ZeChocMoose

Since no one has claimed the Urban Ed PhD admit, can we declare it false? Here's hoping that we all hear something this week or next!

13! Wow-- that is a lot. Glad to hear that your news has been positive so far. I hope the streak continues. You have a mix of programs that you applied to. Are you more interested in student affairs, higher ed, or policy? Are you leaning any particular direction at the moment?

make me

I remember that the one Fulbright scholar that we had in the app pool was thought of very highly and the person didn't need to be funded so bonus! I am sure that you'll have a good shot at the places that you applied to.

One thought and I have no idea how competitive this is: can you work for a college or university perhaps in the campus's faith-based services? One of my former roommates did this (campus minister) and she didn't even have a Master's of Divinity. Sometimes those type of positions offer tuition remission and you could take classes (free!) to study Christian existentialism. You might want to look at religious-affiliated colleges or colleges that have divinity schools attached for these type of positions.

I concur! I find heat to be a huge issue for me. Any temperature near or over 100 F is problematic. Can I take a day here or there? Yes. Can I take weeks of this temperature? No. Thankfully, none of the schools that I applied to have climates like this. I prefer cold over hot any day

I would say if you are not passion and interested in the subject matter you'll be studying, it will be difficult to get through your program. My master's cohort started with 11 people and we graduated with 8 people. I would really try to gauge my interest whether I want to study (fill in the blank) for at least 5 years. Also there is a lot to be said for taking some time off and having an adventure. I took 2 years off between my bachelor's and master's -and- (hopefully) 3 years off between master's and PhD. Don't believe people who tell you that you won't go back to school. (Quite a few people tried to tell me this.) If you really want it for yourself, you'll make it happen. The time off gave me life experience, I got to travel, and I took jobs in random states that I probably won't have lived elsewhere. Also don't feel pressured to attend because you applied and got admitted. And try not to let other people's expectations influence your decisions. You have to live with these decisions, not them. My advice, go with your gut. Good luck!

on drugs

I am not an international student-- I am actually an American. After I read the discussion about quotas, I felt that I had to post. There are no quotas for applicants based on race, gender, or sexual orientation in the US. There are two famous U.S. Supreme Court cases back in 2003 (Grutter v. Bollinger and Gratz v. Bollinger) that speak to affirmative action policies in university admissions. Essentially, they ruled that race can be used as a factor in the admission process but universities cannot establish quotas for specific races/ethnicities or assign points* to applicants based on their demographics. If universities did this, it would be illegal. For the discussion on do universities have quotas for international students? It honestly doesn't make any sense. Just to think about it logistically, that would be a nightmare as programs and departments have different deadlines for admissions and release decisions at different times throughout the year. Just look to the gradcafe's result section to see this! I don't see how they would realistically coordinate this process. From my personal perspective, I sat on my admission's committee when I was a master's student. International students were reviewed with everyone else and were not flagged or singled out. The adcomm was interested in what they wanted to study, their background in the field, and the strength of their research skills. Being a citizen of x country never came up nor was important to the adcomm. I hope Elsa that you find that article and post it. I would be curious to read it. If you want to see data on international enrollments at US graduate schools, the Council of Graduate Schools have several informative reports. http://www.cgsnet.or....aspx?tabid=172 You can see that international student enrollments are increasing not declining so that is good news for you all * The "points" refers to the institution (in the court case) that was awarding underrepresented minorities 20 points. Applicants were rated on numerous items and if they received 100 points, they were admitted to the university.

I would assume that if you got off the waitlist then someone who was admitted (with full funded) declined. I would guess that you would get that person's full funding. Maybe that is why they can't always rank people on the waitlist especially if they are trying to match people with labs or POIs. I assume the waitlist contains candidates with a mix of research interests depending on which admitted student decides to decline.

down comforter

black swan

parade magazine

I am sorry to hear that elbee4. I am in a similar situation. I had an interview with my first choice school and I am waiting to hear the results. My POI told me I should hear next week!

When I held this title it was "academic advisor." So advisor

Positive thinking: Tick Tock. Ring… Yes? Acceptance. Success!

I think this is very field specific. I assume there are a lot of well known and regarded chemistry programs. On the other hand, higher ed (as a discipline) has only been around for the last 50 years so there is not a lot of programs out there. (I highly doubt there are even 150 programs!) If you don't attend the top 15 programs maybe even the top 10-- research opportunities, funding, and job prospects significantly decline. Also the availability of post-docs for education PhDs can be scarce. So your graduate institution can be the end all and the be all to set you up for a faculty career. You need to pick wisely and maximize your publishing while in the program. Therefore attending a program that is heavily involved with research is essential if you are looking for an academic career. So for us, I would say that #9 to #29 could be a huge quality jump but #4 to #10 probably isn't that different.

This is the month! I hope by the 28th, I will have heard positive news from all three of my schools. Good luck all

A school that is well known in your field helps you get a job either nationally or internationally (assuming that you also did good work while you are in the program). If you earn a graduate degree from a school that is only known locally, you may limit your choice of options to a particular geographic region. The academy (for better or worst) can be quite snobby about academics' pedigrees. If you hope to become a faculty member, I would suggest going to the school with the best reputation in your field. The only caveat is if Top Tier U didn't fund you. I would NOT recommend entering a PhD program without full funding (tuition remission + stipend). Or if the attrition is terrible (i.e. only 20% of people who enter the PhD program survive to earn degrees). A school with a great reputation has amazing resources. Faculty are doing cutting edge research, there is funding for graduate students to attend conferences (publish or perish!), and the alumni network is large and national (perhaps even international). Also your cohort will become a part of your professional network when you graduate. They are the people who will invite you to give talks or seminars on their campuses and you may even collaborate with them on research projects. Also being a graduate student of Top Tier U may help you if you are applying to fellowships and dissertation grants. Take a look at who the funders gave awards to in previous years-- usually they are graduate students from other Top Tier Us. In my opinion attending a well known institution gives you more choices. These choices are important when you find yourself competing in a saturated job market. Therefore, make yourself look the best it can on paper.

Usually 500 words just means two pages double spaced. If you SOP didn't go on to a third page, I think you are fine. Believe me, the adcomm is not taking the time to count the number of words in your SOP! They have more important issues to deal with.

As someone who has known a couple people who have gone straight on from their bachelor's degree to earn their doctorate and now want nothing to do with their field-- I think it was helpful to work a couple years in my field to make sure I enjoyed it enough to invest 5+ years in a PhD program. That being said, I think there are some people who know from an early age what they want to do for their career. I didn't have that realization until my master's degree.

I am so torn on whether you should or you shouldn't explain hiccups on your applications. I have seen adcoms react to this favorably (i.e. death in the family) and adcoms dismiss the applicants' explanations (usually academic struggles, stress, or homesickness). Personally, I wouldn't want to draw attention to my weak points. I suppose if you really feel that you must address some weakness, I would only write 1-2 sentences and attach it as supplementary document to my application or I would ask a recommender to explain the context if it was appropriate (i.e. death in the family).

I think the issue would be if those schools have cut off points and then your application will not be reviewed. Can I ask why you did 3 master's degrees? Are the first two concurrent? I also will echo the advice that is already posted that there is not much you can do about it now since your applications are submitted. At this point, I would hope for the best, but prepare for the worst. As a second time applicant myself, there is no shame in having to apply again to PhD programs. You may want to look into other programs as well and expand you list a bit if these are all top tier programs. I wish you the best of luck!

Snowier regions of the country know how to deal with snow and should be up and running either later on that day or the next. Unless the storm is coming on the day of or before your interviews-- you should be fine. It that looks like it will happen-- taking an earlier flight might be in your best interest.

Yes, yes I saw that too and thought the same thing as you did, HigherEdNerd. I assume it was the same person but he/she never responded to some of the questions that were posted on the results section so I didn't know what to think. Although, if it wasn't true-- urban ed policy at USC is a random admission result to make up. Are you just applying to schools in CA? I saw that you had also applied to UCLA. Best of luck. It seems like these next couple weeks is when we should be hearing from programs.