[Worst Rejections... EVER]

My rejection letter from Carnegie Mellon was titled F'09 Rejects. Makes me feel good about myself!

[State College, PA]

Hey all,

I am a Phd student in Comparative Lit. at Penn State and I can only tell you that half of my incoming class is dropping out, and so am I. I have heard good things about science programs here but my ex , a PhD student at Computer Sciences also dropped out last year because they were so unfriendly, hostile and plain anti-social in his department.

I can't speak for the IST department, but I can tell you that my department, Geography (in the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences), is incredibly friendly and willing to do almost anything to help you out. All the people are very nice and social.

My gay friends do endure the horror of being bashed and are afraid to walk at night by themselves amongst the loud drunk jocks.

Again, I can speak out for the gay community, but State College is incredibly safe. I honestly feel safer here than I do in my suburban, Eastern PA home.

State College is rated as the 2nd safest town in America. (http://os.cqpress.com/citycrime/MetroCrime2008_Rank.pdf, http://wearecentralpa.com/content/fullt ... ?cid=46591)

It's heavily important to be into frats, partying and football here - academics come next.

Penn State is only 10% Greek. I'm in a fraternity and you can trust me when I say that it is NOT heavily important. The only people that heavily important are Greeks, themselves, and freshman. As a grad student, Greek life wouldn't matter to you anyway.

Its true that Penn State is seriously into football. I know people that aren't even into the game that go anyway just because of the amazing atmosphere on a game day. The people here have school pride coming out the wazoo!

Everybody seems to be married and have a morgage. No racial/gender/cultural diversity.

We do lack racial and cultural diversity. There is no argument there. However, that doesn't mean that there are just a bunch of racists here either. Everyone is very tolerant.

It's very rural and you are in the middle of nowhere. No real transportation to major cities, only an overpriced bus called Chinatown bus - imagine the conditions of that. Don't get fooled with the idea you can go to NYC all the time - only if you have a car and 8 hours to spend in a roundtrip.

Greyhound operates here (not that that's any better). The closest Amtrak station is only a 30 min. drive (most of the country can't say that!). The airport is only 15 min. from campus. It's regional, but it does the job.

Ruralness? Oh yeah, it is very rural here. But middle of nowhere is a stretch. Philly, Pittsburgh, New York, Baltimore, Washington D.C. are all within driving distance. Hershey Park is also very close (about 2 hours). It's only in the middle of nowhere if you restrict yourself to State College. The Centre Region has lots of little towns to explore. I annoys the hell out of me when people say this place is in the middle of nowhere just because they saw a cow.

Downtown is very nice with lots of shops and restaurants. Being a college town, there is a great night life, however depending on where you go it can be mostly drunk undergrads.

If you want diversity and cultural stimuli, do NOT come here, you'll not find it. Undergrds seem to love it but for grads it's a sad, isolated life with bad cold weather for 6 out of 9 school months.

hope it helped!

Agreed that the weather does suck here, but don't rule out Penn State just because this person didn't like it and dropped out. Visit at least. You'll find it is a very nice campus with a great downtown. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions about PSU or SC. I can even send you pictures if you'd like.

[Waitlists]

Are all waitlists ranked? I'm waitlisted at a school that I'd like to go to, and had planned on attending their open house (I was invited). I was going to put on the ole' razzle dazzle susquehanna shuffle jazz hands in the hopes they would be assured by my enthusiasm that I would attend if admitted. However if I am ranked 50/50...then there aint no goddamn point in getting out of bed. I should call and ask...I wonder if they'll tell me. The letter did say "small number of applicants" are on the list...but who the hell knows what a small number is.

Judging by your signature and the "urban planning" program in your information to the right, I think we've received the same e-mail from Cornell...

[UC Irvine MURP 2009]

At least you have a short flight for the open house... I get to drive three hours then spend another 8 in the air flying out of Philadelphia. Have any of you heard back yet on aid?