ontolome

coffeeplease, yes, heard from columbia early this week. no official letter yet though

hi marocchino, congrats to you too on your informal harvard acceptance is it your top choice? i do not have the formal letter yet. prof. burgard told me it would probably not arrive until mid-march. however i think i am leaning towards yale for the time being... and waiting to wake up from this awfully nice dream.

hey vertige, that is very interesting re: your conversation with the princeton prof. when i was trying to narrow down my list of places to apply, prof. burgard told me not to bother to apply to princeton because he was convinced i would be unhappy there, whereas yale would be a much better fit. i originally wanted to include northwestern in my list as well because of fenves and dastur. so yes, if it is of some consolation to you, these profs seem to consider the interests of folks who would want to work with nägele or fenves to be irreconcilable with princeton's.

i don't think it means you're out. a prof wanted to check in with me right before the final decision meeting because he wanted to ask me a final question before going in to make the decision. since i had spoken to him just before, he let me know the decision right afterwards. i think i just got to know very early because of that last-minute concern of his. if there were no last-minute concerns about the other applicants to be admitted, then they probably just didnt bother to call. oh, and he said they werent meeting with the deans for another two weeks, so the official decisions are coming out quite a bit later, i think.

shocked. just got informal news of acceptance to harvard over skype. this decision will cause my head (and ego) to explode. what i have learned from this process is that the writing sample may well be the most important component of the application. harvard, yale, U chicago, and JH have all cited my 10-page WS as the main factor. that is, in spite of several Cs on my college transcript, no masters, and a horrendous incomplete thesis (which, needless to say, did not serve as my WS). i had good reasons to worry about not getting accepted anywhere. but a single essay can turn your application upside down.

a prof wanted to call me to inform me, but since i didnt provide a phone number in my app (i dont have a phone), he sent an email

fantastic for me, yes. i hope everyone else gets good news from some of their fav. departments! i stole a spot at yale, but you may rest assured that i did not take up a spot at harvard too, lol.

admitted to yale and u chicago, with funding etc. very happy. all i wanted. now it will be a tough decision. i did mess up the harvard interview though, lol. love profs burgard and ryan, they are wonderful but my interests are kind of less in tune with harvard's...

just heard from harvard 45 minutes ago re: the skype interview. maybe they're just contacting everyone today instead?

harvard's german dept was a quiet, small, and cozy place. maybe that has to do with the fact that it is located on the 3rd floor of a building with lots of windows and tends to get warm... kind of like a nest. lol! the barker center (name of the building) is a really nice location, not like the horrifying dungeon-like sever. and the profs with whom i had the most/only contact, judith ryan and peter burgard, are very personable and enjoy the rapport they have with undergraduates. this can't be said of all profs at harvard however i have no authority to speak of graduate life in the department. so that you will have to find out for yourselves (with luck)!

got those e-mails from yale and peter burgard at harvard too. i didn't consider them indicative of good or bad news... what is a bit funny is that burgard is one of my recommenders (as well as another member of the same dept, judith ryan), since i did my undergrad work there. i can assure you that they are great people still, makes the harvard app somewhat awkward for me. he gave me a bit of general advice as to which schools i should look into, and as an afterthought suggested i include a few "safeties" in my list as well. thanking him nicely, i began to panic inside, worrying that he didn't consider my app good enough for top schools. everything about this process really just f*cks with one's mind and ego-- perhaps one's judgment as well, considering that i sent him a picture of a lolcat to thank him for the recommendation funny that nobody else on this thread seems to have applied to U Chicago this year (?). yesterday i was overjoyed to receive an e-mail from a prof at chicago saying they were impressed with my app and that he wants to meet me in munich next week. so, after a few weeks of feeling horribly crummy, i am finally in a very, very good mood. not an official decision by any means, but i didn't expect to get any (positive) signals this soon.... perhaps i will not end up a homeless loser after all. btw, i applied to u chicago, harvard, yale, columbia, and j hopkins. good luck everyone!

freaking out here too does anybody have any idea what the rate of acceptance is for any of these programs? somewhere on the Yale website I found "3 enrolled" out of "22 applicants".... i am hoping that's the worst.

also applying to PhD programs in German. So anxious....

hi everyone. i wish you much luck in following weeks, as the answers come flooding in :} i will be applying to many of these german programs next year, and have a small concern/question. i would be very grateful for any advice you might have to provide. do you think it would be worthwhile for me to take the GRE again (750v, 520m), in hopes of making my math score less embarrassing? I did not study the first time, so I know there is much room for improvement. Although math counts for very little in these departments, might really good GRE scores compensate for a lackluster overall undergraduate GPA? Thanks in advance!