The Official "Make Everyone Else Jealous" Thread

[Minnesotan]

Last time I applied to clinical psych PhD programs, all my interview notices arrived on February 1st. So when my phone rang, I knew it was good news. But I wasn't expecting an ACCEPTANCE from Minnesota! That's right! My potential advisor called me with an unofficial acceptance, details to follow. Minnesota doesn't do in-person interviews, so some people were able to make their decisions super-early. So exciting!

I told him I couldn't make a decision yet, and he understood. How awesome though, to have that in the bank as I continue to wait it out on my other schools!

Ooh! The land of 10,000 mosquitoes per square inch!

Actually, I really like my home state. It has a large proportion of educated people, a good mix of city and country, and extremely low crime (except for a few seedy areas of Minneapolis, where you wouldn't be out walking around, anyway).

Just don't get freaked out when strangers start talking to you on the street. They're just being friendly - they don't want to mug you. Oh, and if you ask someone how they're doing, they'll tell you. At length.

Yeah, so congrats. The U's a good school, and it has a fun (and pretty) campus.

[BWV1001]

Congrats to everyone so far!

Here's another acceptance:

UCR - PhD in Ethnomusicology

Arrived via e-mail

Acceptance and fellowship info were attached as a .pdf with notification that hard copies would arrive by mail

Still waiting on:

UC-Berkeley, UCLA, UC - Davis, and Columbia

Now that the first one is in, I'm anxious about the others...

[gammagoblin]

I got accepted to University of Vermont's experimental psychology phd program with full funding via taship.

I have to talk (I don't know if it's an interview or just a chat?) to people at Rhode Island and Rutgers on the phone sometime next week!

[123456789]

I think some of my friends are sick of hearing about this, so here goes.

I applied to 13 Biomedical Engineering PhD programs (13!). I have some strong qualifications: 1590 GRE, 4.02 GPA during a 1 year BME Masters (at my undergrad institution, so there was no real admissions process to speak of). I have some major weaknesses too though: Undergrad semester GPAs started at 3.6 but steadily declined to 2.7 by the end of senior year -- hated my major. My only real research experience is the job I've had since last August. I also had a gap year between my BS and starting the masters, where I just felt sorry for myself and audited some BME classes. I had another year after the Masters where I worked at a bookstore and did some SAT tutoring with a small company. My current research job is great (prof at a small local school pays me as a lab manager, but aside from minimal duties I get to conduct my own research), but I had no idea how much it would make up for these previous gaps.

Point being, I really wanted this Ph.D., and felt like somebody might take a chance on me, but had ZERO idea where I would fall in the admissions game. To further complicate matters, I am only interested in BME programs with a strong neural engineering program. That limited the field down to a relatively small group, many of which are extremely competitive. So I decided that my only real option was just applying to as many as humanly possible and seeing what happened.

Enough of the sob story... Now for the jealousy part. I wasn't expecting to hear anything for another few weeks, but I got accepted to Utah the other day and couldn't stop staring the screen with an enormous, stupid grin for at least 10 minutes. Finally I knew this thing was happening for sure. The next day I was invited to Florida, and a few days later accepted to Northwestern. I have never been as excited as I am right now. I still have a lot of schools to hear from, and I'm sure a lot of them will be rejections, but goddamnit I am going to grad school! If only there were a smiley that could express my relief.

high fives all around.

[LaraAnn85]

I think some of my friends are sick of hearing about this, so here goes.

I applied to 13 Biomedical Engineering PhD programs (13!). I have some strong qualifications: 1590 GRE, 4.02 GPA during a 1 year BME Masters (at my undergrad institution, so there was no real admissions process to speak of). I have some major weaknesses too though: Undergrad semester GPAs started at 3.6 but steadily declined to 2.7 by the end of senior year -- hated my major. My only real research experience is the job I've had since last August. I also had a gap year between my BS and starting the masters, where I just felt sorry for myself and audited some BME classes. I had another year after the Masters where I worked at a bookstore and did some SAT tutoring with a small company. My current research job is great (prof at a small local school pays me as a lab manager, but aside from minimal duties I get to conduct my own research), but I had no idea how much it would make up for these previous gaps.

Point being, I really wanted this Ph.D., and felt like somebody might take a chance on me, but had ZERO idea where I would fall in the admissions game. To further complicate matters, I am only interested in BME programs with a strong neural engineering program. That limited the field down to a relatively small group, many of which are extremely competitive. So I decided that my only real option was just applying to as many as humanly possible and seeing what happened.

Enough of the sob story... Now for the jealousy part. I wasn't expecting to hear anything for another few weeks, but I got accepted to Utah the other day and couldn't stop staring the screen with an enormous, stupid grin for at least 10 minutes. Finally I knew this thing was happening for sure. The next day I was invited to Florida, and a few days later accepted to Northwestern. I have never been as excited as I am right now. I still have a lot of schools to hear from, and I'm sure a lot of them will be rejections, but goddamnit I am going to grad school! If only there were a smiley that could express my relief.

high fives all around.

Hey that is awesome! congratulations! Have you heard from your top choice(s)?

[123456789]

Hey that is awesome! congratulations! Have you heard from your top choice(s)?

Thanks!

Not yet. I'm not really holding my breath. As far as selectivity goes that would be Hopkins and Duke, and I didn't get very enthusiastic replies to my initial emails at either school. At Northwestern I got a lot of pretty good feedback early on, though I didn't know how much that meant since they hadn't seen my app at that point.

Pending finances or intangible things like potential personality conflicts with profs or potential lab-mates, I would happily attend any of the schools I've heard from so far. So at this point anyone else I hear back from is just about pride and options.

Looks like you applied to a lot of programs as well. Any acceptances yet?

[LaraAnn85]

Thanks!

Not yet. I'm not really holding my breath. As far as selectivity goes that would be Hopkins and Duke, and I didn't get very enthusiastic replies to my initial emails at either school. At Northwestern I got a lot of pretty good feedback early on, though I didn't know how much that meant since they hadn't seen my app at that point.

Pending finances or intangible things like potential personality conflicts with profs or potential lab-mates, I would happily attend any of the schools I've heard from so far. So at this point anyone else I hear back from is just about pride and options.

Looks like you applied to a lot of programs as well. Any acceptances yet?

That's awesome, must be nice to know you're in somewhere, and with choices at that! I did apply to a fair amount, 11 total but I just got word that one of them isn't accepting any students due to lack of funding, even after I had a very enthusiastic response from a potential adviser there. So of the remaining 10, I have 2 interviews, I know of 3 interviews that I didn't get, and I'm still waiting on the last 5 that haven't extended invites yet. Of course 4 of those 5 are my top choices- UT Austin, UNC Chapel Hill, Tufts, and Northeastern- so I'm going crazy! But I am sooo excited to interview at ASU and Purdue this month, it is so surreal I also didn't think I would get any interviews/acceptances. So anyway, no actual acceptances yet, since they interview first, but I would like to think that I will rock the interview and be in at least at those two, I would love to get one more so that I have a few to choose from. This is quite a process, and I have determined that nobody understands unless they have been through it as well!

[Minnesotan]

If only there were a smiley that could express my relief.

I'll get the forum elves working on that one posthaste. In the meantime, congrats!

Hopefully we all get chances taken on us.

[123456789]

Hopefully we all get chances taken on us.

here here. i'll drink to that.

[MonaMour]

Just got accepted to Indiana's History of Education PhD program!!!

Still waiting on Wisconsin, U Penn, and NYU.

[gammagoblin]

Accepted to Lehigh University for a phd in psychology w/ a fellowship nomination.

[Minnesotan]

Please excuse my ignorance but is History of Education within the History Dept. or within the Education Dept.? I am waiting to hear from IU History so I am wondering if this means that the committees have begun to make decisions. CONGRATULATIONS!!!!

That's most likely Education, mate. Try to settle down. =)

[dmh26]

Full fellowship, living stipend, paid summer work for five years! OMG!

[Minnesotan]

Nice. That's a pretty sweet deal, especially since I think you're in history, which is generally underfunded compared to other disciplines.

[dmh26]

Thank you! Yep, you're right..I am in history. I am pumped....people are paying me to read, teach, and learn Russian...lol

[rising_star]

dmh, you're making me wish I'd applied to Michigan State! (for the funding, not for the weather. I'd probably die)

[dmh26]

not for the weather. I'd probably die)

I'm hoping my life in Pittsburgh has prepared me for Michigan weather! lol I don't know if I am going to go there, but I am certainly leaning toward MSU after that funding!

[eternallyviolet]

Congrats! That's an amazing amount of funding for History! You rule!

[Cornell07]

Yeah, getting tons of funding from a public university when we have Bush in the White House is an awesome accomplishment. Kudos to you, sir (or m'am)!

[dmh26]

M'am..lol

Thanks for all the well wishes

[123456789]

I was in transit all day today heading out to an interview weekend, and I got a call right about the time my girlfriend was going to check in. I flipped open the phone without thinking and gave a quick "sup sexy", and didn't think twice until i heard a long "ummmmm". Turns out it was the Minnesota BME department. Fortunately the guy didn't make too much of it, and decided to inform me of my acceptance just the same.

Moral of the story: I am going to look before i say something stupid from now on.

I'm feeling kind of stupid about my whole applying to a million schools thing now. I really thought I might not get in anywhere, and now I have 3 yes's and an interview!

[Minnesotan]

Yeah, getting tons of funding from a public university when we have Bush in the White House is an awesome accomplishment. Kudos to you, sir (or m'am)!

That was gratuitous.

Please keep the political statements out of this thread. If you feel you must air your views, you can encourage some (civil) debate in "The Lobby" forum. This isn't really the place.

Thank you. =)

[rising_star]

I was in transit all day today heading out to an interview weekend, and I got a call right about the time my girlfriend was going to check in. I flipped open the phone without thinking and gave a quick "sup sexy", and didn't think twice until i heard a long "ummmmm". Turns out it was the Minnesota BME department. Fortunately the guy didn't make too much of it, and decided to inform me of my acceptance just the same.

That's an awesome story! Congrats on the acceptances!

[applicant292513]

Full fellowship, living stipend, paid summer work for five years! OMG!

Congrats dmh! I got into MSU w/5-year fellowship also, in Rhetoric and Writing. Does your department have a recruitment event coming up also?

and if anyone else is interested

"Finalist" at Syracuse in Composition and Cultural Rhetoric with invitation to their Visitation Days.

Still waiting for responses from U of Arizona (English, RCTE), U of Michigan-Ann Arbor (Joint Program in English and Education), Penn State (English), Purdue (English), U of Washington (English), U of Wisconsin-Madison (English)

[Minnesotan]

Minnesotan, so prickly about race and politics .

Haha! Naw, it doesn't bother me when it's a little more thickly-veiled, but that seemed like the poster was using the congratulations as an excuse to air his political views. As I said, we can talk politics over in The Lobby, if we want. It's best to keep them out of the other threads, though, as I tend to get wound up. =)