[2018 Acceptances]

Hey I'm asking this for my fiancee who is applying to Enligsh/Literature programs - I've seen a few acceptances to University of Massachusetts Amherst (both on this post and on the results area) and am wondering if any of you all know if they will still be sending out acceptances today/early next week or if waitlist notifications might be next maybe? We've yet to hear anything there (for both his program and my program I applied to there) and are starting to think that school might be out.

Also are waitlists pretty much standard for any program?

Congrats to all those who have been accepted to places so far!

[Fall 2018 Admission]

2 hours ago, singinglupines said:

As a hard science person, all my deadlines were Dec 1st as well. That's probably why we hear back earlier. It's also rough because if you haven't heard by this point in time, your chances are almost null (especially when you see it graphed out as in that other thread).

 

22 hours ago, Tamsibling said:

I'm seeing a lot acceptance/rejections for the "hard" sciences. I'm guessing these decisions come earlier because funding is more abundant for these programs? As opposed to mine (Communications) which has some, but I'm sure nowhere near what Chemistry or Biology has. Silly liberal arts!

I'm applying in biology (more ecology and evolution than more medically or molecular biology leaning programs though) and have yet to hear anything official so I don't think it's even uniform in the sciences! One of my deadlines was Dec. 1st so I am a bit worried I haven't heard back from that one yet but my others were Jan. 15th so that could explain the delay of info from those. I do have an unofficial acceptance at one of the schools with a deadline of Jan 15th because I have been invited for a recruitment weekend and have also been nominated for one of the competitive higher paying fellowships at that university (I only know this because my POI has been updating me with information whenever he has it, but I have yet to hear anything official from my department or grad. admissions).

[2018 Applicants]

@M(allthevowels)H Thanks so much for the feedback! We really did our best to research and ensure a good fit for the both of us at each school, and that's ultimately why we didn't apply to the fourth one that we could have together since we really didn't think fit there was good. He saw at least a couple different professors at all 3 schools that he thinks working with would go well. Honestly while we would like to have options to choose from, as long as we both get into one school together I think we'll be great because we're certain we'd be happy at any of our options (though we are still hoping to visit any we are accepted at to ensure that's true).

@midwest-ford  That's awesome to hear that you've heard having the diverse set of experiences isn't a detriment! My fiancee worries that by dabbling on both sides it will make him appear unfocused but it's really just because he enjoys both a lot. He would love to eventually teach a creative writing course eventually so that's another good thing to hear that he might be able to sell himself as well-versed in both sides! And thank you so much for the kind words in your sidebar - I know it's not the end of the world if it doesn't work out perfectly this year but we would be very disappointed. My fiancee has had to wait on me as I finish up my master's thesis so we ended up staying at our MA institution a bit longer than planned (my thesis hit some snags in data collection so I was delayed in momentum a bit) and we are so ready to leave the town we are currently in! But I do think this extra year has helped both him and me figure out exactly what we want at the next step and it's allowed him to get some valuable teaching experience. Hopefully it will work out at one of our options but you are certainly right that we will figure it out if not!

[2018 Applicants]

So I'm new here and have been checking out these forums for the last week or so because my anxiety over hearing back on acceptances is killing me and knowing others are out there in the same boat makes it a little better. Plus I can see when people are hearing back from schools. Anyway... I just wanted to reply to this thread because I am applying this fall with my fiancee to programs - fiancee to English/Literature PhDs and me to Biology PhDs. I didn't look at this website much during applications and now that I have I am super stressed out by the fact that we have only applied to 3 schools - University of Arkansas, University of Denver, and University of Massachusetts (Amherst). We considered a fourth school that could have been on the table for me (I have to secure a potential advisor at each school and make sure I would want to work in their lab) but ultimately didn't apply because we didn't think even if we got in that we would want to live in the area that school was in. Other potential schools we looked at (and we looked at places all over the US) fell through on my end unfortunately. I am super worried we did not apply to enough now because I didn't realize just how competitive English programs could be and because it seems everyone here applied to 5 or more. I am posting here on behalf of my fiancee to know how he might compare to other applicants out there. Overall I think we are both fairly competitive but I don't think either of us realized just how competitive English grad programs can be.

Some info on him are BA at small state school with ~3.85 GPA (graduated from honors program) and with lots of conferences, research experience, and academic involvement (served on committees for the honors program and creative writing journal). MA from a different small state school 4.0 GPA with a couple of conferences, academic involvement (mainly with the creative writing part of the program) and thesis on its way to publication. He has some publication type things but mainly on the creative writing side and is preparing his thesis for publication in an academic journal. His GRE scores are 167V 155Q and 3.5 writing (he is a great writer just didn't prepare for that type of writing). He was a TA during his 2 years for his MA and now has experience teaching his own classes last semester (freshman composition) and this semester (freshman comp. and freshman lit.). I may be forgetting a few things but I think that's the gist of his academic career. His interests in literary research are in southern literature but more specifically Appalachian lit. I'm not sure I can specifically articulate what type of research he wants to do but as I understand it he is interested as to how these regional literatures expand in their influence beyond the region in which they are found (his thesis was on a novel that is a great example of Southern Gothic literature but the novel is actually set in Ohio).

My fiancee and I are most worried about SOP because I'm not sure either of us are super confident in our SOPs. He worries a bit about not having his research interests defined enough (though I think he expresses his interests I mention above) and I hadn't read how important a SOP can be in the admissions process. He also worries that his involvement with the creative writing sides of his undergrad and master's departments doesn't really matter since he is applying to do English literature programs and not creative writing ones (he just enjoys being involved on both sides but ultimately prefers doing academic research). I guess I am posting to see if anyone knows how my fiancee might stack up since he has no idea who he's competing against (and neither do I really). Also if anyone has any kind words about how maybe it isn't impossible for us both to get into at least one of our schools I would really appreciate it (though I do worry UMass might be out since I know some acceptances have been sent out there and he worries that the fit there might not be right for him, also it is the highest ranked of the schools we are applying to). I'm not sure if it's relevant but I have unofficially been accepted into U. of Arkansas so that's about all we know in terms of application decisions so far. I'm just super worried by only applying to 3 schools that we have potentially really hurt out chances of getting into a school together. I'll be happy to hear anything anyone here has to say!

Also good luck to everyone else on hearing back from schools!