moraurora

Thank you Xavi6. Does that magic sentence come through email or mail? Because I haven't heard it yet, I still feel anxious and uncomfortable reading the email. Edit: the magic sentence is in the email, somewhere in the last paragraph.

I received an email asking questions about my budget. This is a good sign, right?

ok this might a little bit paranoid, but i just re-read that first round notification letter (february 14th). it says that they would be in touch with us in three to four months. i havent paid attention to this before, thinking that they would let us know anyways in two months. but if they mean what they wrote, then we won't be hearing back before may 15th. is this what they usually say in first-round letters? any ideas?

According to sent notifications on February 15th two years ago. I guess notifications will be send out sometime this week and hopefully we will receive positive ones or not receive anything at all which will be a good sign...

hello! yet another applicant here as well. how did you hear about ssrc? through email or mail?

i think sociologyplease is right. if no need to lecture you on things you all know, then act like you know those things.

in the previous paragraph I said: "Being wait listed or even rejected more often than not doesn't have anything to do with you being good enough or not." I meant, usually, this is the case. Of course there are exceptions. to sum up, i definitely agree with what xdarthveganx says.

"You were wait-listed for a reason. That reason being that you were not good enough to be offered the first time around." So I guess those who are rejected totally suck, right? Because they are not good enough even to enter the wait list. I will not say that your attitude is negative, it is, but there is more: You are wrong. I know people who made it to the #1 program but rejected and wait listed from other departments. The program I am in right now (top 5) rejected a friend of mine, but that friend of mine entered into two other programs (top ten) which wait listed and rejected me. Now that's a riddle! Being wait listed or even rejected more often than not doesn't have anything to do with you being good enough or not. I wrote elsewhere, this application process is first of all about luck. I have a friend who is in top 3 program, but if she didn't apply in 2010-2011 but say apply this year, she would not be there right now, because her advisor only accepts students in every 5 years. Last year she was accepting students, this year she is not in the committee. I am not going to say anything else on this topic. I only needed to write this post because there might be people who read the stuff written about and feel horrible. My words are to those: being wait listed or rejected is not related to your "quality". I have had enough experience with this whole application process for years, and I have seen enough to prove that statement wrong. If you're wait listed, hope for the best, if you're rejected, try to find other schools with better fit, and apply again. Best of luck to all of you.

someone posted on the results page that s/he got an acceptance on march 12. it's weird though, because last week someone here called the office and apparently they told that they hadn't notify anyone... anyway, i hope the process is still continuing...

Hey, if universities read this thread, I just wanna say that they should not pay attention to the location info. First it was Barcelona, then Paris and now it's Belgrad, these are just cities I happen to love I don't wanna do wrong to our Spanish, French or Serbian friends! One could see in other threads that people addressing me as their french or spanish friends, when they do that, I skip that part of the conversation and just remain silent when it came to my nationality. I prefare to remain totally anonymous and I don't wanna share info in these forums, so I play with my profile every now and then. It would be a huge, huge mistake to deduce that "oh moraurora must be this serbian applicant". Maybe I should have left that section blank... Anyway, I think it will be a rejection, thanks for all the support!

The deadline was not in december. I am sure of that. Maybe they extended if after you checked out the website, but I am a hundred percent sure that I applied in January and this wasn't a late application. I think that once the decisions are made, applicants should be notified as soon as possible. Making them wait until the end of march is rude and mean. You may ask why this is rude and mean. And I say, WHY NOT? Especially if you are an international student, and it takes weeks for the mail to arrive, the situation is a lot worse. And as far as I understand, A's W's and R's were decided many weeks ago. If the decisions are made, I see no point in making people wait in agony. I emailed Brandeis and they told me that they can't give results electronically. Now I am waiting for a letter which can arrive weeks later. And yes, I don't think this is right and fair.

I applied to sociology program. Haven't heard anything yet. Either waitlist or rejection, though I think it's the latter one...

Hello, I would say that everybody kinda feels insecure during this process, nothing is certain. It seems you have everything going smoothly. I am an international student, so perhaps I don't know the intricacies of the system for US students. There are probaly people who have better advices than I have. But I know that this process sucks, and I advise you to try to relax a little bit. I wrote this earlier in other threads, but I feel the need to repeat: I think it all comes to fit and luck at the end, and believe me or not, luck might be the most important factor. I have seen people got accepted without research experience, without any publication, without prior contact and without your GPA. That's probably because they had great fit and luck. On of my friends got accepted because one professor in the department really liked her SOP and wanted to work with her, and this professor only accepts students in every 4-5 years. Had she applied a year before or later, she would not have been accepted. Of course, the fact that luck is important does not mean that gre, gpa, research, lor etc are not important. What I mean to say is that, you can get accepted with your current stats and experience but someone who does not have them can also get accepted. Just try to do your best and -while I see no reason for you not getting into- if you somehow can't make it in the first round, give it another try. You probably won't feel relaxed until you get into somewhere, but it's the same for everyone Try to keep up the good work, and I believe you will end up wherever you want to!

Hello everybody! I'm just checking as usual Another friday evening's arrived and still nothing right?

I didn't apply to prrograms whose deadlines were in december...

What I don't understand is whether silence means rejection or waitlist... And if it means rejection, why on earth they just don't notify people, because come on it's march 17th... This whole thing is really unprofessional, because I have rejections or waitlists from other schools but nothing, nothing from Brandeis. Anyway, Bonkers, congragulations again

If their attitude is "lets notify the ones who are accepted and we'll deal with the rest a couple of weeks later", that's really really mean. I mean, this was acceptable in january and february, but definitely not in march. It's middle of the march, I think we deserve to hear A, W, or R, but we should have something. Anyway, I'm just mumbling...Sigh...

Hello, I just want to share my two cents. I think it is all about fit and luck. It might be the case that luck plays a bigger role. One of my friends got into a top-tier program last year. Let's call this university X. Her gre is just above 1200. (we're international students, so you might wanna keep this in mind). Anyway, she did not email anyone, no emails no contact no conversation at a conference, nothing. She didn't have any published papers. Anyway, last year a professor at X university decided that it had been a while since s/he last accepted a student, and last year this professor decided to enter the commitee and find a student s/he could work with. My friend's application captured this professor's interest, this professor thought that they had good fit, and you know the rest, now my friend is a grad student at this university. It was told her that the reason of her acceptance was that professor. This was my friend's first round of application. Now, if that professor decided not to take students last year, my friend would not end up there. Or vice versa, if my friend thought that she could apply next year, she would not end up there, because perhaps this professor would accept another student. In another story, one professor emailed one of my friends after the application season ended. And that professor told my friend that she would definitely take him, if only she wasn't in Africa when the commitee met and decisions made. My friend was unlucky. Of course, I also heard stories in which people emailed professors, and got into thanks to those prior emails. And of course, a lot of people got into thanks to their published papers, or high scores or whatever. I am not saying that emailing professors or publishing papers is unnecessary. I just wanted to say that, believe it or not, luck plays a huge role in these things. Sometimes the problem is not in your application, sometimes it is all about "how the stars and constellations are aligned" ( not a strict believer in astrology, just saying it) So my advice is try not to lose hope, and apply as many schools as you can. If you can afford it, try to apply to 10 schools, or more.This will definitely raise your chance. And, this is crucial, I know people who got into in their third round, and they got into top programs! Keep this in mind. You might wanna take a look again to your sop though, perhaps reformulating it might help. Sorry for the long message! I hope you'll make it next year. GOOD LUCK!

Another week gone and still nothing, right?

Hi all, I just wanted to check if there are still no news from Boston... Keep us updated if you hear something!

Me and one of my friends are in the same situation; we haven't received anything yet. I am also suprised, because I was sure that they rejected me. However, I think that perhaps because of the large number of applicants, they couldn't finish sending notifications in one day, so we might continue hearing results today. If it doesn't arrive today, this might mean that there is a kind of an unofficial waitlist...

science and technology studies

Any news from Brandeis? There was one acceptance in the beginning of february and since then it's been all quiet.

Oh my God, persiandoc you're so mysterious ! It's either like you have an incredible sixth sense or really good insider's info I also applied to JHU but I have been planning to withdraw my application, since I have an offer from somewhere I really wanted. I haven't withdrawn it, thinking that they're done with decisions... But if they are not, I might withdraw it tomorrow... Congrats on your NYU acceptance!

It seems that they work as Cuny does...I mean, they reject some people in the first round, then they continue looking at the files. Last year, someone got rejection in the beginning of february, then some other applicant who was told that s/he was a finalist of sth like that got rejection in the end of march. It sucks though, the fact that it takes so long... Please keep me updated if you hear sth, I certainly will pm or post here! Fingers crossed!