MatildaMedievalist

This situation is horrible and I feel terrible for all of you. Admissions has never been fair, but now it's just painful. Classics recieves almost no federal money, and is, in that sense, safe. The question is whether schools will also cut humanities admissions to help pay for science students, and the answer is, probably. My understanding is that UPenn had to rescind informal admission offers, not formal offers through the admission portal. That doesn't make it less painful, but it does mean, if you have a formal offer, you are *probably* safe and don't need to rush into anything. I would caution against accepting an offer just to change your mind later because doing so decreases the ability of programs to pull from waitlists, and increases the chances of burning bridges. My best advice? Ask! It is perfectly reasonable to be nervous, profs are nervous, and no program which has admitted you would mind you asking, politely, how funding cuts might affect you, both this year and in the future. That is important information for you to have, and seeing how certain schools respond in a crisis will also tell you a lot about how they would support you should you have a crisis. My final note is that schools which still have not sent offers (looking at you Princeton) are dragging their feet precisely to make sure they don't have to rescind offers. But, hopefully, the will notify people by March 1. I hope this relieves some anxiety though it can do nothing to change the truth of the situation, which is that this is the worst admissions year since COVID.

For one, rejections are never the end. It's cliche, but they really are redirections. Whether they redirect you to reapply with new research interests in a year, or they redirect you onto a career path you can't imagine right now. I thought my world ended when I was rejected everywhere in 2022. Now, I've shifted subfields and love the program I'm in. (Therapy and antidepressants definitely also helped, tbh...) For two, as others have said, it really is not a reflection on your work, and it's certainly not a reflection on you. There are just so many qualified people out there, and there is so much luck involved. Unfortunately, Fortuna is real. You're competing against someone whose advisor helped push your POI's car when they ran out of gas at the SCS. You're competing against someone who's been studying Greek since elementary school. You're competing against someone who, by chance, got to present a paper in front of an Ivy League DGS in January. There is too much outside your control to ever consider this a reflection on your application. More importantly, we, as human beings, are so much more than our research, so don't ever think a rejection from a school is a rejection of you as a person. You are good. You are smart. You are valuable. All these things mean a lot more than being good at the weird-ass genre that is a SOP. I sincerely hope this helps. I will also say, anyone on here should feel free to PM me if they end up needing to reapply (which I hope you don't). I don't promise I know how to get you into a program, but I promise I'll help you any way I can, because I've been there, and I wish someone had helped me. And if you ever feel too bad, channel the audacity of your favorite ancient author. Like, honestly, the Romans kept fighting after Cannae, which is one of the more insane decisions in the history of the universe. You can keep going after this

@the Michigan IPAH waitlist and everyone as results come in-- Waitlists stink, because you have to continue to wait. But know to be proud of them. You weren't the top choice, but that's not because there is anything wrong with your application. They'd love to have you. They simply think someone else fits better with what they need this year, based on who is going on leave, or what current students are researching etc. Also, while some waitlists are a courtesy (mostly Ivys who could afford to accidently overenroll) the majority move a lot. Michigan, especially IPAH, moves a lot. Last year they made offers to at least 3 waitlisted students. It stinks to wait but you have a very good shot still. So be proud and know plenty of people now in programs, including myself, started off with a waitlist!

Can confirm last year I got into UCLA ancient history through history with no interview, but those who applied through Classics had an interview. Because Classics as a field is less varied, faculty tend to work as a committee in admissions, instead of giving power to subfields. Thus, interviews are more common in Classics than most departments where faculty feel they can only evaluate for their own subfield. So, if you apply to a history or art history department, there may not be an interview, but straight Classics programs nearly always have them.

So here's the thing--and the answer is dissatisfying--it really is going to depend. You can't say one school always does this or that because it varies from year to year. Scheduling interviews is hard, so depending on the structure of the interview (ie if someone like a DGS is on them all) they might stagger the invites just so they can give candidates a narrower range of times to pick from and not have too many people trying to schedule the same time. This is the case for Princeton, I know, for the one who was asking about them in particular. Furthermore, the reason schools don't reject until after they've accepted is because they want to keep their options open. Say they're interviewing 10 people for 5 spots, but they get halfway through those interviews and the first 5 people have all had red flags. Then, they'll go back and send a few more interview requests, to give themselves options. Schools (like Brown Classics) that do interviews in-person are less likely to send out a second round of interviews. HOWEVER, Brown Classics has had major recruitment issues the last several years, so they very well might decide to do more interviews if, by the time their in-person interviews come around, their top choices already have offers from other places (as it has happened the last several years). So all-and-all, the only real advice I can give is this- don't let anything you see on here lead you to despair, because it doesn't guarantee anything, but yes, if it's been more than a week since others got interview requests and you haven't, the odds its coming are low, though not zero. Sincerely, A first-year-PhD who doesn't know why she's back on this site and anxious considering she's in a program and not applying.

I don't have an offer in hand, but you're right. Stressing won't help. Congratulations! I guess I'm just really confused that people have gotten acceptances and people have gotten rejections, and yet I have gotten nothing. I didn't think these things tended to be done in rounds, but maybe they are? I'd just never heard of something like this before.

Alright, now I need advice. I was thinking Brown had only sent their rejections on Feb. 1 because no one had posted an acceptance, but now someone has posted an acceptance too. My portal for Brown still hasn't updated. What is a reasonable time to wait before emailing to ask about my status? And who would I even email? Is that Brown acceptance on here and willing to help relieve some of my anxiety with details? Because I am now just legitimately confused.

If the Stanford interview and/or acceptance is on here, care to share any more details? And congratulations!

Okay....so if my portal for Brown didn't update, with all these rejections going on, does this mean it's an admit??? Anyone else have no update at Brown? Also, my roommate got a waitlist at Duke, but my portal hasn't updated there. Again, anyone know what's going on??? (I have class in 30 minutes and am dying inside guys, help.)

I was also medieval Europe so it must have been a subfield thing. I also didn't super match with POIs, but at least he was nice enough to let us know.

Thanks for the Harvard info! In a similar vein, has anyone heard anything from Duke? There are no acceptances posted in the results, but their acceptances seem to normally have come out by now, whilst the rejections take weeks longer...

It was in the FAQ of the history department. Seems to me like they're trying to figure out who are the best fit for them and the department. Like others have said, I'd treat it like an interview, but also know no one is trying to trip us up. Just get more information to make their decision. Sincerest best of luck to you, and feel free to PM me if you want to chat in more detail.

Update on the Columbia interviews @TheWitWitch and @flowersandcoffee: despite official policy I just got contacted for an "informal conversation" as well. Medieval Europe subfield.

I am also anxious now, but maybe this will help @TheWitWitch. From the Columbia departmental site ": Because we receive about 600 applications per year, we cannot conduct admissions interviews...."

I don't know how to directly reply to the Kruse quote above, but I'm wondering if people have any experience with the opposite. I reached out to a potential advisor with just a basic introduction, and he immediately responded with an invitation to Zoom and ask questions about the program. What kind of things are useful to ask at this pre-application stage?