TheWalrus

I like the parts where, like, somebody says "hey, I got into Harvard!" and then everybody else is like "oh, man, that's great that you got into Harvard!"  Or, like, the parts where somebody hasn't gotten in anywhere and has been depressed but then they get in somewhere and they're like "hey, I hadn't gotten in anywhere and had been depressed but now I got in somewhere!" and then everybody else is like "oh, man, that's great that you got in somewhere!"  Or, like, the parts where somebody is like "Hey, should I mention my mother's pasta e fagioli in my SoP?" and then somebody else is like "YMMV, but I mentioned my mom's pasta e fagioli in my SoP last year and didn't get in anywhere, but this year I didn't mention pasta e fagioli and got in places, so by Mill's method...."  Or like, I like the parts where people are like "Hey what books should I be reading next year?" and then other people are like "oh, you should probably be reading this book and that book" but then I'm like "you should probably be getting drunk with your old friends before you make new grad student friends that are bad drinkers." 
 
I really like this new thing where people are like "Don't be a jerk!"  And they're all like "hey, one reason to not be a jerk is that coach said not to be a jerk!"  As if they were going to be jerks if I hadn't said anything.  I get to be a treatment in a Rubin model.  It is very flattering, even if it is just pretend-mattering.  Hey, that rhymed.
 
Apparently I also like typing with the comedic timing of Mitch Hedberg.
 
I do not like the heavy.  This is probably related to the fact that I also am kind of sad that I won't get to be a dumb grad student next year; even though I will no more intelligent or accomplished or well-paid than I am now (which is nil on all dimensions), I will have to kind of pretend to be a grown up.  It's kind of making me sad.  I hope you guys will take advantage of getting to be dumb grad students.  You won't have to iron or tuck in your shirts.  You'll get to sit around and brainstorm and woodshop and spitball and mix it up and make it happen and stir the pot and take the time to really learn the deep, substantive meaning of the Lagrangian multiplier and reading Rousseau and saying "hey it would be cool to model the Lawgiver" because that's a fun idea that you get to have when you're a dumb grad student and maybe you'll even think you did something really novel and interesting only to find out that Abraham Wald did it a kajillion years ago or that Daron Acemoglu had six working papers on the topic when he was 12 and all of them turned into Econometricas and you don't know if that should make you feel good or bad or scared on a dimension so much deeper and more existential than regular fear that "scared" probably isn't the right word and next thing you know you'll be worried about your diction even though it is the least important part of any of this.  I will be working on not swearing and not making jokes about Father O'Malley or "the old bestiality days."  No longer will be I able to teach students about exogenous shocks by describing punching a guy in the stomach so hard that he poops himself.  Allofasudden, I will have to be the good cop, and all of you guys will get to be the bad cops, skillfully trained in breaking down every argument, every research design, every set of assumptions, every data set.  I already miss being a grad student.
 
It is also sad that the NIT games tonight were so bad that I found myself saying "hot damn!  I wonder if Property Brothers is on."  It was.
 
Not too many of you have met me, though I've been on here a long time.  I suspect I will continue to come on even though I am old and grizzled and constantly crippled and lacking in hair.  Some of the talk today was heavy and I didn't like it because I like thinking about rainbows and sunshine and whether the composition of an arbitrary set of correspondences is upper hemi-continuous.  But one thing did kind of make me sad for other reasons.  Those few of you that have met me could probably surmise that I think loyalty is cool or at least that I think effort put into my friends and colleagues and the department itself is not effort wasted.  It's cool with your friends and with your colleagues and with your professors and with the younger grad students and even with the Pleges [sik] and with the secretaries and with the janitor lady that really gets glad when you take the time to ask how she's doing and even with the undergrads that try so hard on a daily basis to suck your brain from your skull and your soul from your heart.  This is not a business that rewards loyalty, which is kind of a bummer.  I am not trying to say that it is such a business, or even that such a business exists.  It probably doesn't.  You must be your own advocate, from supporting your own ideas in contentious advising meetings to writing in a clear, confident prose to choosing the best situation for yourself to being willing to negotiate politely and humbly and unjerkily.  But in the course of your career you will make many decisions, and some will be good and some will be bad and some will not be entirely clear and I would like to think that some sense of community matters.
 
I should note that this ramble was written with an intentional style and was influenced only by the impeccable fixing-up skills of the aforementioned Property Brothers and perhaps also to the squawking of Mingus albums playing in the background.  To the best of my knowledge all of the numerous subject-verb dyads above feature correct conjugations which should serve as an indicator of sobriety and attention to detail and craftsmanship.  The aim here was to reduce the heavy, which to my eye has been done competently though inelegantly and self-indulgently.  You all seem like good enough people to be willing to take on those costs in the name of humoring an old man finding himself being put onto an iceberg floating away to the icy sea.  Did I say self-indulgently?  I meant megalomaniacally.

Coach, it's getting heavy again.

Just got a phone call from the DGS at Pittsburgh (top choice!). Admitted off the waitlist! One of the best days of my life! 

I saw "Texas A&M" in my new unread email this afternoon, and thought, dread. I know this program has yet to send out rejections, so I knew it was the day of reckoning. 
 
Well, I was wrong, it was an acceptance letter. I just now read it another time just to be sure. I literally can't believe this. I'm not even happy or excited yet, I am just in disbelief since this was my top dream program, and I never thought I had a chance. (Okay, it's starting to sink it, and thus, the happiness and excitement!)
 
Looking forward to meeting everyone else who is  A&M-bound next Fall!

Happy to report that I've been offered a tenure-track position in my parents' basement! 

A huge congratulations indeed to the Harvard admits! 

I'm almost sad to see this application cycle wind down. Everyone here has been so helpful and supportive (with one exception, haha =D ). I truly hope to meet all of you in person someday (hopefully at research conferences or perhaps even by being on the same department's faculty!). All future professors should be required to disclose their old gradcafe usernames haha.

In at UPenn. I'm at a loss for words. I'm hoping everyone else who has been shut out so far receives some good news soon (hopefully a few more today who also get into Penn).

Yes it is.  I have imagined myself at each program I have applied to, and I wouldn't have applied if I didn't truly want to go there.  It's been harder for me to decline the program I have (or to consider declining programs I am leaning against, but have not entirely ruled out) than I would have ever thought.  
 
When you prepare an application, you identify the unique strengths of a program, you identify who you would work with there, and (at least in my case) you think about what courses you'd take in the first years and what life in that city would be like.  It is hard to give up on any of those "potential futures." 

This whole process is really getting to me. I have a visit this weekend so I've been going hard in the paint (working really really really hard) to get all of my work done before I leave and I just forgot what day it was. I really need to know where I'll be living in 6 months. I don't like all this uncertainty nonsense.

Sounds about right – but good luck taking your wife anywhere other than California, now that that's an option! 
 
I feel like getting into some/all of the last schools I am waiting for would be a lot more about self-validation. Like, the more school I'll get into, the less I would feel like I lucked out on the ones I'm already in. If that makes sense. 

For those of you waiting on Syracuse, enjoy =D 

http://www.weather.com/news/americas-25-snowiest-college-and-universities-20140225?pageno=26

Haha, it's true. The moment California became an option, it was checkmate.
 
That actually does make perfect sense. Also, I mostly just want to get into more schools to have options. I would feel better about such a big change if I knew I made an informed decision, instead of having the decision made for me by the adcoms. If I do get into any more schools though, it's going to be really difficult to decide! 

Thank you, TheWalrus and Cane14!
 
Admission without funding is kind of a tease.  I got the same thing from Rutgers, but the Temple email sounded a lot more hopeful about a line of funding opening up.  I have my fingers crossed. 

Hey congrats on Yale steedyue! Sorry I just caught up with the news. You had your significant other there right? What a brilliant turn of events! I am happy for you guys. I am sure you will be the beacon of hope for every couple out there struggling to make it work in this process. May you guys be the proof that sometimes things do work out, and it is indeed worth a try  
 

It is in no way funny when people get rejected from programs, but I love this Brown rejection's sense of humor:

"Didn't even want to get in. I applied for the irony. These tears are from laughter."

 

Yo the results board is getting weirder and weirder as the cycle goes on.

Who can claim the latest UVA acceptance and offer more details about it? Thanks!

i promised myself i'd come out of hiding when i heard back from columbia -- was too nervous to do so before, jinxing things and whatnot! -- just got the official no from them and so, hello! it's quite a heartbreaker as my top top choice, but, so it goes!
 
you've all been such a wonderful source of support throughout this cycle, and i'm sorry i've just been a lurker until now, although you've all seemed to navigate it quite a lot better than i.
 
many many congrats to all the recent accepts, and to folks getting rejection notices today -- i second/third/fourth the ice cream/wine solution

Just receive informal email from Professor Hyde. Yale accepted.

PaleBlueEyes, I'm terrified! You're not alone. More of our trusty friend impostor syndrome.

I guess I am just frustrated when people on the board post a rejection with something like "haha got into a better school anyway." My thoughts on this are: ok, good for you, you've made it. Now what is the point of your comment?
Are you arrogant enough to think that if you got into "a better school" you also automatically should be accepted everywhere?
Are you frustrated with this rejection—why would you be if you already got good options? So why being bitter/condescending? 
 
P.S. unless the comment is a joke. Jokes. I get those.
 
 
Edit: grammar

Yup. and also of grad students at schools I want to be in. And also young assistant profs that have moved on to great jobs. To the point where i can actually tell you who's been on who's dissertation committees...desperate stalkerish behavior 

Is anyone else obsessed with reading CVs of successful academics?  It's actually all I do with my life anymore...
 
This waiting is killing me. I was really hoping I'd hear from at least one more school this week. 

To the person who was rejected from Stanford and wishes you'd told them you were African-American...
 
When the sting of the rejection wears off, I hope you feel pretty crappy about that comment. You should feel crappy about it.
 
Edited for grammar and anger.

James, I think it's a little bit ironic that you're complaining about people bragging about declining great schools when you've got all of the schools you have been accepted to detailed in your sig.
 
And in any case, I see this forum as kind of a collective support group for the people who are applying to graduate schools. Face it, most people who we interact with regularly (other than grad students and profs) don't know what this process is like, how nervewracking it is. It's good to have a forum where we can all go through this collectively.