@Mom2aphysicsgeek, send him these as well, both specific to Physics:
https://www.gradschoolshopper.com/gradschool/
And here is another general set of chat forums that can be helpful, although they are not as active as CC:
@intparent Thank you!
First rejection today for my daughter. Sigh.
I’m sorry, @rosered55. Hope it wasn’t her favorite program. My D is still interviewing for PhD programs (no offers yet, and it will be several weeks before she is done with the interview stage). Here’s to an acceptance for your D soon!
Don’t lose heart.
Competition is exceedingly stiff and the rejection may likely have more to do with level of competition, institutional issues, etc than your D’s stats or merits as an aspiring scholar.
One older college classmate who ended up getting accepted by HYPSMCC level school for a PhD in Chemistry only did so after being completely shut out of all PhD programs…including the one he ended getting accepted to for 4 straight years.
I think the program might have been her favorite but it’s also, I think, one of the very hardest to get into. I’m realistic about the level of competition but it still hurts to see her sad.
When I applied to PhD programs it was pre-internet, so everything was done by snail mail. I mailed out all my seven applications on a Monday and I got my first rejection back on the following Thursday. I was so offended! Did they even read my application?
In the end I was rejected by five of the schools and accepted by two. I picked my favorite between those two and never looked back.
It only takes one acceptance. After one acceptance all the rejections don’t matter. A friend of mine (an older student) is currently in a PhD program. She applied to a half dozen or so schools and got only one acceptance. But that’s all it takes. She’s currently doing great; ironically she is in the same university that rejected me so quickly all those years ago.
My S is still waiting to hear something from one of the 12 schools he applied to. Very nerve-wracking for me, as I don’t want to bug him at all but I doubt he will tell us anything unless he gets an acceptance.
Psych is definitely not artsy-casual. If she’s going to an interview she should wear a suit, or at least slacks or a skirt and a nice top/sweater. It doesn’t have to be super conservative but it should be nice and businessy.
I think if he’s uncertain about getting a PhD, then he should go work for at least a few years and allow the idea to develop more and explore it.
PhD students and faculty are almost always going to try and encourage a strong undergrad to get a PhD. That’s really all that the vast majority of them know - by and large, they may have never worked in another industry before, so in their mindset the smart and capable go get PhDs and do research. But there are lots of other really rewarding and satisfying things that a smart, capable person can do besides that.
Agreed for the most part.
However, not sure I agree about the part of PhD students encouraging strong undergrads to pursue PhDs. IME, PhD students even back in the '90s were just as likely to strongly discourage undergrad students from pursuing the PhD as encourage…especially if the student concerned is vacillating between working and doing the PhD.
As for the last sentence, that’s right! An older cousin who graduated from a Top 10 EE PhD program and worked on the tenure-track/as tenured Prof foe a decade left academia to co-found an engineering tech startup which has been successful for the last 10+ years. One reason he cited for leaving was in his experience, engineering research/technology they work with in his field is ~7 years behind that of what’s being carried out/used in the private sector.
Apologies if this has been mentioned already [I leafed through the pages quickly], but the grad cafe [https://thegradcafe.com/] is a good source for information on what departments at what schools have sent out offers. D was/is in Classics and her offers [plus fellowship info and invitations to visit] came in late January; the rejections came later, and I expect most of those programs were using an informal wait list.
My daughter received an acceptance today! And it’s from a school that, she said, she’d actually like to go to. Whew!
=D>
Son’s doing well – 7 applications, 5 acceptances, 1 rejection. Waiting on one more. Lots of cross country trips visiting.
Wow - congrats!!! My son has not heard anything, and from my online snooping, most of the schools he’s applied to have not sent any letters out yet. The suspense is killing me!
I looked at that website last week and, in a rare display of self-protective resolve, told myself that I would not do so again. And I haven’t. I’m already a wreck when I think about the grad school acceptance season; I don’t want to make it worse.
Great news, @rosered55 and @MLM! Joining @surfcity in the waiting-to-hear category. D has interviewed at three schools but has two more to go.
My daughter has now been accepted by five schools. Whew!
@rosered55, what criteria will your D use to make her decision? My D is a fourth year Ph.D student and feels strongly that the “adviser” the student is paired with is of critical importance. This person can make or break the student’s entire experience.
@Nrdsb4, thank you for that tip. I’ll ask her if she’s considering that. (I said to her this morning, “Will you be able to find out if the people are nice?” Always a mom here!)