LiteratureMajor

Thanks for the update and congrats again.

I find this letter to be not only misleading, but highly inconsiderate. Surely, the person(s) who generated this letter aren't too dense to consider just of a moment that the recipient might get the impression that they've been, oh, I don't know... ACCEPTED?!?! Thank goodness you do have another acceptance, but I feel terrible for those who don't and get their hopes up with this bull***t of a notifcation.

I'm guilty of asking for "stats" as well, my interest being about subfields and publication experience. I haven't gotten any acceptances, rejections or waitlist notifications in my pursuit of a PhD this round (I applied to one school two years ago and was rejected), so the endless wait has gotten the best of me...

Greekdaph, If I could give you a "+10" vote, I would. This is a tremendously helpful list. My only hope is to pull in an acceptance or two and have the opportunity to get some of these questions answered!

Would it be appropriate to contact the department chair in the case of a "missing documents inquiry/status check inquiry"? I have spoken with this person previously, yet I am hesitant to step outside of proper etiquette here.

Thank you for sharing your experience. You are right about the strange vibe. The grad coordinator is not the friendliest person in the world and when I called (anonymously) last week to ask when decisions would be released he said they would only be released on the Web fist, then the letter would follow. Yet people were contacted by phone . Contradictory, yes?

Have you experienced this at UIC? I appreciate knowing if this is how their program handles applicants. At $50 an app we all deserve more respect and straightforwardness.

I have to say I find this quite disheartening. UIC's PhD program is my top choice, but I would have appreciated knowing about such a severely limited number of slots. I even corresponded with a POI last week but wasn't given any hint about my status. That is reason for worry but to know that there are likely less than seven slots available is agony. I would like confirmation about all accepted students being contacted last week. Can anyone offer any concrete details about this?

Thank you, TryingAgain! Congratulations to you. I would certainly appreciate more info and I am grateful for any good luck wishes I can get. (Btw, did your online status change or are you still 'Pending'?)

Thank you for responding and for sharing this information. Do you know if this department first notifies accepted students before listing all rejections on the Web site? There is now a total of 2 UIC PhD acceptances according to the results page. I am attempting to gauge how my own decision will play out, so I'd like to determine how many UIC is admitting/waitlisting and if those students were in fact notified this week. I haven't heard a peep and my status is still Pending.

There's still mystery about who posted the UIC English acceptance, so I'm curious to know if any other hopefuls are willing to post. What was your application experience? And does anyone have an idea as to when decisions will start rolling in? I've seen only one posted in the results section, so I'm wondering.

UIC is one of the universities I applied to this season. According to the results page, someone was accepted yesterday (February 11). Would you -- or anyone else who has heard from this school and department -- please share more details? Has your status been updated on UIC's Web site? Was funding offered? What are your stats? Do you know anything about how many PhD applicants will be admitted this year? I suppose I am hoping to gauge how things will go on my end. I would sincerely appreciate more information. Thank you.

This is as good a place as any to voice my frustration about this. Here is a conversation I've had wayyyy too many times. Person: What do you want a PhD in? Me: English. Hopefully a cross-disciplinary study in British lit and gender and women's studies. Person: Oh. What are you going to teach? Elementary school? Me: (Resisting an eye roll, because who the hell teaches British lit and GWS to first-through-fifth graders...) No. I'd like to become a professor and publish books and articles in those areas. Person: Do you like to read? Me: Yes. Person: I hated English in school. Me: "Uh..." (Thinking: Aw, fuck it.)

My parents, who've been amazingly patient with me during this entire stressful process.

Exactly why I haven't called. Thank you!

And yes, I am struggling to refrain from calling the grad departments and politely asking whether or not decisions have been made yet. Bad idea... right?

How did you determine that you'll find out next week? I'm applying for ENG programs and am waiting in quiet agony, as my status has been in "Review" for a week. I'm anxious to know if I'll be rejected right off the bat or not.

Months ago I considered applying to School X. Financial woes forced me to cross it off my list, however. Today (after finding the funds to apply) I discovered that the application deadline was January 15 -- BUT I have been encouraged to apply ASAP although there is a chance that those accepted first have first crack at TAs. I'm being told that my greatest risk in applying this week is that there may not be any TA positions left for me during the 2010-2011 academic year. The committees have not begun reviewing apps yet. But I am still quite concerned that applying 5 or 6 days late will put me in the auto-reject pile. Advice?

Good luck to you! Did you send a thank-you e-mail or anything just to refresh her memory? I'm doing that, and I hope it helps.

Yes, please share. This is interesting.

See, I knew it was smart not to grin from ear to ear when the graduate director at one program I'm pursuing told me, "This program is perfect for you." Oh yes, it's perfect for me... Now the trick is to show the powers-that-be why I'm perfect for it.

Indeed, coyabean. And this is most certainly game-playing for these wanna-be-elite universities' personal gain... And it pisses me off.

Thank you for writing this--and of course to the original poster who shared this information with all of us. I honestly feel better after reading your post.

My GRE scores literally brought me to tears (and this had nothing to do my fever and runny nose during the entire four-hour long ordeal). And, of course, there are a few W's on my transcripts. Which irks the living you-know-what out of me being that many of those W's came from me dropping and adding courses within the first week of the semester. These are circumstances that I cannot explain to adcoms. Now I sit and wait with trepidation.

I think that The Grad Cafe--and many prayers--are the only things getting me through this entire nerve-wracking process. If I am admitted, I'd like to pay it forward like many have already decided. My hope is that I will be returning as a PhD student prepared to share advice and encourage applicants, instead of being an applicant again.