Naito
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@EAstudies @FedeHikari Yes, it is more probable than not that this was an administrative mistake regarding the language email. Harvard is a HUGE place and it'd not surprise me that some busy students or new clerical assistants (or maybe even temps) are working over the winter recess through the student employment program and were not familiar with administrative procedures and thus made clerical mistakes. Overworked and underpaid do that to you. There was even a union protest lately. Given all that commotion a shuffling of staff and a mistake were rather likely. Don't worry too much about it. (In the grand scheme of things, 1-2 years from now, you may look back at all this waiting and feel that this was not worth the wait). PS: I love their slogan: "We can't eat prestige." lol https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2018/10/4/huctw-tabling/
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Also, Fall semester grades were just posted recently at Harvard so it is doubtful the professors had time for both recording the grades and reviewing prospective students’ applications...
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Yeah professors are away for the winter recess and won’t be back for classes until late Jan. The clerks in the GSAS office probably are assembling the applications and ranking them in terms of GPA, GRE, AND languages etc. for committee review. If I remember correctly there was a language section for virtually all the schools I applied to (UPenn, Stanford, Harvard etc.) in 2017 as well.
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Thanks @AnUglyBoringNerd! Actually, I got accepted to Stanford for a certificate in between semesters at Harvard, and I'm actually doing the certificate program right now during the winter recess before the Spring 2019 semester starts at Harvard. I'm enjoying both. Also, there is a 30-credit MS at Columbia that makes one eligible to apply to a Doctorate at Columbia in the same field that I really like and want to do, but I'll try to get a job first after the Harvard program and then get my employer to pay for me for both the Columbia MS and Doctorate so I won't have to pay a dime. Never stop learning!
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@civitas I took a German class with a girl working at the World Bank. She did NOT have a great GPA. I think she went to National Singapore University for undergrad. She got into Harvard GSE for this Mind, Brain, and Education Master: https://www.gse.harvard.edu/masters/mbe Best of luck civitas! 新年快乐，心想事成！
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@AnUglyBoringNerd I'm glad you are enjoying Columbia! I'm still writing classical Chinese poetry in my spare time...because “对酒当歌，人生几何” and "生年不满百，常怀千岁忧。 / 昼短苦夜长，何不秉烛游！ / 为乐当及时， 何能待来兹 ？/ 愚者爱惜费，但为后世嗤。/ 仙人王子乔，难可与等期。" haha
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@civitas I applied to EALC/EAS last year. Got into UPenn, Stanford, etc. for MA and could go on to PhD after the MA but declined ALL their offers. (I'm now at Harvard for a completely different graduate program, and just finished my first semester with a 4.0 woohoo, and my friend at Harvard RSEA MA is regretting his decision with a boatload of debt!!!) I think you should focus on getting into Harvard's Graduate School of Education. I attended a talk of a guy who graduated from GSE and is now working for Google as a university recruiter (they have a group just to recruit Harvard students). You can do a lot more than just education with Harvard's GSE, unless you really, really, REALLY love doing EALC research. And whatever you do, do NOT take on a lot of student debt, or you will be like this person (BA East Asian Studies, Cornell; MA East Asian Studies, Stanford, but debt): https://www.quora.com/What-is-it-like-to-have-a-lot-of-student-loan-debt I'd like to defer to this 高人 for how admissions at the Ivy Leagues work for EALC in terms of GPA, GRE, LOR, SOP, etc. etc.
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kotatsumuri reacted to a post in a topic:
EALC 2018
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kotatsumuri reacted to a post in a topic:
EALC 2018
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AnUglyBoringNerd reacted to a post in a topic:
EALC 2018
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MettaSutta reacted to a post in a topic:
EALC 2018
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It's a professional degree -- but I shouldn't say more than this -- which leads to high-paying jobs and if I'm lucky I can make a lot more. I've been reading several books by another EALC-er -- Tim Ferriss, who graduated Princeton with an AB in East Asian Studies -- such as the 4-Hour Workweek (https://www.amazon.com/4-Hour-Workweek-Escape-Live-Anywhere/dp/0307465357) and I'm convinced a pragmatic approach might be more useful for me at this stage; "it doesn't matter whether a cat is black or white, as long as it can catch mice it is a good cat," so said Deng! It's all a means to an end. I don't want to be like 陆游 who was evaluated by 朱熹 in《宋史：陆游传》" 其能太高，迹太近，恐为有力者所牵挽，不得全其晚节。” I want to get to 天山 and found a way, even if it deviates from the poetic professorial path. I wrote a poem to several of my professors thanking them for their support, but I am not going to be in academia like they wish, but I respect great scholarship. (Last poem, I promise...) 《贈我師》 都城語院中 受教自師宗 謝贈緋花植 稱揚樹業1功 -- 无官居士 1. “一年之计，莫如树谷；十年之计，莫如树木；终身之计，莫如树人。一树一获者，谷也；一树十获者，木也；一树百获者，人也。我苟种之，如神用之，举事如神，唯王之门。” 《管子：权修第三》
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AnUglyBoringNerd reacted to a post in a topic:
EALC 2018
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Update: 人間万事塞翁が馬! Here's a twist. I still get to go to Harvard with partial tuition reimbursement! This isn't for RSEA or EALC though. But Harvard nonetheless and the issue of funding no longer exists! I'll be sure to keep in touch with East Asian Studies while focusing on my courses. Happy in Harvard!
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@AnUglyBoringNerd Yes. They should have used a different picture...They should use this picture below, but it's a different song: (I learned all my Chinese from YouTube etc.) 笑 ｗｗｗ
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There is a classical song that is very popular among the Old Wind School (古风派） in the Middle Kingdom right now. Please allow me to use this song to congratulate 諸君 here for having gone through all this testing and application process! "踏書山百階 乘學海一舸 ... 學貫五湖 中西捭闔 ... 來鴻笑去燕 且行且高歌" Wine and music!
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AnUglyBoringNerd reacted to a post in a topic:
EALC 2018
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Congrats @AnUglyBoringNerd 女史 and @kotatsumuri 君, and @archimon 先生 on Columbia and Michigan! Just got back from Japan recently. The sakura, sushi, sake were all great, except there were too many salarymen also trying to 花見...Tokyo is always so crowded at this time of the year. Anyway, ramen and robots, samurai and shinkansen, tea and Toyota, wait for me -- I will return to Nippon again next year! I'm always very excited each time I am in Japan! As for schooling, this will sound very unconventional, but I decided to decline Stanford, UPenn, UVA, and Georgetown. In some parallel universe, I would do academia, but not in this one. I was never really a good student anyway, and just did the bare minimum to get by; grad school life seems too specialized, lonely, and difficult, so I might not do well anyway. My professors/recommenders kept pushing me to accept one of the offers, but I reached out to quite a few mentors who are still in or already left academia, and the feedback was not so positive -- almost unanimously the advice is the exact opposite of Nike's motto: "just don't do it". So I'm staying at my job and will get an MBA and then do something Asia-related. Who knows, I might get posted to Japan on an expat package...at least this plan was suggested by a good friend in Tokyo. With JLPT N1 I can probably get posted in Japan. If I can live in Japan for a few years while doing practical stuff, that will be the best of both worlds -- 不战而胜，两全之策。
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AnUglyBoringNerd reacted to a post in a topic:
EALC 2018
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I finished my last poem, and this concludes my grad school application voyage. 20 days later, Tokyo, Japan here I come! As previously mentioned, this is the ci 詞 to conclude my part in the Poetic Party in this thread . Chinese is not even my fifth language, so please don't criticize me too harsh if there are any technical errors haha...It was great to find wonderful "poet pals" here: @AnUglyBoringNerd @Ouyang @costevens @thesiswillbegreat @Kongyiji @mxiongturquoise @spicyramen @tsuyuri etc. V.《蝶戀花・學海泱泱風作浪》 學海泱泱風作浪。 霪雨霏霏，萬頃雲飄蕩。 若坐書船乘水上，綿綿滄間何方往。 斷判當舟危萬狀。 悵惋簫聲，棄念兹情忘。 騎馬轉歸封將相，紅塵世路前程旺。 無官居士 嶽陽子、白駒子 敬筆 2018年3月10日 美東 中仄中平平仄仄。 中仄平平，中仄平平仄。 中仄中平平仄仄，中平中仄平平仄。 中仄中平平仄仄。 中仄平平，中仄平平仄。 中仄中平平仄仄，中平中仄平平仄。 Quick, rough translation: "The Vast Sea of Learning With Its Waves and Wind" The vast sea of learning has its share of turbulent waves and strong wind. Excessive rainfalls pour down heavily, thick and fast, With an immense space of clouds fluttering with the tide. Suppose one sits on a boat of books to ride on the waters, In an unbroken, continuous, never-ending deep blue which way will one go? It is judged that the said ship is a perilous venture in the extreme. A sad sigh of regret is played as a tune through the vertical bamboo flute, There's no choice but to abandon this idea and forget this emotion. Riding on horseback and turning back on course to be appointed a general or official, The society of mundane mortals and the way of the world may have prosperity in store for me.
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kotatsumuri reacted to a post in a topic:
EALC 2018
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Accepted to Stanford. Meh. If anyone wants to go to Stanford, PM me and I will decline. (Staying at job for promotion & raise + my soul is not for academia anymore).
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@kotatsumuri Good things happen to those who wait! I'll have my fingers crossed for your funding as well! I'm ready to decline UPenn (so that if someone really wants it so badly, they can have it), and I'm ready to decline ANY incoming offer from the remainder on my list, if accepted that is. I got a promotion and raise at work so I think I will stay, and do an MBA few years down the road sometime in the future when I reach 30. As a side note, it's amazing Paul Goldin got a PhD from Harvard at age 24...So sad I won't be studying with him. But I will apply Han Fei Zi, Wang An Shi, Shang Yang in the real world!!!
