slowbro

Some programs might very well notify on the weekend: one of mine sent an e-mail Saturday afternoon. As for me, I'm waiting on one more program (of five) to notify me. I want some closure, dagnabbit!

Is your open house on the 30th? If so, I'll be there as well, but as a PhD admit.

Indeed. I found my current place on the site -- and the landlords listed it only there because they didn't want to have to deal with a bunch of flakes.

Hey, look at what the user "alanthompson" tried to submit to Digg yesterday! It was promptly deleted, but you can see Google's cached copy for now at http://209.85.173.132/search?q=cache:4m ... d=12&gl=us. As a first-generation college student to whom these scams are usually targeted, I have nothing but loathing for the original poster, whoever he or she is.

One of the programs to which you applied, actually, has admitted a few candidates who appealed their rejection. It happens very rarely, but is possible. (I suspect that professional programs are more likely to do this than academic programs because most of the professional students pay full tuition.)

I can't answer the first part, unfortunately, since I don't know zhukora's friends. As for the second part, while some people do post their scores, it can still feel like bragging if you have a score that's much higher than the majority of the scores people have already posted. An anonymous "What's your GRE score?" poll would likely reveal that more people here have high scores than it seems. Three words: statement of purpose. Here's a link to an archived page offering statement of purpose advice to computer science applicants. The professor mentions that foreign students in particular misinterpret the intent of the statement of purpose. One of my professors, while not in the sciences, has also mentioned that foreign students often say things like "I would be honored to work with you on the research you are doing" rather than describing their own research interests -- a huge mistake.

I started early on my applications because I didn't want to rush to submit them at the last minute. My strategy failed miserably, though: despite working on them for an insane amount of time, I couldn't ever bring myself to submit them early because they never seemed to reach the "good enough" point.

Well, first, those of us who scored quite well on the GREs are unlikely to post about them on a message board because it would seem like pointless bragging. And there's obviously no reason for us to start a topic like "Can I get into [such-and-such program] with a 1580?" Also, I suspect that international applicants ascribe more importance to GRE scores than American applicants. My professors recommended that I spend all of my effort on my statement of purpose and told me that acing the GRE was a waste of effort; other posters here have reported similar experiences. For various reasons, it seems unlikely that a professor in, say, China would say the same thing to students.

I don't presume to speak for Jo_tigerlily, but some of us have a lot invested in this. I gave up a very good job to move across the country and begin a master's program in a new field -- taking on some amount of debt in the process, too -- with the eventual goal of getting a doctorate to teach or do research. While a lot of thought went into the decision, it was still a large risk with high opportunity costs; I also knew that I would have to work extremely hard in the master's program so that I could stand out among a group of talented and motivated students. And despite being fortunate enough to have three acceptances to top doctoral programs at this point, I still wonder if I haven't made a giant mistake. I haven't burst into tears yet, but it wouldn't have surprised me if I had -- and it won't surprise me if I end up bursting into tears of relief when this is all over and I know what I'll be doing after getting my master's. Oh, and Victory, congratulations on getting into Penn! I've seen you post here and at Cyburbia and I know how excited you must be.

Did these schools tell you that, out of curiosity? I ask because my current program -- not in psychology, admittedly -- reads through every applicant's file regardless of the GRE score. (Unfortunately, the files I've seen as a student reviewer with the lowest GREs were also the poorest overall, even without the GREs.)

My field lacks attractive professors, it seems, so no crushes. Naturally, I hope to remedy that by becoming a professor.

I said that lying about one's admission -- which is exactly what "I am thinking I will pretend I got into my top choice" means -- is a bad idea because it has serious potential consequences. I hope you reconsider your plan.

Heh. Inspired by this thread, I'll try my hand at an SOP haiku: Fallen maple leaf: lifeless and soon forgotten like my conclusion.

What would you gain from lying? Every time someone congratulated you for getting in, you'd feel like, well... a liar. Also, if someone found out that you lied, I suspect word would spread very quickly among your friends and colleagues. And since you appear to be in public policy, I think that would have severe repercussions.

The $30k stipend is part of the Provost's Fellowship or the Provost's Diversity Fellowship. It's a compelling amount of money, to be sure. Good luck to everyone applying, by the way! A couple planning programs to which I applied (like USC) are policy programs as well.

My current program offers a reason to rejected applicants who ask, and will encourage them to apply again -- a practice I think more schools ought to adopt, if only because people tend to think more highly of programs that reject them respectfully. It's even part of the program's admissions policy, although I don't think applicants have any way to see the policy.