busybee
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Posts posted by busybee
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I'm still waiting on Yale Summer FLAS. I've also reached out to ask about dates with no response.
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7 hours ago, Rivai said:
I'm so sorry this is happening to you, to think they promoted in their Facebook to email them and all if you didn't receive an email. Absolutely crazy they can't just give you a simple answer, I would recommend thinking about your options in regards to Grad school to deal with the nervousness. I always make a plan B to look forward to when I apply to things, I feel it's really the best way to cope. Not being accepted to grad school or a scholarship is nothing to be ashamed about (I've got a friend who applied three years for a Fulbright and got it on his third try). A lot of people don't realize that it's not just hard work, it's if you have decent advisors who know what they're doing, good professors/mentors who put you in the right path, resilience, and parents or friends who support you, etc.
Thanks Rivai, and @mrs12 for your support and kind words. I've already applied to SALAM and I'm working on a couple of FLAS applications, so it has been helping a lot to work on these other essays while I wait to hear from CLS. I've been really lucky in my academic journey so far to have a lot of these things--great advisors, mentors, professors, friends. Honestly, I think it was just an unfortunate week with timing and the weather. My second semester of my Ph.D. was supposed to start on Tuesday, but with snow and ice and no infrastructure to deal with it, my university cancelled the first two days of classes which left me with even more break-time to obsess, instead of distract myself with work like I normally would.
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I'm having a really rough time still waiting to hear if I made it through just the first round (two days and counting now). No word with grad school apps was a bad sign, this feels the same. I've called and emailed but only got through to one very tired, annoyed staff member who would not tell me anything. I've never been in this kind of situation before, and it's a lot harder to sit and wait patiently than I thought.
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16 hours ago, Mateng said:
@busybee omg really!? They're still sending out emails?
Yes. Still waiting unfortunately!
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Still no email for me. I'm pretty bummed. And all they will tell me on the phone is that it may not be today.
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Is anyone else still waiting?
- snegurochka and mirzadeh
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I put in the totally incorrect email address for my primary. gmail.edu rather than .com! Crap!
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5 minutes ago, snegurochka said:
wait, i just checked the facebook group and apparently the emails have already been sent out??
not sure if they send them out all at once or in batches though
Where did you see this?
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Hi @gradanth. If you want to PM, I can help you out with your statement.
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On 1/10/2018 at 11:00 PM, mrs12 said:
I just wanted to pop in and comment on this! I was a recipient last year and a finalist the year before, and I have to say that the mix of people on my program, at least, came from all walks of life. There were plenty of students who had "done it all" so to speak, as well as students who had no real background in the language on paper. Obviously they put a lot of thought into having well-rounded cohorts, but the panel is looking way more at your demonstrable dedication to the language than whether or not you've ever/never studied abroad before or if you've had a lot of other opportunities in the past.
Thanks for the insight, @mrs12! Congrats on winning last year--CLS is amazing and it helped me so much with language and everything else. I hope you're right! My CLS cohort from 2014 had only a couple of graduate students, and many more students who were like me at the time (few awards and opportunities; CLS was actually my first time abroad, ever, and I went to a public university.) My graduate school CLS advisor (a former CLS Persian application reader) told me that diversity and lack of opportunity is prioritized over dedication to language and prior successes. Of course, maybe not as many graduate students apply as undergraduate, which I've heard from other past CLS'ers as well. But to be honest, if someone who's never been abroad before is chosen over me, I'm sincerely happy for them! I do have other opportunities for which I can apply. Many CLS'ers I've met over the years got such a boost up from winning the award (like I did originally). For me, it's about a dire need for more language practice, period, and I can likely get that from other scholarships (FLAS, for example).
Anyway, good luck to everyone!
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I'm so freaking nervous! CLS feels like the hardest thing to win--they want remarkable diversity, people who haven't won a lot of things before, and people who don't have many opportunities--and I don't think I fit the bill on any of those! Nevertheless, I want it so bad. It was the spark for my whole academic career in 2014. Has anyone else received a CLS before?
@nervousgal, I put down finding a personal balance, and wrote an anecdote about getting stranded in India at the airport while simultaneously losing my bag and how I handled it.
One thing that will surely help is that I'm going to stay off grad cafe forum and focus on my second semester of grad school. :-) Good luck everyone!
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I have paragraphs on word. So when I copy and paste onto the online application, I just separate the paragraphs with a line of space between them. It doesn't go toward your word count or anything.
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3 hours ago, Peanut said:
Hey all. I am nearly a year out of undergrad and this is my 2nd round of applications. Last year I applied to 11 programs and was accepted to 1 with minimal funding, so I did not attend. This year I applied to 6 programs, and so far I've gotten 3 rejections and 1 alternate list decision from my top choice PhD program. I'm not hopeful that grad school is gonna happen this round, either. Although I graduated SCL, one of my profs/recommendors thinks that my GRE scores may be part of the reason why I've gotten such rotten luck (I took the GRE in Fall 2015 and got 139Q(literally bubble-raced it)/150V/4.5W). I know they're horrible, but...honestly I just don't think that I have the aptitude for tests. Even with the ACT, my highest score was a 23, and that was when I was actually taking math courses. Currently I'd say that my math level is below that of a middle schooler.
So, as I may very well be applying for the 3rd time this fall, I'm just curious how many times it took you to get into your current program. Is it "normal" to take a few tries to get in? I get that PhD programs are crazy competitive and I'm not trying to beat myself up about it, but it's hard not to.
Hi Peanut. If it is the GRE dragging you down, I would recommend taking it again and focusing your sole attention on the verbal. My undergrad advisor told me that the only thing she cares about in admissions, when it comes to the GRE, is the verbal portion. Of course, she is only one voice, but I had similar quant. and writing scores to you, although a very high verbal score, and I received some Ph.D. offers. At the same time, I doubt my offers had very little to do with my GRE and had much more to do with my SOP, very high GPA, research experience, and letters of rec., etc. These are areas to focus on improving, much more than the GRE. Have you emailed any professors/POIs from your programs and asked them how to improve your application for next round? They can give you some solid, very constructive advice about how to do this.
Best of luck!
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16 hours ago, theigloo87 said:
VG/VG, VG/VG, VG/E- Awarded- Geosciences-Tectonics
Senior Undergrad
Talked to my advisor yesterday who used to sit on a board for NSF, and she told me there are many problems with the system they use to quantify "the quality" of applications. She said something about it being easy for panelists to spot a "quality student" and a "quality application", but it's hard to actually define on a quantity scale what that means resulting in "intangible" components of the application. She said someone wrote a whole book on this concept...
Congratulations!!!
This is interesting, and doesn't surprise me at all. I really feel like I won the lottery with this fellowship. I'm sure more than half of the people who apply are of "high quality." And reading some of the comments on this forum, it seems like some applications really just hit bad luck with over-worked and tired reviewers. One of my cohort-mates had five E's and one P, and got HM--but I feel like she deserved it more than me, with so much more research experience and publications! The last reviewer just seemed to miss her bold-faced "broader impacts" section and gave her a P.
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3 minutes ago, Plantguypete said:
I was just awarded it as well! As an undergraduate! So much for getting sleep tonight! haha
Congrats Plantguypete!! Who cares about sleep!! Go celebrate!!!
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I'm shaking. I freaking got it. Applied as an undergraduate. VG/VG, VG/VG, E/E.
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1 hour ago, troikaparallel said:
@museum_geek Thanks for that! I'm applying as a sociocultural student, so the Field Museum tieup while interesting is not super relevant to my case (and specifically what I'm studying) I believe. With regards to funding, they've been stellar: I have funding for the first 4 years from a fellowship, and they've promised to extend support/help with alternate sources of funding after, as long as I don't prove to be an idiot. Still, feeling a little iffy since I haven't heard too much about the University...
UIC is my undergraduate alma mater. It is an amazing, warm, and generous department! If you have any questions, feel free to send me a PM.
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7 hours ago, MollyBee said:
Thank you so much, this is very helpful! At this point, I think attending the colloquia may be taking the place of an interview. I know one other person was also invited to attend, and both of us live in or around NYC.
I agree that the questions concerning level of interest are intended to help them make their jobs easier by avoiding wasting time. So it does make sense to let them know that I have other offers and that I would still prefer to attend CUNY if possible. I suppose I was a little worried about coming across as someone who would need extra attention or hand-holding (not always attractive qualities in a student/advisee). On the other hand, I can see how asking these questions expresses my continued interest and ability to advocate for myself. I appreciate the push and support!
I contacted the admissions chair asking for clarification, updating him on my other offers, and reiterating that CUNY is my first choice. He responded that not everyone in the 2nd cut will be offered admission or waitlisted, that I am currently in the "mix" for admission with a possible fellowship, but that he won't be able to tell me definitively until next week.
Congratulations on your admissions offers, and thank you once again!
I applied to CUNY last year and was in a similar position. CUNY was originally my top choice; I had a skype interview with my POI, and then flew out to NYC (on my own dime) to attend the colloquium where I met a couple of faculty members, not on the admissions committee, with whom I had informal chats. Afterwards, I emailed my POI and told her that I loved the university and that it was my top choice. Unfortunately, I didn't hear anything for more than a month, even from my POI. By the time I received an email telling me my position on their wait-list, and asking me if I would come with a tuition-only fellowship, I had received a phenomenal, fully-funded offer elsewhere at a much higher ranked department with a much better fit.
Others who had been in the same position as me before told me that CUNY often makes last-minute, April 14th or 15th offers, and that if I really wanted to get in, I should wait until then. However, I was pretty disillusioned, and knew I didn't want to spend potentially up to 10 years (I know a few people who attended CUNY for anthropology who took ten years to finish, including a then-current grad student with whom I skyped) in a department with such poor communication. It was clear that the other offer was from a department that really wanted me: I interviewed with multiple professors there who were incredibly excited by my proposal and ideas; faculty responded to my emails, and one even offered to read my statement of purpose. They also have a quicker completion rate of 6 years, and an incredible job placement percentage. So when I finally received the wait-list email from CUNY, I had already made my decision. I wrote them an email back and requested they remove me from the wait-list; I was tired of being dragged through the mud.
I'm sure others have had better experiences with CUNY, and I know that every single candidate is different etc.--but from what you described it seems that you too may be in a muddy position.
Good luck with your visit and in making your decision! This is only my experience, so take it with a grain of salt.
- museum_geek and Waltzfordebby
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8 hours ago, enfp said:
On a somewhat unrelated note, can I just say as an applicant from a Muslim country (not on the banned list, but chances are it may be soon) I don't even know what an acceptance would mean at this point (I've gotten no acceptances or rejections so far). I did my MA in the US and had an amazing experience. Never thought I'd be questioning if applying for my PhD to the US was a good idea. But I am absolutely doing that right now. //rant over//
@enfp: As an American who works in, lives in, and loves MENA countries and cultures as well as Islam, I am absolutely devastated by this, along with what feels like the majority of my country. Even though I am abroad, I too am calling lawmakers and trying desperately to do anything and everything I can.
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@stripedand @terraaurea It is very possible to get into Ph.D. programs straight from undergrad! I did, as well as quite a few others in my cohort. It's true that some programs are definitely more keen on taking students with masters degrees, but my program is in the top ten of the NRC ratings and I got in right out of undergrad. It is very possible!
Just hang in there, don't count your chickens before they are hatched! I'm rooting for you!
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3 hours ago, BeeKayCee said:
Hey All!
I'm a semi finalist for Morocco ETA. Congrats on people who have already heard about interviews! And congrats for those who also got Semi-Finalist status!
It seems like we're in for another long wait, but I was wondering if anyone knew about if Morocco has interviews normally. There isn't much on the ETA site itself, and in the google spreadsheet it doesn't seem to have anything about Morocco ETAs getting interviews. I'm curious cause I'm currently in another country as a PCV and so my Arabic and French have fallen by the wayside, if I need to do an interview using language I know that the third language is going to invade my speech and it's going to reflect pretty poorly on my actual language skills. I'm wondering if I should start brushing up... yesterday.
Thanks for any insight or direction!
Hi @BeeKayCee. First off: congratulations on making it past the first round! That's a huge accomplishment in and of itself.
As for interviews: I'm an ETA in Bahrain this year. Neither me nor any of my fellow ETAs had interviews. We have also spent time with the Moroccan and Jordanian ETAs, and I personally have not heard anything from them about having been interviewed--although I never asked any one this question directly.
Hope this helps a bit!
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Hi everyone. I am a successful applicant from last year's cycle, and I know firsthand about the liminality, anxiety, and pain of waiting on graduate school decisions. Although people told me on this forum that the decisions were not personal, that many people who have plenty of merit are not accepted and that much of it is due to departmental politics of the year, etc., I still struggled to separate my sense of self and my self worth from admissions decisions. I just want to extend a hand: if anyone wants to ask any questions or express any fears or anxieties that they perhaps wouldn't want to share publicly, please feel free to send me a PM and I'll be happy to listen. A problem shared is a problem halved.
- enfp, klasik and museum_geek
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On 12/22/2016 at 1:19 AM, Paloma said:
Alabama and Emory are both programs you should check out, as well. Alabama fully funds pretty much everyone who gets accepted, including MA students.
Emory also funds their PhD students quite nicely. Private schools are at least pretty reliable on that account.
FLAS 2018/2019
in The Bank
Posted
Thanks, Africanagyal, it is a little. There are others in my cohort who are also still waiting on summer decisions for things. I'm definitely getting used to waiting, since academia keeps me so busy like 90% of the time!
Where are you waiting to hear from?