Aceflyer

Don't live in Dorchester, Roxbury, or basically any part of South Boston or East Boston. This basically includes areas near the following T (subway) stops: Broadway, Andrew, Ashmont, and Mattapan on the Red Line, most of the Orange Line south of Back Bay, and most of the Silver Line Washington Street south of E. Berkeley Street. The Green Line-E Branch south of Brigham Circle is possibly not all that great either. Most grad students I know of either live in Cambridge (near Kendall/MIT, Central, Harvard, or Porter on the Red Line) or Somerville (near Davis on the Red Line), or in Boston near a stop on the B or C Branches of the Green Line. You should also take into note the fact that Boston public transit stops operating relatively early every night: don't plan to count on the subway after 12:00 AM. Couple this with the fact that the subway system is relatively limited and that rents on places within walking distances of a subway stop are very high, and you get some people who prefer to live somewhere a bit cheaper and drive or bike to school/work (or take the bus).

Did you apply to Weill Cornell (NYC) or Cornell University (Ithaca, NY)? If the latter, which Field did you apply to?

Just going from the schools' reputations and the U.S. News rankings, it seems that IU-Bloomington has a significantly better graduate program than UTMB or the Medical University of South Carolina. But if you are genuinely interested in all three programs, it would be best for you to go and visit all three and make a personal comparison.

You could just send them an email (or call them) and ask. It isn't unreasonable for you to want to know when you should expect to receive your formal offer and when you need to inform them of your decision.

That happened to me too with one prof I met. It was unexpected but great.

Really? That's interesting... all of the schools I've visited have asked, so I really doubt it's considered 'highly unprofessional' for a school to ask. Again, though, I'll note that I applied to biosciences programs, so this could differ for other graduate programs.

Don't worry. They won't drop you because of the W's. If a potential adviser actually asks about this, you can then explain it to him/her, but otherwise IMO there really isn't any need to bring this up to anyone.

Same here. But then both of us applied to biosciences programs, which may operate slightly differently from sociology programs... Still, I don't think telling them would hurt.

Agreed completely! It's the same thing for MCGD. I too highly recommend visiting Yale if you have the chance.

I think this is solid advice. Some of the schools I've visited have stated that casual dress is fine, but one program wanted business casual. Also, don't stress out too much! You're already accepted (congratulations!), so as long as you look presentable I'm sure you'll be fine.

If you're this hesitant about doing a Ph.D., don't go to a Ph.D. program.

Why do you feel too young to go into a Ph.D. program? Just sincerely thank them for their consideration and support of your application to their program. Let them know that it was not an easy decision. Then you should be fine.

I don't really see any risks with telling them. They probably just want the information for record collection/statistical analysis purposes; it helps them judge how competitive they are as a program.