Dr. Old Bill

Blah! Sorry little Bat. No matter who you are or what you have accomplished, rejection always stings. Borrowing one of Katla's "tight hugs" for you!

Shhhh! We're talking about the downsides here, sheesh! (You're right though -- the whole Finger Lakes region is gorgeous in summer / fall!)

Aww. Thanks. It's fine though -- truly. I've got one strong acceptance option, which takes a surprising amount of the sting out of subsequent rejections. The creative writing side of my application was always a major longshot anyhow, given my penchant for formal / traditional verse. Good luck, and write some AWESOME stories!

I was there in late September, and all I could think about is how treacherous that campus must be during the winter! As hilly as San Francisco, but with 10000% more snow and ice!

Congrats, Cornell admits...and to Gnossienne especially! That joint MFA/Ph.D. program is particularly tough to get into -- one per year, I believe! Are you on the fiction side or the poetry side of things?

Officially rejected from Cornell. Also officially grateful that they sent their rejections at the same time they sent their acceptances!

Ain't that the truth! I really appreciate Rice, Madison, and Northwestern for being so quick about their rejections. I'm downright looking forward to when my "implied" rejections can finally be converted to legitimate ones.

Nice one, Ramus! I'm actually a little surprised at all the acceptances today, given that it's a holiday!

Congrats, Gnossienne!

Dishonesty is distasteful to begin with, but...why in the world would you ever lie to the people who are offering to commit five years and probably 100k-plus to have you study there? I understand that negotiation is a reasonable business tactic, but doing so without a legitimate offer in hand is tantamount to embezzlement, in my opinion. Just don't do it.

Congrats!! Fingers crossed that something opens up soon. It probably can't hurt to email the DGS to see if he/she can tell you the likelihood of them turning to the waitlist, and/or where you may stand on it.

A-friggin'-men!

^Love the Clue .gif! Me, in the cold, waiting on decisions while a snowstorm is bearing down:

Wrong field, eh? I bet you just inadvertently made a hilarious pun among particle cosmologists.

So...Penn State applicants. How are we interpreting the results so far? A couple of Ph.D. and a few M.A. offers are up on the results board, but in past years they've been pretty sketchy and sporadic about acceptances (and downright horrid about reporting rejections). Are we treating the lack of results as "implied" rejections, or is it just too soon to tell?

Huzzah, Caroline and Lycidas! I have a friend who was truly crestfallen that I didn't apply to BU. She graduated from there many years ago, but has nothing but fantastic things to say about it.

Yes, for the English Ph.D. at least, my letter of acceptance to the M.A. program states that there are only "eight or nine" admissions that they'll be able to make from over 200 applications. I would imagine that if they've sent out offers to Ph.D. candidates for M.A. admission instead, there likely won't be any more Ph.D. offers sent out. Impossible to say definitively, of course, but it strikes me that they wouldn't send out their "lesser" option unless they had arrived at their ideal Ph.D. numbers first. Barring an acceptance to a Ph.D. program elsewhere, I plan on attending the open house next month, though I'm relatively local (about 65 miles away), making it an easy option. For what it's worth, if you are planning to fly in for it, Reagan airport (DCA) and Baltimore (BWI) are roughly equidistant, being about 20 miles or so from the campus. In other words, if you find a much cheaper option at one airport than the other, it's worth taking it. Don't even consider Dulles, unless you'd like to spend hours in a car / cab / bus / metro. Either way, it would be nice to see you there, Ramus!

Frankly, I would just celebrate and not give it another thought. Getting into your top choice school is fantastic! If you've been accepted, they clearly like what you have to offer, and are willing to back that up with a long-term commitment. I wouldn't worry about whether other schools have rejected you. To wit: I know I'm a solid candidate (and I truly say that without a hint of arrogance). I've been mostly shut out so far, barring a lesser offer to UMD. If it happens that I get a call from Harvard, Princeton, Stanford etc. tomorrow, I would be thrilled...and while I would be "surprised" in the sense that no one can ever count on an acceptance from anywhere, I wouldn't be surprised because I feel I'm not worthy of the honor or because a slew of other schools decided not to take me on. It's a business, and it's mostly impersonal. Be happy that you've been accepted to your top choice, and feel confident that it was well earned! ETA: Cross-posted with the two fine folks above.

Just checking -- who else has been accepted to UMD (either Ph.D. or M.A.)? Any plans to accept the offer? Plans to attend the open house?

NOT a medievalist here, so don't fasten me to the Judas Cradle, but I want to thank you all for talking about some of these Latin resources. I've been thinking about learning Latin for awhile now (along with Italian), so I will be sure to revisit this thread when I do...possibly even this summer.

A resounding "ditto" to this. Hope is a fickle little beast, and in situations like this, wherein acceptances have gone out but rejections have not, I'd rather just lock that beast away, out of sight, out of mind.

Ohhhh. Well that explains it then. Thanks!

No word either way from Brown, no. I have to assume it's a rejection, but by that same token, I'm not sure why some rejections have gone out, but clearly not all...

A bit off-topic (or back to the original topic, in a way), but with the offer of acceptance at UMD (albeit to the M.A. program), a lot of potential problems about the "significant other" issue are solved for my wife and I. Since she works in D.C. (and just got a nice promotion and raise), the opportunity to relocate to the D.C. area (we both currently commute a long distance in opposite directions) is quite welcome. It means that we won't need to be apart, or have to pay two rents etc. It just brings with it a lot of unexpected advantages. While I would still prefer a Ph.D. somewhere, there is something downright serendipitous about this situation...so I'm no longer looking at it like a "good plan B," but rather an "alternate plan A."