bennoarchimboldi

One time, a professor only gave me 8.5/10 for participation points that day, and I was like "aww, hell no! I totally said 5 things, 3 of which were about today's reading, one which showcased my external research, and one that suppressed a potential socially awkward moment, I totally deserve a 9.5." But then he said, "y'all in grad school now mofos, get a grip." then i defeated him in a cage match. that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Turned down Tufts' very kind offer. Hope it helps someone on the wait list soon!

Wouldn't ending up in California after a humanities PhD generally be on the list of "positive outcomes" of a PhD?

what's good about this post is the number of details you offered. So, even if one were to be inclined towards listening to your experiences, they wouldn't have any reason to believe you.

It would be pretty difficult to get a funded offer deferred, and especially if it's a public university. DGS's tend to be pretty skeptical, and assume you're just applying again the next cycle and hoping to get into better programs, while keeping them in the backpocket. But, it never hurts to ask.

If he's mentioned a stipend to you, even informally, he isn't going to lower it. If he does, then that is not at all the program you want to go to. Keep the lower cost of living factoid in your pocket, and you can use it if there's any negotiation down the road. It does sound like they're waiting to see if the department can scrounge up any extra funds from here and there to top up stipends/ as sweeteners.

I would say not for PhD applications, especially in the humanities. They might make sense for undergraduates, or perhaps those without a strong writing background, but I'd be very surprised if any of them did a good enough job for you; i.e. if you're applying to PhD programs you're better than the service you're going to get. It might be better worth your while (and wallet) to maybe form a discussion/ reading group with other 2nd term applicants from on here. That's just my opinion though, and I haven't really knocked my applications out of the park, so take it with a barrel of salt.

I like this attitude. And, Horb, fwiw, we might be appealing to the same people; Tufts is the place showing me love right now. Therefore I hope you get into all your remaining programs. QED.

Has anyone else not heard from UT Austin or UVA yet? I'm pretty convinced Texas is messing with me as punishment for that dine-and-dash at the Chinese buffet in Amarillo.

i think in any group of more than 5 humans, at least 2 are going to be giant dongs. 1 is probably a nice person who's acting out and hurting others because of some internal trauma. 1 is a boring person. what's left over is honest. at least some people are putting up nonsense on the results board to freak others out. at least some programs don't want applicants to know exactly how they're deciding things, if only to maintain some recruiting edge because they're super competitive.

Once you have 2 acceptances send both an email saying, "I'm really excited about coming and intellectually I'm there, but the delay is because I'm working out my financial situation before committing." If they have any money they'll give it to you, and if they don't they won't. All departments, even shittily funded ones, have some extra cash lying around that's used to lure admits. You just have to hope it's not been allocated yet. Remember, now till April 15 is the only time in your entire career you have any power.

Having worked in various admissions departments, I'd be really surprised if the grad school turned down a departmental acceptance. That's usually only the case when: a. Your UGPA was *significantly* lower than a 3.0 GPA. Even then, the department head is usually older and smarter than the grad school administrator and convinces them pretty easily. b. You were once arrested for trying to smuggle drugs back in from Puerto Rico after Spring Break (happens more often than you might think). c. The department head flirted with the administrator's husband at a university event (also happens way too often. English professors are a little bit easy). d. Bad luck that's so convoluted you might as well laugh at it. That said, I think we give these departments a lot more credit than we need to. It's usually just a few harried department managers and professors trying desperately to balance the whole process with whatever the new semester's thrown up, rather than the smooth well-oiled machine our study of the "results board" suggests. So delays, mixed messages etc. are mostly just the result of putting an academic in charge of organization rather than passive-aggressive messages to applicants. But, congratulations on the good news thus far from SLU, Katia. It's a real fun program and St. Louis is great.

Yes, congratulations to those who scored the interview! I'm sure they went well--Dr. Hayles is probably just not used to human subjects anymore. Best of luck, y'all!

Hey, this is my first posting after a couple months of lurking, but I'm wondering whether to give up on Duke as well. Is the interview system different for international students in any way? Thanks in advance for trying to answer my question.