purpleperson

I got into Rutgers! !! I can't believe it! (Lying, obviously) I think some people are lying. I did get into Michigan State with very uncertain (likely no) funding, though. I still have ten schools that are wide open. I promise y'all I won't lie on here or the results board about acceptances, rejections. I wonder what the point of doing so is. ...??

I applied to Northeastern and have heard nothing. I haven't seen acceptances posted to the results board but have seen a few mentions of acceptances and waitlists on the forum. I think that means I'm not getting in there. Darn! It'd be great to get into a Boston school. Congrats to you, though. That is awesome!

I've not had situational dreams about Ph.D. admissions, but I've now officially had an email dream in which I see my inbox with a notification. It was vague in terms of which school and the content of the message, but still, I'm dreaming about the notification thing! I'm looking forward to the next two weeks because I think they'll be the busiest yet for notifications. We're moving past half time and into the third and fourth quarters... I've never been so impatient before....

The end of this week is, like, tomorrow!!!! Hopefully they mean that's when they'll notify also.

lol. This should be posted at the top of GradCafe.

Wow, you are incredibly young. You're finished with a Bachelor's degree at 19?

If memory serves, only about four of the applications i filled out asked what other schools I was applying to, and those four had blanks to fill in only about five schools, not nearly my entire list. I did fill them out for a few schools. I made sure, though, to do so strategically, listing a high rank school, a medium rank one, low rank, etc. I just mixed it up so that it would look like I wasn't after a certain caliber school, but at the same time, showed that whatever school in question wasn't the "top" for me either. I wanted a school to see itself as having a little competition for me, but also not being the underling to all other schools I was applying to. I maybe should have left it blank, but it's too late to change now.

Kinda wish I'd not applied to BU also. I have an MA and applied knowing they don't take many with MAs. I only applied because I heard they were very strong in my area of interest. Plus, I love Boston. But technically, I've heard some negative things about BU, not in terms of academic quality but in terms of faculty-student and student-student relations/dynamics.

What do you all think of Michigan State University's philosophy program? Does it have a good reputation? Would you apply there (even if you didn't)? Just curious because I got into Michigan State (in a different field, not philosophy) and I'm hearing mixed reviews about it. Just wondering how it stands when it comes to philosophy....

Crossing my fingers for you, too! I "greedily" want at least a couple more acceptances. It's *nothing* against Michigan State. I just vaguely recall reading on past threads that Michigan State sometimes extends unfunded offers. It's not a solid offer to me unless it's a funded one. So...yeah. Getting an acceptance at all feels good, though.

Thank you! I'm pleased. Hope is not lost for any of us. There's still sooo much time. And I've got ten schools left...

Congrats! Same here about just getting an acceptance....

I don't think many people on this board applied to Michigan State, but if you're looking at the results board and see the two acceptances on there, I'm one of them. Just got an email about 45 minutes ago, upon waking up from a nap. Very pleased to have gotten an acceptance. Funding is not certain, though (will hear in the next few weeks; they'll email me.) I feel like I have a great shot at a TAship, though, given that I have tons of teaching experience. Michigan State is one of my last choice schools (based on city; I'm fine with the school). But I'm very grateful for the acceptance and will seriously consider the offer. I didn't apply anywhere that I absolutely wouldn't go, sooo....I may go there if funding is good and everything falls in place. Still waiting to hear from 10 other schools.

So...I've been at the same status for several days now. Two actual rejections, no glaringly implied ones right now. I'm looking forward to the next 3-4 weeks. I think, previously, I had this idea that most schools notify in the first three weeks of February, but more and more, I'm getting the sense that just as many places are last week of February and first week of March. So I'm a bit relaxed now, thinking that it wouldn't be unusual if things are quiet for another two weeks. Hope everyone's holding up well against the agonizing wait.

No, I'm not Comp Lit. Wasn't thinking about Comp Lit vs. English. I guess they notify Comp Lit people later.

Have you heard from Northwestern yet? Seemed like all NW applicants heard something. I got a rejection a few days ago.

I applied to GWU. And no, I haven't heard anything yet. I'm almost glad. I'm in "no news is good news" mode. I only have answers from 2 out of 13 schools right now. It'll be scary when 11 out of 13 schools are eliminated, and I have only two schools left as "my last hope." Anyway, I got an email from GWU about a week ago which said that apps are being reviewed and answers would be out in 3-4 weeks. It seemed like a generic email, though. I can see decisions happening before 3-4 weeks. I'm getting more and more nervous.

I'm definitely not a veteran applicant. This is my first time applying and my first season on GradCafe. I posted several pages back that people shouldn't email departments this early, and I did so not because I'm wiser and more seasoned about grad school applications -- I'm, in fact, a newbie. It's my advice because I think it's what one should do (or not do, as it were.) Also, I agree with this statement from Bunny: "There is a distinction between being worried that you're not going to get in anywhere, and being upset over the fact that you haven't heard anything yet." That said, I think people should do what they want to do. Not everyone has to approve of everyone else. I'll say, though, that as a teacher, when I tell my students on a Thursday afternoon that I'll have their papers back to them graded by the following Thursday, and they email me on the Tuesday in-between asking if I got to their paper yet and can I tell them what they got, it gets on my nerves. It doesn't matter if they ask nicely and in only one or two sentences that is quick for me to read, and it doesn't matter if in their mind it will only take a moment for me to answer, and if I understand it's only because they are very worried about their grade -- it still bothers me that they can't just wait til the day that I said all the papers would be ready. Even if I can take a moment out to email them individually, I'd rather they be willing to wait so that I can just pass back the papers all at once -- in what is my normal process. When they ask me for their individual grade early, they're making me do extra work, and I already do way too much work for too little pay. I think I'm so attuned to this type of annoyance that I regularly have that I don't dare do anything even remotely similar to another college teacher or administrator. I'm quite sure that some of grad department administrators are fine with it (maybe not all offices are as busy as others, and there may be one grad secretary who has answers at his/her fingertips while another has to pull a bunch of files and talk to ten million people before he or she can give you an answer), but my general thought would be that most of them are going to be a little bothered and/or just put out. My general rule of thumb would be to, on Feb. 7th and thereabouts, give the departments some time. Even if I weren't gonna wait it out til mid-March before I started asking questions, I wouldn't *start* emailing on February 7th. I'd hold out til at least the 20th through 25th, and more likely the latter.

Agree with this wholeheartedly. Leave them alone! It's fairly early. I'm impatient as a mofo, too, but not so much so as to email asking questions about things that are going to come out within three to four weeks whether I like it or not. If it makes it easier for you, assume rejections all-around and take it like a pleasant surprise if you get in. Get zen with it all. Be like....que sera, sera. The intense part of the application process (roughly October through December) is enough of a dignity-taker-away. Don't let your dignity be taken away (and don't give it away) yet more by being a pest to the department. They would just view you like a little kid who opens Christmas presents on December 17th. One thing they are looking for (and this has nothing to do with age, necessarily) is maturity. Ability to delay gratification is what many associate with maturity. So...please relax.

I made sure I'm wearing my glasses in all my profile pics so that I look particularly book-wormy and scholarly, lol. I wear both contacts and glasses. Contacts about 70% of the time, glasses about 30%.

I just checked my Linkedin, and it has noticeably more views than I usually get. And it hasn't been "forever" since I last checked. I had already thought about the whole "Do they Google us?" thing and made sure anything on the Net was okay for adcomms to see. A regular Google of me shows my RateMyProfessor reviews, plus my LinkedIn account, and a lot of links to a reading group I'm in (very related to my research interest).

They might even check to see if you have a public or semi-public Facebook account, not to spy on your social life, but just to get a general sense......who is this person?

I've wondered this as well, and I'm thinking that they do. Maybe not every person, but people they have some interest in.

Well, that's understandable. But I didn't quite mean something that simplified. I said a detailed letter (and I meant with nuance and room for non-easy-to-categorize interests, but still giving a rough idea). And I figured that there is some pitfall to the school being overly specific about what it is looking for. Yet, I wonder if some middle ground couldn't be struck, too, where some idea is given that could rightly discourage things the school is definitely not looking for.

Yeah, I'd agree to be careful how "angry" you sound at specific schools (especially if you're easy to identify somehow). Even if universities are in the wrong for various things, they're still all in it together to a certain extent. I think the fee is pretty typical, and as much of a pain as it is, I can see why it is there to keep the applicant pool to a reasonable amount. But I agree with your general annoyance with schools. They're not all "the worst," but they can certainly be brusque about some matters. And it's not that I don't understand how they feel. But I think they suck (generally) for being vague about what they want in an applicant (scores-wise, everything-wise), and accepting only 10 out of 300 applicants. Honestly, I think that every single application season, any given school should make public a detailed letter (nothing terribly long, but something thorough) that tells prospective applicants what they (the school) needs that year. I know this eliminates the schools' getting to see a wide variety of applicant interests and being able to pick up on the quirky student research interest that they weren't actively looking for but can't pass up, but I think it would be a more moral thing to do. Some people say to this that "Well, you've got to understand, that adcomms operate in a way that is convenient for them, not for you. It's just the way it is." And I realize this. I'm just saying...it's wrong. They don't have my disgust for rejecting me. They have my disgust more for encouraging too many people to apply. I give Wayne State University a lot of credit for telling me, back in October or so, "No, don't apply here. I don't think it'd work for you." We waste a lot of money on apps for places where we had no good chance. Schools should be more sensitive to people's financial situations.