skylarking

Thanks! I knew they were meeting but it's nice to have a time frame

Curious about this, too

I was feeling the same about UM today. Still half-expecting we'll hear at the end of the day. It's stil only 3:30 there

That blows ! I really hope you get in somewhere soon. And that's a terribly long time for us to make you wait to hear back (I'm here now if you have questions. Not as familiar with Anth here outside of sociocultural but if/when you do get in, I can answer any questions about Seattle or UW in general).

That's actually been one of the songs I've been listening to a lot to keep myself motivated. That whole album, actually. This post is on-point, though. That's what I've learned from my three rounds of applications. It's really hard to stay motivated for other work (I lost my entire night last night to just feeling super bummed about being wait listed or rejected from a school I thought was perfect), but you have to feel everything and then move on. At least that's what I keep telling myself, or else I'd just be sitting around like a lump.

Congratulations! I've got a friend in a (non-Asian studies) MA program there so I know some about the campus and the area. Can't speak to the classes or professors or anything, though ^^; I had a couple professors in undergrad who did their PhDs at Oregon in Japan Studies and they were great. But Eugene is a great college town, the campus is really pretty, it's not a super expensive place to live, lots of great coffee and food, students ride the bus for free. Portland's just a couple hours away, and it's also a great city (full disclosure: as a Seattleite, I'm bound by law to say Seattle is better. Seattle is better, but Portland's still pretty cool). You might think about investing in a good rain jacket, cause if you're out walking for like, 20 minutes, you're gonna get damp (and for those times when it does actually rain). A good rain-proof backpack is also a necessity. I recommend Chrome (hipster camouflage!), and another friend bought a Seal Line bag when his other bag got destroyed by a rain storm.

That's a pretty heinous way to start the day I'm sorry, dude. Same goes for everyone else who got rejected from Princeton this morning. Hopefully better news is on the way

I am, yeah. I have a really weird focus so I'm trying not to out myself if I can but yeah, I'm from the US Edit: congrats on getting in!

Congratulations! Hoping I'll have good news coming from them soon - it's one of my top choices

As someone who has, I can promise it never gets any easier. I felt better about the process of applying, especially after really doing more research and firming up this project, but the waiting... the... waiting. It also feels like there's way more on the line this time, because I have to graduate and figure out a Plan B (C, D, E...) if I don't get in.

Mine, too. And today is just jam-packed with meetings for committees and tutoring tiny little undergrads. My book for seminar finally got here, hooray! But it's long and boring and I have to have it read and have my response paper written by like, 7PM ahahahhAHAHAHAH I could never get the hang of Thursdays

Late reply, but maybe this will still help you/other people. If you heard someone's presentation and want to talk to them about it, go up and ask them about it That worked really well for me last year at conferences, both in going up to people whose work I found interesting and also in having people come up to me after mine. At bigger conferences, it's much easier to mingle. A lot of it is just not being afraid to go up and talk to someone else who looks like they might be in the same boat as you. I'm going without friends this year, and while it's going to be harder, it's all just about kind of getting out there. I realize that doesn't really help much, and for the shy among us, it's easier said than done, but it's good practice for networking. The best conversations I had were ones I started with people who also looked like they were just kind of there and hanging out at the reception, so just go for it. Or, make friends with someone more ambiverted/extroverted during the early stages of the conference and just hang out with them the rest of the time. Like, a lot of the time, it's as simple as just saying "hi" and introducing yourself. It's basically always going to be like "Hi, I'm so-and-so, what's your name?" "Where do you go/what do you study?" and then going from there. Also business cards. Business cards help a lot. Finding people on Facebook and stuff is great, too, but it's always nice to have a card to give to people that has your contact info on it.

Definitely sending lots of happy thoughts your way, strudelle! It's still early <3

Congrats to all this morning's acceptances! Hopefully this is the start of a trend of good things to come for the rest of us

I can't decide if this app is the best or the worst thing to happen to me recently. I'm not dealing well with the stress. Though I'm trying to be productive in various ways. Work and classes keep me busy enough, and when I'm not busy with that, I'm making tremendous progress on this blanket I've been knitting for ages. Getting caught up in Super Bowl fever around here has also been a welcome distraction.

A friend of mine has, but they haven't heard anything back yet

The DGS isn't some evil overlord, laughing from the top of a mountain as they toss the hopes and dreams of poor souls like us into a fiery pit. You won't help your case at all by going on a tirade against them. The system blows. We know the system blows. We've all felt the crunch. I'm a broke grad student as it is and had I not gotten a scholarship this year, I wouldn't have been able to apply at all, even though I'm working TWO jobs. Rejections are heartbreaking, they really are, and we understand that. It's especially heartbreaking when you're rejected from a school through a total mix-up. But don't act out of anger and sadness. Nothing good ever comes from it. Take a break, dude. Step away for a while and if you really want to know what you can do better and have a good rapport with your POI, ask what you can do differently next year? Sometimes programs just can't take people even if they really like them. But again, that's the system, and the system sucks.

About 1,200 words max. My base one (without schools or POI mentions) was about 950, and that was because one of my schools had a 1,000 word limit so I had to be judicious in how I described my background and research. The hardest part was trimming it down again for the school with the 500 word limit, which basically meant cutting out a good chunk and then rewording the last bit of my first paragraph, really shortening my background, and again shortening the bit about my potential project (though I cut the least from this one), and then being really crafty with describing fit in the fourth. I think that one ended up at 498. I still feel like that one kind of cut out everything I really liked about my SOP but it was short and to the point and still conveyed my clear direction in my research and where and why it can contribute to the discipline. Though with every day that passes with no word from programs, I feel less and less confident about it D; ETA: though really, in my experience, it's less about words and pages than it is about being succinct and clear in describing your plan of study and all that. My SOP was about the same (probably longer) last year and said basically nothing because my projects weren't as clearly defined as this one is now (I applied to multiple disciplines last year, and that was to my detriment because I couldn't really clearly address either project and had twice as difficult a time describing fit and all that).

That's fantastic! Congrats!

If it's Japan Studies at UW, it's the Jackson School of International Studies, which is totally separate from Asian Languages and Lit No idea when Asian L&L makes their decisions, but JSIS is between now and early March. Congrats to the new admits! If you have questions about JSIS, feel free to PM me! I'm there now (won't say which program or I'll completely out myself) and I adore it.

Congratulations to those who got accepted today! Hugs for the rejected and wait-listed I'm just praying my acceptances/rejections come this week. I'm going to a conference next week and I don't want to be on edge like last year where I got rejected from a school while at that school. That was quite a throat punch, let me tell you.

Nothing really from them on my end except that they were missing a couple things. I'm not expecting admission since it's kind of a long shot but also one of the only unis with a Center for my area

Congratulations on the Brown acceptance, daykid!

Congratulations! And thanks for the update I figured acceptances/rejections were coming soon, so it's good to know. Bummer about funding, though!

Woke up to an empty inbox, then to a UW-Madison acceptance?? D: Anyone wanna claim that one? My app status is still "pending."