MonicaBang

I'm in the same boat, Goldfinch. If you glean any insight, would you please share?

I had a very similar experience visiting UCSD a couple years ago. The DGS and a POI were friendly enough, but there was definitely no encouragement. My biggest suggestion if you're interested in UCSD is to make sure you thoroughly understand their program. It is very comparative-lit focused, so it will be to your benefit if your research interests clearly align with theirs. I suspect they get a good number of applicants who want to attend because it's the only PhD program in San Diego, not because it's that applicant's ideal place to pursue graduate work. So the better you truly fit, the better your chances are. Before reaching out to POIs, you might also try to reach out to current grad students. Check out their work, see if there's any overlap with yours, and venture a friendly email. Then you can get a little more perspective on the program and the professors you think you'd like to work with.

Does that first chart actually say "Where tenure line faculty earned their terminal degrees at"? Come on, chart makers. Delete the unnecessary preposition.

If it helps at all, I think they're reeeealllly slooooow this week due to spring break. I received an acceptance voicemail on Tuesday asking me to call or email back, but despite my reaching out, I have yet to speak to anyone in person. (I'm trying not to freak out about this and worry that they've changed their minds about me. I need a vomit emoticon.)

I'm the second Florida acceptance on the results board. As thepriorwalter pointed out, I think they're slowly notifying their accepted students. Details I got were 18 admits out of ~200 applicants.

Congrats on the new acceptances! And I thank thepriorwalter for this reminder -- it definitely helps tame the butterflies.

I agree with everyone who has encouraged you not to discount your emotions. It really sounds like School B is where your heart wants to go, and I don't think that an MA from a lesser-ranked program will ruin your shot at a good PhD program in a couple of years. And if you end up on the TT job track, you'll have to relocate to who-knows-where, so being near your family now is a worthy deciding factor.

Chiming in to add food for thought to kurayamino's post ^^ and to respond to something MollifiedMolly said a few pages ago: This is pretty much my experience. Maybe this is bizarre, but I didn't look at rank at all when I first started selecting the schools I would apply to. I picked my schools based on the expertise available in the very specific area I wanted to study. The only upper-tier school I applied to was UNC Chapel Hill (implied rejection), and only because I have family in NC. So I want to emphasize fit. I didn't apply to any top tens, because my work didn't "fit" there. Maybe I should have approached my process a bit differently, but all along I had two particular schools in mind, neither of which is ranked even in the top 40, but both of which have strong programs in my specialization. I'll admit that all this talk about rankings does make me feel a little uneasy, but I'm also certain that I'm going to study with the best community of scholars for what I want to do. I also know many people in my field with TT jobs who went to the schools I've been looking at, so precedent tells me that job prospects (dismal as they may be) might be a little brighter depending on the specialization.

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.

This is an interesting thought, and something I've wondered about myself. I've heard alternating views on this -- some friends who are in admissions admin have mused that repeated applying shows you're truly interested, but others (including myself) have posited that it is a reminder to the committee that they already made a decision about you. (I'm a little embarrassed about the idea of the adcomm being like "oh, her again, bye bye!" But I suppose I'm a .005-second blip on their application radar, so embarrassment probably isn't warranted.)

Why, thank you.

This is all such helpful information. Does anyone have advice on how to approach funding negotiation? I'd love to find out if UConn can match another school's offer (there's a $4K difference), but I feel like it's a delicate dance and I definitely don't know the steps. P.S. Thank you, lyonessrampant, for that fantastic list of questions!

Long-time lurker, first-time poster here. I have to chime in and agree that UCSD must be looking for a very, very specific type of student. I applied there three (!) times to appease my SO (we have lived in SD for nearly a decade and have both made great professional and personal connections in San Diego), and I was rejected each time. I don't think it's sour grapes to wonder if they screen out candidates based on language proficiency.