2015 Acceptance Thread

[overoverover]

Accepted to University of Calgary (MA)!!! It won't be a shut out this year, Wooooooo!!!

Congrats! There are some really good people at Calgary!

[sidevans]

Just to update everyone, we now have the initial results of the funding survey published here, with entries from Georgetown, Arizona, UC San Diego, UChicago, and Penn. Filling out the survey would be greatly appreciated if you've received acceptances!

[Franzkafka]

Accepted into Memphis(PhD) with no funding just now. I don't think it's better than a rejection.

[overoverover]

Sorry to beat on a dead horse, but since we haven't seen any other Harvard news for 5 days, does it seem reasonable to conclude the Harvard posting was fake? (Ian rightfully points out that Harvard spreads stuff out, but 5 days seems extreme and, I think, implausible!)

[ianfaircloud]

Sorry to beat on a dead horse, but since we haven't seen any other Harvard news for 5 days, does it seem reasonable to conclude the Harvard posting was fake? (Ian rightfully points out that Harvard spreads stuff out, but 5 days seems extreme and, I think, implausible!)

 

At this point, I think it was a false report. I don't have data to prove it, but it seems to me that we have had more false reports this year than last. Sid Evans was right not to call it until we saw more. Also, it's mysterious that we haven't heard from Pitt, given both the prediction and the report from a contact over there. Maybe all this is to say that, as a rule, the "presumption of truth" shouldn't apply to any early posts for Harvard, NYU, Pitt, and perhaps a few others of other "big name" institutions near the top of PGR -- particularly when the early posts fall on an unusual day (e.g. Saturday) or include dubious / no notes.

[Infinite Zest]

Sorry to beat on a dead horse, but since we haven't seen any other Harvard news for 5 days, does it seem reasonable to conclude the Harvard posting was fake? (Ian rightfully points out that Harvard spreads stuff out, but 5 days seems extreme and, I think, implausible!)

 

Definitely fake, in my opinion.

[Infinite Zest]

I'm still hoping for and expecting Stanford today. Maybe Michigan?

[NathanKellen]

Accepted to University of Calgary (MA)!!! It won't be a shut out this year, Wooooooo!!!

Congrats! Very exciting.

[TheNaturalist]

I'm still hoping for and expecting Stanford today. Maybe Michigan?

Michigan (I'm guessing) probably won't be for another 1-3 weeks, judging from past years.

[Griswald]

At this point, I think it was a false report. I don't have data to prove it, but it seems to me that we have had more false reports this year than last. Sid Evans was right not to call it until we saw more. Also, it's mysterious that we haven't heard from Pitt, given both the prediction and the report from a contact over there. Maybe all this is to say that, as a rule, the "presumption of truth" shouldn't apply to any early posts for Harvard, NYU, Pitt, and perhaps a few others of other "big name" institutions near the top of PGR -- particularly when the early posts fall on an unusual day (e.g. Saturday) or include dubious / no notes.

I know at least one person who's in at a very big name school (not Harvard), but there aren't any posts for this school on TGC yet. A lot of people just don't post on TGC, so it's really hard to say when a post is fake if your only evidence is TGC.

[ianfaircloud]

I know at least one person who's in at a very big name school (not Harvard), but there aren't any posts for this school on TGC yet. A lot of people just don't post on TGC, so it's really hard to say when a post is fake if your only evidence is TGC.

 

For everyone's sake, would you tell us which big name school has already released results? If you're not privileged to say, that's OK, too.

 

In my experience, it's very rare for someone to be admitted to any of the roughly T35 PGR departments without there being some notification soon thereafter on the Grad Cafe survey -- except in the very rare case that a professor tells someone privately that she's been admitted. (When this happens, it's typically a prof telling one of her own current or former students.) It's also fairly rare for someone to post a false report, though it does happen. I agree that a lot of people don't post, but it doesn't follow that there aren't a lot of posts when a department releases notifications.

[Phil2015]

I know at least one person who's in at a very big name school (not Harvard), but there aren't any posts for this school on TGC yet. A lot of people just don't post on TGC, so it's really hard to say when a post is fake if your only evidence is TGC.

 

Is it Yale? Judging by the recent post on the results page maybe those decisions are starting to roll in now...

 

Also hi everyone! This is my first time posting on the forum

[Griswald]

I'm looking forward to pursuing my mathematical theories at UNC with Thomas Hofweber. Here is one of them:

 

https://sciencedefeated.wordpress.com/2008/11/05/09999-1/

 

And here is another:

 

https://sciencedefeated.wordpress.com/2008/11/17/where-is-your-brain-everywhere/

 

Btw my trans-brain theory has been confirmed many times, as I catalogue:

 

https://sciencedefeated.wordpress.com/category/science/brain-studies/

 

Cheers,

NS

The "induction" in the first link doesn't work. Arguments by induction establish that certain properties hold for all natural numbers. And while it's true that 0.1 > 0.09999... with k repeating 9s, where k is any natural (hence, finite) number, it's false that 0.1 > 0.0999... with infinitely many 9s.

 

This is why teachers of freshman calculus are always saying things like, "Remember, infinity is not a number." The claim you're trying to refute can be made quite precise using the definition of a limit. That's where you should be directing your arguments.

Edited February 20, 2015 by aduh

[Griswald]

For everyone's sake, would you tell us which big name school has already released results? If you're not privileged to say, that's OK, too.

 

In my experience, it's very rare for someone to be admitted to any of the roughly T35 PGR departments without there being some notification soon thereafter on the Grad Cafe survey -- except in the very rare case that a professor tells someone privately that she's been admitted. (When this happens, it's typically a prof telling one of her own current or former students.) It's also fairly rare for someone to post a false report, though it does happen. I agree that a lot of people don't post, but it doesn't follow that there aren't a lot of posts when a department releases notifications.

Yeah, it was Yale. I think I might disagree with your last sentence, ian. But it depends on how much is a lot and what you mean by "follow." I'm inclined to say that, at least fairly often, not a lot of people post when a department releases. I only see two acceptances to Brown posted, but they must have made around 10 first round offers. That's just one example, though, and I'm sure for other schools you could make the case that there are a lot of posts.

 

I don't know. Anyway, here's what might be a better argument. Let H stand for "Harvard has released first round acceptances (at time t)" and A stand for "There's a Harvard acceptance posted on TGC (at time t)". We want to know P(H|A). I claim that P(A|not-H) is very low: the base rate of fake acceptances is very low. Then, by Bayes' theorem, P(H|A) is close to 1.

[ianfaircloud]

On 2/20/2015 at 11:15 AM, aduh said:

Yeah, it was Yale. I think I might disagree with your last sentence, ian. But it depends on how much is a lot and what you mean by "follow." I'm inclined to say that, at least fairly often, not a lot of people post when a department releases. I only see two acceptances to Brown posted, but they must have made around 10 first round offers. That's just one example, though, and I'm sure for other schools you could make the case that there are a lot of posts.

 

I don't know. Anyway, here's what might be a better argument. Let H stand for "Harvard has released first round acceptances (at time t)" and A stand for "There's a Harvard acceptance posted on TGC (at time t)". We want to know P(H|A). I claim that P(A|not-H) is very low: the base rate of fake acceptances is very low. Then, by Bayes' theorem, P(H|A) is close to 1.

 

I agree that the Brown situation is odd. Last year, Brown had like nine posts or something in only a day or two. I've noticed that people aren't as active on the Grad Cafe this year as in past years, which may account for the decline.

[Mindreading]

Has anyone heard anything from UCBoulder?  I havent seen anything on the survey and they released earlier than this 2 years ago.  

[Matt Bauer]

Has anyone heard anything from UCBoulder?  I havent seen anything on the survey and they released earlier than this 2 years ago.  

 

Didn't last year they have some serious issues with funding? I thought I remembered them refunding everyones application fees. Curious to see how their rankings are affected by having no incoming class last year potentially and what happens this year. Someone correct me if I am wrong. 

[BerryHill]

Admitted to USF. Just received the email. I am really excited about this offer but I guess there is no funding for me. (I think there would be an information about it if I was awarded??). I am also waitlisted in Oklahoma.

Congrats to everyone who got accepted so far. It is really excited to see how you guys doing well.

Mano, 

 

 

Congratulations! I've also been admitted to USF. They told me I'm on the wait list for funding.

[LetsGetMetaphysical]

This doesn't seem like a good response to me. What do other people think?

 

Agree. Nikolay is careful to specify that he is relying on mathematical induction a la carte.

[overoverover]

This doesn't seem like a good response to me. What do other people think?

This isn't the thread or, in fact, the forum for this. This is a forum to discuss grad admissions.

[Cecinestpasunphilosophe]

Admitted to Fordham! 

[jjb919]

Admitted to Fordham! 

Congrats!!

[Mindreading]

Didn't last year they have some serious issues with funding? I thought I remembered them refunding everyones application fees. Curious to see how their rankings are affected by having no incoming class last year potentially and what happens this year. Someone correct me if I am wrong. 

Yeah they did last year although I didnt think it was funding related.  Its just interesting that there hasnt really been any word of anyone hearing from them this year.

[jjb919]

Sorry.... I conceived of myself as interacting with other admitted or not admitted applicants!

This is a forum for admitted and non-admitted students to talk about the application process, not your personal projects.

[Edit_Undo]

Congrats! Very exciting.

Thanks Nathan! Do you happen to know when will UConn release acceptances/waitlists?