Fall 2012 Application Sweat Thread

dasgut · Post by **dasgut** » Wed Jan 18, 2012 11:57 am

So I figured I'd get this one started. I think I'm literally "sweating" 24 hours a day. I'm either at the gym or thinking about apps! What's everyone doing to get over the admissions season stress? What are you going to do in the time between your acceptance (or unfortunate rejection) and beginning grad school?

betafj · Post by **betafj** » Wed Jan 18, 2012 12:00 pm

Start with the assumption that I will rejected by all of the schools I have applied to, and realize that it's actually not that bad.

dasgut · Post by **dasgut** » Wed Jan 18, 2012 12:04 pm

betafj wrote:Start with the assumption that I will rejected by all of the schools I have applied to, and realize that it's actually not that bad.

I second that! I was (essentially) rejected by every school I applied to last time around. There were a couple of "informal" semi-admits, but nothing tempting enough. Now, I living in an awesome city and have a good job with great hours, money, time, and the ability to do whatever I want for fun!

twopi · Post by **twopi** » Wed Jan 18, 2012 3:34 pm

Well right now trying to come up with a PhD-alternative plan or at least something to do next year!

I'm also finding myself terribly unmotivated to do math lately, and I fear this will remain until I get one acceptance. It's as if the uncertainty of being able to pursue professional mathematics is making me go what's the point?

How are y'all doing?

betafj · Post by **betafj** » Wed Jan 18, 2012 3:59 pm

What can I do in a year to make application stronger so that I will be accepted next year? Or do I just have to say good bye to a career in math?

dasgut · Post by **dasgut** » Fri Jan 20, 2012 12:24 pm

betafj wrote:What can I do in a year to make application stronger so that I will be accepted next year? Or do I just have to say good bye to a career in math?

I'm kinda in the same boat. Though I think I'll get accepted to SOME program. The question for me is: what school would be lucrative enough for me to forfeit all the fun and quality of life I have right now?

What would you do if you don't go PhD?

dasgut · Post by **dasgut** » Fri Jan 20, 2012 2:40 pm

Yale math admit drop appears to be beginning. Anyone hear anything yet?

betafj · Post by **betafj** » Fri Jan 20, 2012 4:00 pm

Waitlisted... this is not good

Topoltergeist · Post by **Topoltergeist** » Fri Jan 20, 2012 4:44 pm

betafj wrote:Waitlisted... this is not good

Did you get an email, or was it posted in their message center on the application website, or both?

I applied and haven't received any news from them. Granted, one of my references submitted a letter a week+ after the deadline.

betafj · Post by **betafj** » Fri Jan 20, 2012 4:50 pm

I got an email that asked me to check the decision on their website.

arsenalmath · Post by **arsenalmath** » Fri Feb 03, 2012 11:12 am

Has anyone heard from any Texas schools yet??

dasgut · Post by **dasgut** » Fri Feb 03, 2012 12:59 pm

arsenalmath wrote:Has anyone heard from any Texas schools yet??

Nothing yet. Still waiting. You might be able to find out what's up at UT if you can talk to one of the coordinators. They've been very friendly to me in the past.

bemonocled · Post by **bemonocled** » Fri Feb 03, 2012 1:16 pm

I'm pretty sure that gradcafe is driving me insane. 12 applications and I haven't heard anything back yet. Every day feels like a week, etc. To make matters worse, my official GRE scores still haven't arrived at my top choice (Caltech) despite ETS resending them twice. I did SURF at Caltech last summer and I'm pretty sure I'd have no chance there normally but we'll see how much a faculty member vouching for me actually helps.

Looking at past gradcafe years, it looks like the next 2-3 weeks should be interesting for most of us.

sparkplug · Post by **sparkplug** » Fri Feb 03, 2012 2:13 pm

Haha. I understand completely. I check gradcafe every hour. Also haven't heard back from any schools, despite the fact that allegedly some have been sending out some admits/rejects to other applicants. :/

Good luck to all. Don't stress too much! :]

dasgut · Post by **dasgut** » Fri Feb 03, 2012 5:05 pm

Question...

Will I get carpal tunnel checking gradcafe every five seconds?

mhancock743 · Post by **mhancock743** » Fri Feb 03, 2012 6:54 pm

Where do you browse on gradcafe that you'd want to refresh so often? It seems like their math/statistics forum is pretty stagnant. I'm just asking because I need an outlet for my app anxiety as well.

dasgut · Post by **dasgut** » Fri Feb 03, 2012 6:55 pm

I'm on the results section constantly!

sparkplug · Post by **sparkplug** » Fri Feb 03, 2012 6:56 pm

This link, no?

http://thegradcafe.com/survey/index.php?q=statistics

Or I guess swap out statistics with math, or your program of choice

mhancock743 · Post by **mhancock743** » Fri Feb 03, 2012 7:11 pm

wow i missed that whole section of the site! thanks!

dasgut · Post by **dasgut** » Fri Feb 03, 2012 7:27 pm

sparkplug wrote:This link, no?

http://thegradcafe.com/survey/index.php?q=statistics

Or I guess swap out statistics with math, or your program of choice

Ha ha. Now don't you feel like a drug pusher? :p

bemonocled · Post by **bemonocled** » Sat Feb 04, 2012 11:38 am

Finally got in somewhere last night

Now I have a wicked hangover to show for it!

dasgut · Post by **dasgut** » Sat Feb 04, 2012 11:51 am

bemonocled wrote:Finally got in somewhere last night Now I have a wicked hangover to show for it!

Ha ha, lucky bastard! Congrats! Wanna share some of that luck w/ me?

sparkplug · Post by **sparkplug** » Sat Feb 04, 2012 3:05 pm

They don't send out admits over the weekend, do they?

omgmath · Post by **omgmath** » Sat Feb 04, 2012 3:53 pm

I sure hope so. I haven't heard back from any of my schools yet. One day I'm optimistic about my chances, the other day I'm trying to come up with a viable Plan B.

dasgut · Post by **dasgut** » Sat Feb 04, 2012 5:32 pm

sparkplug wrote:They don't send out admits over the weekend, do they?

There are two posted admits from UChicago today. So no clue!

mhancock743 · Post by **mhancock743** » Sat Feb 04, 2012 10:11 pm

sparkplug wrote:This link, no?

http://thegradcafe.com/survey/index.php?q=statistics

Or I guess swap out statistics with math, or your program of choice

it's a little funny – I was actually tossing around the idea of creating a website that was pretty much exactly what their 'results' section is. (this was quite a few weeks ago before I learned of gradcafe's obviously). I figured an admissions database would be pretty useful.

If you want proof, go to http://www.admission-report.appspot.com

Its the web app just in its "hello world" stages that I started to build!

glad to know something like this already exists though!

Txe · Post by **Txe** » Sun Feb 05, 2012 12:17 pm

What's the etiquette for e-mailing a school and asking about the status of your application? In particular, about how long should one wait before doing so?

sparkplug · Post by **sparkplug** » Sun Feb 05, 2012 2:16 pm

mhancock743 wrote: it's a little funny – I was actually tossing around the idea of creating a website that was pretty much exactly what their 'results' section is. (this was quite a few weeks ago before I learned of gradcafe's obviously). I figured an admissions database would be pretty useful.

If you want proof, go to http://www.admission-report.appspot.com

Its the web app just in its "hello world" stages that I started to build!

glad to know something like this already exists though!

Haha. It's definitely a useful tool but also makes me very neurotic sometimes.

My girlfriend is applying to law school right now, and lawschoolnumbers.com is a even more intense version of gradcafe. So much more.

wine in coffee cups · Post by **wine in coffee cups** » Sun Feb 05, 2012 4:25 pm

sparkplug wrote: My girlfriend is applying to law school right now, and lawschoolnumbers.com is a even more intense version of gradcafe. So much more.

Seriously, lawschoolnumbers is AMAZING, way beyond thegradcafe results. Feast your eyes on this, for example: http://harvard.lawschoolnumbers.com/stats

mhancock743 · Post by **mhancock743** » Sun Feb 05, 2012 7:02 pm

so there's room for improvement then? perhaps I'll continue to work on it.

dasgut · Post by **dasgut** » Wed Feb 08, 2012 10:33 pm

So stats friends, who thinks Stanford will release decisions by Friday?

nchen5 · Post by **nchen5** » Thu Feb 09, 2012 7:15 am

dasgut wrote:So stats friends, who thinks Stanford will release decisions by Friday?

I guess it's today!

kuz · Post by **kuz** » Fri Feb 10, 2012 6:40 am

nchen5 wrote:
dasgut wrote:So stats friends, who thinks Stanford will release decisions by Friday?

I guess it's today!

Hmmm, didn't get an email today. Judging by the five acceptences up on the gradcafe, I guess that's a bad sign...

dasgut · Post by **dasgut** » Fri Feb 10, 2012 9:32 am

kuz wrote:
nchen5 wrote:
dasgut wrote:So stats friends, who thinks Stanford will release decisions by Friday?

I guess it's today!
Hmmm, didn't get an email today. Judging by the five acceptences up on the gradcafe, I guess that's a bad sign...

Hard for me to feel bad for a guy who's been admitted to Princeton

nchen5 · Post by **nchen5** » Fri Feb 10, 2012 12:11 pm

People on GC have been calling to find out the decisions... well, where's my courage gone? I kinda don't want to know now...

kuz · Post by **kuz** » Fri Feb 10, 2012 8:33 pm

dasgut wrote:Hard for me to feel bad for a guy who's been admitted to Princeton

Hah. True. I guess I really shouldn't complain. Stanford would just be a bit more... convenient for me (I have family nearby, the weather is better, the faculty in my field is slightly larger).

meredith · Post by **meredith** » Sun Feb 12, 2012 6:41 pm

Here's a horror story for everyone:

A friend of mine applied to a bunch of schools and had some weird connections from his advisers and stuff, so a week or so ago, one of his professors asked if he had gotten any emails from one of the schools he had applied to, because apparently they were trying to contact him. His email had sorted the messages into the junk mail, and he ended up missing a chance for a visit/interview that the school would have paid for.

So now I'm not only checking normal email, this site, and gradcafe obsessively, I'm also checking my spam box on a daily basis.

dasgut · Post by **dasgut** » Mon Feb 13, 2012 5:50 pm

A nerdy joke I just came up with to relieve everyone's stress:

Question: What do you call a logical beatdown via the internet?

Answer: Modus PWNens

YNWA2406 · Post by **YNWA2406** » Wed Feb 29, 2012 9:39 pm

At what point is it acceptable to email and ask about your status? I've only heard back from 3 of the 13 schools I applied to and, while I've gotten into those three and two of those my top two choices right now

, I'd rather not make an official decision until I've heard more from other schools.

mhancock743 · Post by **mhancock743** » Wed Feb 29, 2012 9:52 pm

YNWA2406 wrote:At what point is it acceptable to email and ask about your status? I've only heard back from 3 of the 13 schools I applied to and, while I've gotten into those three and two of those my top two choices right now , I'd rather not make an official decision until I've heard more from other schools.

I e-mailed one this past Sunday – no response yet. I guess I'm not surprised, but it would at least be nice here ANYTHING back ( excluding the case where the response is a rejection on the grounds of being a pest ). I've been compulsively checking my e-mail at work to the point where today I just about convinced myself to to send myself an e-mail ...you know just to make sure my e-mail was working normally.