grad_wannabe

Congrats Pedanticist !!! We may end up as colleagues! (do you know whether they're footing the bill for any travel costs for the recruitment weekend visit?)

JUJUBEA! you must be butter cause you're on a ROLL! 100% admission rate that's AMAZING! CONGRATS!

It's SO aggravating, I know! And thank you! They emailed me a PDF of the official offer letter, with all funding details outlined. After spending so many weeks waiting for a response, I was surprised and frankly grateful at how quickly the "big reveal moment" happened -- the subject line said "USC Admission Offer Letter." No ambiguous "check your status" message.

magic mushroom

thanks everybody!!! and now back to the waiting game for the others ....

WHEW. A response AT LONG LAST: Got into USC. Five years of funding, Annenberg Fellowship. It was someone here on GC who convinced me to go ahead and submit an app, even though I didn't think I was ready for that early deadline.

Can I ask what makes-or-breaks candidates during the interview? At that point is it all about personality/mesh, or do they verbalize something substantive during the conversation that influences your decision?

Honestly! The USC status page has a huge button that says "ADMISSIONS DECISION." Once you click on that, a new page opens up, with big letters across the top that say "The university is pleased to offer you ... the opportunity to send and receive messages through this portal!" Not cool.

CONGRATS!

thanks for the commiseration! my SOP, too, is related to art, so it's not totally unconnected, but I go back and forth with this exact tussle -- "well, I WAS an artist for a LONG time, it is related to my research proposal even though it's not the center of my universe anymore, it's best to just be open and honest and let the chips fall where they may, and if they don't like the art stuff then that's not where I want to be!" and then I move from that to "ugh I just want to get admitted!"

Ugh, I had a nasty revelation this morning ... So, I have an old "artsy" website, from my early career as an artist. In applying for Communications PhD programs, my rec letter writers advised that I hide all of that artsy stuff, and to never mention it in my applications, to emphasize my aptitude as a writer, researcher, and scholar and potential for training in academia. In my application packets I followed this advice to the letter. but, i kinda liked the old art portfolio website I'd built and the look of it, so I left it up, even though all the publishing info and CV were terribly outdated. i figured all my newest info was already in my apps, and that adcomms wouldn't be concerned with an obviously older, outdated site. plus, my google analytics showed that ZERO people were looking at my old site anyhow, so I didn't worry about it. in the past couple weeks, I came to doubt that decision, and had my URL forward all visitors to a more "academic" site with greater emphasis on teaching, writing, and publishing. Well ... I was just poking around my analytics ... I found a tab I'd never noticed before .. which held all the REAL visitor data for my old art site. somehow I had TWO analytics reports, I'd been looking at an erroneous one. back in early january there was a visit from the city of my top-choice school. they spent about fifteen seconds looking at my old art CV (with zero publications or conferences, all art exhibitions and performances) and my old publishing page (full of art and film criticism), and then promptly left. ughhhhh I'm certain now that I won't get in.

I think this is correct -- moving expenses when you move for a job are tax-deductible, those for school are not.

SO MUCH THIS. One of my friends actually got mad at me. "What are you worried about? Do you seriously think you won't get ANY offers? How could you possibly think that? Of course you'll have your pick!" ... and then I look at the rejections on the Results Search (one of my programs is already rejecting people) and see stuff like "4.0 master's GPA, 4 years of research, 3 first-author publications, 8 conference presentations" and think "jesus I don't stand a chance..."

I have a friend in the anthropology program at harvard, she's in her fifth year, she said she didn't interview anywhere. She was surprised when I told her I was still facing that hurdle.

I think Duna was implying that labeling oneself as impoverished, when one has two degrees and is seeking funding to attend an academic conference, is a bit insensitive to actually impoverished people.

easter basket

Are you getting visits from the cities where your programs are? Someone googled me last night in Virginia. I didn't apply anywhere near Virginia.

dog tags

Hate to be a Mary Contrary, but during my master's round I got a grad school acceptance via email late on a Sunday evening. (Ps is your username a peep show reference?)

dance class

I would definitely tell him this. Knowing you have support available may be very helpful in bringing you into the department.

Hey rbear, for what it's worth, I think establishing a good rapport with your poi is hugely important. They're looking for people with whom they'll ostensibly spend the next five years, and be a colleague potentially forever. I think the fact you shared a few laughs bodes very well for your chances! These profs are human, they're not automatons. Edit: also, I agree that 4 days is an eternity during this waiting purgatory!!

TOR is basically encrypted browsing, to cover your tracks/digital paper trail when you visit websites. Someone used encrypted browsing and spent a TON of time on my academia page, looked through my profile and every single paper. I have no clue where they were- Instead of flags there's a long series of question marks. No, I don't think they're looking at our surfing habits, but they would be able to tell if, say, you live in Chicago and the night before their interview with you they see that someone in Chicago downloaded all their papers through academia.edu.

Best thing I've read all day.

CONGRATS!!!