still worth waiting?

  • This has become our largest and most active forum because the physics GRE is just one aspect of getting accepted into a graduate physics program.
  • There are applications, personal statements, letters of recommendation, visiting schools, anxiety of waiting for acceptances, deciding between schools, finding out where others are going, etc.

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betelgeuse1
Posts: 116
Joined: Sat May 09, 2009 10:14 am

still worth waiting?

Post by betelgeuse1 » Fri Feb 26, 2010 2:16 am

well, it's Feb 26 th. I've applied to 9 schools in the US (UMD,NYU,Northeastern,Brandeis,BU,Penn State,Rochester,JHU,Rice) and I received no e-mails from no one. Should I wait until march or should I start searching in other places? It's not that I'm inpatient but I can search for offers in Europe. Should I start that? I've just added my profile here!

kroner
Posts: 217
Joined: Fri Sep 25, 2009 1:58 am

Re: still worth waiting?

Post by kroner » Fri Feb 26, 2010 3:09 am

Well, you can't count on anything until you get an acceptance, so if there are things you could be doing to prepare for the unfortunate possibility that you don't get an offer and there's not a big down side to doing those things, then I guess that would make sense. What is the time frame for finding things in Europe?

However I don't think you should be overly pessimistic. You haven't gotten rejected from anywhere yet, so probably some of those schools are at least seriously considering you. I know I would probably be going crazy if I were in that situation, but you're probably still in a decent position to get in somewhere.

Ryalnos
Posts: 33
Joined: Sat Nov 14, 2009 1:14 pm

Re: still worth waiting?

Post by Ryalnos » Fri Feb 26, 2010 4:05 am

I gather that admissions for international applicants may tend to occur later. For one thing, domestic students are usually invited to open houses, so there's greater pressure to admit them early on so that they enough have time to schedule the visits. Also, international students probably tend to have fewer other offers, which would make them more likely to accept offers, making them good to have on an effective waiting list as the committee gauges the interest of the domestic applicants they've admitted.

Some of this is conjecture, mind you, so make of it what you will.

If you haven't yet, you may wish to look at profiles in previous years to see when other international students received word from the schools they applied to.

blackcat007
Posts: 378
Joined: Wed Mar 26, 2008 9:14 am

Re: still worth waiting?

Post by blackcat007 » Fri Feb 26, 2010 4:06 am

Ryalnos wrote:I gather that admissions for international applicants may tend to occur later. For one thing, domestic students are usually invited to open houses, so there's greater pressure to admit them early on so that they enough have time to schedule the visits. Also, international students probably tend to have fewer other offers, which would make them more likely to accept offers, making them good to have on an effective waiting list as the committee gauges the interest of the domestic applicants they've admitted.

Some of this is conjecture, mind you, so make of it what you will.

If you haven't yet, you may wish to look at profiles in previous years to see when other international students received word from the schools they applied to.
I seriously agree to this..

blackcat007
Posts: 378
Joined: Wed Mar 26, 2008 9:14 am

Re: still worth waiting?

Post by blackcat007 » Fri Feb 26, 2010 4:08 am

betelgeuse1 wrote:well, it's Feb 26 th. I've applied to 9 schools in the US (UMD,NYU,Northeastern,Brandeis,BU,Penn State,Rochester,JHU,Rice) and I received no e-mails from no one. Should I wait until march or should I start searching in other places? It's not that I'm inpatient but I can search for offers in Europe. Should I start that? I've just added my profile here!
UMD and NYU are yet to start their offers for intls.. so wait on.. but ofcourse you could look in europe for your backup. I too am waiting for NYU, I don't have much hope to get accepted from UMD..

betelgeuse1
Posts: 116
Joined: Sat May 09, 2009 10:14 am

Re: still worth waiting?

Post by betelgeuse1 » Fri Feb 26, 2010 4:14 am

whenever thinking at this admission process I think at this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPhenf_Zm5U

joke apart: I am also thinking at Belgium, Switzerland, France (my "old friends" in Paris... :wink: never mind) but I have some special interests for the US system because of professional and personal reasons.
SO: am I in or out?



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