Warelin

I think it's also important to note that the admissions committee also has responsibilities: In addition to being on the committee, other responsibilities may include: preparing lectures for class(es), grading essays, meeting with students outside class for help, develop new classes, supervise and evaluate graduate student teaching, evaluating teaching by colleagues up for tenure, attend department colloquia, write letters of recommendation for students on jobs, graduate schools, scholarships, and other programs, supervise graduate student research, read and evaluate Ph.D oral examinations, write grant proposals, monitor spending from grants, write papers for publication, read scholarly journals to stay current, edit academic journals,  participate in faculty meetings and committees, respond to information requests from college administrators, give public lectures, participate in or host faculty searches, give presentations to promote university, supervise independent studies or master's theses, guide student research. This is not an exhaustive list and they may be raising a family or have other family obligations in addition to this.

I think it's also important to note that the admissions committee also has responsibilities: In addition to being on the committee, other responsibilities may include: preparing lectures for class(es), grading essays, meeting with students outside class for help, develop new classes, supervise and evaluate graduate student teaching, evaluating teaching by colleagues up for tenure, attend department colloquia, write letters of recommendation for students on jobs, graduate schools, scholarships, and other programs, supervise graduate student research, read and evaluate Ph.D oral examinations, write grant proposals, monitor spending from grants, write papers for publication, read scholarly journals to stay current, edit academic journals,  participate in faculty meetings and committees, respond to information requests from college administrators, give public lectures, participate in or host faculty searches, give presentations to promote university, supervise independent studies or master's theses, guide student research. This is not an exhaustive list and they may be raising a family or have other family obligations in addition to this.

I think it's also important to note that the admissions committee also has responsibilities: In addition to being on the committee, other responsibilities may include: preparing lectures for class(es), grading essays, meeting with students outside class for help, develop new classes, supervise and evaluate graduate student teaching, evaluating teaching by colleagues up for tenure, attend department colloquia, write letters of recommendation for students on jobs, graduate schools, scholarships, and other programs, supervise graduate student research, read and evaluate Ph.D oral examinations, write grant proposals, monitor spending from grants, write papers for publication, read scholarly journals to stay current, edit academic journals,  participate in faculty meetings and committees, respond to information requests from college administrators, give public lectures, participate in or host faculty searches, give presentations to promote university, supervise independent studies or master's theses, guide student research. This is not an exhaustive list and they may be raising a family or have other family obligations in addition to this.

I think it's also important to note that the admissions committee also has responsibilities: In addition to being on the committee, other responsibilities may include: preparing lectures for class(es), grading essays, meeting with students outside class for help, develop new classes, supervise and evaluate graduate student teaching, evaluating teaching by colleagues up for tenure, attend department colloquia, write letters of recommendation for students on jobs, graduate schools, scholarships, and other programs, supervise graduate student research, read and evaluate Ph.D oral examinations, write grant proposals, monitor spending from grants, write papers for publication, read scholarly journals to stay current, edit academic journals,  participate in faculty meetings and committees, respond to information requests from college administrators, give public lectures, participate in or host faculty searches, give presentations to promote university, supervise independent studies or master's theses, guide student research. This is not an exhaustive list and they may be raising a family or have other family obligations in addition to this.

Where's the ambivalence and confusion? When you boil it all down, it's a case of them letting you know when they're ready to let you know. It really is as simple as that.

Ph.D. programs are making around a $100,000 investment (on average) in their acceptances...and I'm not even considering waived tuition and travel stipends in that approximation. You can rest assured that they have to be well-considered decisions from an institutional standpoint, and that simply has to be their first consideration...especially in a day and age where funding for our very field is rapidly dwindling.

If this were a situation where you have no idea if they will ever let you know about acceptance / waitlist / rejection, that would be one thing...but that's simply not the case. You know that they HAVE to inform you by April 15th (with a few minor exceptions), so that is the frame that you're yearning for, and it already exists. In other words, it really does come down to being patient and respecting the process.

I'm not going to say any more on this topic, as I'm frankly a little annoyed that this isn't just common sense. I recognize that emotions are running high right now, but be that as it may, I don't like this implication that programs need to kowtow and be utterly transparent about every facet of their process to their applicants. It's way too much to expect, and simply doesn't factor in the sheer enormity of the job admissions personnel have to do.

Argh. I don't want to sound like a surly old man, but here's the thing...

It's perfectly fine for you (us) as Ph.D. program hopefuls to be antsy about admission timelines. It's to be expected, really -- it's one of the biggest moments of our lives, and that's not hyperbole. BUT, you should also keep in mind that these admissions committees are often dealing with upward of 300 applications...and almost all of those applicants are in the same boat as you: worrying, antsy, emotional, on edge, and unsure of when they'll hear back. Admissions committees have an unenviable task, and while it's largely a mystery to us as to how they make their decisions (and it almost certainly varies by program), I just think that we have to respect that they do it the way they do it for a reason. Professors are usually busy at the best of times, and I can only imagine how hectic it is during this time of year when they're sitting on an adcom. Likewise, a DGS (and his/her staff) has to juggle all of these acceptances, rejections, and waitlists for a couple of months. 

All of this is to say that I completely understand the desire to know all of your options as soon as possible...but sometimes I worry that that desire starts to merge into an expectation that you are owed an answer right away. I simply think that you have to respect the process, and understand that adcoms have their reasons for doing the things they do the way they do them. They have to do their job...and it's a very hard job to do. Calls and emails from panicky applicants isn't going to speed up the process or change anything.

I hope this doesn't come across as a rant. I don't mean it as a rant. I just want you to remember that, as difficult as the waiting process is for us, it's also difficult on the adcom side of things. Just try your best to be patient. 



ETA: Cross-posted with AnxiousGrad

Congrats!

Got into Irvine! Got an email from DGS this morning apologizing for some of the letters going out late and causing confusion with his correction email. Any confusion is totally worth it at this point though! Holy crap, this was definitely a school I had totally taken myself out of the running for! So excited!!

Well this is an attractive crowd.

I need to steal you for my final selection of schools. (On a side note: congrats on the Strode waitlist. That is certainly nothing to sneeze at.)
On a side note: This further proves that you shouldn't pay too much attention to rank to determine your chances of acceptance. You may get rejected by a school that accepts 10/100 applicants and may get accepted by one that rejects 300-500 applicants.

I need to steal you for my final selection of schools. (On a side note: congrats on the Strode waitlist. That is certainly nothing to sneeze at.)
On a side note: This further proves that you shouldn't pay too much attention to rank to determine your chances of acceptance. You may get rejected by a school that accepts 10/100 applicants and may get accepted by one that rejects 300-500 applicants.

Well this is an attractive crowd.

Congrats
 

Seems to be fixed now.

15k per year is still a lot of money to pay in addition to living expenses. At minimim,  you're probably looking at a job that pays 35k while living with multiple roommates with a schedule that probably isn't agreeable with a university schedule. Depending on NYU's terms, you may or may not even be able to gain practical academic experience. 
Working a job that isn't a stipend also means you're paying into FICA so there goes another 8 percent of your check plus nyc's city and state income tax and federal taxes. I think this totals to about 22 percent of your wages gone each pay period. 

Waitlisted at U. of Alabama's Strode program. 
I'm really intrigued by the program, and would love a visit...so fingers crossed for some movement!

I'd also like to add that these numbers would be nearly impossible to find because not everyone obtaining a Master's is interested in obtaining a PHD. People from my university have received offers from Princeton, Harvard, Pennsylvania, and Maryland among other programs. However, in my current cohort of 15 people, only 3 of us are interested in obtaining a PHD in English. I'd imagine that this is more common than uncommon. The rest of my cohort is interested in becoming an editor, writer, or teacher.

I'd love to answer this with a no, but: someone last year got an acceptance on a Saturday.

Congrats to the Pittsburgh, Davis, and WUSTL admits. 

That's exciting!
Congratulations! 

Today, I found myself extremely bored. As a result, I complied a list of when schools typically notify for first-round acceptances using data from the results page. After, I rearranged things in order by  when programs typically notify.

Michigan State-Dec 10? (Writing, Rhetoric, and American Cultures)
OSU-Jan 25
Wisconsin- Jan 28
Duke- Jan 29
WashU- Jan 31-Feb 2
Northwestern-Jan 31-Feb 2
Berkeley- Jan 31-Feb 2
Chicago- Feb 1/2
Minnesota-Feb 2
Vanderbilt - Feb 2/3
Texas- Feb 3/4
Indiana-Feb 3/4
Purdue-Feb 3-5
UCLA- Feb 4/5
Johns Hopkins- Feb 5
Davis-Feb 5/6
Penn State- Feb 5/6
Pittsburgh-Feb 5/6
Nebraska-Feb 5-7
NYU-Feb 6/7
Maryland-Feb 7-9
Rochester-Feb 8/9
Emory- Feb 8-9
Irvine-Feb 8-9
Illinois- Feb 9-12
Brown-Feb 10-12
LSU-Feb 11
Rice- Feb 12
Buffalo-Feb 12
Missouri- Feb 12-14
Delaware-Feb 12-14
Kansas-Feb 14
Carnegie Mellon- Feb 14/15
Alabama-Feb 14-16
Cornell- Feb 15/16
Miami University-Feb 15/16
Michigan-Feb 16
Connecticut-Feb 16
CUNY-Feb 16/17
Santa Barbara-Feb 17-19
Stanford- Feb 17-Feb 20
Princeton-Feb 17-20
UVA- Feb 19/20
Rutgers-Feb 19/20
Harvard- Feb 20-Feb 22
Columbia- Feb 20-22
Penn- Feb 20-22
Utah-Feb 22
Notre Dame-Feb 23
Yale- Feb 24/25
Washington-Feb 25
Syracuse-Feb 26
Chapel Hill-Feb 26/27
Oregon-Feb 27-28
Iowa-March 2-5
Florida State-March 4-7
Mississippi- March 5-7

That's exciting!
Congratulations! 

Accepted for a PhD in Literary and Cultural Studies at CMU! and Comp Lit at PSU!!!!!
OVER THE MOOON!!!!!!
Still waiting on NYU, JHU, McGill
and on a shortlist from NW in Performance Studies.
keep the faith fellows!!!!! and best of luck!!! <3 3

Congats to all 3 of you! It is a really great program and one I have my eye on for next year.
 

While casting a wide net can be important, it doesn't make sense if you wouldn't be happy at the school. It is a 5-6-7-10 year process for most people depending on the program's requirements. Not being excited would mean that you'd be more likely to drop out and not complete what you came for. In the end, it's better to have 1 really good school that you're excited about rather than 5 schools that you'd rather not attend.