collikl

Today, I turned down my funded PhD offer to UW (a four year, renewable teaching assistantship); I'm a 20th century Americanist, if that helps. Best of luck! In addition, removing myself from the wait list at UIUC and Indiana (man, removing myself from Indiana is hard . . ) but I'm happy with my decision!

As I know people on this thread are nervously awaiting news, I thought I'd share that I turned down my funded PhD offer at UW today. Best of luck to all-- it seems like a great program!

Can I get in on this talk too? I'm looking for any insight I can get on the atmosphere of the department!

I completely understand that anxiety! Personally, I already have an MA in hand, so I'm a straight up PhD applicant.

Sure, when you log into your application, it lists your app (program, status, etc). The last box I see, after the "last update" label and box, is labeled "action" and in that box is the word "status" which is a link to my offer. Hope that helps!

So, I've been accepted from the website-- what now?! skybythelight, did you send the department an email, or did the department send you one eventually? I don't want to seem overly anxious, but I wondering when I'll get more info (about funding, if there's a visiting weekend, etc)!

Thanks for letting us know, because I would have never thought to check, and I GOT IN TOO! After 13 rejections this season, I got in somewhere. I have no words.

No seriously. When I was in my MA program, the only way I could motivate myself to blog about my research was to blog about food at the same time. So you'd get a recipe and some theory thrown in, haha. I actually do have a food blog that I started this year to keep my spirits up while applying. If anyone wants the site, I'll PM it to you. It isn't written well or anything, but I just wanted to share recipes I've tried with my friends.

Just want to send you some positive vibes too. This is my third round of PhD apps, and I'm presently in the same position I was two years ago-- two wait lists (last time, neither panned out, including one at my dream school). In the meantime, my SO has been pursuing his PhD in the same field, so I feel you. I'm surrounded by friends pursuing what I have not been accepted to do yet and was rejected from the past two years. It's HARD. But you just keep going. You keep trying. You don't let the system beat you down (at least too much . . .). Coming to this site is always oddly uplifting, because we're all going through this together, both good and bad.

Yup. That was mine. Personalized email, received about 20 minutes ago. My app was PhD only, since I already have a MA. I appreciated the tone of the email and that they let me know fairly quickly after those acceptances went up. "Thank you for your interest in Boston University's graduate program in English. Unfortunately, we cannot admit you into this year's class. We received approximately 230 applications for our relatively small program and so could not accommodate many qualified candidates. I apologize for the impersonal nature of this email, but the Graduate Admissions Committee and I thought it best to inform applicants of their status as quickly as possible. The Graduate School of the College of Arts and Sciences at Boston University will mail official letters within the next few weeks. Thank you again for your interest and best wishes."

Who knows? I do have a friend from my MA program pursuing her PhD there, so I do know they accept people with MAs. But there isn't necessarily rhyme or reason to this process, haha.

This is sweet. I've been on gradcafe the last few years. I'm a longtime lurker that pops on now and again. I'm on my third round of PhD applications, and it's still unclear if it will work out for me this year. But I can't complain about the last two years and the life I've led outside of the PhD program I hoped I'd be in-- I'm a librarian! Rejection or not, life just keeps on keepin on.

Well, I just got my rejection; oh well. I hope you didn't get one!

I'm in the same boat as you-- no news from Columbia (where my dream POI is). On another board, I noticed a third person, in addition to the two of us, who had not heard anything either. I don't know if rejections are going out in waves, but I will continue to hope we'll all get good news. I already have a MA, so I wouldn't have put in contention for that, only the PhD; I don't know if that would affect when my rejection/waitlist would go out?

That does--thanks!!

Former Georgetown MA here. I'm not sure how many apps are received on average, but Gtown usually has about 30 people in its incoming class, with maybe 1/3 of those getting funding of some sort? Feel free to PM me if you have more questions. It's an AMAZING program.

Long time lurker here. This is actually my third consecutive application cycle (with a fourth one back in '09 when I applied to PhDs and MAs, and ended up getting my MA-- which, I will throw out there, was an amazing experience). My first cycle I applied to only 4 schools as I was finishing my MA (writing a thesis, classes, teaching). I received two waitlists (including one at my dream school) but nothing panned out. My second cycle I applied to 11 schools and got nothing. All flat rejections. Now I'm on my third cycle, and I've applied to 20 schools. Right now I'm sitting on 4 outright rejections, with a potential 6 or so implicit rejections. The truth is . . .it's hard! The process beats us all up. People tell you that it's a competitive process, which only makes you think-- Well, aren't I competitive? It's random and strange and completely illogical. You try to live your day to day life despite the fear hanging over your head-- is this the day? Who will I hear from today? It's relentless (for me, only made worse by my partner and my birthdays, as well as Valentines day, right smack dab in the worst of notification season). All you can really do is be persistent. Keep up with scholarship. Retake the GREs. Write the DGS at schools you've been rejected from and ask for feedback. Try to get published. And most of all, don't lose hope. I can tell you that I've had numerous conversations with my SO (who is in his second year of a fantastic English PhD program) about what I (and we) will do if this doesn't pan out. It's good to have a game plan, but at the end of the day, as much as you whine and complain and bemoan this field, and the application process, and the eventual job market . . . you just hope. It's the best any of us can do. Sorry if I rambled, but man, that was cathartic.

I'm in the same boat. My Wolverine friend account doesn't list anything about application status. Ouf.

Does anyone know if rejections have gone out for U Michigan Ann Arbor (English Lang and Lit) or U Indiana Bloomington? They're the last two I'm waiting on, and I know that their acceptances have been sent, but I haven't seen if their rejections have gone out. I would like to be put out of my misery, haha.

skybythelight, I'm sorry today has been hard. I'm definitely in the same boat as you.

YAYYY!

Waparys and It's (Not) About Me-- you're seriously cheering up my day; thank you!

Ditto! Michigan is SUCH a good fit (and commutable distance from my fella) so I'm dying-- please put me out of my misery, Michigan!

Thanks for the note, and I hope this year works out for you. I'm completely on board with you about there being no use worrying, but it's so hard not to worry, haha. Luckily, my last two schools I am waiting to hear from are commutable distances, so if I got in to either, it would be a marvelous situation for me (versus others schools I applied to and was rejected from that were quite far away). The only upside to not getting in anywhere is that I get to live with my guy for another year. But either option hurts (school and long distance/ no school and live together). I enjoy my life: I finally got a job, got a great guy and a cat, so being in this situation for another year would be fine. It's just not what I want to be doing, as I've always known I wanted to get a PhD and teach at the college level. So it's hard to have to wait on those plans since I know they're the ones I want (and cause my boyfriend already started his PhD this year-- we had hoped to stay on a similar time track so we could go on the job market together).

Scratch that: another rejection. 9/11.