Mr. McSuck

I thought that meant you definitely got in, and the university just has to process your paperwork and stuff to verify your credentials... or something like that.

Aye, competition be rough, especially at some of those big name schools... It would be interesting to know how many applications they actually receive. I saw someone wrote on the results page that Georgetown (if i remember correctly) got 9000 MA and PhD applications or something, which just seems absurd to me. That must be a typo. Yep, I have Wheelock's Latin (7th edition). I think I was discouraged cause Latin didn't come as easy to me as whatever cursory studies I've done of the Romance languages besides Spanish-- Catalan and Portuguese namely, but I probably should have known better than to expect it would. I haven't given it up yet, though; I'm just not going after it with the zeal I did when I started.

Ah I see. Well, you have a very diverse background, some might consider that a strength. I just got done with my undergrad in December, with 2 majors--Philosophy and Spanish. Philosophy was my primary major, but I found myself enjoying my Spanish classes (particularly literature) way more than my philosophy stuff, so I want to continue on with that. And particularly I'd really like to do a thesis or some kind of large research project. I have a few ideas I find interesting/exciting, and I think it'd benefit from the challenge. My spoken Portuguese is virtually non-existent. Passive understanding--i.e. reading--is a lot easier to come by, I've found. I tried doing some self-study with Latin too, but that, for me, proved to be pretty slow-going. From time to time I will get out my Latin book and try a few exercises, but I would probably need some formal instruction to make any real progress. But it's just a fleeting interest probably, a consequence of having too much free time. Either way, I bet some university is gonna view your diverse academic background as a strength-- you could provide a novel perspective in class discussion, for instance. That's why departments like a certain level of diversity, isn't it? Without it class discussion would just be a bunch of people affirming each other's views of everything (or at least probably not straying outside of a certain scope). And 7 classes is a good number, it would seem to me. If they're 3 credits each, that's 21 credits, which I think is sufficient to have a good sense of the topography of the discipline.... but I dunno.

Likewise! It's also definitely one of my top choices from what I applied to. I haven't really given much thought to an official secondary/research language; though during my undergrad I did some self-study of Portuguese to the extent that I checked out a book of the grammar and enjoyed deciphering some Portuguese articles. It was fun. I also just look forward to moving to a new place. I've been in my home state for awhile now, and while it's home and comfortable and etc., I'm getting antsy to head off to somewhere new.

Haha. Too right you are. In a way it gives us hope though: imagining tons of the initially chosen applicants also have offers from certain highly sought Ivy league institutions. Maybe Indiana acts as like a safety school for the creme-of-the crop Ivy league bound folks. Just a matter of... waiting... for what may come.

Congratulations! You got into some really great programs. You must have had some very impressive applications.

Looking back at the email they sent me, I see that mine pretty much said the same thing--"We received a very large number of strong applications this year". I guess I read into that more than I should have maybe. I'd think they would have separate lists for M.A. and PhD depending on which one an applicant applied to, and I'm sure they have their favorites, but... I don't know. Maybe it would depend on who declined their initial offer into the program, insofar as they might want to fill that place with a similar candidate on the wait list; e.g., if someone interested in the linguistics side of things declined, they'd find another linguistics person to fill that spot, instead of literature. I have too much time on my hands to wonder and speculate about this, though. It's probably best to stay busy and keep yourself occupied, but that's easier said than done sometimes. The waiting is rough, agreed.

I was thinking the same about Indiana. I was (and still am) really curious about where I was on the wait list, but they weren't really forthcoming with that info, just like in your case. The director wrote that there was a lot of interest in the program too, maybe more than normal (that's what I read into the comment), but maybe that's just standard wait list notification fare. Either way, there's still hope.

I just got into the University of Oklahoma MA program, with stipend and tuition remission and all that jazz. It's not as big a name as some of the programs you guys are contending with, but I'm rather pleased with myself all the same. Btw, I didn't have an interview with the department, nor did I have to submit a voice sample. (This might be of minor import to lmchandl.)

Thanks for the info, Beatriz--it was definitely illuminating. That scenario outlined in the post you quoted, about being on speakerphone with practically the whole department listening in, seems terrifying, so I guess it's good to keep in mind that it is a possibility, albeit an unlikely one. The other stuff doesn't seem too bad though. And I bet they're a lot easier on an MA candidate than they would be on a PhD, in terms of the sophistication of responses that are expected. Anyway, we shall see... maybe I won't even have to do any kind of interview.

Greetings. I'm not applying for a PhD, just an MA, but I reckon the process is similar, so I decided to post stuff here. I've never gone through the Grad school application process before, so I have a few questions (bear with me): What kind of format do the interviews usually have? What would you recommend that I do to prepare for one? Are they usually all in Spanish? Also, I put on my application that I have "advanced" reading knowledge of Catalan, which I honestly thought I had at the time, but in retrospect I'm not so sure: I recently sat down to try and read a whole book in Catalan, and now I think I was a bit too generous by calling my ability "advanced". Would I have to worry about them testing my knowledge of Catalan in an interview? Should I bring up that I might have overstated my Catalan reading ability to some prospective interviewer?