misterpat

You cannot find this information because most departments don't provide it. GREs aren't as important as the LSAT is for law school. Shoot for above the 90th percentile on the Verbal section (which I believe is a 650 or so). You should know that your fit with the department is going to matter as much, if not more, than any of the things you are asking about. I would not recommend applying to Vandy simply because it is in the same city as you.

Perhaps you should have posted this in the History section, though I suppose Decisions, Decisions also seems relevant. But I think you'd have more History-specific responses. But I would definitely do GW. This is coming from a guy who was also "accepted" to Chicago MAPSS with 1/3 tuition. I just don't trust that program, or programs like it. I'm waiting on funding from another MA at a much lower ranked school, but I'd rather sit-out next year than drop over 30,000 on Chicago. And I'm from Chicago. It's an absolutely wonderful city, and a fantastic university with a beautiful campus. But really: $30k in debt + a Chicago winter < FREE PhD. You can always try and transfer if you are the department wunderkind at GW.

Ah, undergradates.

Be brief and thankful. Make a comment that shows that you've enjoyed their work, but don't go overboard with ass-kissing. I think some students treat professors as demi-gods, and that the professors' resultant discomfort sometimes leads to what the student considers a coarse reply. Oh, and remember how you were told in high school that there was no such thing as a stupid question? There absolutely are stupid questions, and try to avoid asking them. As noted above, anything in the FAQs or elsewhere on the department's site qualifies as a stupid question. Remember that any e-mails you exchange with the professor may be kept in your application file.

A few random thoughts while skimming the new rankings: -UI-Chicago made a decent jump. Now I'm kind of mad I missed the deadline for that school. -I expected WashU to jump up more. -I didn't expect UCSB to drop almost ten spots. -Missouri went up 12 spots.

Congrats buddy. That program looks pretty sweet.

Someone needs to back me up on this, but I think WashU has a program like that.

I actually kind of stole the idea directly from people doing them about law school that a friend showed me. Only theirs are actually kind of funny: http://www.xtranormal.com/watch?e=20090306151700611

I was almost hesistant to do this, since my admissions cycle didn't go as well as it could have. But since we do see some of the same questions over and over, I thought it might be worth a laugh. There's a mistake or two I didn't correct (languages part), but this site runs kind of slow and I didn't want to spend all day editing a joke: http://www.xtranormal.com/watch?e=20090415173557133

They really take their sweet ass time there in New Brunswick.

I've gotta hit that next level soon. I've been stuck on Mocha forever.

I'm sorry. I will never criticize a journalist again.

Temple. They told me tonight they cannot fund me. The no-funding aspect might go against the purpose of this thread, but it makes me feel good to participate. Hopefully some folks are turning down Mizzou, and that I'm near the top of the alternate-list.

Seriously. I hate it when people say this. Like educated people are incapable of acting ignorant (not to say we were being ignorant, but that is obviously cerise's opinion). Which, ironically, is a blanket generalization itself. NY Post falls under "Bad Newspapers." And I would think that deciding what your story is about before you have even done the research is a check in the "Bad Reporter" column. But hey, I'm not a journalist. As you have already noted, we are not most people. But I'm not even sure what post you are repsonding to. What matters is that none of us can prove that we didn't get into a certain school because of the economy; I don't know about anyone else, but I sure didn't get a letter that said: "Dear Applicant, Your application was really promising, but it's a fucking recession! Sorry, brah! Love, Harvard" So, none of us can really prove the recession was what kept us out. This befuddles the reporter's story-idea. The reporter wants a story about the economy contributing to human misery, because that's what is hot right now. "Sensationalism" might be a tad hyperbolic, but it's not too far off. A better idea might have been to contact some Professors who serve on Admissions Comitees. They could actually provide information like, "we only took 15 students instead of 25 this year." But he instead came to us, opening the door for some idiot to make the mistake of commenting and saying "Yeah, in another year I probably would have gotten in. It's totally unfair." This idiot would likely regret making such a self-serving comment when he finally read it in print, but then it's too late. No evil-intentions were necessary to make this guy look bad. So while we may have said a lot of negative things about journalists, I would assume that most of us know that all journalists aren't the scum of the earth. You aren't teaching anybody a lesson. You just look sanctimonious. We are free to joke around as we please.

You should fill an envelope with pennies and mail it to them, along with a copy of your rejection letter. Also, since the postage might be kind of expensive for such a gag, you should take a lesson from Freakonomics and put the Department's address as the return address as well. You will be the Queen of Awesome if you do this.

How scam-tastic.

You could always turn in your SLU decision late. I'm wait-listed for funding, and a DGS from one school told me (in response to when I might know if I have funding or not) that their deadline is the 15th, but that some students invariably turn in their decisions after that. You could be waiting for a while on UIUC though, so it might not be worth it. I guess you could always back out on SLU if that were to happen.

Hahaha

If you're leaning towards Georgetown already, then I would do it. I'll bet it's the cheaper of the two.

Eviatar Zerubavel is the man.

I haven't even begun to bring it, sista.

I bet that you will develop a place in your heart for Ann Arbor, if that's really what worries you.

What a great post.

Take the job and get into a better school than Penn State next year or in a few years. Win-win.

Says the Journalism student. :wink: Seriously though, even journalists with the best intentions can make you look bad on accident. Whether it's from an honest mistake, taking something you said out of context, or trying to fit what you said into their story idea, they don't have to be "out to get you."