columbia, Washington, UC Berkeley, Caltech (IIRC), Stanford (?) and others. Did not hear back from Columbia or MIT, got into all the rest. Case 2: Female, Chinese, international from UWashington (climate dynamics) - working with the same professor that I'm closest to, too. Applied to Yale, Princeton, Washington, Caltech, UCLA, MIT, Columbia (IIRC), and others. Got into Princeton, Caltech, and UCLA. Still waiting for Columbia, MIT, and Washington. Case 3: Male, Chinese, international from Missouri (seismology). Applied to Yale, Stanford, Rice, Washington, and others. Got into Rice, accepted by Washington, and also able to visit Stanford (not totally sure about the situation there though). Case 4: Male, domestic from Northwestern (something with caves). Applied to Yale, UT-Austin, Colorado School of Mines, and a few others. Has not heard from anyone other than Yale yet. Yale G&G had 108 total applicants this year, an increase of approximately 46%. Multiple sources say that Columbia and MIT are generally pretty late when it comes to climate science applicants.

Woah - why did you unofficially accept the offer even when you were waiting for others?

Heh - they invited me to visit the department during the last week of February - I'll most likely visit from Feb 26th to March 1st.

This was technically an independent visit, but once I told them the circumstances (I was visiting Yale and was already making plans to visit Brown), they invited me, offered to pay for travel and lodging, and even set up a schedule for me. And haha - you followed me from physicsgre.com.

Doesn't it depend on whether or not you're the person who wants to email them, or if the other person is the one who wants to email you? Right now (as an undergrad), for example, it is almost always the case that I'm the person who wants to email the other person. The other person probably doesn't care that much whether I reply or not, so I often delay my replies in order to put more thought into them (so that I won't have to risk sending multiple emails to them, or sending something that I might need to retract later).

Interesting - do you know how many students the department takes each year as a whole? My contact in the climate science division said that they get 35 applicants and take approximately 8.

My impression is that since Columbia is by far the biggest and broadest of the strong departments, it also attracts a very large fraction of the strongest applicants (I'd probably also guess that it attracts more applicants than almost every other department, although I could be wrong on that). When I ask people what schools they've applied to, Columbia is included more often than any other school in the list. But on the other hand, since it's also big, it doesn't seem to be as personal as many of the other schools, so many accepted students also turn it down as well.

For the others - regarding Columbia, I originally said this: "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)." But maybe I'm mistaken? I might have confused the word "next Friday" at the time I called, which could have been the Friday after January 27th. Apparently, AA105 just got in Columbia - congrats! Anyways, since his profile is clearly exceptional, he's probably going to be one of the first people accepted there. There does seem to be some inconsistent information though. My first contact (the professor) said that admissions in the climate division was done separately from that of the entire department. But then the department adviser said that admissions is done department-wise (with just one representative from the climate division). And then more inconsistent information from what NoNO said (who said that decisions are still a month away).

Interesting - I see. What part of exoplanets are you interested in? I'm into exoplanetary atmospheres. My visit is slated to be on Feb 28th-29th.

Well, the department adviser did tell me that admissions is done on a per-adviser basis, so applicants are competing for the same adviser, rather than for the entire department (I know I told you this before - but I'll just say it for everyone else).

Woah - very interesting profile - I suppose we'll meet each other at Chicago then. PS: What are your precise research interests? Any in the intersection of EPS and Astro? If you don't mind telling me, which professors at UCLA, Chicago, and Columbia did you contact? And which specific division at UCLA did you apply to?

Heh - I know several other people who do this too. Yup - I use StatCounter to do the same thing

I'm not seeing anything from the grad cafe results thing. So I'm not sure what's happening. I know several people who did get into the program (they were very strong students who got multiple acceptance offers and top student fellowships from top schools), and even they didn't get their acceptances until late February or even March. From the results of previous years, it appears that we'll still have to wait until late next week until we get to see the first offers. My website analytics thing actually shows that someone from Columbia looked at my website yesterday.

Oh wow I see - thanks for all the information! I wonder if I should take my bike to get the groceries or not. How do car-less people usually get their groceries in Chicago anyways?

haha nice quotes. i liked the delivery in the second video. another thread: http://www.quora.com/Whats-some-shit-that-graduate-students-say?q=shit+graduate+studentsay http://www.quora.com/Whats-some-shit-that-prospective-grad-students-say?q=shit+graduate+studentsay

Wow - the "record a voice message" idea is quite creative - I should try that sometime.

Does anyone know how bikable Chicago is? And if it's possible to carry the bikes on the Chicago trains? And does Chicago have a problem with bike thieves?

If the interview is arranged informally and you have interesting things to say (or if they genuinely enjoy talking to you), then maybe it might be possible to even arrange a second interview too. I don't think this applies in most cases, but a number of professors do say "talk to me again anytime". I wonder if anyone else has done this?

I was really meaning schools that I expected to choose between. I don't expect an acceptance from UCSC or MIT, though I do expect getting accepted by Columbia and Brown - so I basically expect to be choosing between Chicago, Columbia, Yale, and Brown (although I suppose that Brown is a bit different).

Awesome, nice. What do you think are the chances of you ultimately accepting Chicago's offer?

Wow so cool - we both got into the same school and we're both vegetarian too. Anyways, there does seem to be an "Open Produce" store over at http://www.yelp.com/...of+chicago&ns=1. Not sure how much food it has in there though. Also, "Hyde Park Produce" at http://www.yelp.com/search?find_desc=grocery&find_loc=university+of+chicago&ns=1#find_loc=S+Woodlawn+Ave+%26+E+55th+St,+Chicago,+IL&show_filters=1

Undergraduate population isn't going to play a role in my decision - no - all the schools I'm choosing between have similar undergrad populations anyways. I didn't say that it'll play a role in my decision, but it's understandable why someone might think that the title implied that. I actually appreciate all the replies here - this is actually all good advice that redirected me to what I really should do - namely, ask the current grad students about the courses they TA. Yes - these two quotes were very helpful for me. Thanks.