gagne

Just got a department email and confirming UB only took 4 folks due to “administrative challenges” as they stated. Letting folks in the 100 or so applications know that it wasn’t personal the decision to reject, sounds like it was a lot of advocating for the most funding for the most candidates and reaching a compromise with administrative challenges.

I visited in mid-March right before their Spring Break and met two others who traveled and one who lives in the area. We had brunch together, visited a class, had one-on-one meetings with folks of interest and attended a recruitment dinner at a faculty member’s house that was like a casual house party. Definitely were being wooed by faculty and some PhD students. Got a lot of questions answered and folks asking us questions. Connected with PhD students and had an upper advantage of knowing 2-3 folks already in the program and so we reunited. I think they planned so all of us who were traveling would meet but there may be an international student who we didn’t meet.

UCSC FINALLY emailed and updated the portal today. March 10th. Rejection letter outlined the different possible reasons for rejection (compatibility with professors, balance of sub fields, funding).

I’m wishing you well with MAs and yes, this season seems entirely a brutal endeavor. UCSC still hasn’t updated their portal for folks and February’s almost over… glad to have heard from SUNY Buffalo with good news, but wondering what happened for folks who didn’t get in and if rejections came out already and their methodology of deciding.

Nudged UCSC with an email this morning and they got back to me by end of day. They said they’re still making deliberations but will not be offering me admission/an acceptance to their program. Makes sense given I applied to creative/critical concentration, which only has 1-2 people per year. Glad to be going to the school that accepted me. 1a/4r

@cre25 and @chattycoffee sending y’all love and some hope that the right school will come around

Brown and the Ivies claim more rejection casualties… I wish schools genuinely released acceptances, waitlists, and rejections on the same day or over a few days. Knew this was coming as Brown acceptances were two weeks ago.

Buffalo surprisingly said yes!! I lived there 2019-2022 so quite excited and surprised.

I mean apparently Illinois was not taking a lot of folks but Irvin Hunt might be a good contact if you go through another cycle in the future. His research is about mutual aid and activist archives of Black Americans since early 20th century.

Did you also apply to Illinois? I feel like you and I may have chosen one of the same profs if so for research. I’m into archives, memory studies, and communities and locality of archives. My MFA critical thesis could be summed up as: “what if you wrote poems about your friends?”

I’m sorry that happened to you!! What are you planning to study/research?

Got the Illinois-Urbana Champaign rejection today 😭 so sad as they waitlisted me last year and this year was a flat out rejection even as my CV has strengthened. Hopeful (but not really) that Santa Cruz, Buffalo, or Brown will come through. Otherwise trying to see my luck with applying for better paying teaching jobs.

Northwestern took the brave step of finally emailing me, the first email of this season officiating my rejection 😢😭 it’s life 1r confirmed / 0w / 0a / 4p (but likely more unspoken rejections due to lack of email/contact from any program)

There were three posted earlier in mid January. I’m not sure. There was also a stray UIUC and Buffalo acceptances (1 or 2 for each)

Saw Northwestern acceptance email results posts from Friday and my inbox has been dry. This makes potentially full shut out for me this season. Tentative Rs: Northwestern, Brown, UIUC, Buffalo?? Unknown: UCSC

I’m wondering why so few schools have notified this January. Today’s last day and it’s 5pm or later CST eastward so not a lot of schools who would notify left today across time zones. Feeling unsettled by this.

It’s hard to tell who they’re accepting or their timelines. Brown was in February last year.

Saw that current US president also paused all federal loans and grants essentially freezing FAFSA so guessing if you mentioned being low income and/or your program is assessing financial need; this isn’t the season for you 😭🫠 *cries in first-gen, low-income, community-oriented memory and archival studies*

Anyone else feel like they are just waiting for the rejection emails? 4 of my 5 schools have results posts, though really only 3 (UIUC, Buffalo, Brown) but they are only acceptances and waitlists and are scant. Super nervous about UIUC as I was waitlisted last year and then rejected and have a feeling it’ll be a flat out rejection this cycle 😭

@Hchak yeah, someone inquired and got an early rejection on the 15th. Curious how this week will unfold as I’ve gotten no admissions decisions and it’s the last week of January. Super nervous it’s a complete shut out as usually am earlier notification from a school is more likely an acceptance.

@Hchak what was the message?

I’m curious if it’s about funding as some may use federal grant funding to fund research and if they are going to stretch dollars for current students they might not accept a lot of new students or are waiting to see how many they can afford to accept.

There have been posts for Buffalo, UCSC, and Illinois but only one each from early Jan and nothing else…

EOD Friday, January 24th and still nothing. It seems like very few programs have announce or decided.:. Wondering if programs are waiting and watching the current federal administration for changes. Maybe takes longer in presidential inauguration years?

Omggg didn’t realize they, nervous as I also applied