johndiligent

moral fiber

thin ice

Hmmmm... Based on that it's my assumption that offers went out to PhD students at the same time as offers went out to the MA's, based on the fact that there were PhD's at the Visit Day (according to LisaTO) and that someone posted about being waitlisted for the PhD after the shortlist e-mail (think he/she took shortlisted for waitlisted). The offer requested a reply by today, so hopefully those who are declining the first round offers did so, so then they should soon know how many more spots they have opening up, and then make offers to waitlisted folks.

On the short side, I had an acceptance come in Feb 13 for a January 31 deadline (two weeks). On the long side, I had an acceptance come in March 15 for a December 1 deadline (three and a half months). So there's clearly quite a range...

I wouldn't assume rejection until you get it in writing. You'll just drive yourself crazy. That said, unfortunately, an excellent fit, good LOR and professional SOP doesn't always guarantee admission. Be cautiously optimistic.

carbon dioxide

ice water

I'm turning it down tomorrow for sure. I know LisaTO got an extension so if you're still uncertain you could ask for one tomorrow.

casual sex

Ask for an extension. As others have said, you will not be well-regarded if you back out after accepting (not to mention it's a bit of a legal snag). Further to that, schools are very amenable to extensions on application deadlines.

It hasn't bothered me too much except for one school, where the e-mail was just a brief note letting me know I'd been accepted, and all of the details (funding, please?) are to come with the official offer. I'm eagerly/impatiently awaiting that one.

I'm sure my stats would be humiliating...

Go Fish

Haha, what a fantastic outcome! Congrats!

turn table

Safety Dance

I'll PM you.

It's not shady or rude to ask for more time to think. It's one of the most important decisions of your life, don't make it because they pressured you or you felt pressured into hurrying. If you can at all avoid accepting an offer that you're not sure you're going to take, then don't. For what it's worth, all of my programmes have been very amenable to extending the deadline. I felt bad at first that I might be extending it only to end up rejecting them, but I have to make the best decision for me, not for them.

Right now

I think it's true that many who call in find out that they were rejected, but I don't think it's because they asked. It's usually because the people calling in have noticed a significant amount of time pass or have seen admissions offers go out to other people... And when that's the case, rejection is more likely than an acceptance with full funding, sad to say.

I figured I'd throw this in the catch-all thread, but what do you do about ambiguous promises of funding? I've had a few schools tell me that they don't know what their funding situation is right now but figure they'll know sometime this summer... Then they give an amount that they estimate they'll be able to provide. I'm reluctant to turn down offers which might potentially work out to be higher than what I currently have, but I also just don't know how to evaluate them. I don't trust their "projections based on past years" since there's been a whole lot of economic downturn since. Do you just make a decision on the highest amount specified in an official letter of offer? Or is there room for a bit of faith?

I think the whole notion that some languages are easier to learn than others sort of misses the point. And as a Classics student, I've heard enough silly arguments over "Which is easier: Greek or Latin?" to know that it's pretty much entirely subjective and a silly way to make a decision. Learning a language really only becomes easier once you've learned several of them... your fourth language is easier than your third, your sixth your fifth and so on. Anyway, I think your ability to master any language really emerges from how motivated you are to do so. For that reason, I'd pick a language that is relevant to your research interests and not worry about the relative difficulties of each. If there are few works of interest in French, for example, you're going to have a much tougher time motivating yourself to learn it, even if it were an "easier" language to master.

I still haven't received my official letter and I doubt I will before the deadline so I hope it contains no deviations from what they e-mailed out! I got Calgary's official letter today and it was extremely weird... The envelope had never been sealed! I guess they wanted to share the news with postal carriers all the way from the Rocky Mountains to the east coast. Creeps me out a bit because I keep thinking that there might have been something in there that didn't make the journey in an open envelope.

I agree with this as a general rule but... (STUPID ANECDOTE TO FOLLOW) ...I was almost hired for a position at a young adult Bible school (creepy compound where they weren't allowed to fraternise between the sexes until marriage). They wanted someone to teach Koine since they considered Classical Greek texts to be beyond the scope of propriety - any and all lessons had to be taken unaltered from the Greek New Testament. They definitely didn't want any lyric poetry to creep its way into the curriculum. I was pretty desperate when I applied for the job and they were pretty desperate for a Greek teacher that they could pay in peanuts. At first it seemed like we could make it work despite my Jewishness and their creepy, but in the end they wanted me to sign a document affirming something I don't believe or want to be associated with believing and the whole thing went too far. They hired somebody I know who had one year of Greek (ONE!). I doubt it worked out for either of them. So there are positions like that out there. Whether you'd want to take them or not is a matter of debate.

Have you decided whether you'll take Toronto's offer? My deadline to reply is Friday. I'm going to be turning it down, I'm pretty sure, but I'm going to sit on it until the deadline just in case I change my mind.