punctilious

OH MY GOD CONGRATULATIONS!!!!! I'm soooooo happy for you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Too late! I tried calling his phone and it’s dead. BUT WHAT IF?!

That would be a relief! I was dreading having to wait for the Ivies, which seem to be weeks after a lot of other schools.

Do you think this is an anomaly? Like do schools often accept especially stellar applicants early? My husband has been in meetings around DC all day and left the house with his phone on low battery this morning. Now I'm wondering if he possibly could have gotten a call... Lol, if only!

Harvard English acceptance already?! CONGRATS to whoever posted that!

Absolutely! I think the SOP shouldn't be 100% about your research and essays or whatever--if there's something that makes you stand out, don't eliminate it just because it may not feel totally relevant. Russia may not seem completely relevant to post-45 US lit, but what does he have to lose my mentioning it? Someone might skim over it. But what does he have to gain? Someone stopping and thinking, "Huh, that's pretty cool! I'd like to learn more about that!" or "I love Russia/Russian literature as well!" or "Hey, he taught English in Russia? That's cool, so he knows he likes teaching!" and deciding to give him a chance. Plus, his research experience in the history department was on US-Russian trade relations (also relating back to 'things'/'goods'/material culture, which he wants to study in literature!). So it all loops back to inform his love of his research focus. Of course your SOP should be a total personal essay, but I think to really feel your passion and drive, there has to be a sense of who you are. That's what was missing before he added his paragraph on Russia. So what I'm saying is, don't be nervous about that. I think it can really help. And our fingers are crossed for you too!

He already said he'll dedicate the novel he's working on to me if he publishes it, but I should totally suggest this as well! He's very appreciative of the extensive time I've spent on this process with him--building the massive spreadsheet, researching schools and professors, helping him write his SOP and prepare for his interview, etc.--but all I ask in return is that I get to say 'we' got a PhD in the end. Is that reasonable? Lol.

So this is a blooper that could have happened, but thankfully didn't. I encouraged my husband to have a paragraph in his SOP about his experience studying in Russia (we both took Russian throughout college and studied in St. Petersburg for a semester). One of his professors/letter writers said to remove it, but I told him that no, it gives more insight into him as a person and makes his a bit unique, he should keep it. The professors from Maryland that interviewed him were specifically intrigued by his experience in Russia and how Russian literature connects to his interests in postmodern/contemporary American lit! I'm SO glad he didn't take the advice of his letter writer. Takeaway is that sometimes you need to go with your gut. Take the advice of your mentors and letter writers with a grain of salt. They are not always going to be right!

Seeing “Chicago” in your post got my heart going! Haha.

I believe rejections often come later.

@Crow T. Robot & @FreakyFoucault, Revenge of the Sith is the one where [SPOILER ALERT] Anakin gets all his limbs chopped off, right? I remember thinking that scene was so gross, yet so great as a kid. That's all I remember from it.

I wonder what percentage of admitted/interviewed applicants post their results here...

Agreed! I would prefer the humane method, even if it means we hear back a bit later.

I guess so! They may forego the whole tentative interview emails this year, and maybe just send actual interview invites early next week?

LOL. I wish I could like this, but I’m out of reactions.

@mk-8 & @FreakyFoucault, here's one of my and my husband's favorites...

HAHAHA. Ok so I've tried to watch them before years ago but definitely fell asleep. However, my husband has made me watch this video. It's soooo bad. But I bet he'd LOVE your suggestion.

CONGRATULATIONS! I ran out of upvotes for today but I'd totally upvote you if I could. That's amazing!

LOL. The good news is I love my job. The bad news is no amount of passion for my job is going to stop me from doing this every day until this is all over. My boss walked into my office this morning as I was texting my husband and trying to test his Skype connection for his Maryland interview today. Thankfully, she's on board since she's a Terp. P.S. My hatred for PowerPoint has increased exponentially over the past couple days. I had to create ~35 pie graphs yesterday. That's just the pie charts. I also had to do stacked bar graphs with area charts. And maps. It hurts. But at least it all looks really pretty and the branding is on point!

Sitting at work, actually doing something productive, then I think, "Oh my god, it's been five minutes, I need to check the results board and forum immediately." This is going to be a long couple months...

@mk-8 I love your picture so much. My husband is a Star Wars nerd. It took me a while, but I am now a fan (well, a selective fan, I love A New Hope and enjoyed the recent films). Mainly I'm just in it for Luke and the porgs, though.

Aw thanks! I was inspired by others on this forum. Feel free to take it if you want!

You are just such a wealth of knowledge! Thank you so much for all that you do for this community! Haha.

Does anyone know whether Columbia interviews? I thought I read somewhere that they did, but I'm not sure.

My husband has been trying to get a "head start" for the language exam (at least Maryland's), which they want you to take in the first year. You have to choose two books in the language that they'll select a 350(?) word segment from for you to translate, I think. I gave him Omon Ra by Victor Pelevin for Christmas since apparently this dude is part of the Russian 'new sincerity' and I wasn't sure if that was in any way related to the American new sincerity. So he's reading it in English to see if it could work as one of the books for his exam (if he even gets into/goes to Maryland)! The other would probably be a Nabokov novel. I loved The Good Place, and highly recommend Mindhunter! And don't feel disheartened--it seems like this is such an unpredictable process, a rejection does not mean you aren't a stellar applicant. With such super low acceptance rates, amazing applicants are going to be rejected sometimes, for reasons we may never know!