veneziana

I would not assume "no news" to automatically = "bad news" In this day and age, most profs/DGS will contact students directly via email, but that isn't always the case.

First, it takes three letters, not two (and employer letters do not count for much). More importantly "good" recs are not enough. How long has it been since you graduated? Will the professors remember you? Did you take several classes w/them or just one? Are they profs in the Art History department or in Econ? Can they write more than "student X took my class and rec'd an A-" The ability to get three strong letters from Art History profs. will be key to your success at a top notch MA school (i.e., Williams).

Sorry to hear that your plans are not progressing as you had envisioned. However, it is *not* a good idea to call and essentially beg for reconsideration. It will not work in your favor. In fact, it could do long term harm, esp. if you are contemplating reapplying and/or transferring to one of these institutions in the future. Rather, wait until you hear from all of the programs to which you applied. Then, if you decide to reapply next year, contact individual professors directly and ask about what they look for in a student? Find out about their research agenda, find out their sabbatical schedule (if the Chinese specialist is going to be on leave 2 years, then that institution will likely not take any applicants in your field, etc..), etc...

It depends on the school and on whether or not you are applying at the MA or PhD level. It is much more common at those schools that accept a larger # of students (Columbia, NYU). Other schools (i.e., Princeton, Harvard) regularly admit less than 10 students and the funding is established from the outset; and if the candidate turns it down it may (or may not) go to someone on a waitlist.

Talk to ONLY the DGS at Columbia about this; not the prof you'll study with; the DGS controls the $ and (if you have not already determined this) find out the specifics of "fully funded" Does this mean tuition? What about living expenses? Does this require teaching, etc... Most importantly, is this offer contingent upon immediate acceptance? Simply inform the DGS that of course you are *very* interested and once you have all the details IN WRITING, you will need a few days to make up your mind. If they won't offer it in writing, then proceed w/caution. This is not to say that the offer isn't legitimate until it is in writing, but rather it isn't binding for COlumbia until it is in writing. Most programs will announce their decisions in the *very* near future so there is no need to commit to Columbia yet; you'll certainly know well before April 15th whether or not Columbia is your only/best offer. Also, I think it would be useful to the members of the board if you could supply your area of research (ancient, modern, Islamic, nothing more specific than that) As to the question posted later in the thread: "why not go there it sounds great" - It may not be the AhPhDcandidate's first choice . . . . I was accepted at Columbia but declined in favor of my first choice.

I agree w/the issue of hand holding- if an undergraduate comes to a prof w/a C+ GPA, no languages and a Harvard application, the prof should in the interest of being "helpful" shouldn't simply say "yes" when asked to write a letter

This year there were more applicants (c. 300) at my institution (Ivy/RI - not JHU although when I applied to GS a couple of years ago, I was accepted there) than in the past. A # of these applicants were nowhere near qualified for admission to an RI (low GPAs, low verbal/logic GREs, no foreign languages etc. etc. etc.. ) and, IMO, were getting some very bad advice from their undergrad profs about their applications and thsu essentially threw their application $ out the window. Our dept. has narrowed the field down to about 9 candidates, figuring that they will get 5 or 6 of them.

I didn't mean to imply your friend was lying, but I can state it no more simply than this: JHU did NOT receive 670 applications for graduate study in Art History this year.

I can assure you JHU did not receive 670 applicants to study Art History.