caffeinated applicant

The best I've been able to gather from other folks' intel, emails from the DGS (well, dir of grad admissions), and rough knowledge of other schools: UVA admits a lot of people from the waitlist. Like, a first-year UVA student whose GC screenname isn't coming to memory now cited 40% of the 2019 entering cohort came up off the waitlist. Seems like they might only do first-round offers for roughly equal to the number of spots they have available, though that's speculation. Bear in mind though, 40% of a 10 person cohort is 4 people. So, they waitlist a relatively large group of people who, in another year, they may well have admitted--folks who are qualified and bright and whose work is interesting and exciting to the faculty. They break up the waitlist into groups and pull people from the groups as spots open up. I don't know if the groups are based on subfield and ranked within the subfields (so within subfield A, you have candidates ,1 2, and 3; within subfield B, candidates 1, 2, 3, and 4), or if it's like the clusters are ranked and they pull first from the A cluster until it's depleted and then pull from the B cluster. I suspect the former, but not sure. In the big email, the assessment from the grad admissions director was that most likely a handful of folks will get offers, but the chances of any particular person in the cluster getting an offer aren't great. I have no idea what the deal is with some people got the big email, some people didn't, though, and I'd suggest your friend email the grad admissions director to inquire directly. When I emailed him last week--before the big email--he replied within minutes.

I've also been thinking about this--like, I would never accept a job offer in another state without first speaking with the person who would be my manager or poking around the town to see if I could live there. And this is a five-year commitment! I'm planning in mid-March to email asking for info about my place on the list, and if I'm still in the running, I'll see if I can get the contact info for some professors and late-stage grad students just to do some basic due diligence. One of my schools is in a place I'm quite familiar with and the other is in a state I've never visited, so since I'm lucky to be in a job where I can take a day or two off and have the means to travel a bit, I'll see about swinging by the totally unknown area.

Love, love, love--you've accomplished so much already just getting to Chicago, and the years you've got ahead of you are so exciting! I look forward to the day a few years from now when I'll read a new, excellent essay in queer studies thinking, Gosh, that's brilliant, I've never thought of it that way, without knowing that the writer is an anonymous GradCafe user from years ago who went to their dream school.

My gut reaction is to go to the far one and schedule informal meetings with the close one. Meeting the cohort at Close School might be a wash--it's a very short time to get to know people, you'll be interacting with people outside your cohort as well, and would you ultimately make the decision based on cohort anyway? This is assuming that the two are relatively close together in terms of favorability--enough that you could see yourself being swayed from the preferred school to the other by things like other grad students' notes about departmental support or professors' personalities in person or their note that "oh yes well I do currently have 12 students under advisement so I only see each dissertation student once a semester..." If you're just about set on the close school and really couldn't see yourself turning it down for the far school (for example if close school is ranked top 20 and far school is ranked 60th), perhaps just go to close school's weekend. Either way, when you schedule the not-official-weekend talks, keep in mind you don't have to tell them why you can't make it! "I'm very unfortunately not available to visit the weekend of X" is perfectly fine. They will probably assume it is another program visit, but it could also be your sister's wedding, or your mother's surgery, or your own surgery, or any number of other things keeping you from visiting the "correct" weekend, and they don't need to know. As long as your tone comes off as genuinely apologetic and not callous, you're fine.

"hey, why is there a large number of richly embroidered litters arising from all major streets and the T station to converge on harvard yard?" "oh the english department decided that's the only approved form of transportation this year for the new grad students. I guess they really want a 100% yield this year"

@ harvard you're made of money, right? carry meghan_sparkle into cambridge on a litter, the curtains richly embroidered with gold

@ princeton u gonna pay for meghan_sparkle's business-class Acela Express ticket to boston or what

You'd think that they would make sure to avoid a Princeton/Harvard overlap! Or for that matter, Harvard/Yale, Princeton/Yale, Harvard/Chicago...

I feel like the #1 thing underscored by this is just that there is no one single "correct answer" but instead many answers that are right in one way, wrong in others, and your future happiness/career (the thing the choice is supposed to be about!) is going to be so much more dictated by things that you can't foresee now than things that are discernible in the present. But also idk I think that D has a great point maybe go with (k) ?

I'd check your spam folder (just in case!) and reach out to UVA--the mass waitlist email that went out yesterday (which I thought was particularly polite and lovely--s/o to YOU, UVA, for making me feel like I was being treated as a person!) indicated that everyone who is on the waitlist and had indicated desire to be considered for the MA can consider this to be an admission to the MA. Possible that MA decisions are still in progress, but due to it being what appeared to be just a bcc of the whole list, it's possible that your email address was missed or mistyped or what have you.

Sigh, another day, another day... has anyone emailed Harvard yet? Not seeing any rejections on the board, and I'm getting antsy to know whether they still have acceptances or waitlist decisions to send out. Last year they took about 30 1/2 years to send rejections, which I've been trying to use as a reason not to get antsy waiting, but alas, the anxious body does not listen to the rational mind.

All of these considerations sound great, and I'm so happy that the convo with your professor helped clarify how many wonderful options you really have! Of course it's impossible to see the whole picture from a post or the future from the present, but reading this snapshot I have a feeling that your future looks very, very bright, and I wish you and your family all the best.

Heck, that reminds me that I forgot to buy a cheesecake at the grocery yesterday!! I'm going to have to rectify this ASAP.

Out of reactions currently, but congratulations on URI!

I'd say get your advice on this topic outside of Gradcafe. Talk to your recommenders, talk to grad students at the programs you're considering, talk to the placement officer (if applicable) at those programs, talk to faculty at those programs. GC is mainly the blind leading the blind--the vast majority of users have too little information to see the whole picture. This isn't at all to say that you shouldn't think about ranking, but that offline conversations will probably lead to much more fruitful information, particularly tailored to your subfield, your previous credentials, and your goals.

Congrats on your acceptance AND dodging an interview!

This right here is the one. Sigh. I really thought that I would have more answers by now. (So did my boss!!) Condolences on UVa/UVA! I had logged on this evening, quite a bit later than I normally do, expressly to post: What the heck are they doing sending rejections this late on a Friday night??

My face keeps breaking out, fortunately only 1-2 zits at a time and they're healing quite fast, and it is MASSIVELY annoying. Like, I haven't drained a whitehead in YEARS and now this crap is back? A new one every couple days? The current ones both pretty big and one per cheek? Thanks, grad apps.

Out of reactions but bless you, MVP of today's waiting game.

Woah ?That sure is something! (I didn't apply to any CW programs this round.)

This is some excellent up-to-date intel, thanks. And congrats on making the list (I think I missed your earlier post on that)!

Also what the heck is going on in Charlottesville? Like are they still making decisions or something? FAQ says they admit 12 per year, and even accounting for this possibly being outdated/the admit pool shrinking, there are only four admits on the board and a few waitlists, which trickled out slowly at the beginning of the week, and the one rejection on the board... be still my heart, no emailing to bother them for another three weeks at least...

folks I hate to say it but.... remember rejections might come later than acceptances by a few days... and no columbia acceptances on the board... (though that's not stopping me from waiting on pins and needles for my harvard rejection, since acceptances went out yesterday) ("The Sound of Silence" plays quietly in the background)

oof you can tell it is Rough when you pay money for the in-flight wifi!!

oh also lest I give the good people of gradcafe the impression that I am actually competent enough to do anything right now... my partner is washing all the dishes from the last three days and baking the frozen pizza while I sit on the ground lmao