beardedlady

Still reeling from the Brown rejection, but I got accepted to Fordham! Email from DGS says all acceptances have been sent out, but I don't know about waitlist notifications.

In at yale, oh my god

I think both Goldsmith and FU are decently known. Plus, if you get a some time of scholarship for study (Fulbright, DAAD) it would definitely look good on your application. For what it's worth, I'm an international applicant from a truly unknown school. My app season has been good--not amazing. So far, I've been accepted to one top-20 school and waitlisted elsewhere, but I don't think the rejections are necessarily due to the name-brand (or lack thereof) of my alma mater, though I assume this definitely didn't help. I'm pretty sure my writing sample may have hurt me as it needed more work and wasn't as streamlined with the research I propose in my SOP as I would've liked. If I had to do this again I would prepare two polished af samples rather than one, to showcase different styles/theoretical backgrounds depending on the program and POIs (in my case, for example, one with a more feminist/women's writing bend, and one with a stronger queer emphasis). My WS was almost 'traditional' in its feminist analysis, and the schools I heard good news from housed POIs who I know are into that. I think had I polished an experimental queer seminar paper, my results would have been different (maybe worse, maybe better, but in any case different). All of this to say that while I think prestige can give one a leg-up, it's ultimately down to fit and how much you catch the eye of people on the adcomm. 

This was posted on the Phil board and I think it may also be relevant to us here. I'll preface by emphasizing that, of course, we should all take our time and make sure we are confident and certain with our choice of program. But if you've been accepted to a few places, and you know which are your top choices, help out those waitlisted out there and decline the offers/remove yourself from the waitlists of the programs you're certain you won't want to attend. Declining is hard--we all put enormous effort into our applications and it may be difficult to let that go.  But we also all know the difficulty of waiting. And declining offers early to those programs you won't be taking has a ripple effect. Instead of thinking about declining as shutting a door, consider all of the doors you may open for other people!
Good luck ya'll, this is one hell of a process. 
 

This was posted on the Phil board and I think it may also be relevant to us here. I'll preface by emphasizing that, of course, we should all take our time and make sure we are confident and certain with our choice of program. But if you've been accepted to a few places, and you know which are your top choices, help out those waitlisted out there and decline the offers/remove yourself from the waitlists of the programs you're certain you won't want to attend. Declining is hard--we all put enormous effort into our applications and it may be difficult to let that go.  But we also all know the difficulty of waiting. And declining offers early to those programs you won't be taking has a ripple effect. Instead of thinking about declining as shutting a door, consider all of the doors you may open for other people!
Good luck ya'll, this is one hell of a process. 
 

This was posted on the Phil board and I think it may also be relevant to us here. I'll preface by emphasizing that, of course, we should all take our time and make sure we are confident and certain with our choice of program. But if you've been accepted to a few places, and you know which are your top choices, help out those waitlisted out there and decline the offers/remove yourself from the waitlists of the programs you're certain you won't want to attend. Declining is hard--we all put enormous effort into our applications and it may be difficult to let that go.  But we also all know the difficulty of waiting. And declining offers early to those programs you won't be taking has a ripple effect. Instead of thinking about declining as shutting a door, consider all of the doors you may open for other people!
Good luck ya'll, this is one hell of a process. 
 

Congrats! You're going to have some hard choices ahead of you! ?

I think both Goldsmith and FU are decently known. Plus, if you get a some time of scholarship for study (Fulbright, DAAD) it would definitely look good on your application. For what it's worth, I'm an international applicant from a truly unknown school. My app season has been good--not amazing. So far, I've been accepted to one top-20 school and waitlisted elsewhere, but I don't think the rejections are necessarily due to the name-brand (or lack thereof) of my alma mater, though I assume this definitely didn't help. I'm pretty sure my writing sample may have hurt me as it needed more work and wasn't as streamlined with the research I propose in my SOP as I would've liked. If I had to do this again I would prepare two polished af samples rather than one, to showcase different styles/theoretical backgrounds depending on the program and POIs (in my case, for example, one with a more feminist/women's writing bend, and one with a stronger queer emphasis). My WS was almost 'traditional' in its feminist analysis, and the schools I heard good news from housed POIs who I know are into that. I think had I polished an experimental queer seminar paper, my results would have been different (maybe worse, maybe better, but in any case different). All of this to say that while I think prestige can give one a leg-up, it's ultimately down to fit and how much you catch the eye of people on the adcomm. 

Speaking from a bunch of years down the line: all the MORE reason to celebrate! (And maybe this is your point, in which case I don't mean to belabor the obvious.) This is one of the things about the academic life cycle: it's never over. You wait to get into grad school, you wait to pass your QEs, you wait to "advance to candidacy," you wait to pass a prospectus, you wait to get a fellowship, you wait to publish your first article, you wait to get a job interview, you wait to get a campus visit, you wait to get a job, you wait to get a book contract, you wait for the book to come out, you wait for book reviews, you wait to get tenure, you wait to get a fellowship, you wait for your graduate student to get hired, you wait to get a second book, you wait to get promoted ...
I'm listing all of this not to be demoralizing, but to say that one of the best things you can do for yourself and your career is to create time for rest and celebration and rejuvenation. It will make you better at your job. Have a time every night when you stop working. Have a "sabbath" of some sort: a 24-hour period each week when you don't work. There will be weeks when it's impossible (as at any job), but don't make that the norm.
Academic life can be the best gig out there, because you can work on something you love; you can have constant intellectual challenge; you can have tremendous flexibility in your schedule; you can work with brilliant people. It can be the worst gig out there if you drive something you love into the ground; you never feel satisfied with having met challenges; you never give yourself a break; and you never feel like you measure up to your brilliant colleagues. Choose the happier version. At least most of the time. 
[End soapbox rant.]
I hope this comes across as encouraging and not patronizing! I only say all of this so urgently because it's hard-fought knowledge that I don't always remember. But when I do, I work better and I am more content.
 
 

Aw, thanks for asking!
First: this is a professional decision, and you are not going to hurt anyone's feelings. Admissions committees will indeed be disappointed when we fail to recruit our top choices, but no one will be personally upset or offended. Don't feel awkward or hesitant about informing programs in a prompt and direct way. As others have suggested in the forums, institutions that maintain waitlists often depend on admitted students turning them down before the April 15 deadline in order to admit anyone from the waitlist. So if you know that you won't be attending, you are doing the program (and waitlisted students) a favor by informing them promptly.
Second: you are not obligated to explain your reasons for your choice, especially if that hinges in part on private factors that you would rather not disclose (such as the decision to relocate a partner and/or family to a particular geographic area, for example). That said, if there was anything about the program that gave you pause--the stipend was lower, or the placement seemed weak, or the teaching responsibilities weren't what you hoped, or the graduate students you spoke to were unhappy--and you feel comfortable sharing that information with the DGS, or whoever has been communicating with you about your status: that information will be deeply appreciated by the program (at least if it's a program that knows what's good for it). We are constantly reviewing and refining our recruitment practices as well as our graduate program. If there are issues that are going to make us less appealing to students, we really want to know about that earlier rather than later! (Also: some programs I know of issue an anonymous survey to prospective students who turn them down, giving them an opportunity to express such feedback without having to worry that they are causing offense. But even if you don't get this formal opportunity, please know that your thoughts will be taken seriously and appreciated, so long as they are expressed cordially.) You can express your concerns collegially, along the lines of: "I'm writing, regretfully, to let you know that I won't be matriculating at X University. While I so appreciated the chance to speak with your wonderful faculty and students, the lower stipend combined with the higher cost of living in your city ultimately led me to another decision." And so on. 
Third: I think most programs have online portals where you can record your decision electronically, without requiring any explanation. But if you've corresponded at any length or spent a significant amount of time with specific faculty, you can't go wrong with a brief and professional email thanking them for their time and saying how much you look forward to seeing them and their work at conferences and in print. (In fact, you can't go wrong with a brief thank you to such faculty at the school you do choose to attend! Keep it short and sweet: thanks so much for your time, enjoyed talking to you, look forward to working with you in the coming years.) 

Thank you so much for this detailed reply, silenus!
I'm going to take you up on this, if you don't mind. ?

LOL! a subversive undercurrent of tea representational activists trying to overthrow the caffeine hegemony.
 
Also, tea sux coffee rulz.

LOL! a subversive undercurrent of tea representational activists trying to overthrow the caffeine hegemony.
 
Also, tea sux coffee rulz.

LOL! a subversive undercurrent of tea representational activists trying to overthrow the caffeine hegemony.
 
Also, tea sux coffee rulz.

LOL! a subversive undercurrent of tea representational activists trying to overthrow the caffeine hegemony.
 
Also, tea sux coffee rulz.

A reaction to the coffee-centrism of the site, perhaps?

post-shutout? I'm applying to WaldenU

GOT ACCEPTED AT UPENN! I'm still in disbelief. Got a phone call from the DGS, so seems like UPenn isn't closed today after all?

And so the implicit becomes explicit; it's raining Columbia rejections!

And so the implicit becomes explicit; it's raining Columbia rejections!

Just dropping in to share this, in case anyone could use a pick-me-up via humorous, eccentric, and historical feline portraiture. Eulalie Osgood Grover, writer of children's books and the original cat memer (c. 1911): 

(enjoy further perusal: https://archive.org/details/kittenscatsbooko00grov)

Just dropping in to share this, in case anyone could use a pick-me-up via humorous, eccentric, and historical feline portraiture. Eulalie Osgood Grover, writer of children's books and the original cat memer (c. 1911): 

(enjoy further perusal: https://archive.org/details/kittenscatsbooko00grov)

Just dropping in to share this, in case anyone could use a pick-me-up via humorous, eccentric, and historical feline portraiture. Eulalie Osgood Grover, writer of children's books and the original cat memer (c. 1911): 

(enjoy further perusal: https://archive.org/details/kittenscatsbooko00grov)

Just dropping in to share this, in case anyone could use a pick-me-up via humorous, eccentric, and historical feline portraiture. Eulalie Osgood Grover, writer of children's books and the original cat memer (c. 1911): 

(enjoy further perusal: https://archive.org/details/kittenscatsbooko00grov)

If anyone wants to take their minds off of this week, might I recommend reading about the dancing plague of 1518?