2015 Acceptance Thread

[MissingBlue]

Hi everyone, I'm new.

Quick question for those accepted to UCSD - did any of you express interest in the Science Studies option?

[TheNaturalist]

Effectively rejected by Rochester via email with their DGA about something else. 1a/0w/3 presumed r.

[overoverover]

Congrats to everyone admitted so far!

I'm still playing the waiting game. Only two of my schools have accepted anyone, which leaves me with nine more to still hear from. Hoping for good news soon!

[cogsguy]

Hi guys! Just joined. Got into WashU PNP yesterday! So happy! Still waiting to hear from other schools. 

[TheNaturalist]

Harvard acceptance is up. Can anyone verify? Is it fo' realz?

[Infinite Zest]

Yeah, a verification of Harvard would be nice.

[sidebysondheim]

I've been lurking on and off since August and decided I should go ahead and join the discussion on here. Got an acceptance to Georgetown yesterday and waitlisted for funding, and an acceptance to Washington U with funding. I'm presuming that I am rejected from Duke and Ohio State. Still holding out some hope for Arizona though. 

[museum_geek]

Congrats everyone!

 

Is it reasonable to expect acceptances to go out on a saturday? I was really expecting to hear from at least one of my schools by today. 

 

I applied to mostly anthro programs so my experience may be different, but UW sent me an acceptance email at 9 AM on a Sunday morning, so I suppose anything is possible.

[Infinitex2]

I solicited an estimate on when Ohio State decisions would be out and got this reply. I left out the more personal (rejectionish) stuff. Suffice it to say is that they have made all their university fellowship offers already but I got this little nugget for the hopefuls out there

In the next few weeks, we will probably admit a few more people, and notify others that they are high on our waiting list.  It ends up being kind of a rolling process, so I doubt that we will be actually rejecting people until at least March, if not April.

 

 

So if you haven't heard from Ohio yet, then you're likely not funded. But they might still make offers. Hope this is helpful to someone. I'm pretty sure this means those who haven't heard from them are rejected.

[reixis]

No news on the Harvard acceptance yet? 

[willwillstaff]

I just got accepted to UC Irvine’s Logic and Philosophy of Science PhD.  This is the first news on funding I have had, I was starting to plan how I would get a job next year.  

 

I also have offers from two british universities and they are putting me forwards for funding.  One thing I have noticed is that the UK system is much less climactic than the US one, you have to pass multiple barriers, getting a place, being put forward by the department to the university, then by the university to the consortium, then being accepted by the consortium. You don’t go from nothing to fully funded offer in one day as often.

 

[ianfaircloud]

My guess is that the Harvard post is legitimate. Harvard has released this early before. Harvard's posts do not go up in one day; they're usually scattered over the course of a few days. Also there aren't a lot of false reports on Grad Cafe, so unless a report looks crazy, I'm inclined to believe it's legitimate. Expect Harvard to contact people by phone or email. A few people will be wait-listed, and as far as I know, Harvard keeps this wait-list for good reason.

[overoverover]

I'm pretty skeptical that the Harvard post is legit. It's earlier than usual, on a Saturday, and there's only one. Now, all three of those things are possible, but the conjunction is pretty unlikely, yeah? Harvard usually sends out waitlist notifications at the same time and we've seen none of those.

Harvard does have a different DGA this year, so things may be completely different. But even taking that into account, I'm skeptical.

[ianfaircloud]

I have heard through the grapevine that Pitt will indeed release today. If that's true, then we should see something any minute now.

 

Also, a follow-up to this report from Friday: I'm not sure what happened here. Things do change at the last-minute, and professors get busy, tired, or whatever, and put off notifications. I did hear from someone at Pitt, so that's about the best we can do. Maybe we will hear from Pitt tomorrow.

[ianfaircloud]

I'm pretty skeptical that the Harvard post is legit. It's earlier than usual, on a Saturday, and there's only one. Now, all three of those things are possible, but the conjunction is pretty unlikely, yeah? Harvard usually sends out waitlist notifications at the same time and we've seen none of those.

Harvard does have a different DGA this year, so things may be completely different. But even taking that into account, I'm skeptical.

 

I agree that the timing suggests a false report. One tricky thing about notifications is that people sometimes post the next day and don't bother to change the notification date (which defaults to the day of the post). I hope we get some information soon.

 

I'll emphasize that Harvard typically does not release a lot of notifications at once. Even when notifications roll out, don't count yourself out completely until a few days or more have passed.

[reixis]

It doesn't seem to me to be a fake either. I can't see why someone would post that out of nothing. Anyway, as overoverover mentioned, it's a significant break on the pattern of past years, and If I recall correctly, someone posted a fake NYU acceptance last year, so it's really hard to know.

 

On a related matter, over makes a good point about the changing in the DGS being a reasonable factor to account for this early acceptance. Wouldn't it be a good thing to make a list of DGSs for each season (maybe starting with this season)? That way, future applicants can use that as a predictive factor when drawing out new predictions or accounting for possible anomalies in releases dates.

[ianfaircloud]

Wouldn't it be a good thing to make a list of DGSs for each season (maybe starting with this season)? That way, future applicants can use that as a predictive factor when drawing out new predictions or accounting for possible anomalies in releases dates.

 

Yes, it would! I have a little list of things that I wish we could do from season to season. One ambitious project is to track changing application deadlines from season to season. I hope someone will find time to do this.

[NathanKellen]

I just got accepted to UC Irvine’s Logic and Philosophy of Science PhD.  This is the first news on funding I have had, I was starting to plan how I would get a job next year. 

Congrats, that's a great program! We just recently announced a partnership with UC Irvine's C-ALPHA program, which will include faculty and perhaps student exchanges. It's a great place to do logic, that's for sure.

[TheNaturalist]

I think it makes sense to be somewhat wary of the Harvard post, since someone posted a Princeton rejection this season pretty clearly to troll people (the "yield and protect" one).

[Infinite Zest]

Yeah, the Harvard acceptance doesn't look super legit to me, either.

[phil-life]

Hello dear applicants,

 

I received an admission from HPST-University of Toronto with a 5-years funding package. I was wondering how can I compare the general ranking of HPST-university of Toronto with the HPS/LPS programs offered in US universities? 

 

I highly appreciate any comments/points/etc .

[TheNaturalist]

Hello dear applicants,

I received an admission from HPST-University of Toronto with a 5-years funding package. I was wondering how can I compare the general ranking of HPST-university of Toronto with the HPS/LPS programs offered in US universities?

I highly appreciate any comments/points/etc .

Congrats! Tough question. There aren't really any good, reliable rankings for that as far as I know. Just don't use the Phil Gourmet/Leiter rankings, because they are garbage unless all you care about is a rough reputational survey.

[tuv0k]

Question for the UCSD admits: did your acceptance come with any information about funding?

[flybottle]

Hello dear applicants,

 

I received an admission from HPST-University of Toronto with a 5-years funding package. I was wondering how can I compare the general ranking of HPST-university of Toronto with the HPS/LPS programs offered in US universities? 

 

I highly appreciate any comments/points/etc .

 

One thing to flag about Toronto is that their basic funding packages are, well, kind of tight. Unless the department has put you forward for a scholarship or said that they will find ways to top up your basic stipend, my understanding is that it is really, really hard to live on what they give you. (It just plainly costs more than 15k/year to live in Toronto.) Shouldn't be the only factor in your decision making, but personally (I'm considering an offer from a different Toronto department), when funding is low enough that I worry that financial issues could interfere with my studies, I see that as a red flag.  

[phil-life]

One thing to flag about Toronto is that their basic funding packages are, well, kind of tight. Unless the department has put you forward for a scholarship or said that they will find ways to top up your basic stipend, my understanding is that it is really, really hard to live on what they give you. (It just plainly costs more than 15k/year to live in Toronto.) Shouldn't be the only factor in your decision making, but personally (I'm considering an offer from a different Toronto department), when funding is low enough that I worry that financial issues could interfere with my studies, I see that as a red flag.  

Thanks a lot for the point. I have an external scholarship of ~22k, which seems to be okay... My concern is more about the global reputation of this program out of Canada...