apiphobic

I got a very nice email from my POI that I interviewed at W-Madison (in the Media and Cultural Studies concentration) that due to budgetary reasons they were only able to offer 3 people a spot this year and that he'd inform me if anything changed. So on the waitlist I go. I'm not really sure why anyone would say no to Madison, so I'm not anticipating any good news. Meanwhile I haven't heard from any of my other applications. The only program I've applied to that hasn't sent out any notifications yet is NYU MCC, for the other ones I'm going to assume it's bad news.

I think it went ok? You can never be sure, of course, but I don't think it went too badly. It was just with my POI, who was very nice and engaging. It was supposed to last about 30 minutes, but ended up being almost a full hour. He asked me questions first, about why I wanted to go to this particular program and my research (what, why, how), pretty much what I was expecting. I fumbled over a question about methods, because I'm always more of a "what" than a "how" person, so I'm still kicking myself over that. And he asked about my grades, which I had been dreading, because they are good but could certainly have been better. I didn't ask how many people were interviewed, but he did say it was only a handful. It was a very illuminating interview for me though, and it certainly put Madison higher on my list of programs I want to attend. It seems like a really stimulating department with a great work environment. I'm not supposed to hear back until early february, however. I can't say if I managed to completely convince him of how awesome and special I am, but I think I'll be on the wait list at least. (whoo?) The one question that had been on my mind the most was "why me?", because grades/GRE wise I know there are better/smarter people (there always are) and we all want to know what we did right/wrong. I wasn't sure if it was ok to ask, but I did anyway. According to my POI it really was about fit, because my interests overlap with a lot of the faculty. So I guess working on my SOP for four months really paid off! If there are any questions about the interview or maybe the program itself (he certainly told me things that weren't on the website), let me know!

I've never heard of anyone getting accepted so quickly, but it's certainly good news! I guess you just really impressed them. It'll help soothe the pain of the wait, that's for sure. If you don't mind me asking, which program is it? The interview is just with my POI, as far as I know. It might be that he does all the interviews for the Media and Cultural studies side of the program though, and that he just happens to be my POI. The interview is tomorrow so I'll let you all know how it went and if I have any specifics that might help anyone else out should they need it.

So yesterday I got an email about doing a skype interview for UW-Madison! I'm super excited but also terrified. I'm anticipating a total black out. Any tips or ideas of what they'll be asking? I hope this is an indication for how my application came across at the other programs.

I'm waiting on NYU as well, it's the only place I haven't heard back from yet. I'm considering sending an email to ask, because waiting to officially hear (I'm guessing rejected) is kind of stalling my making a decision about a job and travel.