Zoethor2

I went to grad school the first time around for Economics. I would say half our class did not have a degree in economics, and some had only taken a couple economics classes at all. If you have a strong math background, that is much more important because a graduate degree in economics is all about math. The research experience would be a big plus though, if staying an extra year would allow you to develop that, I would do it (assuming it's financially viable).

It can mean a variety of things and you'll need to call to find out. It can mean there was a problem at the testing center, some sort of problem with the test, or an allegation of misconduct. Or, I'm sure, many other things.

Anyone heard from GWU for the PPA PhD? I saw a few rejections go up on Friday and now I'm going slightly batty overanalyzing whether I should take that to mean I passed a first round of cuts or what.

A few rejections were posted for my program last Friday. Based on past years it seems like they send out some rejections, then waitlist and admits, and then sometimes additional rejections, spaced through about a week. So now I'm overanalyzing like crazy. Am I in? Am I at least waitlisted? WHY ON EARTH DON'T THEY SEND ALL THE DECISIONS ON THE SAME DAY? pheeeeeeeee.

Every damned day. "Under review". REVIEW FASTER.

Yeah, 8ish years ago when I was on this merry-go-round the first time, I applied to 15 schools. There were at least a handful that I simply never heard anything from after the "application received" notification. And there were another handful that I had to call up basically a day or two of April 15 to get them to admit I had been rejected.

Yeah I get a lot of "Did you get your acceptance yet?" GAH. 4% admit rate!!! It is not a sure thing!!! Does they think that that's because 96% of the applications they receive are just grossly unqualified?

Yup, when I was in my first go-round with this process I applied to a relatively unusual program, a sort of multi-disciplinary psych/econ/stats/social science thing, and we had out and out interviews with students during the prospective student weekend, and it was clearly stated that several of those students sat on the admissions committee with voting rights equivalent to faculty. I suspect this is probably more common in a) smaller programs and b ) more "unusual" programs. But it definitely can happen. I actually found it nice - meeting with the existing graduate students gave me a much better feel for whether I would fit well in the program in a day-to-day sense, and they all seemed to take their duties very seriously - they were very familiar with my application package and genuinely interested in talking with me. YMMV of course! Edited because the second item on a lettered list is not a smiley face with sunglasses.

Oddly, this is one place where the onus is actually on us, the applicants! Guess we get a little bit of power in this crazy process...

I think that unless this is a major title bump ("Research Assistant" to "Director") it's probably not worth it unless you know for sure that the application review process hasn't started. If everything is still in the hands of the administrative folks, it might not be too big a deal to update it, but if they've already disbursed packages to the adcomm to review, it would be a much bigger effort on their side to add an update to yours. At least for the program I applied to, I could tell when the materials went out to the adcomm, because my application status changed from "submitted" to "under review", and an email was sent out saying that professors were reviewing applications and we'd hear back in 6-8 weeks.

It's possible to get an unfunded first round admit. Typically it would mean that you're waitlisted for funding. But isilya is correct that funding offers don't always arrive simultaneous to admission offers. I don't think you would be out of line to email back and inquire about when you will hear about funding/your funding status, given it's been nearly a month.

Some schools don't notify waitlist students, since their admission status is still up in the air (could go admit, could go reject). When I did my first round of grad admissions 8ish years ago, I discovered that some schools even effectively don't reject anyone - it's either admit or you're on the waitlist. You might be #5,762 on the waitlist, but they still wouldn't out and out say I was rejected. So, you may be waitlisted. I would give it to the end of the month, and then send some email inquiries or make some phone calls for places that seem to have made notifications based on the results search.

TBH I hadn't heard the word "defalcated" before, but having looked it up, it seems it is a synonym for embezzle and thus only applies to financial theft. Whereas purloin is a synonym for steal or thieve, which can apply to any object.

Woohoo! May your good luck* rub off on all of us. *not meant in any way to imply that your getting in was merely a matter of luck.

Ultimately, the issue is that many programs receive applications from many qualified and highly qualified applicants. So any one weak spot on your application could be a reason to choose another candidate over you. Is there a reason you're opposed to just resitting the GRE? You've got plenty of time, and if it was just an off day, there's no reason you shouldn't be able to do better on the quant section.

I think that sounds very good, just the right balance of professionalism and enthusiasm.

Yup, to echo the posts above, the PhD program I've applied to doesn't release any decisions till end of February at the earliest, probably more like mid-March. The timeline for notifications is highly dependent on both school and field of study.

I know with near certainty that I won't hear anything until March 1st at the absolute earliest, so I've managed to check the application portal only once or twice a day. Once March 1 rolls around, I'm sure I'll be in there hourly.

And maybe kindly saving money for us applicants - geez louise my undergraduate university has got a racket going on official transcripts.

FWIW, Shep, when I applied for my first go-round on the graduate school train, I got rejected by *all* my "safety schools" (3 of them) while getting into 4 schools in the rank 40 to 15 range in the field. I think it's common (at least in some fields) for schools, if they think you are so overqualified you are sure to get in elsewhere and then turn them down, to sort of pre-emptively reject you.

I managed to bring both Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the Jennifer Lawrence nude photo leak into one of my essays. I was somewhat proud of myself, but yeah, probably wouldn't have written that if the adcom was going to be reading it.

Back during my first go-round with graduate school, I applied to 15, but I was largely unconstrained in terms of location and was applying into a very common field. I'm now aiming to go back, but with far more restrictions, and interest in only one specific subfield, and I applied to only 1 school. It's quite nervewracking, but there's no sense applying places that I wouldn't want to go to even if I got in!

From what I could find on Google it appears this means they are reviewing your scores. I'm sure it could be any number of reasons, from something minor to something major like a scoring glitch or complaint about the test center. It does seem to imply that your scores might be revised.

I definitely empathize, but for me it's not my parents - my Dad actually seems to totally grasp the reality that I'm competitive but that there will be lots of other competitive applications so there is some degree of luck involved. It's my coworkers, including my supervisors, who are just convinced I'll get in and keep saying things like that, or making statements implicit on the assumption that I'll be in the program next fall. (I'm applying to go part time and maintain my job.) Stop jinxing it, people!

Cost of living can vary a lot, depending on your housing desires, and your willingness to commute. If you're willing to live in a high-rise style apartment building (expect problems with bugs, and potentially undesirable neighbors), housing is cheaper, and moreso if you have a roommate(s) to share a 2 or 3 bedroom. Right in the College Park area there are lots of "student style" (read: kind of crummy) apartments where with a roommate or two, your portion of rent would be around $350-$500. If you want a single bedroom/studio, don't plan on less than $600, and $800 may be more typical. If you want to live in a really nice high rise, prices rise accordingly. Around $1400-$1600 for a two bedroom would not be uncommon, though you would likely be living in a nice area (say, downtown Silver Spring), and thus be quite convenient to public transport. If you're willing to put more time into finding a place, there are a lot of nice, privately owned, apartments/houses/condos for rent, though often these will be farther away from campus - say Greenbelt, Takoma Park, Silver Spring (not downtown), Laurel MD, etc. I'm in a Takoma Park house, in a two bedroom, and my share of rent is $550, including all utilities. My commute to campus takes about an hour, including a half hour walking. (I could take the bus for that part, but I prefer to walk.) All in all: stipends at UMD range from about $13,000* to $18,000*. That's about the range you should expect your cost of living to fall into, and it will allow for eating out, going to bars, buying non-necessities, in moderation. If you're willing to live like a monk, you might be able to get by on as little as $12,000, but it will be HARD, and you will need to spend a lot of time shopping for deals, and buying groceries only on sale. I think that $16,000 is probably about the number most graduate students budget around, and expect 2/3 to 3/4 to be gone to housing right away. If anyone wants more info, or whatever, feel free to drop me an email! --Zo