jillcicle

NYU sending a pitch for a master's that's 70% out of pocket is something - worse when you ALREADY have a master's degree. PLEASE. When I pay $100+ to apply to a well-respected academic institution's PhD program I do not want them to then try to sell me things after rejecting me ?

Agreed. Also, big HMM they sent the rejections like right after this I know it's very unlikely but part of me wants to think a departmental person was lurking and was like OOPS GRADCAFE IS ANGRY. ?

As a friend said to me back when I still thought I might have decisions to make, "Does it matter if more prestige will mean a better placement if you aren't able to finish the program?" I think you have to honestly ask yourself how vulnerable you are to mental illness and what kinds of pressure are hardest for you to hold up under, considering that between 30 and 60% of grad students qualify for diagnosis with moderate to severe depression. That's worse at more prestigious programs, typically, and the higher end of the spectrum correlates to being a woman, non-white, not hetero/cis, etc. You know your own risks, and you probably have the best sense of whether or not you're at risk of being in the 50% of grad students who don't complete their degrees. I find it helpful to think of the differences in appeal, financial comfort, fit, etc. as differences in risk to you, your health, and your program completion. (Cheery, I know, but we're playing a dangerous game entering academia anyway.)

Has Berkeley really STILL not sent out their rejections? Like c'mon. Last year they went out mid-March - this year are they sending them out ON April 15 or what? I know it's a rejection but I would sure like something definite anyway. I told myself I'd submit my official acceptance once all my rejections were in but apparently that's going to be unreasonable ?

UVA movement - I got my rejection FINALLY and someone else at the visiting weekend i’m at at UNC got official waitlist notification.

Just want to complain that I have been in stellar health for MONTHS, with not even a mild sniffle, and I woke up today to begin travelling to UNC's campus visit to find a real doozy coming on. SO looking forward to the 5 hour sinus-drying flight and avoiding handshakes to preventing plague-spread and pockets full of tissues at POI meetings all that /s. ?

If I'm being honest I haven't emailed because I'm terrified to know - right now I don't have to make any decisions which sounds so breezy and beautiful and straightforward and I don't want a potential decision axe hanging over my head ? (Ridiculous, I know - it's crazy how irrational grad admits are making me act lol)

I don't think so at all - I'd be far more worried about too broad of interests as far as admits go because they want you to be able to pitch a specific, innovative research question. But just demonstrate some flexibility in the SoP. Ie, "I'm conscious of the growth and changes my research interests may undergo while I continue my research, and excited to broaden my (whatever)." They know your final dissertation won't be what was in your app, but they want to see that you're able to develop specifics while being flexible enough that you won't go down with a sinking ship when your first pitch doesn't work out.

*Clicks on hand held recorder* Day 472 - still no word from UVA. All is silent here. Not sure how much longer I can go on.

The money was definitely the biggest pain for me. Still feel like I'm getting stabbed if I think about almost $1,000 down the drain BUT after a really bad day of not getting out of bed and staring at the wall, I've shaken it off some. (It helped to remind myself that I was only ever going to accept at 1 school anyway, and even if more acceptances would have felt better it wouldn't have changed the time and money being gone.) When I was expecting a shutout, I had to remind myself that the time and money were useful even then for helping me figure out what wasn't working. Also, just picturing an ad-com sitting down to 300 applications and they have to somehow narrow it to 6 - thinking about the logistics of that makes me realize how much it's not a reflection of personal worth or qualifications. Start planning for your acceptances and get excited about it. Look at apartments, places to socialize or do recreational stuff, etc. For me, that meant letting the top 10s sort of drift back into the realm of daydream that they once were. Also, thinking a lot about where I was at the beginning of my undergrad degree - I didn't have any ambitions about how good I was back then, I was just excited about chances to read and learn! For that version of me, there's no inadequacy because UG me is blown away that I kept going at all. And I think it's fair to approach rejections like other grief and loss, even if it isn't the loss of a living being. Let yourself feel it and voice the pain, recognize what you're losing, but then move past.

I didn't find it all that hard, but I'm a substitute teacher who was able to really utilize Thanksgiving Break etc. I had to be okay with doing my app stuff in bursts - there were crisis points at work where I had to dedicate everything to lesson plans/grading etc and then just table app work for a while. Seconding the handwritten chart/checklist - I carried a bullet journal everywhere with me, so I could do POI research/read an article etc. and jot down a few notes on my break and lunch when it felt manageable. I also set up a Google Sheet with deadlines, POIs, subfields, waiver possible, etc. and that was a good sort of home base to work from. Overall, I didn't find the applications as time-consuming as I'd worried about - it wasn't the equivalent of another job, just maybe a side gig like picking up a weekend contract or something. Good luck!

If we do this as a team, maybe they'll be soooo impressed they just admit us all instantly, no questions asked??

Hmmm hmm hmm. It wasn't the swamp monster (side note that seems like an unfair name to call Clare Kinney who seems v. lovely but...) after all, then. Man, I'm fed up with this. (I mean, my partner and family are fed up with this just from me saying how much I'm fed up with this lol.) I just want my rejections all done and tidy and everything sorted and apparently I'm going to whine incessantly til then!

Oh, hey Shaggy! 3 of us is nice - the more the merrier. The Clare Kinney overlap is curious. SHE WOULD HAVE GOTTEN AWAY WITH IT IF IT WEREN'T FOR US PESKY KIDS. To me suggests either that the MEM rejections are rolling out later, or that they don't have offer acceptances from all their primary MEM offers yet and therefore that unofficial waitlist is still hanging around waiting. Hmmmm. I guess we wait together (im)patiently and see. Fingers still crossed for y'all!

*Velma and Daphne stand alone at the edge of the precipice, hair fluttering in the breeze, faces determined* But for real, what the eff. You're early modern, right? And I'm medieval? I listed Clare Kinney, Bruce Holsinger, Alison Booth, and Brad Pasanek - would I be right in guessing we have overlap on that possibly? That's the only thing that I can guess is maybe they're processing us slower, or... *BIG SHRUG*