ferazel9

For what it's worth, I heard back from UPenn. No go, but no surprise there at all. Hope everyone's doing well!

Congrats to everybody getting good news! I FINALLY have heard back from a couple places, and now know what my life will be for the next five years! Hooray! No from Boston, but big ol' yes from UVA, so I'm thrilled. UPenn and UMD haven't contacted me at all, but no great loss. I'm super stoked for UVA, and really it was my top choice anyway. This feels so surreal, I can't believe it really at all. Has anybody else heard from UVA? ald015, you can read/post results here: http://thegradcafe.com/survey/index.php That's great about your NYU interview! I didn't apply to either NYU or Columbia, but I have a friend who applied to Columbia for a PhD or a Masters, and he didn't get into the PhD program, but was accepted to the Masters program in Paris. He turned it down to do a doctorate at Johns Hopkins though. Good continued luck to everybody!

Rosestark, yeah, my friend's a butt, but he's smart, so I'm happy for him. And good thoughts about Tulane. If it was a sort of off the cuff, surprise interview, like you said, I can't imagine they'd be using that to weed people out…normally if they're assessing you for an interview, I feel like they'll warn you at least a LITTLE ahead of time. I mean you could've been on the bus when he called you, he had no way of knowing your preparedness situation. It is comforting that you've got one school at least though, yeah. It would be just fabulous if schools decided to get together and give out results on the same, or similar, or at least not DRASTICALLY different timelines. It's insane that some people hear in January while others don't until end of March. Just sucks, this waiting game! When I had a phone chat with the dept. head at UVA, he told me that the committee would get together in the beginning of March and start getting some acceptances sent out, and in another email inviting me to a graduate open house, it had said that decisions would be sent out by mid-March at the LATEST, so I'm sure I'll hear from them in the next two weeks. I'm also about to leave on vacation in the west of France for the next two weeks (I'm teaching English in France through TAPIF this year, so we've got spring break starting tomorrow), so an email from UVA (and potentially other schools), good or bad, will likely be making this a very boozy vacation, haha. So, cheers for now, and hopefully I'll have some news (of any kind) next time I talk to you lovely people!

Yeah, he heard on Monday that he was accepted. He's also been accepted at Johns Hopkins, and a MA program at Columbia, so I'm getting a LITTLE FRUSTRATED not having any news from anyone, while he's reaping in the acceptances...

carrot_flowers: that sucks. I'm sorry. paul_verlan: I had one phone interview with Boston. It consisted of them giving me a two hour timeframe in which they would call, calling 20 minutes before the end of it, introducing themselves in French, and asking me to tell them about my research interests. I gave them a brief answer, basically what was on my application, assuming they would ask follow up questions. They didn't, really, and instead said that I was free to ask questions. I asked about study abroad and summer opportunities, and then they said that they had to go to a meeting, so they would have to cut the interview short, but that I would be hearing something very soon. The whole process took 7 minutes and 29 seconds and left me feeling unfulfilled and confused. However, a friend of mine had a Skype interview with Columbia a couple weeks ago, and they apparently asked him all sorts of things about what authors he'd read and if he could give an example of an author from this or that literary movement, etc. His lasted like 12 minutes. So based on that, I had gone through and reviewed all of the things I had ever studied in lit classes in preparation for my interview, but none of that was necessary. So, basically, you could apparently be asked about your knowledge of French lit/culture/whatever you're applying for, or just vague questions about what you like. I would make sure to read up on the professors you'd like to work with/the program itself so that you can ask good questions and sound like you've studied the program. Do you know if it's going to be in English or French? Maybe look up a couple key French words so that you're prepared to talk about these subjects in either language should the need arise. That's pretty much all the advice I can give though. Wear a nice shirt, comb your hair, all that. Good luck! What school is it for? rosestark: have you heard from Tulane? I didn't apply there, but my friend did and just heard today, and I was kind of wondering if they (and other schools) don't send out all their letters/emails at the same time? On the results page, it seems like some schools just have a flood of responses on one day, and others things are sort of all over the place. Man, this forum has become my favorite place on the internet while stuck in this terrible limbo of not knowing!

Rosestark, I didn't apply to Vandy, sorry I can't help :/ However, I would totally call or email them. I just called UPenn to ask about the status of my application, cause I've literally heard nothing from them since submitting my application in December, and the graduate coordinator said that they haven't made any final decisions yet. She didn't even mention anything about campus visits, she just said that they've made no decisions. So I dunno, but it was at least worth the call.

Grr, well I emailed them right after I saw you posted this on the 19th, and still haven't even heard back! It would be nice if I could get any sort of response, even if it's negative. UPenn isn't my FIRST choice, but it would at least be nice to have a definitive "no." Still no news from Boston, which is concerning/just really annoying given that they said they'd be in touch "very soon" almost two weeks ago. If they told me that they would be in touch soon on the 12th, I sent them thank-you emails and whatnot right afterward, am I (or at what point am I) allowed to email them to be like "heyyy, what's goin on over there?" I don't want to be pestery, but two weeks doesn't seem like "very soon" to me. Thoughts, anyone?

New to gradcafe, but in case anyone is interested, I figured I'd throw out whatever info I have! I applied to UVA (PhD), UPenn (PhD), UMD (MA), and Boston University (PhD). I had a phone interview with Boston on Feb. 12th, which lasted 7 minutes and consisted of like two questions. All in French, conducted by Drs. Kleiman and Cazenave. I had no idea what to think afterwards, because it didn't really seem especially good or especially bad. Anyway, they said they would be in touch very soon. I sent them thank-you emails later that night, and Dr. Cazenave responded and said "Merci à vous d'avoir dégagé un peu de temps pour nous parler. Nous sommes dans la dernière phase des délibérations et ma collègue , le Professeur Kleiman, sera ensuite en contact avec les étudiants pour ce qui est des recommandations d'admission." So I figured I would be hearing very soon, but that was 5 days ago, AND I saw on the results page on here that someone got an email acceptance on the 17th. So this makes me worried, given that I've heard nothing. Has anybody applied to Boston/can share their experiences? UVA I got invited to a graduate open house event in the end of February, but I'm currently abroad and won't be able to come, so I emailed the head of the department to see if I could talk to him over skype about some of the questions I have regarding UVA French. He said sure, and we talked for about 45 minutes, also on the 12th. It was a very good conversation, and he said that in the beginning of March, the admissions committee would get together and start to get some decisions sent out. So I expect I'll hear from them in the next couple of weeks. UPenn and UMD I have heard nothing. Has anyone else heard anything from these schools? So glad I happened upon this forum! It's not necessarily allaying my fears, but is at least keeping me occupied!