samori

UMass put a message up on their website yesterday (Jan 26 2016) stating "We expect to be making initial offers by March 4".

Same here. If a pristine writing sample and perfect GRE scores (...presuming that will happen) don't get me in next year, that's the end of the road for me. I considered trying for another MA so I could adjunct but I don't know how realistic that plan is. How are you finding adjuncting?

Definitely Plan A2. I have a feeling they would be very open to the idea...

Apologies if this thread is a bit premature, but I can just feel the rejections looming towards me so I figured let's see what people are thinking of in terms of a back-up plan. There was an excellent thread last year that outlines just how absurd this whole process is - and importantly, how we shouldn't take rejections and shut-outs to heart. There are numerous reasons why someone may or may not get accepted, and those reasons tend to vary so wildly that it's difficult to pinpoint what we could have done differently. That being said - what's plan B?

Well done!! Best of luck to you for the interview!

It might be worth mentioning that the email from Missouri says the deadline for consideration of a Graduate Fellowship is January 20 and the general admission deadline / Teaching Assistantship deadline is February 20 so it's possible that a recipient of a Graduate Fellowship might receive an outcome sooner than currently expected. The original deadline (for everything, I believe) was January 15. Last year's results came out quite early so we'll see what happens!

Great to hear someone is taking over. Thanks for this!

Same here - for the reasons you've given!

I'm going to try to keep working on my application, just in case I'm out of luck this year and decide to apply again next round... ... but mostly I will also be playing video games.

Oof. Is it mandatory to enter this, or is there a section where you could explain (or upload an explanation) as to provide clarification? Surely they should recognise things aren't always as simple as one straightforward GPA...

Same issues here. How much do departments know about UK grading - specifically MAs? I'm concerned they're going to look at 70% and think I got Cs on everything. My transcript comes with a marking scale but 70-100% doesn't really explain anything... something worth asking a letter writer to explain?