veilside

A nice bit of news to start this which is the last agonizing week of being a waitlistee.

Hi, I have been waitlisted for the PhD at UNC for about 9 agonizing weeks now. I have offers to other programs, and in fact am being pressured to reply by April 10 by one of them. (Their exact words were: "we would very much appreciate hearing back from you by April 10 regarding our offer.") I would imagine that they ask this in order to go to their waitlist in time... UNC is my first choice, and I do not want to be clogging up the process for someone waiting for a spot that I have been offered. I also am terrified that if I wait until after the 15th I will thereby loose those spots I have been offered due to my waiting out for UNC, and then nothing will materialize from UNC, and I will be stuck with nothing. This whole waitlisting thing is awful, as I'm sure that some of those offered a spot at UNC are waiting on school X, and someone at school X is waiting on Y, and that one is waiting on school Z, etc... A horrible gridlock that will be an exploding mess on the 15th. I know that UNC received around 430 applications, accepted 16, and waitlisted 6. Is anyone here part of the 16 and has already or will be turning down UNC? Also, as it is clearly a related question, has anyone here accepted UNC?

I am hoping that I can get some feedback from people here regarding what to do... I have been accepted into a few programs thus far, and waitlisted for some others. I have applied to MA programs and have the ultimate goal of a PhD with a focus in ancient history. 1. I have been accepted to the University of Arizona, which has an ancient history MA through their classics department. They offered me a TA-ship, and a full waiver of all tuition and fees with a stipend of around $8000 an academic year. 2. I have been accepted to Tufts University for a classics MA. Tufts' grad program is not an independent grad program and is run in tandem with the undergrads. Tufts did not offer me a TA-ship, but did offer me a scholarship of about $18,500. This will end up leaving me with about 40% left of the tuition to still pay. I live in the northeast, and for this reason Tufts would be far cheaper to move to, as well as being much closer to family and such. I'm not awfully concerned about the money, but more-so on how PhD programs would view these two MAs. Is one far superior to the other? Any advice, opinions or what have you would be greatly appreciated. Thanks. BTW, I am waitlisted for the Classics MA at Tulane, and waitlisted for the PhD program at UNC-Chapel Hill. So feel free to toss in these possibilities into the equation.

I just logged in to find out that I am accepted!!!! Good luck everyone.

I might have mispoken before.... I re-read the email from Professor Nishimura-Jensen and she stated that they typically try to notify the apps within "three weeks" since if they are taking summer course they can make the proper arrangements in time.... that being said, this is week three coming up, so hopefuly we all will hear sometime this week.... Good luck to us all

Magnocaudax, Thank you again for all the quick and helpful replies... Everything sounds great about the program there, and I already feel very excited about proving myself there, and I'm not even accpeted yet. But, hopefully I will here by the end of next week as Professor Nishimura-Jensen told me that they tend to reply in a few weeks so that those who are taking summer courses there (myself included) can make adequate preparations.... I really hope that all goes through for me and I know that my LOR's are very strong, I have a 3.83 major GPA and a 3.52 Cumm GPA, already have 9 semesters of Latin, and am finishing my second in Greek.. so hopefully all comes through here.... I'll keep my fingers crossed... Good luck to everyone else applying to the program here or elsewhere....

Magnocaudax, Thanks. My reasons for wanting to take a course at Princeton is due to the fact that they are my number one choice, due to Edward Champlin, and to have an opportunity to take a course with him before applying to grad programs again next year would most likely prove to be only to my benefit (so that he personally know me, and more importantly my abilities). Even if it were not for credit, some kind of audit, I wouldn't mind... and I plan on driving, but maybe Philly is not quite the easiest city to drive in and around in... so, who knows about that, but either way I would love to have a chance to sit in on one of his courses. How are the seminar classes set up? I mean, in the upper level Latin that I am taking now we, basically, translate x number of lines from an original author, come to class and take turns reading our translations, and perhaps a little bit of grammar discussions here and there, but no tests, quizzes, or finals. Is the post-bacc seminars similar to this, in that they are in-class performance graded, or are there tests and such? Is it appropriate to ask for a LOR from those outside of the post-bacc program there? For example, if I was taking a class with Professor Grey, would this be out of line to ask him, since prof. Nishimura-Jensen is probably expecting most post-bacc students to ask her for one it wouldn;t be out of line to ask with such a small amount of time being a student of theirs... But someone outside of LPS might look not so favorably on this... is this the case? Thank you.

Magnocaudax, When you entered the program did you take the summer intensive Greek there at UPenn? And if so, what text do they use? I am in the second half of my elementary Greek now (we use "Athenaze"), and if accepted to UPenn, I would take both the intensive elementary and intensive intermediate Greek before beginning the seminars in the fall. I know that there are very limited introductory Greek texts, and surely there are also limited ones for intermediate as well, just curious if you know what they use there. Also, I understand that they encourage you to take other courses while there besides the standard seminars in Greek and Latin, but are you allowed to cross-register to say, Princeton? When you do take other courses there are you allowed to take graduate courses, or are you limited to undergrad ones? One more question.... How does the cost all figure out? I understand that being a post-bacc you are eligable for certain loans and scholarships, so when it all boils down how does it come out in the end, are you left with a bill or just a loan to reapay? Thanks.

As far as the whole 'transforming' thing goes, there is something to it. As justsomeone has pointed out, if one comes from a not-so-well-known university, this surely makes you stand out more. I also come from a lesser known school, SUNY-Albany, who actually has a diminished classics dept and have a "program" now instead. There are a few issues that can be tranformed from taking a post-bacc first...they are: 1. Your language skills, which PhD programs see as being the most obvious obstacle to overcome for all applicants, regardless of their qualifications otherwise, are then properly remedied. To have a dedicated year of study for the sole puropse of strengthening language abilities will surely bring you a step closer to a top PhD program. 2. Your status. Being a senior in an undergraduate program when applying is a weakness. You cannot show the last fall grades, only what you are enrolled in, and have nothing to show for the spring. This is bad becasue who's to say that your grades will not fall off a cliff, or that you'll end up withdrawing from certain courses that the PhD program sees on your current list ony to have you drop or withdraw later. By being a graduate you show a definate GPA, and have a solid and final list transcript. 3. Your realization. By taking a post-bacc program it shows that you are serious about being able to perform in a PhD setting. You are mature enough to be able to realize that you are not quite ready for a PhD in classics and that to humbly take a year in limbo, so to speak, shows your commitment. 4. UPenn is an Ivy. The fact that the post-bacc will be acheived at an ivy league school holds a good deal of weight in and of itself. Especially if one comes from a lesser known school it gives an admissions committee something else to go on, namely that you are *now* of the calibre that they would expect. Even if they happen to admit more than they should, which I'm not so sure is the case, to be able to survive a year of intensive Greek and Latin at a demanding school is quite tasking. For example, according to UPenn's official post-bacc in classics site it states that 1/3 of the graduates end up not pursuing any further education (there's your excess of students for making money), another 1/3 go on to graduate work but not in classics at all (perhaps even more of the "excess" students), and only 1/3 of the incoming class go on a PhD in classics or ancient history. Of those who do go on for a classics PhD go to other Ivies, and the "par-ivies" (Stanford, UC-Berkeley, Chicago, Chapel Hill, etc,..) 4. Who reccomends you. By having a professor, or two from an Ivy be a recc for you, you have greatly increased your appeal to any admissions committee... No matter what, the elite schools are a closed circuit, and having any insider help you can, will only benefit you all the more. 5. What admissions committes say, it definetely does matter. A professor of mine is close friends with the former head of the classics department at Cornell. And he told her that: "for as long as I was the head of the department we usually took all the post-bac students from Penn.....let me rephrase that; we 'always' take the post-bac students from Penn!" Direct from an ivy department head's mouth. Now bear in mind that it was surely the last 1/3 that applied there, and I find it likely that they have denied one or two over the years, but the bottom line is this: While a post-bacc in classics from UPenn will not guarantee admission to a top PhD program in classics, nor tranform you into a top-applicant, it can greatly improve your chances of getting in, and one could argue that that, in and of itself, is transforming you. Sorry... that was somewhat long-winded, but felt I had to get all of that out...

The deadline for applying to UPenn's Post-Bacc has already passed... was March 15. From what I understand it is quite competative. They take a good dozen or so, but there are, according to their website, more qualified applicants than they have room for. I have applyed for this upcoming fall's program there, but it may not be too late to apply to Columbia, UNC-CH, or UCLA... they also have good post-bacc programs, and might have a later deadline than UPenn. Good luck though.

It's probably not a good sign since it wasn't the history dept. that I applied to there... I applied for the ancient history program there and that happens to be through the classics dept. The classics dept. has been contacting at least 4-5 people on this forum for interviews, and have contacted the waitlisted.... so...I'm prob. rejected there too..... we'll see though.

I just got the letter today (live in NY). Rejected... really suprised since I have a 3.76, 10 semesters of Latin, 5 of Greek, 2 French, 2 German, a very well received writing sample, strong reccs, and a tight SOP, and was invited down for two days in October by Talbert..... Oh well... the economy has caused a good number of problems.... Good luck to those waiting to hear. BTW, it was a very small letter, and a pathetic one at that. I only have two more schools to go, so far I have no acceptances.... waiting for Princeton and Penn State..... I'm probably screwed.

Does that first round of decisions mean they have definite "yesses" and "nos" or that they only know who is a definite "no"??

Have you spoken to Dr.Lee recently?? Maybe some useful information can be found there. Post anything that you find out please.... I'm going nuts too.

Kind of suprised that there have been no more results posted yet... Makes me wonder if they're doing it very piecemeal as UChicago is....