MorneQuelquun

Ladybird congratulations!!! I was really rooting for you! Yay for you!

Hi DoctorTheater- I also had problems on my application (an unfinished MFA)- I think the point is to articulate the poor GPA from undergrad as a learning experience that was (1) valuable to you and (2) not necessary to repeat. You could write that you faced hardship because of your health problems but didn't have the maturity at the time to negotiate doing well at school while struggling with life, but since that time, you've learned that being and school and living life are always a negotiation, and that there is always a way to focus on your studies even in the hardest of times. It has worked for me to be honest about my educational struggles in the past, and to articulate how I learned from them. I've got two great, fully-funded offers for Fall 2015, and in both the Personal Statements for those schools I wrote about my struggles as an MFA student. It is really heartening to know that you can bounce back after a fall.

The board also shows that somebody got an interview with Columbia on February 5th.

Thanks Bacchanalia for the update. I've been wondering about them... this gives a timeframe, that can be good. I might have been checking my email for months otherwise. As for me, I had an interview with a European program today, and I think the interview went well. I have another interview tomorrow with Temple University for their dance PhD, but it isn't like other interviews for PhDs, it is required of all their applicants, and the process begins at 8:45 tomorrow morning and continues until 3pm in Philadelphia, I am prepared for a very long day tomorrow. (And wow! This city is weird! Its like NYC junior, and I don't mean less population, I mean that the streets and buildings in the center are literally miniature versions of what one would find in NYC.) Its so amazing, I guess, when you're first looking at programs and you just think to yourself (didn't you) "oh it would be so nice to go there and learn with those people at that place!" and then, after doing the application, it occurs to you that there is a scarcity, the sheer/near/seeming/weighty impossibility of acceptance that then plagues you. I now know what LadyeBird was talking about when she was describing going through what she said in the interview over and over. The question becomes "How could I have framed that more eloquently? How could I have communicated that big thing in the matter of minutes? Because the sheer/near/seemingly/weighty impossibility depends on it to not be impossible!" Applications, it seems to me, are like cliff notes. And some books just don't translate well into abridged versions, you know??? But for me, I was going through my interview over and over, and wondering all the same, "Did I say that? Or do I just think I said that?" All the way, on the bus to Philly. Anyway, good luck to you all. It is much nicer to feel somehow in cahoots with you here, rather than at odds with who-knows, out there, in the ether, wondering if who-knows will get something and not me. I root for each of you. Go get 'em. ~Morne.

Hello All. I might as well add myself into this group, I'm also applying to PhD programs in Performance Studies. I also got my rejection from Berkeley on the 30th. So, hello to all, I'm happy to collectivize my nerves with you all. Its nice to see some support out there. My research is in the medical history of dance and pathologization of the body. And this application process is making me feel pathological. We are all, are we not, sweating on Stanford right now.