Minnesotan

I don't agree. It's too rare these days that people are tested by the same standards. Yes, there are subjective concerns, but those are pretty easy to evaluate from SoPs, LoRs, and writing samples (let alone diversity statements, which are basically a competition to see who can whine the best). Having a strong grasp of the English language is important for programs in the humanities, and people going into science and engineering should not find the high school math questions all that difficult. The GRE only seems arbitrary to people who do poorly on it. I found it a very straightforward exam.

That's too bad, but I think you're right. I was looking at a Seven SEAS program the other day. They had some interesting electives, like "5655: The Metaphysics of Arr!," and "6230: Gender and Peg-leg Construction."

There's a big transportation problem in a lot of cities in North America, Blue. Being stuck in the suburbs is like slipping into the Twilight Zone. That's my problem right now. My university is technically within the boundaries of a large city, but in reality it is basically in the middle of a cornfield, with a gas station and an overpriced grocery store the only things within walking distance. What little civilization there is closes no later than 8pm (including the bloomin' liquor store!). So, really, it's commute for at least an hour each way, or have no social life. And falling asleep on bus or train at 3am, is not the lovely prospect it sounds.

Is that a naval program?

If I'm not as good a fit at my top choice as I think I am, I will be perfectly willing to sacrifice the theory on the altar of expedience.

Britt's idea may be more practical, but mine is much more satisfying.

Is anyone else extremely jealous of the science geeks who are posting up their acceptances already? I say we pants them!

Grades aren't the be all end all, which is too bad in my opinion. heh It seems like there are four things going on with the application process: 1) You need to avoid raising any red flags. 2) Your fit needs to be amply demonstrated. 3) You have to get a professor interested in working with you. 4) You have to catch the adcom on a friday, or after someone in the department baked fudge, or something. I was bitter about the process for quite a while, after applying for MA programs two years ago. I got rejected at three backup schools, got in to half of my decent schools, and got one dream school, but no funding (and really, really high tuition and cost of living there). There's a point, I think, when you have to realize that once you've done everything you can do, selection is a crap shoot. Fit would be the only reason I could think of that my backups would reject me and I would get into a school I didn't even think I had a chance of getting into, but for the fact that I feel I demonstrated fit pretty well for at least two out of the three safety schools. And one of them was an extremely safe safety! Maybe good grades can cost you at safety schools, like bad grades at dream schools. I don't know. The entire point of this post is that, assuming you've hit the bases you need to hit, the application process seems fairly arbitrary after that. You see people getting rejected from the English program at Miami of Ohio, only to get acceptances at Penn and Iowa, and they admit they were a much better fit at Miami-Oh. My advice? Do the best you can, and then do what the rest of us do, which is anything that keeps us from going completely looneyshit for the next couple of months.

I got really excited last night, because one of my schools sent me an email. Unfortunately, it was only a reminder to fill out my FAFSA application, if I wanted financial aid this year. *sigh*

I'm not sure. I was raised on a ranch, but I've lived in big cities for most of my adult life. I'm always torn. If there was a nice compromise, like Madison, which is a small city in a nice area, with a short drive to outdoorsy stuff, I would know for sure. However, if I could live in the heart of, say Seattle, Toronto, NYC, or Boston, I would definitely choose that over an Urbana-Champlain, or a Bloomington. New Haven would have no chance, if they didn't have such a good school - the town is shite. Too bad there are no appealing programs (for me) in NYC or Boston. I'm probably going to get stuck in a college town with no decent sushi places, brewpubs, or public transport. Bleh. At least I'll save money. What are you leaning toward, provided you got accepted to two equally appealing programs?

Luckily my significant other is doing her phd apps at the same time as me, so she understands my temporary OCD. In fact, she really hates me at the moment, because I've been done for a month, and she's still got a few apps to go. Neener, neener!

It's such a crap shoot, who knows. Last time, I got rejected to all of my backup schools, got in at half of my "good" programs, and got an acceptance w/o funding to a shot-in-the-dark dreamschool. The only sense I could make of it was that I was a better fit for my potential advisors' research interests, or that I caught them on a friday instead of a monday. More of the same this year, I'm sure. iacta alea est

I own the boat. It's part of my charter fleet.

Indiana doesn't get that cold, mate. Then again, it's all relative; nothing south of Iowa gets all that cold to me. Yeah. I've dealt with a few East and West Coast universities through the years, and I have to agree that people in the Midwest seem much more helpful, as if they genuinely care about you and your education. When compared to, say, the Grad Center at CUNY, it's like taking a degree on two different worlds.

New Haven is probably worse than New Jersey, if you're talking about desirable places to live. I made up my mind this year that I'm only going to apply to places where it's: 1) A campus in the downtown area of a large city, with a variety of nearby housing options, and decent public transit. Or, 2) A midwestern college town, with reasonable traffic situations and affordable housing. I'm not sure if I want to bring my vehicle with me or not (depends on a number of factors, I guess), but being at a school in the suburbs right now, where 99% of the students and faculty make a long commute from downtown, or other suburbs, is a pain in the butt. It also presents a horrible choice: do I commute at least an hour each way, three or four days a week, and live downtown, or do I stay in the boonies, where everything closes at 8pm, to be close to campus and the library? It's a no-win situation.

As long as they are acceptance letters, they can tattoo the damned things on my back, for all I care. =) BTW, it's already frustrating to see all of the science and insurance/risk management people posting their acceptances and interview invitations on the results wall. An early acceptance would do a lot to ease my anxiety about this. Even so, the first week of February is the earliest that would happen, so there's at least another month before I start hearing, either way. I'm glad this will be my final application process (excluding grants and post-doc) until I hit the job market. I don't think my system could take much more of this! haha

Canadian schools do not participate in the agreement most American schools adhere to, regarding the April 15th deadline. I'm not sure what I would do in this situation. I know I would contact the DGS directly, but if that didn't change anything, who knows?

Yeah. I wouldn't worry too much. If a uni did turn you down due to indentation (or lack thereof), they would likely nitpick all of their applicants away.

You could also look into the interdisciplinary programs in Medieval Studies or Renaissance Studies out there. I recall U Chicago has a strong program in the former.

Not having to teach is a bad thing? I know one guy (me) who would love to have the extra time this semester to polish his thesis! It is a good learning experience, though, and maybe two extra years of teaching will make me more attractive to adcoms. Whatever I have to do (legally and ethically, of course) to get in is fine. Jump through flaming hoops for a top program? I'm putting on my asbestos underwear now, sir!

Two years ago, I got most of my acceptances by snailmail, and about half of my rejections from checking the status sites. Either way, I don't care how they arrive this year - I want lots of acceptances to PhD programs, even if they're sent via signal fire! =)

True, true. One thing to be aware of is that Peterson's acceptance rates seem skewed high. I asked for admissions information from quitea few programs last fall, and the numbers the programs gave me are much gloomier than what Pete's has to say about them. I don't mean to burst your bubble, but it seems pretty cruel of Peterson's to get our hopes up, like that. Even back-up schools can be quite competitive. However, like Brit said, you look like a very strong candidate for MA programs, if your statements and supporting materials are in good order.

You would almost need to have an arrangement like that. I'll do my best to wait, and hope no "oopsies" come along the way.

You don't needto be intelligent to earn an advanced degree, only willing to jump through hoops and do monotonous work for years on end.

Yeah. Fair trade conversation is gold. I draw the line at not showering, though; there's a point when nerdy liberal activism hits the south end of the hippy movement, and begins to get smelly and annoying. If I wanted a woman who didn't shave her pits, I'd move to the Baltics.