Being overworked and underpaid for the best years of your life just because the department you're a member of has chosen to use you as slave labor instead of hiring more professors/post-docs isn't enough?
Luckily I didn't apply to any of the programs in this thread. I wonder what the switch from 'in eval' to 'acad review' means though, and why the OP's hasn't switched over (and why my has). oh well, got a bunch of interviews lined up anyways
It's not a big deal, it means you weren't accepted as a first-choice, and you weren't rejected either. You are on the wait list, which is for when the people who were accepted as a first-choice decide to go to other schools. It means "Have fun not knowing anything until at least April"
He's not trying to be a jerk, he's trying to be realistic. It's one thing to shoot for your dreams, it's another thing to chase an unreasonable goal and assume everything will be fine. Nothing pretentious about it.