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Assistant profs are affluent? hahahahahaha hahahaha haha hah ...

I think that it's very normal to feel mixed emotions when closing doors, even if other doors are opening. At the same time, it sounds like you have some external forces (location and whatever is tying you to that location) exerting some pressure on you, which can definitely raise more doubts or mixed emotions. I clicked on this thread because of your title: I apologize for picking on you when you're feeling down, but I find the phrase "retarded" to be inappropriate in this context. You're sad, not intellectually/developmentally delayed or disabled. As with the phrase "that's gay" to mea

Bro, why don't you just go get some research experience, apply widely, then report back with your results.

So i'm nervously waiting for gtown. It's my first choice and i'm a bit scared that they might be done notifying acceptances. Does anyone have any inside info?

!!!!YAY!!!!!

I have spent the last two weeks waiting to hear back from my number 1 choice university for graduate school. This was very stressful and completely consumed my thoughts. I spent a great deal of time on this forum checking the posts of others, and looking for some encouraging words from students who had gotten into their top choice with a less than perfect academic record. I did not find many of those posts, so now that I am accepted, I would like to offer some encouragement to people who might be in the same position that I was in, or for people who are considering applying, but are not sure

While having an advisor who is known in your field of interest is great it is not necessary. In fact, there are great scholars who did not have faculty in their dissertation committee who are specialists in their fields of study. Interests change and it is not completely unheard of a graduate student applying interested in something and realizes their second year they are interested in something else. Of course, when applying one looks for ideal advisors in such and such specialty, but one should also look for support even if it's outside of their knowledge. I have had faculty who is

So...I got news on my funding package. And SUCH news on funding. I am just sitting on Cloud 9 here. After an application year in which I couldn't get a parking ticket validated, to be so generously treated is just....it's amazing. I've gone from Zero to Hero in a year, apparently. Oh, the programs that rejected me last year have again rejected me this year - or at least I think they have, one is still out but I'm not holding my breath. Besides which, I doubt very much anything they would offer me would compare to the offer I have been presented with. Which is (drum-roll, please.....): NOT a

There have been two very informative discussions on this in the livejournal english "wgi 2011" community. I'll link them below. http://community.livejournal.com/wgi_lounge_2011/30548.html http://community.livejournal.com/wgi_lounge_2011/34713.html The second one is a locked "members only" post, but I strongly suggest making an account (if you don't already have one) so that you can access the information in these posts.

I would complicate this a bit. The advisor is clearly key -- both in terms of the scholarship the student produces and in terms of connections and networks that produce jobs. That said, the link between advisor and institution certainly matters. But the connection may not hinge on prestige. To take the example of someone in the news today, Bill Cronon has stayed at Wisconsin despite a plethora of offers from other institutions. As he notes in his blog post about the current insanity, were he somehow to lose his position, he could hop over to any number of places and get hired and paid signific

If the 1st and 3rd schools make you that upset, then forget them. Tell them you aren't going to attend. Shred the letters. Move on. It's FINE! There is absolutely NO reason to hang on to those options if you are unhappy. Even more important, there is absolutely NO REASON to have suicidal thoughts about ANYTHING in this process. This is a stressful time, sure, but keep yourself in check. If you feel overwhelmed and extremely unhappy, take a break! There is nothing set in stone. You don't have to prove anything to anybody. All that matters is that you feel balanced and that you can ha

7:01 tonight.

Thanks for that info on schools hiring and such, very helpful. Sounds like you have a great academic background, and those GRE scores are totally fine for our discipline. We have much in common: I also studied in the UK for two years, studying theology, and I served as a youth pastor a few years, and had some corporate background (although I intentionally neglected the latter in my applications). I'm not looking forward to the GRE change, but I postponed it to buy me some more time to prepare. Do you think it will become more difficult with the change? I don't get the impression that

Definitely tell them about your decision and ask them for their suggestions on what you could do to improve your chances (if you want to apply again in the future). It's important to maintain a relationship with your professors, because in academia you never know when you'll need another recommendation from them.

Emailing the DGS won't hurt anything. Making it onto the waitlist is, in my opinion, a huge compliment, not a rejection! Usually, depending on your field and the particular school, hundreds of people get rejected, a handful get waitlisted, and a handful get offers. Most likely you were in the top 10% of applicants, but office politics meant it was someone else's turn to get a grad student. Send the email and say you would love to go to school there, etc. etc. I got waitlisted at a top program, and into two other ones. I was told I was first in line should someone decline an offer. I v

How did you know that guys ? Are there many person to apply IxD program? Thanks~

Has anyone received notification of interview from SVA IxD program? SVA Interaction Design is my Top choice ! ---------------------------------------------------- SVA - IxD -? Risd - D+M - ? Pratt - Digital Arts - ? Parsons - TransDesign - ? FIT - Exhibition Design - Accepted SAIC - Emerging Technology - Accepted

Hey guys, I was accepted into the U of A masters for Latin American History, I got confirmation by email, now I'm just waiting to receive the official paper work.

asked the awards manager in our graduate studies office today and was informed of winning a CGS M.

what you are going through is not at all uncommon. for one thing, you should never feel badly about taking a few hours for yourself, whether it's for therapy or swimming or napping or seeing a movie. contrary to popular opinion, you don't need to spend every waking hour working or ready to work. it's entirely up to you how much you tell your advisor. if s/he is specifically asking why you can't make a certain time for meetings or labs or whatever, then you know s/he has noticed. if s/he hasn't brought up your absences yet, then don't worry about it. there's no need to explain why you're

For most people, PhD programs are year-round jobs - you often get offered only an academic year stipend but often programs find ways to fund you during the summer. Even if they can't pay you, you probably still want to stick around in the summer to get your research done while there aren't that many other distractions going on. So, a 12 month lease is the way to go. Personally, I like living with other grad students in a house close to campus, but not in the undergrad areas. I can walk to my building in less than 10 minutes. I have close friends to talk to every night who are going th

I decided to live in the dorms my first year of Grad School. I went for the cheapest thing on campus... BIG MISTAKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have a freshman (yes, an undergrad freshman) roommate who loves to stay up until 4, playing WOW (including the night before I had a midterm), and the building smells like weed most of the time. I don't think it's until now that I realized how immature underclassmen are! So if you stay on campus, splurge a little bit for a graduate apartment, because this 4am World of Warcraft crap and the weed have got to go!

Students are required to notify schools of their intentions by April 15. It is conceivable that a candidate held out until the last day to decline an offer of admission. That would open a slot for a wait listed applicant. So you COULD get into a program you are wait listed on AFTER April 15th. I think that is probably rare, but I have heard it happens. Likewise, I've seen some rejections go out around April 12-14th or so on the results page. This to me indicates that these were wait listed applicants who were held in queue until the last minute when someone finally accepted an offer. It suc

I am in no way an expert in funded offers, but I did find in this cycle that if a school really wants you, they will give you money. The only school that did not give me money-UCLA's PhD program in history-was one in which faculty explicitly told me that they do not fund their own undergraduates (me, in this case.) otherwise, I received four fully funded offers, 1 into a PhD program and 3 MA programs-(harvard, georgetown, uchicago) one school even gave me a stipend, which is why I decided on it. I am an admissions counselor for undergraduates, and I have been playing the 'admissions game f

Glasstothearson, first off I just want to commend you for seeking treatment. Though I can understand why you might feel bad about leaving the office for a few hours each week, you are receiving vital medical treatment. If you were a professor, how would you feel if your student, diagnosed with depression and anxiety, felt bad about visiting his or her therapist? Wouldn't you do all you could to reassure them that they deserve treatment, that their lives are precious, too, and that just as the cancer patient receives regular chemotherapy, so must the person suffering from mental illness? If you

Hello Carleton. Your silence is deafening. You rejected someone on the board last week. But you accepted someone at the beginning of the month. So where's my letter/email/phone call? Is it me? Is it you? Is it my gmail account? Am I refreshing too much? Can you please pick up the phone, drop an envelope in the mail, stick a post-it on a carrier pigeon and throw the damn bird out the window and LET ME KNOW?!?!

I think that the above advice is good, however I think if you have funded offers you should choose them over the unfunded one. In this economy and market, there's no reason to turn down money to get an English MA. The work you do is the most important. I do not deny the above advice about having more time, getting access to great faculty, etc. But I guess it depends on how "lowly ranked" your other schools are. If they are anywhere in the top 75, I think they are fine. Unless you have stellar credit, no debt, and tons of money, take the funded offer. While being free from teaching might

MSW means Masters of Social Work, right?

Thanks for your reply, Rpits. I just wanted to see who are new to the process. I suppose they will start coming towards and after this summer. Anyway, I am an international applicant, and will be applying for History and Middle Eastern Studies PhD programs. Specifically, I am interested in Ottoman and early Central Asian sufism between 11th and 16th centuries. Soon, I will begin writing my MA thesis on a 16th century Ottoman sufi, and meanwhile will be applying to doctoral schools. It seems a bit difficult and tiring though. Focusing more on the application process after June, it will be enoug

your comments strike me as rather jejune One should not pay for his/her PhD in philosophy. this is not law school. An unfunded or partially funded MA is a risk, but I think it should stop there. If you wan't to take out loans for another 5 years on top of that, go for it dude. have fun standing in line at the soup kitchen. bottom line: if your only PhD offer is unfunded, you are not doing something right try again next year from the sounds of it, you are either incredibly naive about money "why do you care so much about money if you get into a school that suits you"

Thanks for the responses! I happened to read them just as I was starting to crack, thinking, I'll never get in again so I better grab what I've got! But instead of entering huge financial stress while undertaking a PhD, I think I will take the sane (read: Canadian!) route and spend the year in T.O. It might be freezing cold up here, but at least I won't have to leave my dog!

I don't really see the point in all the hush hushness since the answer is very specific to the school. If you're talking about U of Chicago, the location is terrible. there is only bus access (the nearest train stop is a mile away) and the neighborhood has unsafe areas. If this is Northwestern, it is very public transportation accessible and Evanston has a cool vibe to it, plus you can live in Chicago and commute and have the best of both worlds. If you are talking about DePaul, it is a great neighborhood. If you are talking about Loyola, the location is ok, but it is best if you live som

The Political Philosophy folks I know mostly applied to a pretty small number of schools, including but not limited to: University of Dallas, Toronto, University of Texas at Austin, Claremont, Notre Dame, Baylor, and Boston College. I only applied to schools from this pool, but I'm sure there are others I'm not thinking of. Good luck!

I applied to 10 programs last year...and was rejected from ALL of them. I applied to 9 schools this year (granted, more MAs this time) and got into 6. There is definitely hope, and the unsuccessful first round helped me really figure out where I could improve this go-round.

It depends on the email, the time of day, the day of week and generally how busy I am vs. what the email is asking. I usually try to answer students' emails by the next day; I find that answering too fast has the effect of making them ask me every little thing instead of trying to deal with their problems themselves. I definitely don't think it's rude to take evenings and weekends off to myself and not rushing to answer emails at those times. I usually answer professors' emails as soon as I see them, because they don't normally require that much work (check my calendar for availability,

I thought this was a very reasonable response to that video.

Hey all. I've lurked around on this thread for a while so I thought I'd actually say hi. So who heard back from Cornell by phone on 3/17? You had been wait listed earlier, right? How does it feel to be accepted by them only because earlier admitted applicants turned them down? Are you thinking of accepting their offer or did you already get better offers? I'm just curious. Good luck to you and to everyone else!

You don't have to waste your time apologizing to Prolixity. Prolixity has trolled me as well as others several times. Prolixity also sometimes has inappropriate tones when people ask him questions or respond to his questions.

Generally PhD, but the MAs are often seen as money-raisers for the university. I guess some people get funding from a load of others who get none but want the brand. The only problem with DC-area PhD programs is that often the professors are off doing consulting work rather than working closely with grad students.

Don't you mean "feeling"?

So far when I've been looking at PhD Programs, I've been using this: http://graduate-scho...______________U since I didn't know where to start in terms of looking for PhD Chemistry Programs to apply in Fall 2011. In the link, Harvard is ranked, but Scripps Research Institute --- The Kellogg School of Science and Technology is not ranked, so that is why I asked the question since I was under the impression that unranked programs are not as good as ranked program. I bring up UC Merced since its PhD Chemistry Program like Scripps Research Institute --- The Kellogg School of Science and Technolo

Hey chaospaladin, I hope I don't come off as a jerk, but for these sorts of things I think it's better if you did most of the legwork yourself. Questions like these are the types you could answer just as effectively on your own--Googling the right keywords works wonders. I'm sure if you spend some more time browsing department websites (my guess is that most people who applied to Ph.D. programs looked at the websites of >50 departments and narrowed down the field to 5-15 programs to which they applied), you'll find your answers pretty quickly. In answer to your question, I found a few ch

I applied to 5 schools...some were slightly reaches but all in all they were not unreasonable...Now as March is trucking along and I have no acceptances yet I don't know what to think! I know it is not over yet but I feel like my freak out is right around the corner...Doesn't help that my mother's 'clairvoyant' friend says I'll get in. Oh gee, thanks. Are you sure Jupiter is in alignment with Telesto and not Calypso? AAHHHHHHH I"LL BE LIVING IN A BOX ON THE STREET

I'm so boring. No major changes in undergrad at all. The only thing I did was decide to specialize in my field instead of major. (I'm Canadian -- don't know if that made sense to you Yanks. To graduate from my large Canadian university, you need either two majors, or one major and two minors, OR specialize, which means taking more courses in the field -- the harder ones.) That's from an academic standpoint. In my personal life, I suppose I moved out of my parents house (first and probably last non-married female to do so on both sides of my extended family, ever), had my first serious rela

I don't agree that the protests are indicative of a downhill slump, quite the opposite actually. People are standing up for their rights all over the world and that is what I call a giant leap for mankind.

I'll change my religion and try praying to a different god next time around.

I think wine and Sigur Ros will be fine after the rejection.

I do reveal quite a bit about me and I'm sure if adcoms go to the board, they could identify me in an instant (if I applied to their school). But I handle this just like I handle everything I put on the internet: I don't say anything I don't want to be public and related to my person. So if adcoms identify me and read my postings, they won't find anything they could hold against me. I don't say anything bad about anyone (oh well, I once accused one user of messing with the board, which he was not, then I apologized), I don't rank schools, I don't name favourites (I don't have one, to be honest

That is Sylvester, the cutest rabbit EVER. and my turtle laid eggs, and they just hatched, so obsessing over baby turtles has been a pretty good way to get my mind off of checking my email a million times a day:

I heartily approve of DIY science. I can think of at least three ways to improve your methodology, though: 1) Along with each prediction, state your estimate of the chance that your interpretation of the cards was incorrect. (i.e., given that the Tarot deck has the real power to convey some message, the chance that you correctly guessed what that message is.) 2) Also state the estimated probability, given that Tarot does not work, of the event portrayed in the message occurring, given all the non-Tarot information that was given to you. (I posted a thread earlier providing a rough estimate