bugbear

Finally got a rejection. I would really like to know what took so long.

This is probaby a long shot, but if someone doesn't think they are going to go to JHU, please let them know soon. Pretty please?

I'm not in English, so I hope you guys don't mind if I post here. But I've also received the ECF and am a bit concerned about the teaching in years 2,3, and 4. Since there are people in this thread with similar questions, it might be useful if I join the discussion even though I'm in a different discipline. Specifically I want to know more about how it's possible to teach 2 classes, do your own research, and finish your degree in a reasonably timely fashion. I understand that it's beneficial to get teaching experience, and can obviously be intellectually rewarding, but there is a limit to those benefits. It would be different if these were just TA positions, but from what I understand they are more or less adjunct positions with a different title, ie, you teach the entire course. I wonder how good of a job a 2nd year student could really do with their own class, although a very dedicated person could probably do a good job at it. But to be dedicated requires a pretty significant time commitment. Which the undergraduate students obviously deserve, but might not be fair to ask of a PhD student with lots of their own work to do. I just wish I had a more concrete picture of how it works and how manageable it is.

I know! This is ridiculous. I want to know...and yet I don't, because as long as I don't know, there is hope....

Can a current CUNY student maybe clear some things up for with regard to teaching? It seems like teaching "assistants" are sometimes expected to teach entire classes from scratch, basically serving the purpose of an adjunct rather than a true "teaching assistant", who usually do the bulk of the marking for a course while a professor does the lecturing. As far as I can tell, 2nd and 3rd year PhD students can end up having to teach multiple course as these sorts of lecturers, which seems a bit excessive to me. How is it possible to design a syllabus from scratch, plan lectures (this alone seems like it would be a massive time sink especially for people doing it for the first time), mark papers, for 50-100 students, all while doing seminar papers, presenting at conferences, preparing for comps, setting up your committee, etc? Am I getting things wrong or is this how it works? And if so, how do people manage it? Is it possible to do it while being a productive researcher and finishing your dissertation within a reasonable amount of time?

I hope not...

I'm confused. So did you actually call?

Mind telling us what kind of response?

So you mean you haven't heard from Hopkins at all, ie, implied rejection? Or were you waitlisted as well? Anyway, I also suspected that the chances of being pulled from the list are marginal at best. I just didn't want to believe it. Difficult decisions await. That Scotch sounds good right about now.

Hmm, I wonder if this JHU waitlist by mail is one of the people who posted earlier. They told me I would be getting a letter in the mail about being on the waitlist. Haven't received it yet, though. I wonder how many people are on the list. All they would say is that the list is "small". Anyone admitted to Hopkins who is maybe not entirely sure if they are going? Just trying to get an idea of my chances.

Nope, nothing yet. No results posted on the board either.

Welp, looks like I won't know if I got into my top choice or not until April. *has thousand-yard stare, is twiddling thumbs* In the meantime, I've realized that I should have applied to more schools. Although, exactly how big a miscalculation that was depends on what I hear from the places that haven't sent out results yet.

So there's still a few of us left. Interesting. Has anyone called the department and asked them what's up? I'm considering doing so sometime this week. Although, we might hear something tomorrow, ie, Monday.

I guess you're not too optimistic that the Princeton waitlist will come through?

*peaks head out from under wreckage* Is it over yet? It's 5:30pm west coast time. I wonder if they're done sending out notifications for the day? I hope I'm not jinxing myself by speaking too soon. *goes back to hiding*

Thanks for the kind words guys. Sorry to be so melodramatic. I think this whole process is driving me crazy.

Waitlisted at Hopkins. Is it pathetic that I'm really excited to be waitlisted instead of rejected outright?

Nooooo.....JHU. Ah well, it was a long shot anyway.

A few more rejections have popped up. Haha, this is so nerve-wracking. If I can just make it through the next few hours....

Yeah, I saw that. I wonder if I'll still be standing by the end of the day. Good luck!

I just checked. Still nothing! Fascinating. Can you imagine if it's just some kind of clerical error? LOL

If you want a more conservative perspective, you'd do much better with Burke, Schmitt, or Oakeshott than Rand. If defense of capitalism or libertarianism is your bag, go for Nozick or Hayek (or if you want to get real crazy, check out left-libertarianism ala Van Parijs). There's no need to ever read Rand except in American cultural studies, in order to understand how she became a phenomenon. EDIT: obviously, it could very well be relevant to political science to study objectivism from this latter perspective as well.

Amazing, amazing.

Does anyone want to claim the CUNY acceptance? I was expecting them to take a little longer.

Man, it looks like it's going to be another 2-3 weeks (maybe even more?) of waiting until I get any more results. I want to know what the deal is so I know if I should start planning a vacation to reward myself or start looking for opportunities to publish and other stuff to improve my application for next time.