Dr. Old Bill

Woot woot! Congrats!

I agree with what the others have said about the importance of attending. That being said, a good "middle ground" option might be to talk to the DGS about coming on a different day -- one that works better for your schedule. I know that at least a few of the programs I've applied to will still offer the same funding for a visit on a different day, so long as it's before April 15th.

Same for my fellow UMich / Princeton / Rutgers applicants. Even if it's nothing but rejections (for me), I'm excited about the prospect of more results this week!

I wonder where pizza stands on the "foods you crave but immediately regret eating" scale? Pretty high, I'd say: somewhere around pints of ice cream and (for Canadians) poutine... I took a real risk this year by having a writing sample about the exact same work as I did when I was largely shut out two years ago. It was a completely different paper, and on a different aspect of that work...but I was certainly concerned that if adcoms had a bias against the work itself two years ago, the same might be true today. It's hard to say whether that's the case or not, but since my first result was a positive one, I can't help but wonder if it's just a case of different eyes, different adcom, different circumstances etc. more so than anything else.

First of all, congrats! And second of all, yes, funding and other correspondence often comes after the initial decision. It was almost two weeks from the time of my acceptance before I got a phone call from the DGS at OSU about funding etc. Remember that once they accept you, they then want to court you. It's a strange and sudden shift of dynamic...

My personal rule of thumb is that if you don't have great scores, don't send them if they're optional. Four or five of the programs I applied to said the GRE subject test was recommended / optional, but not required. Since I had a decent, but not good or great score, I didn't send it to any of those programs. I figure there's no sense giving them a substandard metric to judge me by when they don't actually require it... Your scores are a bit below those of the average applicant, so I would hold off on sending them. They may not hurt you, but by the same token, they won't help you.

Tragically out of upvotes, but what a lovely post, @engphiledu! This GC cohort feels a bit special. I definitely made some legitimate friendships from GC a couple of years ago, and there were many, many fantastic people here then...but there's been almost nothing but mutual encouragement this year, and that's pretty awesome. I'm really grateful that I'll be in this field alongside most of you for a great many years to come.

Fabulous news. Congratulations!!

Oh man. Flashbacks of the darkest episode of Black Mirror. *shudder*

The answer is 42. Because the answer is always 42.

I'm legitimately thinking that about Vanderbilt. Not. Even. Joking.

Good to know. Thanks!

That odd UMich result on the board ("I emailed them and they sent me a rejection") has me a little weirded out... Also, I checked my portal, and it now shows my recommendation letters as having been received on February 8th. Obviously that's a technical quirk, but still... Hmm!

Ugh. Sorry to the both of you on this. I split with my wife of seven years last May, and every time I've started to think about dating, I've used that same excuse as well. That's not a vent, I suppose, but...I can definitely commiserate. Academia isn't often kind to one's personal life.

Either way, I've been clicking on "Report Spam" whenever I see them, and the mods usually clear them away in fairly short order.

Way to go!

Commenting here because it doesn't really fit with any other threads, but... Would the person or persons who are creating "other" entries on the results page to ask questions of other results posters please stop doing that? The results page is just a results page...it's not really conducive to having back and forth questions and answers. Sorry to sound like a net nanny, but it really misleads the eye when looking at the results page...

Woo hoo!! Congrats to you both! Yes, it happens sometimes -- that was the case for my acceptance at OSU: it changed on the portal and I didn't receive an email from the DGS until a full day later. So you should be able to safely start celebrating. Congrats!

I really want to read this paper! (Seriously, PM me if you'd be willing to share). I'll be studying Richard II in a couple of weeks, and yours sounds like a great complementary take on the play.

HUZZAH!! You're starting to clean up! So did they actually notify by postal mail? That's...that's...very 19th century transatlantic of them!

^ This exactly!! Oh @JeremyWrites, I am SO happy for you! You've been such a delightful presence on this board, and I've been getting more and more antsy on your behalf with each rejection / non-acceptance. Thrilled that you've got a program to go to in the fall -- academia will be better for it!

This is a very unusual question, quite frankly. Collaboration is key in professional writing. You certainly can write in a vacuum, but when you think about the entirety of the academic process, it's clear that your work will always be passing through revisions or other forms of review -- formal or otherwise. The same should be true of your writing materials when applying to graduate schools. In other words, getting external feedback is not only not "cheating"...it's almost essential!

But NOT a quiet day for snow dogs!!!

!!! Congratulations, @claritus!

I really don't think it's a rolling admissions process. It's not uncommon for programs to send out their acceptances and waitlists a few days or more before official rejections go out. There's also the x-factor at UMD that some Ph.D. applicants might get offered M.A. slots instead (if they're still doing it that way). It's really hard to say at this point, as there's a new admissions team in place this year. It was probably irresponsible of me to put a percentage on the chances, since it's just an educated guess on my part. Still, since the clear-cut Ph.D. offers and waitlists have definitively gone out, expectations should be tempered.