DonnaTrump

Waitlisted at Oxford unfortunately. So it'll most likely be Edinburgh!

Good to see other area studies people. March deadline might mean the end of April/beginning of May for us, so still a long way ahead. I am trying to distract myself with work

I am still waiting for a decision from my first choice and got my 'second choice' offer today. Since my second choice is also an amazing, prestigious uni in an even more amazing city, I would not be too disappointed and I am already accustomed to the thought of living and studying in that city for 2 years. No regrets at all.

You are indeed too kind, Sir! I guess it's just waiting and seeing what happens. I hope to get an offer from my second choice, Edinburgh, over the next few weeks. That would certainly make it all less "critical".

Thank you for your reassuring words. My thinking was similar: The CV is probably the least important part, so why give a fudge. Thus, I rushed it. With respect to the references, they are my second concern. I have two references from very well respected professors here in Germany who put a lot of effort in it. However, I could not find a third referee at my uni in time, thus I had to rely on a professional reference. My supervisor at a former 4-month internship sent the reference only a couple of hours after my request, so I'm a little bit worried that it is not very strong. Yet, the other two references, which are academic, should be very strong, so I hope for them to overlook the third one. I also believe that my personal statement is outstanding, as my research interests clearly align with what two professors of are doing at the moment. I also hold the most competitive scholarship of my country, although I have "only" achieved an upper second class (in our grade system actually 0,01% shy of a first...). As you can see, lots of Ups and Downs that make the wait somewhat of a torture

I'm applying for a program which only two top tier unis offer. My backup plan would be applying to degrees in another discipline, which I am interested in, albeit on a smaller degree. The deadlines at some of the "lesser" unis are not as tight, so I could still apply. My only worry would be references, since I don't want to bother my professors even further.

Same here bro, you are not alone! As my application was for the March deadline, i don't expect to hear from them before mid-April. SPRING IS COMING

I sent my application for the MPhil in Chinese Studies last week (March deadline). It's already been forwarded to the department. I have an "Upper second class" BA degree (amounts to a 3.5 GPA) in Politics with some work experience in an Asian NGO. I've found two silly typos in my cv as I did not care too much about it. (Translated it from my native language and left one word in it). I just hope that they don't give too much of a fudge about it.