thelost

Really? I assume the department has to pay out-of-state tuition for the out-of-state TA's and RA's. I can't believe they would take all out-of-state students if there were no qualified in-state students. That could cost them a lot if they pay non-resident rate for non-resident TA's and RA's. Then again maybe that's not the case. Maybe TA's and RA's tuition is the same no matter where they are from.

Yeah, I mean being in the same state as the school. All the states I've looked at don't count going to school as being a resident. Even if you go to school for a year or more, if your primary reason for being in the state is for education, they don't consider you a resident. Poor title choice on my part, I mean benefit as in better odds of being accepted. I bet departments shoot for a certain number of in-state and out-of-state students. I doubt they take anyone without regard to location. If they accepted all or a lot of out-of-state students their costs would double or triple or they would have to shrink the size of the program to stay within their budget. Now the question is do they set the number of in-state and out-of-state students based on the demographics of the applicants? If they aim for 50% out-of-state and 50% in-state, but 75% of applicants are from out-of-state, then being in-state is an advantage.

Do residents have an advantage over non-residents when applying to PhD programs? I assume that most departments at public universities would rather hire a RA or TA that is a resident because it will cost them less to cover the tuition.

The list seems accurate. I only had one interview, but I was asked most of those questions. It's like a job interview.

So what if I haven't emailed the school at all yet? I haven't heard anything from two schools. I strongly suspect I'm wait listed. Should I just continue to tough it out until next week? I worry I may have missed a postal letter (although I'm 99% sure I haven't).

I looked into this before too. It seems like it's only an issue if you plan to go into academia. Businesses probably don't care. If you want to know how common it is, I have some real data. I work at a college and out of 6000 graduates, 500 have two degrees from the college and 30 have three degrees from the college. Some of those are people with multiple BS degrees, but I'd guess the majority are people who have a BS/MS or MS/PhD from the college.

I'm in the same boat. I see some acceptances on the results page and I haven't heard anything one or the other. I assume I'm wait listed.

They should notify you. Check their website. Most departments list the latest date they will send out notifications.

Thanks for the info techcommie. HCI is a tricky field. It's multidisciplinary and many departments say they specialize in it.

I have a BS in CS, an MLIS and I'm interested in studying usability issues. Recently I applied for PhD's in library and information science. I haven't heard back from them yet, but I'm fearing the worst. I stumbled across technical communication when I was looking at i-schools. I didn't apply to any of the technical communication programs though because I noticed they were typically run by communications or English departments. Is technical communication mostly about writing technical documents? I'm confused by the curriculum's. They look like they might be a fit me (courses in usability, document design, user centered design, etc.) and some of the faculty have the same interests of me. However, I'm concerned I wouldn't be a fit because I don't have a background in communication or English. Am I too computer oriented?

I came off a little strong in my post. I'm not a professor and I don't work on a committee. However, I looked this topic up before because I too had similar concerns. Maybe law schools are different or maybe it depends on the program.

Schools don't reject people because they are overqualified. They will gladly extend an offer to someone with qualifications far above their typical student. They can always turn to the wait list if the person doesn't accept.

Maybe they are using a plugin or have their browser configured to block or trick your analytics. Ok, that's highly unlikely, but it's possible. Let's stay positive!

I wouldn't post what schools I'm applying to or my status with each. With those two bits of information alone schools could create a very short list of people. If you reveal your research interests, location or job they could nail you down exactly. If you insist on sharing your acceptances or rejections, I would do it like: "Applied: 10, Accepted: 2, Rejected: 3, Waiting: 5" Not that I have anything to hide, but you never know how a post could be interpreted.

I haven't even thought about funding yet. I'm trying to take it one step at a time. But now you have me wondering, if you don't receive funding immediately, could you try to get funding next semester or next year?