jean-luc-gohard
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Posts posted by jean-luc-gohard
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I'm v excited to say that I will be attending Rutgers for my PhD in the fall.
Pleased to say I will be at the University of South Carolina in the fall!
I've been admitted to UNC-Chapel Hill!!!!
I accepted the offer and I couldn't be happier if ice cream and waffles and cappuccinos started falling from the sky. I'd been hoping *hard* since February.
I'll be in North Carolina this fall. Go Tar Heels!
CONGRATS!!!
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Declined Stanford English. Hope someone here benefits. It seems redundant to relate how awesome everything was there, so I'll simply state it is as good of a place as you would assume.
Will be attending UChicago in the fall! Quite excited.
Best wishes to all going forward.
Congrats on your decision! Everyone I spoke to at UChicago when I was considering MAPH was awesome. Seems like a very supportive place.
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Welcome to the jungle! Congrats!
If you have any questions, talk to me. Pm me.
Whoops, cross-posted with you, but super excited to meet you too! I'm gonna shoot you a message soon.
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CONGRATULATIONS!! Excited to get to meet y'all in the fall!!
Yaay, can't wait to meet you both!! And congrats jean-luc, I'm glad there were spots for both of us!!
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 guess you could say UCLA's motto this app season was...
*sunglasses*
...(jean-luc) gohard or go home.
*YEAAAAAAAHHHHHH*
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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!!
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I really wish we could all hang out in one room and drink some cocoa while we wait for the last minute offers to come in. I can't imagine what you all are feeling!
This pretty much sums it up for me:
- 1Q84 and staggerlee
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Heading for Seattle this autumn
Excitement ahoy!Congrats, Seattle is one of my favorite places!! You'll have an awesome time there.
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Jean-luc-gohard,I am in the same boat.I am feeling so terribly low and stuck.
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.
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Didn't get into BC. Pretty bummed.
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!
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Declined Cornell, Brown, Toronto, and UVA... hope this ends up brightening someone's day.
Cornell was particularly hard to turn down. Their people were fantastic.
That's quite a collection! What's your area, if you don't mind sharing?
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Congrats kurayamino! If I could do the whole process over again, I'd apply to Rutgers. Sounds fantastic.
Seconded! Rutgers looks awesome. It's definitely on my list for next year's apps.
And congrats on your decision, kurayamino!
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I've been told, in so many words, that cohorts often aren't finalized until the end of April. It does seem like, once the visits are over, things start to shift, but then the first round of people notified off the waitlist need a minute to process, too.
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!
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The answer: super badly.
I already described it in the GRE thread from this past cycle so excuse my repetition but basically: our testing room was beside an outdoor frat concert. The bass literally shook the walls of the room as we wrote. After an hour and a half of that, an elementary school play day appeared in its place and we had screaming children right outside the room. (This is not to mention that they started the test an hour late because they had to 'wait to fill up the room'; if I didn't feel like livestock before then, I certainly did at that point. I was stressed as hell over getting a parking ticket since the maximum time we were allowed to buy was not covered by the testing time with the addition of the one hour of waiting).
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.
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This post honestly just made my day! Thank you!
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.
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I am currently starting season 6 of X-files. It is actually my first time watching the series. I am kind of embarrassed to admit that since it's been out for quite awhile and now I am constantly trying to avoid hearing anything about it for fear of spoilers...but better late than never!
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Either that or the exact opposite.
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.
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Agreed! I hope my post isn't being interpreted as me being pushy with folks. I only asked because I'm curious if campus visits really "sealed the deal" or not. I'm kind of in the same boat actually... my campus visit made my decision much less clear cut as well.
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.
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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
- 1Q84 and Dr. Old Bill
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One week ago today, it was 20 degrees here, and there was half a foot of snow on the ground. Yesterday it was in the high 60s, and the long-term forecast shows nothing below 50. While I can't rightly say I suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder, I also can't deny that I am typically in far better spirits when the weather is warm and the days are longer. It also means that I can get back into my post-class-day-commute routine of smoking a cigar with my windows down on the drive home while I listen to music. It combines literally four things that I love: driving, listening to music, smoking cigars, and feeling the warm breeze in my hair. Heaven.
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:
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More intel from my end:
I was told I'm being moved to MA consideration (I applied for a PhD). This was on the 24th of Feb. Followed by a slew of emails why an MA from Chicago is a good idea.
Yep. They're really selling that MA hard, and before they've even made any decisions! It's pretty off-putting.
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Here's another tip: if you are driving across the country via the Northern route, take a detour through South Dakota. With Custer State Park, Badlands, Mount Rushmore, Sioux Falls, and Crazy Horse, South Dakofa far more beautiful than it has any right to be. Plus, Wall Drug is a trip.
I'm not even moving anywhere and this is making me want to take a road trip to South Dakota.
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There are only a few things that I would add: I'm another one of those no-name B.A.-only and it didn't hurt me, but that isn't to say that a Masters would hurt you. However, pretty much all of the programs you applied to strongly prefer candidates with only a BA (particularly Harvard and Yale).
Even though I don't think applying with a Masters is a bad thing, and it could give you the necessary opportunity to assess and refocus your research goals in a structured environment (which I think is the more important part of an application), but, to my knowledge, NYU's MA program doesn't have a particularly solid placement record in PhD programs (this is just what some professor at Rutgers obliquely told me in the past couple of days) and even "full funding" at NYU in general is actually difficult to maintain with New York's substantial cost of living. It may be stressful (especially in regards to trying to make ends meet), but it is a good program and may be a good opportunity. I just... I really just don't want you to feel like you have to continue school at this point. You really can just... stop for a second. You've graduated from a prestigious university: you can get a job--an internship, at a non-profit, overseas--you can get a part-time job with no direction. NYU is not the only option, and it may not be the best option.
I honestly think you will just benefit from time. I think that your undergrad was ample preparation, and you just need a little time for the ideas you're entertaining to percolate. You have the benefit of being rejected from the school you actually went to, so that's a great opportunity to work with people in your department to assess what parts of your application need to be improved. I was shut-out the first time I applied, I stepped away, got a job I loved and had fun with. Then, at the last minute (like September), I wrote the writing sample I used to submit. My real world experiences made my research goal far more focused than they would have been otherwise. I realized how lofty (and, worse, amorphous) my original goals were and made sure to be more specific. I also had more time, because I wasn't simultaneously studying for ETS's gibberish standardized tests and my undergraduate actual tests. Even with a job, I had more time to devote to my applications, because it didn't feel like I was going straight from working on schoolwork to working on MORE SCHOOLWORK to back to working on real schoolwork. I was exhausted and shaken. I didn't enjoy the experience of applying my first time around.
Still, I'm extremely biased against undergraduates applying right out of UG, especially so young (I say as if I'm not a pesky whipper-snapper myself) because there's just so much we can do that does not involve stressing about school, so, please, others chime in...
Trailing on hypervodka, my two cents, bgt28: I'm a huge proponent of taking some time off between undergrad and grad. One of my undergrad professors advised me to do so when I was terrified as a senior and lamenting the end of an era. I was all "I've only ever known school! Of course I should stay in school! I'm good at school and rubbish at everything else!"
But "everything else" turned out not to be so terribly frightening, and I gained a lot of valuable experience in a non-academic career. Now I'm embarking on the PhD with a great deal more perspective and determination. I'm not doing it because I don't know what else to do -- I'm doing it because I want to and because I know it will enrich my future career plans.
In the end, there's much you can do to prepare yourself for a future in academia even if you're not ensconced in a classroom.
ETA: P.S. I should add that I did end up in a career IN academia after my first few years out of it. But the experience I gained outside of academia allowed me to get my first job in a university, which led to a master's degree and a clearer understanding of the PhD process.
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!
APRIL 15TH PARTY THREAD (2015 edition)
in Literature, and Rhetoric and Composition
Posted
YEAH!!! Congrats on being done!