2021 Sweat Thread

[mondub]

How is everyone coping with waiting until more results are out? Even though I already received a couple offers that I’m very happy about, I just keep checking gradcafe and here for updates. Despite that I’m lucky enough to already have some acceptances I’m still quite anxious about the whole admission season being over. I’m having a hard time focusing on doing my assignments and work :( This year replies started so soon that I feel like I’ve been stressing for forever

 

Yeah struggling here as well. I'm yet to get an offer and am stressing out quite a bit. Struggling to keep my mind off of admissions decisions. One technique that's helping me is to only check emails once a day - this has restored some of my sanity but it takes quite a bit of self-control.

[cp9290]

It's certainly a brutal year, hard to not take these rejections personally. What made me feel a bit better was that I got accepted to a program that's supposed to be much harder to get into than another one that I got rejected from. Seems like it's possible to get rejected for reasons that have nothing to do with your profile's strength so don't sweat it!

[lalaland94]

I am nervous also especially after I got the rejection from Penn State, my lowest ranking school

[mondub]

I am nervous also especially after I got the rejection from Penn State, my lowest ranking school

I'm sorry to hear that! I didn't apply for Penn State as they're notorious for emphasising mathematics grades and background. So its possible that you're a competitive applicant for higher ranked schools that are a little more open in their criteria. Hopefully that helps and good luck!

[Wahasky]

Yeah, like everyone else I'm coping with the stress pretty badly lol, despite one acceptance and one waitlist. Trying to focus on other stuff, working on my french and my jump shot (both still bad) and my job but it's not working that well. I keep meaning to have a day where I don't refresh gradcafe/urch 100000 times but haven't done it yet.

 

Honestly we're still really early in the season, I applied to 13 schools and only 3 have sent out any results. Still tons of time for everyone here to wind up with an offer they're happy with.

[miaomiaomiao]

Same here. 1a/2r/2ir/10p. Only got an offer from a safety school. Instead of worrying about other results, I am seriously considering whether or not I can live with attending the safety school...

[CyTwombly]

I also wouldn't say that I'm doing great (0a/2w/2r/1ir/10p) with one of the waitlist schools being a safety. I have also been striving to have GradCafe free days, but I have yet to succeed with that....

[Amberduck]

My application for penn state is still pending. Does it mean ir?😢

[Wahasky]

Same here. 1a/2r/2ir/10p. Only got an offer from a safety school. Instead of worrying about other results, I am seriously considering whether or not I can live with attending the safety school...

 

Same. I think the hardest thing, if I only get the one offer from my "safe" school, is going to be wondering how big the COVID-19 impact was. I think it's still too early to tell if this is really going to be a super competitive year, but if I got 1 for 13 it will definitely be something I ask myself.

[econra]

Same here. 0a/1r/0w/2ir/19p. Even though I am yet to hear back from most places, I feel I am not going to get anywhere. To avoid refreshing GradCafe every 2 minutes, I have started setting alarms to check GradCafe once every hour. It took some time, but it really helps to focus.

[BostonFarmer]

Same here. 0a/1r/0w/2ir/19p. Even though I am yet to hear back from most places, I feel I am not going to get anywhere. To avoid refreshing GradCafe every 2 minutes, I have started setting alarms to check GradCafe once every hour. It took some time, but it really helps to focus.

 

0a/3r/0w/4ir/8p

 

There must be something wrong with myself.

[therealslimkt]

0a/1r/1w/3ir/6p. Objectively not that bad but subjectively still feels like ****.

[econliker]

Yikes, Michigan got 40% more applications this year than normal. Other similar schools likely saw a comparable increase

[SG7]

Yikes, Michigan got 40% more applications this year than normal. Other similar schools likely saw a comparable increase

 

It was a reach for me in a normal year so thankfully I'm not playing the counterfactual-game, but I hope that some of the more realistic schools I applied to didn't see the same increase.

[Wahasky]

Yikes, Michigan got 40% more applications this year than normal. Other similar schools likely saw a comparable increase

 

Is the supply side of this really that elastic? Like are there really 40% more qualified candidates, that in another year wouldn't have applied to Michigan, but because of COVID and the job market or whatever decided to go ahead and do their PhD?

 

Maybe, but it still seems likely a lot of this is just people applying to way more schools than normal. In which case things should actually be all that much more competitive at the end of the day. Such a strange year lol and I guess we'll probably never get the full picture.

[TheDeadFlagBlue]

I think Michigan is playing number games. Their FAQs suggest that ~700 apply each year. Maybe if 950 applied and they round up to 700 from 650, they can claim a 40% increase but this implausible to me.

 

An increase of 200 applicants is already bad enough, of course, but I do not think it is as bad as a 40% increase.

 

I think the full picture is much worse than people are assuming: there is a probably an increase in new applicants that is non-trivial (more growth on extensive margin than intensive margin). This is as high as nearly 30% in some programs, but the number of slots cut will probably average out to 30-40%. I think a variable we missed was schools extending funding to 5th or 6th year grad students who wanted to defer going on job market.

 

My expectations are much lower now. I am relieved to be accepted somewhere. It is frustrating to know that I am being penalized due to factors outside of my control but I will get over it.

[TheDeadFlagBlue]

Yikes, Michigan got 40% more applications this year than normal. Other similar schools likely saw a comparable increase

 

For what it is worth, there was basically no increase at UC-Irvine based on what I was told. Not sure where you targeted but it is possible that top 40-100 schools mostly saw little to no increase?

[econra]

Where do you guys usually check rankings from? I tend to rely more on RePEc

[stressedcookie]

I still use the 2017 US News ranking as my main guide. Other rankings are either about the undergrad programs or about the faculty research.

 

As a prospective PhD student, although faculty publishing in top journals is attractive, at the end it won’t matter unless they communicate and support students. Therefore some peer feedback is important and the US News ranking seems to be the only to include some for grad school specifically.

 

Of course it’s still an imperfect ranking, and conditional on acceptance I encourage everyone to reach out to faculty and current students. Sometimes going a bit lower in the ranking could be absolutely worth it if another program has more supportive culture and opportunities for their students. We’re talking about spending 5-6 years somewhere.

[rtj]

I think Michigan is playing number games. Their FAQs suggest that ~700 apply each year. Maybe if 950 applied and they round up to 700 from 650, they can claim a 40% increase but this implausible to me.

 

An increase of 200 applicants is already bad enough, of course, but I do not think it is as bad as a 40% increase.

 

I think the full picture is much worse than people are assuming: there is a probably an increase in new applicants that is non-trivial (more growth on extensive margin than intensive margin). This is as high as nearly 30% in some programs, but the number of slots cut will probably average out to 30-40%. I think a variable we missed was schools extending funding to 5th or 6th year grad students who wanted to defer going on job market.

 

My expectations are much lower now. I am relieved to be accepted somewhere. It is frustrating to know that I am being penalized due to factors outside of my control but I will get over it.

 

I believe you are 100% correct. I imagine many departments are probably going through some combination of (1) applicants who have been planning to do a PhD (like many of us) applying to more schools (I applied to like 18, and I'm getting a sense that this may be around average), (2) an increase in the number of applicants who would have otherwise gone into the private sector, (3) an increase in the number of 6th year students wanting to avoid the market, (4) honoring potential deferrals from last year with funding, and (5) budget cuts due to COVID. All of this leads to increased competition for fewer spots.

 

And yeah, we truly can't control any of this. Each of us can (1) go wherever we get accepted and continue to work hard (2) wait a year or two and reapply, or (3) drop the idea of a PhD and do something else. That's all I can think of doing to respond to this chaotic situation. I'm going with (1).

[zurichra]

Will things improve next year? :-( feeling pretty rough...

I believe you are 100% correct. I imagine many departments are probably going through some combination of (1) applicants who have been planning to do a PhD (like many of us) applying to more schools (I applied to like 18, and I'm getting a sense that this may be around average), (2) an increase in the number of applicants who would have otherwise gone into the private sector, (3) an increase in the number of 6th year students wanting to avoid the market, (4) honoring potential deferrals from last year with funding, and (5) budget cuts due to COVID. All of this leads to increased competition for fewer spots.

 

And yeah, we truly can't control any of this. Each of us can (1) go wherever we get accepted and continue to work hard (2) wait a year or two and reapply, or (3) drop the idea of a PhD and do something else. That's all I can think of doing to respond to this chaotic situation. I'm going with (1).

[CyTwombly]

For what it's worth, UChicago said they received 670 applications in their waitlist letter, so that implies they saw only a minimal increase in applications.

[Wahasky]

I believe you are 100% correct. I imagine many departments are probably going through some combination of (1) applicants who have been planning to do a PhD (like many of us) applying to more schools (I applied to like 18, and I'm getting a sense that this may be around average), (2) an increase in the number of applicants who would have otherwise gone into the private sector, (3) an increase in the number of 6th year students wanting to avoid the market, (4) honoring potential deferrals from last year with funding, and (5) budget cuts due to COVID. All of this leads to increased competition for fewer spots.

 

And yeah, we truly can't control any of this. Each of us can (1) go wherever we get accepted and continue to work hard (2) wait a year or two and reapply, or (3) drop the idea of a PhD and do something else. That's all I can think of doing to respond to this chaotic situation. I'm going with (1).

 

Pretty rough -- so that's kind of a perfect storm on both the demand and supply sides of this thing.

 

I agree with your summation of the options. This is my second time applying (got offers 2 years ago but had to defer for personal reasons), and I know I can't go through it again, so I'm going to take what I get. I have one acceptance to my "safe" school and if that's all I get I'll be happy and make the best.

 

That said, although I agree with your logic I'll just say it's still too early to know the full picture. Things will become more clear as we move into April and maybe it's not quite as bad as it seems right now.

[SnacksHarrison]

Pretty rough -- so that's kind of a perfect storm on both the demand and supply sides of this thing.

 

I agree with your summation of the options. This is my second time applying (got offers 2 years ago but had to defer for personal reasons), and I know I can't go through it again, so I'm going to take what I get. I have one acceptance to my "safe" school and if that's all I get I'll be happy and make the best.

 

That said, although I agree with your logic I'll just say it's still too early to know the full picture. Things will become more clear as we move into April and maybe it's not quite as bad as it seems right now.

 

I think we had the same safety school. With the way thinks are looking, it might have been optimistic of me to call that a safety school LOL.

 

I really hope to hear back from them soon. Still nothing, and no other news on Grad Cafe.

[yitz15]

I believe you are 100% correct. I imagine many departments are probably going through some combination of (1) applicants who have been planning to do a PhD (like many of us) applying to more schools (I applied to like 18, and I'm getting a sense that this may be around average), (2) an increase in the number of applicants who would have otherwise gone into the private sector, (3) an increase in the number of 6th year students wanting to avoid the market, (4) honoring potential deferrals from last year with funding, and (5) budget cuts due to COVID. All of this leads to increased competition for fewer spots.

 

Having talked to a couple insiders, this is absolutely the perfect storm of what's happening. Regarding (1), I personally was given the recommendation to add another 5-10 schools to my already longer-than-expected list. Others I know were given the same suggestion, so I personally think most of the increase in applications are for schools lower down the "rankings." For example, where in previous years someone wouldn't have applied to say schools outside of the top X, due to increased uncertainty now they apply to the top X+5. This would fit with UChicago having only a slight increase in applications (from CyTwombly), since everyone was already applying to some of these tops schools.