ianfaircloud

I own a hand-crank coffee grinder that was purchased in Germany by one of the world's leading Kant scholars. I use this grinder to make delicious (fair trade, of course) coffee. And for me, nothing satisfies like coffee. My life is probably five or ten percent better because of coffee. Sometimes I worry about my future, and then I remind myself that coffee is a part of my future. And then those worries fly away. Like right now, for instance. In this world of uncertainty, one thing is certain. On April 16, I may have no good offers of admission. I may have wasted years of my life and tens of thousands of dollars on this quixotic pursuit of ideals in Massachusetts. But this I will have: I will have my coffee.

I really dislike Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, Leibniz, Hume, Kant, Wittgenstein, Frege, and Quine. Oh, and Kripke. Can anyone say, overrated? OK. No, in seriousness, I'm not much for Kierkegaard.

Woops. Yeah, I should have thought of that. And I should have mentioned it in my post. That's a painfully obvious oversight on my part. But yes, absolutely, I agree. And maybe if people paid more attention to this, we would have fewer problems like these among our departments....!!!!

That's legit. Damn, you sound awesome. Different subject, slightly: Maybe people could indicate in their signatures something like, (TD), for "turned down". That's helpful information, too. Or (Passed), for "passed on the offer". There's no convention for this, but I'm suggesting it.

Again, I want to say that I think this is a great discussion. One other point I'd like to make. I think Vineyard's point holds in the case that we're nearing the April 15 deadline. I think at that stage it's generally irresponsible to have a lot of schools waiting for one's final decision. If possible, the narrowing-down ought to happen before then. Obviously it could really hurt a department and other applicants to wait to the last minute. That's just courteous and respectful. I'm hopeful that most people who are bright enough to land multiple offers will also recognize this.

This is such a good discussion. I have to disagree a little bit here, Vineyard. I get where you're coming from, but see my post, above. Though I'm not fortunate enough to be in the situation of Caroline, a good friend of mine has been admitted to 4 of 4 so far, including two top-20s, a 30-range, and a 40-range (?). She's keeping her options open on account of the reasons I give above. I get your point, but I guess I disagree a bit.

I guess the sarcasm part didn't come through for some. So for those who don't get sarcasm, I think it's totally legit to entertain offers that are lower on the list. Everybody knows that working with a particular person is more important than getting a degree with a particular department. So if there's someone who Caroline has in mind to work with at Cincinnati, then by all means she should keep the option open. Also, while I'm talking in my serious voice, multiple offers can also help a person negotiate in the final stages. So it would be a terrible idea at this stage to tell Cincinnati, "No way, I'm going to Arizona."

Fit, schmit. Don't by coy, Caroline. If you're smart enough to get into Arizona, then you know the Cincinnati offer is just a free trip to Cincinnati. You scored the wait-list, so that's your right. But nobody's believing that you're seriously entertaining that offer. Sarcastically and condescendingly yours, Ianfaircloud

Basically, if you have been admitted to any top-20 program, you are no longer allowed to use this forum. Ipse dixit. That is, until I'm admitted to a top-20 program. Then you may resume.

Click on your user name, top-right corner. Click My Settings. Click Signature.

Thanks!

Replying to myself: I know one person who will almost certainly be passing on an offer to Arizona, on account of a better offer (for this person, at least) at a top-ten. So that should free up a spot. I probably shouldn't say anything about this person's AOIs.

Thanks. I agree, regarding the horizontal layout. I'm thinking about reformatting the entire blog. The current structure is limiting. Thanks, and congratulations on the Arizona wait-list. I'm very jealous.

(for the record, I think this was a perfectly legitimate and reasonable question to ask, given the circumstances. but I couldn't pass up the opportunity.)

[Never mind. I've been told this post was in bad taste.]

My pleasure. If the world is just, I will now be admitted to Brown University.

Sorry, Vineyard. I accidentally hit the down instead of the up. I guess I can't undo my down-vote. So here's an up-vote on some random post of yours.

OK: Here's something to pass the time. I put together this possibly-helpful graphic that displays which schools have sent out acceptances, wait-lists, and rejections. (I'm not updating the graphic until I am pretty certain that a school has actually sent these notifications. So, e.g., I'm waiting for more before I update the NYU status.) http://faircloudblog.wordpress.com/notifications/ I may move this to a blog post, so if this link doesn't work in the future, just go to the home page/archives of the blog (faircloudblog.wordpress.com). Also, for redundancy, I may repost this later in a separate thread (so that people don't miss it here).

Yup. We will likely hear things soon. Note that it's just 11:19 a.m. Pacific time.

Yeah, I agree with all of this. All of the above.

Agreed. This looks very unlikely. First, NYU releases results on March 1 (last two years in a row). Second, as a higher ranked school, NYU is less likely to release early results. Three, this post wasn't up as of midnight Eastern time last night. I find it hard to believe that someone would be admitted to the top school and fail to post about it until after midnight-- and then leave no comments. It's POSSIBLE but UNLIKELY that this is a legit post.

Thanks! Also, Arizona is not likely calling people today. The "February 9" calls were on here very early this morning (Eastern time).

Yes!! I hope so. But it's really difficult to do when you have watched everyone else get the good news...

I noticed some posts related to how many notifications went out today. Some expected that Saturdays would be slow days. I expected that, too. So I put together a possibly-helpful pie chart expressing last year's data with regard to notifications by day of the week. Anyway, it turns out that Saturdays are typically quiet(er). Fridays are huge. Here's the link to my post: http://faircloudblog.wordpress.com/2014/02/08/admissions-by-day-of-the-week/ Comments???

You know, I happen to know some things about their process. And it's possible to be admitted because you're interesting and have great writing. So I highly recommend applying to Brandeis.