Hotspur

I already have a BMW 3-Series wagon. It was, however, made 5 years before I even began high school. To give more accurate picture of its age, I have had 5 years of work experience since finishing college--so I'm not sure you could exactly classify it as 'new.' You could, however, accurately classify it as 'rusting.'

I was the one who got an email that we would have decisions by the end of the month (rather than only at the end of the month), when I sent in an update to my application. That doesn't mean others haven't already heard or that they weren't giving them out anytime before then...it was just a final deadline for finding out. Unfortunately I cannot be of any more help--I'm not sure what to make of the couple of posted acceptances, either. I feel like if they had given out all of their acceptances there would have been a lot more on the results survey by now.

Does anyone know whether the Maryland admit came by snail mail or electronically? The website indicated that all acceptances are sent out by letter, and as I am living in the UK right now, it will be killer to wait an extra week for a letter to arrive once I see that other people are geting their decisions!

I agree with this. While I am quite envious about the position of those who have gotten into many places, I think they need to tread carefully in deciding to respond, especially without clear funding. What to hold onto and what to turn down seems like a balancing act. For example, if you get into Super Awesome University with unknown funding, Great University with full funding and Prettty Decent U with full funding, you can now safely turn down the last one because you know you have at least one better choice, thus opening up a spot for someone else. Yet at long as there still is a possibility you are going to go to a school (like if you can't decide which one is your definite second choice while you wait for the funding to become clear), you have to hold on to that school, so you don't regret it later.

But the same cannot be said for other California schools --just got my UCLA rejection! Email with a link to check the website--and had to go through about 4 annoying pages before being able to actually view the result. Ouch! Although I have to admit I wasn't convinced my SOP was up to scratch for the early deadline.

I emailed the Berkeley Grad Registrar yesterday to update my application with details of a conference I had been accepted to and in the response it said that decisions will be sent by the end of Feb. (I swear I didn't ask--she just volunteered the information!) Based on that, I wouldn't hold your breath awaiting a decision from them this week, although I'm desperate to know as well!

Congrats to all those who are getting in! I hope I will be hearing soon. I know that not hearing anything at this stage isn't necessarily bad--but it is certainly enough to drive me mad! (...may have to go join the sufferers in the Waiting it out forum)

Usually you won't have to, assuming that your study abroad credits have been put onto your home university's transcript (showing that they have verified the results). However, if it is not clear from the website/application info from the graduate schools you are applying to then get in touch with the admissions departments at those schools who will be able to tell you their policy. I only had one university--Ohio State--who still wanted my study abroad transcript, even though it had already been verified by my home university. I thought it was ridiculous that they didn't trust my undergraduate university, which is a top-20 public university, but...you have to give them what they want.

Another Monday, bloody Monday! C'mon schools, let's get those results out!

Hello all, I have a question about the importance of contact with a possible professors of interest, so this is aimed at those who are already in grad school or have been admitted. I only made the decisions to apply for PhDs quite late in the cycle (as I only ended up receiving the funding to do my Master's course late...long story). The knock-on effect of this that I found myself with too little time to build up a real rapport with any possible POIs, and I was hesistant to try to approach others as I felt that with my applications already submitted it would seem obnoxious; like I was begging to be noticed. I was curious to those admits whether or not they found they tended to only get accepted to places where they had built a relationship with a POI or whether a good application was enough... I consider my stats and experience to be competitive. Thanks for your help!

"I hate you! You ruined my life!" Text message to me from a fellow PhD applicant, two hours after I told him about Grad Cafe--which is approximately how long it took him to become addicted to checking the Results page for new submissions. Welcome to the club!

love struck