forgottenworks

Thank you! Congrats to you too!!!

Just accepted my offer at UC Irvine!

Finally reached out to UC Riverside and got a very thoughtful response saying that I am on their waitlist, and despite the committee being enthusiastic about my application, they have had a higher number of acceptances than expected and my chances of getting in off the waitlist are low. I'll be giving up my spot since I have an offer from a better-fit program.

Anyone else still waiting to hear from UC Riverside? I'm presuming rejection at this point but closure would be nice.

If anyone is waitlisted for the literature PhD program at UN Reno, I just turned down my offer so hopefully there will be movement happening. Also, if anyone has intel on UC Davis's waitlist, I would love to hear! I'll probably reach out to them this week to see if they have any new info, as I'm just waiting on them before committing to UCI.

Has anyone who interviewed at UCI heard anything? I thought we were supposed to hear back last week but maybe I misheard, or they're just taking longer to decide than expected.

Thanks for starting this @thursdaysnext! I'm waitlisted at UC Davis, keeping my fingers crossed. Also have an offer from UN Reno and am waiting on few other programs. Subfield is 20th/21st American with focus on critical theory and poetics.

I do. Their timeline is a real head-scratcher this year, as far as the results page shows.

Saw the acceptances on the Results page and then got so excited when I saw an email from the school — only to find a rejection. Stings a bit, but on to the next!

From what I understand, universities are trying to gauge the likelihood of you accepting an offer from them. If they know you've been accepted at a higher-ranked school, they may reject you because they assume you'll take the more "prestigious" offer and they want to protect their acceptance stats. If you've been accepted at a lower-ranked university it may actually make you more attractive to them, from what I've heard, but take that with a grain of salt. The advice I've gotten is to be honest but don't give them any reason not to accept you; if you have another offer, make it very clear that you think the interviewer's institution is a better fit and give concrete reasons why. Again, that's just what I've heard from faculty mentors.

Mine was pretty informal so it depends on the program, but the questions I was asked were: why this program in particular; the standard "tell me about your research interests" and then a couple of specific follow-up questions; what is a text you've read recently that really stuck out to you; and have you had any offers from other programs. The thing that helped me the most was reviewing my SoP and writing sample, having a few questions for the interviewer prepped ahead of time, and having some notes in front of me re: elevator pitch and program specifics that I'm excited about. I have no idea if I'll be accepted, but the interviewer (DGS) was enthusiastic about my research focus and said she thought the program was a good fit. I also found this post from last year's forum really helpful:

Had my interview with UCI and I'm somehow more nervous now than I was beforehand? Just going back and overthinking every answer I gave and wondering if I screwed it up somehow. ?

Haven't heard a peep from Oregon either, judging by the results board they're just moving verrrry slowly. I JUST got an interview request from the DGS at UCI, so there's movement happening. Fingers crossed for you! (And for me holy cow I'm so nervous).

Just got an email from a POI at UN Reno congratulating me on my acceptance and opening the floor for any questions I have. Anyone have input about good questions to ask? I don't really have anything specific I need to know at this stage, but I want to make a positive impression in case I end up accepting UNR's offer.

I'm also waiting on Boulder and Oregon, seems weird that the latter's decisions have been trickling in so slowly. Adcomms are frustratingly shrouded in mystery. Everyone remember to shut off the computer occasionally and do some self-care! This is an intense time but it's still early in the decisions cycle.