Minnesotan

A decisive victory for the Humanities, I say!

I've told this story before, but it seems appropriate to reiterate, under the circumstances. When I applied to MA programs two years ago, my first four letters were rejections. Three from my backup schools (every single one of them!), and one from a solid Research I. Next I got an accept from a big name Midwestern Research I, another two rejections from top-20 schools, a couple of acceptances from top-50s, and finally an acceptance from , which was a dream come true. I contacted my safety schools to ask what I could improve upon when I apply for PhD programs. Other than my statement of purpose seeming a bit rushed or unfocused, the #1 answer was that I just didn't fit. I tried to get more out of them (i.e. "fit" how?), but they only made vague reference to 'types of students,' or the research interests of the faculty. Anyway, to make this long and already-told story short, all three backup schools rejected me - I didn't even make the wait list - and a top program accepted me. Other programs in the middle varied. No rhyme. No reason. You do what you can do to sell yourself on the application, but after that, it's a crap shoot. I wouldn't give up hope quite yet. The universe tends to work itself out the way it should.

It's probably for details you don't want to put on your statement of purpose, such as explaining you had one semester of Ds tarnishing your otherwise excellent GPA because your dog died. Things like that. I doubt it's obligatory to leave a comment.

I wouldn't get too upset yet (he said, as he calmly checked his email for the fifth time this minute). It seems like a lot of the people reporting for humanities programs either got contacted directly by a potential adviser, or are the first of a much larger group of acceptees.

Haha! Naw, it doesn't bother me when it's a little more thickly-veiled, but that seemed like the poster was using the congratulations as an excuse to air his political views. As I said, we can talk politics over in The Lobby, if we want. It's best to keep them out of the other threads, though, as I tend to get wound up. =)

Congrats, NS. Which professor are you working with?

That was gratuitous. Please keep the political statements out of this thread. If you feel you must air your views, you can encourage some (civil) debate in "The Lobby" forum. This isn't really the place. Thank you. =)

My SO officially thinks I'm insane, now, as this statement caused violent laughter to echo through the apartment. On a nerdy tangent, how cool would it be to tell your high school buddies you're earning a degree in MAGIC?>!

It looks like some of my programs (in the humanities) inform their MA applicants almost a month earlier. It probably varies by school and field.

You only do that to programs that have already rejected you. =)

Nice. That's a pretty sweet deal, especially since I think you're in history, which is generally underfunded compared to other disciplines.

I think that's the only reason anyone applies to schools in Fla., Britt.

I would wait until it gets closer to the April deadline. It's still very early in the game for most disciplines.

I contacted the departments for admissions stats, and Peterson's is still high when including part-timers and MA-candidates. It would be nice if 70% of applicants got into Yale, though.

Lost it? At least you 'had it' at one time! I'm going bloody bonkers!

I doubt I would be, either, if I had to deal with the likes of us for a living! =)

Resurrected!

The quality of the program might have something to do with that, though, eh?

That's most likely Education, mate. Try to settle down. =)

Historically, most of my programs send out the first wave of acceptances in the next two weeks.

Congrats, DMH. Which school?

Maybe I just picked the wrong places to apply. Some of the big programs in my field that I contacted were consistently between 2-3% admit rates for the PhD.

Honestly, I don't think anyone handles the surprise phone interview all that well. I wouldn't worry about that so much.

20%, even including MA-candidates, is extremely high for a top program! Maybe it was a typo. 2% sounds more realistic, if it's in the top-10 (I assume you were still talking about UNC-CH).

All we have to cling to at this point is work, beer, and hope. So, yes, it decidedly could happen. I hope it does!