Neist

It's not uncommon for people to be rejected from many, if not all, of their 'safe' programs, only to get accepted to their top choice. Don't give up hope yet! Congrats! A little odd-sounding, but hey, you gotta take what you can. And I agree. I think part of the anxiousness for me isn't waiting to hear application decisions. These applications represent a future path of my life, and I want to be on whatever that path is, not waiting to be on that path. I want to look into apartments. I want to start planning budgets. I want to contact programs with more depth. I don't want to be waiting.

I'm starting to get nervous again. All of the accepted Cornell STS applicants reported here on grad cafe in years past were in February (with a lot of rejections going into March). I have about a week left. The rest of my programs are far easier to get accepted into compared to Cornell, so I'm not even sure if I'm competitive there.

At least was it good ice cream? Good ice cream is my kryptonite. I really love Talenti gelato.

Congratulations! ?

I've yet to get a call, but I'm not exactly an expert. But I've yet to get a call.

It's not American Studies related, but I wonder how I'm going to decide intelligently if my last two schools notify everyone in a few weeks. Probably can't visit campus. Guess I'll have to make best guesses. Herm.

Yup! Perfectly acceptable.

There's always the possibility that I overthought it, but I'd put hundreds of hours into my applications, so I started getting a little... specific with my self-critiques.

In a few of my applications I stated how I respected a specific faculty member's work and would like their feedback on my current and continuing research. I don't think you necessarily have to touch bases with POI before applying, but I definitely think one should exercise some finesse when mentioning them. I structured their casual mentions as interesting, potential mentors, but it's tacit that I might have not yet spoken to them. Hm. Weird.

Maybe I'm paranoid, but I'm leery of absolutely trusting the results. You never know if things have been fabricated or represent highly unusual outliers. Maybe the acceptances are national fellowship awardees and accepting them was a no-brainer. It's hard to know anything about these applications. It feels so arcane.

This sounds a little horrible, but I've avoided talking to my family about my school. It's difficult for them to understand; None of my family members and very few of my extended family members have college degrees (not even sure if I can think of any, actually..). Good thing we have Gradcafe, right?

Lol. This is so true.

Just wrote a few cordial emails to programs. I am not a man of many skills, but I have to pat myself on the back when it comes to writing correspondence. I think it's a skill that will serve me well in my career.

Same. But then again, I only applied to programs that were in locations that worked for me and my family. That's one of the reasons why I've only applied to five programs. It took a lot of effort to reduce it down to these five programs, but they all "work" for me.

A U Penn history and soc of science acceptance popped up. Congrats to whomever that was!

Ack! My abstract is going to be pretty dry, but I gotta do what I gotta do. My research project was a piece of digital humanities research, so it's very statistical and most of the paper is remarking concessions that I've considered. Fascinating, I think, but dry. In other news, I've been reviewing syllabus from the BGSU Pop Culture program that I obtained when I visited several months ago. These. Classes. Sound. Amazing. Every week would be amazing in this program. I almost don't care that I have no clue what I'd do with the degree. I'd enjoy myself and they are willing to pay me to attend. What else does one need?

@Need Coffee in an IV, I think that's fine. While I wait I'm writing an abstract to submit my senior capstone paper to an undergraduate research conference. They want a 300 word abstract, which seems a little big for an abstract, but I'm very confident in my paper. It's probably the best research I've ever done, and I could probably grow the paper into a master's thesis. @thingii, I can't say for certain, but I think it'll be fine! I don't think Germany is one of the countries that I'd worry about their postal system. Italy, maybe, but not Germany.

This is definitely something to consider. I find that communities of peers significantly enhance the quality of my education, but I'm not sure how much interaction an online program involves.

You might add something about knowing their time is valuable and that your hesitant about contacting them. However, you want to ensure that your application was successfully completed given previously discussed technical difficulties. Or something like that. I try to be as cordial as humanly possible. If you're hesitant about emailing someone, smother them in cordiality. Just my two cents. I claim to be no expert.

That sounds like a perfectly acceptable excuse to contact the program and ensure your program was completed. At least I'd consider using it as an excuse. Might be a good way to feel out how things are progressing.

I thought I had a while to wait for Cornell STS, but it turns out I might be wrong. Out of boredom I dug through previous years' results. There's only two acceptances in recent years, and they were on the 18th and 21st of February. Ergh. Rejections came later. Guess if I don't hear anything in the next two weeks I should consider the worst. I was already expecting the worst, but I always held out hope. Cornell STS is a career-making program.

HASTS rejections are popping up in the results. My condolences. Just got a response from RPI STS. Turns out they are still reviewing applications, so there's still hope. Whoo! To my understanding their adcom is fairly small. Maybe they have some sort of quasi rolling admissions and determine funding after all acceptances have been notified.

Yeah, the first acceptances to RPI STS were posted as received on February 4. My application status still says "submitted," and there's no rejections for the program yet posted. It's possible that no one who was rejected frequents these boards (because STS applicant pools aren't exactly huge), I'd definitely like some resolution. I'd be very confident contacting any of my programs other than Cornell by the end of next week. The month's practically over by that point.

I can only speak for myself, but I find that it's getting late enough in some program's application cycles that contacting them isn't necessarily out of the question. I've contacted RPI. I don't expect a positive response, really, but I'd like a confirmation that I'm rejected so that program can occupy less mental real estate.

I'm unsure if you've taken out student loans out in the past, so my advice might be redundant, but here goes. Whatever you do, avoid private loans like the plague (if possible). Assuming you're a US citizen, your best bet is to take out a minimal amount Stafford loans. They have the most flexibility when it comes to repayment options. The downside to Stafford loans is that you can only take out about 20.5k a year in grad school, so if you're living you're expecting to live somewhere very expensive, it might exceed this. https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/types/loans/subsidized-unsubsidized If you exceed Stafford loans, there's graduate student PLUS loans, which aren't terrible, but certainly not as flexible as Stafford loans. If you're an international student, I have no clue. Sorry.