JustPoesieAlong

Love it! When I was applying to MA programs, I had this fantastic dream that Michelle Obama called me up on this stage in front of tons of people to tell me that I had pretty much been accepted to all schools ever and that she, Barack, and the whole country were all "so proud" of me. That dream left me so damn happy that I don't even care how silly it was. 

Love it! When I was applying to MA programs, I had this fantastic dream that Michelle Obama called me up on this stage in front of tons of people to tell me that I had pretty much been accepted to all schools ever and that she, Barack, and the whole country were all "so proud" of me. That dream left me so damn happy that I don't even care how silly it was. 

Love it! When I was applying to MA programs, I had this fantastic dream that Michelle Obama called me up on this stage in front of tons of people to tell me that I had pretty much been accepted to all schools ever and that she, Barack, and the whole country were all "so proud" of me. That dream left me so damn happy that I don't even care how silly it was. 

Love it! When I was applying to MA programs, I had this fantastic dream that Michelle Obama called me up on this stage in front of tons of people to tell me that I had pretty much been accepted to all schools ever and that she, Barack, and the whole country were all "so proud" of me. That dream left me so damn happy that I don't even care how silly it was. 

Love it! When I was applying to MA programs, I had this fantastic dream that Michelle Obama called me up on this stage in front of tons of people to tell me that I had pretty much been accepted to all schools ever and that she, Barack, and the whole country were all "so proud" of me. That dream left me so damn happy that I don't even care how silly it was. 

I believe, if memory serves, that there is a particularly nice SUNY Buffalo fellowship that is offered very early in the process.  I was accepted at SUNY Buffalo and as I recall, the main body of acceptances arrived in February, so fear not.
Also, don't feel bad about not getting the nice fellowship, as SUNY Buffalo's standard compensation package is quite nice, especially given the relatively low cost of living in Buffalo!

@Daenerys congrats on what sounds like a very productive semester! I'm not applying to any of the same schools, but I am also married with children and am excited to see someone else here in the same boat. I've been feeling like I'm the only one around here--but, the again, I never asked. My family is super supportive, but I am still anxious about moving everyone again (we moved for my MA too). 

@Dogfish Head This has been driving me crazy as well. I think part of the confusion is that some schools are more particular about what counts as "official." It took a bit for me to figure out that scanned official copies are technically not "official," but are still good for most schools. I scanned my official copies and have uploaded them for all of my applications. Only one school required a legit official copy (in addition to the scanned copy, no less).  I will also add that all the little additional things that keep popping up in the applications themselves is also incredibly frustrating--especially when they seem to be in direct conflict with all of the instructions given up to that point.
8. Need to wrap up the 8th tonight/tomorrow.

I had multiple professors look over my SOP and none suggested I include citations. Hopefully that's okay with adcoms!

If you've already submitted your app, don't contact them now. At this point, it would probably come across as you trying to win points, which is not what you want. I think earlier in the process it can make sense to contact people, but primarily if you have an actual question about the program or its fit for you. I tend to think professors see through it pretty quickly if you're just contacting them to increase your odds of admission.

I think most MA programs don't expect you to have figured out your research interests. The MA allows you to take a variety of courses to better figure out your research interests. As a result, most MA programs are checking to see if they believe you would succeed working at a higher level. This differs from PHD programs because they're more focused on "fit".

 

Hey all -- I'm in my first year of my program and I was thinking today about this time last year and my worries about my apps and my chances and all that.
So I just wanted to drop a note saying to breathe. You'll be okay. Just work systematically and carefully. Focus on the sentence in front of you. 
You can spend a lot of emotional energy freaking out about your chances, but that actually won't help at all. The only thing that'll help is keeping yourself sane and working on the things that you can actually control. Spend time with your friends and family and know that this'll all be over soon. You can do it!! 

Sounds like you should get a second set of eyes on it. Once you read a document too many times, you lose all perspective and can't see the forest through the trees. Having others look over it, or just taking a few days away from it yourself, will ideally help you to regain perspective.

Also, completely for what it's worth, pretty much everyone thinks their WS and/or SOP looks like a disaster at some point. Sometimes that's legitimate, but usually it's just our INTJ/INFJ/INwhatever selves making life difficult for us.


P.S. Given the subject title, I'm highly disappointed that you didn't work in a reference to bunnies.

@WildeThing, while I think it's totally bizarre for your letter writer to pull that on you, and your letter writers seem a bit tactless, I think there is something to be said for casting a wide net.  Every single grad school offers a very low chance of acceptance.  Even a so-called "safety" school is only likely to admit 5-15 students out of hundreds of applicants.  Within this group, your list is dominated by the most exclusive of the exclusive.   While you may well have a very good fit at those institutions, I would encourage anyone to consider that people are doing big work with brilliant scholars at any number of institutions who may not be household names, as most of the schools you list are, and people also get jobs out of those institutions. 
Casting a wide net is also very advantageous because your application could be positively brilliant, but if the two profs on the adcom who happen to get it don't feel like they need another grad student in your subfield, then you're not going anywhere.  The profs you think you have a great fit with might not be on the adcom, might be on sabbatical, etc., and so you're then depending on another member of the committee to think, "Oh, they'd be a good fit for [x]".  This is really, I think, the most important aspect of admissions, and it's one over which you have no control, and is incredibly capricious.  It underscores the importance of going far and wide.  I was once told that one particular professor in my department fought very hard for my application.  If that professor wasn't on the committee, I'd likely be somewhere else!
I say this as a person whose first list looked very very much like yours and was shut out, and the feeling was absolutely devastating.  In my second round of applications, I opened my mind to other possibilities, and I ended up at a school that isn't an ivy (or ivy equivalent), but is top notch in my subfield and has a good record of placement, even if its name doesn't impress my aunts and uncles when I'm home for Christmas.