ratanegra19

@SlobDylan, welcome to the fold! This site is a great place to hang out, and certainly one of the most positive online communities I've ever encountered (which is nice...you know how forums can get) I don't know if you have already seen the "Results" board tab at the top of the page, but it took me a few months to figure out it was even there (*sheepish grin), so I'll go over it on the off chance that you haven't looked at it yet. Basically, you can log any results you've gotten (rejections, acceptances, waitlists) as they come in and see other folks doing the same. You can also do school or program specific searches to see what people have already logged and when. That way, you don't have to check your portal every two seconds/annoy the DGS. IDK about Rutgers, NYU, or UPenn, but I also applied to Berkeley and Brown but haven't heard a peep--I know a bunch of folks got acceptances one or two weeks ago, but they don't seem to have sent out all the rejections or waitlists yet. Keep your fingers crossed, though--I definitely thought I was facing a rejection from UCLA last week because of radio silence, and I ended up getting put on their waitlist! Best of luck!

Hahahaha, OMG, that's hilarious. I mean, weird and more than a bit creepy, but hilarious. I'm also 29, and lucky that I'm part of a pretty mixed-age cohort so I've always felt like my extra years were an advantage (like a +2 Wisdom stat or something). I'm also lucky (in this particular realm, at least) that I'm a non-cis-performing person (genderqueer), so folks aren't always sure how to take me, and certainly don't try to give me well-meaning advice (anymore...once I hit my mid-twenties people seemed to finally figure out that it wasn't just a "tomboy phase"). That being said, I can't believe some of the s*** that my cis colleagues have to put up with while teaching--especially the women. Students asking them if they are married, telling them their outfits are cute, writing evaluations like "You're so sweet, I love your jewelry". Ugh. Also @Bumblebea and @orphic_mel528, I couldn't stop laughing when I watched that video--are you familiar with Amy Schumer's "Last F***able Day" sketch?

UCSB for the win! I got an impersonal email yesterday that just said "A decision has been made". I was all geared up for a rejection and then, BOOM! I haven't heard from the DGS or my POI yet, however--I wonder if their wires got crossed and the Grad School sent out the notification before the English Department was ready to contact me? Either way, I'm pretty stoked--IU is looking better and better, and they've taken a real personal interest in me, but UCSB was also one of my top choices...Imma have to get on the "Decisions" forum and ask for some hefty advice...

Holy shit, I just got a letter saying I'm waitlisted for UCLA. I had totally thought it was a flat rejection at this point--not as good as an acceptance, but I'll take it!

Hear, hear--I know of a guy in my program a few years ago, a really great student, who applied to ten top-tier programs during the last year of his MA and got rejected from all of them. The following year, with the same scholarship and the same project, he reapplied and was accepted to ALL TEN. It's just crazy the way they do it--maybe two similar applications happen to be next to each other and yours is second rather than first, maybe the perfect professor is on sabbatical that year...it might even come down to whether or not they've had lunch when they look at your application. It's a peer-reviewed and often logical process, but far from foolproof.

Thanks man! I'm still holding out hope, though my hope at this point is rather wan--still, it ain't over 'til you get that rejection letter

Seriously, what is up with these programs using postal mail? Like, for anything? It's just silly--especially if they're doing it in lieu of any electronic communication whatsoever. I mean, at this point they could send a f***ing telegraph and it would be better...

I'm in the same boat as you--I can't speak for certain, but I know that sometimes acceptances go out in waves or by subset rather than all at once. It ain't over til you get that rejection letter... Here's to keeping our fingers crossed!

@natalielouise, I can also speak from experience on this--the first time I was applying to grad school I had no idea what I was doing. I knew what I wanted, but I was coming back from nearly 5 years of living abroad and was hopelessly out of touch with academic culture. Heheh, back then I didn't even know that this forum existed--all that stood between me and utter failure was the fact that some of my old undergrad professors remembered me fondly and a battered old Kaplan GRE prep book. By the grace of God, I somehow found my way into WWU's MA program, and I'll be finishing up in June. Although a PhD program straight after a BA would have FELT more prestigious, I recognize now that there is no way in hell I would have been ready. These two years of studying my MA have been immeasurably helpful in getting my head into the "grad school game". Plus, an MA gives you a chance to present at some of the "big boy" conferences, get some practical teaching experience, and maybe even publish. PLUS, a lot of PhD programs will let you transfer a year of credits, or at least let you teach right out of the gate, when you enter with an MA. All told, if I could go and do it over again, I would still have done the MA before the PhD--I wish you the best of luck in getting what you want, but don't feel bad if you end up doing the Master's first!

42 rejection letters. Received on April 14th.

What kills me is all these "implied rejections"--I've pretty much given up hope on Berkeley, Brown, Boston College, and UCLA at this point, but they won't TELL me anything. It's this weird purgatory where I tell myself I really shouldn't hope, but I can't help doing it anyway. I mean, I guess I have no right to complain since I have been accepted to one good program, but it still irks me--at least Northwestern and Duke rejected me out of hand Also, @anxiousgrad, totally get the family thing. I told my family last night that I'd been accepted to IU, and all they could say was "Oh...so you're going to Indiana? Good job?". And then they proceeded to talk for the next 20 minutes about how high a fever my sister's baby needs to have before they should give him a Tylenol. Hrmph.

Oh boy...I'll have an MA by June, so probably an implied rejection at this point :/ I really wish they'd TELL us these things, though... Thanks for the info!

I actually know of someone who did this on a job application to a tenure-track professorship...and got it anyway. I mean, yeah, it doesn't look awesome, but there's the off chance that they won't even notice--when they skim, they're skimming for the "meat", not for any of the condiments (to use a weird and possibly gross metaphor). Hang in there!

Damn, dude! You're batting a thousand--a million congratulations!

Thanks a bunch--it's good to know that the ball is rolling, at least. As they say, knowing is half the battle I guess no news is good news...

So, I'm noticing a lot of folks on this thread who refer to being waitlisted, rejected, etc by Boston College in their signatures--does anyone have any info on when they sent out Lit acceptances this year? I haven't heard a word about acceptance, rejection, or waitlisting, and their online portal just tells me that my application is "complete". I don't want to bug the department, but I'm also a bit perplexed. Help?

I had to stop myself from getting up at 5 in the morning to check my email today. I was thinking "Maybe they're already in the office on the East Coast." Oy...

Whew...glad I wasn't the only one! We can be awkward in solidarity

hahaha, hear hear! The DGS was super nice, though--I'm sure she talks to a lot of tongue-tied recruits

Right? Damnation. On a happier note, I just talked to the DGS at IU. I'm going to go fishing in other threads to see if I can get the low-down on the culture of the program, but five years of guaranteed funding is nothing to sneeze at. I'm sure I sounded like a complete bumbling fool on the phone, though...I used the word "excited" about 5 times in as many sentences... ...do they ever rescind your offer because you sound like a dumbass on the phone?

Oh my lord

A colleague in my cohort had a (female) student in his class who told him, "You remind me of Christian Grey, um...because you wear grey a lot..." *shudders

Aw, shucks. Oh well, it was a long shot anyway...here's crossing my fingers for Brown and Stanford!

Same to you