joops

Oh, I have Gmail, so I don't need to even hit refresh. I just always have one eye on the tab! I do check the forums constantly, but I will NOT allow myself to reach the results search because when I found out that I had not gotten an interview invite from Emory (and thus a de facto rejection or wait-list), I cried for two days. I decided not to put myself through that again. I'm soc of religion and pretty much feeling like my application was not as good as it could have been. How about you?

Haha well, I won't be in Israel anytime soon, but I think that the joke still holds :-) And yes, you DO get extra points.

I'm going to say, "grab me a dreidel, because a great miracle happened here!" Most people won't get it, but *I* will.

Buy new clothing. And jewelry. And hats. You get the picture.

Take out the part about figure skating. Sorry, too tired to read the rest right now. More later.

Go to the results search and enter "ohio state political science" or some permutation thereof. Look at when applicants got results in years past, and that's around the time you might expect to hear, provided that the university did not change its deadlines recently. It's not exact, but it will give you some idea. I believe the Linguistics department at Ohio State has changed its deadline from Nov. 15th to January 15th in the past few years, so if the Pili Sci department did so as well, then the results search might be misleading. Good luck.

Thanks for explaining this. Yes, I am making an educated guess that I'm at least waitlisted if not outright rejected. Normally, I wouldn't bow to speculation so soon, but I think it's a pretty safe bet at this point.

I know... and really, I would be happy to get in anywhere. Thanks for the support!

Thanks, friend. You seem to be faring quite well! Thanks for the kind words. I hope the best for everyone else, as well as for myself.

Emory. I wouldn't say I have a first choice, but it was definitely high up on my list.

Hi all, I'm sorry if this post is inappropriate or too whiny, but no one I know is going through the same thing. Everyone has been so supportive here and I feel like I have to reach out for my own sanity's sake. So it looks like the first response I'm getting from one of the ten schools I applied to is going to be a rejection. Needless to say, I'm absolutely devastated. When I found out, I cried for over an hour. I just know it was my SOP that killed me. It was the first school I applied to, as it had an early deadline. I tried the anecdote-as-hook thing and looking back on it, it was totally unprofessional. As a whole, also, the SOP was totally unpolished. My subsequent SOPs were much better, but some were different than others and not all were equal. I'm feeling quite unhopeful right now. My GRE quant score was TERRIBLE (25th percentile; I was very surprised because I'm not actually that bad at math), and I feel like I won't get in anywhere. Trouble is, grad school is all I want to do. Anyone have any thoughts/condolences? Anyone in the same boat? I feel like I need some solidarity right now. Thank you in advance and sorry if my post offends anyone.

Me too! My last SOPs were excellent. My first, not so much. Not at all, in fact! Yikes.

Ah, okay, I see your point. It's no problem at all, I think we're all a little on edge. I also wonder about the doing minimally well on papers thing. There is a big difference, though, between papers and the GRE :-)

"I never understood the studying philosophy of aiming for a particular grade rather than just preparing as much as possible and doing your best." Because some people want to spend as little time as possible learning asinine facts they will never need again. These are likely people who have a lot of other things going on and want to concentrate on valuable parts of their applications. The OP asked a simple question. S/he did not ask you to brag about your natural talent for standardized tests. Your post was quite patronizing and not very helpful. Please think about the people who struggle with standardized tests despite having other affinities before you post something like that again.

I plan to start one, but I didn't want to until I got in somewhere. If I am rejected across the board, I will be too sad to look at it!

Thanks, Roll Right. I really appreciate your compliment. I wish you the best of luck!

Just realized I totally forgot to thank you for your comment. Normally I would not be so rude, but my mind was very occupied with, you know, graduate school applications Good luck! It really reflects well on your character that you helped me out despite our being in the exact same field. I wish you the best!

Wow, thank you so much! I submitted these awhile ago, so it's nice to know I did the right thing. Thank you so much for your wonderful compliment.

This is too cute! Especially the part about staring at the fridge. I am the opposite of you. I am daydreaming of going south, where I don't have to deal with snow. This is mainly due to the fact that I am a sociologist/fashionista and can't wear cute dresses in the snow :-) However, I did apply to a couple of places up here in the northeast because I am slightly more sociologist than fashionista.

I have no advice for you, but I would like to point out that I am in basically the EXACT SAME SITUATION. I think that the way that LORs are done is truly despicable. I mean, it's all too plausible that I student could do everything right only to have a recommender flake out because he or she doesn't have the time to complete 12329134 online forms. Why can't there just be one stock form that the recommender sends to some centralized website, where the student then designates to which schools the form should be sent? I am completely baffled... just BAFFLED... as to why the system is designed this way. (/rant)

1) El Mar Adentro. I REALLY recommend this film. The dialogue is beautiful (it's in Spanish, but I've taken up to intermediate level and could understand a great deal of it,) the acting is phenomenal, and it's quite sociological! 2) Trainspotting 3) 24 Hour Party People 4) About a Boy 5) Love Actually 6) Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure 7) Little Miss Sunshine 8) Mean Girls That's only 8, but I can't think of any more right now, I'm too stressed!

Hmmm. The only suggestion I have is to filter these kinds of emails. I use gmail and have grown accustomed to using the filtering option due to my weird email neuroses. You could mark them as read, or have them sent straight to your archive. Of course, you would run the risk of also having an important email marked as read, so you would need to tread carefully. Best of luck, my fellow soc of religion applicant!

Thanks for your kind words, fangsout. You know, normally I would submit the applications as soon as I could, but I was unable to do so for a number of reasons. After this is over, I'm going to make a post with all kinds of advice for future applicants and I'm going to write about this incident. UPDATE: Everything is all set!

Hi all, So, the application for UNC's PhD program in Soc was due on Dec. 31st. I tried to complete and submit in on Dec. 30th, but it would not let me save my personal information, nor would it properly upload my supporting documents. I tried on three different computers, but it failed to work each time. I called the help desk as the automated message told me to do, but was unable to receive help. What's worse is that my ticket may have been lost and there may be no proof that I called on this day. So I call again today, on normal business hours unlike last time, and was told that I may not even be able to apply because the deadline has passed. The help technician forwarded my info to the administration. I figure I may or may not hear back. This is so awful, I'm freaking out! I really love this program and believe I am a great fit, and I seriously do not want to jeopardize my future over a technical issue. Has anyone been through this before? Have any advice? Know of any soc PhD programs that are strong in religion with a late-ish deadline? Thanks.

For serious. I've cried like four times in 24 hours. I've eaten three times that many clementines.