Karou

@villageelliot, I know it's not exactly the news you wanted, but it's still positive news, congrats! Keeping my fingers crossed for you. @elx, it's certainly not unreasonable to be holding on to hope for a spot on the waitlist! As @villageelliot said, it's definitely a possibility. I don't think I will be fully relaxed until everyone here hears back, I feel so invested in everyone's journey!

That sounds very frustrating! Technically, Tulane wanted a 20-30 page sample as well, but I sort of decided to 18 pages should be fine, hopefully I was right about that. (They also wanted me to send a physical copy of it to the department, which I thought was a little strange, but I complied). I agree that it's kind of calming. The quiet before the storm.

Many schools I applied to asked for no more than 20 pages, and others didn't really care as long as it was more than 15 pages, so that gave me a consistent page range to work with and I ended up with an 18-ish pages sample. Penn was definitely the odd man out, and the 10-page thing drove me crazy! Thank you, and good luck to you as well! And here's to hoping that your schools release decisions sooner than anticipated! Do you also find mornings terribly long because you know that, because of the time difference, it's the middle of the night in the US and nothing is going to happen for several hours? Because I do.

@fortsibut aah yes page limits can be rough, my application to Penn wasn't great, I struggled to cut down my own sample to their 10-page limit and I think I did a rather poor job of it. Oh well! I think it's something that all Penn applicants get frustrated over. But it's also true that we as applicants (and as students in general) tend to be very self-critical of our own work, I'm sure your writing sample is better than you think it is. I hope you hear good news this application cycle. It's true you never know what offer you will get from a school, but like you said many of us have to limit the number of schools we can apply to in the first place. I would certainly do things differently if I were to do it all over again, I have been particularly disorganized throughout this whole process. I thought I was very prepared, but some unforeseen, last-minute changes to my project mean that I may not be a great fit for some of the schools I applied to any more. I'm glad I changed the project, it's what I really want to do (although I know these things tend to change once you're in a program), but I think it may be working against me this application season. Duke came on as a sort of last minute addition for me (and boy, am I glad that I decided to apply!!), with the new project in mind, and I think that's a big reason as to why I was successful there. Not holding my breath for any of the other places I applied to, I think I will likely strike out everywhere else. But, where I'm at is more than good enough for me, Duke is a fantastic option! As a tally of sorts on this first Monday of February, out of my remaining 6 schools I'm assuming that I've been rejected by both Brown and Penn, very possibly Harvard as well. Waiting on Columbia, Tulane and Yale! Good luck everyone!

I have to admit, I’m not entirely sure what you mean by all of this, but I’ll do my best. In terms of objectivity/subjectivity I really just meant that I know what does and doesn’t work for me, having gone through the process of moving to a new place many times -although of course every place is different, and I only have a very surface knowledge of most of the places I’m applying to/thought of applying to, so perhaps I made a poor judgement call in cutting some programs. I guess I’ll never know but I did the best I could with the information I had at hand; when it came down to it, I had way too many schools on my initial list, and affordability and funding opportunities (although as you said, it’s impossible to have a full picture of what those opportunities may be from the outside) became the tie-breaker because I could not decide which programs to cut on a purely academic level. I can be flexible and compromise on almost anything for something I really want, but if I like Program A as much as I like Program B, and Program A offers either more money, or is located somewhere where my stipend will stretch further, well that’s an obvious choice. I realize now that my previous post may have made me sound like some sort of prima donna, but I'm actually hoping to live with my roommates, and I'm certainly not looking for anything fancy. I'm just trying to make sure that I don't blow most of my stipend on rent and utilities (you would not believe the amount of time I spent researching the average monthly cost of A/C in New Orleans after I decided to apply to Tulane), because there are things that are more of a priority for me (being able to afford to fly home every other year would be nice, for instance). As far as remaining open to opportunities, that's certainly something I agree with, and I hope I don't come off as someone who isn't flexible or who isn't aware that seizing certain opportunities often demands compromise, because that's not me at all. I'm not always great at conveying my meaning through the internet - and I also quite obviously suck at being concise, sorry this got so long. Lastly, I hope this doesn't sound combative, not my intention at all, I appreciate you sharing your experience, I'm just really not sure what you were trying to say (blame that on the language barrier, or a tired brain, or me being just plain clueless -very possibly, it's a combination of the three).

This made my day, thank you! ??

While I think this should be true, I respectfully disagree. I think it's a very subjective process based on what one prioritizes rather than an objective truth. For me there are a couple of programs that I know I would for sure not have been able to attend, unless I was willing to share a studio apartment with a stranger to get a good deal on rent —and while I'm fairly low maintenance about these things, I'm not willing to do that (I'm only sort of exaggerating with the sharing a studio thing). It made no sense to put the time, energy, and money into applying, knowing that I would have to decline the offer should I be admitted (even if it was my only offer, which would have been very difficult). I'm very much a "follow-your-heart" kind of person, but in that case I had to force myself to consider facts objectively, and in the end I opted to save myself the emotional stress of potentially being in that situation. Believe me, it was not an easy decision, and was the result of many long conversations with friends, family, and professors. All of that being said, I think there are exceptions, and if you really, really love a program and couldn't see yourself going anywhere else, you should apply, but there are many things to consider. @telkanuru, thank you for confirming that Brown has sent out all acceptances. Not good news on my end, but it's nice to know for sure. Also, enjoy my home country! (I know you're probably there for work rather than pleasure, but still).

This was a huge factor for me when I was deciding on which schools to apply to. I decided against applying to a couple of schools I really liked because I didn't want to deal with the heartache of having to decline potential offers because of financial concerns. I only applied to Columbia because I know a lot of people in NYC who can provide me with accommodation at a reasonable cost.

Ah, nice to see there's a few of us on here! Looking forward to meeting you and the rest of the (prospective) cohort then!

Thank you! I guess I can assume I didn't make the cut then, but it's helpful just knowing. Waiting and wondering is way worse.

I would love to trust your judgement on this, but there now appears to be a second acceptance to Brown posted on the results page. Not too sure what to think, and whether I should assume I've been rejected. Do you know if Brown usually sends out all admits at the same time @telkanuru?

Aaah, I love this so much, and can absolutely relate. Big congrats to you @urbanhistorynerd!! And to you @historygeek!! @Balleu I really hope it works out for you! Good luck everyone, we'll know where we stand fairly soon, one way or another.

Hi @gorgogliante! Fellow Duke admit here. My own potential game changers are Brown and Columbia, but I'm heavily leaning toward Duke as well. I'm sure I'll see you there at the end of the month!

Aww, thank you! I'm really okay, any potentially negative feelings are only the result of a slightly bruised ego (and I rarely listen to him, frankly he's kind of obnoxious and his priorities are questionable at best). I'm still very happy about Duke, it was my "best case scenario" to get in there, so I really have no ground to complain or feel bad about anything. I hope you're doing okay with the waiting! I admit to being a little freaked out about that Brown acceptance on the results page though. Much more so than I am about the radio silence from Penn and Harvard. Aaand it's officially February y'all. Welcome to the jungle.

Aah, sorry to hear that, really hoping you'll hear good news from one of you other schools! I have a feeling next week will be a big one in terms of decisions. Anyway, gonna turn in for the night and indulge in some escapist fiction while trying not to obsess over the fact that I didn't get an email from Harvard.

I absolutely did not take it that way, no worries! It was an email that told me to check the portal. I think I saw an acceptance that said they had received an email from a professor, so perhaps they're one of those schools who does not release all their acceptances at once and has POIs do it?

I really don't know, I really only just got it, so yours may just not have come yet, or you could possibly be on a waitlist? I hope you hear soon, I know waiting is hard.

Just got my official rejection from Johns Hopkins, I was expecting it, so it's all good. It's nice to know for sure either way!

Hopefully! I really just want to know, one way or another. Yeah, seems like it, I was just sort of hoping they may decide to release decisions earlier this year!

So many admits! Amazing, congratulations everyone!!

I feel the same way! Weekends feel much, MUCH longer than they have any right to and I find myself irrationally annoyed on Friday evenings, knowing it will be another couple of days of radio silence. A pint might be a good distraction.

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Thank you @magnegresswrites and @kp_87 for the information on the webinar! It all sounds very confusing, and I understand that you don't know what conclusions to draw from it. Did they give any indication as to when they expect to notify applicants of decisions?

As far as Penn, as I mentioned a few posts back, applicants in the last few years have reported getting interview requests quite far apart from one another, so there's still a chance that you will hear from them. My own attitude towards this is that I'll give it a few more days, but that if I haven't heard back by next Monday, I'll have to accept that it's most likely not a good sign. But of course your experience may be different. Good luck to you!

Looks like Johns Hopkins is in the process of sending out some acceptances. I'm expecting a rejection (I was already thinking that ,and now just noticed a major oops in my statement of purpose), but I think some of you have also applied and I'm rooting for you all!