gughok

What do you think of the reported Princeton phone call? It makes sense given their earlier deadline this year (by two weeks), but I want to believe it's fake, because the only person I've spoken to on the phone today is my mom, and she is not a professor at Princeton.

My advisor just informed me that a friend of hers at Rutgers said they would make their decisions by the end of then last week of February, and thus that we would be informed early March. No surprise there but at least we can be sure not to expect a surprise. (My advisor also told me not to worry, which paradoxically made me neurotic; does she know something?)

Now, I didn't apply to UC Riverside, but: really? Like, actually? It blows my mind that they can get started this late.

All this talk of anonymous sources has me picturing a discreet, undercover Jac exchanging briefcases with strange people in trench coats and big hats.

Murphy's Law (generalized): whenever it's possible to state any vaguely related variant of Murphy's laws in a particular situation to your own detriment, that variant will hold.

About a dozen programs sent out their responses at least a week earlier than predicted, so you'd think I'd be lucky enough to have applied to maybe one of them, right? Nooooo. My programs are all stubbornly on-schedule. At best I'll get my first piece of news in a week.

I, too, am frustrated. I'll probably need to wait until next Friday until I hear the first thing (if anything). I have had absolutely no word on any of my programs. So frustratingly nerve-wracking.

I would be incredibly surprised but equally grateful if this succeeded. My impression is that admissions committees are not eager to make particularly unambiguous statements concerning where they are in the process, so I would predict that your calls might not get useful answers (and, if multiple calls are made, committee members might grow irritated). But I would appreciate someone at least trying, and if it works that would be all the better.

My voicemail isn't set up and I'm not sure how to do it. I swear I am a competent human being.

I'm worried about all these phone acceptances. What happens if, despite all my efforts to the contrary, I just happen to be busy when my phone rings? Will they try again later? Send me an email? Reject me because I wasn't sitting on my phone?

Hopefully not in that order?

I'm doing an undergrad thesis myself, and the only advice I can give people is: don't be me. I don't strictly speaking know what my thesis is on yet. I have two papers, both of which my advisor has said are close to thesis-worthy seeds. I am waiting on some more feedback from him before choosing between them.

You probably want to try Sumerian.

I'm trying to keep my leisure time to a minimum by writing short stories - aiming for one a week.

So how many days are there in 24 hours?

Venting time: UCSB acceptances are in. But UCSB wasn't predicted until early March. Does this mean all our predictions may be void??? My top choice isn't "supposed" to respond until around the same time as UCSB was expected. I might wake up tomorrow with an answer, for all I know! Aaaaaaa!

Thank you for this thread. I'm just frustrated from all the waiting - everybody's getting at least some sort of response, and I can't reasonable expect anything for another two weeks. I'm past being anxious to get in, at this point. I just want to hear something. My entire future is up in the air and none of my choices are going to relieve my confusion in any timely manner. I'm taking solace in an assortment of songs at the moment. Here's just one (instrumental, so I don't step on anyone's vocal preferences):

Yeah, I did see that post, and I admit I'm not sure why it was deleted. It seemed perfectly polite and reasonable. In any case I think we should honour the request.

I think that is the general assumption. It would be anomalously early for NYU, and though I didn't see the post, it was apparently a bit of an angry ramble.

On the opposite side of things, I've been flat-out refusing to mark my own race on any applications that didn't additionally offer a diversity statement. I'm an immigrant from the Middle East (I was born and half-raised there), and because of the census laws that makes me legally "white". I hope it does not seem unreasonably self-important of me to say that I do not feel white at all. If I was white I wouldn't be terrified that my mother might be attacked on the streets any day because of what she wears. I wouldn't be afraid of being singled out for my decidedly unamerican appearance every time I head into town. I wouldn't be worried that my homeland is going to be invaded and my extended family killed. The craziest part is that if I was born literally a couple hundred kilometres to the east of my actual birth city, I would be legally Asian. It's absurd. This diversity stuff is so often so poorly executed it's absolute bullshit.

Definitely second that it makes sense, but also the post seems to imply that at least some people behind admissions keep an eye on the survey page, and maybe the forums. Which, to me, is a bit intimidating to consider.

Yeah I'm actually pretty seriously planning on trying something audacious like that. Maybe writing and sending Elon Musk a manifesto of why, when designing self-driving cars, he should listen to philosophers on how those should behave in various trolley-dilemma-like situations. Then arguing why I'm the right one for the job

Plan B: study for and take the LSAT, go to law school, become lawyer, keep reading and writing philosophy on the side. Plan C: brush up my tech skills, work as a software developer/engineer. Plan D: linguistics. OPTIONAL BONUSES: Plan A1: finally succeed as an independent fiction writer. Plan A2: convince Tesla they need a Chief Executive Philosopher, ???, profit.

I suspect whoever did get the interview might be reading this and shaking their fist indignantly at their screen.

I, too, would like to congratulate our anonymous admit(s). *waves at the air*