JBeezWriter

Well, I'm just going to disagree with all of you, LOL, and say that I could feel the energy shift when NebulaRoom began talking about Fashion Design. Believe me, I totally get it. Fashion was always my thing, too, along with writing, but my parents dissuaded me from that and pushed me toward business... long story short, did not go into business. Went into Graphic Design as a compromise, art for me, "commercial art aka job in office" for the parents. Following even more parental pressure and dissuasion, I found myself plodding toward graduate school after coming back and working toward a second degree in Philosophy. But I aimed at an MFA in Creative Writing, with Pop Culture as a backup, thinking maybe I'd do a PhD in Philosophy or Culture Studies. Except... midway through last summer, due to the pandemic making me have an existential crisis, I realized that all of those paths ended in professor--CW, PopC, and Phil. Well, I didn't want to be a professor. But I do love yarn, fabric, apparel, designing... so, I pivoted. I went straight into the path (undergrad) that nobody wanted me to take, and I have to say, I have never been this happy or this fulfilled EVER. I'm getting straight A's, carrying a full load while working 40/week (understanding boss), and I know this is where I'm meant to be--Fashion Merchandising and Product Development. I've discovered I love the tech design/CAD part of it intensely. My only regret is that I didn't push harder "back then" or go into it sooner. So, I say, it sounds to me like Biology is what NebulaRoom thinks s/he SHOULD be doing, but Fashion is what s/he WANTS to be doing. Being told to relegate it to hobby status is demeaning (sorry!). It makes it sound as if a desire for a career in not-science is "less-than", when it's not. It's just as valid (and, if you think about it, necessary, but don't get me started or I'll write my dissertation on the importance of textiles in daily life right here and now. LOL) If that is where the passion is, that's where Neb should go. PASSION is what gets the great job, the high pay, the happiness. Plodding along on a path that one is resigned to, and trying to find meaning in the exhausted hours after work, that is a recipe for massive anti-depressants and late-life existential crises (ask me how I know, LOL). I say, give it serious, SERIOUS thought, and do what feels right on the inside. Never mind what others say. And if, after all, you do find biology to be your calling, that's great, too. Biology and fashion aren't too unrelated; many designers are influence by biological elements. Best of luck to you, friend.

This is incorrect. BGSU's MFA degree is most definitely the terminal degree. The only non-terminal degree at BGSU is the Literature and Textual Studies MA. Those who go through the Literature program will need to go on to get a PhD if they wish to teach at four-year institutions. Those who go through the MFA program are ready to teach at four-year institutions, and many of the graduates do so.

Wow, at least you heard from them. I've sent numerous emails to various addresses trying to get an update on what's going on at Miami U, but nothing. Not a single peep. They're my last hope for this year (not sure about reapplying next year--this COVID thing is really upsetting everything), and I would have thought they would have at least rejected me if they were going to reject me, not just keep me dangling. Yeah, do what is best for you, this is your path.

And that's a BIG hurt. Some schools are postponing Spring commencement to be held at a later date so that their students get the opportunity to achieve this milestone. Others are, sadly, cancelling the ceremonies outright. If yours cancels outright, I would ask whatever department handles commencement if it would be possible to "walk" at a later commencement. It's not unusual for people to do that for much less traumatic reasons, like they delayed "official" graduation because they won a summer fellowship and need to stay one extra term--but they "walk" in the ceremony in May with their cohort. This whole situation sucks on so many levels, and while I'm not up for graduation (did mine a while ago), my heart breaks for everyone whose major milestones are being sidelined or taken away from them completely. It's perfectly acceptable to grieve ALL of the losses, first-world or otherwise.

Well, there's a fine line. Maybe check in once a month. But not every week. No bombardment. The main thing to remember is, universities are in the same holding pattern waiting for the applicants who've gotten offers already to respond. And those applicants are waiting to hear back from School #1 top choice before committing to the other places where offers were received. It'll be a mad scramble up to the 15th, then things will move at rapid speed. (I've been on the departmental admissions end and seen it from the inside.) Now, how COVID will affect things, I don't know, other than the sad fact that international applicants who aren't already in the US may be SOL. (If one has been doing a Masters and has the Visa all set, they might be able to come to a PhD program, but those coming straight from another country are screwed.) I do know that all of the universities are in a panic, scrambling to put coursework online, figure out how to handle courses that don't translate to online (like Art, labs, performance), figure out how to handle grading, figure out whether to continue the semester or suspend it, figure out commencement issues, figure out how to deal with on-campus students... it's kind of a nightmare. So... we have to just hang in there. But definitely it's OK to check in now to see if the cohort situations for Fall have been affected in any way by the virus. It's fair to know if a university is moving forward as if all will be well come Fall, or doing what one Ohio smaller university did, that I heard about--pulled the funding, so some with offers who'd accepted won't get a stipend or scholarship if they attend.

It has and it hasn't. My backup school already accepted me, but I'm still waiting on word either way from the very last school on the list. Given the choice between the two, I'd go with the one that hasn't said boo yet. It's a pretty good-sized state university so it shouldn't be a question of funding; I'm hoping everyone is just in such turmoil from trying to scramble to get courses online and figure everything out that they haven't finalized cohorts or sent letters/emails yet. I'm domestic and it's in-state. I'm hoping it just means I'm perched at the top of a wait list and we're waiting to see how things shake out. I mean, if they haven't rejected me yet... we're so close, there is still a chance, I think. I haven't committed yet to backup school, pending the information I'm waiting on. I do know it's screwed up pretty much everybody's life in some ways. Hang in there, buddy. I'm with vanillasky2, sometimes these things are blessings in disguise but you won't know for awhile.

Most universities, with few exceptions, require that the PhD applicant has completed or is soon to complete a Masters-level degree prior to applying. They also expect the Masters to have been completed before entering the PhD program (that is, showing up on campus and beginning doctoral coursework). It is only in very, very rare cases that someone would be permitted to attend without having completed their MA, unless there were extenuating unpreventable circumstances. But they would expect it to be completed right away during the first doctoral semester (typically). In other words, if you plan to get a PhD, you need a Masters. Period. The only exception to that would be if the PhD program into which you are going is one of those five-year combo programs like there are in Philosophy, where you can apply with only a Bachelor's in hand; your first two years are Masters-level work; you have to pass a sort of thesis defense to be elevated to the PhD program; and the last three years are doctoral level. I'm not familiar with MPA degrees, so it may be that you're OK, if MPA is Master of Something Something and the MA you're doing is a second Masters.

Well, shoot. Rejected by Iowa. Very nice email, though. It is hard to write a letter that dashes someone's dreams while still leaving them feeling good about themselves after reading the decision. Dr. D'Agata nailed it. I'll try again next year. Congrats to those who got in to the Non-Fiction program--please post on Grad Cafe and fill us in on how the first year goes.

Rejected from Pitt.

First acceptance is in. Still waiting for the other three.

Our department didn't use interviews as a basis of admission. Ours called applicants after sending out initial funding and admission offers, to touch base and answer questions to help the applicant make a decision. Applicants tend to think the process is all one-sided, that the institutions just sit back and let the applicants roll in. Because nearly every applicant is also applying to multiple other universities, the universities are also competing against each other. The institutions are just as concerned about being able to assemble a full cohort as the applicants are concerned about getting in. So in our case, the email with the offer comes, then the phone call is a friendly follow-up; the university is already committed to you, now it's your turn. It's more like a tennis match than a baseball game. And yes, if you happened to be on the wait list... example, say the deadline is December 1st. First two weeks, applications are being read and discussed and often argued over. Decisions are made. Initial offers are made. Say it takes a month for one to get back to the university--declines the offer. Program goes back to the list, calls the one next in line to gauge whether they're still available and interested. If the applicant says "oh my goodness YES", then an offer is sent out right away. There's always a chance that in that month's time, #6 on the list has accepted elsewhere and has no interest in undoing that. So then they move to #7 and repeat. Sometimes the program has to wait for a return call if they get voice mail. Sometimes the applicant sits on their decision for a week or two, which is understandable as it's a big decision, but also irritating, LOL because the Program wants commitments and answers just as much as the applicant does. So if it's like end of March and you haven't heard anything at all or you've heard that initial offers went out but you're still under consideration, and then you get a phone call, you're likely getting that call because the program wants to offer admission. I can't speak for programs like those at Iowa, for example, but at the mid-sized state universities with well-established programs, that's how it works in general.

Yes, at least my U was always open to having Admits do a campus visit, regardless of when. And yes, you could get an offer of admission--with funding--close to April 15th, depending on how it goes. One year, someone had accepted early, then changed their mind, and an offer to one on the list was made after April 15th. It's rare, but it happens. Remember--this does not in any way mean you're not good enough. It means there was a very large pool of well-qualified candidates, and the committee had some hard decisions to make, and it just shook out the way that it did because the ones in the initial pool opted to go elsewhere. Some of our best grad students were wait-listers... some have gone on to do very noteworthy things, award-winning things, bestseller things. So, wait-listers don't suck. Even if you're rejected from somewhere, it doesn't necessarily mean you suck, it just means that you and the program were determined to not be a good fit for each other. Sometimes you're rejected one year, reapply the next year, and get in via the initial round of offers. It's a total crapshoot, in some ways. Some years, a popular program gets 200 applicants. Other years, that same program for some odd reason gets only 75 applicants. And even if it gets 75 applicants (if you're one, that's 74 competitors for, say, five spots), maybe the majority of them accept elsewhere. It's inexplicable. It's unpredictable and bizarre. So, if a graduate degree is what you really want, don't let anything get you down. Keep the faith on up through April 15th. Hang in there, keep trying, if you don't make it this year, finesse your application materials and try again next year. It ain't over til it's over.

I can tell you why they do this. (Insider info.) They only send rejection letters right away to those they flat-out would never accept. If you didn't get rejected yet, it means you're still in the pool. After the committees rank the candidates, they send offers to the top however many (say five). Then they wait to see who accepts and who rejects them. It's a two-way street, both applicants and programs are playing the waiting game and both get accepted and rejected. So say offers go out to the top five. Of those one is still waiting for their #1 to accept them, so they hold off on committing to #2's offer. Two of them reject the offer because their #1's already accepted them. Now there are two open slots for the cohort and one tentative and two who haven't bothered to respond either way. The committee moves down the list and sends out two more offers. Then waits to see if those two accept or decline. From having worked on the programs side of things for awhile, I've seen years where programs got their top five right away and didn't go deep into the list, and years where they had to go so deep into the list that they considered reopening applications to allow more people to apply late, so they'd have enough to choose from because they'd made offers to 22 people who declined for various reasons, only had 30 in the pool to begin with, and if the "current" top five assembled after making all those offers didn't all commit, they'd be "short" for the cohort. In other words, the TL:DNR version is, if you haven't gotten rejected right away, you have a chance up until April 15th. Even if you aren't in the top five first-round, you ARE still of the quality necessary to be considered for admission. Does it really matter if you were on their list at #30, if you got IN? Still, it sucks to wait.

Well, I'm a smidge older than all of you, which makes this concept of applying rather daunting (especially with that "but will they hire me after I graduate" question hanging over my head), but I do know of several graduate students ranging in ages from 30s to "retired from a very long career" (60s), so... you will get all kinds. The reason a good majority of grad students are in their 20s is because they go straight from the undergrad to grad without stopping. Which is fine, but... a little life experience, especially for a writer, never hurt anyone. Gives you more to draw upon.