2017 Applications Thread

[sammyo]

PhD apps: Cornell, University of Oklahoma 
Accepted: 0/2
Interviews: 0/2
Rejected: 2/2
 

I honestly need to apply to more programs. Any idea on schools still accepting applications?

[heyDW]

59 minutes ago, sammyo said:

PhD apps: Cornell, University of Oklahoma 
Accepted: 0/2
Interviews: 0/2
Rejected: 2/2
 

I honestly need to apply to more programs. Any idea on schools still accepting applications?

Only one I can think of is North Dakota State University! Their deadline is in March. Fargo is a pretty cool place...

[GreenEyedTrombonist]

@sammyo Would you consider a M.A. or M.S. program? They often have later deadlines than PhD programs.

[DBear]

@heyDW Is there ANY city you haven't been????

[morecatsandcoffee]

@hnm1231 my background is in psychology and neuroscience. Though I have a few friends who are psych and linguistics  so interesting the different backgrounds!

 

@sammyo Florida State University has a July 1st background. I don't know much about their program but the research they do seems very impressive. Hope that helps

 

also... I apparently have two accounts. One that uses FB/ one that doesn't. I am also @moredonuts haha. I'm applying to graduate programs yet apparently have no idea how to use technology 

Edited February 7, 2017 by morecatsandcoffee

[heyDW]

14 minutes ago, DBear said:

@heyDW Is there ANY city you haven't been????

Haha! I forget how much I've traveled sometimes...I blame speech & debate!

Edited February 7, 2017 by heyDW

[DBear]

Well everyone, if you're curious about a city you may randomly move to for grad school, we have @heyDW to give us food tips! All that speech & debate travel is benefiting the greater good!!

[DBear]

18 minutes ago, morecatsandcoffee said:

also... I apparently have two accounts. One that uses FB/ one that doesn't. I am also @moredonuts haha. I'm applying to graduate programs yet apparently have no idea how to use technology 

lol lol, well, as long as you're not applying to computer programming or something, you should be okay, right? hhahahaahaha.. at least your two identities have the same thing.. more donuts, cats, and coffee!

[hnm1231]

If anyone happened to get into Cornell (there must be some of you out there), my hometown is an hour away from Ithaca so I might know a thing or two  

[Conky3000]

4 hours ago, sammyo said:

PhD apps: Cornell, University of Oklahoma 
Accepted: 0/2
Interviews: 0/2
Rejected: 2/2
 

I honestly need to apply to more programs. Any idea on schools still accepting applications?

+1 on the NDSU recommendation, although if application deadlines are now a motivating factor behind which schools you will go, you might have a bad time. I knew a friend who fast-tracked an application to get it to a later deadline because he didn't get into his initial small list. Got into school, hated it, dropped out after first semester and now lives in a van down by the river (actually just went into industry).

I totally get where you are coming from, and I'm sure there is more reasoning behind where you will go, but no shame in taking a year off to build the CV and be more competitive next year at more schools. Just my two cents, good luck on everything!

[DBear]

@sammyo, I agree with @Conky3000. I'm not sure what your profile is, but jumping into a program just because the deadline is late may soothe your anxiety, and may work out nicely, but the chances of "liv[ing] in a van down by the river" exists. I would suggest taking some time to really search through all the awesome programs out there - also, who knows, you have no rejections yet so you may end up not even having to worry about this.

But even after applying to 7 programs, I feel like maybe I should've applied to more. Mostly, I'm worried that I may have overlooked my "soulmate" school because it didn't meet my initial screening criteria. I think that there's really no way to feel confident about one's self during this process.

 

Also, why are school's being so quiet?? Don't they know it's already Feb 8th??

[d.grace]

Hi all,

Texas has sent out their funding packages if anyone was accepted and waiting to hear on funding. 

[ejpril88]

I had an amazing conversation with a POI from UC Davis today  it was such a self confidence booster! He emailed me first, saying he would like to get to know me better and then we talked for half an hour over the phone.

This was my first direct contact with US faculty and I am absolutely thrilled. In Serbia I had to chase professors down the hallway if I had a question, so this was a really nice change. He repeated several times that he hopes I will accept their offer and I was honest with him about funding being a major issue for me. I should get an email with funding details tomorrow, can't wait!

The professor also asked me what other schools I've applied to and told me I was one of their top candidates. The Comm department accepts 4-8 PhD students every year and the majority of them are international, which I like.

So I guess I will have to wait and hope for the best. California is so expensive and also it will be so hard to choose between UC Davis and Purdue, which is a great school as well.

I hope this is going to be over soon. I am still waiting for 4 more answers. Good luck everyone!

[GreenEyedTrombonist]

Congrats @ejpril88! That sounds like an awesome conversation. Overall, Davis's area of California isn't that expensive. More than many places in the US, but not bad for California. My sis and her husband actually live 20 minutes from Davis and have managed, as 2 young professionals under 30, to purchase a home in the area (brother-in-law is now 30, but they bought their home way before his birthday). I actually expect I'll be visiting the area quite often since my sis just announced her pregnancy.  

[ejpril88]

@GreenEyedTrombonist that's wonderful, you must be excited to become an aunt I heard from other people too that Davis is not super expensive and I believe my husband and I would manage to live comfortably over there, but the problem is tuition. We moved to US less than a year ago and don't have any savings, so I will not be able to accept anything less than full tuition waver

[av2010]

It's so exciting that we are all on our way to making decisions, getting acceptances, etc.  Making decisions is tough!  I thought I would maybe be lucky enough to get one and then I wouldn't have to decide.  It has been very daunting making this huge choice that I just feel unprepared for, but it is certainly a good problem to have and I'm not complaining, I know how lucky I am.

@GreenEyedTrombonist Hang in there, I'm sure you'll be hearing great news soon!!  I never thought I was going to get in this round and I have been fortunate enough to, and I'm sure you will too!

 

[ejpril88]

1 hour ago, av2010 said:

I never thought I was going to get in this round and I have been fortunate enough to, and I'm sure you will too!

Same here. I've never been to an American university or talked to a professor from US before applying, so during the application process I was constantly wondering if I'm doing things the right way - am I focusing on the right things while studying for GRE and TOEFL, does my SOP have the right structure and content, did I choose my schools wisely...

My self confidence was really low, especially because of the lack of research experience. I had an impression that you guys all know what you're doing and I'm the only one who came from another planet  But I guess in some way everyone felt like that. This is not an easy thing to do and I hope that we will all be rewarded for our time and effort. It should be over soon!

[2ManyTacos]

It's kind of agonizing seeing so many people here getting acceptances already, when I have yet to hear anything beyond my UCSB grad open house invitation (which technically did not include an admissions offer).  In my head, I've more or less written off U Maryland at this point - given the info I see on the "Results" tab - which leaves UW (my top choice!), UCSB, and UCSD.  Because I am approaching the PhD level immediately after undergrad, and because the majority of Comm. PhD programs require a MA for admission, my options for possible programs were necessarily limited to departments who only require a BA.

I did have quite a lot of research and conference presentation experience in undergrad, though, which I felt I did a good job of describing in my SoP.

[ejpril88]

@2ManyTacos I have a good feeling about UW - they sent me a rejection letter more than a week ago, so I would say it's good that you still haven't heard from them.

[ejpril88]

Me again - just received a rejection email from UW Madison. Three more to go!

[GreenEyedTrombonist]

Some people were notified of their acceptances today to a program I applied to so I'm assuming that's a bust for me. Someone also put an acceptance in the results system yesterday for another school I applied to I'm assuming that's a bust too. That brings me down to a really difficult MS to get into and a PhD with an advisor that I would love, but that doesn't provide funding (still haven't heard from either of these schools, but neither has anyone else).

[DBear]

I still don't know how notifications are sent out - I've been trying to see what the trend is, but I don't think there really is one, so keep up hope until you actually get the notification @GreenEyedTrombonist Some schools don't send out their admits all at once, it seems. 

Seems like ad comms are finally starting to send out notifications in earnest now. So either way, we'll be done with this cycle soon enough and I really really really really hope that we will be happy with the results..!!!!

[GreenEyedTrombonist]

@DBear I think, for most schools, they do send out most acceptances as a batch. I think the other acceptances come from people waitlisted and then admitted, so better not to get my hopes up and just keep moving forward.  

[DBear]

2 minutes ago, GreenEyedTrombonist said:

@DBear I think, for most schools, they do send out most acceptances as a batch. I think the other acceptances come from people waitlisted and then admitted, so better not to get my hopes up and just keep moving forward.  

Okay, fair enough.. Going through this cycle though, do you think you'll be applying for both Anthropology and Communication again if you're really done with this one? I really get a Communication vibe from your research interests (maybe because they're so close to what I like)... we could co-author a Buffy paper!! I guess we could still do that if you went down the Anthro path... but still... 

[GreenEyedTrombonist]

@DBear I think I would still apply to both, but way more Comm programs than I did this round. I discovered that many Comm programs relate to my interests that I wasn't aware about before. I'm completely down to co-author a Buffy paper! I find that a lot of subjects can actually be studied across the disciplines, so whether I did an anthro or a comm program wouldn't make a huge difference for that.