johndiligent
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Posts
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Posts posted by johndiligent
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March is a scant four days away. THIS will be the month that most of those of us who are waiting will finally find out what's what. And I know that's what we said about January. And February. But it pretty much has to be March, right? ...Right?!
Congratulations on surviving the waiting so far. Only... theoretically... perhaps... maybe... one more month of application anxiety. Good luck!
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Ditto to what was said above. After April hits, if you haven't heard, I think it's time to ask. Much as asking directly sucks.
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Hopefully the two years I'm in my MA programme will make things look better, not worse. Though I'm not holding my breath.
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I think you should write to whoever extended you the offer of admission and tell them that, while UPitt is your top choice, you've been offered X amount of assistance from Tufts. Tell them that before you make your final decision you're wondering if there's any chance that UPitt would be able to approximate or better that offer.
That's what I'd do anyway but bear in mind that this is my first rodeo!
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Ball One!
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play boy
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Wow, that is a tough one. The grades are 20 years old, though? I think you have proven your dedication since then!
When do you expect to hear back? I have no insight one way or the other!
This. The grades are old enough that they'll likely discount them at least enough to look at your other application materials.
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Check with the Department and verify its legitimacy. Very weird to get anything legit from a hotmail address. Perhaps you can search for the name of the person on the school's website??? It's bound to show up somewhere if he's actually an employee.
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blue balls
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I don't know about choosing no funding, but I did choose less funding (as in, not the best offer in terms of funding) for a better fit. My funding is enough to live reasonably well off of, though, so it's not quite the same.
That makes perfect sense and given the variation in cost of living from place to place, the generosity of the offer doesn't just boil down to dollar amount. I'd just wonder about someone who would take an unfunded PhD over a funded one. Masochism!
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Major League
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It's 95% for sure. Though, with deference to fuzzylogician, I have heard of someone being accepted by the department but rejected by the graduate school. But it happens only very, very, very rarely so you needn't worry.
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I had no idea about this feature. Thanks for the great recommendation!
No prob! It's useful but a bit addictive... Hope it helped!
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Are there people out there who wouldn't choose the funding?
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If the school came up with full funding for you, would you accept their offer or take the other one?
If you'd accept, then I think you should go to the Visit Day. If not (presumably because you're quite happy with your other offer), you shouldn't bother going since the utility of the visit is nil.
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And admission without funding is like... a pie in the sky...
Exactly! It's like being given a million dollars but being told that you're not allowed to touch it. So frustrating!
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Ah, I see. Didn't know about the funding issue but I vaguely recall you using "top choice" when describing your acceptance to one school in some earlier post and UBC is the only school you've gotten an acceptance to so far, hence the post prior to this one. Maybe I'm mistaken. In any case, good luck! Depending on your program and your skills, you could always find RA positions once you get there (esp if you have programming skills that could be useful in other departments or your own, though I have no idea about how research in religious studies is done or even if you need to use computers to code up stuff).
Yeah, I'm hoping to find a way to make it work without piling on to the loans. I have an interview tomorrow via Skype for a Residence Coordinator position there, which - if I'm successful - would at least take care of the "How will I live?" problem. I must admit that getting accepted without funding is better than rejection without funding, and I suppose the norm at the MA level.
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ass hat
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Countdown to March! Only 6 more days!
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Perhaps just me but I wouldn't bother. I doubt it's going to get the results to you any faster. Best case scenario, you get an e-mail that gives you a vague timeline, which I imagine would only increase your anxiety as that goes whizzing by!
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Don't expect them to change their minds but I think if you were really gung-ho on this school or you're going to re-apply, you should contact the schools you were rejected by and ask them how you might make yourself a more attractive candidate. Some schools won't offer anything but the standard reply "Very competitive... many excellent candidates... bla bla bla." but I've heard some offer considerable feedback and constructive criticism.
A lot of people say you should wait until after the application cycle is mostly over before you contact. And if you never plan on re-applying, one wonders what you'd gain from it apart from something new to obsess over.
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I've been waiting for a pay check (and for confirmation that all of the letters have been received) before I send anything, but I'm planning on picking up some nice thank you cards and sending them this weekend. Once I have all of the results in and have made my decision, I'll likely send a short letter on nice stationery to let them know which school I'll be attending and to thank them again.
I think that'll be the extent of it. I was considering purchasing gifts but I still haven't found a middle ground between impersonal/perfunctory and gaudy.
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Hi Lucan,
FWIW, I seem to remember that Rutgers participates in a consortium/exchange that allows students to take courses at other schools in the area (e.g. Princeton, NYU, Columbia), which might help you to build contacts and expose you to other scholars than those just at Rutgers. And isn't Matthew Fox (who's just published a new translation of your namesake) there?
If you like the school and think you would have someone there to guide you through a dissertation, I see no reason not to take a fully-funded PhD offer now. Sometimes a smaller program can work out better in the end when it comes to placement -- Princeton/Harvard may have name caché, but they also have 4-5 students to get jobs for each year, which makes it hard to stand out. Can you ask Rutgers about their success rate for PhD grads?
But I agree, check with your professors for advice.
Good luck (and congrats!)
Ogulnia
I second all of this. Get some placement stats from Rutgers and make your decision from there.
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Jail Bird
MARCH IS IT!!!!
in Waiting it Out
Posted
It's Passover that's looming for me. A whole whack of judgmental family members all in one place at one time, all around to ask me "So do you have any life plans already?" Or "I don't see why you don't just call them and tell them to make up their minds faster. Do you want my cousin to call them? He went to graduate school, I think, so they might know him. Or was it grad school he went to? I can't remember. Something about electricians. But I'll get him to call them."