wookie55

Nope! Not a word. I've been chatting with someone else on here who also hasn't heard, but contacted the department and was told that the remaining decisions will be sent this week. Since there was an acceptance recorded on the results page in February, it seems likely that all the messages going out this week will be rejections, but... who knows!

hmmm I wrote to my advisor about the grad housing! Would be easier to not be at the whim of the lottery system!

@Zanelol OK good to know - Thanks for this! and shoot, I actually went ahead and reached out to my advisor about it (politely!). If it doesn't go anywhere, I will take it seriously that it just isn't a thing (and that they aren't just declining to negotiate). I have definitely heard of housing priority being a bargaining chip at other universities, but I guess the lottery system was maybe instituted to eliminate the possibility of this kind of negotiation..? Who knows. That's really good to hear about people having good roommates. It makes sense that people would be studious, for sure. I think if it was 1 roommate, I could manage that. But there are some studios that seem really nice on campus! EV, I think? They rent for $1700 which would be at the top end of what I would spend. It's really comforting what you've said here. Sounds like it wouldn't be the end of the world to end up in a shared apartment

@rd12 @Zanelol Have you heard of any accepted PhD students negotiating with their department for priority in the housing lottery? Is that a thing at all? If there is any wiggle room, I am going to try to negotiate for it. At age 30, I really can't imagine living with roommates.

wow how did you negotiate that?

Wow that’s awesome, congrats! Three acceptances seems quite rare.

I’m curious to know what proportion of people here hold an MA. I do not have an MA — I was admitted to 1/5 programs so far. If anyone else feels like sharing, might be interesting to know?

Lol chill buddy. It was the Friday before last. And I am doing architectural history. Almost definitely I was the only person interviewed for that sub-field.

Lmao yeah. I would ask for clarification, esp if an administrator is nice they might help you out. If you’re going to be assessed at the open day, then you should know that, because it’s quite different than attending with the intention of just getting a sense of the program.

Yeah it seems super weird to me absolutely! I think maybe you’re like slightly above the wait list, if that makes any sense?

I am not really sure how Open Day works, but that sounds unusual to me. Definitely not everyone who goes to an Open Day will accept their offer (some people will go to several) so maybe they are thinking some people (like you) should come to Open Day that might accept one of the spots that opens up from people declining? I think that might be what they mean by holding back some spots, but I don’t know, just speculating ?‍♂️ I guess they could also be treating it like a group interview? I would maybe ask the administrator or the DGS for clarification on what they meant by that!

yeah I would have thought they would pick the waitlist too. Not sure what happened there. the only thing I can think of is that I told a few close colleagues of my POI that I was planning to accept at another program, and it's a small community and people talk so ... ? It's a comforting thought at least. I actually had already decided against Columbia but I wanted to have the satisfaction of declining the offer lol.

yes! I actually got a rejection (not a waitlist), after a very positive interview. I'm not sure what happened with that! it was one of my top choices (and the interview went really well), so was tough that they specifically sent only me a rejection lol. EDIT: They definitely already interviewed everybody they were going to interview, and they don't do interviews, so if you didn't get an interview then that would without a doubt be closure!

I might be wrong but I think it was just the one acceptance for the PhD on the Results page, and then that person being asked for clarification.

@ghirlandaihoe HTC would be a very obscure program to troll, but I guess since it’s so competitive someone might want to push ppl to withdraw their apps - is that what you mean? (I basically don’t understand the whole idea of posting false admits.) I really just want to accept at my other school but feel like I should wait for these results since HTC was in my top 3. I have been thinking about writing to the administrator... I will let you know if I write to her and get an update.

Has anybody heard any news from MIT History, Theory, Criticism (HTC)? There was one acceptances posted last week on the Results page.

I agree with @luc.ien. I thought about this, but I think it is very far from certain that it would be any different/better next year.

oh wow that is intense! probably a good thing, though: more information is definitely better than less! congrats! hope to get the same email today or tomorrow!!!

@ebp wait but did you get an acceptance? Oops, sorry, just saw your other message: congrats!

!!!! I'm honestly DYING over here. I even sent a thank-you note at midnight last night lol, to the 3 faculty who interviewed me. I didn't even think of sending a note until last night! (Interview was last Thursday). It may have come across as a bit desperate and angsty.... Do you think? I googled it a lot late in the night, and the overall concensus seemed to be that in the U.S., it's better to send a thank-you note late than not at all... But of course I'm worrying that I botched the whole thing with my awkward note...

who are the Columbia admits? I had an interview: biting my nails over here!!! @lingc35@ebp

thank you sooooo @TakeruK!!! This is absolutely soooooooooo incredibly helpful. I have been completely stressed trying to figure out the tax situation as a Canadian PHD student in California. I was so worried I might have to pay both US and Canadian taxes on the fellowship!!! Also so glad I can keep the residency status in Canada without having to pay Canadian taxes as well. THIS IS SUCH A RELIEF. THANK YOU!

@Hedonismbot2000 Yep it's all gone wild - the profs I spoke to in the fall told me that they were reducing class sizes. Almost all the programs I applied to reduced their class sizes substantially...

aha yeah fair enough. that sounds quite stressful to be honest! I can definitely confirm that the other type of interview exists, I had one last month at Stanford and it was not only conversational, but extremely pleasant and comfortable. I had expected something much closer to what you described. It sounds like it went well, though, in the sense that you would probably know if it went badly. And yes, I can confirm that the IFA is panicking. I had EXTREMELY(!) positive discussions on Zoom and email with two of the senior faculty in the fall, but right after the deadline one of them emailed to say that they received a record-breaking number of applications, that he was shocked and suddenly wasn't quite so certain that I would be accepted. Sure enough, I haven't even received an interview request! I wasn't surprised exactly, because it's the IFA, but I think that that does testify to the stakes of this CoVID admission cycle.

@jondewitthey, how was your IFA interview if you don't mind updating?