Anonymouse124

I completely feel you there! Wanted to do the MA at a top ten straight out of undergrad but $80k a year without interest from the loans would have buried me entirely. I'm so glad I made the difficult choice to turn it down. Yay for hard (but right) choices!

I had a short email exchange with a professor I was interested in working with over the summer (asking questions about research in my field etc), but that's the extent of my contact with Penn! Thank you!! Fingers crossed for you guys!

The call was followed up by a short note and letter of acceptance; I was told that we should expect an email in the upcoming days with more details about fellowships and funding. The letter was dated for Feb 18th as well! Fingers and toes crossed for you!!!

CONGRATS!!!!

YEAH! Were you the other acceptance???? CONGRATULATIONS!!! A call! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH Thank you guys so much!!! I wasn't expecting this AT ALL.

GUYS, I'M IN AT UPENN?!?!?!?!??!?!!

I was just about to post about Yale! I think it’s decinitely an IR for me, but that hope just won’t die, no matter how much I tamp down on it. Fingers and toes crossed for us both.

Complete radio silence from Penn. I feel like all the decisions are gonna rain down on us like a reckoning.

Not technically a shut out but I applied only to MAs straight out of undergrad. Got into 2 out of 3 schools I applied to, but realized how unfeasible the costs of attending were for me. Between then and now (a few months later), I focused solely on PhD programs (excluding Purdue which has a funded MA) and redoing my personal statement after my research interests evolved. I also wrote an entirely new writing sample to greater reflect these interests. This cycle was okay for me, 5a/2w/1r out of the 11 I applied to this year (still waiting to hear back from 3). If I can stress anything it’s to make sure your personal statement presents the evolution and growth of your research interests! As far as searching for schools to apply to goes, I focused more on singular professors than I did school names. I also spent around a month or so reaching out to all the professors in my field and chatting with them over email / on Skype. That was extremely helpful and they were able to point me in the direction of departments and professors they believed I’d be able to excel in. You’ve got this!

Yes!!! So happy for you

I was wondering if anyone could weigh in on a professional looking backpack? My friend is a current grad student and says most people tend to carry backpacks (as opposed to briefcases or book bags). Anyone have any suggestions on ones that didn’t kill their backs? Thanks in advance!

Assuming IR from Yale at this point; haven’t heard anything from them and I keep checking my portal and email. Bummed.

Not the one on the board but I’m on the waitlist as well. Had a personalized note from the DGS, followed by a standard issue letter about the waitlist. It sounds as though the waitlist is relatively small and the email continued on to invite us to their open house and tell us more about the program and Chapel Hill. Hope that helps!

Has anyone received any more details about their CUNY offers by any chance?

I'm heading right out of undergrad but I would definitely keep the expiration date of your GRE scores in mind. If I remember correctly, GRE test results are good for 5-6 years. Unless you're looking to retake them, I'd stay within that time frame. I'd definitely recommend narrowing your research focus and working on your PS/WS. I've been told by my advisors in the past that the personal statement needs to read as your intellectual journey. For example, your swap from philosophy into English Lit needs to not only make sense to the committee, but it needs to have given you an edge and altered your research focus/ thinking in a way that is unique from other applicants. Your writing sample should also reflect the interests outlined in your personal statement. Depending on the evolution of your interests, you might need to research and write an entirely new paper (I did this over the course of a summer). Hope this helps!

I desperately want to hear back from my last few schools so I can start making decisions already. I feel like there's just a huge number of impending life choices waiting to crash down on my shoulders. Anxiety does not sleep and, apparently, neither do I. Hope everyone's doing okay and managing the stress! We'll get through this one way or another. Fingers and toes crossed for each and every one of you!

Absolutely! It just felt like such a drop to me from 20 to 15 spots but I suppose Brown cutting acceptances by 50% is far more dramatic. I know spots in Humanities PhDs were hard to get but putting it in such concrete stats is jarring (but definitely necessary). Thanks!

You're joking. 15?! What the actual heck. I wish I could just sleep till March. Do you mind my asking how you found out about these cohort sizes? Thanks for the heads up by the way! My expectations were already at the level of dirt, I'm preparing to lower it into the Earth's crust now, ugh.

Any bets on when we're going to hear back from UPenn and Yale?

Haha thanks! Forever 21 definitely has decent options! LOFT had a huge sale too, I got some dress pants there for $5 (original price was $60!). Target's Universal Standard line has some cute polished stuff too. What would you guys suggest for shoes? I'm considering loafers, but honestly, am more of a bootie type of person.

Not interviewing, but considering wearing a black top with a patterned skirt (got a couple on sale from Forever 21: oxblood, a twill/plaid, and a burnt orange) and tights. Maybe with a blazer? What are you guys's thoughts on shoes? I'm worried I'd be way too overdressed in a dress.

Am currently abroad and have been unable to receive any calls! I’ve been obsessively checking my voicemails. Ugh. Please just let us know already. Based on previous years, UNC Chapel Hill releases decisions oddly late in the game. Oh well. The waiting game continues.

Received my first rejection yesterday. Princeton was my top choice but in hindsight, the fit was tenuous at best. I didn't let myself have too much hope but it's still disappointing. It's strange how looking back now I can so clearly see why it wouldn't have been a good fit. The human brain does weird things when you want something badly enough.

I'll keep my fingers and toes crossed for you!!

Thanks for the warm welcome! It's definitely been tough trying to focus on the acceptances over the rejections. I definitely feel you on the imposter syndrome bit (ditto on the last two schools as well) and it's so tough to keep the confidence in my application that I once (kinda) had. Ugh, thanks for your wisdom re: adcomms and decisions; it honestly made me feel a lot better about it. I've been hearing from my recommenders and friends currently in PhD programs and most of my former profs have said similar things. Apparently most of them didn't believe the school was a good fit anyway, but I suppose I was so caught up in the prestige of it that I couldn't see it. Not sure if I'll reach out to ask for feedback, but I'm genuinely curious as to how that would go. Might give it a shot in the next couple of months and report back haha. You too! I know it's tough, but "thank u, next" has been a mantra on here that maybe we should all try and embody haha.