khigh

I went over my writing sample and SOP to see where I could improve last night. They don't read great, but weirdly, the thing I am most worried about is I actually stated the theory I prescribe to and no one at the U does Hegel (Phenomenology). I'd have to read more theory and find something else if none of them will take that on. And now I am over analyzing what it means to get a Final Review this early in February. Not many people have posted acceptances yet and rejections seem to come late February...and this means I will be crushed if it's a rejection.

Final Review -Your program has made its decision. Our admissions officers are conducting a final review of your materials and preparing your decision letter. This stage may last anywhere from 1 business day to one week, depending on volume. That's what they say about Final Review...so, I am going to be nervous for awhile.

It's really early in the cycle for rejections, so I'm hoping and praying to Thor...but, I don't want to get my hopes up. I've already come to terms with being rejected and the shaking has started all over again.

I will probably put the first post up this evening. Honestly, winter isn’t that bad. Even -20 is easy to deal with because there is almost no humidity. You do need to start your car a few times a day to let it warm up. Snow is great. We got 17” in uptown on Monday and only had one bad day of driving. They had the highways cleared by Tuesday morning and the neighborhoods by Wednesday morning. The U has a tunnel system, so you never have to go outside on campus if you don’t want to. Minneapolis is the most educated city in the USA. We have more Fortune 500 companies per capita than anywhere else in the US. We are now the most bikeable city, beating Portland and Seattle. We have the most green space out of all US cities. There are ski resorts within the city (well, the burbs) and you can cross country ski on any of the bike trails in the winter. Ice skating is free, including skates, on city lakes. Minne is diverse. We pride ourselves on the way we take care of refugees, so there are large Syrian, Somalian, and Hmong populations. That means great food. Traffic is not bad at all for a major city. I work 20 miles away on the other side of the city and even during rush hour, it’s only a 45 minute drive. You do have to get used to the stoplights on the on-ramps. That’s so people are nice and alternate getting on the interstate. Coffee is Caribou or Tim Hortons (or Dunn’s). We don’t do a lot of Starbucks here. Amazon has a big presence in the city, so we all use Amazon Restaurants. You can have any food delivered to your home from places within 10 miles. In my area, that’s anything from Mediterranean to Chinese to Indian to bar food. I live in the Carag neighborhood. It’s old Victorian apartments. I am three blocks one way from Lake Calhoun and three blocks another way to Lake Street, which is a trendy place full of bars, restaurants, shopping, and local amenities. Target is king here (headquartered in Minneapolis) and Walmart is only in the burbs. I honestly moved here for two reasons. The boyfriend is from Bloomington (Mall of America). And, I was tired of summer. Summer here is great. It’s never too hot. You may have a few 90 degree days, but most of the time, it’s in the 70s and 80s. Sorry that was so long, but I love this place. There is a reason that it is said that it is impossible to get people to move to Minneapolis, but once they get here, it’s impossible to get them to leave.

I LOVE Minneapolis. You will find a lot of similarities with NYC (We are sometimes called the Little Apple), but it's much safer and they are only talking about the food and theater. For 800-900 a month, you could live in a one-bedroom in Uptown or Downtown in one of the older buildings, which I love. I live in a Victorian era building with all the Victorian features. In Uptown, you can walk to the lakes (Calhoun, Harriet, Lake of the Isles) and Lake St, which has tons of restaurants, bars, shopping, and theaters. I'm just going to go copy what I wrote elsewhere here. I could type for hours about the joy of Mpls.

My status changed this morning to final review...I'm too nervous.

Status changed to final review this morning. I'm more nervous than ever.

Googled how to stay sane waiting for grad applications...

My status just changed to final review! I'm more nervous than ever!

I honestly don't know. I just looked for his. I know that one is wrong.

The list is outdated unless it's listing their first jobs out of Vandy. My boyfriend is on that list and let's say he has had his Vandy Phd for almost 8 years now and the longest contract he has ever had was 2 years. The rest were one year contracts. All we got out of his Vandy PhD was $100k in debt. Just thought about it for a minute. They must have updated sometime because the appointment listed for boyfriend was his 3rd one out of Vandy. It wasn't his first job.

That's the one thing I don't like living in the North...the lack of good TexMex.

Don't you mean Torchy's? I would kill for a good breakfast taco right now.

Get call from DGS. “So, we gonna do this or what?”

Other people may have a different take, but honestly, I would for the reasons you mentioned. You could go to an Ivy and if it isn't a great fit and affects your mental health...well, if you drop out because of it, you don't have a PhD at all. In that case, it would be so much better to have a PhD from a non-ivy than no PhD at all.

It's even worse when you have been talking to a POI for months, even having coffee with them and being invited/attending symposium and consortium meetings with them...and you apply...and they don't tell you they are planning on retiring in the next few years and don't know if they will be taking anyone.

As soon as I hit submit, I started to doubt myself as a writer and historian. I think it's pretty normal.

The U publishes "ranges" from their applications and matriculation. I'm in the middle of the range, but one starts getting anxious when they haven't heard anything.

The only way I've been able to tell is by watching the acceptances on the survey on gradcafe. Apparently, I'm on the low end for this cycle. If I would have known that, I don't think I would have applied.

I'm in a different field than you, but if you end up going to UMN, let me know if you have questions about the city. I live in Minneapolis and know the area fairly well.

Looks like UMN does two waves of acceptances per the survey. Maybe this next week...I had lost confidence and because I started working on Plan B and C, I wasn't nervous anymore. Now I am again.

I have an Apple Watch. There is no way to avoid checking my email a million times a day. I could take my watch off, but I need to be able to check WhatsApp at any time.

I wish I would have known prior to going to the testing center how much they were like entering prison or going through TSA before I went. It was unsettling and made me very nervous walking into the testing room after I was wanded AND patted down. I'm not going in there to look at the nuclear codes, just to take a test, so why the need for a full-scale pat down? I made the mistake of putting the pencil down on the wrong side of the desk and got motioned to move it, which was a further distraction. I did okay on the verbal (161) and poor on the quant (147) and okay on the writing (5.0), but I would have done better if I wasn't worried about being touched or scolded excessively. I will never go to that center again. If I need to take the LSATs again (my score is a few years old), then I will drive 2 hours to another testing center.

They may be getting a feel for the field or wait for some acceptances to decline before accepting or rejecting more people.

I went to CU. Not in Colorado! U of M always gets me, too. Here, it’s The U. I think most people call it UMN.