Jennifer

the night after my 2nd rejection, i barely slept. after dinner and a long talk with an old friend (met in 3rd grade, we're now 25), i started to think a lot about what i had been telling myself and how this all was making me feel. the next day i didn't feel better or worse but I did feel different. I am checking my email often and randomly daydreaming about hearing good news from my top 2 choices but overall I feel like I've got friends and family who are trying to put themselves in my shoes, and I'm lucky to be healthy and to have a roof over my head and to be living in NY state where my unemployment $ comes each week while I try to decide my future. and my cat won't care if I get my master's now or next year or in 5 years as long as I don't kick him out of my bed. and Lost was really good this week, that helped.

it's hard not to assume that it's going to be bad news if you haven't heard by now....for me, scanning the results page every day just makes it worse! BUT, i emailed an admissions contact @ my dream school friday and was told that the committee there were taking "longer than usual" to read through apps and that they would be working through the w-end to finish reading & ranking and they would be foregoing sending letters and just emailing everyone regardless of outcome so that the wait would not be so long. that school is a DEFINITE reach for me but it still gives me some hope, at least I know they could still be arguing over whether or not I'm a good fit!!

here here. in the spirit of the new season we are entering.....anyone feeling a renewed spirit of optimism? there is a lot to look forward to (in upstate NY where I am, the weather has been beautiful and that's reason alone to smile) even if I am still waiting on 4 answers.

knock-off

sorry to see your updated signature think_positive at least you know though, does that make it any better? after hearing back from my first school, even though it was a rejection, i started to feel MORE anxious and excited to know the outcomes so i can just get on with my life already. i'm actually trying to get excited about the opportunities i could have if grad school isn't the next step. maybe i'll travel the world! hehe

i got my first answer today via email...well via my non-stop website checking and then later came an email that said the exact same thing...'due to the competitive nature of our applicant pool, we can not offer you admission at this time' i am SO INCREDIBLY relieved to know how this feels. it doesn't feel great but it doesn't feel like i want to jump off a building either. and that's okay because that's life. tomorrow is another day, i will wake up and watch mindless tv while I drink coffee and my stomach will flip when I hear the mailman and maybe something will come. i'm starting to slowly consider what i'll do if it's a NO across the board. I have a lot to think about because getting my master's was the next step, how I wanted to start a career in education and/or writing. but it feels good, having a weight off my shoulders now. i feel MORE optimistic if that makes sense. my parents (whom i live with again at 25, ugh!) want to know what i'll do, if i have a plan, if i have options but as long as i'm feeling this way, i can't let that pressure get to me. "que sera sera, whatever will be...will be, the future's not ours to see" RIGHT? .....................................................this could all change tomorrow if "dream school" says no and i wake up from all of this.

hi friends. my first answer came today. it was a rejection. i was ready so i'm fine. but part of me feels the need to wallow or at least drink a couple beers and contemplate my options. 1 down, 4 to go and it feels like crunch time. the first answer came from the one program/school i knew the least about, but i liked where it was located. silly me. now i'm mad that i chose to apply there instead of one of the places on the long list i made this fall. i also am feeling superstitious about the items of clothing i am currently wearing (including jewelry) and where i am sitting right now (where it happened) etc..........what's happening to me?! anyone else feeling like there are things they should/should not do luck-wise?

i'm witchu woolfie.

I'm so glad other people have dreamed about all of this! I had a really vivid dream about getting the letter from my 1st choice and the envelope said congratulations on it and everything. There was also something about me being a finalist for a full scholarship (i applied after the deadline ON PURPOSE) so i knew it was a dream when I woke up, i almost felt like laughing.

yea i think if it does come to that, i will consider re-taking GRE. i just barely made over 1000, and only a 4 in the writing for someone who wants to write professionally one day, UGH! maybe even applying to some programs that have late application dates (state schools that admit through summer). who knows? i'm not ready to think about all of it, i haven't even heard 1 no, let alone 5. if they all come at once, i may lock myself in a room with a bottle of jack daniels, but that is still a ways away. and with that...........I'M OFF TO CHECK THE MAILBOX!

spartaca--reading this was really uplifting. i just posted on a different topic about how worried i was starting to feel about my chances and you have made me realize how silly I've been. I'm similar to you in the fact that I failed out of my first undergrad school (a big party-friendly U.) after almost 3.5 years and took another 3 years before going back to finish my B.A in Literature(just finished in december). I applied to 5 English M.A programs and hope that my apps show how determined I am and that my past mistakes will only help paint a picture of the student I have become. I am also glad to hear what you said about GRE scores because mine were not stellar and I was kicking myself for not doing a re-take.

this website sometimes feel like a waste of time for me while i sit and stew about not having heard back from any of the 5 schools I applied to. but sometimes, its good to find other people feeling just as miserable. I only applied to 5 schools, I say only because now I'm starting to worry and sometimes scanning the results page here is just torture. Luckily, I'm realizing that I have only seen admits for 1/5 programs I applied to and that specific one (american's M.A in lit.) just contacted me about a missing writing sample. I try to tell myself that good things come to those who wait and that things happen for a reason. But, how do I start to consider what to do if it's 5 NO's, and what to do if I'm too embarrassed to try again? ugh. my GRE scores were too low, why didn't I re-take it? it just sucks waiting and i'm ready to know my fate good or bad or indifferent. i don't even care about funding, i'm ready and willing to take out loans because my undergrad degree was cheap (ive got about $9000 to pay off). i even applied to my dream school (hate calling it that) after the scholarship deadline in the hopes i'd have a better chance if i wasn't asking for money. secretly i hope i get 1 yes no matter where, just so i know what's next. i'm 25 and i moved back in with my parents while i finished college this year and am ready to have a "next step"

Sigh, this thread is troubling to me because I hate to see so many of us admitting how badly we'd like to attend one specific school/program. For me, it's Georgetown because of lots of reasons (prestige, unranked program, wanting to live in D.C, libraries at my disposal). I even had to apply after the scholarship deadline and would do horrible things in order to finance going there (just kidding, for the most part) I also applied to American which would mean D.C which is my goal and it could come with funding and a better option for teaching, which is what I want to do while I get my M.A, in order to decide if I'll go forward in getting a PHD. I just want to know already! I only picked 5 schools thinking it was enough of a variety but I'm unemployed and living back at home while I wait to make my next move which makes all of this soooooooooooo much more painfully agonizing. UGH

ugh, i dont even know why I care about Rochester so much. I used to live there and have a lot of friends nearby, and even though its an unfunded M.A, its only a year long program so I figured I'd like it as an (expensive but somewhat convenient) option. The 4 other schools I've applied to are much better fits ($ and desired location wise) but I'm antsy to hear yes or no just to get this over with.

I've been wondering the same as I incessantly scan the results here. It's torture to see so many people accepted every day. I too applied to Georgetown (and it's my first choice.) Some other schools I applied to have began notifying people but I see a lot of them are PHD candidates. I didn't do a lot of research about the PHD process at those places but maybe I should have so I would have a better sense of the timeline. p.s (5 applications, no word on any of them so far, did email all last week for approximate dates and i've heard soon-ish from all)

both of you applied to Rochester's PHD program, right? I only ask because I applied to the M.A in English and am curious if the timeline will be similar. not that i'm starting to get antsy about it or anything...