fenderpete

We can but hope Well good luck, I think you deserve a big slice after your LOR problems!

Well, I'm doing a TEFL course tomorrow from 9am to 8pm, then 9am to 6pm on Sunday so I'm hoping that'll keep me occupied. Gutted to be missing the Six Nations rugby but thought I should start putting Plan B into action...

That's awful, I'm really sorry to hear that. Hopefully the two other LORs are stellar enough to make up. If I ever have to write an academic reference I'll do it straight away, knowing how much heartache not filling them out causes prospective grad students.

Gulp... Thanks for the heads up!

Where'd you hear that? And is it letters rather than email? Hope they'd email internationals...

Source?

Sorry to hear that Chin up. If its any consolation I'm feeling pretty much exactly the same, I'm really concerned about what I'm going to do next year, if I can handle doing this again, do I retake the GRE, will I be able to get a job, where do I live... This is all going round in my head and keeping me up and keeping me from doing vital assignments for my undergrad course.

Duma Key is really good. I know King gets trashed a lot but I think he's got a great command of the English language and I've read probably about 90% of his work. I think this is right up there with my favourites (Salem's Lot, Dark Tower, the Bachman books) and I'd recommend it. I bought his most recent short story anthology and it's less good, in fact I read the first couple and then got bored and moved on to Duma.

Congrats buddy Really glad you've hit one Glad to see someone's perseverance paying off! It goes hope to the rest of us lol

You're not alone mate, if that makes you feel any better. Going by last year Stanford should be getting their act together soon. Not knowing anything is hard to stand. I keep having admissions related dreams!

For fun: Stephen King - Duma Key For work: Ahmad Nizar Hamzeh - In the Path of Hizbullah Amal Saad-Ghorayeb - Hizbullah Politics and Religion Louise Richardson - What Terrorists Want David Whittaker - The Terrorist Reader Daniel Byman - The Five Front War No prizes for guessing what I'm working on...

Congrats Plisar! You're certainly setting a blistering early pace!!

I see Stanford have started notifying a few social sciences people. They're the people I expect to hear from first and I'm beginning to think they might notify this week. Nervous doesn't cover it at the minute.

I'm really struggling with waiting now... waiting until 2pm GMT every day for it to be 9am on the East Coast and 5pm on the West Coast at 1am GMT is taking it out of me. I just want a single kernel of good news, as it would make motivation for my current degree a LOT easier to come by.

Congrats expat and everyone else who's hearing back today with positive news Still nothing for me... This essay about Hezbollah isn't really progressing for some reason lol

I'd probably go to any of mine if I got in (I applied to five) but I'd be a bit wary of Chicago because I've since found out they're extremely quantitative focused so it would depend on who was my supervisor. TBH A lot will depend on who supervises me and also what options I have outside my department, and if I don't go anywhere this year I'll research it even harder next year and make sure I get apps to places as tailored as possible to my interest and improve my application based on weaknesses this year (if they give feedback that is!). I have no chance of going anywhere without funding btw!

Sufficiently poor. At around $100 a pop I couldn't afford to apply to more than five programs by the time I paid for the GRE and everything else. Being in the middle of undergrad also meant I probably couldn't have physically filled in any more apps. I applied where I'd want to go. I'm not confident at all but I'm hoping my life experience will count for something. If not I'll work in the field for a year, retake the gre and apply again. Plenty of people have better stats than me but I'm hoping my experience shows I'm serious. Tbh I'm worried enough about my likelihood of getting in without other people slating my chances.

Which apparently Chicago do. Good thing they're bottom of my list.

I thought there were some Stanford acceptances in the first week of February?

Awesome recommendations from a few people. I've invested in Rachael Yamagata and the Grouper album Listening to new music is keeping my mind nicely occupied!!

So, those other singletons... How are you planning to go on the prowl over the coming years? I'm imagining we'll all be sizing up the other new doctoral candidates (and for the youngsters amongst us the MA students). I'm just not sure what it'll be like working all day on my own research, I think it might inhibit interaction with other grad students a bit.

Well, my flat mate is back home for the weekend, so my plans are now watch football (soccer) today and then Superbowl Sunday tomorrow

As an ex-music journo I feel it falls upon me to make this thread Most recently I've been enjoying Bon Iver, discovered Midlake's second album 'The Trials of Van Occupanther' and ordered the latest Trace Bundy album. I've also been going through a massive Pearl Jam kick at the minute, and I'm currently learning an acoustic set of old PJ favourites to pass the hours! What's everyone else been listening to lately? Any recommendations?

What makes you guys think Stanford will get back to people next week? Last year they seemed to be mainly mid-Feb onwards. Not that I don't want to hear, I just don't want to work myself into a fever pitch of expectation too soon

Argh... I can already feel this approaching. At least it's nearly February.