grad_wannabe

If you're already accepted I think you'd have to do something REALLY horrific to have that revoked. I wouldn't worry too much. When in doubt, listen more than you speak.

thanks for these questions, guys! I used a couple in an interview yesterday, literally got a "great question!" response from the committee.

I applied to a DPhil at Oxford for the Jan 23rd deadline and have not heard a peep. I'm worried about the funding -- even if admitted, I can't afford to go unless I get generous funding, which I know is unlikely, and that those decisions may not be released until after April 15th.

Apologies for slightly off-topic discipline, but just had the interview with UCLA Information Studies. Went very well! Short and sweet and supportive all around. Fingers crossed.

key party

dinner plate

I wrote with an expanded version of basically "thank you for your offer, I will be in touch with my decision soon."

Is there any way to find out where you are on the wait list? Could you call? If you're at the top, like 1 or 2, there's definitely hope you'll get in. Further down, your chances dwindle...

I have a brilliant friend who applied for art history programs and he's heard nary a peep. keep your hopes up! one of my programs doesn't release decisions until mid-March so I'm trying to acclimate to waiting. I'm wondering -- I never contacted a POI at the last school, the one that doesn't decide til March. I had contacted and met with POIs at ALL of my other programs, so I figured I ought to diversify my approach. Now I'm wondering if it would be a terribly bad call to contact him now, even though my app is already in... or leave it alone ... argh.

Same here. I was talking to a friend who tentatively asked "... so ... how will you pay for school? do you have to get loans?" and I told her "the good programs will pay all my tuition and pay my living expenses for the next three to five years" she shouted HOLY COW REALLY?!?

there seems to be two waves: I got responses to around half of my apps already (a couple are, due to the lack of interview invite, tacit rejections), but the other half won't come out until the end of February/beginning of March. Limbo-land in between.

Congrats!!! A good problem to have.

I would dare to hope that's a good sign, that your program has recommended you for admission to the graduate school, which is more of a formality ... but that's just reading tea leaves and smoke signals...

Ha, the blizzard is preventing a good number of us from doing that! At any rate, Aub, I really identified with your anxiety about disappointing people. Everyone has been so helpful and supportive, especially my current boss. He wrote me a letter of recommendation, helped me write my SOP, and gave me total and complete work flexibility during the app season. He said he was very proud when I got my admit. He even looked over my offer letter and commented that it was a good offer and that I should "go out and celebrate with friends!"

I've had a mixed bag of responses, and in my experience having one acceptance alleviates the anxiety by ... one or two percent.

I imagine it varies from school to school, and department to department, but when I was applying for master's programs I received a full ride fellowship from a school that I ended up declining. When I called the grad coordinator and let him know, he said "ok, we're going to have to scramble a bit and decide who is going to get the fellowship funds now."

come around

YYAAYYYY NOWAYNOHOW!!! AWESOME!!!

Got one today from "University X Admissions." It was an excel spreadsheet of outside scholarship opportunities with the note 'we look forward to reading your application!' I mean, I'm grateful! Cool, thank you! But my heart definitely skipped a beat. Of course I was reading into it every possible nuance. Did EVERY applicant get this email? Have they made any cuts yet? Does this mean I passed some preliminary cut-off? None of my other schools sent me scholarship lists...

Anyone else get the "outside scholarship opportunities" email from Columbia?

Slightly off-topic, but anyone want to claim the Berkeley iSchool admittance? Did they interview?

YAY HERMES!!!!

Same here.

Thank you!

Can I ask you guys about the process of calling? I see a lot of posts about finding out that one is short-listed, not short-listed, etc. Are you calling the department itself (assuming you're not contacting your POIs)? And do you have a justification behind this, like you see other people getting interviews? Or are you just cold calling with "Hi, I just wanted to check on the status of my application..." I've always assumed that contacting the departments would yield no more than a vague "we'll let you know mid-March" but to my surprise it seems like you guys are getting pretty material information. Any advice?