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I feel like it happens with someone else, not me! Such a strange feeling

Congratulations Miroslav!

 

That's probably the best time given the intensiveness of the grad school. It's always good to have someone supporting you during hard times.

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i'm getting married

 

 

Oh no! I went to up-vote this and accidentally hit the down arrow! Not my intention at all.

 

I am so happy for you MiroslavBass. This is beautiful news! And gaining a wonderful partner is such a benefit. Wishing you many years of continued love!

 

**Edit: A million typos from trying to do this on a tablet, which is what caused the up-vote problem in the first place...ugh.**

Edited by cautiously_optimistic
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Hey guys! I have yet another "do you" question for you.

Do you answer to blast admission emails sent by DGSs? (not talking about accepting/declining the offer; only about acknowledging that you received the email). 

 

Or do you wait until the faculty emails you? Or do you email your POI first? (or what the heck is considered "right" in this situation?)

 

I think this probably varies by school. If you feel comfortable reaching out to the DGS or faculty, go for it. With my first admission I responded because I had to address some technical issues with the DGS (nothing bad!). POIs reached out to me after that. With the second, the DGS has been so friendly with me for a while that I responded with my excitement - but I haven't reached out to any POIs. At the school I've technically deferred with, I reached out to faculty last year to discuss options, research, etc. I haven't decided how I'll respond to U Washington yet - it was a blasty type acceptance (personalized, but the e-mail itself was just an acknowledgment of the attachments), so I won't be responding directly unless I have a technical question.

 

Basically, there is no right. Just go with your gut. 

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You're such a jerk, cautiously! :P

Honestly, I am not that petty.  ;)

 

MiroslavBass please know that my intention was to say "yay" for you. :unsure:

 

And curse the software designer who thought the red and green arrow should not only be small, but also directly next to one another.

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Honestly, I am not that petty.  ;)

 

MiroslavBass please know that my intention was to say "yay" for you. :unsure:

 

And curse the software designer who thought the red and green arrow should not only be small, but also directly next to one another.

Not to mention their irreversibility! :D  Once you 'chose' to be a jerk you have to stick to it.

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I think this probably varies by school. If you feel comfortable reaching out to the DGS or faculty, go for it. With my first admission I responded because I had to address some technical issues with the DGS (nothing bad!). POIs reached out to me after that. With the second, the DGS has been so friendly with me for a while that I responded with my excitement - but I haven't reached out to any POIs. At the school I've technically deferred with, I reached out to faculty last year to discuss options, research, etc. I haven't decided how I'll respond to U Washington yet - it was a blasty type acceptance (personalized, but the e-mail itself was just an acknowledgment of the attachments), so I won't be responding directly unless I have a technical question.

 

Basically, there is no right. Just go with your gut. 

Thank you TMCB!

 

And once again, congratulations on the U of Washington admission! 

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Interesting Q, jeudepaume:

 

I didn't respond to my letter yet, which was clearly a form letter. Will be responding by Monday to get some clarification/discuss funding, as my fellowship isn't factored in at all at this point. I still have to try and figure out all the intricacies of the funding notice (and my fellowship), though!

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Thank you TMCB!

 

And once again, congratulations on the U of Washington admission! 

 

Thanks! I'm really excited about my options right now. When I applied to UW I thought it was kind of a long shot. It's weird after last year thinking about actually having to choose a school.

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Interesting Q, jeudepaume:

 

I didn't respond to my letter yet, which was clearly a form letter. Will be responding by Monday to get some clarification/discuss funding, as my fellowship isn't factored in at all at this point. I still have to try and figure out all the intricacies of the funding notice (and my fellowship), though!

 

I wonder if they do "double dipping" with the fellowships (i.e. if you can get both?). Did UCSD offer you a fellowship or a TA/RA?

 

After all the stress of the waiting period for your scholarship and schools, you are killing it!

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I wonder if they do "double dipping" with the fellowships (i.e. if you can get both?). Did UCSD offer you a fellowship or a TA/RA?

 

After all the stress of the waiting period for your scholarship and schools, you are killing it!

 

UCSD offered a combination of both. Double dipping doesn't work well with my fellowship, unfortunately. See also PM

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Thanks! I'm really excited about my options right now. When I applied to UW I thought it was kind of a long shot. It's weird after last year thinking about actually having to choose a school.

I feel the same! Still cannot get used to this feeling; anticipating it is going to be a hard choice.

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Interesting Q, jeudepaume:

 

I didn't respond to my letter yet, which was clearly a form letter. Will be responding by Monday to get some clarification/discuss funding, as my fellowship isn't factored in at all at this point. I still have to try and figure out all the intricacies of the funding notice (and my fellowship), though!

Right, in your case it's totally appropriate, since it's not just "oh thank you good people" type of thing.  :)

 

Hope, you'll be able to get the best option out of it. Sometimes external fellowships can be counted to extend the period of funding (e.g. Cornell specify this condition in their offer); might be nice to have a buffer period just in case, if no "double dipping" is allowed.

 

Heartiest congratulations on the UCSD!

Edited by jeudepaume
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i'm getting married

 

Congratulations!!!! That's such wonderful news!

 

(I expect I'll be married within the next year or two, but we're trying to balance the grad school thing with saving to pull it together!)

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Next week's going to be a heavy week...I can feel it...just in time for Valentine's Day. At least sadness chocolate will be readily available.

 

I'm armed and prepared for next week, since I'm beginning to suspect it's going to be an ugly one for me. (I have the bourbon all ready and waiting. I might make a special stop to the Valentine chocolate aisle myself.)

 

Haha, I thought of that! I think there are been some Saturday morning email blasts but I don't know about any sort of trends or anything.

 

I have this image of a department coordinator all packed up, ready to go home, hitting send on her computer and then running out the door.

 

I have the same image, but probably because it's what I would do if I were them!

Edited by cupofnimbus
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I'll claim another UCSD acceptance. How would you guys compare UCSD and UW-Madison in American political processes and behavior?

Back to your original question, they are similar in terms of American behavior quality. Visit them both and go to the place that gives you a better vibe.

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Back to your original question, they are similar in terms of American behavior quality. Visit them both and go to the place that gives you a better vibe.

Thank you for weighing in.

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If you got into these programs, you must've had a strong SOP. You should already know who they have who's strong in your area and who you want to work with if available. In other words, *you* should be able to "rank" them. If you didn't do the proper research to narrow your choices and craft your SOP, it doesn't speak very well of the programs that admitted you. Read CVs and papers, not rankings.

You're right. I do have a good idea of the faculty of both programs. In fact, I applied only to programs that I deemed good matches. I just wanted to see what other people think based on their knowledge or impression. I'm extremely flattered by both acceptances, and my awareness of the limitations of rankings is exactly why I posted my question.

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If you got into these programs, you must've had a strong SOP. You should already know who they have who's strong in your area and who you want to work with if available. In other words, *you* should be able to "rank" them. If you didn't do the proper research to narrow your choices and craft your SOP, it doesn't speak very well of the programs that admitted you. Read CVs and papers, not rankings

Well, not really. This implies that the information you need to write a strong SOP and determine that a school is one you want to apply to is exactly the same level of information you need to write a precise rank-ordering between those schools. Before you apply, you should have a sense of the general strengths, some people you would like to work with, a general sense of placement, etc. This allows you to make the decision of whether the expected value of an application is higher than the application cost, and to mention a few POIs/strengths of the department in your SOP to demonstrate you've thought about fit. Once you've been admitted to a set of schools you need to set out to resolve as much of remaining uncertainty as possible so that you can narrow the confidence intervals around your estimates of expected value and make a better decision between the options you have. It is unreasonable to expect that applicants will have done enough research ex ante that they will not need to engage in more information-gathering after having offers in order to make a more fine-grained evaluation of the options, particularly given that many applicants apply to 10+ schools.

Edited by RWBG
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