So where is the sweat thread?

zeta_0.5 · Post by **zeta_0.5** » Sat Jan 03, 2015 12:42 am

berkeley, NYU, wisconsin posted on GradCafe... da hell...

sofa king scared.

Austin · Post by **Austin** » Sat Jan 03, 2015 3:30 am

It should be noted that some of the most recent results include Duke and NYU, whose application deadlines have not yet passed, as well as UNC, a department that lists February as the earliest time to hear results. I might take those posts with a grain of salt and remember that it's still very early.

algebraicallyminded · Post by **algebraicallyminded** » Sat Jan 03, 2015 11:35 am

I agree. It is still too early to freak out.

MathCat · Post by **MathCat** » Sat Jan 03, 2015 8:47 pm

Austin wrote:It should be noted that some of the most recent results include Duke and NYU, whose application deadlines have not yet passed, as well as UNC, a department that lists February as the earliest time to hear results. I might take those posts with a grain of salt and remember that it's still very early.

This might be true, but I was accepted in a program whose deadline has not yet passed and also lists February as the time they make decisions. So it is possible those ones posted are legit. They're not mine, though.

sara12 · Post by **sara12** » Sun Jan 04, 2015 8:14 am

Ugh. I am sooooo nervous. I've submitted 8 apps and have 4 to go, and I've been checking my submitted apps pretty much every day. I thought schools wouldn't make decisions before the deadline! My recommenders aren't submitting my recs until right before deadlines, so many of my apps won't be complete until a few days before the deadline. Am I at a disadvantage?

MathCat · Post by **MathCat** » Sun Jan 04, 2015 1:57 pm

sara12 wrote:Ugh. I am sooooo nervous. I've submitted 8 apps and have 4 to go, and I've been checking my submitted apps pretty much every day. I thought schools wouldn't make decisions before the deadline! My recommenders aren't submitting my recs until right before deadlines, so many of my apps won't be complete until a few days before the deadline. Am I at a disadvantage?

No, I'm sure you are fine. A few programs make a few decisions before deadlines have passed, but I think the vast majority of admission offers are made in the timeline that the program says (so if they say they make offers in Feb, most offers are in Feb). Try not to stress too much.

unclecat · Post by **unclecat** » Wed Jan 07, 2015 12:46 am

Oh no I am freaking out now.... Why they can make decisions so early? Like super awesome applicants? I am so jealous for the early offer!

dasgut · Post by **dasgut** » Mon Jan 12, 2015 12:40 am

Hey, I saw there's no sweat thread so I decided to post here. As an old timer on this board I wanted to wish you all the best of luck! I hope you guys can manage to have some fun and focus on school work through the stress of the cycle. I hope you REALLY have some fun once you get accepted!

Anyways, kick ass, take names, and don't stress out too much. I wish you all the best.

grad · Post by **grad** » Mon Jan 12, 2015 4:38 pm

Oh shit... I just got asked to do an interview with someone at Yale...

sara12 · Post by **sara12** » Mon Jan 12, 2015 4:51 pm

grad wrote:Oh shit... I just got asked to do an interview with someone at Yale...

Congrats! Just out of curiosity, did they call you? I'm completely expecting a rejection from Yale given my complete lack of substantial research and just generally not being Top 10 material, but I'm still secretly and foolishly hopeful.

Ugh. Waiting is the worst. I go between thinking that I'm a qualified applicant and thinking that I'll be rejected EVERYWHERE. I did apply to quite a range of schools, but unfortunately, it seems like the easier ones send out notifications later than the more selective schools.

grad · Post by **grad** » Mon Jan 12, 2015 7:10 pm

sara12 wrote:
grad wrote:Oh shit... I just got asked to do an interview with someone at Yale...
Congrats! Just out of curiosity, did they call you? I'm completely expecting a rejection from Yale given my complete lack of substantial research and just generally not being Top 10 material, but I'm still secretly and foolishly hopeful.

Ugh. Waiting is the worst. I go between thinking that I'm a qualified applicant and thinking that I'll be rejected EVERYWHERE. I did apply to quite a range of schools, but unfortunately, it seems like the easier ones send out notifications later than the more selective schools.

They didn't call, they emailed. And yeah, unfortunately the lower-ranked schools send out responses later than the higher-ranked ones.

If it makes you feel any better, I was totally surprised to hear that I was being interviewed. I think it's a pretty uncommon thing. Honestly, I've never heard of any math PhD applicant being interviewed by a US school. It might be that I'm being interviewed because I'm a transfer student - I'm a slightly exceptional case.

sara12 · Post by **sara12** » Thu Jan 15, 2015 12:48 pm

Looks like Yale sent out some acceptances (checked on thegradcafe). FYI

zeta_0.5 · Post by **zeta_0.5** » Thu Jan 15, 2015 6:46 pm

I am counting on end of January for the schools I have applied to. May be top 5 will start sending out next week but none of them in my basket

Brick · Post by **Brick** » Fri Jan 16, 2015 9:36 pm

I got into RPI's PhD program. Yay. : )

Unsure of funding yet.

visgraf · Post by **visgraf** » Sun Jan 18, 2015 6:06 pm

Has anyone heard from U Chicago? There was a posting today on GradCafe.

grad · Post by **grad** » Sun Jan 18, 2015 7:27 pm

visgraf wrote:Has anyone heard from U Chicago? There was a posting today on GradCafe.

No word yet.

xor · Post by **xor** » Sun Jan 18, 2015 11:30 pm

*bites fingernails*

mathrocks · Post by **mathrocks** » Mon Jan 19, 2015 11:40 pm

I got accepted at UChicago, but it was just an email from a professor there. I got the email on Saturday, which is a pleasant surprise. I am happy to receive a decision that quickly considering that it is just January.

algebraicallyminded · Post by **algebraicallyminded** » Tue Jan 20, 2015 8:00 am

bernface · Post by **bernface** » Tue Jan 20, 2015 12:48 pm

Looks like a bunch of people were accepted to University of Washington. I applied and haven't heard anything. Super bummed.

algebraicallyminded · Post by **algebraicallyminded** » Tue Jan 20, 2015 12:51 pm

Weren't Washington admissions posted only for stat majors now?

bernface · Post by **bernface** » Tue Jan 20, 2015 12:55 pm

algebraicallyminded wrote:Weren't Washington admissions posted only for stat majors now?

You know what, it looks like you're right. I'm only seeing acceptances for people with stats or biostats. I'm pure math. I STILL HAVE A CHANCE.

Mezox · Post by **Mezox** » Tue Jan 20, 2015 2:05 pm

Two Harvard admits

Hassan1 · Post by **Hassan1** » Tue Jan 20, 2015 2:36 pm

Mezox wrote:Two Harvard admits

they have interesting GRE scores:
170/170/5.5
169/170/6.0, 920

algebraicallyminded · Post by **algebraicallyminded** » Tue Jan 20, 2015 3:20 pm

Rejected from Bonn. I really wanted an admission from there.

Mezox · Post by **Mezox** » Tue Jan 20, 2015 3:21 pm

Hassan1 wrote:
they have interesting GRE scores:
170/170/5.5
169/170/6.0, 920

I didn't even know 920 was possible.

Hassan1 · Post by **Hassan1** » Tue Jan 20, 2015 3:38 pm

algebraicallyminded wrote:Rejected from Bonn. I really wanted an admission from there.

Getting admission from European universities is quite hard for non-Europeans, It's very interesting that a top university in Germany hardly accepts new PhD students but a 500th ranked american university gets a lot of them. Showing who has the money.

Mezox wrote:I didn't even know 920 was possible.

I'm always suspicious of these scores (or maybe jealous), given that cheating in these tests are rampant in some countries.

algebraicallyminded · Post by **algebraicallyminded** » Tue Jan 20, 2015 3:47 pm

Hassan1 wrote:
algebraicallyminded wrote:Rejected from Bonn. I really wanted an admission from there.
Getting admission from European universities is quite hard for non-Europeans, It's very interesting that a top university in Germany hardly accepts new PhD students but a 500th ranked american university gets a lot of them. Showing who has the money.

Thank you. Still cannot sleep very well (it is night time here). Bonn had some people whose tricks are the ones I really wanted to learn. Just their word "regret" makes my breath heavier.

MathCat · Post by **MathCat** » Tue Jan 20, 2015 3:51 pm

This has been discussed elsewhere, but I believe scores over 900 are possible if the test is considered to be very hard. I do not think it's available on all tests.

sara12 · Post by **sara12** » Tue Jan 20, 2015 4:25 pm

Hassan1 wrote:
Mezox wrote:Two Harvard admits
they have interesting GRE scores:
170/170/5.5
169/170/6.0, 920

I don't see scores along with the admits - where does one find that info?

Hassan1 · Post by **Hassan1** » Tue Jan 20, 2015 4:30 pm

sara12 wrote:
Hassan1 wrote:
Mezox wrote:Two Harvard admits
they have interesting GRE scores:
170/170/5.5
169/170/6.0, 920
I don't see scores along with the admits - where does one find that info?

move your arrow on the red diamond in the Decision & Date section.

xor · Post by **xor** » Tue Jan 20, 2015 7:24 pm

Nice one, Hassan1. I never knew that.

I realized on GradCafe that some people got decisions in May, and even some in June! I thought all programs have to get back to you before April 15, or something like that? Someone please correct me if I am wrong.

quinquenion · Post by **quinquenion** » Tue Jan 20, 2015 10:25 pm

No, April 15 is simply the date before which (most*) American universities cannot force you to decide.

What happens is basically all departments set a April 15 deadline for students who have been given offers to either accept or decline that offer. However, because many students get multiple offers in the first round, and they obviously can only attend one program, this often leaves holes in the rejected programs which have to be filled** by people who were originally wait-listed***.

This also triggers a cascade effect: as top-tier**** programs make their second-round offers, 2nd-tier schools can sometimes lose students who had committed beforehand, but now have a nicer offer, so they have even more holes to fill, which creates holes in 3rd-tier programs, etc. By and large, the admits you see after April 15 are programs admitting wait-listed students. The reason it's not just 2 rounds is the cascading effect, so you get admits all the way into June.

Lastly, April 15 is the earliest a program can force you to decide, but that in no way implies that they have to give you their decision before then. Some programs have a wait-list*****, and will reject everyone not accepted or wait-listed. However, other programs will simply not say anything to anyone who is not admitted until their cohort is filled. At that point, everyone else will be rejected in a mass mailing. Thus, average rejection date tends to be much much later than average acceptance date.

*This deadline is actually more closely tied to funding than admission, but those are synonymous at most math PhD programs in the states.
**Departments do give out more offers than they have spots, but usually they try to err on the side of having too few commits than too many, as the latter costs them lots of money.
***Wait-listing can be either explicit or implicit. By "wait-listed", I'm referring to everyone who wasn't given an offer in the "first round".
****Using this short-hand loosely; I'm well aware that the ordering is not well-defined.
*****Either explicit, which is them telling you "you are wait-listed", or implicit, which means that they've sent out both accepts and rejects, but you've received neither.

unclecat · Post by **unclecat** » Tue Jan 20, 2015 11:32 pm

quinquenion wrote:No, April 15 is simply the date before which (most*) American universities cannot force you to decide.

Awesome explanation!

xor · Post by **xor** » Wed Jan 21, 2015 5:53 am

Aha! Thank you quinquenion!!

All makes sense now except one part. Assume you already made a commit to school A by or before April 15 - say, without funding, but you had to accept it so as not to lose out entirely - and you were waitlisted by school B, but school B gets back to you in May say with a funding offer. Can you change your mind and attend school B or you must attend school A?

unclecat · Post by **unclecat** » Wed Jan 21, 2015 9:26 am

xor wrote:Aha! Thank you quinquenion!!

All makes sense now except one part. Assume you already made a commit to school A by or before April 15 - say, without funding, but you had to accept it so as not to lose out entirely - and you were waitlisted by school B, but school B gets back to you in May say with a funding offer. Can you change your mind and attend school B or you must attend school A?

I heard that you need to get a written permission from school A to enroll in school B.

zeta_0.5 · Post by **zeta_0.5** » Wed Jan 21, 2015 3:09 pm

any specific portal to check UIUC application status? or is it just applyyourself system? if so what is it showing in there? Mine just shows submitted nothing else.

zeta_0.5 · Post by **zeta_0.5** » Wed Jan 21, 2015 3:10 pm

mathrocks wrote:I got accepted at UChicago, but it was just an email from a professor there. I got the email on Saturday, which is a pleasant surprise. I am happy to receive a decision that quickly considering that it is just January.

congratulations. 10 more days and gc will be flooded... fingers crossed.

sara12 · Post by **sara12** » Wed Jan 21, 2015 5:16 pm

zeta_0.5 wrote:
mathrocks wrote:I got accepted at UChicago, but it was just an email from a professor there. I got the email on Saturday, which is a pleasant surprise. I am happy to receive a decision that quickly considering that it is just January.
congratulations. 10 more days and gc will be flooded... fingers crossed.

What's in 10 days?

visgraf · Post by **visgraf** » Wed Jan 21, 2015 5:30 pm

sara12 wrote:
zeta_0.5 wrote:
mathrocks wrote:I got accepted at UChicago, but it was just an email from a professor there. I got the email on Saturday, which is a pleasant surprise. I am happy to receive a decision that quickly considering that it is just January.
congratulations. 10 more days and gc will be flooded... fingers crossed.
What's in 10 days?

February.

sara12 · Post by **sara12** » Wed Jan 21, 2015 5:58 pm

visgraf wrote:
sara12 wrote: congratulations. 10 more days and gc will be flooded... fingers crossed.
What's in 10 days?

February.[/quote]

So? Is Feb. 1 some magical day when they suddenly started sending acceptances en masse? I'm really clueless here...

bernface · Post by **bernface** » Wed Jan 21, 2015 7:13 pm

sara12 wrote:
visgraf wrote:
sara12 wrote: congratulations. 10 more days and gc will be flooded... fingers crossed.
What's in 10 days?
February.

So? Is Feb. 1 some magical day when they suddenly started sending acceptances en masse? I'm really clueless here...[/quote]

I feel the same way. I don't think a single school I applied to gave a date at which I will hear back. Living in this awful limbo for months sounds terrible.

zeta_0.5 · Post by **zeta_0.5** » Wed Jan 21, 2015 10:09 pm

lol... I said GC will be flooded... and to flood GC only 2-3 schools are enough to send out acceptance and rejections...
Just chill..

Good luck all

quinquenion · Post by **quinquenion** » Thu Jan 22, 2015 2:33 am

unclecat wrote:
xor wrote:Aha! Thank you quinquenion!!

All makes sense now except one part. Assume you already made a commit to school A by or before April 15 - say, without funding, but you had to accept it so as not to lose out entirely - and you were waitlisted by school B, but school B gets back to you in May say with a funding offer. Can you change your mind and attend school B or you must attend school A?
I heard that you need to get a written permission from school A to enroll in school B.

I was lucky enough to have avoided that process when I applied, so I don't know the details myself. However, I have some friends at my current program who were accepted after April 15 off the wait-list and had to turn down some other school they had previously committed to, so I know it's certainly possible.

First note: IIRC, the April 15 date is only relevant to funded offers. If an American math graduate program tries to force you to commit to a completely unfunded offer before April 15, .., well, let's just say that it's not a program I would want to attend regardless (even at the cost of not going to grad school).

However, the question still holds for funded offers, where the situation you described can and often does also occur. My (very imperfect) understanding is that the usual practice is to get a release from School A so that you can take up the offer from School B (as unclecat mentioned). School A can theoretically deny you a release, but most programs don't want students who don't want to be there. This isn't to say that you won't ruffle feathers by going back on a commit, but at the very least it is not uncommon.

visgraf · Post by **visgraf** » Thu Jan 22, 2015 1:13 pm

Just caught a rejection by email from Princeton.

xor · Post by **xor** » Thu Jan 22, 2015 1:36 pm

All's clear now, quinquenion. Thank you!

coffeeboy · Post by **coffeeboy** » Thu Jan 22, 2015 1:47 pm

visgraf wrote:Just caught a rejection by email from Princeton.

Sorry to hear that, but you got into Chicago, which is very impressive. I thought most schools send out acceptance emails before rejections. I assume Princeton did it in a reverse order.

visgraf · Post by **visgraf** » Thu Jan 22, 2015 2:45 pm

coffeeboy wrote:
visgraf wrote:Just caught a rejection by email from Princeton.
Sorry to hear that, but you got into Chicago, which is very impressive. I thought most schools send out acceptance emails before rejections. I assume Princeton did it in a reverse order.

You are confusing me someone else. I have not been admitted to Chicago.

xor · Post by **xor** » Thu Jan 22, 2015 3:28 pm

I am so sorry to hear this, visgraf

Take heart.

Was it you that posted on TheGradCafe?

ScharlachRot · Post by **ScharlachRot** » Thu Jan 22, 2015 7:10 pm

Waitlisted at Princeton.
Received nothing from MIT, so I guess I'll receive the rejection email around Feb 14 (I saw on gradcafe that waitlist emails from MIT were also sent out today)