It is April 12, how you doing?

[hopefulPhD2017]

How is everyone doing? Please weigh in:

1 = super calm with your decision

5 = torn, in the middle, undecided

10 = FREAKING OUT

I went to bed a 2 and woke up feeling about an 8!

This may be the hardest decision I've ever made...

Edited April 12, 2017 by hopefulPhD2017

[AnniKatt]

I'm probably at a 7 or 8. One school needs my answer by the 15th. Really, they want it tomorrow but I requested an extension. My top choice, meanwhile, hasn't sent out decisions yet. All I can ask is WHY.

[hopefulPhD2017]

33 minutes ago, AnniKatt said:

I'm probably at a 7 or 8. One school needs my answer by the 15th. Really, they want it tomorrow but I requested an extension. My top choice, meanwhile, hasn't sent out decisions yet. All I can ask is WHY.

Argh!!! So frustrating. 

[vstrindberg]

I am at 0 cuz I didnot get any offer. Guest will be rejected by 3 schools feelsbadman

[Concordia]

UK deadlines are different, but there will be time to freak out later.  Actually, I will only have 2 or 3 to choose from, when everyone gets sorted out.  

The big issue now is weighing the virtues of two places.  At one, I have exact fit of my research project with a wonderful-- if inexperienced -- supervisor (at an excellent, up-and-coming department at a very good school).  At the other, there is a well-established personal/pedagogical fit with someone who likes my work already, general high quality of life, endlessly diverse academic opportunities, and much better chances of making contacts with peers.  The second one is also much more marketable brand, not that I am ever going to be anyone's ideal tenure-track candidate.  Leaving specific attributes behind, it's kind of a Tufts/Harvard split on the prestige-o-meter.

If the third option comes back positively it will complicate things a bit, as it re-mixes many of the attributes in Option 2.  At the moment I am sitting on 2/10 with some guilt and shame about not leaping at Option 1.

Edited April 12, 2017 by Concordia

[hopefulPhD2017]

46 minutes ago, vstrindberg said:

I am at 0 cuz I didnot get any offer. Guest will be rejected by 3 schools feelsbadman

I'm sorry to hear that!

[Marshall]

I'm probably at an 8 as well. 3 rejections and the final school has me as an alternate. I'm really trying to send telepathic messages to that one person who was accepted ahead of me, regardless of what their decision is, just so I can have an answer (although, I'd obviously love for them to accept a wonderful offer elsewhere so I could get in).

[hopefulPhD2017]

30 minutes ago, Marshall said:

I'm probably at an 8 as well. 3 rejections and the final school has me as an alternate. I'm really trying to send telepathic messages to that one person who was accepted ahead of me, regardless of what their decision is, just so I can have an answer (although, I'd obviously love for them to accept a wonderful offer elsewhere so I could get in).

Wow that's tough. I hope they carefully calibrate such things, i.e., normally two don't take the offers, so they waitlist two applicators m as they know you have a good chance of getting in. Good luck to you! 

[sociologicalpizza]

I'm like an 8 but lying to myself and everybody else pretending I'm a 6

[Marshall]

1 hour ago, hopefulPhD2017 said:

Wow that's tough. I hope they carefully calibrate such things, i.e., normally two don't take the offers, so they waitlist two applicators m as they know you have a good chance of getting in. Good luck to you! 

Thank you much! From what I was told, it seems that I'm an alternate for a particular sub-field in the department, so I believe I'm waiting for one or two specific people to accept or decline. I'm trying to stay hopeful but also realistic.

 

Good luck to everyone else who is waiting to hear! 

[hopefulPhD2017]

53 minutes ago, sociologicalpizza said:

I'm like an 8 but lying to myself and everybody else pretending I'm a 6

Ha! Totally. This. 

[Shengwei]

2 hours ago, sociologicalpizza said:

I'm like an 8 but lying to myself and everybody else pretending I'm a 6

The same! I have to choose between three similar programs. Only two days left!

[hopefulPhD2017]

4 hours ago, vstrindberg said:

feelsbadman

To me, this seems more like a 9/10 situation.

If you'd inserted spaces here--the deep breaths of typing--I might believe differently.  

Amirite?

[TheHoff]

4 hours ago, sociologicalpizza said:

I'm like an 8 but lying to myself and everybody else pretending I'm a 6

Same here

Got one offer without funding (which I understand as a polite rejection) and no word from the other 3

[jpain3]

My 8 is rapidly becoming a 9.... Applied to 13 programs and have been rejected from 11 (the most recently early last week). Most of the rejections came with something like "keep us in mind when you're doing research at whatever program you do get into" or "we only had two slots and you were number 3 or 4 on our list". The remaining two schools have been silent for the last month so my hope is quickly becoming delusion.

[hstrot]

Quite nervous, probably a 6 or 7! Two rejections and my last (and top) choice has yet to send out decisions. Nerve wracking to say the least!

[fruitcat]

Around a 7. The coordinator of my very close 2nd choice program keeps emailing me for an answer, and I keep dragging it out because I'm fundamentally afraid of commitment, enough so that I'm even nervous to formally turn down the schools I know I'm not going to.  (edit: nerve-induced typos)

 

Edited April 13, 2017 by fruitcat

[mspeech]

On 4/12/2017 at 8:24 AM, hopefulPhD2017 said:

How is everyone doing? Please weigh in:

1 = super calm with your decision

5 = torn, in the middle, undecided

10 = FREAKING OUT

I went to bed a 2 and woke up feeling about an 8!

This may be the hardest decision I've ever made...

Probably at a solid 7. I put in a deposit at my backup school. The school I really want to go to I also put a deposit in at but they said they can't let me know about funding until after April 15th so I have no idea what I'm doing lol. I'm on the waitlist for a graduate assistantship. 

[hopefulPhD2017]

Glad to know we are all in good company! I had trouble sleeping last night. 

Currently at a 9. Checking my email like mad hoping for a funding update!!

Edited April 13, 2017 by hopefulPhD2017

[mspeech]

30 minutes ago, hopefulPhD2017 said:

Glad to know we are all in good company! I had trouble sleeping last night. 

Currently at a 9. Checking my email like mad hoping for a funding update!!

I have an email tab open on my computer constantly hahaha the only thing getting me through is knowing that we're so close to finding out 

[mspeech]

1 minute ago, light10491 said:

Are you allowed to put deposits at more than 1 school? Isn't that against the rules?

I feel like it's kinda the same thing as people who accept an offer then choose to later go to a waitlist school they got in to. I don't reallly know what else to do 

[hopefulPhD2017]

1 hour ago, mspeech said:

I feel like it's kinda the same thing as people who accept an offer then choose to later go to a waitlist school they got in to. I don't reallly know what else to do 

That seems unethical to me. I think you should be upfront and honest with them about this. Academia is a small world. 

[ZachGv]

Probably a 5. I think both schools are a good option just don't know which one I will end up at.

[sweetoflove]

On 4/12/2017 at 7:24 AM, hopefulPhD2017 said:

How is everyone doing? Please weigh in:

1 = super calm with your decision

5 = torn, in the middle, undecided

10 = FREAKING OUT

I went to bed a 2 and woke up feeling about an 8!

This may be the hardest decision I've ever made...

I'm at a 5 >.< I've been torn between the two for a bit

[hopefulPhD2017]

Like you @ZachGv and @sweetoflove, I've also been torn. I think I've made my decision but it's scary.