Physics GRE Discussion Forums

Just got accepted to UChicago Physics, $30,342 stipend.

akander wrote:Just got accepted to UChicago Physics, $30,342 stipend.

Congrats! Heard it's really hard to get into UChi this year since they accepted too many people last year.

Accepted to uChicago with a fellowship:

Our offer comes with a distinguished Yoichiro Nambu Fellowship. This fellowship will provide you with full tuition support, health insurance, and a stipend of $47,600 per year for the first three years of graduate study. (Details are outlined here.) After your third year, support covering tuition and stipend will come from a combination of Research and Teaching Assistantships and will continue until you receive your degree.

911876gev wrote:Accepted to uChicago with a fellowship:

Our offer comes with a distinguished Yoichiro Nambu Fellowship. This fellowship will provide you with full tuition support, health insurance, and a stipend of $47,600 per year for the first three years of graduate study. (Details are outlined here.) After your third year, support covering tuition and stipend will come from a combination of Research and Teaching Assistantships and will continue until you receive your degree.

Wow nice, that's a crazy good financial package. Maybe I'll be seeing you there in the Fall.

911876gev wrote:Accepted to uChicago with a fellowship:

Our offer comes with a distinguished Yoichiro Nambu Fellowship. This fellowship will provide you with full tuition support, health insurance, and a stipend of $47,600 per year for the first three years of graduate study. (Details are outlined here.) After your third year, support covering tuition and stipend will come from a combination of Research and Teaching Assistantships and will continue until you receive your degree.

Congrats! You must be so good that they give you that good of a deal. Let me know if you are going to the open house.

un par de tenis wrote:I'm just beginning to receive some emails that my applications are under review!

These are for LSU, Montana State, and Stevens.

would you please share your scores and cv, or any significance in your work experiences?

Just got accepted to Cornell Applied Physics PhD via email. 30.4k stipend per 9 months.

bahar.physics wrote:

un par de tenis wrote:I'm just beginning to receive some emails that my applications are under review!

These are for LSU, Montana State, and Stevens.

would you please share your scores and cv, or any significance in your work experiences?

See my post in this thread (first one on the second page) http://www.physicsgre.com/viewtopic.php ... 8&start=50

Just got my first acceptance! Applied physics at NAU

un par de tenis wrote:

bahar.physics wrote:

un par de tenis wrote:I'm just beginning to receive some emails that my applications are under review!

These are for LSU, Montana State, and Stevens.

would you please share your scores and cv, or any significance in your work experiences?

See my post in this thread (first one on the second page) http://www.physicsgre.com/viewtopic.php ... 8&start=50

Just got my first acceptance! Applied physics at NAU

congratulate! My first acceptance is MSU. Do you know about this university?

bahar.physics wrote:

un par de tenis wrote:

bahar.physics wrote:
These are for LSU, Montana State, and Stevens.

would you please share your scores and cv, or any significance in your work experiences?

See my post in this thread (first one on the second page) http://www.physicsgre.com/viewtopic.php ... 8&start=50

Just got my first acceptance! Applied physics at NAU

congratulate! My first acceptance is MSU. Do you know about this university?[/quote]

I assume you're referring to Montana State?

I've applied there too, and I haven't heard back yet unfortunately

From what I know it's a pretty good school. I worked on a project with some professors from there, and they were really nice and knowledgeable. Congratulations to you as well!

Had an interview with University of Alabama on February 1st, but since then no reply...

Anyone knows anything about them...I saw one acceptance on thegradcafe days ago.

Got acceptances from MIT and Princeton in the same morning Yaaaay

Any thoughts on when it is appropriate to write schools for status updates on my applications? I applied to 13 schools and have only heard from one thus far (Michigan). I did contact one school about something else and asked for a status update, and was told that my application had not been reviewed yet because they go in alphabetical order! The wait is gut-wrenching! Especially when I see some (not all) of my schools sporadically coming up here and on gradcafe with acceptances and rejections...
Any thoughts? Perhaps I should just suck it up and leave them alone

Does any one have received any result from "University of utah", "Umass-Amherst": and "University of South Carolina"?

Rejection from Cornell today

Northwestern is sending out the rest of their acceptances by the end of this week.

JQI fellowship from UMD today. Excited!

dsr12 wrote:Any thoughts on when it is appropriate to write schools for status updates on my applications? I applied to 13 schools and have only heard from one thus far (Michigan). I did contact one school about something else and asked for a status update, and was told that my application had not been reviewed yet because they go in alphabetical order! The wait is gut-wrenching! Especially when I see some (not all) of my schools sporadically coming up here and on gradcafe with acceptances and rejections...
Any thoughts? Perhaps I should just suck it up and leave them alone

It's still too early to bug them. I am in your position too; some of the schools I have applied to have sent out acceptances but I have got neither acceptances nor denials from them. I am gonna hold off till March 15th before asking schools if they have n't replied yet (I expect them to by then though).

dialatone wrote:JQI fellowship from UMD today. Excited!

May I be curious what your division is? Have all offers of AMO been delivered?
I'm upset for no news to me.

common_2012 wrote:

dialatone wrote:JQI fellowship from UMD today. Excited!

May I be curious what your division is? Have all offers of AMO been delivered?
I'm upset for no news to me.

CMT. Best of luck!!

Accepted Rice university today

Anyone hear back from LSU or New Mexico Tech yet?

I talked with my contact at Montana State. I was told that I didn't make the first round of applicants, but that I'm definitely not rejected yet. If you've been accepted to Montana State and you know that you won't be attending please decline your offer!

Rejected from MIT on the 13th, and rejected from Princeton on the 14th. One-two punch

Has anyone heard from Brandeis, Tufts or Northeastern?

Thanks!

waterloo wrote:Has anyone heard from Brandeis, Tufts or Northeastern?

Thanks!

Hi, I received an offer from Northeastern on 7 Feb. I have declined the offer as I will not be attending it. Good luck!

hey, have any astronomers heard from uw madison? i havent seen anything here or on gradcafe yet...

Did anybody heard back from Cornell Astronomy?..
It seems that there is at least one person who got accepted to the dept. but I am not sure whether the first round is over or not.

Well, I have officially received NO response from the following schools, which seem to be sending out acceptances and rejections regularly: UC Davis, UC Santa Cruz, UC San Diego, U of Oregon, U of Washington, NYU, JHU, Columbia, UNC, UH Manoa. I contacted Oregon a week ago, and was told they had not opened my application but would shortly. UCSD just sent a generic response saying would send notices over the next several months. Davis did not reply, so I contacted the POI I have corresponded with in the past. Waiting on that. Am doing the same for UH today.
My question is if anyone knows what the heck I should think at this point? My applications are complete and in order. They are all just "under review", "submitted", or "pending". I can't figure it out and I am losing my marbles thinking about what I will do if I get all rejections

dsr12 wrote:Well, I have officially received NO response from the following schools, which seem to be sending out acceptances and rejections regularly: UC Davis, UC Santa Cruz, UC San Diego, U of Oregon, U of Washington, NYU, JHU, Columbia, UNC, UH Manoa. I contacted Oregon a week ago, and was told they had not opened my application but would shortly. UCSD just sent a generic response saying would send notices over the next several months. Davis did not reply, so I contacted the POI I have corresponded with in the past. Waiting on that. Am doing the same for UH today.
My question is if anyone knows what the heck I should think at this point? My applications are complete and in order. They are all just "under review", "submitted", or "pending". I can't figure it out and I am losing my marbles thinking about what I will do if I get all rejections

I got rejected by UW days ago, still waiting to hear something from NYU

laniakea1 wrote:

dsr12 wrote:Well, I have officially received NO response from the following schools, which seem to be sending out acceptances and rejections regularly: UC Davis, UC Santa Cruz, UC San Diego, U of Oregon, U of Washington, NYU, JHU, Columbia, UNC, UH Manoa. I contacted Oregon a week ago, and was told they had not opened my application but would shortly. UCSD just sent a generic response saying would send notices over the next several months. Davis did not reply, so I contacted the POI I have corresponded with in the past. Waiting on that. Am doing the same for UH today.
My question is if anyone knows what the heck I should think at this point? My applications are complete and in order. They are all just "under review", "submitted", or "pending". I can't figure it out and I am losing my marbles thinking about what I will do if I get all rejections

I got rejected by UW days ago, still waiting to hear something from NYU

Yes, I have seen both acceptances and rejections from UW. I have heard nothing. As for NYU, I am not sure if they have sent out rejections yet, but I have seen plenty of acceptances. I am trying to think no news is good news at this point. Oregon told me they notified everyone before March 15. My application was still in line for review... good luck with everything. Commiseration helps

Have any astro people received anything from ASU yet?

ham wrote:

waterloo wrote:Has anyone heard from Brandeis, Tufts or Northeastern?

Thanks!

Hi, I received an offer from Northeastern on 7 Feb. I have declined the offer as I will not be attending it. Good luck!

Thanks ham. Anyone else heard from these schools?

Anyone know if UIUC or UCSB is done giving offers?

UIUC astro was meeting today for second wave of invites

Accepted at Columbia. All school responses complete.

Declined uPenn and Carnegie Mellon today. Good luck to everyone.

Has anyone heard back from the University of Southern California? It‘s been 2 months now...

Does anyone have any updates from UNC Chapel Hill or University of Oregon? I received generic responses to my queries. Gradcafe has no news. Anyone here received decisions lately? Really want to plan my future

Thanks.

A humble request to all who have been admitted to University of Oregon to decline offers if you are not attending. I am at the top of the wait list here and am very interested in this program.

Bowing down in gratitude.

A request to those who have gotten acceptances where you don't intend to go, please decline your offers.

I have a good offer from one school, am wait listed for another and am waiting on a third (UNC Chapel Hill, who seem to be extremely late this year). My first school actually sweetened their offer to me a couple days ago with an additional scholarship after first writing to me to see if I was still considering them. They are politely asking me to get on with it and reply now. These are all PhD programs.
So, my question is: Is it time to pressure my other two schools for their replies? It seems like UNC must have answers by now (even though they told me just last week they were still reviewing applications and had not issued decisions). And perhaps the wait listed school has an idea whether they will admit students from the wait list this year by now, and can give me an idea where I am on the list? When do you think it's time to bite the bullet? I hate to wait until April 14. Someone else might be wait listed after me and need an answer as well... I am not sure what the the proper etiquette here.
Any thoughts?

Thanks!

dsr12 wrote:I have a good offer from one school, am wait listed for another and am waiting on a third (UNC Chapel Hill, who seem to be extremely late this year). My first school actually sweetened their offer to me a couple days ago with an additional scholarship after first writing to me to see if I was still considering them. They are politely asking me to get on with it and reply now. These are all PhD programs.
So, my question is: Is it time to pressure my other two schools for their replies? It seems like UNC must have answers by now (even though they told me just last week they were still reviewing applications and had not issued decisions). And perhaps the wait listed school has an idea whether they will admit students from the wait list this year by now, and can give me an idea where I am on the list? When do you think it's time to bite the bullet? I hate to wait until April 14. Someone else might be wait listed after me and need an answer as well... I am not sure what the the proper etiquette here.
Any thoughts?

Thanks!

Your instinct is right---it is now a good time to reach out** to the schools you're waiting on and ask them if they have any update for you and if not, whether they have an idea of when they would admit people from a waitlist. Let them know that you are asking since you currently have an offer and you don't want to keep everyone waiting longer than necessary (or something like that).

** I use "reach out" instead of your subject line of "pressure" because you really shouldn't be viewing this interaction as you applying pressure to them since 1) you don't really have that leverage over them and 2) if that tone comes across then it wouldn't reflect well on you! I'm guessing you probably do mean something more neutral like "reach out" though but just wanted to point it out.

Also, one thing you could do to also do your part to speed up the process is to make a ranked list of your schools assuming you have adequate funding everywhere. At this point, if you get a last minute offer from either waitlisted school, it's unlikely you can do a visit before having to make a decision. So other than the details of the offer letter (which is still quite important), you do have almost all the information you need to determine your preferences.

Therefore, you could potentially make some decisions now. Assume that each of the two waitlisted school will give you a decent funding offer (i.e. enough to live on) so that funding won't be a factor in your decision. How would you rank these three schools? If any of the waitlisted schools rank below the one where you have the offer-in-hand, I would seriously consider withdrawing from that school. If a waitlisted school is ahead of your offer-in-hand school, decide now how low the funding offer from waitlisted school would have to be in order for you to choose offer-in-hand school instead. It's helpful to have this in mind so that you can make a decision almost immediately after receiving an offer from a waitlisted school, should that scenario happen!

Thank you TakeruK. I appreciate your thoughts.

Yes, the word pressure was really not my intention. I am quite tactful when I correspond with schools. That was a poor word choice for my post.

I contacted UNC, who answered with an apology for the long admissions process this year, and they said my application was under review and I would be notified before April 13.

I also contacted the wait list school, who said that there would be several wait list offers made next week. They also said to remember that I am not required to confirm any offers until April 15, so to please wait for their offers to go out before confirming my other school.

So I am basically in the waiting game still. If I do receive another offer, I will have maybe a day or two to decide! At least the 15th falls on a Sunday this year. So I will have Saturday to contemplate

Just as a general reminder to all who have multiple offers, or are waiting to hear if they have multiple offers: no US school can require you to make a decision prior to April 15. However, out of courtesy to your fellow classmates, it is beneficial to all involved if you narrow your selection down to no more than two schools at this point. Notify those schools that you are no longer considering that you decline their offer, even if you have not yet made your final decision. This will allow the majority of schools to re-evaluate their potential incoming class size, and to start making offers to those on the wait list, if appropriate. For context, some schools make more offers than they expect to accept, and just leave it at that. Other schools are aiming for a specific target incoming class size (usually based on the available funding) and will start to admit from the wait list when too many of the original offers are declined. In this latter instance, offers may continue to be made up-to, and past, April 15.

If you are on a wait list (or have not heard a final decision from a school), it is ok to contact the school to see if they can provide additional information at this point (this shows that you are still interested), but do not be surprised if the response is that they still do not know. Most schools will not make additional offers until they have heard from the majority (or even all) of the students that were made the first offers. If your colleagues are slow to respond, then both you and the school will just have to wait. At the same time, if you are on a wait list and know that you are no longer interested in that school, you should withdraw your application (just send an email stating that you have accepted an offer elsewhere and no longer wish to be considered for admission), so that the next person on the wait list will have a chance to be notified more quickly.

This time of year is difficult for everyone. You are making decisions that could affect the rest of your career, so take the time you need to consider your options carefully. Nonetheless, still recognize that you are part of a larger group of aspiring physicists/astronomers, and it is in your best interests to act responsibly.

Still no response from Wisconsin Madison, Columbia Applied Physics or UCSD. It's already past April 15th. Should I contact their department?