Hard times!

Many thanks! This whole season is so stressful that at the end of it you realise what it is like to be stripped of all the basics (food, sleep..., forget grad school and research). You wish if only you could sleep and eat! Have you found some respite yet?

Oh yeah sure! Rochester. My 'research' (if you can call it that) is a cross between comics/picturebooks and broadly, the philosophy of time (drawing both on phenomenology and action theory...). If I knew philsophy well enough I would have applied to a couple of philosophy departments.

Woke up two acceptances this morning! Two emails at once--I honestly thought I was dreaming. I am an international student and unfortunately most decisions go out when I am sleeping. Sleeping is so hard these days. When I woke up at around 4 AM I pretty much thought it was a dream... That was strange too because (my)dreams are never this nice ?I am still trying to reckon if it is true or if something went really wrong and the acceptances ended up in my mailbox--haven't told anyone at home. I got a pretty nice acceptance mail from UConn's DGS (midnight mail) but didn't know how to put it up on the dashboard. Yet to hear from 7 places... I used two different proposals for the two schools but drew heavily on narrative ethics and the philosophy of time for both (post-1945 visual-verbal texts). I hope we all have something to validate our efforts and anxieties by the end of this cycle!

Many thanks! Everything I see these days screams rejection! I thought my application was not considered by the department for this cycle and wanted to review it for the next cycle (if I do not withdraw my application by then! Any updates on when they might release their decisions? My concentration is a very specific one and isn't considered serious literature by many departments! UConn tends to take the concentration seriously, hence the skewed thought process! Anything about the fellowship application?

Any updates on UConn? Would someone please check their application portal and see if they have a few supplemental forms in the accounts section? I know it's a weird thing to ask but I can't recall these forms from when I last checked the portal and I am a pretty concerned.

Yes, of course we don't have a lot of data on this and we should take any claims of biases with a pinch of salt. But historically they have had few Asian admits... or maybe there are more of them in the sciences. My case is pretty similar to yours in that I never planned on applying to the UCs... Also, would anyone know how Northeastern goes about with interviews? I remember reading somewhere that Northeastern ALWAYS does interviews for shortlisted candidates--can anyone confirm this? Do they do interviews for all subfields and if you haven't received a pre-admission invite, does it mean you are rejected? Honestly, the fewer programmes to worry about the better!

There are Asians, yes, and a lot of them but most of them are Asian-Americans ! Lol! There are Asians of all kinds.

UCs are strange! They rarely admit Asians from Asian for the humanities (I have heard). The statistics help since 140 is too much for an application that is to be rejected! In general private schools have more funding options than public schools which might explain the lower fees.

Hmm. Whatever concoction grad school acceptances need has no formula--very contingent! I just wish some departments were kind enough to specify which concentrations they were looking for, like UofChicago did. If I am not wrong, they said they were specifically looking for people working in the field of African-American literature... By following their suit many other places could have gone gentle on some of our pockets haha. Being a shutout and being penniless at the same time isn't a very ideal situation to think of (let alone to be in!) ?

What it means: "Dad, stop fishing for gradcafe updates " but I don't know what the 'dad' in this context means because why would you go online to express with annoyance with your father's actions? But who knows! 'Fresh' because I thought all CUNY waitlists had gone out yesterday and it's time for the rejections to let it rip! Lol. Never mind these silly comments--just my anxieties acting up.

https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/a-graduate-school-rejection-letter-as-written-by-my-anxiety-disorder-at-3-am @missmarianne I have read this McSweeney post by @missmarianne several times since last year and it still manages to make me laugh in these 'troubling' times! Grad school rejection humour/bathos should be a genre unto itself! Hope more people can find works like this to laugh with

out of reacts! almost fell off my chair reading this comment.

I had no idea what manifesting positive thoughts was and had to look it up. My asian genes make positive manifestation difficult--will try nevertheless +_+

Out of reacts! I am bracing myself for a shutout. CUNY's ways seem mighty strange this cycle. Someone has even left a Hindi comment for a 'fresh' waitlist. Not surprising--anyone can lose their mind over grad school admissions.

Can't add more reacts but thanks so much! Hope you are off the CUNY waitlist soon! And yes, you need to be mad to send out waitlists before you have sent out acceptances. At least, this evening, CUNY cannot destroy my peace. However, I must really start preparing for a shutout...

Yeah, I will have to write to them. Even if they are not willing to let on much about how adcomms work, their tone might do the job! And it's not only about competitiveness I feel--they have accepted quite a few people who work on medieval literature which could mean they are trying to admit more students for that subfield... After covid many departments have narrowed down their specialisations. But these are just conjectures and the quality of application (the ws and sop) trumps everything else and those who have got in have put together some really really impressive applications!

Haha, no! Yet to be but I'm sure there will be and you can help a lot of people applying next year

Congratulations! You should certainly sign up for the 2023 applicants-group At Brown you get to work with Leela Gandhi!

Yes! And I feel pretty inadequate academically anyway... i never once believed i could get into grad school and this insecurity shows in my very average application. Though I know UIUC and CUNY are most likey gone and I have ticked them off my list already, not having a rejection letter leads you into brief moments of hope (dangerous!). UIUC never publishes anything in the way of a waitlist and yet takes months to reject a person. CUNY usually does acceptances and rejections within the span of a week but they are defying their own pattern this time. This pattern-defying behaviours of certain schools lead you into odd beliefs. They should just send the rejection letters (the ones they are absolutely sure to reject) along with the acceptances. Hurting feelings is not even an issue in this case. It is so much easier to send mass rejection mails--hardly takes any time. Unless they are writing personalized rejection letters (which they may for some people), I am sure sending off 200 automated mails doesn't take much work.

Congratulations! At least now you have something at hand and a little less to worry about. How many more to go? They have already sent out all acceptances and waitlists, right? It's been a week since CUNY decisions started trickling in. Can I safely conclude now that since I have heard nothing from them, CUNY is a rejection for me? A little certainty is all I am looking for at this stage!

Oh thank you for saying it out loud! Indeed, I feel at times I dragged myself into this because this whole process is wildly competitive (a very bad reason for doing anything) and the guilt!

Haha yes! It's phenomenal indeed!

No, every evening I just worry about CUNY acceptances going up and ruining my evening. I don't know why they can't release things at once. I am not positive at all because my field is comics and most departments don't 'embrace' the topic readily unless my application is top-notch, which it is not... The question of fit doesn't arise (already at a disadvantage)and in terms of quality I have messed that up myself. And my application is pretty average and both my ws and sop have several typos that I missed while reading back then but which stare back at me like flies on food.

Having difficulty remaining positive though... Can see every last hope disappearing into thin air because of this radio silence...

I'm sorry but I don't know what to say or what might help at this point! I am as miserable... I haven't heard from a single place and would love to stay off these portals since I am having horrid dreams even in my waking hours. But habits die hard! Though i am trying to ease up and come to terms with a very likely shutout... Do you have an acceptance at hand?--that would be of some relief at least.