ecg1810

If it makes you feel any better, I just received a rejection letter too. Though I realize academics are a notoriously awkward bunch, this notification struck me as undiplomatic (mainly the "I concur" segment. . . I mean, clearly you do concur or you wouldn't be sending me this letter. Sheesh.) COME ON! We study the ENGLISH LANGUAGE! Surely there's a softer way to convey this news--in fact, I know there is since I've received many a notably kind rejection letter in the past. But this one is right up there with a rejection letter I got last year that looked as if someone copied and pasted my online DENY status on to a scrap piece of paper. Not. Classy. I think every applicant deserves a little more for his/her time and effort, and I'm glad to hear (based on previous posts) that I'm not the only one who thinks so.

Congrats to the M.A. acceptee! Anyone want to claim it?

One of my LOR writers said schools used to reject those they knew for sure wouldn't make the cut to create a short list, and then proceed to select admits from that group. So rejections tended to come before admits back in the day, but that certainly doesn't reflect current trends. The more I learn about grad school application "logistics," the more confused I become. I'm pretty sure the odds of winning the lottery are better. . . in which case all of us Grad Cafers should invest in lotto tickets instead of 304,580,349 applications a season, and then put our winnings toward donating buildings at top choice schools. Those schools would have to make us offers on principle. Besides, if we had that kind of money, funding prospects would no longer influence whether or not we could enter a program, and we would likely receive even more offers since we'd indicate we could attend as unfunded candidates.

I think it's a good idea to respond, cschields, especially if you anticipate accepting. (I recently asked my mentor the same question, in fact.) It's always advisable to keep in touch with prospective schools that have made offers since so much can potentially fall through the cracks during the admissions process.

To the recent UConn results board rejectee--so sorry to hear your news. Did your letter reveal anything about applicant pool/class size? I wish you the best as you wait for additional feedback from other schools!

Personally, I think you need to call and inquire about your application status--seems nebulous at best. Then also follow up with some sort of funding question. That should do the trick.

Thanks, fall-11! Time frames are good.

Excellent! Best of luck to everyone!

And I wonder if these letters are for M.A., Ph.D., or both. . .

Hey, folks. Is anyone else confused by UConn's admissions procedures? Someone on the results board said UConn sent out a bunch of letters recently, and that many should hear next week. I wonder if that includes acceptances and rejections since notifying history indicates the program favors conveying negative news via snail mail. Thoughts?

Oh, I'd certainly be mortified if a professor "corrected me down," neuropsychosocial (or is "neuro" okay? ). I included this anecdote as sort of a "worst case scenario" blurb--i.e., if you take a chance and screw up, it's not the end of the world. . . even though I'd definitely worry/freak out needlessly afterword because that's just the way I roll. (BTW, I meant to only refer to "correcting down" situations in my anecdote. Sorry if I wasn't clear.)

This makes sense, and now I want to place an asterisk next to my first post. When I wrote my previous comment, I had a particular POI correspondence looming in the back of my mind. I e-mailed a professor to see if she planned to accept doctoral students during the 2010-2011 application season so I would know whether or not to include her in my SOP. In her first reply she signed her full name, but closed all subsequent messages with her first. I continued to address her formally in e-mails until I ended up meeting her during a campus visit. Although she never explicitly asked me to call her by her first name during our face-to-face discussion, I started to feel stilted addressing her as "Dr. So-and-so" in messages I sent after I met her (especially since she continued to close e-mails with her first name). I then began using her first name in correspondence. So, as others have said, waiting until you've met the professor in question before addressing him/her informally probably is the safest way to go. My rambling, inarticulate two cents, for what they're worth. N.B. One of my advisers said that many professors will go through the trouble of correcting students if they're not comfortable with the way they've addressed them. Obviously, this would be an awkward experience to go through, but my adviser assured me that she's had to correct students before (just undergraduates though), and that she didn't think less of them because of their SNAFU, but recognized it as a genuine misunderstanding and moved on.

I have to agree with pudewen. Although I, too, tend to err on the side of caution when interacting with professors, several advisers have assured me that many professors are very conscious of how they sign their names, and thus it's usually safe for you to address them based on signatures. For example, my mentor signed her full name in e-mail correspondence with me until the day of my (undergraduate) graduation; she didn't sign a message to me with her first name until just a few hours after I received my diploma. I know this isn't a fantastic example since I already knew my mentor well when she gave me the implicit "OK" to address her informally--but it does show that some professors consider the signature detail important. To each his/her own.

Or group screaming into oblivion. . .

I completely agree, fall-11. And USC doesn't even have the snowstorm to blame for this tardiness.

I know! I keep checking to see if they've updated their inventory to include a _Bell Jar_ sweatshirt.

No problem! Glad to suggest congenial clothes for the Grad Cafe geek-dom.

Sport your favorite literary classic and help purchase books for underprivileged kids! It doesn't get much better than this, folks! http://www.outofprintclothing.com/Shop_a/152.htm

Aw! Thanks--and same to you. Perhaps we'll even become official academia colleagues at Ohio State or another program!

That's great news, fall-11! Best of luck to you and all others still waiting.

This is a rough guesstimate, but last year the program received around 500 applications and made 10 or so offers.

Chin up, folks. Brown rejected my mentor when she applied--and this mentor is one of the most highly regarded scholars in her field today. Perhaps you should read this rejection as a harbinger of good things to come!

This sounds like what I do every night. . .

Thanks to everyone who's provided Columbus insight. It's greatly appreciated!

Whenever I hear a grad student make a similar remark, I have to repress the urge to punch him/her in the face. While I came up empty handed during the 2010 application season, I had the privilege of watching everyone of my friends receive excellent offers, move to their dreams schools. . . and subsequently complain about how "brutally unfair" grad school life treated them, as I toiled from 8:30-5:30 at an excruciating desk job entertaining all manner of suicidal ideations. I know grad school/academia is by no means all sunshine and roses, but it definitely comes with perks for those who harbor intellectual passions. I mean, how many people have the opportunity to read material they love, and then write about it--for A LIVING??? I'm sure some of you have seen the video "Yes, I want to get a Ph.D. in the Humanities": It responds to the hilarious, scathingly satirical though (in many cases) painfully true "So, you want to get a Ph.D. in the Humanities?" clip. I recognize that it's somewhat hyperbolic and can seem a bit misguided with regard to certain topics--I'm not posting it because I think its characterization of academia is 100% accurate, but because it echos an idea to which you alluded in your post, tortola23: Despite the negatives that accompany an academic job (what job comes without unpleasant aspects anyway?), let's do our best never to forget that the positions to which we so ardently aspire are ones of great privilege.