vondafkossum

I’m out of reacts, but tbh SAME. At least I can put Berkeley in red in my obsessive spreadsheet and officially move on.

I also received the same offer for Chicago’s MAPH but with a $30k scholarship—and I thought *that* was ridiculous when I scrolled to see the tuition is $60k (just the tuition!!). When half of your offer letter is how to pay for your program, you have to realize that what you’re doing is completely out of touch with reality.
Who fills these program slots, and how are they perceived when/if they apply to PhD programs?

After a ridiculously wonderful visit at Yale, I've decided not to visit Michigan and Cornell and have officially accepted Yale's offer. SUCH PEACE!

WashU for me this Fall!

UC Santa Cruz was one of my top choices but I ended up not applying because of this reason. The housing cost is outrageous because the landlords there don't like college students, they want to appeal to Silicon Valley employees who have a six-figure salary. 
I totally support the students there. UC Santa Cruz was having this problem for too many years and the admin did not even attempt to find a solution. Last year they even sent out an email to faculty asking if they can let students stay in their spare bedroom, since 6,000 students could not find housing. And Janet Napolitano and her team is trying to get an extra 20,000 students next year. This is BS. 

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!

As of last night, I have officially heard back from all of my schools! 3a/2w/11r/infinite exhaustion

Trying not be salty rn but the coordinator at UCLA got back to me and said that I, and everyone else still waiting, should have been rejected weeks ago but weren't due to a massive oversight ? Congrats to everyone admitted though and always good to have closure!

I'm incredibly grateful that you're here to share these experiences with, so... While I hate that it comes down to this last school for you, I think you should recognize what an incredibly strong and bomb-ass person you are for going through this process. You are not taking anyone down - by being here and sharing your experiences you help lift us all up and give us comfort in knowing we're not alone. There are so many roads left to go down, so don't let this one throw you off completely. 

No, because the universe is enjoying our torment too much.

Okay I just woke up from a stress dream wherein I went on a trip to Japan but completely forgot to get PTO from work. So I just......ditched my job and then got attacked by a Ring-esque creature.
I need to relax, wow.

Also in at UC Santa Barbara! And with that, my PhD app season is over. Phew. Now just waiting on the rest of my MFA decisions to trickle in ?

And with that, my season is over. Thank god. 10 rejections, outted from all of my "dream" programs but one (Thank god x2). Its was crazy and nonsensical , and I'm grateful as hell. Time to decompress and breathe again. 

Harvard rejections are up. I randomly checked the portal; no email. That’s the end of a shutout season for me. 

I was just accepted to the MA at ASU! Excited to be able to say "I'm 100% going to grad school", even if I haven't heard back from everywhere yet!

Am I the only one who thinks it's super rude not to notify rejected applicants by email? That seems really odd to me, but maybe it's just because I'm sitting from the position of an anxious applicant

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?

Even though I'm yet to hear from NYU and UPenn (I mean, who HAS - both are implied rejects I suppose (congrats to the admits)), I'm considering the rejection I got from Columbia today as the final nail in the coffin for any further good news. Thinking about this as the end of my application cycle, I can't help but feel relieved - I have one solid acceptance to what has been my dream school since finishing my MA in 2018 (and my dream city since visiting in 2012). Now all I've got to do is visit next week, soak it in, and say yes. Not being Oxford or Cambridge educated, from a failing state secondary school, a "first generation scholar," I was convinced that this application cycle would be a complete bust for me. It turns out that all it takes is one offer to make the whole thing worth it (despite the imposter syndrome I have as a constant companion at the moment). Despite feeling crushed by all the rejection (my supervisor once told me that the experience of working in Academia is the experience of rejection, and keeps a stack of every rejection they ever got in their office), I feel like the luckiest little queer scholar who could. And it really was luck; I hope that you all get just as lucky very soon. x

I feel everyone on the struggle to figure out what you did wrong when you've worked so hard and people you respect gave you feedback. To me, the worst feeling is the world is not knowing how to get better.  Don't forget the lottery element and factors out of your control, like school prestige, connections of your LORs, whether you're non-traditional, etc.; give your SoP and writing sample another clear, critical, ruthless look and get more feedback; and if you can-- just get back in the ring to try your chances again. You're going to need persistence in this game no matter what you do.
I feel lucky at this point that I am going to pull through, but I applied to sixteen schools. If I'd applied to the nine that rejected me - a very respectable number - my only options would be a nonfunded MA at Boulder and I'd be in the shutout category.

On the day before my first campus visit to WashU, a conspicuous pimple decides to appear on my face. Love that for me. ?
 
 

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

In a complete state of delirium and desperation, I emailed UCR last night asking for them to rip off the bandaid already (in the nicest way possible, of course) so I'll let y'all know if I hear anything. The drawn out rejection is just pure torture.

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. 

Yay!! The cycle is finally over. I've been mostly lurking, but popping in now to say that this thread has been good for managing the waiting anxiety. Good luck to all who have yet to hear back!!