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Hi folks! I'm sorry if someone's already made this topic. I thought it would be useful for people in the same boat as I am. Basically I have not been in school since January 2016, and I am nervous about getting back into the swing of things. I've had a full time job since then and what with moving to a new apartment, and dealing with some physical health issues, I just have not had the time or energy to read as much as I would have liked to. Which makes me verrrrrrry nervous. How are you all gearing up for grad school in the Fall? Are you reading more? What are you reading--novels, theory, articles? Do you have a list, and if so how did you compile it?

@RydraWong See you tomorrow! I won't be flying out til morning Also we should have a secret handshake or signal

Aaaaaand here go the acceptances on the board... Tryna stay calm....

Me neither @zombiekeats! It's still early though I think some schools wait until after close of business. No one's posted on the results page yet either!!

Yes she did! I was surprised but did not complain

Yes @Caien I do postcolonial, particularly Africa and the Middle East I don't know if this helps or hurts BUT I looked back at my emails with the DGS and she said they would "know the outcome by 3pm" It's 3:17 pm over here so they only just got out of their meeting probably!

Columbia's AdCom is meeting/has met today and so I am at the edge of my seat. Even though I know we may not hear til next week b/c they might have to go through Admissions first. But I'm feeling kind of selfish because I am already very happy with the choices I have. It would just be a dream to get in to Columbia!!!

This is really a great topic! I am thinking that I will have to be a super-note-taker because I am finding that my memory is not great when it comes to retaining facts about my readings. One thing my teacher had us do for a high school AP class was to have notes per paragraph, first summarizing the main point(s), and then a bunch of other stuff that I don't think is as important. It was grueling and tedious but I think it helped A LOT. As for notebook versus laptop, I am thinking I will want to ultimately keep all my notes on my Google Drive so that I can refer back to them... But maybe handwrite first? I don't know... My first semester will hopefully be a learning experience in that regard. (But I also might steal some of y'alls ideas)

I am wondering about this too! I have Arabic and basic French, so I think I could be exempt from the requirement, but I wonder if that's in my best interest? Like maybe I should take some French courses to become able to read comfortably again. But would that be too much coursework? Who knows ( I am hoping some of you folks) Sorry to reply to your thread with not-an-answer!!

Wowwwwwww I have only been out for just over a year and I feel this. It's a struggle. I try to do some self talk to bring myself back to reality. Because the reality is you know some things, and other people know some things, and only some of those things will overlap. Like a Venn diagram. And you have to feel comfortable with the fact that you will never encompass all of knowledge, because nobody ever will. All you can do is do your best to fill up your little circle, and learn from others from theirs. I hope that helps! I know it's kind of silly but sometimes (a technique I learned in therapy) what I have to do is think about what it is I'm really worried about, and take that to its extreme. So for this that's probably that I find out I'm really not fit to be an academic, I fall behind everyone else, I don't do well in grad school, and then I just... leave academia. And I have to remember that that is okay!!! I think we put a lot a lot a lot of pressure on this, and for me it made it hard to read books because I was always asking myself "Am I enjoying this?" "Am I thinking critically?" "Do I want to do this????" But it helps to think about how ultimately being a professor is a //job//, and grad school is //job training//. Do I have to enjoy all of it? Do I have to feel like I fit in 100%? Do I have to be the same as everyone else??? No!!!! Okay I will stop now I feel loopy

I'm afraid I don't have any wisdom in terms of NYU vs. Cornell, but I wanted to congratulate you! I am also deciding in between NYU and another program. Maybe we'll both end up there. I do Postcolonial work as well!

Congrats! I almost applied to Rutgers and took it off my list at the last minute. Can I ask if you applied to Columbia? I know you do Africana studies so I was curious to see if they did interviews for that field.

Thank you all! I really appreciate all of your input. Just to throw a wrench in my decision-making process, I have learned that I can do a joint PhD with African Studies at the Midwest school. Hmmm...... (but thank you again!!!)

I just emailed IU my decision. As you saw in my other topic I am weighing two other offers with (I think) far better fit for me. I want to say "all yours!" because I really wish it worked like that, but silliness aside I wish you the best of luck wherever you end up

Columbia's AdCom does not meet until this Friday, so that's the earliest we'll hear, but most likely next week!