MedievalMadness

Hey! Congrats AC!! I hope you get off the waitlist with full funding!

Kamisha: That's the best! Yay PhD Webcomic!

Anyone else still not heard anything from ANY schools? Let's grump together.

There is apparently a Columbian Mailman School of Public Health...

Wow, there's some serious negativity on the results board today.

Proflorax - thanks for that! Personally, I feel a bit down because I have an MA and some additional postgrad work. That said, I haven't actually heard from any schools yet. Either way, your post is fabulous. You're absolutely right about rejection letters not defining us.

Hmmm, a lot of Mary Prankster, Beecake, Glen Hansard, Mumford & Sons, and Fleet Foxes. Bit of Patsy Cline in there too. Oh, and Andrew Bird. Anyone enjoy Mumford & Sons's great Odyssey song? I can't think of what it's called, but it's worth having a listen if you do Classics or Lit.

I'm sorry for all the Rochester and Rutgers rejections last night, guys! I didn't apply to either, but I sort of voyeuristically observed the bloodbath. I wish I could offer some real assurances, or at least some real beer. But hey, today is a new day. Maybe someone's fortune will change today. Good luck, guys!

AC: that's exciting!

I love your gifs. Lucas!

Oh, no! Sorry. I didn't mean to imply that I believe I've got this in the bag. Not at all. I was just contemplating the dilemma of whether to ask about the proposal and whether I should consider thinking about it now even though I haven't heard from him. I have no idea how many people have applied for this one funded position and I'm sure the competition will be fierce, but he did say he would contact me shortly after the 20th. So, I'm hopeful that I will at least get a timely rejection if that's the case.

Quite possibly, but it would be a very, very short period of time in which to do a proposal for consideration in a second round. This professor needs to select one candidate to submit to the Dean for approval, and that submission must be done on or before March 10. This professor's email to the listserv, which requested a statement of interest by February 20, was sent out on February 13. So, I'm very concerned about having to prepare a proposal by March 10 if I don't hear back from the professor until the end of February. Then again, I could be overthinking it. I'm just not sure. My gut tells me that I should just wait for contact from the professor.

I have a question for the group. A few weeks ago, a professor posted up on a listserv that he just received funding for a PhD studentship and was looking for interested candidates. This professor is big in my field, so I was eager to go ahead and apply. The application process was informal. He said that there was a quick turn-around time because he will need to submit his candidate to the Dean by March 10. So, he was just asking for a statement of interest, a CV, and transcripts. I submitted all these things to him and he told me that he would select a candidate shortly after February 20. I did some research on the fellowship funding and found an instruction sheet online that suggested the candidate would need to put together a research project proposal to be submitted to the dean on March 10 along with the other paperwork. Erk. This professor has not mentioned the research proposal at all outside of saying in his email to the listserv that he intended for this candidate to work with him on his current digital humanities project and wished for the doctoral project to be align with his work and interests. I have not yet heard back from this professor, though I anticipate hearing from him by the end of the week or early next week given the quick turn-around on this. So, should I contact him to ask about whether I need to put together a project proposal? Or rather, whether I should be thinking about putting something together? Or do you guys think I should just wait it out? I'm torn between not wanting to be pushy and not wanting to be stuck with a last minute effort at putting something together. The proposal for my MA thesis took me a couple months of research and writing! Maybe I'm just overthinking it? I mean, it's entirely likely I won't even be chosen as this guy's candidate. I've started poking around and doing a smidge of research, but I don't want to put too much work into it without knowing whether it's necessary right now.

Thanks for this! I really wish I had applied to more schools, but there's no going back now. If I don't get in anywhere, there's always next year.

Ooh, this is fabulous. Thank you for sharing!

I hear you. I once proofread a PhD student's dissertation for a geography program. It was definitely very different from what I would have imagined.

(Disclaimer: I am in no way making fun of any degree programs.) While we're all waiting and anxiously clawing our eyes out, let's play 'Degrees You Never Knew Existed'! In other words, please share the unusual and interesting degree programs you see popping up on the results board. For example, maybe I'm just ignorant, but I've never heard of "Innovation Strategy Organization". Cambridge has a MA in it, whatever it is. Also, I do believe I saw a 'Landscape Design' PhD in New Mexico...

I agree with BowTies! BG: Do you guys have music up on iTunes or SoundCloud? I'd love to have a listen. It sounds like raucous fun.

Okay, guys. It's a new day. Maybe today is the day I'll finally hear something, ANYTHING, from any of my schools. Maybe. Then again, I've been thinking this exact thought every day for the last week or so.

Oh no! Do you have any prospects for a new place to live?

This is actually one of my fears over reapplying... I don't want to have to ask for those letters again!

Thank you so much for that information! It lets me live for just a little bit longer in this little land of denial I call hope.

AC - Judith Butler was in the news this morning: http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2014/02/24/judith-butler-withdraws-talk-jewish-museum She was going to give a talk on Kafka, which was then cancelled due to controversy surrounding her boycott of Israel. She had some interesting things to say on the subject.

Kermit: Out of curiosity, how did they notify you? A phone call? An email? Congrats on being in the top 30! I hope you get that spot!

Oh, well, good luck to you! I'm counting Maryland as an implied rejection at this point, given that they've apparently contacted all 20 top applicants for the PhD program. Still, I won't give up all hope until I receive an official rejection.