Karou

It’s been a crazy week on my end so I haven’t checked in in a while but I wanted to congratulate everyone who got admitted/waitlisted/ made a decision!!
Currently in NY waiting for my flight to Durham!

It’s been a crazy week on my end so I haven’t checked in in a while but I wanted to congratulate everyone who got admitted/waitlisted/ made a decision!!
Currently in NY waiting for my flight to Durham!

It’s been a crazy week on my end so I haven’t checked in in a while but I wanted to congratulate everyone who got admitted/waitlisted/ made a decision!!
Currently in NY waiting for my flight to Durham!

It’s been a crazy week on my end so I haven’t checked in in a while but I wanted to congratulate everyone who got admitted/waitlisted/ made a decision!!
Currently in NY waiting for my flight to Durham!

It’s been a crazy week on my end so I haven’t checked in in a while but I wanted to congratulate everyone who got admitted/waitlisted/ made a decision!!
Currently in NY waiting for my flight to Durham!

It’s been a crazy week on my end so I haven’t checked in in a while but I wanted to congratulate everyone who got admitted/waitlisted/ made a decision!!
Currently in NY waiting for my flight to Durham!

A lot can be said for the collegiality of the dept. Last year, I was choosing between two top 10 programs, but one was slightly higher ranked. On the visit day for the better program, I saw that students hated each other, the professors, and the administration. 3 students said that they were transferring out to other programs because of the lack of support from their advisors. That was a HUGE red flag to me. 6th and 7th year funding also seemed to be incredibly contentious and competitive. I couldn't see myself being happy there for next 5-8 years. 
When I visited the program that I am now attending (the slightly lower ranked one) the students and faculty both stressed how much collegiality there was in the department. Now that I'm here, I can absolutely attest to that. Obviously, more went into my decision than just whether people were happy, but at the end of the day, with all other things being relatively equal, it's ok to choose the place where you'd be happy and where others seem happy.
There is something to be said about choosing a program where you would be happy, especially because this is a process which will consume your life for the next 5-8+ years. The job market is terrible for all of us, so in some instances, choose the place where you would be the happiest and most supported because that is the place where you are going to get the best work done. If you're going to be miserable at X school, you'll be more likely to drop out and your work will likely suffer. 

1) Language study support
2) Are there enough courses to support  your needs? (This is critical if the program is looking to get smaller) What if there aren't enough courses? Will your adviser be willing to supervise independent study?
3) How good is the student health insurance? Does it cover dental and vision? (Trust me, you will need the vision even if you don't currently wear glasses  )
4) What is the teaching/grading load like?  
5) How does stipend increases work in the university?  Is it be progress in the PhD program or by class enrollment?
6) What kinds of jobs are graduates getting after they defend? Are they happy with their non-academic jobs?
7) What is the continuous enrollment policy, if there is one? (Essentially, it means that graduate students are required to pay tuition to stay enrolled as they work on their dissertations if they don't have tuition waivers.)
? How much time does the Graduate School give to students to graduate after completing their exams?
9) Can you tell me about the university's dissertation completion fellowship? What does a successful application package look like? (Asking this question will give you a sense of the department's highest standards)
10) If you are a NON-US citizen, ask international students about external funding opportunities. (Unless the faculty member has lots of experience of advising non-US citizens or was a non-US citizen during his/her PhD, you aren't going to get a good answer out of them. They're that clueless.)

The two most important questions are:
1) What options are available to fund research travel? 
2) What sorts of funding are available for my sixth and seventh years? 
ANY hesitation on the part of faculty in response to these questions - if they don't know, if they say such monies aren't necessary, if they defer you to grad students - is to be taken not so much as a red flag but rather a full on May Day parade.
 
Much harder to negotiate are the questions you can't just ask but still need answered: How supported do the graduate students feel in both academics and teaching? Do faculty treat them like members of the department or as if they were their paterfamilias? Are departmental politics collegial or a knife fight? Do graduate students get dragged into them? 

So exciting! Safe travels!

It’s been a crazy week on my end so I haven’t checked in in a while but I wanted to congratulate everyone who got admitted/waitlisted/ made a decision!!
Currently in NY waiting for my flight to Durham!

It’s been a crazy week on my end so I haven’t checked in in a while but I wanted to congratulate everyone who got admitted/waitlisted/ made a decision!!
Currently in NY waiting for my flight to Durham!

I meant to post this earlier, but I got the notification while on my way to see Hamilton.... I got my second acceptance! I was accepted into the MA to PhD program in American history at SLU. I emailed the program director to see if a switch into the early modern history program was possible and will probably ask my current faculty mentor (who does some very interesting work) about possibly working with me for a masters. 
I honestly didn't expect to have to weigh two options, but I'm so glad I have to! 

Good lord. I just went to take a peek and wow, the level of toxicity is outrageous. The only linguistics students I've ever met were so nice - who are these people?? My undergrad has a reputation for producing arrogant/elitist attitudes and even so I've never seen someone non-ironically use 'pleb' to describe people. Yeesh.

I'm so sure I've literally seen the word 'plebs' being used, in a non-ironic context. It makes my skin crawl!

My *hope* is that the staff member I spoke to simply doesn't have all the information, and they've started...but perhaps not finished? 
 
P.S. Sorry to add confusion to this already very tense time--I just thought it was worth sharing! 

That seems likely. Perhaps it's a case of POIs unofficially notifying applicants, and official letters haven't been sent yet?
In any case, gods, I really hope it's neither of the options that you mentioned @halcyonday, either would be horribly cruel!

Thank you @Karou and will do! Wishing you luck in this later week as well!

I agree, there's hope for us yet!

I agree, there's hope for us yet!

I don't think we should conclude wait list or rejection from Yale. No one else has posted an acceptance. That one person seems to be an anomaly. I'm hoping for 2/22 to be a day of clarity. 

Yes, I can confirm that Duke's visiting days are next week (February 26-28), @Carltonjacobs!
If by UT, you meant UT Austin, perhaps @fordlandia can enlighten you.

Yes, those dates seem right! I was mostly just trying to make the point (not very clearly at all haha) that we shouldn't freak out if we didn't get a phone call, like the person on the results page did, because applicants seem to have been notified through a range of different mediums in past years! Phone calls, emails, website, etc. Good luck everyone!

Right there with you! Really curious as to what's going on with Yale right now, from past years, the ways in which applicants are notified seem pretty inconsistent!

I've been admitted to Harvard's History and East Asian Languages! On a Saturday!