iExcelAtMicrosoftPuns

Forget Starbucks. I know a food truck that is looking for a dancing avocado mascot.

I wrote myself a hypothetical acceptance e-mail from Louisville today. It felt good.

Sometimes I feel like I never get to say goodbye.

Hard to say. Best case scenario: It is. Yay - but you don't know for sure. Worst case scenario: It isn't boo - but you don't know for sure. :-D I'd just file it away for 48 hours. Write a brief email to the DGS on sunday evening. Leave it at that.

I wonder if it hurts... looking back and watching us fresh-faced folks all giddy on our apps. Will multiple app years callous the regular student? I also appreciate the folks who stuck around. They make it a much more virbrant and helpful discourse community.

Purdon't make me wait any longer! I know, I know, I know... sometimes as late as April. Still. It'd feel good to be in already. I haven't seen a single Rhet MA up yet... still hope for an early (read: first round) admit?

Thank you. I started coming here without an account maybe a year and a half ago. and I find myself missing certain faces this year. Faces that I know didn't get in. Sometimes I'll look up past topics and follow them till the end - they're little stories. Some have happy endings, a few have sad endings. It's a wonderful surprise when you follow someone who was denied one year and comes back the next and gets into their dream program. Is it possible that we'll all live happily ever after? This probably reads like a teen girl diary.

As I search the forum I come across all sorts of old conversations. Forum archeology. I see stuff from damn near antiquity... or the 2010 season. Whatever happens to those folks who stuck around for a year and got denied from everywhere? Why did they stop at 55 posts? They were so highly praised. Where did they go wrong? Are they okay? Occasionally I stumble on an old thread and up-vote the folks. We may have never simultaneously shared G.C. but I feel they are my brothers and sisters in arms. I love you, past rejects; I hope you've found your future.

( >< ) ^ Obviously a Bow Tie

Insert stevie wonder harmonica - "that's what friends are for!!!!!" that's all. Back to work.

I know you're not talking to me. But PMs are awesome - its nice to get a head-start on networking and what not. And perhaps none of it ends up going anywhere. perhaps we never break the veil of anonymity. But I've seen some folks talk about twitters/skype/conference panels. So yeah. Pretty cool.

The Doctoral and Master Consortium's give some great info about how programs view themselves. you could always ask the DGS. Purdue has a nice FAQ that helps draw the picture. I mean - yeah it's not as good as having an inside source but it is something.

So. When you punch in a query in the result search you get stuff like "Louisville MA admit 3/1" "Louisville MA reject 3/1" and "Louisville MA admit 3/2". And you just sort of think - oh that's all there is to it. Boom two. back to back. That's how I felt as I was prepping my apps. Boom they're all here at the same time - nbd. but that's not how it works. It's waiting. wait, you heard from them yesterday? why haven't they told me? Y'all been rejected... well I didn't get a reject yet so should I feel good? The result board doesn't really capture that there are 13 hours between admits. 13 damn hours. the worst 13 hours out there. The result board doesn't really capture the feeling of "wait why did that person get a phone call? is that why their admit is early? or late? or whats going on there?!?!?"

You're a GIRL?!?!?!? Gross!

Salutations. Jolly good. Pleased to meet you.

I occasionally speak about myself in third person. So instead of "I am sad" I said, "XXXXX is sad" My name is XXXXX. Now you know. Secret is out.

random code?

Another day with no news! I am sad. ETA: I removed my name. Oops

All these rejections on the board... I just want to say - "His name is Robert Paulson"

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=y6Sxv-sUYtM&feature=kp This is the dance I'll be doing when I get that acceptance email.

Agreed. To add on - perhaps the cover letter went straight to the bin(doubt it but I'm open to the possibility). Still the reconceptualizing of a CV and expressing traits in prose outside of the SOP prompts... well that process has got to be helpful. I think we can at least assert - the addition of a cover letter did not tank her applications.

I may take you up on the offer to examine your docs or skype chat. But I certainly don't want to wrap my mind around this stuff anymore than it already is until I know my final place this season.

It' not unlike Pascal's wager. ( P * G) - C = E Let P be the probability that your graduate student will produce some Great New Thing. Let G be the perceived value of the Great New Thing. Let C be the cost of fellowship and support over the course of the degree. Let E be the expected outcome for the betters. --- So Unis are sitting here saying, "man I think Bowties is gonna do something game changing - I'm 33% sure of it" and someone else says "I dunno I think catwoman is going to produce some really great things, maybe not game changing but really great - I'm 90% sure of it". So they all debate the numbers and agree. Then they punch in the equation and the highest E gets an acceptance. Oh then it gets more confusing. Because they have to weigh how competitive you are in other programs and they have to adjust the cost and the probablity that you'll accept with a given fellowship. I imagine they have a big super computer that does it all.

Thank y'all for the wonderful Netflix suggestions. D-Belle - that is a weird email and a weird situation. I wish I could offer you some sort of explanation - probably just making sure everyone is on the same page and making sure you don't get multiple rejections from the same program.