Deadinthewater

Hey FishBucket, I wanted to let you know that I have been reading Bruce Fink's Clinical Introduction to Lacanian Psychoanalysis, and I am pretty sure you fall under "hysteric." ETA: You may be a pervert. I haven't gotten to that section yet.

From the results board: Yes, sure, I was rejected from the PhD program, but I am feeling truly blessed to have been one of the lucky few admitted into their MAPH. Now please excuse my while I photocopy my butt and send it off as my informal acceptance.

I suggest you reapply and aim lower.

I now know where all of these people live, in case I need to fix the odds. Just kidding. ....or am I? ETA: Oh, yes, now that I'm viewing this on a computer I can see that they are all from last year. Also, how do you respond to a wait-list e-mail?

Me too. Did you get the initial, mistake email?

I was waitlisted for the Penn State MA. I have heard that they basically expect their MA students to continue into the PhD program (I don't necessarily view this as a positive or a negative). Can anyone verify this?

I could imagine someone might get a phone rejection if they were trying to continue from their MA to PhD and didn't make the cut, but damn.

I'm wondering if anyone can share my experience, or has shared it. I was accepted at Buffalo for a PhD. I was also accepted at my undergraduate institution for an MA (I am also waitlisted at Penn State for an MA, but I consider this to be a consolation prize at this point). Has anyone ever been accepted to a PhD program that they would like to go to but turned it down for a funded MA? I am worried that I'm not ready to jump right into PhD-world just yet. I stress this specifically because Buffalo's program is wildly unstructured. I believe that I really excel at some areas of the discipline, but my "area" or "focus" is a little underdeveloped. I'm worried that if I go into Buffalo's extra-loose program without an exceptionally focused vision of what I want to do, I will get lost. This being said, I haven't visited Buffalo yet, so who knows. I just know that my professors at my undergraduate institution have said that they would be able to guarantee some very close mentoring, and that they would be really commited to getting me into a top PhD program in 2 years. Any thoughts?

ETA: double posted by accident

I told them I am going. I feel a little nervous, just because, well, what? Huh?

Hey asleepawake, did you see the dates? Are you planning on visiting?

I am 14 years old. If anyone is reading this, please hep. I am getting younger. After taking the time to write this, I am now 12.

I am sixteen, I'll be turning seventeen in early April.

I'm 17.

23

Yes but can they dunk?

"Hello Dr. Copjec, I like your shoes. You know, they kind of remind me of that article you wrote about Lacan."

I would like to add: I wish that the humanities had charming celebrity anecdotes. When I was a kid, people frequently told (or I should say, misconstrued) that story about Michael Jordan being cut from his high school basketball team as motivation to never give up. Today, no one can say something like, "Foucault was rejected his first two cycles. Deleuze ended up going to his fallback school." There is no hope for us, any of us.

I advise you to skip this year and try for the school you really want. You have already been accepted by several highly competitive programs, so it's not some bizarre case where your own personal "genius" was observed through an accident or a freak coincidence. If you apply to all of the same schools next year you may not get into the same ones you did this year, but, even from an empirical, non-binding, absolutely-nothing-guaranteed perspective, you are at the head of the pack. So I say try again, especially if the thought of "what could have been" at Columbia or UPenn will plague you until your final days. That is, unless it really is an issue of pride, a feeling of inadequacy next to your peers. I can speak for almost all of us (a majority of the applicants in the world) when I say our "results" seem inadequate compared to yours. Some of us won't be facing the tough decision between either reapplying from scratch or pursuing a PhD at Brown or Chicago (which was my number one fucking dream of a lifetime choice), but will be choosing between reapplying and long-term employment, teaching highschool, moving in with their parents, etc. My conclusion here is as it typically is in most cases: life is miserable. My pain from not getting into Chicago–what amounts to envy for your pain–is real pain. Your pain about your rejections is real pain. We are all hurting, forever. Good luck with your decision!

It is dead in the water.

I remember the day I discovered the results search.

Man, back when I applied I thought Buffalo was well-ranked, but it seems to be drowning here.

I don't think DontHate applied in English.

I think saying that a school is on the top of your list is different from an outright (possibly desperate) commitment, but I assume it all comes down to gauging the "vibe" you're getting from your interviewer. So I vote do it, or don't