-hermes-

Soo, not to be *that* person on a forum, but is your frustration limited to this situation? It sounds like he really dropped the ball on this life-changing decision. He never got around to making his list, he didn't get his ducks in a row to apply... From this extremely limited and biased info, it sounds to me like there's some toxicity here that you two need to address before making *any* long-term plans. Is it possible that he does not want to go? Is it possible that making a commitment for the next decade or so is too much for him?

Anyway, these are my two cents after about a year of therapy that started wayyyyy after my husband and I began to have similar issues. :-/

How old are you?

If your in your early twenties, you will really regret declining your offer later.

I would accept, and see how the first semester goes. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain by giving it 6 months.
You can always just finish up with a MS if the PhD is not for you.

You need more perspective to see if this is just a temporary SLUMP or RUT that your in regarding science. I get in rut lots of times with my passions such as playing music and feel that I hate it. But if I wait it out, I always return and enjoy it again.

The passion may return tenfold in the right environment or with some ethusiasm provided by your peers.

I had a dream that I was talking to some people on gchat when all of a sudden my POI starts chatting with me and says I've been admitted. I got so excited that I accidentally wrote what was intended for my friend to my POI, something along the lines of "oh my f***ing god! I cant believe it! they actually are letting me in! I cant believe they didn't see through my application!" My POI gets so offended that he changes his mind and rejects me right then and there on gchat...

1. "Oh, American schools like Harvard aren't all that hard to get into! Don't you just have to be able to pay?"

2. "Apply to more places" *stresses*

1. "Oh, American schools like Harvard aren't all that hard to get into! Don't you just have to be able to pay?"

2. "Apply to more places" *stresses*

In my personal statements I kept the balance 2/3-3/4 past research experiences that prepared me for grad school, 1/3-1/4 future research interests. I am just an undergrad in the sciences, but my professor told me that research interests often change during grad school (even among those who were certain of what they wanted to do) and thus you should keep the research interests section short. Therefore, you are getting it wrong. Shorten your research interests and integrate that with why you want to study there. Expand the section on your background - remember, background is definite and concrete, and you want to demonstrate that you will do well and not fail or flunk out of grad school. Harsh as it may seem, what you are interested in has little bearing on this.