learnfordays

Got two more rejections last Friday. Thankfully the weather was warm this past weekend and the Vitamin D eased my disappointment. Doesn't look good for me this application season. Sigh. But glad to see lots of good news and movement for others.

Thought a short vacation was going to take my mind off the waiting game for a bit...and it had but the anxiety really kicked in again after reading the recent results postings on gradcafe. I'm gradually losing hope about this application cycle; close to half of the schools I applied to have already sent out interviews: UCLA, Berkeley, Columbia and Michigan. Sigh.

Another fan here of Big Bang Theory and HTGAWM. I'm glad that TGIT is back this week =) Also enjoy Agents of Shield, Shadowhunters, Two Broke Girls, The Librarians, SVU, Grey's Anatomy, Fresh Off the Boat. Anyone else a fan of Asian Dramas like KDrama... those can be really addicting! Haven't found a really good one to invest in yet. Any fans of traveling? I'm taking a short vacation to Iceland next week to de-stress and celebrate my birthday. Anyone else go and have recommendations/travel tips?

I think the anxiety is a normal product of this process and not by your doing :) And congrats on receiving an interview!!! Best of luck; hope it went awesomely!

Looks like someone on Gradcafe posted about Wharton being done with their interview invitations. sigh. Also, it looks like activity is starting for HBS (Bus. Econ), UCLA (Accounting), and Case Western (OB).

I think don't hold out hope unless there's official notification from the program. At least, that's what I'm going to do...

No! Say it isn't so... May I ask how do you know?

Like official notification or a feeling based on interview invites?

I believe all graduate school applications go through Rackham (at least Ross does). And yes, they (Rackham) do require the official transcripts in addition to uploaded unofficial ones. Emailing and calling would make sense, except they are not being responsive (at least from my experience).

I'm having the same experience with Ross being unresponsive as well as the transcript issue. I've called and emailed since early January and still no reply. It's also really weird that my grad transcript is received but not my undergraduate. Sigh. Good to know that there's someone else in the same boat...but not good to hear that there is a bit of disorganization on the school's end.

I would echo Silviatx's point of reaching out to a different referee if that's a possibility. If a recommender is being unresponsive, it might be a signal that the recommendation may not be to your benefit. But I think you could reach out one last time with a more urgent reminder about deadlines and submissions. Considering that this time of the year is also really busy, perhaps it just slipped their minds. You could also try sending an automated reminder through the school's application manager... I've heard from current doctoral students that a late recommendation won't be too much of a big deal if you send a polite message prior to the program coordinator saying that the recommendation is on its way (given that it's not way past the deadline and that you've already submitted your portion).

If I had those kinds of connections, I guess I wouldn't worry as much...:playful: When I was searching through T50 schools, I found that the professors I want to work with/had similar research interests were in mostly in T20. Also, I filtered my school choices geographically too...I primarily looked at Northeast and West Coast schools since they were in places that had high concentrations of family and friends, which are important to me. I'm a 28yo male living in the Northeast and I actually enjoy knitting very much :D:D:D I don't like to think about work when I want to do something for leisure... I really enjoy learning new languages so maybe I'll try that. Perhaps something artsy/creative? I think it may be good to find a new hobby that complements well with the PhD life...hmm?? [dance][dance]

I think I've read on some schools' pages that some don't even convene adcoms until after their app deadlines... I know it's not productive for schools but I wished that schools had set notification dates like undergrad (if not one set date, maybe multiple cycles like they do for MBA notifications) - it would definitely appease all this "unnecessary" anxiety from waiting. Any recommendations for hobbies to keep me preoccupied?? Hope that you get good news from the schools you've interviewed at and hear from others soon! I applied to all T20 schools and am starting to freak out that this cycle may not yield good results for me...:sorrow:...but can't give up hope yet. Just have to wait it out.

Hope everyone is having a great start to 2017! Was just wondering if anyone has heard back from programs: interview, admission, rejection, or otherwise...getting a little anxious reading through posts of interviews and acceptances for PhD programs in other disciplines on gradcafe.