angesradieux

I feel like I'm slowly losing my sanity. Anyone else waking up and ridiculous hours and lunging for the phone to check e-mails? The waiting might just kill me.

Anyone heard anything from Hopkins yet? Last year it looks like they started sending stuff out January 21st, and it looks like January 20th the previous year. So now I've worked myself up into a nice panic.

Once they're split five ways, I doubt the royalties are really enough to squabble over. I guess what frustrates me the most is seeing my work credited to someone else, which probably isn't actually worth fighting over. It just leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth. This professor very helpfully informed me that we'll all receive a free copy of the book once it's printed, and right now I'm just bitter and don't even want to look at it. I'll probably end up giving it away, tossing it, or just shoving it in some dark corner never to see the light of day again. But I guess the lesson here is get everything in writing. He did tell me early on that I was to receive full credit for the translation. Unfortunately, that was just a verbal agreement, so I suppose he decided he could go back on that without consequences, because it comes down to my word against his. This whole thing has really turned me off to collaborative work, though. I'm grateful that history is a field where I can conduct a lot of--perhaps even all of--my research independently. Thanks again for the advice. You're probably right that it's just not a battle worth fighting, especially because I'm at a very early stage in my career where I really do need people on my side. But letting it go is going to take time. It feel like I'm in a bit of a tailspin at this point. I'll probably pull myself out of it eventually, but it also feels like losing a mentor. He was the first professor I'd reached out to after transferring to the school. It was the first history class I could take there, he was the first person I'd undertaken a major project with, and he was the first person I'd ever spoken to about possible grad school aspirations with. I guess it just goes back to being angry at myself. I feel like I should've known better than to let it get to the point where I really trusted and admired him. But it kind of hurts to have lost all interest in future collaboration with the person who was really my first mentor in the field. I'll get over it eventually, but it's a bitter pill to swallow.

Thanks for the advice. My issue is that it wasn't his project that he just recruited me for. He'd been complaining that there was a book that he thought was the best scholarship on Dracula that he would have loved to use for the course, but it was written in French and hadn't been translated into English. I did a translation of a different source that he wanted to use for the class but wasn't yet available in English, and I was sitting in his office discussing that translation with him. And then as we were talking it kind of segued into "Hey. This book's in French. It'd be great to have it in English to use for the class. You know what? Let's do it!" So I started translating and sending chapters to him as I finished for him to look over and edit. But prior to that conversation, he never had any intention of undertaking the project. And the entire first draft of the manuscript was mine. In the past, he'd acknowledged that, as far as when I expressed concern over the timeline he laid out, he said that he would very much like for us to see this through together, but he recognized that the original translation was mine, and if I wanted to, I was certainly free to pursue it independently. I guess the fact that there was no project until I spoke to him and that the entire first draft was my work makes me feel like I should have been consulted. I don't know. He did list me first underneath "translators", so maybe I should take that and be happy. But, I have an e-mail from him, sent almost exactly a year ago, explaining that royalties were going to be split three ways--between me, him, and the original author of the text we're publishing a translation of. So, at that point neither of these other people were part of the equation. A year ago, I was finishing going through his edits of my original translation, and we'd almost finished putting together a second draft. All of the translating was done. However, these people, who materialized are listed as translators also. I honestly don't understand how that's possible since they must have been brought in after I had done the original translation, my professor had gone through and sent my his edits, and I had subsequently looked through his edits, implemented changes, and sent the new version back to him. Anyway, the way the title page is laid out is my professor's name is above everyone's. He's below the original author, listed as "edited and with an introduction by Prof X." And it's true he's the one who did the work on the introduction. And then below that, it's "Translators from French etc.: Me, him, Person 1, and Person 2." And again, maybe I should just take the fact that I'm first and be happy with it, but it just frustrates me because by the time these other people were brought in, I had translated the whole book myself, my professor sent me edits on the translation, and I had gone back through it, making changes and reformatting, so if anything they were involved in further refining the existing version, not actually translating themselves because that had already been done by me. Maybe you're right that I shouldn't make a big deal of it. It's a book translation, nothing original except a brief introduction by the professor, so it's not like it's groundbreaking work. It's also a book detailing the life of Vlad Dracula which, given that my primary field of interest is early modern France, isn't terribly relevant except as a side project. I'm just frustrated because it truly was a difficult project that I really invested a huge amount of time and energy into, and now I guess I'm a little bitter that people who apparently decided to jump in really late in the game are being credited as having done translation work themselves when, in truth, it was done and in the final stages of revision when they were brought in.. I also had myself convinced that he was nice, honest, and helpful, and I'm kind of feeling like I misjudged him, and I'm a little angry with myself over that. I don't know if that makes sense or not. But I guess I'm also struggling with feeling like I should have known better. In terms of recommendations and writing samples, though, I've already applied, so it shouldn't change anything in that respect unless I don't get in anywhere and have to reapply next year, which I'm hoping won't happen but is, of course, always a possibility.

Thanks for responding. Part of me feels like maybe I should just accept it, because at least my name's first in the list. But then I looked at an e-mail from about a year ago. I guess I was starting to have concerns, for whatever reason, so I asked how royalties would work, if there were to be any. A year ago, he told me any royalties would be split three ways, between me, him, and the original author. A year ago, the state of the project was such that the entire first draft had been done for a long time, he had finally gotten around to editing, and he'd sent me the edits and I'd gone through them, reformatting, making adjustments, etc. Essentially, we had a revised draft put together. And at the time of this revised draft, these other people weren't involved. So what, exactly, was left for them to translate if they came in after we'd already gone through a round of revisions? Everything was translated. Did they help revise for another draft? If so, why didn't I see that draft? And if that's the case, they shouldn't be listed as translators, because at the time they apparently decided to latch onto the project like a pair of parasitic leeches, we had a translation already. There was nothing of the original French left that needed to be translated into English. Plus, this publication is much more crucial to me than it is to either of these other people. One is already established in academia. She's the head of my school's study abroad program in France. She doesn't need this to significantly advance her career. And her partner? Her partner owns a wine and cheese shop in Burgundy. So she definitely doesn't need a publication. Meanwhile here I am, fresh out of undergrad, no other publications for my CV. So first, just one a matter of principle, I've been involved from the inception of the project, and I did the work. And second, this is a much bigger deal for me than these other people. But what really kills me is now I'm afraid of grad school. It's hard for me to trust people. My first two years in school, I had a professor who really did a number on me. I worked one on one with her each week, and she'd like grab my hair and stuff. Which, it did have a purpose, but I wasn't okay with it. And she also made all sorts of disparaging comments--not only about my progress, but also about the way I wore my hair, my weight, my clothes, etc., none of which had anything to do with anything. But the last nail in the coffin, so to speak, was she ended up sabotaging me, to the point where I had to leave my program, and I both transferred schools and ultimately ended up changing fields. While it was happening, I didn't understand. But then I started talking to another professor at a different school, told her how things shook out in my final semester, and she said "Well, of course you were having problems. Given what she had you working with, there wasn't anything you could have done." So I went into my new field--history--pretty jaded and cynical. But then I started working with this guy, and he made me feel like he actually valued my work and I let myself trust him. I did a bunch of work for him--I did shorter translations in addition to the book, not with the intention of publication, but just so he could use the text for his classes, I was his TA for two winter semesters and one spring semester, and last spring he also brought me in on another project because his paid RA wasn't keeping up with the work and he needed me to pick up the slack. I did a ton of work for him, and I thought I'd found someone I could trust and be comfortable working with. And that was big for me. One of the things that really scared me about grad applications was having to pick a POI and go in knowing that I'd be working closely with a professor for an extended period of time, because even after some good experiences, that first person I worked with left me with a strong feeling of "You can't trust them." But I thought about experiences at my most recent institution and it gave me courage to think that maybe I was wrong. But nope. He just waited a bit longer to take advantage of me. So now I feel like going into grad school, it's going to be even harder for me to feel comfortable trusting whoever I end up working with. Sorry for the novel. I'm just really disillusioned and frustrated. And I'm hesitant to confront this guy about it, because he was one of my letter writers, and I'm not officially in anywhere yet. So now I'm kind of afraid of whether he could or would send something retroactive that would mess with my applications if I start to make a fuss over this. On the one hand, they can't publish without my consent, so I have a bit of leverage. But does that really matter compared to his leverage?

I think I might be calmer without this forum. xD Before I started combing through the results board I had no idea when Hopkins typically sends out acceptances. Now I'm like wait, last year people were getting notifications right about now. Where's mine?! *refreshes e-mail five hundred times* I'm hoping to hear from another school in a few weeks, but basically where I'm at now, if I get an offer from Hopkins, the decision's made, that's where I'm going. If not, then it's kind of a toss-up. Vanderbilt was my second choice, but after talking to professors at other schools, it turns out I have more in common with professors at other schools than I originally thought, so there's not a big difference in terms of fit. In terms of location, on the other hand... I'm really not sold on Nashville. Not to say I wouldn't go there if it were my only choice, but I'm put off by it enough for that to be a factor if I'm deciding between two programs. After realizing that the fit at Vanderbilt really isn't a whole lot better than the other places I applied, I don't have a clear second choice anymore, and without a firm second pick, I guess I've become even more anxious about my first choice. If that makes sense. I don't know. Maybe it's all nonsense and I've just been driven insane by the waiting. I'm a control freak. I don't deal with the whole "It's out of my hands and time to just sit back and see what happens" thing.

Judging from digging through the last two years' results, January 20/21 is right around when my top choice started sending out decisions. This is killing me. Realmarcelproust, just out of curiosity, is Judith Surkis your POI? I did my undergrad at Rutgers and France has always been near and dear to my heart, so I made sure to work with the French historians while I was there.

Congrats on the interview! I'm not a psychology person, but I took a year off between finishing undergrad and applying to grad programs. I wasn't sure, but a number of my professors all recommended it, so I took their advice, and I'm glad I did. I was able to do an internship for a few months to add to my CV, and I kind of had the freedom to work through the process at my leisure. I took the GRE really early, because I didn't have any other coursework to distract my from studying so I was able to prep at my convenience instead of being forced to put it off, and then I had basically the entire fall to research and contact POIs and really refine my writing sample. Long story short, hopefully things all go well and it's not an issue, but if you do end up taking a year off I found that not being in school makes it much easier to work through the application process.

Congrats. I heard the same kind of thing from UNC. The optimism feels good. I'll be happier when I have the official letter, though. Verbal reassurance is nice, but the I'm anxious for it to be made official. Last I heard, the first rounds of letters go out mid February/early March. But depending on how haggling goes because everything is decided by committee, I guess it could be later. Fingers crossed that we officially hear back sooner rather than later!

I'm so angry. I've been working on a project with a professor for about two years. I approached him about the project. This wasn't something he'd been working on prior to meeting me. It has always been our project. Well, after two years of working, we're at the point of drawing up contracts for publishing the book. Great. Except now he's minimizing my contribution and I feel like he's pulling the whole thing right out from under me. This is a book translation. The work was divided that I did the entire initial translation, and he would edit. So I translated the whole book, with the exception of a paragraph here and there that I may have missed when my eye jumped on the page, and primary sources not in the same language as the book, that I wasn't able to work with. But for all intents and purpose, it's my translation, and this project has always been "my baby" so to speak. It was difficult. It's a serious historical text, and I undertook the translation when I was just beginning the first intermediate level (131 at my school) French class. So it was a massive undertaking and something that I really, really labored on. The first red flag was yesterday. I received an e-mail addressed to me and other people to look for an e-mail from the publisher seeking official permission to use our work. One of these people I'd never even heard of before. No mention of her in any previous conversations, e-mail exchanges, what have you. Just here she is, out of the blue, with her name apparently going on what I understood to be a project belonging to me and this professor. I asked him who she was, and he dodged the issue. He told me who she is, but not anything of substance regarding her role in this project. Well, I e-mailed him today again a bit more bluntly, asking specifically how our names will appear. My name is first in the list, but we're all listed as translators without any distinction. But, naturally, his name is at dead center as "edited and with an introduction by: Professor Slime Bucket". Now I'm really furious. Because these people didn't translate. I translated, and if anything they were involved in editing and refining my original translation. But with all of us just listed as translators, it looks like we all contributed equally, which greatly diminishes my role. I mean, I proposed the project. He wasn't planning on doing this at all until I came along. Without me, there wouldn't be a book to publish. And his e-mail was just like "Oh! Yeah. You'll see I put your name first, because you got the ball rolling. And don't worry! You'll all receive a free hard copy of the book when all is said and done." Now I don't know what to do. I'm not comfortable with this. Like, I'm livid to the point where I'm considering withholding my permission when the publisher e-mails me. On the one hand, that robs me of my very much anticipated first publication and what should be among the greatest achievements of my undergraduate career. On the other, is having a publication even worth it when I'm just listed as one of four, with no indication that this was predominantly my work? I don't know what to do. Do I flat out tell this guy that I'm not comfortable with this? Is it even worth it? Do I go ahead with it anyway, even if I'm feeling cheated? Or do I withhold my permission, so this way nobody gets a publication from it? I feel like I'm going to cry. And it's worse because in the past, I had a pretty abusive relationship with a professor. So I'm always a little nervous about building relationships with professors now. But against my better judgement, I trusted this guy. And after two years of working together, I liked him and thought that we had a good rapport as colleagues now. And he turns around and does this to me. Now I'm questioning everything. Do I even want to be a part of academia, if they go ahead and take advantage of people like this? Can I commit to working with a professor on a doctoral dissertation for an extended period of time when all prior experiences point to professors being people who generally can't be trusted? That was my fear all along. I knew that trusting a possible thesis adviser was going to be a massive hurdle for me. But I looked to people--this guy among the very short list--from undergrad who turned out being helpful and trustworthy. And it turns out, that was a lie and I was right to be skeptical. I'm so upset. I poured so much of my time and energy into this. And for what? A free hard copy of the book. So I can stare at that list of names and be reminded every day of how I was taken advantage of and had my work on my very first project diminished and any substantial credit for what I did ripped out from under me. I'm very disillusioned with academia as a whole now.

Not Yale, but when I was in a similar situation with my POI at another school, it wasn't a particularly stressful conversation. I took a kind of unconventional path through undergrad, so he asked me to talk a bit about how I ended up applying for a PhD in history. He also asked me a little about my research interests, specifically to talk about which period I'm most interested in, since this far I've kind of worked on the tail end of one and the beginning of the next. What I would say was probably the most important thing he brought up in terms of making admissions decisions was how interested I am in their program--essentially, how many schools I applied to, and where they fell in the ranking. Not sure how similar it will be for Yale, but my experience with a phone conversation with my POI was a pretty low stress kind of thing. I'd take it as a good sign that they're taking the time to schedule a phone call.

I've been working on a translation project for two or three years. It's been in conjunction with a professor, with the work divided such that I translated, he edited and fact checked the original author's footnotes. I was under the impression that moving ahead with publication, it was going there be my name and my professor's name, and of course the original author's name, on the finished product. Maybe that was naive, I don't know. But now that the copyright is in order, we have a press ready to go ahead with the publication. And I receive an email addressed to me and two other people about expecting to be contacted by the publisher for permission to use our work. I'm a little confused and frustrated. One person I recognize as the head of study abroad in France. I understand that maybe there was a difficult part to edit and he asked for her help, and now she has to be credited. I can live with that. But the other person was never mentioned to me. I have no clue who she is or what she actually did, and I'm kind of miffed. I did the entire translation. I actually proposed the project. The professor was going on in class about how he wished this book was available in English, and I approached him about translating after class. I guess I'm concerned about someone I've never met, and whose involvement in the project I can't even confirm, getting credit for what is by and large my work. But I don't know how to broach the issue. And I'm feeling a little like my trust has been abused. This is my first publication, so maybe I'm just naive and don't understand how this kind of thing works. Am I wrong to feel this way? Is there a good way to broach the issue? I guess I would feel a little better about it if I at least knew who this person was, but she was never mentioned to me before. Is this usually how this thing goes? Or am I right to feel blindsided? Anyone with more experience have any advice to offer?

Thanks for the advice. I was just irritated by the system being changed after the class ended. It's also been an unusually problematic class even without the grading system changing, so my patience was already wearing a little thin.

The issue is that the scale has changed in between assignment. So on the first assignment, if a student earned a C, I gave a 7. Now he's saying that if a student is doing C work, give them a 4. So essentially, I assigned a B on the first assignment without realizing it, and now if the work is of comparable quality, he wants me to give a lower score. So now students will be receiving markedly lower grades for comparable or in some cases improved work. Based on what he's said, he isn't dropping the previous grades to match the new grading system, so all grades are now inflated and, aside from those students earning an A or B+, everyone is going to see a sharp decrease from the first assignment to this one. Basically, in the case of the student who received a 6, she now has a B that she didn't earn. Using the new scale, even if the work has improved, it may only merit a C, which is now a 4. So either I give her a grade she hasn't earned, which the professor will question, or despite improvement from one assignment to the next, her grade will fall. It's an issue of grades having become incredibly inconsistent and on the second assignment apparently unjustifiable.

Perhaps wanting to kill is a hyperbole. But I'm just incredibly frustrated. I emailed him, but the trouble is he teaches exclusively online, and he isn't teaching at all during the regular spring semester, so he's literally never around to meet with in person. He also basically doesn't communicate with the students at all. Even if they email him a simple, easy to answer question, he forwards it to me. If there's an issue like a medical need for an extension, he tells me what he wants to do, but then passes the task of communicating his decisions on to me. So since students hear almost exclusively from me, I know that I'm going to get the brunt of whatever anger ensues over this. Given his policy of avoiding direct communication with students whenever possible, I kind of doubt he's going to address it himself.

Rawr. I'll start off by saying I know this guy pretty well at this point. This is the third time I've been his TA, and last time I was kind of there for multiple classes. As in, I only officially did the grading for one, but when he was going to be away for a week, he asked me to cover and give a presentation on properly formatting papers to another class, I accompanied his two classes that I wasn't officially TAing on a field trip, and I was heavily involved in keeping tabs on his research assistant. Generally, we've worked well together, with bouts of some irritating behavior. In all this time, his forum discussion assignments have been out of 10. And he's never said anything about skewing the grading system in any way. So for as long as I've worked with him, it's been 9-10=A, 8.5=B+, 8=B, and so on. Just as you would expect. Multiply the grade by 10 and you get the score out of 100%. Note that this particular class is a 5 week winter semester class, so grading has to be done quickly. With this in mind, I've already graded the first forum discussion for this class with this system in mind. I gave 10's to students whose work was truly exceptional. 9-9.5 to students whose work was very good, but not quite on par with the best. 8.5 to students on the high end of B work, 8 to those on the low end, and so on. I entered those grades days ago. Students have seen them. Well, today, I get an e-mail. Even though the class is basically done and the first round of grades have already been posted for students to view, he's changed his grading scale. 9-10 is still an A. But now 8-8.5 is a B+. Still, fine. I'm not going to quibble over half a letter grade. But where it gets really frustrating is now 6-7.5 is a B. 5 is a C+, 4 is a C, 2-3 is a D, and 0-1 is an F. This is drastically different than what I'd had in mind while grading the first assignments. There was a student I have a 6 to, which is probably the lowest grade I've ever given to a complete assignment. Usually, if all parts of the assignment have been submitted, I give at least a 7.5, or what in my mind has been a C. But this was truly one of the worst assignments I've ever seen, so I gave what I thought as a 60%, which would have been an F. But now that's apparently a B. But what frustrates me even more than the apparent adjustment of grades I already entered is now grades may be markedly lower than they were on the first assignment. Say for example the student who earned a 6 made significant improvements on the second forum discussion, but the work only merits a C. Am I supposed to give a lower grade even if the work is actually better, because the grading scale has changed somewhere in between the assignments being graded? What about the students I have 8's to because they were on the lower end of the B range? Do I give them a lower number grade even if they've maintained the same level of quality from one assignment to another? How do I justify that? I'm just so frustrated. If I'd known that this time around he was going to change the grading scale, I would have graded the last assignments much differently. But not only did he wait until I'd finished grading, but he left it until after all the grades were posted to notify me. So now I can't change it, because if a student notices that what was an 8 has now dropped to a 6.5 or 7 or, worse, what was a 6 is now a 1 or 2, they'll be out for blood before I even have time to explain. I feel like no matter what I do, if I suddenly follow this scale I'll have a mutiny on my hands with my inbox exploding with angry emails. But, if I ignore it and follow the original scale out of a healthy sense of self-preservation, I'll get an e-mail from the professor wanting to know why I'm suddenly giving everyone what works out to be higher grades than I have in the past. I planned to get a good chunk of grading done today, but now I'm frustrated and confused and, frankly, feeling a little stuck. Has anyone else here experienced a professor drastically changing the grade scale after the class was underway and assignments had already been graded?

Thanks. I'm trying to be hopeful that maybe if I end up moving things will get better because I won't be around to be taken for granted anymore. Maybe she'll care a little more about my presence if I'm only around once or twice a year. But I'm also a bit afraid. It doesn't help that my life's been pretty stagnant thus far, and I was a little nervous about moving anyway. And I guess wondering if she'll even notice or care that I'm gone makes the anxiety worse. This was a while ago, before I'd even submitted the first application, so me moving away was just a vague, distant hypothetical situation, but when it came up over the summer all she said was that if I do move, I'd better take my cat with me, because she wouldn't take care of him for me.

Sending the GRE scores killed me, especially because I took mine pretty early. My list of schools changed significantly after I'd taken the exam, so only one of my free score reports ended up going to a school that actually mattered. The others were wasted on schools I ended up not applying to. On the one hand, I appreciated having the GRE out of the way so I could spend the fall contacting professors at various schools, refining my writing sample, etc. On the other, my wallet would've been much happier if I'd waiting until I had a more finalized list of schools. The cost of applying is truly insane.

That's nice. Apparently, one of the schools I applied to switched to an online application pretty recently and was still receiving a lot of hard copies of documents. To encourage the transition to paperless, they decided that this year they were going to waive the fee for all online submissions. I was pretty happy, especially because I'd already been bled dry by other schools and likely would've had to pull some money from my savings account to cover that final application.

I've known from the beginning that if I want to go to grad school, I have to move out of state. Most schools in the state don't have history professors in my field, and I was basically told flat out not to apply to the one that does, because I did my undergrad there, and they very, very rarely take their ow undergrads as PhD students. So when I made the decision to start applying, I accepted the fact that if all went according to plan, I'd be moving. But I guess it was just a distant possibility. I really wasn't too confident I'd get in anywhere. Now that I feel like I have a really good chance of getting into at least one of the schools I applied to, I guess the reality's starting to hit more. Anyway, my sister and I have had a kind of rocky relationship for a while, now. Generally it consists of me really wanting to spend time together, and her generally ignoring me and putting literally everyone and everything else in the world first. I can't even remember the last time we had a "sister day" and just went out and spent a day doing stuff together. My parents don't get it, they think I'm just crazy and overly emotional when I get upset over it. And maybe I am. I don't know. But it still hurts when I feel taken for granted and ignored, and I can't just shut it off. And now this is just adding a whole new dimension. It's feeling like a strong possibility that in a matter of months, I could be a twelve hour drive away and only have time to visit once or twice a year. I guess now that it feels real, it hurts even more that she doesn't want to spend any time together when we may only be able to do so for another 6-7 months. At this point, I'm a little afraid that I'll leave for North Carolina or something, she won't miss me or otherwise care that I'm not around, and I just won't hear from her for months at a time, or perhaps longer. And it's just making the whole process really tough. It's not enough to make me say that I won't go if I get accepted somewhere. But I felt really good for all of a day after receiving some encouraging news, and now the initial excitement and optimism is somewhat soured and colored with all this emotional baggage, wondering if I'll even be missed if I'll leave and kind of afraid to find out. I don't know. Maybe I'm just being emotional and ridiculous. But I guess I'm feeling kind of conflicted and pretty hurt. Again, not enough so for me to say I wouldn't still go, but enough that I'm a weepy wreck. I guess it's just a whole lot harder and more confusing than I'd ever anticipated it would be.

Well, the phone call happened. Nothing's official, but he said that he's going to advocate for the department committee to nominate me for a university wide fellowship and he hopes that I'll be in the first group of students they send acceptances to. So there's actually a decent chance I may be a PhD student in the fall.

I'm in the same boat. Discovering the results search was possibly the worst thing for my sanity. Now my whole thought process is "Wait. Someone's been accepted to this school I applied to. Why haven't I heard yet? Must mean I'm not getting in." On the one hand, it's kind of nice to have some idea of what's going on. On the other, I'd have a much easier time distracting myself and not obsessing if I had no information.

Thanks. I intended to refresh my memory and review his professor's work, but something came up and I ended up not having time, which has left me a bit stressed. I still sometimes get nervous and self-conscious talking to professors I've known for a while, so going into a conversation with a potential professor who I really want to like me and who I've never met before is a little terrifying. I'm not an especially outgoing or talkative person.

Anyone else hear anything from UNC Chapel Hill? I've received an e-mail from the professor I'm hoping to work with there saying that they're seriously considering my application and he'd like to arrange a phone conversation, which is scheduled for tomorrow. Has anyone else here been in contact with a professor from UNC? I must admit, I'm a little nervous. He said it's just a conversation, not an interview, but I'm not really sure what to expect.