trytostay

I am taking a train to UVA, and actually have my entire transportation out of Virginia already taken care of and covered. Would it be rude to spend the whole travel budget on a one-way ticket to Virginia? It’s about a 7 hour train ride so I was considering getting a business class seat, which comes out to $5 less than the total cost they can reimburse me for. The difference between coach and business is about $45.

I have a question! Maybe @emprof could speak to this if they have time? No pressure of course! A faculty member at a school I’m waitlisted at wants to have a Skype call. My mentor says to treat this like I’ve already been, or will be, accepted, and take this time to ask about the program, their interests, my interests, etc. Does anyone have advice on what to ask? From poking around here, I’ve seen a lot of examples about what to ask grad students, but not so much what to ask faculty members really. I’m not accepted, so I’d like to still be as prepared as possible.

Unfortunately not! I’m sorry. I should’ve asked.

No, in past years its been Thursday-Sunday calls!

Thank you SO much! That is so sweet. I feel proud, but also lucky. So much of this is random and we're all going in blind to a certain degree. Thank you again!!

Personally, I'm just going to count it as an implied rejection. I can't handle the idea of this application cycle not being over yet, lol. It's exhausting and I'm ready to move on.

I’m in at Rutgers!

In my opinion prestige is more important than an extra $5,000/year. Also, you cannot keep your full time job so that should not be a factor in this decision. These departments are paying you for coursework and eventually teaching to be your full time job. That is the expectation. I feel like if you’re still trying to keep a full time job then you aren’t fully aware of the scale of responsibilities you are going to have as a PhD student? It’s extensive and beyond simply attending classes.

CONGRATS TO THE RUTGERS ACCEPTANCES!!!!

I know. I’d like to be excited about the acceptances I’ve received so far (and I am!) but it’s hard. I’m pretty invested in the c18 faculty at Rutgers, so I think that’s why I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it.

Can Rutgers and Yale just reject me already so I can be done with this stupid process (except I’ll also be waiting for Columbia until April 15th at 4:55pm)

On the topic of GRE scores, I had a 161 verbal, 148 quant (yep), and 5.5 for writing. I think GRE scores matter a lot less than we tend to ruminate on, in all honesty.

I'm 23 with no MA or professional experience! No one has ever brought this up as an issue. In fact, my mentor mentioned that not having an MA might be a "plus" for my application process.

Well, you still do have a decision to make: you could find out you hate the city, or that you don't get along with anyone you meet there, or that you just can't picture yourself there... This is the next 5 years of your life, so I personally think it's pretty important. Is there any way you can swing it? If not, you can try to arrange Skype meetings with some of the professors, and maybe even a grad student too in order to ask some key questions. I do think it's important but I also recognize that money and paying bills is also important, of course. Personally, if a school was not willing to help out with any travel expenses, I would also question the funding support within the graduate department. Not sure what others opinions are on this of course! But there's my initial two cents on it.

See guys? Yale procrastinates, too. Stars: they’re just like us!

The Val results comment...lol. I feel that. Columbia, shantay you stay.

They tweeted yesterday that they don't anticipate closing. But we shall see! Whether it's today or Friday, it'll definitely be this week.... I hope, omg.

I feel like some Rutgers calls are going to go out today.

Thanks for this. That "the worst that's happened..." quote is exactly what I've been telling myself, and hearing the outcome of such a thought process was enlightening. I'm definitely going to be asking about the job market at visits.

It’s funny how we all thought this week was going to be so informative. I’m still where I was last Friday! Sigh.

Hate to break it to you but I think you’ve still got a shot for a waitlist at all of those! So you might have a few more days of uncertainty. I do know that all of NYU’s offers are out, though. Not entirely sure about the others as I didn’t apply there!

Not hearing from Columbia could mean you’ve been admitted to their MA program!

Hm, that does seem a bit odd. Have waitlist/acceptance/rejections been posted for any of the schools you applied to?

@FiguresIII Columbia invited me to their visiting day and said I’d be welcome to all the events. WUSTL did not, but I wouldn’t accept an offer there over my current offers. However, in your case, I agree. I wouldn’t feel comfortable accepting an offer from a school I wasn’t able to visit first. Are you sure Princeton won’t invite you to the visit? Perhaps there’s a follow up email coming? I wasn’t invited to Columbia until a day after hearing about my waitlist status. Also: CONGRATULATIONS!

Yeah, everyone says picking is the hardest part. I think we’re both pretty lucky to have this problem, though! I’m trying to just chill (for the first time since last June) and bask in the combination of hard work and the universe being on my side. Then in a month or so I’ll resume the stress, haha.