UndraftedFreeAgent

I have been offered funding and yes, it came in the regular mail. Have you been getting any of the emails about the visitation weekends? If so, you could just reply to one of those and ask, as I am sure they can understand your situation. Otherwise, you should email Professor Maestas. She is in charge of the graduate program and has been very friendly. Good luck!

Hi everyone, I know a few others on this forum have received admits from FSU. For those who have, are you planning to go to the first or second visitation weekend?

Undergrad econ really means nothing in terms of "having a math background" (I was a math and econ double major). At most schools, a BS in econ requires maybe 1 semester of of calculus and 1 semester of statistics. Any graduate study in econ (I have an MA in economics and econometrics) is a bigger deal, because it requires knowledge of multivariate calc, linear algebra, statistics, and real analysis. Anyway, it doesn't sound like "playing catchup" will be too much of a problem at most schools, because way more people will be in your situation than in mine and they will be teaching based on that fact. In another 10 years, I'm willing to bet that this will change, and you will see poli sci grad departments requiring more calc... especially in places that like game theory and methods. Sorry if that sounded like gloating in any way. I've suffered through higher level math since AP courses in high school and this is the first time any of it has worked to my advantage.

The website says that all decisions will be mailed by March 15. I didn't apply, when I was going through all of this for Econ programs a couple of years ago, but I'm told that the grad school's rejection letter was quite thorough. Let's hope none of us get to see it. I think from year to year it switches between the different disciplines, as to which of us are the most neurotic. Back in 06, I would have sworn that it was the economists, but this year, they seem not to have found the place. If my employer wasn't tracking every website we visit, I would never get any work done, because I would always be checking my status.

I'm right there with you. With one acceptance already under by belt, every day I'm tempted to just walk into the office, release two pigs: one with a number "1" on its back and the other with a number "3" on its back, and never go back. I'm just telling myself that the job is helping me to pad my eventual stipend.

"Submitted" is equivalent to complete with this system. If you were missing anything, there would be a big glaring warning box, and they would have contacted you personally. I know, because I was originally missing a few things. crazypoligirl: you had to have been given a PIN or else you could not have completed the application. If you still have it, check the email they sent you when you set up your account. The email is titled "online account information". Midway down the page it will list your PIN, though even then, you need to remember the password that you set. If you can't find your info, the tech support link is http://app.applyyourself.com/AYContactHelpDesk/TechSupport.asp?packageType=Application%20for%20Admission&ca=SUNYSB-GS&p=373N782KV If you have applications at any other schools that use the "apply yourself" system, then your PIN and password are the same for those programs.

"Checked the website" could mean a few different things. Some schools, when you apply, send confirmation emails with a link to a place where you can obsessively check your status. You'll usually have been given a PIN and a password that you need in order to access the site. Other schools have general grad school status check websites. These usually require the same user name and password that you used when you applied. Yet other schools will send you an email after you have been accepted/rejected telling you to click on a specific link that will lead you to a page with their decision. Oh, and I too applied to Stony Brook. When you applied, they sent you an email with a PIN. Go to the grad school admissions site and there will be a link to check your status. Use this PIN and the password you chose back when you applied and it will take you to your personal page. So far, all mine tells me is that my application is complete.

That would be nice, but "the Grad School" also sends out rejections. It just means that nothing has been decided and not to give up hope.

That's because at most schools, all applications have to be "approved" by the grad school, even after the department says yes. This is more a rubber stamp than anything else for Ph.D. programs. It's mostly from keeping MA or certificate programs from just accepting everyone and dragging down the reputation of a school, but I've never heard of it being a problem. Offers could come from the dept. or from the grad school, depending on the school's policy. As for needing to hear early in order to schedule flights, I wouldn't worry about that so much. Most schools will pay for you to fly in for accepted students weekends.

Yes, I'll have a car, though I still have a bunch of schools to hear from before deciding. If there are any areas to particularly avoid, that would be good info. I've gotten myself into trouble before, wandering into bad neighborhoods alone. I was down there for a couple of days this Fall, during a torrential rain/thunder storm, so I didn't get to explore as much as I would've liked.

Wow, this is a great resource.

Floodplains... now that's something to look into. As much as I love swimming/SCUBA diving, I don't think my potential dog/cat would like it as much as I do. I saw some beautiful new apartments this Fall a few miles east of town, though I would imagine traffic to be a pretty big problem. At this point, we may want to change the venue for this discussion from here to the Tallahassee city guide thread.

Median existing home price was $183,740 in the first quarter of 2007 and is predicted to be $162,500 in the third quarter of 2008, but of course how many of us will be earning enough to buy a house anyway?

They said they were meeting later in the month to decide funding. I went down to one of the visitation days this Fall and it sounded like they were trying to increase the stipend from previous years. Housing and cost of living are pretty cheap, especially for a state capitol. I currently work as an economist, forecasting the outlook of metro areas, and if you're even considering buying a house near Tallahassee, this summer is the time to do it, as prices will be bottoming out in the third quarter of 2008. Then I suppose I will see you down at Emory, the weekend of the 29th. I'm pretty sure the professor who called was reading off of a script, but he definitely sounded very upbeat. I imagine it's a much more pleasant task than getting calls from students who have been rejected but not told yet. I'm guessing we still have a shot at UNC, based on when people posted their acceptances in previous years. Arrrrgh. I'm out of time. Have to go to work. But now I know that my days there are numbered :-)

Finally some good news! Admit: FSU, Interview: Emory

I wish. As I'm not the superstar some of you seem to be, It's likely to go down to the wire for me. I fully anticipate taking a few days off of work leading up to April 15, so I can be a jittery mess without scaring my coworkers.

I had an interesting thought this afternoon, after having received my official "go away" notice from OSU poli sci. It would be interesting to collect rejection letters from as many schools as possible and turn it into some sort of grad student art exhibit. Maybe tearing them up and creating a sculpture out of paper mache showing a student shaking his/her fist at the sky, or something like that. I'm likely to get quite a few myself, given the number of schools to which I applied and how many of them are a bit of a reach. Any ideas you all might have would be welcome.

I agree that you should go ahead and RSVP to the accepted students weekend, though it occurs to me that their late visitation weekend is no accident. They put it late so that you might see grass and flowers rather than snow and desolation. I'm willing to bet that if a study were to be conducted about the impacts of bad weather on a student's likelihood to choose a particular university, it would show that having several feet of snow on the ground would hurt their recruiting efforts. That said, I know a few people in other programs up there who are quite happy with the school (and with the hockey).

Ditto. Even though I didn't expect to get in to the first place to reject me, it's still made me a nervous wreck, knowing that decision season really is here. My job was already quite stressful. This is not helping.

UVA started sending rejections (email). I don't even really consider it a rejection, as one of my recommenders was more than a month late. Notice I didn't even list UVA among the schools I was waiting for.

I do. Kokubanut-- How did you hear? FSU is one of my favorites.

I saw that someone else (the earliest poster on the results page) posted a rejection, so I checked the website. The page I checked said something ominous like "application not approved". I'm not particularly surprised, as they're a really hot program and it wasn't really the best fit. With some rankings placing them in the top 5, it really epitomized the term "reach school", I just wasn't expecting to get dinged by anyone this early. At least I can rest assured that the students who get accepted will really want to be there.

They just dumped me too. Oh well. Even though they're a top program, they weren't one of my favorites.

It's interesting how many of us overlap and not only with "reach/ideal" schools. If all goes well, many of us should be meeting at one place or another. I'm interested in matching faces to some of these comments hahaha.

WashU (Poli Sci) sent me an email today saying that my application was complete, that they will be meeting in January, and all decisions will be mailed by the end of February/March. But based on previous years, the first batch of notifications (interviews), could come soon. It seems like they were emailing people on the last Sunday of January.