gradschoolorbust!

I'm an alternate as well and I called today. Everyone in my field (languages and literature) confirmed already. Apparently they didn't even have recourse to the alternates list in my field (and at the predoctoral level, I'm not very surprised)... Aw well... I should be getting my feedback/comments in about 2 weeks (online) and I'll reapply next year. You should all consider requesting these, too, whether you're considering reapplying or not... This was my first time and I have about two more chances to reapply since I'm just about to start my PhD program. Good luck to those of you still awaiting news!

I'll PM you, Psych. Btw, I called again today... still nothing... But we should know by Monday for sure! Finally, an exact day! One more weekend of waiting on pins and needles and then we'll know at last!

Hey PsychOut! It was about 5:15pm EST when I noticed your post which reminded me that I hadn't called them at all today! So I called and I did actually get someone... Her name is Pam and she's very friendly [i mean, all the ones I've ever spoken to have been nice (i.e. like 2 or 3 different people on about 3 or 4 occasions, lol) but Pam really stands out so you should ask for her the next time you call!]. Anyway she told me that they're still not done going through all of the responses. Then she checked for my specific field and said that not all of those responses (i.e. people who accepted and declined the award) have been checked on their end yet. So there might still be hope for me! She said she might know by tomorrow or early Friday-ish and at the very latest on Monday. Given her response, I'm just going to relax tomorrow and give her a call Friday in the early afternoon (unless, of course, I hear back from her first!). I tried to be sly and find out my position on the alternates list but she said unfortunately she couldn't reveal that to me. She said it's because they used to do that in the past and people would take it way too personally. Ugh.. I understand what she means and I really don't think I would take it way too personally myself (I mean, to be an alternate at all is a pretty impressive feat in this rough competition) but I'm wondering if there's any hope at all that I'll hear back (i.e. top of the list, middle of the list, bottom of the list)... because apparently they go down then list of alternates as each person successively declines (and I seriously can't imagine an alternate declining the Ford unless they had secured other funding)... but I digress... and I rant... and I vent... Does anyone care to commiserate? I know I keep saying this (and sorry for the false hope the earlier times), but we'll know really, really soon! We're really close to having that closure we all need. Good luck everyone!

Me neither... I'll call again tomorrow afternoon (hopefully I don't get disqualified from calling so persistently, lol)... but they realize that we're on pins and needles (and I don't actually mention my name). I'll let you know what I find out... Good luck!

Thanks, PsychOut! I haven't heard back yet from Ford, but if I end up getting an HM, I might somehow try to express both of those facts on the same line in my CV. "Alternate" on its own might only make sense to those how are familiar with the Ford fellowship. What do you and other think about that? Oh by the way, I called them again today! (Luckily it's always a different secretary, lol) I was told that we should contact them again by Wednesday, as they will definitely know about alternate statuses then (unless we hear back from them today or tomorrow, which she said could be a possibility as well). So we'll know soon enough! If I do go from Alternate to HM, I'll definitely be applying again next year (it'll be my 1st year of grad school). Hopefully their feedback coupled with my grad school's fellowship counselors will help me redirect my approach. But who knows, maybe we'll get it this time around! I wish us and all other Alternates still awaiting news the best of luck!

Don't mention it! Regarding the fact that they've only heard back from half of the awardees, I was told it was because apparently the awardees are currently busy working out the logistics with their grad programs and in some cases with other fellowship offers. I don't blame them for taking until the last minute with something as important as funding... But it's also possible that this means a handful of people will decline... I guess we'll find out soon enough! I'm crossing my fingers for all of us alternates!! Let's hope somebody gets good news!

Hey everyone! I'm a predoctoral alternate. I called in today to ask when predoc alternates might expect to hear back. By now they've heard back from around half of the predoc awardees who've either accepted or declined. They said that predoc awardees have until next Wed. May 11th to accept or decline their awards. The rest of that week Ford has administrative/processing-related stuff to do. They said that predoc alternates who eventually become awardees might expect to be notified in about two weeks. You could call in at around that time to get a better idea. Apparently they're not notifying everyone, so if you don't hear back in two weeks, it's likely that you didn't get an award. Another helpful bit of information I got was that anyone can ask for feedback from the committees, even awardees (apparently some awardees have done this already). You can even do that now as you await further news. (I thought I'd have to wait until knowing for sure whether I got an award or Honorable Mention) They did say that it would take some time for the comments to be sent out, but if you request them, you'll definitely get them. Hope someone out there finds this post helpful!

Hey everyone. Would someone please tell me how they would put on their CVs that they were an alternate for a Ford Fellowship? Hypothetically speaking, if an alternate eventually gets an Honorable Mention, would s/he then add that to her/his CV alongside mention of having been an alternate? (Is the distinction between someone who is an honorable mention but who was first an alternate and one who was accorded honorable mention status from the start even a big one?) I would appreciate any insight about this at all. I am, of course, still holding out for possibly getting the fellowship early next month! We shall see... Good luck to my fellow alternates out there!

I called and asked about the alternates list. I didn't get the same receptionist with whom I had spoken earlier this week, lol. This one was very nice, too, but she said it's against their policy to disclose specifics about the alternates list... Maybe I'll try calling again tomorrow... and I *might* get the really nice lady from a few days ago, hahaha!! If so, I hope she can reveal a bit more info!! She did confirm, though, that someone in your general field needs to turn it down for you to have a chance (and of course that depends on your position on the list). Here's the list of fields, for the record: http://nrc58.nas.edu/FordFellowDirect/Main/Directory.aspx?Report=4 Education; EMP Sciences (Engineering, Math and Physics); History/Philosophy; Lang/Lit/Humanities; Life sciences; Psychology; and Social Sciences. She also mentioned that each of these fields has separate panels of reviewers (which makes sense)... I'll bet there might be some EMP folks who decline the Ford in favor of the NSF... I was told on the phone that Lang/Lit/Humanities offers are indeed declined; not as often, but it does happen! I didn't apply for a Javits fellowship because I hadn't taken my GRE in time for the competition (and if I don't win the Ford I'll apply for both the Javits and the Ford next year) but the Javits might be a possible competitor for Ford awardees... and since humanities folks win Javits awards, there might be hope for us humanities Ford alternates after all!

Pre-doc alternate in the humanities as well!! Congrats to the alternates and HMs so far! I'd like to bump the above question. Anyone have a clue?

Nice (intentional) malapropism...

... like I just did with the notification about your post... or as others may have been doing with all of this week's posts... I actually get notifications from this site through another e-mail address which makes a different sound than my main one where I'd get the Ford decision... so at least I know which sound to look out for. That still doesn't stop me from jumping when I hear any e-mail-related sounds!! Anyway, now that NSF results are out, ours should follow very shortly afterward... right? Isn't that how it's been done in past years?

I see where you're coming from ringo, but relax, that was part of the April Fools Day joke! If you had caught on to the oddly capitalized text like a good handful of us did, you wouldn't have asked me the question you did. But we'll all find out for real soon enough! So hang tight! Good luck everyone!! P.S. Don't believe everything you read on the internet!

Ditto. I'm also really sorry. Good luck everyone!

Sorry I didn't get back to you right away! I'm in such a festive mood right now! Gonna go out with some friends to celebrate!! I heard back via e-mail by the way. I think all decisions are supposed to go out via e-mail. Kudos to my fellow Ford winners!! Woooo hoooo!!!!

Me too!! Congrats. This is so exciting!! Yayyy!!!

Hey all. I've lurked around on this thread for a while so I thought I'd actually say hi. So who heard back from Cornell by phone on 3/17? You had been wait listed earlier, right? How does it feel to be accepted by them only because earlier admitted applicants turned them down? Are you thinking of accepting their offer or did you already get better offers? I'm just curious. Good luck to you and to everyone else!

Wow! I'll definitely be applying to this program. It looks fantastic!

I wonder if anyone realized that my wordle was the lyrics of Daft Punk's Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger, plus that infamous top ten list of words overused in grad school, plus part of a legit SOP. I have to admit though, the cheesecake one really does take the... cake.

Hey, it's me again! At one point I had an awesome fish-shaped design. However, thanks to my ridiculous fussing, it is long gone. So this is about as close to a fish as I'll probably ever get it again (not that my SOP has anything remotely to do with fish).

I apologize in advance if it seems like I'm hogging up space on this wonderful thread with a long textual post and no Wordle graphic. I have some (I hope) legitimate questions about Wordle layouts that perhaps others have considered, the answers to which may be helpful to future posters. Ok, so, wow this is AWESOME! I'd love to post mine. But I do have some questions regarding Wordle layouts. It looks like several of the preceding posters have left the max word count at the default of 150. (There's no way to be sure, of course, but it's the impression I get from the considering the consistent font sizes) A higher word count makes some words way too small to read. Less words means more overall legibility, but with the consequence of (obviously) condensing the output. This is surely a question of personal taste but I'm just wondering if anyone else out there has been toying around with the layouts as obsessively as I've been or if you just clicked "randomize" a few times until finding your favorite. Does anyone have any suggestions for an approximate range for the word limit? I realize that it depends on the font and other layout preferences you've chosen. After a fair amount of tinkering, I've come to the conclusion that at 80 words - no matter which font you choose - no words appear too small. Once you hit 90, a handful of words start to become too small to read. If you're ok with smaller words, then on the upper end of the range, ~150 seems reasonable. Since more words means a greater quantity of little words, a word count that is significantly higher than 150 would make it hard to spot words you want to eliminate (unless of course you take care of that from the outset) and ultimately makes a lot of words hard to read. For the heck of it, I set the max at 1000 which was essentially my entire SOP (minus the common articles and prepositions). Obviously it's replete with minuscule words but on the bright side, if you're looking to take full advantage of the "rounder" and "straighter"-edge layout features, then a really high word count will yield either a discernibly rectangular or oval-shaped graphic. These are just some crazy 3am musings after a while of playing around with Wordle. C'mon, I know I'm not the only one who's taking forever to finalize their image. Anyway, props to the OP and to everyone who has shared their SOP Wordles so far. They're excellent! I know it seems like the patterns will start repeating after a while, but perhaps if people customized their settings rather than accept the suggested defaults, there would be enough new-ish looking posts (with different color schemes and uncommonly-used fonts) so as to somewhat attenuate the monotony someone mentioned earlier. Besides, there will surely be enough variety in everyone's big-sized key terms so as to keep this interesting for a while. I'll post mine after considering your thoughts about these layout questions. Thanks for bearing with me!

Hahaha, no worries. I feel a little bad that we hijacked this thread with our borderline bathetic Verbal score rants. May the AWA computer grading discussion continue...

Actually my 720V just made the 98th percentile threshold... but who's counting, lol. We're fine! One day, when we're wizened old people, we'll look back and laugh at how ridiculous we were for caring about this, that is, if we even remember it! May my silly dream of reaching the 99th percentile in Verbal R.I.P. This future grad student has more important things on which to concentrate (like not ending my sentences with prepositions). As grad applicants we take the GRE SOOOOOO much more seriously than adcomms do. It's really quite obsessive. Let's just be thankful and move on with our lives!

sarandipity, I felt that way once: I'm over it now. Seriously, we're both in a handful of the *highest* Verbal scorers worldwide!! Above a 700, the 10 point distinctions mostly reflect test-taking stamina and savvy rather than actual knowledge of the vocabulary. I was hoping for a 700 for the psychological impact it would have over a nearly as impressive score in the high 600s (if anything because of the "7" in front)... similar to in marketing when prices are 1 cent less, i.e. 699.99 just so you don't choke upon seeing the 7 (but obviously this works in the opposite direction). Ok, maybe I'm not 100% totally over it. Like you though, I was aware of the grading system for the AWA and also wrote something more on the prosaic side. What a worthless test. I'm sure the adcomms will like the 720 (which is above all the average scores in every department I'm considering)... Even if I could score a little higher on a re-test, there is no way I would give ETS the pleasure of an additional $160. What a pointless waste of money that would be... /rant Anyway, props to the OP for a great thread!

I've come to the realization that I've been kicking myself for having just missed the 99th percentile mark for Verbal by 10 freaking points... I really did want at least a 730... but my damn time management and the crazy long readings dashed that dream. There's definitely no use in retaking the GRE just to score a few points higher. Like I said, I'll get over it once my apps are finally in. It's not the kind of thing where I'll agonize for the rest of my life as if forever branded with a 720/98%. Current grad students, please confirm that like undergrad GPAs, GRE scores (regardless of how good or not good) do eventually become a distant memory...