vondafkossum

For @bethisbetter, @Lblack, and others in limbo: I finally did get a response from UCR that said they’d made notifications to their acceptances and “made notifications to others of their place on the waitlist.” An unofficial official rejection for me. I got the check mark I wanted. Now to move on!

I'd wager it's because someone's president went on TV and made a buffoon of the rest of us globally, again. Fingers crossed for you in terms of coordinating. I don't envy you that part of these visits.

I initially emailed the original contact person we were told on the application to contact (her name escapes me currently), but I sent a follow up email to Zieger as well. Neither have responded. And my annoyance with the silent/invisible waitlist is not just specific to UCR. Perhaps I don't have context for the behind the scenes mechanics of it, but if someone were on a waitlist (and I am not laboring under this delusion/impression for myself), wouldn't it be better to notify them so that they may have additional planning time to consider your program versus not telling them?

It doesn’t. I’d prefer just to have had my rejection weeks ago instead of being strung along, especially not to receive *any* information, even a bland non-reply to the email I sent asking about a timeline about when we maybe might hear back officially. Schools shouldn’t be sitting on applications when there is a scheduled visit that no one else purportedly knows about or is invited to. If I weren’t on GC, I’d have no idea that acceptances were even out or that those students were a week out from their visit. It’s just not good business, imo. Edit: should have said, I’m not mad—just frustrated I can’t mentally tick the box and fully move on, you know?

Let me know if they respond! I sent an email about two weeks ago that has yet to receive a response.

Okay, but seriously: acceptances to UCR went out 31 January. Here it is 26 February, and the rest of us are just... still waiting for an official rejection. Is it just UCs that seem to have this problem? I remember waiting a very, very long time to get officially rejected by Berkeley (lol) last year.

And *I* have to ask, were they wrong?? If it makes you feel any better, last week I graded a draft that indicated Tennessee Williams was "the best African American play writer[sic] in American history." (Which reminds me of an apocryphal story about someone from my undergrad cohort who, apparently, wrote an entire paper on Emily Dickinson while laboring under the misunderstanding of her being a Black poet.)

It might be silly, but maybe you’ll have a more defined moment of clarity when all your decisions are in? Right now you’re still sort of in limbo in a strange way. The acceptances you have don’t feel “real” in until you can put a check or an x next to *all* the ones in your list.

Out of reacts, but congrats @meghan_sparkle

It certainly seems that way! I might send you a PM when I feel up to really thinking about it. I promised myself I’d only do two cycles and then move on for the sake of my mental health and all-around pragmatism.

And with that, my season closes. After two cycles of shut outs, I want to be very grown up and mature about all this (like I said I was going to be). But I am just so sad.

Okay, but are you as excited about this A24/BRON adaptation of Sir Gawain and The Green Knight—with DEV PATEL!!! as Gawain—as I am???

Completely out of reacts because y'all are all so marvelous: congrats to *everyone* and fingers crossed for everyone else!

Nope. I have three schools remaining to hear from: one is an implied rejection, one is a huge stretch, and one I just don't know. This is my second cycle. I've spent a lot of time discussing with my best friend and partner about what it would mean to be shut out a second time and what that would mean moving forward. I feel good with my life where it is now, even if I don't get in, given my career and my current career prospects. It will suck to move on from "the dream," but we don't always get to choose our paths.

Should feel grateful in some small way as Davis’ rejection letters are notoriously rude af.

Fingers crossed for everyone hoping to hear this week! I’ve got two implied rejections and two unknowns left on the board that I most likely won’t hear back from until the last week in February. Already planning for a second-cycle shut out and making moves to improve upon on my back up back up plans.

Rejected from Chicago (as expected, given that acceptances are already out), but I did not get referred to their MAPH—which I expected to receive since they offered it to me last cycle. Hmm.

I got two rejections from Austin! One actual email and one portal notification. I was like, wow, y’all didn’t want me that much? Well okay then!

He told me roughly the same thing when we talked about applying there. Sorry if this is creepy, but we went to the same school. I figured you might have the same thesis advisor as I had for my undergrad thesis. I was also really disappointed by my Austin rejection. Trying to keep my spirits up, though.

I feel pretty gutted waking up to see Riverside notifications on the board. Gonna log all the way off this weekend. See y’all, and may the odds be ever in your favor!

HS English educator here (though not in NY): there are looooots of ways to get into the classroom. This link might help: http://www.highered.nysed.gov/tcert/certificate/certprocess.html

That sounds super interesting! Are you planning to incorporate some of his later-life personal stuff, or will you mostly just work through the texts? I’m always going to encourage someone to get a tattoo. Go for it! Mine is from a description of Margaret near the beginning of the book (“Away she hurried,”). Alas, the thesis question has a boring answer: it’s because I couldn’t find anyone who worked or was interested in that period or area I wanted to focus on to be my advisor. I went to a state school with a semi-small English department (so much so I was genuinely shocked to see it pop up in someone’s signature on here as a place they’re doing their MA). I ended up doing my thesis on Graham Greene and his depiction and (ir)resolution of a collection of exilic conditions—and that was its own quagmire in terms of finding committee members to read it. I ended up with an Irish lit professor (my advisor), a post-colonial anti-Imperialist ex-pat professor, and an Americanist professor who was kind enough (and whose classes I had taken) to serve when asked. This was on top of having to get special permission to even do a thesis, as generally they’re reserved for students in the Honors college, of which I was not a member. The whole process of getting my thesis and committee approved was more stressful than doing the work, all told.

I loooove Howards End (and Forster in general—I wanted to do my undergrad thesis on him but was discouraged from doing so, sadly). I’ve really enjoyed teaching HE in the past, and I even have an HE quote tattoo. I agree with @The Hoosier Oxonian in that Forster does get passed over a lot, especially in recent years. It’s a shame.

I’m also assuming it’s a rejection until I see something else. But I see acceptances, rejections, and waitlists on the results board, so I just have no idea?

Sorry that you haven’t heard anything! I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you. Now I feel like I wasted that entire app by carelessly not selecting the correct thing. It’s absolutely my fault, though. I should have just lived in ignorance!