Venetia

I'm not going to give up hope just yet. What is it they say, 'one swallow does not make a summer'? So just because a few acceptances have gone out, I'm not going to assume that I'm implicitly rejected. I'll save that for when I get the email. A few more days of optimism can't do any harm...

Personally, I have found this site to be extremely valuable during the whole application process. Perhaps this is because my situation is different to yours- I'm currently living abroad, and have no personal contact with any other graduate applicants. I've also never studied in the States before, so there were some parts of the application that just baffled me. And don't even mention the GREs! This site was great while I was filling in applications because it offered a place for me to ask those tedious little questions that no one I know could answer. Then during the waiting I was lucky enough to find other people interested in my specific field to talk to, so I felt less isolated (I'm sure everyone here has encountered bafflement when they've mentioned their desire to go to grad school). Also, it's nice to have somewhere to obsess about my applications if I feel like it. It means that I do it less to my friends and family, who I'm pretty sure were heartily sick of the topic. I do understand your position- from some of the threads that have been started on this site, it's obvious that some people are getting EXTREMELY neurotic about the application process. That said, reading those threads has not heightened my own neuroses. I like to think that I'm pretty chilled out about the whole thing. My heart goes pitter patter when I check my email, but apart from that I'm trying to get on with things. And yes, when I see acceptances for my programs on the Results page, a tiny part of me starts hyperventilating. But then I take a deep breath and remind myself that it's still early days. Then I close my computer and go and do something else. Therein lies the true secret to not getting obsessive about gradcafe or checking application status: moderation, and the realization that the real world is still going on. So yes, MmmNachos, the world won't end if I'm rejected, and the whole process is out of my control. As long as I accept that and keep reminding myself of that fact, I think that Gradcafe is still a helpful tool. And good luck with your applications!

Just saw this in the notes section on the Results page: "This is a stupid, evil website that only made the last month and a half worse." ...were we just DISSED? Lol. Hilarious.

As far as I know, Cornell doesn't do interviews (I haven't seen any record of it in previous years' results postings, anyway), and they seem to notify from mid-February onwards. So no, I'm not worried yet! Unless someone has intel that Cornell is doing interviews for English...

I know! What is with Pennsylvania this year? First UPenn, now Penn State...crazy.

Congrats, lompoc! UVA is a great school, you should feel very proud.

I'm more excited than anxious at this point, crutch. After all, it's still early days and there's only the *one* result listed thus far. Could be someone they're super keen on, they could be doing it in waves, or perhaps it's just a fake post. At this stage I wouldn't steel myself for rejection just yet...courage!

This is the first of my schools to have any action on the Results page, so I'm excited/freaked out. Looks legit. Anyone want to claim it ?

I'm just going to trust that everything is there- I can understand that they probably get loads of people asking and get tetchy. I'm trying to be confident about my application chances. I applied to two programs (well, I listed one as 'second consideration' on my app anyway), so that widens the net a little. There's also that massive bribe I gave them. Oh wait, that was only the application fee...

I applied to Cornell, but as all my stuff went with the online application I wasn't worried. They haven't contacted me and I didn't even consider that there was a problem. But what's this about them not being on top of stuff last year?

There's a lot of chatter on the Results page about 'application status' changing, to 'under review' or 'decision made' or whatever. All of mine still only say 'submitted'. I feel like I'm missing out on something! As far as my apps are concerned, we might as well be in January... Anyone else not receiving any love from their universities? And has anyone caved in to the urge to call and ask WHEN decisions will be made?

minnares, First may I say, welcome to the Gradcafe community! Sorry you found it so late in the game- I found it so useful during the application period, and am really appreciating the support and information during the waiting period (it's certainly given me more info than most of my programs, some of which did not even send emails confirming that my application was complete!). Kudos on all your strengths; perhaps such a list wasn't exactly on topic with this thread's purpose, but your info about Indiana and Purdue more than made up for that . I'm sure people's tempers are just running high at this point in time and hearing about people who are just as qualified (or even more so) than we are just makes the competition seem even fiercer. And incidentally, hemingways_abs, I haven't presented at any conferences. So not *everyone* has. I hope the nice comments you receive outweigh the nasty ones so that you're not scared off GradCafe. May I suggest a new piece of imagery to replace that of the ravenous dogs? Perhaps a housewarming party with brownies and cake and perhaps a couple of balloons to welcome you to our grad school application support group? Good luck to you (and to all posters and lurkers on the forum!) with your applications. At this stage, that's all we can say really! Edit: and on a completely linguistic note, thank you to nighthob for such a GREAT word- asshattery. I will actually try and use this.

Duplicate post!

Wow, just...LOL. May I add... 6. More notifications I would be quite happy to have an annoying-friend scenario with the adcomms. You know, the person that emails you constantly to tell you what they're doing and updates their facebook status every five minutes. "We just received your application." "We've divvied them up by field." "Your POI is lobbying for you, stay tuned for the votes." "It's between you and two other guys for the spot. For the record, you're winning." And so on. In my mind, there is no such thing as too much information in the grad school application process!

I'm applying from Dubai, and my referees are all in Ireland, so I feel your pain! All my wrangling with universities and credential conversion services took place after 6 pm at the earliest and sometimes went on until after midnight. The nine hour time difference means that I either stay up really late obsessively checking my email, or check it first thing in the morning. And like you all, I do hope that notifications come by email or phone- it takes a good couple of weeks for stuff to get here from the States, and there is no street postal system in Dubai so everything goes through my Dad's office (and he can be rather forgetful about bringing it home!). Good luck to you all; I hope the strange locations make our applications more interesting to the adcomms!

I've heard the same thing about UK PhDs vs. American PhDs. I actually did my undergraduate degree at St. Andrews (is it not the most amazing place? And the Medieval History department is fabulous), and an MPhil in Ireland. When I was considering PhDs, I was also told that American universities would prefer American PhDs. I never heard anything official, it was all 'somebody told me...' kind of stuff, but I did have a few thoughts on why that might be. The way the degrees are structured is completely different- American universities have taught courses for the first couple of years at least, and there is an emphasis on learning how to teach (at least, at the universities I've been looking at) before they even think about thesis topics. In contrast, UK PhD students enter their degrees with at least some idea of what they will do their thesis on, there are very few classes, and while students do teach there is little explanation on how to do it. And in St. Andrews at least graduate students didn't seem to be planning classes or anything, just teaching tutorials and marking essays. So if you were going to hire someone right out of their PhD, who would you choose? I'd say the one with better teaching experience. Research is all very well (yes it is very important, I don't want to start an argument about whether teaching or research is more valuable), but you would want someone who you would trust to teach undergraduates and maintain the teaching standards of the university. Also, I'm sure that Americans (like Brits!) think that their system is the best one. That's just normal national bias! Anyway, please note that there are no references to official information in this post; this is all just my musings, feel free to debunk them!

Lucky number 7! That's my number too. I really only found 7 schools that seemed to be a good fit for me (I concentrated on universities with good reputations for Medieval English, preferably with Medieval Studies departments). I barely managed to eke out SOPs for those 7, and I couldn't imagine asking my LOR writers to write 15 or 20 references! I would be happy going to any one of the universities I've applied to, but like poco_puffs I'd like more than one acceptance so that I can have a choice. Seven acceptances would be best though...

I'm also trying to work on my Latin and don't have a decent local course available (a local language institute offers one, but seeing as it promises me it will teach me to 'speak like a native' I don't think it's very good...). So I've decided to study with the aim of taking the SAT Latin exam (which is intended for high schoolers with four years of Latin). I thought you might consider it as well- it's good to have something to aim for, and it would also mean you would end up with proof of your skills!

I'm glad to hear that other people also got applicationitis! See, it's an actual condition, not just me being lazy. All my applications are in, thank goodness (they all had January 1st deadlines). I was very organized and had all of them submitted by mid-December...except one. It was a different program to the others, and so needed a completely different SOP. I put it off, and put it off again, and finally wrote something at the last minute and submitted it on the deadline. The last minute SOP makes me think that my chances for it aren't as good as they could have been. When I submitted it, I genuinely did not care (completely opposite to my previous behaviour of quintuple-checking each sentence in the SOP!), but now...

Hallo, I'm another medievalist applying to Indiana! I think that the fact that it publishes a Medieval journal and offers quite a few Medieval courses is what attracted so many of us. I'm particularly attracted by one of the faculty, who has done some great work in Arthurian studies. I think my GRE (general and subject) are good, my GPA not so much. I think the translation from the UK system makes it worse than it actually is ! I wonder when we'll start to hear about Indiana...mid month maybe?

Is anyone else tempted to call/email the universities you've applied to and ask them when they will make a decision? My fingers are itching to do so, and I'm only stopped by the idea that at this early stage it would be both annoying and futile (as they probably would not respond). Or have you already tried... Come on people, own up...if only to your fellow English applicants!

I thought it was helpful, thanks Pamphilia! It's good to know that even if I don't hear right away there's still a chance of acceptance...