depreciated

I believe that University of Toronto also placed a student at UC Berkeley this year.

I'm having a bit of a hard time understanding your post, but if you have specific questions about GWU, why don't you try contacting some of their PhD students? They would be in the best position to answer any specific questions you had about the program.

That is a little puzzling. It's true that they are a little behind in the process, but I know they called several candidates for phone interviews several weeks ago (I think an actual interview to weed out or wait list additional candidates, and not just to invite candidates to fly down to campus like many programs do, but I could be wrong... I just remember it being a fairly tough interview compared to nearly all others that I have had up to this point), and then they offered fly outs to several people from there. I believe they have made an offer to an ADS person, and are looking to make offers to two more. I am not sure how many people they are currently flying out.

I don't think that the adcom will need all of this information prior to rendering a decision. I am thinking that they are asking you now to ensure that they receive it in a timely manner? Or perhaps they have already made up their mind to accept you. Have you already had your campus visit? Maybe someone else has More insight on this.

You can ask all of the above.

Hi guys, I'm having a really hard time deciding on these accounting programs, which I either have offers to or am somewhat confident that I will get offers to.. Toronto, Arizona, Iowa, USC. I am mainly interested in financial archival research. Placements look somewhat equivalent (I could be wrong) and they all seem to be ranked pretty well for financial. In speaking with students and professors at each of the programs, of course they all think their programs are the best, and they have their reasons. I guess that's a good thing because it probably means that it's hard for me to go wrong :) But at the same time it's making it really hard for me to decide. I just thought I'd get some additional input.. Thanks.

I think it depends on if you have other offers already. For me, I do not really want the process to drag out to April (both for myself and as a courtesy to the programs that are waiting on my response), so I am probably going to start contacting a few of the other programs at the top of my list, in the next week or so, and inquire about my application status. I'll basically be doing what possible_phd mentioned and say that I have pending offers from other universities (one of them being Canadian so they don't follow the April 15 rule). This way at least I'll know what kind of a shot I have, and if no real shot, I will accept one of my offers.

As an accounting applicant, and based on my own experience with the process, I tend to agree with phdhope (mainly with regards to the GMAT score). I think that you are an international student (correct me if I'm wrong), and I believe that many universities prefer to accept American candidates all things being equal. Therefore, international candidates tend to have to have scores or stats above the median in order to gain acceptance. As phdhope mentioned a 680 is definitely on the low end for all the schools in list 1 and 2, even for an American applicant. Also, I think that you are Chinese (again, correct me if I'm wrong). In speaking with some professors during my interviews, there appears to be a slight bias against Chinese international candidates due to perceived language difficulties. Further, I have been told that this year there is a greater number of American applicants, which apparently makes it more difficult for international applicants overall. Finally, and I don't know if this has an actual impact, but I notice that you are a BYU graduate, which could mean that you are not just competing with the other applicants, but that you are competing against those from BYU. Of course BYU has the PhD prep track program which churns out highly competitive applicants to the top schools you listed. Each of these applicants probably will apply to several of the top schools. I would imagine that a school is unlikely to make an offer to more than 1 or 2 applicants from the same school in a given year. Again, I could be wrong about this, but this is what I heard from a PhD prep track person who appeared to have a great profile, but surprisingly little to no offers up to this point (he said that he thought it was due to other PhD prep candidates applying to the same schools, but I think it is probably also due to the fact that he applied to practically all the top programs). I think that the rest of your profile is pretty decent, and that if you retake the GMAT and score above 700, you will open many more doors and probably have a fair shot at some of the schools in your first and second group, and all the schools in the third group.

I think you guys are thinking too much into it.. The main purpose is to get a sense of where you are in the process as an applicant. They want to know where they stand, whether they are late in the game, etc. For instance if you are interviewing at Baruch College and you already have offers from Chicago, MIT, Stanford etc. then they will not consider you a serious candidate to make an offer to because the chance of you accepting is slim. It costs money for schools to fly you out and spend time interviewing you, so ideally they would try to find this out before even offering you a fly out. If they are asking you this during an actual on campus interview, then they may not extend you an offer because they only have a limited number of offers that they can make at a time, and they wouldn't want you holding up a spot unless they were really sure you would accept. On the other hand, if you have already received offers from comparable schools, it can actually be used in your favor. It reaffirms the school's thoughts that you are a good candidate if other comparable schools are also interested in you. However, if you have received offers from a long list of programs, this again may indicate to the school that you are going to be a tough candidate to actually get an acceptance from, and this may impact their decision. Schools will also ask you what schools you applied to to see whether you are treating them as a backup. Again, if you are interviewing at a lesser school and list off a bunch of elites, the school will get a sense that they are a backup, and they'd probably prefer to extend an offer to someone who really wants to be there, even if they have a slightly less attractive profile. Finally, if a school asks you what other schools you applied to and you list off a bunch of random, seemingly unrelated programs (e.g. a mix of financial archival schools, behavioral schools, etc) then you indicate to them that you simply applied to a bunch of programs without putting much thought into the process. I think it's fairly common for people to just apply to all the good programs without putting a lot of thought into it.

I know a few people from OSU, and the interview per thegradcafe is likely BS. As far as I know, OSU has yet to make any decisions. I'm sure there are other nonsense postings on gradcafe, so take it all with a grain of salt. If you have not received a rejection yet, you still have a shot. Also, I would say that just because you did not hear back from one of those schools on the list does not mean that you have no chance. For example, I had a recent interview at one of the programs on that list (a very decent program), and they planned on taking everyone they've currently invited except for one person. However, I spoke to the candidates and they have also heard back from several schools that they would probably prefer, and I have also heard back from several schools that may be better. I am fairly confident I will get at least several of these (as soon as they finish interviewing the other candidates and send an unofficial/official acceptance). So if we got those other offers, we may or may not reject the school, and they would probably go interview additional candidates. Of course this would depend on schools, as some schools are interviewing 5 candidates and taking 1, and going down that list. In that case chances are slimmer. Also, as noted in other threads, a school like Stanford is probably not likely to have many accepted students rejecting them for other programs. However, for even the top public institutions, I would expect that the first choice candidates could have a shot at many potentially good or better schools (at this level "better" is probably not the appropriate word, but what I mean is better fit for the particular candidate). Also, just because a school is taking something like 2 students out of 6 that they are interviewing might not mean you have only a 33% chance. Schools may put their candidates into different pools. One school I know is interviewing 3 tax people for 1 tax position, and 3 financial people for 2 financial positions. Therefore, if you were doing financial, you would actually have a 67% chance, which is significantly more favorable than 33%.

I don't think there would be anything wrong with asking? Knowing a ball park date can be helpful, for example, if you have other offers, but you're waiting on that particular school. phdapply, I'm not sure what you mean by how to ask. There's nothing to it. Just ask them directly what the approximate time frame is for them to make a decision. Of course they may not be able to tell you exactly if you have been waitlisted, and they are waiting for someone else to make a decision before moving you up the list.

Penn State has contacted people recently for campus visits (don't know if they contacted all, but definitely started contacting some).

From my own experience, most of the time when they call you to make contact, it is to invite you out for a campus visit, and you may also receive a very light interview. However, don't assume that this is the case, since I was surprised by one school. They called, and I was fully expecting to be invited out to campus, as all the other schools have done so far, but instead I got quite a heavy interview. So just be prepared for anything. If you're asking about what kind of questions to expect, it may vary based on your profile (e.g. "Why do you want to do a PhD now?" if you spent a few years in industry, "What makes you think a PhD is right for you as opposed to industry" if you have no work experience, etc.), but the questions that you must be sure to be able to answer are: - Why do you want to do a PhD? - What are your research interests (this doesn't usually need to be in a deep level of detail, but you should have a good general idea, and make sure this fits the school) - Why are you interested in XYZ University's PhD program? There are many other questions of course, but are the ones that you will see repeatedly.

Whether your GMAT score is sufficient really depends on what schools you're applying to. Looking at your profile, I would agree that it is pretty good except for maybe the GMAT score. This is based on your other post that you mentioned that you wanted to apply to Harvard, MIT, Oxford, Texas Austin, Stanford, U of Michigan, Wharton, Duke, U of Indiana, U of Sourth California, University of Washington, Washington University (st Louis). These are a list of incredibly competitive schools, and a 680 would probably hurt your application significantly at those programs. *edit* oops, I didn't see that you also listed some backup schools. I do think that you will have a better chance at those schools although your GMAT score is still a little low. The problem with having a lower GMAT is that you'd have to compensate for it in other areas and the rest of your profile is good, but I don't know if it would stand out from other applicants to those programs. Someone else could correct me if I'm wrong.

Yup, actually this is exactly what I got and I was wondering how to respond? I guess maybe no response is really necessary other than a "thank you for your consideration" given that it's not an official acceptance. I'm probably thinking too much into it. Also, at this stage is an actual acceptance almost all but guaranteed or are there any road blocks to be aware of that may still occur?