nurye27

I think you should definitely talk to the professors. I don't really see how this can backfire. What do you have to lose? If there is a professor you have been in touch with, talk to him/her as discreetly as possible. If my understanding is correct, there might have been some negligence on the lady's part, so perhaps she simply does not want the faculty to know and get into trouble. Just make sure to phrase your email carefully not to get her into too much trouble since you want to maintain a decent relationship with her. The problem with Stanford's system is that it takes up to 24 hours to generate an account to be able to submit your reply, so if they had not sufficiently explained the mechanics in advance, this is something you might be able to use as a reason for your late reply. Perhaps you should also consider the other offers you have received. You can always go back to Stanford for your doctoral degree.

Nice analogy. I think the reason why I am mourning the other offer is that in retrospect I believe I have let myself be influenced by others too much. I chose the school with more prestige over the one that I felt more excited about. What I'm feeling is a mixture of mourning and guilt, because I blame myself for not having been able to "stand my man" and stick to my initial determination. I thought I would be able to easily reject an offer from the more prestigious school and go with my gut feeling, but it turns out I was not resilient enough against the temptations from the "dark side." In that respect, I applaud your decision and determination and wish I had been as bold as you.

Same here. I've been experiencing this feeling, too. I've been wallowing in misery for the last 10 days or so which apparently is visible on the outside considering the many times I've heard that I look like sh*t. But things seem to be getting better in time; even my fantasies about reverting the decision and ending up at the other school are abating a little bit. For what it's worth, I did read in another thread in the April 15th forum of one of the previous years that someone successfully reverted her decision after April 15. So I guess it's not impossible, but it's probably not advisable. Will it get rid of my problems? Will this feeling go away? I fear it might even get worse and much, much more complicated, not only the logicstic of doing so, but also my state of mind. BTW calling this feeling "guilt" seems totally spot-on at, least in my case. After saying no to the other school, I have been feeling as if I ditched a girlfriend although I'm the bad guy. Whether it's guilt for ditching other possible selves or the fantastic people I met at the other school, I'm not sure, but it seems not all that Heidegger said is bs. Right now, I have decided I will stick to my decision and go to the school I committed myself to. But I will leave a door open, that is, if I don't like it after the first semester or so, I'm telling myself that I can always contact the other school again and see if they would be willing to reopen my application. Luckily, I could transfer my credits to that institution, so it would not be a complete waste of time to study at the school I'm having second thoughts about.

For what it's worth, I do think this is a legitimate concern. How selective a program is, how qualified your peers are, etc. are important things that need to be taken into consideration when making your decision. The only thing is that one single example probably does not suffice to make a well informed choice. Perhaps you can draw yourself a better picture when you attend Admit Day and talk to the various people there.

I agree with JerryLandis. There is always the occasional dud. Everywhere. Even at the best schools. On the other hand, there is also always the unrecognized genius. My MA thesis advisor who is also the chair of his department admitted that mistakes in the admissions process happen. For instance, they would sometimes admit students with no financial award, but that student would turn out to be one the best of his cohort, better than some who got in on a full scholarship. And when I look at some of the PhD students at the place where I did my MA, I have to agree with the "occasional dud" theory even more. The admissions process just isn't infallible. I'm sure that in such cases professors ultimately realize this and regret their choices as well.

Thanks for sharing your stats. I'm sure that things will work out eventually. In my case, it took 2 years, but it was definitely worth it. I'm happy that I didn't get into any school back then and potentially had to settle for less because now I can virtually choose among the best programs in the country. I heard from my graduate director that more and more students moving into PhD programs already have MAs. Getting into a PhD program with only a BA is certainly possible, but if you have to compete with guys who have already proven to be capable of doing graduate work, then I guess that might be a disadvantage. I'm not sure if students with MAs are necessarily cheaper since most of the time you get 5 year funding from the department, period. Anything beyond those 5 years you mostly have to take care of yourself through outside fellowships etc. Also, the fact that you are an international student often times works against you when applying to public schools since for some reason international students are "more expensive." I got lucky with UCLA, but that is the exception, not the norm. After all, I got a rejection from Toronto since they were apparently not allowed to accept international students this year due to this very reason. Anyhow, I would recommend to any international student to focus on the rich private schools in the future.

I got into this program with full funding. I'm an international student (BA abroad, MA in the US) fluent in the research language, so I think that might have been a plus. Also, having an MA seems advantageous. Two years ago I was rejected everywhere, but now with an MA from a pretty good school, I have already received offers from my top 3 choices besides UCLA. In addition, my MA studies enabled me to work with probably one of the biggest names in my field and get a pretty strong LOR from him. What is more, my MA studies helped me polish my research agenda and write a very well-received SOP. I think numerical stats such as GRE scores and GPAs alone are not decisive. Although my GRE score is pretty high(above 1500) and GPA as well(around 3.9), they did not get me anywhere 2 years ago. If you are willing to put one or two years into an MA (if you don't have one already), polish your research topic and SOP, and work hard to impress a big name in your field for a strong LOR, I'm sure you will be able to get into any program you want. I'm not sure if this answer is helpful, but if you perhaps share a bit more of your own stats, I might be able to help a bit more.

C'est moi. I'm doing East Asian history, particularly Korea under Japanese colonial rule. Got an unofficial email immediately followed by a phone call from professor of interest.

What if he/she says yes, this is absolutely, positively an offer of admission? Would you be able to say yes I would absolutely, positively accept that offer?

Yeah I was recently asked the same question by a target faculty. He was very specific though, leaving me not much room to equivocate. After telling me about how they could make only one round of offers with no waiting list, he asked me if I would choose his school or school x if I got an offer from both. Direct as I am, I ended up giving him a straightforward answer: Sir, IF I get a good offer from school x, I would feel more tempted to pick them over you. It kind of seemed like the right thing to do, that is, being honest with him since he was a nice guy and I would like to stay in contact with him wherever I go. But it might not have been the smartest thing to do.

Since many people have such a hard time deciding which school to choose, I was just wondering if that kind of agony continues after making your choice. Do you regret choosing one school over another after you already enrolled or attended the first months of school? I'm just curious if the thought "If I had only picked that other school...." haunts people ever after.

Play videogames. Especially those that I missed in the last 8 years or so ever since I graduated from High school and my Nintendo 64.

Hi guys, I was just wondering if it ever happens that you get good feedback on your application from your target faculty, he/she is really enthusiastic about you and tells you that he/she will do everything to get you in, but you still get rejected? Just curious if it ever happened to anyone.

Thanks, guys. I think you're right and I should not choose option 3. So option 1 or 2 it is. Let's see what my advisor has to say.

Hi guys, I just recently got my MA and it seems all my target faculty expect me to use my MA thesis as writing sample. I intend to use it too, since it most effectively demonstrates my research skills. However, most schools have put a limit on the writing sample length, which ranges from 15 to 25 pages. My thesis, however is 50 pages long. I think there are three options for me to choose: 1. send the whole thesis and indicate the pages I want the adcomm to read. 2. send excerpts from my thesis and fit it into the page limit. 3. rewrite my thesis summing up the main points so that it fits into the page limit. What do you guys think about each option? What have you done or what would you do? Thanks for your input!