wuglife427

Yeah we're expecting 6-10 inches of snow in DC :/ Good luck, I really hope you can make it!!

Part of my thesis is a long analysis that uses some data I found in a grammar. I just met with a native speaker of the language, who basically said all that data is wrong. I now have to completely rework my analysis, and I'm annoyed that I wasted so much time writing up something that's totally invalid. I know this is part of the research process, but it's so frustrating. And I have to prepare for an Open House for Wednesday, so I can't just dive into the new data and figure it out.

I got one too! Do you plan on going? I definitely will, since it's over my spring break and santa cruz is very high on my list. Looking at past results, it seems like the typically sent out acceptances around this time...Maybe they're changing things up and want to meet us all first? Either way, I'm very excited about this!

Hi sinalin, Connecticut sent out Open House invites about a week ago. I can't say anything for sure, of course, but based on the email I got and my correspondences with some of the faculty members, it sounds like all shortlisted candidates have been invited I'm really sorry about that, and I hope Michigan works out.

A bunch of people got acceptance emails to a particular program last night/this morning, and I did not, so I have been trying to accept the fact that I have basically been rejected. Then I get an email from this school with the subject line "Choosing the right graduate program" and for a split second dare to think I've been accepted. Nope, it's just their very poorly timed monthly newsletter.

I'm feeling pretty horrible right now--a perfectly nice email about an open house has led to an absurd level of anxiety. The grad admissions director gave me a list of courses I can sit in on...the only course in my main subfield is a seminar focusing on a cool phenomenon that I actually worked on in part of my writing sample, but it's 3 hours long and I'm only at this school for one day, so it doesn't seem like the best use of my time. Will I be judged poorly if I decide not to go to that class? There are other classes in other subfields that I would like to attend, so its not like I'm showing zero interest in things I said I wanted to learn about. I just can't take too long to decide. Also he asked if there's anyone in particular I would like to meet with. I already talked to one POI over Skype, so I guess we can talk again, but my other POI is actually not there atm. So I've spent the afternoon/evening/ohmygodit'smidnightalready reading faculty profiles, stressing about stupid stuff like how many people I should list, and becoming convinced that since I don't have an immediate answer it means I don't know my field or my own interests well enough and cannot actually do this whole grad school thing. I know this is just waiting anxiety and imposter syndrome talking, but it's really easy to get sucked into those feelings. I just need to stop acting like every interaction with the department is an opportunity to ruin my chances, answer this email, and get some homework done. And maybe sleep.

You live under a bridge and ask a lot of questions, eating those who answer incorrectly.

From the graduate admissions director for a school at which I seem to be shortlisted: "Given your interests in [subfield], I’d be very happy to be your '[supplementary program] advisor'…" Very happy. Also, volunteering to advise me in this extra program, totally unprompted. This is good, right? It seems good.

Awesome!! I sent him an email today explaining my situation, but he hasn't gotten back to me yet. I could definitely make that day (no Wednesday classes!), so this should work out. I'll PM you if I end up going the 18th as well--it would be great to meet you (and to not be the only one there haha)!

Yeah another program told me I'm invited to the open house but isn't sending out official invites for a few days (long story, involving deadlines for an additional certificate program...) and just said it would be at the "end of February." I'm worried it will conflict with Maryland, which means I might have to pick one to reschedule. Should I accept UMD, since they gave the official dates first? Would I be overstepping my bounds to ask the other school for more specific dates, explaining that I need to see if there's a conflict? It would make more sense for me to reschedule UMD, since I'm so close to them, but I don't want to wait around for the other offer before replying to the UMD people. The UMD open house also sounds like a lot of fun! (Sorry, my brain is exploding a little with all this good news!)

OMG just got the invite to Maryland's open house!!!!!! They said about 15 people will be invited.

Not a peep. They usually send out open house invites during the last week of january or first week of february...I haven't seen anything in the results page, so they may just be doing things next week instead.

Perhaps tempranillo got notified a bit early because international status = more time/effort to arrange travel? Also, super-special grant nomination probably warrants notification! (Congrats, btw!) I'm doing everything I can to stay positive, guys. It's not too late for us

I live very, very close to one of the schools I applied to. I had a dream that they wanted to invite me to their Open House but couldn't for some reason, so instead I had to meet with faculty during their free time. However, one faculty member had already made weekend plans to go to the museum...so we all went to the museum. I just had a long dream about a trip to the museum with this school's ling department. It was so weird. Then it eventually morphed into a dream about the Predator being in my house, which did not end well.

Even if location became a consideration for budgetary reasons, there has to be some degree of shortlisting happening. It just wouldn't make sense to do it purely based on location. I live in DC and could take the metro to UMD for maybe $5. However, if my POI walked away from our conversation thinking "Not impressed, there are plenty of other applicants in the US alone who we would be better off accepting*," they would not invite me, no matter how cheap it was for them. They wouldn't want to pay for any meals or spend time on interviews or make people host me if they're not interested. Also, international students on the shortlist don't get left out completely--onzeheures, when you were unable to attend the open house, you skyped with more people in the department, right? So sort of an e-Open House. I think they're building a shortlist so that they can invite people to the Open House, and anyone who can't go to that (perhaps due to location) will get some other kind of thing so the department can get more info for their final decision. So basically you're correct that they're not making final admit decisions now, and that going to the Open House does not guarantee admittance/not going does not guarantee rejection, but that doesn't mean they aren't moving toward decisions now. *It's killing me to type these words. I think the interview went well...

Are you married to Ron Swanson?

He was pretty vague about it, so maybe he meant that? It could also be that they're getting a good idea of who's getting admitted, but some people are still kind of in a grey area, so they invite people to the Open House, decide on those last few spots, and then release all the acceptances? I don't know, I'm just going off what he said.

During my interview, my POI said the faculty were meeting to make "most but not all" of the decisions either this Tuesday (today) or next...I can't say for sure that there's not hope if you haven't been contacted (not all the decisions), but odds probably aren't great

It looks like someone else got an interview on the 19th--it's a pain to search bc some people list it as NYU, some as New York University without the acronym in parentheses. Have you heard from them? I have not, and I'm wondering if it's too early to count that as a loss.

Group project is going pretty much exactly as I expected. Blerg.

Thanks, Chubberubber! I mentioned it briefly, and in his response he seemed very happy with the new information ("I wholeheartedly agree about...") and my general performance in the interview. It's hard not to stress out about little things in interviews, so I really appreciate your advice!!

I had a phone interview with a POI today, and overall I think it went pretty well (especially considering the scheduling happened very quickly, such that I had just a few hours to prepare). However, I was thinking more about one of his questions and realized that I could have answered one of his questions more fully, and that what I said didn't address my interests as much as it could (and perhaps should) have. Should I stick some additional info in a thank-you email? I'm thinking the pros on this are that it shows I am really thinking seriously about our conversation, plus giving him a better idea of my interests. The cons would be that it reveals that I don't have confidence on my first answer/wasn't so quick on my feet, and it might come off as desperate or disingenuous. If it matters, I plan on sending a thank-you email tomorrow morning either way. This POI was very nice, and he gave me a lot of good information about the program structure, the atmosphere in the department, and the admissions timeline. I just can't decide whether adding this extra bit of information would help me out, or if it would cheapen any expression of gratitude (by making it seem like I only sent the email to add extra info) or make him view the interview less positively. Or, of course, if I am over-thinking this whole thing (as one tends to do during admissions season). Thanks

I liked Daniel Tosh's older stand-up, but Tosh.0 is gross. I tried watching it for a bit because I thought he was a good comedian, and I hoped that it would get better over time, but it never did and instead just made me angry. And I know at least a few people who agree, so you're definitely not alone!

I agree this is super-stressful But if you search "NYU Linguistics" and look at what happened last year, you'll see that while someone got an interview request on 1/13, other people got them closer to the 20th. Maybe this person's POI is just really proactive, and the rest will get to it soon. Hope is not lost! Also, although I'm trying to boost morale in the forum (because you're all wonderful and intelligent), I will say that it's hard not to worry and engage in negative self-evaluation, even to the point where I can't focus on things that I need to do and/or that I actually have control of. I'm thinking of trying mindfulness meditation. Anyone have any experience with it?