jean-luc-gohard

YEAH!!! Congrats on being done!

CONGRATS!!!

Congrats on your decision! Everyone I spoke to at UChicago when I was considering MAPH was awesome. Seems like a very supportive place.

Whoops, cross-posted with you, but super excited to meet you too! I'm gonna shoot you a message soon.

Yes, super excited to meet you guys!! Are you both relocating to LA? PM me if you want any general advice about the city, help moving/figuring out where to live, or need a lift from the airport, etc. I'm happy to help!

I also got in to UCLA this morning! I can't believe it. The one school in LA that I applied to accepted me. I guess I'm meant to stay here a while longer, because I will gladly put up with LA for the next few years to attend!!

This pretty much sums it up for me:

Congrats, Seattle is one of my favorite places!! You'll have an awesome time there.

I had a good few weeks of feeling low and stuck too. What's helped me is having a few encouraging conversations with my advisors, who all essentially said that many, many students are much more successful their second time applying. That's something I've seen evidence of here on GC as well. So, chin up - we'll try it again next year. In the meantime, I'm perfectly happy to continue working at my job and saving some money. With the funding packages some universities are offering, it looks like having extra cash will come in handy.

Sorry to hear that. Being wait listed is so hard. I've decided to just treat my wait lists as implied rejections at this point, and I'm already starting to mentally prepare for a second round of applications next year. Hugs!

That's quite a collection! What's your area, if you don't mind sharing?

YES!!

Seconded! Rutgers looks awesome. It's definitely on my list for next year's apps. And congrats on your decision, kurayamino!

Do we get a minute to process, though? I assumed that if I heard that I got in the morning of April 15th, I had to respond by that afternoon or risk losing the spot. I agree that waiting sucks, but I definitely understand people taking their time to decide. These are really big decisions, especially if you're considering a cross-country move or moving with a partner, so take all the time you need. I guess the upside of being waitlisted is that all my decisions are out of my hands for the time being!

I was there! I can second how awful it was. The desks in the room were actually vibrating. I think death metal was playing for a stretch of time. Parking was closed off at all the lots because of the frat event, so I had to street park and wake up a friend at 8 am (on a Saturday) in a frenzy to ask him to feed the meter two hours later so I wouldn't get a ticket (he's an awesome friend and he got a truly spectacular burrito in return.) I was sent a voucher from ETS too and was thinking about using it if I have to reapply, but I'm honestly wondering if I want to potentially go through all of that again. I still feel traumatized.

You're welcome! I'm pretty new to the show too (I just started watching when it went up on Netflix) but I'm so glad I finally joined the X-files party.

My theory is that everyone who moves to LA starts out loving it until one day they find themselves sitting in 405 traffic, delirious from the 90 degree heat even though it's only MARCH (seriously?), realizing that they pay more for parking than they pay for their health insurance premiums and seriously considering the idea of adopting a child for the sole purpose of using the carpool lane. It's real out here on these streets, you guys.

No, your post doesn't come off that way at all! I was just trying to reassure the people feeling bad about taking time to make their decisions. BTW, I'm really rooting for you at USC - it's where I went for undergrad and the faculty are some of the greatest and most supportive people on earth. I know that multiple people have gotten in off the waitlist there in the past few years.

Please don't feel pressured to rush into any decisions! As I'm sure many wait listers know, most acceptance notifications only come out around mid-April anyway, and I at least don't have any schools pressuring me to accept offers before then, so please do take all the time you need to make the right decision for you. Of course, if you're in at a school that you already know you truly don't want to attend, by all means go ahead and let them know

Spring time on the east coast is the best, I'm so jealous. High 60s sounds amazing right now. It's 93 in LA today and it looks like summer is already here, unfortunately. Time to crank up the AC! As for coping strategies, I'm surprised to find that somehow this process has sort of turned me into a fitness enthusiast. I used to scoff at the people who said they couldn't get through finals week without going to the gym, but now I'm pretty sure that it's helped me avoid a lot of unecessary stress. As always, I defer to the wisdom of Elle Woods:

Fresh Off the Boat is so good. SO GOOD. And Constance Wu is the best part.

Yep. They're really selling that MA hard, and before they've even made any decisions! It's pretty off-putting.

I'm not even moving anywhere and this is making me want to take a road trip to South Dakota.

I've also been really focused on the idea that I need to move from undergrad straight into more school, whether its a PhD program or an MA, as if taking a year or two off would somehow make me lose my momentum or cause me to fall behind. Now that I see how many people have benefitted from taking time off to do other things, I'm much less terrified of the idea. Even kind of excited about it! This morning I was offered a full time position at the online publication I've been interning at. The company is tons of fun and full of really nice and supportive people. I definitely think that taking this job once I graduate is, for me, a much better option than going into an MA right now. I need some time to breathe. I also don't need debt. I think I've been so narrow minded about getting into a program and having a plan for the next few years that I haven't given myself time to consider other options. Anyway, thanks for sharing, hypervodka and MonicaBang!