jacket24

It's April 15th and, after much deliberation, I have accepted an offer to attend Carnegie Mellon this fall. All of the toiling through the whole application process has finally paid off and my efforts have been validated. Now that the reality that I will actually be going somewhere has set in, planning and preparation can begin. I'm excited to get into the lab and get started. I hope all of you are happy with your decisions and end up where you want to be. Congratulations and good luck to you all, and thanks for the advice that you've posted on this website.

Hang in there guys, I thought that I was certainly rejected from all of my remaining programs but I just got an acceptance today. Don't give up hope yet!

Should we be making those comparisons? Maybe, maybe not. Should we stress or overanalyze any part of the application process? For the sake of our collective mental health, certainly not. Whether we should be asking certain questions is irrelevant. The point of the poll is not to offend or alienate anyone. The intent is to provide information that is clearly of interest to thegradcafe users. You make a good point about the sample bias. We are only getting a glimpse of a small subset of the overall graduate student population that happens to visit this forum. The results should be taken with a grain of salt, but it's the best we have under the given constraints.

I completely agree that age is irrelevant to one's potential for success in graduate school. The fact of the matter is, though, that this question will never stop coming up as it is natural to compare yourself to those you are working with or competing against. With all of the responses organized, at least there will be a reasonably large data set available for future applicants to consult before starting redundant threads.

I added a "N/A" option for those who will only go through one type of program since you have to answer both. If you will be doing a master's only, answer N/A for the PhD question.

I know this question has been asked several times in various locations, but I thought it might be useful to have a graphical representation compiled in one location for the reference of future applicants. How old were you (or will you be) when starting a PhD or master's degree? (Don't forget to vote in the poll.)

We're getting very close to the finish line...29 days until final decisions are due. Hoping for good news this week.

To erdingerchamp66's point, cost of living does factor in greatly to what may be considered a competitive offer. The website below provides an estimate for the value of $100 in US cities. http://taxfoundation.org/blog/real-value-100-metropolitan-areas When analyzing offers, you might calculate a "normalized funding amount" by multiplying the offer by the comparative value of a dollar in that city. For example, if a school in San Francisco offered you $25,000, you would find the normalized amount by taking $25,000 x $82.44/$100. This approach puts the dollar values on the same playing field for direct comparison.

We are now halfway through March and, like many of you, I have still yet to hear back from several programs. There are now only 4 possible weekends left to visit programs, evaluate offers, and make a major life-changing decision before the April 15th deadline. There should be a deadline for programs to release decisions at least 1 month before offers need to be accepted or declined. I don't know about any of you, but I'm definitely feeling the weight of impending possibilities and hope that I'm notified with enough time to make an informed decision. Anyone else feeling the pressure of crunch time? Have you already made up your mind or narrowed your choices down enough that you're just waiting for the green light (acceptance)? Personally, the course of the next 4 years of my life still hangs very much in the balance and could change drastically based on the whims of the adcoms. Hoping for a big week with good news...

I've been waiting to post in this thread and finally got my first acceptance today. I got home from work and checked all of my applications as usual but everything still said "pending." Went to the gym and got a message after my second set of squats. It was good news and I was so thrilled that I put 20 lbs more on the bar than I planned and killed the rest of my workout. It still doesn't feel real but it's such a relief to know that I'm going SOMEWHERE.

I just got my first acceptance from Carnegie Mellon so I guess you're right. So excited.

When is the visit? Were you contacted by a POI or the department?

Here are some results that I compiled for Duke CEE PhD. From the looks of it, it will probably be bad news if we don't hear before April. I'm expecting something within the next 3 weeks...hopefully sooner but they did extend their application deadline this year so who knows. The only thing I've seen posted on the results page so far was one invitation for a campus visit. http://imgur.com/28MrXP6

Just got the axe from Yale, apparently along with a couple of other people on the results page. I'm a bit disappointed, but I knew it was a long shot. It's surprisingly relieving that the ball is rolling on decisions, even though my first result was less than ideal.

Not a peep from either.