Fall 2015 PhD Acceptance/Rejection Thread

[Guest criminologist]

Wow you must have really impressive qualifications, congrats. I think Penn sounds better

[Pennywise]

Anyone have any thoughts about Maryland vs. Penn? I know the ratings are old, but Penn is ranked #12 and Maryland is ranked #1. That would seem clear cut, but when I ask opinions, I get mixed results. Any advice would be super appreciated. Here's some of my factors in the decision:

 

Penn is...

- small program (incoming class of 3 phd students, about 10-12 altogether)

- smaller, interdisciplinary 11 faculty members (public policy, economics, soc, psych, etc.)

- personalized, flexible program (work with mentor to determine courses & comprehensive exam format, can spend time away)

- dissertation can be three publishable papers instead

- two faculty w/ cool research that have been in touch with me regularly

- don't know what the environment is like

- afraid of degree marketability in crim or of too many expectations/too much pressure in program

- awesome stipend

 

Maryland is...

- considered #1

- larger program  (about 45-50 active PhD students maybe?)

- 15-20 well-respected faculty. obvious powerhouse

- common path for all PhD students (courses, comp exams, dissertation) seems to be some flexibility in courses, though

- no faculty have been in touch yet, just offer letter, but there is an open house coming up

- I have heard rumors of bad competitiveness inside program

- afraid of faculty mentors mismatch, and of competitiveness/getting lost in the crowd of students

- a good amount of money, but not as much as Penn

 

Thoughts?? I know it's a great choice to have but I am so stressed and indecisive right now 

 

Also - I will be visiting both soon for a short time. I could get that "gut feeling" but it's not guaranteed!

If you know you want to teach in a crim dept, I'd pick Maryland. If you want to teach in a sociology or other related dept, I'd pick Penn. Penn's rep within criminology is relatively weak, but its overall rep as an institution is stronger.

I would look at the placements and outcomes for recent grads and think about which type of life outcome you want. The two are quite different, and neither is intrinsically superior.

Congrats on all your success you bastard (jk, I'm sure you earned it).

[donj]

Wow you must have really impressive qualifications, congrats. I think Penn sounds better

 

If you know you want to teach in a crim dept, I'd pick Maryland. If you want to teach in a sociology or other related dept, I'd pick Penn. Penn's rep within criminology is relatively weak, but its overall rep as an institution is stronger.

I would look at the placements and outcomes for recent grads and think about which type of life outcome you want. The two are quite different, and neither is intrinsically superior.

Congrats on all your success you bastard (jk, I'm sure you earned it).

 

Lol, thanks for the input! I'm not 100% sure yet on jobs/departments, I want to keep some options open. But I will look into recent job placements for both programs.

 

I hope that didn't come off "braggy." Two years ago, fresh out of undergrad, I applied to a lot of PhD programs and only got into masters, so I know how stressful/random this process can be. So I spent two years doing a lot of work to make myself more competitive. I just wasn't expecting it to be stressful when I got IN, too. Big life commitments always scare the $#!7 out of me, which is why I would never advise someone to commit to somewhere they won't be happy!

[smcg]

Well, I finally heard from South Carolina today. Apparently, I made the short list of 10 to be accepted out of 40 applicants. However, I did not make the shorter let of 5 to be funded. 

 

I know everyone here has strong opinions about being funded and not funded and the respect and disrespect that that entails, but I'm not in a position that most of you are. I will be accepting with hopes of funding in the upcoming years/semesters.

 

And, to the person who stated that they must think very little of me not to fund me, all I can say is this: I received an acceptance which is an honor in itself for me. So, sorry, but I don't think that they feel that lowly about me. Depending on the schools that you have been accepted to, I may not be as "elite"as you, but I feel pretty damn good about myself. I'll be looking forward to holding seniority over you if we ever end up working somewhere together. Don't ever underestimate the underdog. I will work twice as hard as you, do three times better work that you and make five time more money than you. 

Edited March 11, 2015 by smcg

[Sword_Saint]

Anyone have any thoughts about Maryland vs. Penn? I know the ratings are old, but Penn is ranked #12 and Maryland is ranked #1. That would seem clear cut, but when I ask opinions, I get mixed results. Any advice would be super appreciated. Here's some of my factors in the decision:

 

Your question was pretty much already answered, and I imagine that if you narrowed it down to these two you probably already got your situation figured out, but, my 2 cents: ranking isn't necessarily everything.

 

For me, already knowing what I am interested in and wanting to pursue very specific work within Criminal Justice/Criminology, what I [mainly] factored in to my schools was what the particular faculty specialized in. Out of the top 20 highest ranked schools, 2 of them have faculty I would want to work with on crime mapping and environmental crime prevention research. Consequently, my schools included 1 school in Canada known for this research, 1 school with a relatively new PhD program but that has really famous (in this work) academic practitioner faculty and 1 backup school that has somewhat what I want with a high ranking. 

 

The high ranking school is pretty well renowned and has great funding opportunities (Cincinnati), but the other two are just more desirable for me b/c of the faculty and their specializations. -Again, just my two cents. 

 

And, to the person who stated that they must think very little of me not to fund me, all I can say is this: I received an acceptance which is an honor in itself for me. So, sorry, but I don't think that they feel that lowly about me. Depending on the schools that you have been accepted to, I may not be as "elite"as you, but I feel pretty damn good about myself. I'll be looking forward to holding seniority over you if we ever end up working somewhere together. Don't ever underestimate the underdog. I will work twice as hard as you, do three times better work that you and make five time more money than you. 

 

Short response to your comment:  The comment about them thinking lowly of you is constructive criticism encouraging you to go where you are appreciated and there is funding.

 

Long response:

 

I don't remember if this was me or not who said this, but the comment about thinking little of you gets more at a particular institution not viewing you as the best fit for their program / with the most competitive application given the school's funding situation. The comment really isn't an attack on your personal character. More generally, the comment gets at this idea that you should consider attending a school with some sort of funding instead of no funding because that shits expensive and the general assumption is that no graduate student in this discipline is completely paying for their graduate education if they are taking graduate courses full time. Anecdotally, after speaking with dozens of faculty who successfully completed their PhD's they invariably all report that they went to the school they applied to that paid them the most to go there. "Go wherever the funding is" is a very common phrase given by people who have successfully completed their respective programs.

[Pennywise]

 

And, to the person who stated that they must think very little of me not to fund me, all I can say is this: I received an acceptance which is an honor in itself for me. So, sorry, but I don't think that they feel that lowly about me. Depending on the schools that you have been accepted to, I may not be as "elite"as you, but I feel pretty damn good about myself. I'll be looking forward to holding seniority over you if we ever end up working somewhere together. Don't ever underestimate the underdog. I will work twice as hard as you, do three times better work that you and make five time more money than you. 

 

What a charmer.

Edited March 12, 2015 by Pennywise

[Guest criminologist]

Not being funded is basically a polite rejection saying that while you are well qualified for the program you are not the best fit, however they are giving you a chance to prove yourself so you can go through 1 year unfunded and show them you are deserving of an assistantship. They are expecting you will not accept their offer if it is not funded though and you will go where got you an assistantship. The people that do PhDs unfunded are the ones that already are working a full-time job, are taking classes part-time and get in-state tuition, it is not really necessary for them to have funding.

[Pennywise]

Have you known people who got funding in their later years, after not getting funding the first year? I'm genuinely curious if this happens at all, and where it happens.

 

I am very familiar with two top-ten crim PhD programs, and I have never heard of anything like that. Perhaps it happens at schools without as many resources?

 

What I have heard of is students having their funding yanked after a year or two if it wasn't contractually guaranteed when they were admitted. So what you're looking for is guaranteed funding for a certain number of years (4 or 5).

 

What everybody I have ever spoken with in academia agrees on is that you shouldn't take an offer if it's completely unfunded.

[donj]

 

And, to the person who stated that they must think very little of me not to fund me, all I can say is this: I received an acceptance which is an honor in itself for me. So, sorry, but I don't think that they feel that lowly about me. Depending on the schools that you have been accepted to, I may not be as "elite"as you, but I feel pretty damn good about myself. I'll be looking forward to holding seniority over you if we ever end up working somewhere together. Don't ever underestimate the underdog. I will work twice as hard as you, do three times better work that you and make five time more money than you. 

 

You are posting on this board looking for advice, and people were gracious enough to give you that. They did not attack your personal character, they just said that *generally* it's not a good idea to go where you're not funded. I agree with them. It's better to wait a year, improve your CV, and reapply, rather than to go into debt unnecessarily. On the other hand, I have heard of at least one person who got funded after their first year, but that was a long time ago. I would ask the people at USC what your realistic prospects are for future funding.

 

Obviously, it's no one's choice but your own, but, either way, it doesn't make sense to lash out aggressively at someone who was just trying to be helpful. If you only wanted one-dimensional "yeah, go for it!" answers, you won't find that here or in grad school. There's a lot of criticism and differences of opinions when you're a grad student, and it's best to take that constructively.

 

Your question was pretty much already answered, and I imagine that if you narrowed it down to these two you probably already got your situation figured out, but, my 2 cents: ranking isn't necessarily everything.

 

For me, already knowing what I am interested in and wanting to pursue very specific work within Criminal Justice/Criminology, what I [mainly] factored in to my schools was what the particular faculty specialized in. Out of the top 20 highest ranked schools, 2 of them have faculty I would want to work with on crime mapping and environmental crime prevention research. Consequently, my schools included 1 school in Canada known for this research, 1 school with a relatively new PhD program but that has really famous (in this work) academic practitioner faculty and 1 backup school that has somewhat what I want with a high ranking. 

 

The high ranking school is pretty well renowned and has great funding opportunities (Cincinnati), but the other two are just more desirable for me b/c of the faculty and their specializations. -Again, just my two cents. 

 

 

 

Yeah, I agree about faculty specialization. At Maryland, my research interests mesh particularly well with 1 faculty member, at Penn, they mesh well with 2. You're right, ranking isn't everything. It's just hard to be sure I'm not making a mistake if I turn down Maryland! 

 

Did you make a decision yet or are you still waiting?

[Sword_Saint]

Yeah, I agree about faculty specialization. At Maryland, my research interests mesh particularly well with 1 faculty member, at Penn, they mesh well with 2. You're right, ranking isn't everything. It's just hard to be sure I'm not making a mistake if I turn down Maryland! 

 

Did you make a decision yet or are you still waiting?

 

Still waiting. The school in Canada, Simon Fraser, normally has later responses than other schools for whatever reason. They told me they'll have their final decisions by late this week though so we'll see. 

 

Cincinnati accepted me already but needed a few more weeks to clarify their funding situation, they said it would be at least 50-100% tuition coverage. The other school, Texas State University, accepted me but their funding situation is sorta abysmal for all master's students. I was nominated for a scholarship and have been guaranteed a graduate assistantship position if I do not get accepted for the competitive Research Fellowship; even getting the scholarship and the fellowship/assistantship I would only have about 6-7k after tuition for living expenses for 9 months tho, ill have it sorted in a week or two hopefully

 

Have you made your decision then for Penn?

[donj]

Still waiting. The school in Canada, Simon Fraser, normally has later responses than other schools for whatever reason. They told me they'll have their final decisions by late this week though so we'll see. 

 

Cincinnati accepted me already but needed a few more weeks to clarify their funding situation, they said it would be at least 50-100% tuition coverage. The other school, Texas State University, accepted me but their funding situation is sorta abysmal for all master's students. I was nominated for a scholarship and have been guaranteed a graduate assistantship position if I do not get accepted for the competitive Research Fellowship; even getting the scholarship and the fellowship/assistantship I would only have about 6-7k after tuition for living expenses for 9 months tho, ill have it sorted in a week or two hopefully

 

Have you made your decision then for Penn?

 

It's typically hard to get funding in Master's programs I think, so it sounds like you're in a pretty good position! I really like Cincinnati's program (I don't know much about Simon Frasier or Texas State) but any kind of graduate assistantship or fellowship will put you ahead if you decide to go for the PhD later on. I did my Master's at a not well-known school, but had a research assistantship, and I think that really helped me in the long-run.

 

I haven't 100% made the decision to go to Penn, but I'm about 90% sure. I'm visiting Penn and then going to Maryland's open house (anyone else??). After visiting, I will know for sure and let them know because I don't want to take up admissions spots any longer than I have to. I just want to try to get an idea of who I could work with at Maryland before I make the final decision. 

[jdivanich]

Was admitted into the PhD program at GSU today. Currently finishing my MS at GSU so was not surprised. Stipend award was 18K. Not sure if I will accept the offer, I have several offers worth considering before accepting. PM me if you have questions about the school/program.

[ams8093]

Has anyone heard anything from University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) yet? I even emailed the admissions coordinator and no response.  I am so anxious to hear back. 

[justbetweenus]

Has anyone heard anything from University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) yet? I even emailed the admissions coordinator and no response.  I am so anxious to hear back. 

I called them yesterday, they said at least another week or two. Anxiously waiting also.

[ams8093]

I called them yesterday, they said at least another week or two. Anxiously waiting also.

Thank you so much for the update! Its my number one choice! Good luck to you!

[Sword_Saint]

It's typically hard to get funding in Master's programs I think, so it sounds like you're in a pretty good position! I really like Cincinnati's program (I don't know much about Simon Frasier or Texas State) but any kind of graduate assistantship or fellowship will put you ahead if you decide to go for the PhD later on. I did my Master's at a not well-known school, but had a research assistantship, and I think that really helped me in the long-run.

 

Still waiting to hear about the full extent of the funding from Cincinnati and Texas State. I heard from Simon Fraser today, I was accepted with a guaranteed $34,000 for the 2 year program, and I can apply for other competitive financial awards on top of it. Tuition there is only 7,000 a year, so I'm flipping out right now. Had an anxiety attack reading it.

[Ilspflouz]

Still waiting to hear about the full extent of the funding from Cincinnati and Texas State. I heard from Simon Fraser today, I was accepted with a guaranteed $34,000 for the 2 year program, and I can apply for other competitive financial awards on top of it. Tuition there is only 7,000 a year, so I'm flipping out right now. Had an anxiety attack reading it.

 

34K? Holy crap how awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[donj]

Still waiting to hear about the full extent of the funding from Cincinnati and Texas State. I heard from Simon Fraser today, I was accepted with a guaranteed $34,000 for the 2 year program, and I can apply for other competitive financial awards on top of it. Tuition there is only 7,000 a year, so I'm flipping out right now. Had an anxiety attack reading it.

 

That's great!!!

[CeeB]

Anyone not accepting their offer from Maryland?

 

 

Hanging out on the waitlist over here... 

[in doubt]

I declined the offer from maryland, because of a better fit (regarding research interests and methodology) at another university. hope you'll get in!

[CeeB]

I declined the offer from maryland, because of a better fit (regarding research interests and methodology) at another university. hope you'll get in!

 

Thanks!! I really appreciate it 

[anon10]

can anybody shed some light on the Rutgers-Newark program?  I know they are fully funded, but what does this include? Can an admitted student help me out pretty please

[Clueless91]

can anybody shed some light on the Rutgers-Newark program?  I know they are fully funded, but what does this include? Can an admitted student help me out pretty please

The standard package is four years full funding and healthcare. First year you will be an RA.

[Sword_Saint]

can anybody shed some light on the Rutgers-Newark program?  I know they are fully funded, but what does this include? Can an admitted student help me out pretty please

The standard package is four years full funding and healthcare. First year you will be an RA.

 

Almost applied there, some of their faculty are the pioneers in Risk Terrain Modeling (RTM). Really interesting work, the location though sufficiently deterred me from attempting to attend that program.

[Guest criminologist]

out of curiosity, was it the high crime rate there?