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Re: 2013 Acceptances

Posted: Fri Feb 22, 2013 10:51 pm
by nerv
Kinbote wrote:I'm pretty much in a similar situation - 900+ GRE, 4.00 GPA, one publication, second in progress, summer internship at a national lab, 3 years of research, multiple conference talks, and graduate courses.
I got rejected from MIT, Princeton and Yale also, expecting rejections from Harvard and Caltech now, haven't heard back from the rest, and got into just one.
Also, UC Berkeley, UCSB, Columbia and Stanford still have acceptances to send out, so there's hope.
In general, it's a lot harder for international students to get accepted since they'd rather pay for US citizens, which makes sense. And yeah, it doesn't make much sense that we're getting rejected but it's mostly research interests not matching up. For instance, I got an email from my POI at MIT saying my application was as strong as anyone else accepted, but my research interests don't coincide with his as well as others' do.

Keep in mind also that at the graduate level, the prestige of the school is not very relevant. Rather, it's the prestige of the advisor that matters. So as long as you get into a ~top 20 school, and there's no reason you shouldn't, you'll be fine.

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmi ... SRhf6WccZU

This is a good post by Sean Caroll, who has a lot more ethos about this than I do. (See section: "How prestigious is the school and the department").
Well at least you have 1 school, you have somewhere to go...

what did you write for your research interest?

Re: 2013 Acceptances

Posted: Fri Feb 22, 2013 11:31 pm
by Kinbote
Condensed matter theory, but via applications of the holographic principle.
I was pretty specific (fractional quantum hall effect and phase transitions) and in retrospect maybe I should have applied to the high energy department, not condensed matter.

Re: 2013 Acceptances

Posted: Sat Feb 23, 2013 5:57 am
by lordbadri
GSU astro are sending rejects :( got one now

Re: 2013 Acceptances

Posted: Sat Feb 23, 2013 8:54 am
by Drakon
Hey guys, is it just me or it seems like Dartmouth is taking forever to e-mail out the results? I've noticed that some people already got accepted here at the forums, but still many haven't heard back and on GradCafe.com there is only one admission reported for Fall 2013.

Re: 2013 Acceptances

Posted: Sat Feb 23, 2013 10:41 am
by rahulsd91
Is UMCP done with international acceptances? one look at gradcafe makes me wonder if they're only taking international students this time :shock:

Re: 2013 Acceptances

Posted: Sat Feb 23, 2013 9:14 pm
by zpedram
first off let me make this clear, it was not my intention to come off as egoist at all !! I add " :D " into anything I write ! it's just part of my personality! sorry if it offended u!
second: I don't understand how knowing what school is my first choice has become such a crime!? I am interested in condensed matter experiment and have done 2year+ research + few publications so I knew before hand which professor I wanted to work with. I applied to 13 schools to make sure I would have a choice if I got rejected from my first choice! I've already started rejecting some of the schools that I've been accepted to, but as a future researcher I see it very useful to go to open house of the schools that I am interested in their research and talk with the professors. More importantly I was not that hopeful that I would get accepted into my first choice so I put a lot of time/energy into getting more and more familiar with the work of other professors (which includes reading a lot of their papers.) Now I want to go to their open house - that is if I get accepted- and see the professors, It will help me broaden my horizons and be more familiar with other fields/technique of research in condensed matter.

Simply put; I would not withdraw my applications since I am eager to learn about their decisions, I put so much time/energy/money into my applications to simply ignore them!

Re: 2013 Acceptances

Posted: Sat Feb 23, 2013 10:03 pm
by bfollinprm
zpedram wrote:first off let me make this clear, it was not my intention to come off as egoist at all !! I add " :D " into anything I write ! it's just part of my personality! sorry if it offended u!
second: I don't understand how knowing what school is my first choice has become such a crime!? I am interested in condensed matter experiment and have done 2year+ research + few publications so I knew before hand which professor I wanted to work with. I applied to 13 schools to make sure I would have a choice if I got rejected from my first choice! I've already started rejecting some of the schools that I've been accepted to, but as a future researcher I see it very useful to go to open house of the schools that I am interested in their research and talk with the professors. More importantly I was not that hopeful that I would get accepted into my first choice so I put a lot of time/energy into getting more and more familiar with the work of other professors (which includes reading a lot of their papers.) Now I want to go to their open house - that is if I get accepted- and see the professors, It will help me broaden my horizons and be more familiar with other fields/technique of research in condensed matter.

Simply put; I would not withdraw my applications since I am eager to learn about their decisions, I put so much time/energy/money into my applications to simply ignore them!
The point people are trying to make is that (a) attending open houses at schools you have no intention of attending is very expensive for the school (and robs someone else who might actually be attending that school a chance to visit), and (b) waiting until after the open house date (often quite close to April 15) to reject the offer of acceptance is unfair to those on the waitlist, who won't be offered admission until you respond to the admission offer you may or may not be receiving. The earlier you make your intentions known, the better for everyone.

While there is time (maybe a couple hours?) during open houses to meet and talk to professors, this is not their primary purpose, which is to present the school to interested applicants. There are better and less wasteful times/ways to get to know the other researchers in your field. Acceptances are finite sum, so the responsible thing to do is withdraw your application the minute you know you won't be going to a school.

Re: 2013 Acceptances

Posted: Sun Feb 24, 2013 6:06 am
by Lavabug
bfollinprm wrote:(b) waiting until after the open house date (often quite close to April 15) to reject the offer of acceptance is unfair to those on the waitlist, who won't be offered admission until you respond to the admission offer you may or may not be receiving.
Or, according to astroprof, might not be offered at all as a consequence of the delay!

Re: 2013 Acceptances

Posted: Sun Feb 24, 2013 9:41 am
by qubits
rahulsd91 wrote:Is UMCP done with international acceptances? one look at gradcafe makes me wonder if they're only taking international students this time :shock:
best not to worry. international students were most probably informed via email while the domestic students are receiving the decision via post.

Re: 2013 Acceptances

Posted: Mon Feb 25, 2013 10:22 am
by Einstein1986
Hi, anyone has heard something from UMass Astro department?

Thanks.

Re: 2013 Acceptances

Posted: Mon Feb 25, 2013 11:55 am
by lordbadri
Einstein1986 wrote:Hi, anyone has heard something from UMass Astro department?

Thanks.
even i didnt hear anything. let me know if u hear anything.

Re: 2013 Acceptances

Posted: Mon Feb 25, 2013 3:37 pm
by Einstein1986
lordbadri wrote:
Einstein1986 wrote:Hi, anyone has heard something from UMass Astro department?

Thanks.
even i didnt hear anything. let me know if u hear anything.
OK.

Re: 2013 Acceptances

Posted: Mon Feb 25, 2013 9:06 pm
by deathinacan
Just got my first acceptance to the Arizona department of physics! What a relief!

Re: 2013 Acceptances

Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2013 9:44 am
by rahulsd91
qubits wrote:
rahulsd91 wrote:Is UMCP done with international acceptances? one look at gradcafe makes me wonder if they're only taking international students this time :shock:
best not to worry. international students were most probably informed via email while the domestic students are receiving the decision via post.
I'm an international student.. :|

Re: 2013 Acceptances

Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2013 11:11 am
by blighter
rahulsd91 wrote:
qubits wrote:
rahulsd91 wrote:Is UMCP done with international acceptances? one look at gradcafe makes me wonder if they're only taking international students this time :shock:
best not to worry. international students were most probably informed via email while the domestic students are receiving the decision via post.
I'm an international student.. :|
Why did you have a problem with UMCP taking only international students then?

Re: 2013 Acceptances

Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2013 12:36 pm
by goingnuclear
blighter wrote:Why did you have a problem with UMCP taking only international students then?
I'm guessing because rahulsd91 didn't get an offer, and they're afraid UMCP is done sending them out to internationals...

Re: 2013 Acceptances

Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2013 3:10 pm
by rahulsd91
goingnuclear wrote:
blighter wrote:Why did you have a problem with UMCP taking only international students then?
I'm guessing because rahulsd91 didn't get an offer, and they're afraid UMCP is done sending them out to internationals...
yeah...looking at gradcafe stats, my profile feels competitive, but with so many international results posted, i doubt i'm getting in now...

Re: 2013 Acceptances

Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2013 7:39 pm
by jonadamczewski
Im an international, applied to ten places, and still haven't heard from a single one. My pgre results took ages to get to the departments due to a mistake by ets. now I'm worried that nowhere could really consider my application.. At what point should one begin the process of writing the "please let me know" email? is anyone else out there still waiting for all/most of their places to respond?

Re: 2013 Acceptances

Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2013 7:46 pm
by eraldcoil
I'm still waiting for a response too. 4 places applied to, no decision from any of them. I'm really hoping for the best.

Re: 2013 Acceptances

Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2013 8:18 pm
by dau
jonadamczewski wrote:Im an international, applied to ten places, and still haven't heard from a single one. My pgre results took ages to get to the departments due to a mistake by ets. now I'm worried that nowhere could really consider my application.. At what point should one begin the process of writing the "please let me know" email? is anyone else out there still waiting for all/most of their places to respond?
I have received some answers, but I am still waiting from 7 universities. I will wait until the middle of March to write to them, specially because according to gradcafe some of these places haven't sent their answers yet. You can check in gradcafe whether your universities have already begun to send answers.

Re: 2013 Acceptances

Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2013 9:08 pm
by jonadamczewski
All the places I have applied to have sent out some offers - I find it amazing that so many people have to contact the department to find out their results, despite paying through the nose to have their applications read. The people at ETS sent my results so late (beginning of feb) that I wouldn't be surprised if my application was shelved from day one (in a couple of places).

Re: 2013 Acceptances

Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2013 9:23 pm
by dau
jonadamczewski wrote:All the places I have applied to have sent out some offers - I find it amazing that so many people have to contact the department to find out their results, despite paying through the nose to have their applications read. The people at ETS sent my results so late (beginning of feb) that I wouldn't be surprised if my application was shelved from day one (in a couple of places).
I am sorry about the problem with ETS. In that case I would begin now to write to the universities and I would explain the problem with ETS (if you didn't do that before), in order to ask them whether it is all right and check if they are taking into account your application.

Re: 2013 Acceptances

Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2013 9:24 pm
by kangaroo
jonadamczewski wrote:Im an international, applied to ten places, and still haven't heard from a single one. My pgre results took ages to get to the departments due to a mistake by ets. now I'm worried that nowhere could really consider my application.. At what point should one begin the process of writing the "please let me know" email? is anyone else out there still waiting for all/most of their places to respond?
Did you inform the departments about this delay at all? I sure hope you didn't stay quiet all this while.

Re: 2013 Acceptances

Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2013 1:51 am
by jonadamczewski
kangaroo wrote:
jonadamczewski wrote:Im an international, applied to ten places, and still haven't heard from a single one. My pgre results took ages to get to the departments due to a mistake by ets. now I'm worried that nowhere could really consider my application.. At what point should one begin the process of writing the "please let me know" email? is anyone else out there still waiting for all/most of their places to respond?
Did you inform the departments about this delay at all? I sure hope you didn't stay quiet all this while.
Thanks for the replies guys. Yeah I did email them all, a few got back. They just say "try and get them to us as soon as possible etc", but I would imagine they start making decisions from day one, so I defiantly hasn't helped. I don't mind if I get rejected form all my applications, as Im also applying to lots of great places in Europe. But, y'know, one would hope that they would get back to you at some point without you having to ask. I just can't understand the GRE. Why have a private profit making company (with tax exempt status) control the application process to graduate school, when they are so frequently incompetent and expensive ($50 a pop just to send your results!). Anyway, Im clearly just having a rant - so will stop now. Thanks for the advice!

Re: 2013 Acceptances

Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2013 6:27 am
by Lavabug
ETS also failed to send my scores to some of the universities I requested. Rather they did send them, but to wrong departments, so I had to call the head graduate offices and ask them to look for my scores and add them to my profiles. Luckily they hadn't started reviewing profiles yet when I found out they still didn't have my scores, but I still got rejected from one and I'm still waiting to hear from the last uni, which said they should be done with applications this week.

ETS is terrible at handling their stuff and I think admissions committees know this. I think uni's and students should collectively boycott or partially-boycott them until they get their services to work sensibly. Something along the lines of sending only unofficial reports until you're granted admission would work well to save people's money from sending additional reports that may or may not even make it to the department.

Re: 2013 Acceptances

Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2013 12:38 pm
by Skullgrid
Just heard from Columbia Physics.

Re: 2013 Acceptances

Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2013 1:09 pm
by DiracMan
Have any domestics heard from UMCP? I have not seen anything here or on gradcafe.

I know someone said they sent out snail mail letters last Wednesday, but given my geographical proximity to College Park I would have expected to have received something by now, one way or the other.

Re: 2013 Acceptances

Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2013 1:25 pm
by quantum_fan
DiracMan wrote:I know someone said they sent out snail mail letters last Wednesday
Sorry, that was me. I picked that info up off of a gradcafe listing from an international student that was contacted early by a professor, but it looks like I may have misinterpreted that info since there haven't been any domestic acceptances yet.

Re: 2013 Acceptances

Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2013 5:18 pm
by Tom Joad
DiracMan wrote:Have any domestics heard from UMCP? I have not seen anything here or on gradcafe.

I know someone said they sent out snail mail letters last Wednesday, but given my geographical proximity to College Park I would have expected to have received something by now, one way or the other.

I just got an email today, but it might be because I got a fellowship, as the subject was "Fellowship Offer to U. Maryland."

Re: 2013 Acceptances

Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2013 6:59 pm
by Lavabug
Any Ohio State acceptances in the past week? I am starting to fear they may be done with admissions. :(

Re: 2013 Acceptances

Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2013 8:46 pm
by quantum_fan
My friend also got an acceptance from Maryland via email today. Not sure if he was also a fellowship recipient or not.

Re: 2013 Acceptances

Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2013 1:30 am
by qubits
Tom Joad wrote:
DiracMan wrote:Have any domestics heard from UMCP? I have not seen anything here or on gradcafe.

I know someone said they sent out snail mail letters last Wednesday, but given my geographical proximity to College Park I would have expected to have received something by now, one way or the other.

I just got an email today, but it might be because I got a fellowship, as the subject was "Fellowship Offer to U. Maryland."
quantum_fan wrote:My friend also got an acceptance from Maryland via email today. Not sure if he was also a fellowship recipient or not.
If you look at gradschoolshopper you will notice that pretty much all the students accepted have fellowship offers. around 33 of 39 admitted students have it. Maybe because it is $5000.

Re: 2013 Acceptances

Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2013 2:08 am
by prash
I got the JQI fellowship (~34k) first and the acceptance email later. So pumped!!!

Re: 2013 Acceptances

Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2013 3:35 am
by nerv
did everyone who got into UMD with a fellowship offer get it for the JQI fellowship position?

Re: 2013 Acceptances

Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2013 5:09 am
by StewieVader
Not me. I got my acceptance around a week ago. Haven't heard from them since.

Re: 2013 Acceptances

Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2013 10:27 am
by Tom Joad
qubits wrote: If you look at gradschoolshopper you will notice that pretty much all the students accepted have fellowship offers. around 33 of 39 admitted students have it. Maybe because it is $5000.
Good to know, thanks. I wanted to make sure I didn't make someone freak out for no reason if they hadn't sent out the other acceptances yet.
nerv wrote:did everyone who got into UMD with a fellowship offer get it for the JQI fellowship position?
I just got the small fellowship that's apparently a part of the typical financial package.

Re: 2013 Acceptances

Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2013 10:30 am
by walczyk
UMD was my top choice but I haven't heard anything :/ I just got an acceptance from PSU though today. It throws off my whole schedule because I was resigned to Dartmouth and already studied a lot of the Professors work. But the rankings here is #70 vs #23, I think I would get a better education at PSU. Then again, I've aready cultivated an interested in a particular professor's work at Dartmouth. Is anyone else in a similar situation?

Re: 2013 Acceptances

Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2013 1:35 pm
by Ivan Fyodorovich
The international acceptance e-mails were sent over 2-3 days for Maryland, so it might also be the case for domestic applicants. There were quite a few posts for international applicants but there haven't been many at all for domestic on thegradcafe, so don't worry too much about it yet. Of course I'm being hypocritical here since I've mostly resigned myself to being rejected from everywhere I have remaining.

Re: 2013 Acceptances

Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2013 3:19 pm
by StewieVader
@Tom
Did you apply to JQI when filling up the application form for Maryland? I mentioned I was strongly interested in working at JQI, still didn't get any info in my mail.

Re: 2013 Acceptances

Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2013 3:22 pm
by DiracMan
Has anyone heard from Stanford physics yet? I infer the answer is no, since I think it would appear on gradcafe almost instantly if they posted anything.

According to their website, they should theoretically be sending out decisions today though....

Re: 2013 Acceptances

Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2013 3:27 pm
by eraldcoil
I'm an international applicant applying to UCB, UCSB, UCD and Purdue. What does it say about my chances if I haven't heard anything from them?

Not hopeless, I hope.

Re: 2013 Acceptances

Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2013 4:37 pm
by friedrice
eraldcoil wrote:I'm an international applicant applying to UCB, UCSB, UCD and Purdue. What does it say about my chances if I haven't heard anything from them?

Not hopeless, I hope.
I'm in the same situation. I applied to UCB and UCSB, but haven't heard anything back from them. All I can say is just keep your hopes up. It might not be such a bad idea to ask them about your application status if the anxiety is killing you.

Re: 2013 Acceptances

Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2013 5:02 pm
by nerv
friedrice wrote:
eraldcoil wrote:I'm an international applicant applying to UCB, UCSB, UCD and Purdue. What does it say about my chances if I haven't heard anything from them?

Not hopeless, I hope.
I'm in the same situation. I applied to UCB and UCSB, but haven't heard anything back from them. All I can say is just keep your hopes up. It might not be such a bad idea to ask them about your application status if the anxiety is killing you.
The Californian state universities have no money, so it is very hard for internationals to get in. I don't think you should count on them, realistically speaking. I called UCB and UCSB and was told I was not admitted to either.

Re: 2013 Acceptances

Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2013 5:10 pm
by bfollinprm
nerv wrote:
friedrice wrote:
eraldcoil wrote:I'm an international applicant applying to UCB, UCSB, UCD and Purdue. What does it say about my chances if I haven't heard anything from them?

Not hopeless, I hope.
I'm in the same situation. I applied to UCB and UCSB, but haven't heard anything back from them. All I can say is just keep your hopes up. It might not be such a bad idea to ask them about your application status if the anxiety is killing you.
The Californian state universities have no money, so it is very hard for internationals to get in. I don't think you should count on them, realistically speaking. I called UCB and UCSB and was told I was not admitted to either.
Other than to say that you mean UC schools, I will say that's accurate. They've started making life harder even on accepted international applicants (like pushing them to take quals earlier), since they can't always get the deans office grants to cover the out of state tuition after the first year.

Re: 2013 Acceptances

Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2013 6:26 pm
by eraldcoil
Money eh... damn. Sure is hard even to stay positive.

Re: 2013 Acceptances

Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2013 9:17 pm
by bfollinprm
I should say this is probably not just a problem in the UC system (though it's the only one I have direct experience with). Most public schools in the US are facing funding pressures at the moment, because of a contraction in state tax revenue from the property bubble burst and increased unemployment.

Re: 2013 Acceptances

Posted: Fri Mar 01, 2013 4:08 pm
by wololo
Any news from Stanford? According to their website all applicants will be notified of their admission status by March 1

Re: 2013 Acceptances

Posted: Fri Mar 01, 2013 4:15 pm
by MaFFGeeK
wololo wrote:Any news from Stanford? According to their website all applicants will be notified of their admission status by March 1
I still haven't heard from them. Maybe they're just running a bit late?

Re: 2013 Acceptances

Posted: Fri Mar 01, 2013 5:09 pm
by wsxcv
nothing from stanford yet :/

Re: 2013 Acceptances

Posted: Fri Mar 01, 2013 5:26 pm
by Skullgrid
Just heard from Stanford.