cannonfodder

I just need to vent about this:
I emailed the admissions department of a school to ask how applying by the Early Decision deadline would influence when I would receive my decision. I got a boilerplate "you get it when you get it" email that they were clearly sending en masse to anyone who had "decision" in their subject line. What's the point of Early Decision deadlines if it doesn't expedite the decision? I guess what bothers me the most is that they didn't even bother to pay attention to the email.

Anyway.

I didn't really apply to many places in the US, just LA, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin. What about you?

I have a feeling that checking gradcafe wouldn't exactly alleviate those feelings! And yet here we are.
I wrote to one of the programs and I received a reply stating that we would get to know the results by April. Are you kidding me?!! That's 1/3 of a year of waiting. The whole process is designed to drive us insane, although I do understand why it takes that long.

My roommate introduced me to this music recently.  A fusion of Persian and West African music.  I've been listening to it today, and it's helped take the edge off my anxiety.  Very relaxing.   
 

I have a feeling that checking gradcafe wouldn't exactly alleviate those feelings! And yet here we are.
I wrote to one of the programs and I received a reply stating that we would get to know the results by April. Are you kidding me?!! That's 1/3 of a year of waiting. The whole process is designed to drive us insane, although I do understand why it takes that long.

Not yet, but it’s  barely 12 in California time! 
 
 

Yeah, same feels, if you were referring to admission decision and stuff. 
I have been waiting for the Admission decisions' , and sometimes it just goes to a dead end point! 
 

Start writing. Immediately. During my PhD, one of the most difficult things was to find a consistent level of writing output on a weekly basis. Some weeks, there was a lot of production and other weeks, not so much. I learned that the way to do it is to set a specific writing goal, and then STICK TO IT, every day. It should be something that is both challenging and achievable. So don't go out and insist that you will write 3 pages per day because in most cases, you might be able to do that for a few days but then you won't be able to keep up. Instead set a goal of something like 300 words to around 500 words (500 words = roughly equivalent of 1 page). If you write 500 words, every day, you will have produced about 15 pages in two weeks time. All those pages won't be perfect of course, but you will at least have a baseline that you can then improve upon.
Do little over a long period of time INSTEAD of doing a lot during a short period time. In my experience, the quality of the text will be better, as well as the quality of your life (in terms of work-life balance). Anyone else who have thought about this?

oh yeah, seminar etiquette. this may vary by discipline, so i'm speaking primarily of history (and this can extend maybe to most of the humanities/social sciences).

1) don't talk about your personal stories, as someone else mentioned. we're trying to discuss a book, not hear your life story.

2) don't talk about your research in seminar, unless you are specifically asked about your research or unless the reading is precisely on your topic. there are few things more irritating to your colleagues than hearing, "this really reminds me of my own work on _________," especially when your own work actually has zero connection to the reading. talking about your research doesn't further the conversation for anyone else. after seminar, when you're hanging with your cohort, then talk about your work and how the books relate and all that. but in the 2-3 hours you have to really discuss this stuff in seminar, use it wisely.

3) find something good to say about the stuff you're reading. grad students' favourite hobby seems to be ripping apart the scholarship they themselves cannot (yet) produce. it's important to see a work's limitations or missteps, but try to engage with the reading by asking, "what is this author trying to do? what was their aim? did they achieve it? am i convinced?" rather than, "he really should have talked about X and Y instead of A and B." you can't criticize a book for not answering the questions it doesn't even ask, but that doesn't stop many grad students from trying.

I agree with what everyone has said. I have a slightly different take on a couple topics, so here is a couple things I've learned (probably have posted something along these lines in the past)...

- While I agree with others that it's good not to gossip, it's also good to learn who you can trust and vent to. I have someone in the department who is a good friend of mine (not in my cohort) and I can just completely vent to her, and she vents to me. She's never betrayed my trust, and sometimes it helps just to have someone to do this with. Frankly, I get annoyed easily, and I'm also a complainer, and if it doesn't get out of my system, it just festers. An objective party (my husband) + someone in the situation (a colleague & good friend) is the perfect pair for me to vent to.

- Find out the unwritten rules. I'm so used to being told "this is mandatory" or "highly encouraged" and "this is optional" that it was new to me to learn that "optional" really means "mandatory" in some cases, and others are truly optional things. There will be events that seem like a waste of your time (e.g. not in your research area), but if you are expected to go, you better go. You want the faculty to view you in a favorable light. They do not look kindly on students that they see as not being involved. Also, you will be told things last minute, or not at all. Building good relationships with others allows you to be on the "in" with events going on.

Okay, one academic/research-y thing...be proactive! Get involved in research projects. It seems obvious, but you would be surprised how many students just wait for things to come to them. They figure they're in their first year, it's all still learning, and they should focus on classes. Get involved in research and your name as a co-author on conferences and papers if you can. It will pay off.

I would choose a mentor over a topic any day. I don't know about you but I know for a fact I can get excited about a lot of topics in science, especially in my subfield. Having a good advisor makes a huge impact on your day to day life so making sure that your advisor relates well to students and has time to mentor you is really important. Its much easier to develop interest/knowledge in a new area than it is to change your boss!

Flip a coin and use that to decide. Then sit on it for a day and think about how the decision makes you feel.
But, honestly, it's fine to prioritize general opportunities for growth personally and professionally.

There's a chance that another school may still admit you. But at this point, if it happens it's likely because someone is taking a long time to make a decision on whether or not to accept or because someone has changed their mind about attending and they need to find an alternate candidate. 
I think you have made a wise decision to attend your safety school. Congrats on the offer!

Yeah all of the Canadian universities still haven't given me any response, I gave up and settled in my safe school. I've seen people get accepted in May and even in June, but who knows whether or not they got early unofficial offer from POI. My suggestion is keep sending emails or simply call the graduate offices, there's still hope, but if you got a plan B, it's time to start preparing. That's what I did. 

Yes, you can definitely keep in touch. Just remember that professors are busy and will probably prioritize their time for their students. And I guess it could depend on the field, but academically/professionally "keeping in touch" is a little different than keeping in touch with friends etc. One way you could approach it is to let the prof know that you decided on Oregon for your Masters and that you hope to keep in touch and that you are interested in applying to PhD programs in the future. 
Then, I think there are certain times that make it easier to renew contact:
- When you publish a paper (don't worry if you don't do this during your Masters though)
- When you are about to go to a conference in your field (email them to see if they are going if you want to set up an appointment; or just try to find them when you are both there).
- When you are going to apply to PhD programs and want to talk about opportunities
- When something comes up and it makes sense to consult with them. For example, when I submit papers to the journal, my advisor and I often discuss a few people to send pre-prints to. We find people that we know that might be interested and could potentially provide good feedback in addition to the referees. These people are either people I know or my advisor knows (at first, I knew no one but for the most recent paper, it was mostly people from "my" network). 
I'd say there's no real need to email them more than once or twice a year! But these guidelines might scale differently in your field.

I may be headed to Kansas this fall as well. I haven't received the official offer yet, only a notification from the admissions committee. 

I am really sorry. I don't know what else to say. I hope everything will settle into place for you. 

Congrats to you both! I got a rejection from a school (2/3 rejections now). Waiting on my final university and I'm feeling pessimistic about the whole ordeal now. :-(

@2017, people holding on to offers when they have intention of accepting them is extremely annoying and if I may, extremely selfish. I know two people who have got 3 or 4 offers each but do not intend to notify graduate schools about their decision before 15th. One of them received an offer from their dream school in January! 

Honestly im feeling pretty hopeless right now. I am on two waitlists and go back and forth between checking my email every five seconds and not caring about anything. I'm not sleeping, I'm not eating... I have no confidence in myself at the moment. I've pretty much given up in the whole idea of getting a positive response. I honestly feel like I am just existing until sometime around April 15th when someone will put me out of my misery and I can just move on and forget about this whole horrible experience. I came into this process with a lot of positivity and high hopes, but right now I wonder if it was all a giant waste of time. And worst, there is not a single person in my life who really understands how awful this feels.

The April 15 deadline exists in the US but not in Canada. Every school sets their own deadline.

I'm not sure about Queen's and MacMaster's, but I recently talked with several professors in U of Toronto and U of Alberta (casual talk on a conference), it seemed they haven't made the decision and they're not in a hurry. They don't have a April 15th deadlines so the decisions may be late, also the admission decisions. So... hope for the best! And prepare for the worst...