DBear

I'll be visiting Madison 3/9-10.

@ejpril88 Ugh - I didn't think of it that way, but that's a good point. But I think that if you're really unsure of yourself (like I have been) it's good to know that your application wasn't so bad it immediately end up in the trash!

Oh wow, that was really nice of them!!! I'm glad to hear that some schools have the decency to do this and not to squash a budding scholar's dreams!

@Nika.T You are so right... whole life on hold. And for me, my life kind of is on hold right now as I am "traveling" (it's not really traveling but I don't know what else to call it) so I'm away from home and my "life" and I'm waiting on my future to become clear so... UGH. I didn't realize you also applied for U Mass Amherst - thought you were only applying to Madison in the U.S. - I'm dying waiting for them, too. They're the last school I have left to hear from. If I don't hear anything this week, I think I may need to call them. I know that there are at least 4 people on this forum waiting to hear from them... UGH.

angry birds

@heyDW WooT! good news! It took them a while to get me funding info, like a week - but still, it's good news!

Radio shack (does this even still exist?!)

@IcedCapp Congratulations! For UIUC, is it the Comm dept or ICR? If you get into the schools in Canada, do you think you'd rather go there or UIUC?

OMG that's like every applicant's worst nightmare!! I'd probably cry... After feeling such joy amd relief to have it disappear.....

I'm so sorry @GreenEyedTrombonist, I really hope he'll be as comfortable as possible. You know where to find me of you need to talk!!

Sorry chichilai - what a rude awakening hang in there guys!!

Welcome from out of the shadows Well.. at least you didn't get a rejection from UW yet, they have sent some of those out... Judging from your info on Utah though, it seems there's still lots of hope for those waiting... !!

It has been strange for me because everything seemed to happen pretty quickly and routinely (one notification a week or so) and then ... U Mass Amherst..... still haven't heard anything at all back from them... Just one.. last.. school!! @heyDW Isn't it strange how getting into a school you're excited about doesn't make you forget about everything else? I honestly thought it would. I guess that I'm doomed to be anxious through this process til the very end!

@kirbs005 Congratulations! Looks like you have a hard decision to make though.....!

Cafeteria lady

The application thread seems to be very quiet.. Is everyone alive?? Surviving?? I hope everyone is breathing! Tomorrow is Tuesday the 21st of Feb, which leaves us with 6 working days left in the month, though there seemed to be quite a few results posted over the weekend. Either way, for those programs that are keeping us waiting with silence or putting us on a wait list - we're at least one day closer to hearing something. Seems like visits are taking place soon, too - so if you have any fun stories, please share (there's a thread for visits somewhere here) - Good luck with the last full week in Feb!

@gradswag Thanks for that - I'm in rhetoric so was curious about that, but your answer helps! @heyDW Thanks for pointing that out - I didn't realize it could be read that way. Now I do!

Typos really are not deal-breakers. I had 10 people (including multiple professors) look at my SOP. I still found a misplaced word and some sentences that didn't quite flow right. The admissions committees must have missed that misplaced word like the 10 ppl who reviewed my document. Or they didn't care. Anyhow, I got into 4 schools and one waitlist, typo and all. The consensus on this forum is that typos are okay (you're not the first person to post this question) but I was nervous until my own experience showed me that it really doesn't matter. I also found typos in my writing sample and resume that I didn't see BEFORE submitting my applications. Figures.

@Y.Li congratulations on Penn! There's a thread on the forum for admissions results and campus visits - I don't recall seeing anyone else mention Penn State yet, but you should have a look!

I think it's best to wait, even if you sent him new material at his request. If you really want to contact him, I'd say find something to ask him - something specific. I wouldn't ask general questions at this point since I'm thinking these should have been taken care of during previous interactions. But perhaps you can ask a question and then wrap up with "I look forward to the possibility of working with you and XYZ aspect of your program is really exciting!" I'd just be careful of putting yourself in a situation in which you're over-explaining to the point where it sounds like you're pandering or insincere and trying too hard to win their affection. So whatever you end up doing, I'd say it's better not to go too deeply into why you think they are better than the other program or stuff like that. Just say you found X exciting and look forward to working with them. If X is something VERY specific to that program that you found out during the event - that'd be good. It would show that you really were paying attention. Good luck!

Personally, I wouldn't send another email since it may just be that the POI is busy. I know how you feel, I was in a very similar situation. POI that I'd had very positive pre application correspondence with interviewed me via Skype. I sent a thank you email but never heard back. I freaked out because she ALWAYS replied to previous emails promptly so it even got to the point where you're going back and forth on email so much you're not sure when to stop replying. I waited and waited but no reply. The next email I got from her was a congratulations on getting in email. Your professor is probably busy going through the admissions evaluation process since interviews mean they'll be doing final reviews, most likely. Also, since your email was a thank you, it may not have occurred to him that he needed to write back to that. If someone sent me an email like that, I'd probably just leave it too.

Totally agree with @TakeruK. Another thing I encountered was that programs may ask you this question if they feel they need to make a latch ditch effort to sway you to their program. One of the professors I interviewed with mentioned a couple of times during the interview and in following correspondence to contact them should I get other offers and to let them know if I was considering them and to please not make a decision before hearing their offer. Another thing to consider is that email text is so easy to interpret a gazillion different ways. The professor could have been asking just as the professor asked me, because he wanted to be able to respond accordingly should you want to go somewhere else. It could've just been a "hey, a heads up would be awesome" but because you're under pressure (isn't this whole application thing soooo stressful?! Can't wait for it to be over) you may be reading into it too much. Either way, like @TakeruK said, schools prefer to know ASAP. Both schools I declined in early Feb were quite appreciative that I got back to them so soon.

So I have a grand total of one school that I'm waiting to hear from and the site to check the application status is under maintenance til TUESDAY. UGH. U Mass Amherst... why.. why....

@av2010 Ugh - I hope it goes away, it's a bad feeling but saying "you shouldn't feel that way" so is not helpful. But I personally was surprised because you definitely seem to me that you deserve your success! Also, we have a facebook group so if anyone wants on, let me know.

FIRST - You as an applicant 1. What did you study in undergrad? Master's (if applicable)? Undergrad: Dual BA in Political Science/ Diplomacy & English Lang/ Lit, MA International Environmental Policy, MA English Lit 2. What were your grades like in undergrad? Master's? UG - 3.37, MA (policy) 3.7 something, MA (Eng) 3.92 3. What are your research interests? Through my undergrad and first MA, I just took courses based on how many units I needed to graduate. I spent my second MA figuring out what my research interests are - finally came up with rhetorical construction of identity for particular diaspora - keywords would be globalization, mobility, diaspora, identity construction, citizenship, subjectivity 4. What teaching experience did you have before applying? Other than teaching at a private, Kaplan-type institute? None 5. What about research experience? In the scholarly sense, none. Only my MA thesis. 6. What about miscellaneous experience (unrelated to Comm/corporate/private/etc)? 2.5 years in finance, MA in policy, 2 yrs in int'l aid gov't agency, 3+ years sustainability consultant (private +int'l org) various internships etc. 7. How old are you (or, what is your age group)? 36 SECOND - Deciding to pursue a Ph.D. 1. What made you decide to pursue a Ph.D. in Communication? I wanted to do a PhD - thought I wanted to do it in Lit, but there something that just didn't click. One of my professors suggested I look into Rhetoric programs so started with Rhet Comp in English then found that there was Rhet in Communication. For the first time since I'd started the process of looking for programs, I finally found professors and department descriptions that I was really excited about and it looked interdisciplinary for the most part - based on the info in the above section - I was looking for a program that would allow me to bring in things from my random combination of experiences. 2. Did you contact faculty at the programs you were interested in? After I created my shortlist, I contacted a professor from each program. In a couple of cases, I contacted the DGS, but mostly contacted the professor whom I'd most want to work with. I basically said "Hi, I'm a prospective student interested in studying ABC, and contacted you because your article/profile/book on XYZ seemed to be closely aligned with my interests. My background is QRS, do you think I'd be a fit?" I got mostly positive responses, 2 professors ignored my mail. For the most part, the professors would give me a bit of information on what they were looking for so I'd thank them in my reply and that'd be it. One professor was super helpful and put me in touch with other students and we got to the point of email banter (I later was accepted to this program). In general though, the correspondence was Cold Email - POI response - Thank you, THE END 3. Did you visit or contact graduate students? I didn't visit since I was not in the country. I contacted one current student who was introduced to me by a POI (see above response) and she was helpful and welcoming. I was put in touch with an alum from one of the programs I applied to through a mutual friend, and she was friendly, but the more I thought about her response, it didn't seem that great a program. 4. How did you decide who to ask for letters of rec? One of the main reasons for getting my second MA was because I had no letter writers. I only was in touch with one professor from undergrad, and I didn't think 2 non-academic letters would be good for my application. Letter writer 1: My thesis advisor, also alumnus of one of the schools I applied to (though not the same program). Letter writer 2: Professor from my thesis committee and also worked with him for 3 semesters as a TA. Letter writer 3: Professor I had taken 3 classes with in undergrad and one in grad - chose him hoping he could piece together my random background. Letter writer 4: 3rd professor from my thesis committee, asked for 1 letter from him because one of the schools didn't have an online LOR system and one of my letter writers is notorious for being late and hard to track down, so didn't want to have him take the extra step of mailing something or printing it out. All of my letter writers were NOT Comm - but faculty in the English Dept THIRD - Actually applying 1. How did you look for programs? I looked at phds.org as there was a list of 100 schools, looked at every one of them. Also looked at every school on the NCA ranking. Also looked at schools I had heard of (Notre Dame, for example) to see if they had a comm program. Looked at the authors for some of the books and articles I liked. Emailed a prominent professor in cultural studies (whom I happened to know through a school thing) and asked for suggestions. 2. How did you decide where to apply? Would look at the description first (if it said it was stats heavy, then deleted), then looked at faculty. Looked at EVERY one of the faculty members. If there was one that I REALLY wanted to work with, or 3 that I'd be happy to work with, the school got on my "Yes" list. I made a "No" list with notes on why I didn't like the school so I could keep track. Iffy programs went on the maybe list. 3. What was your biggest priority in a program? Faculty fit - I wanted to apply only if there were 3 or more professors whose work I liked. I didn't read all the articles, but mostly skimmed the titles and looked at a few articles. 4. How many schools did you initially set out to apply to, and how many did you actually apply to? 10 -> 7 5. What were your GRE scores like (either specifics or vaguely)? How many times did you take it? Did you feel good about your scores? I signed up for the test, didn't feel like taking it, paid 50 bucks to reschedule, still missed the test. That was my first attempt. A year later, tried again - got 163 v, 143 q, 5 awa. I was nervous about the q as one of my programs was more social science-leaning. Retook it a 3rd time got 165 v, 149 q, 4.5 awa. Had no idea what to think about the scores so joined gradcafe. 6. How did you frame your experience/interests/fit in your statement of purpose? Did you focus on something more heavily than other stuff (like faculty or experience)? I started with my personal experience -> past research (MA thesis) -> what I want to study -> thus, you guys are the perfect program for me since you do just that -> More details about what I want to study in the future, XYZ -> I want to work with professor A because she studies X, Professor B because he studies Y..... etc -> I also like program's structure, student activities etc, and I can contribute because I was a TA etc. I made one SOP which was a little less than 1000 words. I think I had a page (double spaced) each for past, future, school specific stuff. 7. Did you feel good about your applications? Why or why not? I feel good because I really did do everything I can. I had 10 people look at my SOP, got 2 people to read my writing sample (which was a section of my thesis that had already be evaluated by many different people) and really did I everything in my power (which wasn't all that much) to find out what I could about programs. I wanted to focus on fit more than anything else at the application stage and I did. My biggest concern about the possibility of having to apply again was what I could fix. I feel like I really told the story I wanted to tell in my SOP, and my writing sample wasn't going change drastically, couldn't change my GPA, and didn't think my GRE was going to get any better and I was pretty confident I had found good fits.. Other than maybe getting an article published, I had no clue what I could change. Not saying my application was perfect, but I really did everything I knew to do. 8. If you knew then what you knew now, what advice would you give yourself? Don't freak out & look at more programs hahaha.. I found a few after the fact that I would have liked to apply to. FOURTH - GETTING IN (OR NOT) - feel free to update/answer later 1. How many programs did you get into (and which, if you don't mind sharing)? 4 : U Wisconsin Madison, Ohio U, Bowling Green State U, Temple U 2. How many were you waitlisted for? Did you make it off the waitlist? 1: U Iowa (dunno what's going to happen with that) 3. How many were you rejected from? 1: U Penn * there's still one program I'm waiting to hear back from 4. Did you get into your top program? Did you expect to get in? Yes - I did get in, and I had NO clue I would 5. Did you receive funding? Yes 6. Once you've made your decision...how did you decide which school to attend? 7. If you didn't get admitted to a program, will you apply again? 8. What do you want to do with your Ph.D.? Professor FINALLY 1. In retrospect...what was the best part of the application process? @heyDW is this a trick question? the whole thing was crappy lol. I liked my master spreadsheet! 2. What was the worst? Deciding 3. What advice do you have for future applicants? Look for fit!