palimpsest

Just wondering if anyone else here has applied to the American School of Classical Studies at Athens for the regular member program for 2010-2011. If so, heard anything yet? They are supposed to announce the results by March 15, so of course I'm getting antsy!

Don't know if this helps anyone, but I just declined my offer from UCSB today, so that should open up funding for someone else. It's official - I'm going to Toronto!

I'm still waiting on Toronto - I'm on their waitlist, although I don't know where I am on the list. Their deadline is April 11th, so I should know something by then. If I don't get in there, I'll be going to UCSB for sure. I received a pretty uninformative letter from Oxford faculty of Classics the other day. Basically it said that there are a number of college and faculty scholarships that they will be awarding graduate students. It didn't say that I got any of them, but just that there is the possibility that I might get one. Unfortunately, they don't notify about those until May, so I'll have already committed elsewhere by then. Did anyone else get this letter?

Actually, I just got an email from the Oxford grad admissions dept in response to an email I sent last week asking about a timeline for college acceptances. Here's what they had to say: "The deadline for first choice colleges to have made decisions is April 25th; if your first choice college is unable to offer you a place, you should expect that a college place will have been found for you by May 23rd. Unfortunately, if no colleges are able to offer you a place before this date you may not hear anything until this time."

Ha... no worries, I knew it was a long shot. But no, I still have not heard anything about college acceptances. They sure are taking their time!

From the Oxford site on international funding: "25 March 2008: the Humanities, Mathematical, Physical and Life Sciences and Medical Sciences Divisions have now all offered the majority of their Clarendon awards. It is expected that the majority of awards in the Social Sciences Division will be made during the first week of April 2008. Each Division has a reserve list, so it may be possible to offer Clarendon awards to some candidates on the reserve list from late April onwards if those who have already been offered awards drop out or receive partial funding from other sources. Please note that we cannot give out information about who is on these reserve lists. If you have not been contacted by mid-April, it is very likely that your application to this scholarship has been unsuccessful. As the number of reserve candidates is very small and the drop out rate for this award is very low, you should not count on receiving a Clarendon award through the reserve pool. Due to the volume of applications received, we cannot contact unsuccessful applicants individually." Guess that means I won't be going to Oxford!

To the people who have been accepted to Oxford (I think there are some here): Have you received any information about colleges or funding yet?

Last week was rough - I got four rejections: Chapel Hill, Penn, Princeton, and Michigan. That just leaves Brown, Chicago, and Toronto to hear from. I know Brown and Chicago have already sent out acceptances, and I haven't seen any rejections from them on the results board, which makes me think they just haven't gotten around to sending them yet. This whole process has been really disheartening for me. I know that I applied to really good programs but I, and all of my professors, thought I had a pretty good shot at getting in to at least some of them. So now I not only feel like I've let them down, but it's also humiliated to keep having to report more rejections to them (especially while other people in my classes are getting into places like Michigan). So far, there have been only two acceptances out of ten applications: Oxford, which is only a possibility if I get funding (the chances of which are highly unlikely) and UCSB, which was my safe school. On the bright side, UCSB has offered a generous funding package, which I am extremely grateful for. At the moment, this is the only thing that is allowing me to stay at all positive about my future in this field. And the more I think about it, I am actually getting a little excited to go out to California. I've heard really good things about UCSB's program being on the up and up, and that they have a great group of faculty. Plus, while it is quite expensive, there are definitely worse places to live! So, in the meantime I am looking forward to a visit out to Santa Barbara and trying to keep my head above water in finishing out this semester.

Speaking of Canadian universities, has anyone heard anything from Toronto? I've seen a couple of posts on the results board but I haven't heard anything myself. My online status still shows "pending."

I don't think you should be worried. They have not yet met to go over departmental funding. I doubt they'd accept you and not offer any support at all. Sit tight...you will probably hear something very soon. As for residency, I think they told me that after the first year, you are considered "in-state."

I received notification from the graduate advisor that I was approved for a one year university fellowship. The catch: it only covers in-state tuition, which leaves a balance of about $15k for an out of state student. It is possible that the department will offer additional funding to cover that (I hope!). They are meeting on Friday to go over their departmental budget and will put together funding packages then. So I would expect to hear early next week. In other news, the rejections have been rolling in for me. Neither Chapel Hill nor Penn want me :-(

So, someone just posted on the results board that they were rejected via email from Princeton for "Ancient History." Does Princeton have a separate ancient history program, or do you think the person was referring to the Program in the Ancient World?

Question: At what point is it ok to contact schools to ask about your admission status? I know that it is still technically early in the game, but from what I've heard around here, several of the schools I've applied to have already made their decisions (Chicago, Princeton, Michigan, Brown), and I have not heard a peep from any of them. I know that there is the possibility of being waitlisted, but shouldn't they let you know that (or is it ok to ask them if that's the case)? Or do they just wait until the last minute to send out all of their rejections at once? I don't mean to sound pessimistic, but I'm trying to be realistic. What do you guys think?

My letter said they had nominated me for a University fellowship and that they should know whether it was approved by early March. When I emailed to find out about funding for a campus visit, the grad adviser said that they should find out about the fellowships by the end of next week and if I get the fellowship the university will pay for the trip. After they find out about the fellowships, the department will meet to discuss their funding budget and put together packages for applicants then. In other news, a professor told me today that she'd heard that Brown has already sent invitations to prospective students. :-(

It's funny you should say that because it seems like every night I either get accepted or rejected from somewhere! Last night I dreamed I got a letter rejecting me from Brown; a few nights ago I got accepted to UNC Chapel Hill and a couple nights before that I got into Penn. A while back I dreamed I got accepted by Berkeley, but in real life I was rejected. Hope that isn't the trend with the rest of them!