Megeen

Well, there goes UNC Chapel Hill... At least they didn't take days to get the word out, and the message felt classy as far as rejections go.

I'm saying good bye to Chapel Hill too. Not a good start into the week.

Have any of you ever heard of departments accepting someone on their birthday specifically? Mine's tomorrow and I know that it's Sunday, but I have this naive fantasy that a department somewhere is going to give me a present. It would certainly make me wanna go there even more...

I'm not sure if you mean me but if you do, I usually fall on the side of don't bother the DGS, it won't make things go faster--except when people actually do, as with calling Chicago, and find out good info. It's hypocritical, I know So, as for your question goes, ich finds auch unmöglich, but well...

You too! And thanks for putting yourself out there and calling them

You just absolutely made my day, or at least gave me some hope But now I'm wondering, did they by any chance tell you what kind of group they've finished? I'm assuming they're not evaluating Medivalists along with Postmodern American lit for example.

I saw that you have offers from 2 others schools. So the question, you'll have to ask youself is, how much would you wanna go to this particular school if it were funded? I'm assuming they give everyone the same amount and then it's up to you how to get there, so people who live close by are probably at an advantage. If you want to take that risk you might write back to tell them, that you can't afford the visit although you want to come, but that you'd have to decline if they can't fund you---but in a nicer way. If you play your cards right, they might be able to fund more of your travels. I still find it weird to offer funding based on that...

Wow, I've never heard that. If they want you, I'd say they pay for you to come visit. And making funding decisions based on that sounds kinda like a dickish move. If you can't afford to fly out there, doesn't that mean that you're especially in need of funding. I understand the "dedication" argument but it's still a weirdly coercive move... What school is that?

*Sadly, I've pretty much given up on Chicago Considering that the 4 acceptances appeared pretty quickly and judging by last year's pattern, I think chances are pretty slim. They don't even waitlist as far as I know, or do they?

Well, I've heard grad students usually get a lot of sleep because it's really a piece of cake to work on your Ph.D., but you might not need sleep. So, kudos.

Well, in that case you can share. I'll attend one of them for you. We'll probably find a few people on here who are willing to do the same. The schools won't even notice, so bring it on...

Would I be immature for stomping my foot because this is taking so long?

Yes! I wasn't too sure about Chapel Hill in the beginning but it definitely looks like an interesting and versatile faculty.

Well, I fear that too but let's both hope we're wrong

What do you think about the theory that Vanderbilt is not done with the admissions and are waiting to roll out more before they send rejections. It's a small program but two measly admissions and a waitlist and no rejections sound to me like they accepted people who work in a certain areas that they agreed on and they're still figuring out the rest. According to the results page, they haven't taken quite so long to roll out rejections since 2011. Okay that's not that long ago, but I'm still wondering... On that note, maybe someone know more. How do you think the whole process works? Do you think all add com people sit at a table and discuss all applications at the same time? That must be a loooooong day. Or do they roughtly focus on applicants interested in British Renaissance lit. one day and American another day. It's probably impossible to devide that up because everyone is interested in several things and I would imagine it's an organizational hodgepodge...

I feel like both arguments are valid. If it helps you, go for it! But you should also bear in mind that you're probably not to only one calling them, and even if you're nice and quick and reasonable on the phone, you might get lumped in with someone who pestered them an hour before or the other day, so I'd suggest to only call if you really feel you have to. It won't speed up the process anyway, sadly.

I got the February newsletter from UChicago earlier, and for a second my heart soared so high when I read the name but only until I saw the subject line... It's close to 8 pm here and I know that it's 6+ hours earlier where you guys are so do you think anyone will still send out notifications today? Here in Germany, Friday afternoon is kinda like nap time where everyone is already preparing for the weekend.

Let's hope that we get at least a couple more notifications before the weekend...

I haven't seen anything from Chicago yet. I'm waiting for them too and I hope they'll send something out by tomorrow.

Interesting is one word for it Every state also has slightly different rules and regulations. To study English for example, I had to pass a Latin exam here in Northrhine Westfalia and most other states don't require that at all. But seriously, don't worry about it. The system is gonna be gone soon anyway...

Yes, but even once you have the intermediate exam and if you decided to leave school then, you don't have an actual degree because being half-way through your studies doesn't qualify you for anything.

The whole structure is really different if you get down to it. I've been pursuing a teaching degree since I started studying after high school. You had to decide at the very beginning if you want to do that or if you want a regular degree (then called Diplom). And you only need (get) credit for your subjects, English, Social Studies (my proposed second subject because you need 2) and a little education studies. No additional clusters or classes in other subjects... But let's leave it at that, I've tried to explain the system to American friends before and it's really weird to compare the two

Yep, I did and I didn't get any complaints except for grad admins at Penn State with whom I wrote emails back and forth over the course of a week (granted sometimes, they didn't reply for a day or two). It worked out in the end apparently, but it was very annoying because they weren't very clear what they wanted to know.

It's called "Staatsexamen" and it's a graduate degree (MA level) without a separate undergrad although you have to take undergrad level classes first and then grad level. For a lot of subjects, they've started to switch to BA and MA recently, but when I began, that wasn't an option yet.

Well, I guess that's just one more thing to worry about now that I can't change a thing anymore anyway... I think they're not gonna care that it's different in Germany. Maybe they're not even familiar with the system here, especially considering the time I spent explaining my degree and course of studies to the grad coordinator at Penn State... I didn't write my own letter this time, but last time I really hated it. Didn't know what to write and so on, but it was better than the professors telling me they'd love to do it but don't have time.