ClassicsCandidate

I am the most impatient person for general things but this waiting has been torturous. I've only heard back from one of eight places thus far, and I keep volunteering for things to keep me busy enough I can't look at my email every 10 seconds. [Insert "I hate waiting" Princess Bride gif here]

That's excellent, I hope you get the funding!!!

Just wanted to inform everyone that the Bridge MA in Classics at Cornell is still taking applications until March 1st, in case anyone wanted to look into that (the start date would be June 1st). https://classics.cornell.edu/bridge-ma-classics-initiative-support-diversity

For those of us who might want to do more volunteer work or need a distraction while we wait around for graduate school decisions, I thought this might be a good thing to look into! All of the information can be found at this link: https://kleos.chs.harvard.edu/?p=166058

That's so excellent! Competition for it this year was going to be really fierce, that's so exciting!

Congrats on your NYU interview!!! ?

That's really strange and I definitely agree that it stinks. I wonder if you can press them for a decision? Seems odd they wouldn't allow you to wait for other offers, especially as early as the end of February.

Hi, all! I'm primarily floating around in the Classics forum but I did apply to the University of Delaware Art History PhD with a focus in Antiquity to the Renaissance. I submitted it super early because I had so many other applications to complete. A bit worried my writing sample wasn't the best, but I'm just waiting to hear back from them, still. I don't expect to hear anything until mid-March so I can relate to the anxiety for waiting that long (especially when you finished the application in October!) So far, I've only heard back from one school, but for Classics, at Cornell (a rejection, unfortunately). I hope everyone gets good news soon!

I've heard nothing from any of the other schools I've applied to, which includes Yale and NYU (ISAW).

That's excellent!!! Congratulations!!

That IS extremely frustrating! I'm crossing my fingers for you to get a fully funded spot somewhere!!

You're welcome! I'm in the same boat. Full funding or I'm not going anywhere. But! I've heard from some other students that they managed to negotiate more funding if necessary. Someone told me they were choosing between a school in Massachusetts and one in California and told the California school that though they were the first choice, the funding was more matched in Massachusetts needed for cost of living, etc. The California school upped the offer and they were able to go there instead of Massachusetts.

Yeah, inquire to the DGS about when you'll know about the funding package. Congratulations on your acceptance, too, btw!

Sometimes they will have funding information to come after an acceptance. If they didn't mention it at all in the email (or if they indicated in the email that a more formal letter is to follow), I think it would be reasonable to follow up and ask if the funding information would be given in the official acceptance letter.

Just saw on the Results page that someone was Waitlisted by email for the University of Chicago today.

So, I never got an interview at Cornell or anything, but I have a friend currently attending and she suggested that I reach out to the professor I was interested in working with (Dr. Caitlín E. Barrett) to ask for her feedback. She was really friendly about it and gave me some useful feedback about my application. Strengthening the writing sample before a re-application was her suggestion, which is understandable because it's something we can expand on and improve more than other things out of our control at this point (such as transcripts or letters of recommendation). Just figured I'd pass that along - if you're thinking of reapplying next cycle again, definitely focus on a stronger/edited writing sample. Of course, she also told me what a lot of us have already talked about: they received far more applications than usual because other institutions weren't accepting anyone at all this cycle and were taking a small cohort than normal as well, so even though they would have liked to accept more students, they couldn't. Hope this helps anyone who also got a rejection from Cornell.

Just got my Cornell rejection.

Well, I know most American unis weren't even reviewing applications until January after the submission date of December 15th. I actually wasn't going to reach out to anyone unless I didn't hear from them until mid-March, personally. I submitted applications as early as September knowing they wouldn't be reviewed until far after the fact. I'm not sure what the etiquette is and it probably varies with each institution. It's one of those unspoken things that I wish more people talked about because it's so difficult to navigate.

I think from what I've read, you reach out to the graduate admissions office themselves rather than the particular professors or anything. And, of course, thank them for their feedback. I'll see if I can ask around and how other folks went about it and what questions they asked because I figured all of us can use that information.

I'm ngl, I really wish schools would be more up front about how many people they take (especially this year) per year. I'd like to know how many people applied to ISAW, for example, for 2 spots. Not in order to make me more anxious but rather help reassure myself that there may be hundreds (if not more) qualified students I'm competing against, so it's not necessarily that I'm not good enough for the program but they had to make pretty tough calls, you know? I feel like those stats would at least help a little. I did see a suggestion that you reach out to schools after a rejection and inquire how to make your application stronger for the next cycle, so I'm looking into how to do that/wanted to ask if anyone here has done that before? I still haven't heard anything, but I'm one to make sure I'm prepared for all scenarios.

Don't lose hope! Waitlisted means you're still technically in the running. I've not heard back from them at all yet, so hopefully mine is not a straight up rejection. I'm gonna keep hoping until I see my final results everywhere.

I know that some UK universities have their Michaelmas term applications open but I'm not sure about the funding Boston College is taking apps until March 1st, also not sure about funding for them: https://www.bc.edu/bc-web/schools/mcas/departments/classics/graduate.html MA at UBuffalo is also rolling basis: https://arts-sciences.buffalo.edu/classics/graduate/admissions.html I think it's harder to get funding after a certain time. I'd search for "PhD" or "MA" and then "Classics degree rolling basis with funding" to see if you can find anything.

I didn't realize they were taking only 2 people this year either, wow. Originally Columbia and Brown were also on my list and Rutgers wasn't but I added Rutgers when I found out Columbia, UPenn, and Brown weren't taking anyone. Definitely a difficult year to be applying!!

I applied to ISAW as well, haven't heard from them yet, myself. Congratulations!!! That's so exciting!

An excellent addition, thank you!