TMP

Tartan

Order

What's the rush? April 15th isn't here yet. UMN and UW know that other schools are still deciding so they don't feel the pressure to start handing out funding packages ASAP. As it's been said here, you've made through all the rounds except for the last one. Other schools chose not to let its applicants know of their decisions until the very, very, very end. As for contacts, if you've never been in contact with UW or UMN professors, I would just wait until the visit to start making connections. If you've been in regular contact before, then it may be appropriate to e-mail them sometimes next week. And seriously, chill out. There are still a lot of us who would just love to be in your position- 2 acceptances, even if the funding situation is murky at the moment! And we're still waiting!

Leave the adcoms alone. If you don't hear anything by March, then I'd start worrying.

Hm. Now that I know Michigan isn't for another 10 days or so, I don't need to be anxious. I'm definitely waiting for Emory and Indiana now that some results have come out. Emory, especially, because my potential advisor is coming to speak at my department next week! I don't know what should I do if I don't hear a word... I'd hate that he'd want to be the bearer of bad news if it is indeed a rejection. To other schools, well, take your time.

Easy. FOLLOW THE MONEY. Especially for the UC system.

Must be "Other" aka non-Western field. They get less applications than others. As for Ann Arbor's economy, it is definitely better than the rest of the state. It's practically a bubble. It might take your GF some time to find a job but she'll eventually land one within Ann Arbor-Lansing-Detroit vicinity.

Well, that's what Gmail is for. It collects all e-mails from all of your addresses, old and new, when you set e-mail forwarding up.

Nope. Her department routinely gets affiliated students in US and European history.

I"ll out myself a but here... I have strong connections with people at Michigan. So I got some info ftom a friend whose an administrative asst and she talked with History. She said that Europe people will meet very soon. US history people have yet to meet and will meet in about two weeks to make decisions. My friend said this while rolling her eyes that the dept is one of the slowest ones at UM because they really do read each and every one of the application (close to 400). So Michigan people can rest easy knowing that nothing is going to happen for the next week. As for Princeton. I assume email as my classmate is currently in the Middle East for a year.

Princeton's already notified their rejects. My classmate from college just got rejected from Princeton. His app was moved to another department at Harvard. And is still waiting on fellowships at UCLA. So for those of you waiting for P-ton, keep your hopes up!

Has anyone heard a peep from Indiana?

I would make aliyah... if I didn't have $35K in graduate loans from my MA program! Given my field, it would've been smarter to move to Israel, make aliyah, and get free/cheap grad education, and apply to PhDs. But alas, there weren't any professors over there who did the kind of I research that I do... so I was better off staying here It's kind of bizarre to think about it now, two years since my UG... where would I be if I had gone to Israel? Would I be fluent in Hebrew? But then again I wouldn't have had this amazing MA thesis topic and these two languages (while my Hebrew is suffering). Instead, I must not move to Israel until those damn loans are paid off. The average Israeli salary doesn't bother me but it's the fact that it's so low that it would take me like 30+ years to pay them off. Plan C/D/E is moving to SF and teach history.

Those of you in your senior year of college... I was in your shoes two years ago! I do remember being very nervous and distracted but good god, I had an amazing advisor who just somehow had me totally focused on my senior honors thesis that by the time the third week of February caem around, I was like, "What? It's already the end of February?" Of course, that's when I stumbled on GradCafe... really don't make yourself go crazy with this site. I never had senioritis. My adviser would NOT permit that to happen to me as long as I was writing my honors thesis! Honestly, the best advice I can give is truly make the most of your last semester of college, finish as strong as you can, and do your thesis justice- don't skimp on the quality. Make your adviser proud. (Also you might...need to use it for *knock on wood* second round of apps) The time doesn't stand still so don't forget to keep up with your readings! And enjoy your friends... you all will go off to different places and it will be tough to be apart. I'm in Midwest and all of my friends are on East Coast so I don't get to see them all that often. They've been sending their love through e-mails and IMs which I really ended at times while doing my MA program.

Royalty

I've applied to Michigan. You can't check your application status online. But the department is very, very organized and will let you know if anything's missing. If you get accepted or waitlisted, you'll get an e-mail (supposedly) from your potential advisor. Rejectees get postal mail.

Like Sparky, I don't plan on telling anyone of my acceptances until I hear from my current school. I'm pretty sure that my MA advisor isn't on the committee as she's on sabbatical this year (totally sucks!). But I do plan to let my LOR writers know of any wait-lists or rejections in hopes that they might be able to make a call or something. If you have very close friendship with one or both, just tell them. Professors who write letters and support your endeavors will care about your success and want you to be happy. And honestly, if you'd rather go to your top choice, just tell the LOR writers anyway! If they sort knew beforehand that this school is one of your tops, they'll be very excited for you!

Having watched the boards since 2008, I can tell you that NYU's weekend thing is totally vague. Some people got the invite... went and either got accepted or denied. But people still got in without the weekend invite. It's completely random. So I wouldn't overanalyze what this means except just put your best foot out there and show that you really want to be at NYU. In other words, this invite literally means nothing if people can get into NYU without a weekend invite.

*shrugs* It could be that I am in a very small sub-field where there are fewer applications for one or two spots. But when I e-mailed two schools two years ago to find out why I didn't get in. Nobody complained about my GRE/GPA but directed their criticism towards my writing sample and SOP (and languages) and I've been working on those in the last year and half so we'll see. Just be very polite in your e-mail and ask for criticism. One prof was impressed that I even e-mailed her and said that she would be candid in her feedback. It stung a bit but I appreciated her honesty. It was quite...detailed. I think it also depends what kind of rapport you had with the professor during the application process. If you've been talking beforehand, they might be more willing to give you more personal answers.

Supper

That is one of the problems. The other problem is that there's no "safety" because departments want to be sure that they can get a high yield and we don't know if we're too competitive for a certain department. Although I am a bit scared that I might be too competitive for Emory, this "lack of response" puts me in a precarious position - if not this school, if I'm deemed too competitive and would think of it as a "safety" okay, then, what if the more competitive departments say no to me? I would've been glad to attend Emory just as I would've been glad to attend any other schools I applied to. But nobody knows how competitive they were until after all the results and get answers from their primary faculty contact. When I applied in the first round, I was told that I wasn't, with my *lack* of languages and weak writing sample, I wasn't really that competitive. Now this round... with more language training and a very strong writing sample, we'll just have to see. Ah well. Only a few more weeks to go.