melian517

Officially accepted Notre Dame's offer! 

Officially accepted Notre Dame's offer! 

Officially accepted Notre Dame's offer! 

Officially accepted Notre Dame's offer! 

Officially accepted Notre Dame's offer! 

Officially accepted Notre Dame's offer! 

I got in off the waitlist at UNC-Chapel Hill, and will be attending there!

Officially accepted Notre Dame's offer! 

Officially accepted Notre Dame's offer! 

Officially accepted Notre Dame's offer! 

Officially accepted Notre Dame's offer! 

I didn't either! Keeping my fingers crossed that you hear from the waitlist soon and that your choice becomes easier!

Yesssssss. I have one school that I think would be the best for my career but the city would make life and finances more difficult for us, and another that is lower ranked but the cost of living is soooo cheap and I know my partner would be happier there. Trying to choose has honestly been the most stressful part of the process for me.

Yesssssss. I have one school that I think would be the best for my career but the city would make life and finances more difficult for us, and another that is lower ranked but the cost of living is soooo cheap and I know my partner would be happier there. Trying to choose has honestly been the most stressful part of the process for me.

@brainlass thank you, that's really helpful! I figured I should not praise other programs, especially since I haven't figured out where I actually will be attending yet. It felt weird to keep it so short, but I definitely feel a lot better knowing this is standard practice. I know having multiple offers is a good problem to have and I'm incredibly grateful, but this part is honestly such a nightmare for people with social anxiety
@Carly Rae Jepsen thank you for this, this is so helpful!!

Agree with @brainlass
If you're looking for a format, this helped me: https://www.thoughtco.com/sample-email-declining-graduate-program-admission-1685886

@melian517, when I was having trouble composing decline emails, my current mentor said that it's standard form to say where you're going instead, but NOT elaborate on reasons why. Unfortunately, praising benefits of another program can come across like a backhanded, tacit statement of the cons of the program you're declining, so it's best to not give too much information... However, it's good to thank the POIs graciously and express that you'll continue to follow their research, hope to see them at conferences in the future, etc.

Very happy to report that I signed my soul over to Stanford last week! 
Now to learn how to surf... 

I think this helps to prove that fit is ultimately, a very weird thing and is not only determined by how well faculty matches, but where the department is hoping to be (which is really an impossible thing to determine in any given year. Applying broadly to schools that have a major interest to you is a very important thing to do as you'll never know where you might fit into a school's puzzle. The ivies have often been said to recruit from the same pool but @punctilious' husband earned 1 acceptance, 1 waitlist, and 1 rejection from the Ivy League and had mixed results elsewhere. It's important to not apply only to top 10 schools, but also to not discount schools just because they are ranked highly. Faculty fit + Institutional goals + class profile all play a much larger role which may be invisible during the whole process to us as applicants.

Finally got that Berkeley rejection email. Knew it was coming for a while but it's just nice to have that door officially shut.

I agree with everyone here that prestige doesn't really matter for your BA or MA! Just work as hard as you can (while still taking time for self-care, of course), cultivate good relationships with faculty EARLY so they really know you and your work by the time you need recommendations, and make sure that there's at least one faculty member in your area of interest. For what it's worth, I went to a "prestigious" MA program and some people received many PhD offers while others received none—it's all about what you DO in your program, not where you go!

Husband officially accepted Harvard's offer! I'm so excited!!!

He's actually one of the main reasons I applied to ND! Such a brilliant scholar. I got to meet him at the prospective student day, and he is probably one of the nicest people I've ever met!

I received two lovely emails from the Louisville grad assistant and director of the graduate English program stating that they would love for me to attend (I have been waitlisted for funded so emailed back last week saying I really admire the program but can't attend without funding) and will keep me updated immediately of changes on the funding waitlist, so I feel pretty encouraged. Program director even asked if I'd like to set up a time to talk on the phone more about the program and so he can answer any questions I may have. No matter what happens, the graduate faculty at Louisville has been so extremely kind this entire process and I'm very impressed by that. 

Hi, @E. Coronaria: I'm sorry--I didn't mean to insult or offend you with my post. 
I wasn't trying to say that I think you're only going to chalk and talk all day about grammar rules or that I think you're unfairly penalizing students. I'm also certainly not trying to advocate for ignoring grammar or withholding any sort of "code" from students.
I did, however, feel a need to respond to the idea of using grammar to "clearly articulate to my students why their writing is poor." I've been teaching composition for over a decade so I've worked with a lot of students who, as you said, have been effectively disenfranchised and whose confidence has been all but obliterated by past experiences with grammar instruction (or lack thereof), writing instruction, and school in general. And as @M(allthevowels)H has said, this is all part of a much larger conversation that has a lot of momentum in the field, so I think we were both trying to offer a summary of the larger state of things in order to position what we were saying in context. Like you, I care deeply about giving students access to as many tools for success as possible, and that's all I was trying to offer in my post: ways of granting and facilitating that access that don't involve having to necessarily master advanced grammatical concepts or to fall back on the all-too-common modes of teaching grammar that loads of people use because it's just the norm to do so. 
I tried to be pretty clear in my post about ways that I provide grammar instruction that gives students access to SAE without enforcing it as the only or even best way of presenting their ideas. The text I recommended is also an excellent read for anyone--not just people who will be teaching others--because it directly addresses the issues of being disenfranchised by grammar instruction (or a lack thereof) by reframing grammar is a toolkit rather than as a code students must learn or a monolith they must bow down to. The first time I read Rhetorical Grammar, I felt vindicated and empowered and it opened my eyes to ways that I could reframe my teaching role and relationship with students to give them rhetorical choices without having them leave their own grammar at the door.
Again, I'm not trying to suggest that I think you're out to do anything bad, I'm just an old fart with unsolicited advice.