crazycanuck48

It's great to see another Berkeley admit on here - I was accepted via an email from my POI back in late January. At the time, I was told that it would be a few weeks before I got my official offer from the department with funding details, as they were still finalising the minimum stipend amount, and they were also entering me into a faculty-wide fellowship competition which wouldn't report back for a while. Thus the fact that you haven't received anything about funding from the department is not anything to worry about, I wouldn't think - you probably were also entered for a fellowship (I think most admits were), and we will probably hear something fairly soon. Hope that helps!

I'm a current MA student at McGill (though I'm applying internationally for the PhD). My understanding is that the selection committee will be meeting this week - this was delayed because of our job search for a new faculty member in Late Imperial/Modern China. So you should be hearing back in 1-2 weeks. If you have any questions about the program or school in general feel free to ask!

I just wanted to add that, as a relatively poor foreigner myself, it is really not fair to characterise this as an "American problem". I have applied to many programmes in various places in the Western world and the phenomena of lost appliciations, form rejection letters, expensive application fees, and lack of replies from POIs is common to all of them. Certainly some of the elite American schools can display a degree of arrogance, but it is nothing compared to that which I've received from Oxford and Cambridge, or even from the University of Toronto, my alma mater - a university which is wonderful in many respects, but is also famous across Canada for its incredibly disrespectful treatment of students and applicants. I have friends who have applied to programmes in continential Europe and their experience has been broadly similar. Universities across the world receive hundreds of applications for a few spots and often behave in this way - I don't think we should target one particular country with our anger.

Hi, I'm the one who posted the Berkeley admit yesterday. It was just an informal email from my prospective supervisor saying that the committee had just accepted me. I have not received an official offer and the status on the website has not changed, though from what my POI said I believe that will be coming next week. Thus, I really wouldn't worry! I think my POI just happened to be in his office late on a Friday afternoon and wanted to give me the news right away, but I imagine the bulk of the offers will be made next week. If you have any questions about it I'd be happy to answer