amphilanthus

nothing from michigan english/women's studies - expected it to be separate, of course, but firmly glued to the edge of my seat now anyway... here's to hoping they're as kind with the simultaneous acceptances and rejections as the english department.

chiming in: I was also super nervous about a similar call and it ended up being a wonderful experience. I was very anxious about coming up with questions, wanting to sound impressive, etc (I felt like I was prepping for a job interview). but in hindsight, I definitely wasted a lot of time stressing about it. after all, they want to sell you on their program right now – you have less to worry about than they do! any general questions you have are perfect, but you can also probably expect them to take the lead in the conversation, so there’s not too much weight on your shoulders here: expect congratulations, probably some (very validating) interest in or excitement about your work, and a bit of a sales pitch for the program. I’m sure it’ll go great and you’ll finish the call feeling excited and encouraged. good luck!

ah, yay, glad to see someone else who’s applying! I’m not sure with so few people having posted results; there’s not much to go off of. I’ve dug in the results and it seems more likely to be next week, I think. off the top of my head I want to say maybe around the 20th? good luck to you - maybe we’ll be the lucky two!

yes! I’m not expecting to hear much until the end of the week or maybe even next, but prepping myself nonetheless for a very slow week spent smashing refresh on every app portal.

this is great and so important to keep in mind. plus, from our perspective looking in, we might not know as much about departmental fit as we think! there are so many behind-the-scenes factors and a department that seems like a great fit to us might be changing in ways that make it less so, or vice versa; I've been rejected at one school I thought was the perfect fit and accepted at one school that didn't seem like much of one, but in talking to the latter, my perspective on that shifted quite a bit. (so many other, wiser people than me have made this point before, of course, but I found it really hard to understand/fully grasp from the outside.) it's frustrating in some ways, definitely, but I've also found it very comforting to remind myself that I wouldn't want to go somewhere that doesn't think I'm the right fit, even if it seemed that way to me: they know better than I do whether or not I'd thrive there. and that's what we have to do, just trust in that - everyone here is so brilliant and so capable, and the right program for our growth & our success will know us when they see us. or, you know... at least this is what I tell myself when I'm on the brink of dissolving into a puddle of anxiety. maybe the true moral of the story is choose to believe whatever works!

co-signing this request. didn't expect to see anything from rutgers for a little while!

thanks for the kind words and the sense of solidarity, @Matthew3957 and @dilby - the most bearable part of this process is that we're all in it together, in one way or another, and it's helpful to hear from others looking at a similar situation. it's just that complicated blend of excitement and then the rest: the guilt of likely moving away and the sadness of it too... but i think you're right, @Matthew3957, that we just need to get through this part of it! i assume everything will be easier once all decisions are in and we can take a break, recharge, and then actually start thinking about what will really happen rather than worrying about everything that might happen. i hope everything works out the very best for both of you too!

uchicago rejection officially means i'll be moving away from chicago in the fall - and away from my fiancee and our home and pets, because it's not the right time for her to leave her job and we've got a mortgage to pay in chicago (we bought a home just a few months before we decided i should apply to grad school, so that's been...interesting). she's amazingly supportive given the circumstances but man, the whole situation is starting to feel a lot worse now that my local schools are both rejections. anybody else grappling with any tough situations around grad school and partners/families? uchicago wasn't a good fit for me at all so it was a lot easier to immediately wave off than northwestern when the email came through, but it's hitting a little harder as it sinks in. this whole process is, generously, exhausting. ugh.

kind of appreciate that the MAPH email is the only grad-school related email I've received in this process that got filtered into my spam folder, feels right! we are all that poor disappointed lab today.

officially got the long-expected uchicago rejection! (and maph referral...yeah, thanks SO much, guys!) kind of a relief to finally be able to cross it off after the endless limbo.

haha I'm sitting at work right now, on grad cafe, checking my portals every few minutes, checking the results page, posting here... in an office I share with two of my superiors, just kinda hoping they keep their backs turned. my standards for basic decency slide lower every day of waiting.

thank you, your interests are really intriguing as well! sounds like exciting and much-needed work. I'll definitely be adding your suggestions to my to-read list, too. I'm currently trying to bulk up my familiarity with queer theory and the early modern given the obvious ties to women's writing, but it's not a super strong spot for me, so I'm collecting recommendations along those lines. may have to go ahead and order shakesqueer right now!

extremely disappointed about the northwestern rejection, like sink-into-the-ground-and-disappear-forever disappointed, but choosing to instead answer the call from @illcounsel for pet pics: here's my puppy, convinced that the cat must want to cuddle with her deep down (the cat does not)

@Bopie5 ugh I have secondhand anxiety just thinking about that! I’ve never in my whole life paid so much attention to phone calls. if it’s any comfort to hopeful NW folks - which it may not be because I’m not feeling overly comforted myself - it looks like in 2017 they sent acceptances on the 27th and the 29th, some via phone and some via email. so... don’t abandon hope, unless you already have, in which case I’m still right there with you. ughhhh. edit to note that this is exactly how I sound/feel looking way back on the boards

yeah, NW was my number one by far for both academic and personal reasons. my karmic punishment for constantly refreshing the boards at work is that i'll definitely be sitting here glazed over and accomplishing nothing all day. what a fun process we've all signed up for!

just echoing the blerghhhhhhhh feeling about the northwestern acceptances on the board - the one thing i've most been dreading with every refresh of the results, and there it was. suffering in solidarity!

hi all! early modern person here. super excited to finally notice this thread and discover more folks on here studying the medieval/early modern. I'm focused on early modern women's writing, particularly closet drama, and the adaptive ways in which many of these women wrote - interested in questions of translation as authorship, questions of performance, and the ways women writers construct/engage with their heroines. tbh I haven't been doing nearly enough reading recently and I badly need to, so I'm really excited to take some inspiration from this thread. two of my own go-to recommendations are Privacy, Playreading, and Women's Closest Drama by Marta Straznicky and Playing Spaces in Early Women's Drama by Alison Findlay, both of which are really exhilarating and perfect for anyone who's curious about women's closet drama.

hey y’all, longtime lurker, finally posting to claim the Vanderbilt acceptance on the board! first place I’ve heard from and so relieved to get good news after weeks of increasing anxiety. if anyone’s curious (I know I always am when I obsessively refresh the results page 100x a day) my focus is early modern lit. congrats to other acceptances and fingers crossed for everyone waiting!