Carly Rae Jepsen

The Director of the program at UPittsburgh was so kind in this interview. Feeling very optimistic about 2 schools now (and very pessimistic about 2); the other 3: who knows? Anything could happen.

^ Welcome to the gradcafe! I'm also applying to Rutgers and Michigan. Checking the survey site I see many people tend to get acceptances around this week. The wait is killing meee I am going to watch Emmanuel Macron videos to prepare for this interview tomorrow. His French is formal and all...

They arrived today! USPS is slow but who cares

Larousse and Langenscheidt tend to have very complete dictionaries. For Spanish The University of Chicago English-Spanish dictionary seems to have prestige too, though I've never used it.

Thank you guys, very useful tips

Woo first interview already scheduled! For this program all applicants are interviewed via Skype so I don't feel special, really, but it's nice to get the cycle going. Bring it on!

Hi everybody, I was wondering if anybody had tips or suggestions for online (Skype) interviews. I plan to brush up on my applications and the department/school, wear a formal shirt, be open about my research interests. Any other suggestions? Thanks!

Ok so I got notified that the University of Pittsburgh wants to do a Skype interview next week. They're not my top choice because the stipend is rather small but I'm still excited and nervous. It will last 25 minutes. i also haven't really spoken French with anybody in like a year (took a gap year) so nervous about that too. They consider that before awarding teaching assistantships.

I should've emailed grad students, how did I not think of that? I guess I'll email them if I manage to get in somewhere to get a feel of the place before making a decision. I wish I could visit schools but most of my choices are far from where I live (I really wanted to get out of the South lmao) And yeah if they offer me a MAPH spot I'm saying no.

I remember the tediousness of CampusFrance. I had to do it for a 4 month study abroad program. By the way I received today an e-mail from UChicago saying they started reviewing apps and that they should notify people by mid-February. They mentioned a Master's of Humanities program that accepts people who they reject for the Ph.D. Hmmm. Are you guys sending an e-mail to a professor you would like to work with? People mention that it's good to do that but I'm afraid of coming off as insincere so I would rather not. I also think reading professor's articles on journals just to flatter them on an email is...eek. (It's also kind of late in the game to even do that).

Just got an email from UChicago saying they started to review apps for humanities programs I thought for a second it was a real notification

Nice!!! I'll definitely ask you if I decide to apply. And Master's there sounds great, I heard they're shorter to finish. By the way, are you on Reddit? I posted about how STEM people get their notifications before us humanities people. I wish we had an answer like them lol

My backup plan is either apply to the TAPIF program to teach English in France (good experience if I re-apply) or look for a high school teaching job and get certified to teach French. I almost ended up teaching high school French last year, it's a matter of searching private schools.

^ Ready for my rejection from UChicago. Michigan...let's see They're definitely up there in my list. I almost applied to UPenn but they didn't seem to reply to my e-mails about the program so yeah, I just discarded them.

I'm just an applicant as well so I'm not quite sure how the language requirement is tested but as far as learning I can suggest purchasing a book on Amazon to learn a language for reading knowledge. I bought one for like 5 dollars to learn reading knowledge of German and it was good for my purposes! I second applications like Duolingo and Memrise, too.

Not much in 2017 except for undergraduate graduation. 2018 will get better with graduate school acceptances, though! Happy New Year everybody!

I expect to be rejected by 3 or so of the schools I applied to, realistically. If the rest reject me, however, I'll be absolutely crushed. I better work on that mindset.

Bought me two vinyl records this Christmas. Lana Del Rey's Lust For Life, because I love her and have every LP by her so far, and Cigarettes After Sex's self-titled debut, which is nothing short of heavenly.

I could also blog if this was re-opened!

i only like Art Angels lol, Kill V. Maim specifically. I guess I'm not into overtly experimental stuff most of the time.

First-generation immigrant whose parents are working class here! I've become used to navigate education for myself since high school. My parents don't know English very well, let alone how to get into graduate school. It used to frustrate me that they understood so little of academia and what I studied (I once attempted to explain why I liked Albert Camus to my mom, to which she replied that she found existentialism stupid), but it is what it is. It makes me feel even better about myself that in spite of that I still obtained a bachelor's degree and will hopefully one day have a doctorate. Also, I have quite a few cousins who completed their studies in medicine, engineering and other areas, so I guess I feel less isolated in that sense. Still, I push education among my siblings (two of them got into the same honors undergraduate program as me thanks to my guidance)--I'll make sure they too succeed.

Best of luck! I'd be going crazy if I had only applied to one program (at some point I considered just three, but I panicked), but in your case you showed them your interest so that should help.

Well, I'm obviously very much into school and continuing my education. I like studying for the sake of it, but making it a career is a plus. I'm back at living with my parents and while they were kind to take me back as a college graduate, it hasn't been easy at times. I want an emancipation, so getting into a program is a very big deal. I'm not even sure I have ranked the schools I applied to, since I consider them to be great in their ways. I don't feel very attached to Stanford because it feels to me like an instant rejection. Same with Chicago, but getting in would be amazing. The school has a great reputation (that would help with future job offers) and is in a wonderful city. I picture myself in the other schools quite often, but just as often I doubt they'll consider me seriously. I am very optimistic about Rutgers though, because the chair e-mailed me to say she liked my statement of purpose (and remind me not to miss any materials before the deadline). It's strange, but right now we're all thinking that we can't wait to start our Ph.Ds, but if we get in a program we'll have endless work and be stressed haha. So I'll try to enjoy the peace for now. Venting out in this forum/support group helps a lot, as I'm not surrounded anymore by other students who are trying to get into graduate school as well.

This is my first time applying so don't take my word on anything, but I submitted 4 LORs for a couple programs I was very interested in. Neither of those programs advised against it, and I figured if someone was late with their LOR then I could rest assured I had the other 3 ready anyway. (Let's see how this works out).

Fair points made in this thread so far, but I have to say universities could be way more honest about the number of applications they receive and how many students they expect to admit each term, mean GRE scores, listing research areas professors are interested in, etc. Some universities like NYU and Northwestern are very transparent, I've found. Others--well, the lack of info makes you want to apply.