It's (Not) About Me

Guys... How am I going to move my book collection to a different state? I think it's going to become sentient and fight back.

YIPE! Oh noooooo. But, remember how happy you were when you got accepted? Someone wants you! You have a future! You're doing great! English programs are virtually impossible to get into in the first place, so even getting one acceptance is a huge-ass accomplishment. Hell, even APPLYING is a huge accomplishment--I know I've been telling myself that endlessly since October. I hope the crappy feelings pass and that you feel awesome about your successes (or at least indifferent to your perceived failures) once again! Yo, at least you're being honest. I like to think that everyone's posts reflect how happy they WISH they were for others, if not how happy they reeeeeeeally, truly are. *shrug*

Looooool, that was awesome. I would listen to this band. Woohoo, congratulations! Especially since it is one of your favorites--that's awesome! Awww, that's a nice, warm, fuzzy feeling. If that's the way you see it, it means you're probably a nice, warm, fuzzy(?) person--not a weird (or bad) thing to be at all. I'm psyched to be accepted off of a waitlist and I hope lots of other people can be too! Thank you, and I PM'd you! I really hope they come through for you!

I O ! (Yep, despite my better judgment, I always do it... and then hate myself afterwards. I also have definitely yelled this ironically upon seeing someone wearing an OSU t-shirt outside of Ohio.) [insert joke about how Ohioans can't spell words that are any longer than that]

Ughhh, I'm from Ohio and I have been hearing "Eww, Michigan, fuck Michigan!" for way too long. Maybe part of me wanted to go to Michigan just to spite the dumbass jocks/OSU fans who bullied me in junior high. Hahaha.

Soooo bizzare. I get that their lives don't revolve around us, but some of the departments are straight-up tacky in their apathy towards applicants. WHATEVER, MICHIGAN.

For everyone who is feeling a lot of feels about recent decisions--I know we all are--here is one of my favorite songs: http://youtu.be/L3nMfS10_1Y "It's okay to say you've got a weak spot, You don't always have to be on top. Better to be hated, Than love, love, loved for what you're not." You are not a robot! We are emotional creatures, and that's OK.

Wait, what? So have they not finished reviewing your app yet? Were they just going to forget about your app (without contacting you) if they'd never found it? Dammit, Michigan, do our $65 fees mean NOTHING to you? Rude.

Yes! It will be pretty far for me, but I think I can swing it. I am so so so excited--I've only been to North Carolina (Charlotte) once before, and I thought it was so gorgeous. Never visited UNC before but I have been fangirling over the faculty for a while and I can't believe I'll actually get to meet (and maybe work) with them! You're a current student, right? Tell me LITERALLY EVERYTHING about the department. Haha. OK, confession: this song has been posted in my gchat status since this morning...

*hug* I haven't been watching Maryland, but Michigan, at least, probably hasn't finished alllllll of their acceptances yet. And there will very likely be a waitlist! But I'm so sorry that you're feeling crappy right now. It's hard to prepare yourself for that kind of (perceived) blow. Be a teary mess if it helps! It's your prerogative.

Oh, GREAT. I guess we should start getting used to it? Because I have felt that way for as long as I can remember.

Haha. Seconded! AWWW YEAHHH!! Congrats!

Hahaha! Let me know how that works. Maybe you can get a book deal out of it! That reminds me of a moment in Romy and Michele's High School Reunion, AKA one of my favorite movies of all time. I tried to find a good GIF or YouTube clip, but unfortunately this is the best I could find: http://www.flickr.com/photos/20985903@N05/4202293749/.

I totally didn't read it that way, either, but beet-nik's comment made me LOL so hard... Sometimes I wonder if that's what everyone is secretly thinking when they post on this thread. Hahaha, I love your freakout! Very suitable for this thread! CONGRATS! Go celebrate! I hadn't checked TGC for a couple of hours (what?!) and suddenly I check and all of these Michigan decisions are up. Yipe! Good luck to everyone else who is waiting to hear from them!

Yes! Thank you so much! I have my fingers hellllllla crossed for you, too!

Wow, that is pretty strange! Depending on how long ago the other decisions went out, I think it would be reasonable to contact them. Is it just that your other schools haven't started notifying at all yet? You know what is just WEIRD, re: silence? Why hasn't Stanford contacted ANYONE yet? Hahaha. I'm not expecting to hear from them (seriously), but I can't believe they haven't invited people out to interview yet. Are they not planning to make their final decisions until April? Or just not interviewing this year? HMMM...

Hahahaha. I probably would find this less funny if I were a fellow Buffalo applicant--sorry!--but this cracked me up. I hope this doesn't come out wrong, but I am actually so relieved to be able to enter that stage. I just got my first acceptance and I am still completely reeling/will probably be riding an adrenaline high all day. I'm just so grateful now that anything else that happens will just be icing, you know?

I don't know what just happened, but I got emailed today that I've been accepted off of the waitlist at UNC! Yesterday they'd said it would be a few weeks before I'd have an answer, but maybe a bunch of people with my same interests all just jumped the ship--if you're a person who gave up your spot, THANK YOU SO MUCH! I can't believe I'm actually going to grad school. WHOA, congratulations!! That's incredible! Ohhhhh snap, what an awesome turnaround/triumph! Congrats!! I hope you got some sleep, hahaha, but YAY!! Well done, you!

Yeah, that's a good way of putting it! For all that I tell myself I am resigned to my fate (re: implicit rejections), there IS that tiny spark of hope. For example, I knew I wasn't getting into Duke long before I got the official rejection letter, and I thought I was ready for it, but MAN, it still stung! I was not prepared for the tears that came. So for the rest of my implicit rejections and never-had-a-chances, I just want to get it over with. Lol. Classy.

I have been wondering about that too! There's an acceptance to the English and Education program that's been listed on the results board since February 4. This indicated to me that the joint PhD programs must be doing their admissions slightly separate from the regular-flavor PhDs. Or maybe not. I didn't apply to a joint program, so I'm only speaking out of general curiosity.

That last line made me LOL--sorry if that wasn't your intention, but I related to the sentiment so much. Argh! But thank you for sharing the responses you got, anyway. I haven't heard anything from Brown yet, either. I wonder if they'll have a waitlist.

BIG HUGS. I'm so sorry to hear that it's been a crappy week so far. Don't ever apologize for being a supposed downer--especially on the "0% confidence" thread. This is an excruciatingly stressful experience, and you're allowed to have feelings! And to express them! I hope that things start looking up soon. Your prospects are not all gone yet. And although commuting wouldn't be ideal, it IS doable. People do it all the time... I knew a couple that got married after their MAs and one did a PhD at UChicago while the other stayed in a different program at Berkeley or something. They're still together, so, yay for long-distance/commuter romances? And yo, dude, you already have a lot to be proud of! An MA! A good CV! A prospective publication! Lots of people who believe in you! Awesome taste in movies (re: the quote in your signature)! Also, HAPPY BIRTHDAY! You lived another year! (...Am I helping or being annoying? Sorry. )

Haha, I think I posted this on another thread, but I was sooo irked with people who haven't read my writing (or total strangers) saying vaguely positive/reassuring things about my app--until my neighbor heard that I was applying to English PhD programs, paused awkwardly for 30 seconds, and said "I'll be interested to know how that goes... English is... hard, you know..." Now I'm all about vaguely positive/reassuring things! Because that experience made me realize that it's incredibly rude for someone to say anything else, and, hello, I don't want people to be honest with me anyway! Just yesterday my boss (a non-English professor) asked about my apps and in response to my virtual hand-wave she said "Yes, well, you have to understand that the field that you are applying to is very competitive." My boss is awesome and brilliant but I wanted to throw something.

YES. WHAT IS GOING ON? Hahaha. Michigan is still a total longshot for me, but I haven't mentally removed it from my list like I have with Stanford, Penn, Brown, Cornell, etc. Mostly because I lurve it so much that I know I'm going to take the rejection really hard. Anyway, I just want someone to hear something already!

Hello! I got waitlisted at UNC, and nope, not specializing in Rhet/Comp. I hope you hear from them soon! Yeah, unranked--I just noticed that when I was rereading the letter (so maybe I can't stop reading it... SO WHAT?). I really want to attend the Open House and methinks I'll just bite the bullet and book some tickets soon. That's if I can get my boss lady's permission to miss work. And if I can get my bank account to stop crying. I wish I knew whether any other schools are going to invite me to visit, and if so, when! But luckily the other schools I might hear from are a lot closer and would be easier to visit. ANYWAY, fingers crossed for us both! And maybe we'll even meet in March!