jujubea

I hand-wrote thank you notes to my recommenders as soon as they submitted the letters. I plan to buy small gifts (love the school-affiliated idea above!) for them once I'm accepted and have decided to attend. If I don't get in anywhere (cringe), I've already sent a legit thank-you note, and would probably just follow up with an e-mail, or phone calls to discuss how I can improve my application(s) next year.

Different schools have different policies. One of my schools said the only reason you can reject their offer of acceptance without it having a negative impact is for financial reasons (i.e. they don't give you a stipend but you need one). Another school allows deferrals - i.e. you can tell them, "Yes, I want to attend your school, but I need to wait another semester, or another year, because of XYZ reasons," which they may or may not agree with. In my very limited opinion, the worst thing to do would be to stay silent about your situation, and just ignore registering for example. Better to be honest, and up front, and just say, "Hey, this is my dilemma, what do you recommend?" I know that some schools can be very lenient when it comes to visas not getting issued for international students.... which probably means some schools spare no leniency at all. My two cents. Best of luck to you!

Some of the prompts I have seen have asked for info about the applicant's relevant background, relevant research experience, motivations for graduate study (period) and motivations for graduate study in this field... and a host of other things. The prompt I've been working on lately does not ask anything about background, experience, research, or general motivations. Nor are these things covered in depth anywhere else (some of it is covered vaguely by the CV of course). It asks 1: Why you want to study the major, and why in this school, and 2: What research you would do there. This is at the MA level. I have written the specific answers to the prompts, but... it looks and feels weird. Do I not bother mentioning the relevant points in my background? Do I not set it up contextually? There are also some things in my background that I want to address... but the prompt doesn't seem to leave room for such things. What would you do? How did you handle your prompts?

I knew a transgender professor at a military university who was previously male. She was seriously respected for her past work in the field (boots on the ground), and in academia, among the hyper-testosteronic students, and among her professional colleagues. From what I knew, anyway. If that woman can make it in that environment, I imagine it can't be too bad overall. You will always find extremes though, no matter what characteristic you look at, or where you are, there will be extreme naysayers, and extreme supporters. I am glad to hear you have had/witnessed a positive experience, too.

Wow...! Thank you all for the really great responses. Thoughtful, honest, to the point, and each helpful! Especially because I'll be sleeping a little better now...

So, of course, now that application dust is beginning to settle, I'm going through everything in my head dozens of times trying to remember if I did everything properly, correctly, exceptionally, and at least well. I remember that one of the first people I asked for a LOR, I did not ask if he/she could write me a STRONG letter, I only asked if they would write me a LOR. With a PAUSE, they agreed. I know this person thinks the world of the work I did when I was in their department, they have said so very directly to me, and indirectly to our mutual colleagues in the department. It took two and a half people to replace me when I left, because I was handling so much. HOWEVER, I also knew this person was a little miffed at me in the past, because I left their department three months earlier than planned, when I got a seriously unignorable job offer (once in a lifetime). I am really worried that this person may have said something negative about me (even something as small as, "She was great, except she left our project with only two weeks notice, right after assuring me she'd be here for three more months".... or worse, that the person harbors some secret grudge against me but not to my face, that I left). The fact that I did not ask if he/she could write me a STRONG letter.... and the fact they they PAUSED before answering.... basically has my mind reeling right now. Is it too weird to go back and ask the person now, after they've submitted all the letters, whether they wrote me a strong letter or not? Would it make a difference? Would the torture of hearing them say "Well, you didn't ask me to write a strong letter, you only asked me to write a letter" be worse than the torture of not knowing whether they wrote me a strong letter or not...? What would you do? Would one letter with a slightly negative comment completely ruin my chances?

Thanks for everyone's answers - I did want to mention that I hadn't overlooked the Results Search. The issue is my schools' programs are relatively small, so the data is relatively limited. Only a handful of results submitted each year for these programs (or sometimes none at all), and they're not so detailed, at that. So I put it to the general online populace! Looks like SB's earliest decisions come mid-Feb, same with CU-B, UNM's come a little later. But as for how the results come, the submitted results are kind of all over the board, with sparse data to make predictions from....! It's OK though... makes it kind of funner that way, on one's toes and all!

I did.

Haha thanks. I'll try. I just meant for Boulder, about decisions coming out Feb. Still have one more application to go!

It's on par with what I was told would happen, processing pre-Christmas break, decisions post-Christmas break. According to the database, the earliest decisions will come out in mid-Feb.

Boulder is officially "processing" applications...

Errrrrhghhhhh..... How did I not find this in my searches?...??!! Maybe because I got so focused on finding places I can get both my master's and Phd..... What a bummer, looks like a great program, and a great fit.

Did you ever think maybe you had done really well and so were getting the harder questions?

This ^^

Why do you say "most of the above does not apply" in the Ignatow Principles, if pursuing a PhD is one's second or third career?

Find anything particularly worthwhile?

I'd e-mail the prof and explain the same - albeit more eloquently and in less detail, and see what they say or recommend. Sometimes professors' interests aren't complete on the websites, too. I found out a lot more about POI's by talking with them, and having them refer me to other POI's who, based on the website data, I hadn't originally considered as being the best "fit."

It doesn't sound like you need to do much tailoring. From my perspective (I'm applying to comm programs), this is clearly a communication research topic. Perhaps just focus more on the communicative and discourse elements than the other elements of it. Leave the edutainment as a side note unless you're applying to a program which has a particular strength in it.

Mine took just under two weeks.

OoooooOOOhhhh. It's like the Wizard of Oz speaking! Thanks GradSecretary!

I know everyone has much better things to occupy themselves with right now, but, do any of you know much about the study of non-verbal communication in academia? Any eminent programs, researchers, books or other bodies of work?

Yep! What autumn said. Thanks gradapp

I'll PM you

For anyone else in a similar conundrum - trying to find the "right" journal to publish in, I found this website and its lists of further websites which do journal searches by abstract, extremely useful: http://www.lib.vt.edu/find/journals/select-journal-publish.html

I'm with you, autumn... I really go back and forth. And you're right, despite the sweetness of the encouragement, it's really hard to see clearly when everyone around you is telling you there's no way you wouldn't get in. I want to believe them, and sometimes I do, but then sometimes I realize how clouded and egocentric my vision is, and I start finding/remembering flaws in my application package (that ugly string of B's and W's sophomore year... my one LOR writer who was never really 100% clear about writing a "strong" letter or not... the important point(s) I forgot to mention in the SOP about why the school fits, and not just why I'm awesome... being too straightforward and not "catchy" enough... overstating my real skills and strengths and worrying about coming off like a jerk... forgetting to add this award or that one... and on and on...). I am so ready to do graduate school - I am so dang lucky to even be able to apply, and to even be able to toy with the idea of getting to go to school full-time and for once in my life do only that -- to be able to focus wholly on my degree program is like a dream come true... And who am I to think I'd get a TAship over someone else? I just did aiiight, on the GRE's. I have an alright undergrad GPA. But, I do have a stellar employment background. And at least two of my letter writers are going to submit drool along with their letters they love me so much. And...then... there I go again with the ego.......! It's like this! It's madness! Can't it be February already, c'mon, please???