Your expectations and results, a poll

[t_ruth]

Compared to how you thought you'd do, how did you really do? Any additional details about program, number of schools, etc. would be great.

[cogneuroforfun]

Details in signature. I was *hoping* for one or two acceptances, and I feel very lucky to have gotten more.

[fuzzylogician]

My M.A. thesis adviser, who knows me for about 5 years now, told me when I started the application process something along the lines of "you won't get into the top places, but I'm sure that some program will accept you". Needless to say, I was mortified and spent the entire day after that in tears. I seriously considered quitting and saving myself the time and application fees, thank goodness my boyfriend talked me out of it. Now that the process is over, I've been accepted to all of the top programs in my field, so I obviously did a lot better than I expected!

[liszt85]

Some professors and other people thought I'd get accepted by more schools but this is exactly what I'd expected considering I was shifting from Physics to a new field in which I have no undergraduate background. I'm however leaning towards accepting a MS offer which will give me 2 more years of research and training before making up my mind which field exactly I want to do my PhD in.

[socialpsych]

Great poll idea, T! And wow, I'm glad so many of us did better than expected!

I was a little worried about one of my letters, but everything seems to have gone fine. I had a lot of interest from top schools, and I know I was chosen over some amazing applicants for my top choice program, which is the one I will end up attending. Hooray!

[TulipOHare]

I wasn't sure I'd get in anywhere!

[djrg]

I still have two answers to come. However I voted, asuming them as rejections (RUPA)... And if they were rejections... I would have done exactly as expected! two admits [safe school and realist school with good research fit], 4 rejections [on reach schools]

Anything could come from those two schools left.. maybe I shouldn't have voted yet, but I'll let you know later.

Great poll idea!

[t_ruth]

I chose the third option, mainly because of funding. Many of my schools fund year-by-year, which makes me very nervous and doesn't match up to what I was expecting. Now if I get NSF or something like that, then I guess I would have exceeded my expectations, lol!

[deipnosophistry]

I was really pessimistic about my chances of getting into any of my schools, and the fact that I didn't apply to any safeties really weighed on me in the intervening weeks between submitting applications and receiving notifications. It's been kind of an embarrassment of riches, though, and I've got one hell of a decision to make!

[UnlikelyGrad]

My original prediction (on the prediction thread) was 3 acceptances, 2 waitlists, 4 rejections. Right now I'm at 4 acceptances, 3 waitlists (I guess, haven't heard from them either way) and 2 rejections so I guess I'm good...

[baimeeker]

I had assumed acceptance at at least one school with funding, since funding is pretty common in my field. I had one school I knew was less prestigious, but was not sure that it was really a safety school. I had one reach school, which has sent out a ton of rejections but not to me... but I was never hoping to go there in the first place. So far, 5 acceptances, 1 Rejection, and still waiting on 1. Way better than I thought would happen!

[mentalyoga]

Obviously it worked out in the end (and I'm positively thrilled about the acceptance I did get), but I definitely expected to have gotten into more programs, as did the profs I've been working closely with. There were two rejections I was absolutely shocked about, and two that were more or less expected, but still hit hard. But after the cards fell, I realized it worked out in the best way possible for me. I'm heading to a program that's perfect for me, and I couldn't be more excited.

[tkm256]

I was expecting to have heard from all my schools at this point. I haven't been rejected by any yet, but this last university promised they would notify applicants "by March 31st at the latest"--that's still 3 days away but I'm getting irked. I was also expecting to have heard about financial aid, even the tiniest envelope saying "sorry; we have reduced funding and an increased pool of applicants this year," but all is silence on that front as well.

[psycholinguist]

I was disappointed. Initial interest from four different schools led to my feeling so overwhelmed that I found myself wondering whether I'd applied to too many. Not so: I watched one after the other of these possibilities fall through, culminating in a brutal last-minute rejection from a department that had interviewed me on the phone and invited me to its open-house and given me strong suggestions throughout that a) its faculty really wanted me, and I could easily count on an acceptance. I'm left with two acceptances: one to a school I can't afford to go to, and the other to my safety-school. I'm getting used to the thought of doing at least my MA at the latter, but I'm still feeling let-down.

[nandelle]

My admissions were about what I expected, however, based on friends' experiences and previous years' information, I expected *some* funding from at least 1 of the schools...however, there was none to be had.

I would like to think it was because they read my SoP and thought "wow, she's going to be so rich later on it would be so unfair to fund her!" but I doubt it

[jasper.milvain]

I did WAY better than I thought I would, mostly because over Christmas I got incredibly paranoid and depressed and convinced myself that I was an absolute fraud and nobody would take me. I blame the insomnia. Feeling much better now! I got in at all four schools that I applied to, and had started a bidding war between the first two before I even heard from the others.

I also did way better financially than I was expecting. I was hoping for a four year package between $80 000 and $90 000, and ended up with an insane package worth $127 000. I cried when I saw the funding offer. Life is good!

[ec86]

I did WAY better than I thought I would, mostly because over Christmas I got incredibly paranoid and depressed and convinced myself that I was an absolute fraud and nobody would take me. I blame the insomnia. Feeling much better now! I got in at all four schools that I applied to, and had started a bidding war between the first two before I even heard from the others.

I also did way better financially than I was expecting. I was hoping for a four year package between $80 000 and $90 000, and ended up with an insane package worth $127 000. I cried when I saw the funding offer. Life is good!

Congrats!!! I didn't know Canadian universities were that generous!

[jasper.milvain]

Neither did I!

[Nikki]

I thought I would at least get into one of the schools I applied too, but I ended up getting rejected across the board.

[jasper.milvain]

Bumping this thread because it was really interesting before I crashed it by bragging. :oops:

I feel kind of sheepish that I'm at the top of the second page, and hope that I haven't made anyone feel self-conscious about less-than-stellar results. I know that I am insanely lucky more than anything.

[ElusiveMuse]

I was pretty devastated at how poorly I did, but it wasn't across the board rejection so that's something. I applied to 11 programs and the best I got was waitlisted at one of my top choices. Problem is it's probably a lot of applicants' top choice, too. So...I don't know. I do have some perfectly respectable MA offers but it wasn't what I was hoping for when I began this grueling and expensive process, for no reason other than I would just like to be settled in a program for the PhD and not go through this again in two years.

[twocosmicfish]

I only applied to 3 schools - I was accepted by my "probably" and "maybe" schools, but was rejected by my "probably not" school, so I guess that counts for "as expected."

That does not mean there was not unreasonable dissappointment, of course.

[t_ruth]

That does not mean there was not unreasonable disappointment, of course.

I adore this sentence.

[rising_star]

My M.A. thesis adviser, who knows me for about 5 years now, told me when I started the application process something along the lines of "you won't get into the top places, but I'm sure that some program will accept you". Needless to say, I was mortified and spent the entire day after that in tears. I seriously considered quitting and saving myself the time and application fees, thank goodness my boyfriend talked me out of it. Now that the process is over, I've been accepted to all of the top programs in my field, so I obviously did a lot better than I expected!

Ouch! That's super harsh (and I say that as someone that's been following you here and on lj). My MA thesis advisor actually told me that I under-reached and that I should have applied to more of the top programs (although in our discipline some of those are having faculty problems that make that unattractive). In hindsight (having gotten in everywhere with funding), I think she's right and that I should've thrown in UCLA or Berkeley or Washington or something like that. Oh well. I got into places that were good for me, which is all that really matters.

[fortiesgirl]

I was pretty sure I wouldn't get into my reach schools and I didn't, so that was no surprise and it didn't bum me out. On the other hand, I received three fully funded offers and that came as a total shock. I was also accepted (and offered full funding and stipend) at a program that is a perfect fit for me so I would say that I made out better than I thought I would. This is my second time around in the admissions process, so I was very pleased this time around. I'm still waiting to hear back from two other schools, but I've pretty much made my decision at this point.