chocochip

@aob981, thanks for the advice. Dr. Baliff has been quite kind about putting me in contact with POIs. @imogenshakes, thank you! I'm in the process of arranging my own visit, but I'd love to hear your thoughts on the general atmosphere of the department. Athens seems like a cool town, yes.

Congrats! I received the same brief email from UGA last weekend. I've been watching my mailbox and inbox for the official notification, but nothing yet. And answering phone calls from the Athens area code thus far has yielded nothing but one telemarketer call. ?

Congrats to everyone who's been accepted! I had a voicemail from the DGS at Delaware earlier this afternoon - I'm in. I was at work, so had to keep my utter joy contained to a few capslock text messages, but I'm SO EXCITED. This was the first response for me this year - it's always nice to start off with a yes.

I had just pulled in the driveway tonight after a long, tedious day at work. Saw there was an email, which was generic, and checked the decision online assuming it was a rejection. I don't think I even read the first sentence, but the second one was bolded and italicized: Congratulations, and welcome! Then I backed up and read the first sentence. And screamed a little. It's not even my first choice and funding is doubtful, but it's still a great feeling.

I'm wondering whether I should take the GRE again. My gut is telling me yes, mainly because of that maddening 4.0 on the writing portion. I wasn't over the moon about my verbal, but thought with a strong writing score and a strong application, it would do for the programs I'm targeting (MA or MFA in Creative Writing, upper 50 in rankings, but toward the middle of the pack). Cost is a concern, but then again if schools look at the score for funding purposes, another testing fee now might be worth it in the long run. My quant. score was not surprising, given that I've been away from high school and college math for years (long story short, returned to school a couple of years ago to get my BA, so my last math class was 10+ years ago). I wouldn't mind raising it, but at the same time I'm aware that it likely isn't going to be a huge concern in my field. Unless, of course, the grad school has a minimum threshold. The writing score annoys me, though. I've got a 3.5 major GPA, and I work as a writing tutor. I'm confident in my writing skills. I suppose I need to just concentrate on the formula they expect rather than trying to craft something like I normally would. Should I take it again, or concentrate on getting strong recommendations and polishing my applications to the best of my ability? Thanks in advance.