communications13

Reading the result board posts (specifically for English) has officially become serial lobotomy. Does anyone think the next six years of any person's life should be reduced to an apostrophe? Is pernicious (not to mention banal) wit an appropriate response to the time, psychic energy, and financial expense required of the application process? It's troubling that PhD applicants can find no better use of their intellect than to impugn themselves, their prospective institutions, future careers, and presumed depth of understanding with so much bland brain matter. Sadly, no amount of good grammar can season it to taste.

This is a stressful time. Please remember, the eyes of more futures than your own look over those posts with alternating hope and pause. Own acceptance, rejection, and the creamy anxiety in between with a little class.

It might not be all bad not knowing. Ultimately if you have an idea or you have no idea, we're all still waiting anxiously all the same. It'll get there eventually. And with no idea when it gets there, it'll be like a present when it does!

If your profile is private maybe they are trying to vet your page, see what kind of person you are in real life and not on an application form. Or maybe I'm just parinoid



And if you get accepted to they ask you to be in a relationship?

I guess, first and foremost, let him be upset about it, for a little while at least. I want to wallow in it for a while, greive an opportunity I really wanted. Don't automatically jump into "It'll be okay, you have other options, we have each other." That's all true, and he knows it, but right off the bat all he can focus on is "this sucks." And that's okay. Two days later get into showing him all the other options, the bright side to the situation.

I plan on thanking my parents by moving out of thier house (again)

I think parents might appreciate:
if you cleaned thier house as a surprise, made them a really nice dinner, a nice bottle of wine/liquor if that's their thing, get thier car(s) washed, if your mom is anything like mine...one christmas I backed up her computer for her, or send them out to a community play or concert.

Did any of these commitee members see Bambi as a kid?

"If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all."

Words to live by, Thumper.

Is anyone else comparing housing options in possible school locations on Craigslist to kill time?

My husband applied to nine schools, and I would have to say that CU Boulder has the best quality of life for the most reasonable cost.

Penn State however...

Play with me! Rank your locations by housing quality/costs!

Thanks all. First one is a relief. Takes off a little pressure. Not much, but a little. At least it confirms all of my apps havent fallen off the face of the earth.

Hopefully we will all be hearing lots of info from all of our schools in the near future. Then, we can figure out a way to get together for a virtual beer to celebrate, hmmmm

Hear hear!

And only ~30% of us actually vote.
I've bought beers for people, texted updates about wait times at polling places, directed individuals to candidate's websites, held election night parties, and still.... I only have a 70% success rate in getting my friends to vote.

Just vote. I don't care who you vote for, just vote. DO IT. It's really important. Like... really.

ugh... I'm all worked up now.

A co-op is a house (owned by a group with a buy-in to live there, by an individual, or by an external organization like a university) in which many people live 'family style', with single or double-occupancy rooms, sharing bathrooms, laundry facilities, kitchen facilities, and varying degrees of maintenance costs. Often houses have official themes (grad student, international students, rock climbing) or ideological associations (Quaker, vegan, Libertarian). It's common to have unofficial ideological overlap among members (whole foods, vegetarianism, left wing, political activism...they tend towards leftism but are very welcoming of outliers in my experience). It's also common to have a shared mealplan (a monthly food buy-in and a regular cooking obligation), and it's very common for this to be vegetarian or sometimes vegan.

That's a lot of parentheses. But I'd say that's a pretty good definition of a co-op.

"Thankyou; we will express the sincerity of our gratitude with an automated message”

ME TOO! I've unsubscribed to everything. I'm not sure which influenced it more, being sad it wasn't grad school stuff or mad that it's all Valentine's day stuff. Ugggghhhhh.

My professor told me that no news is good news. I have only heard back from Michigan and got rejected. I see three other schools I applied to who have already sent some decisions out and I have not heard from them yet.

"Thankyou; we will express the sincerity of our gratitude with an automated message”

That didn't work out so well for you guys huh?

Something else for you (or anyone else) to keep in mind is that some universities are going "smoke free," which means no smoking on campus, period. Can't say I necessarily agree with that, but wanted to bring it up as it would be a rather large faux pas to get ticketed while at an interview weekend.

For the past two months I'd developed a montra: just wait till February, then it will be "any day now". This morning, I woke, rolled out of bed, opened my computer and email and noticed the date. No, no e-mails from departments but, it is February! AHHH! Any day now?

I need a new montra!

Also, where the heck did January go? I think I blinked and missed it.

For the past two months I'd developed a montra: just wait till February, then it will be "any day now". This morning, I woke, rolled out of bed, opened my computer and email and noticed the date. No, no e-mails from departments but, it is February! AHHH! Any day now?

I need a new montra!

Also, where the heck did January go? I think I blinked and missed it.

Just like they've come up with the April 15th rule, there should also be a rule that ALL universities will declare results within a 3 week band for a particular program area. This would make life so much easier. I was fine until I got an email about an interview and since then admissions anxiety has suddenly pervaded my life. To think that this could continue till March end is cruel. Then again, the pep talk I give myself is: forget it. Expect the worst. And dont care about it. If it happens, it happens. Let go. My internal deadline for deciding about my future is March 15th. Thats when I decide, to go for a particular program or none at all.

It's possible that the person on the phone was just checking to make sure all your documents were received and that your application was in order and/or checking when the adcomm would review the applications. In either case, I think it means that you're still in the running and that you should look out for a response by the end of the month.

I should ask the department to click on my cow 40,000,000 times.

Also, there's a PHD Comic for that:

I'm not sure what I would do in that situation, but here are some things I considered and then decided would not be your best solution (if it helps at all):

1. Accept the friend request and immediately make your status "OMG! FOR REALZ!! Look at my new friend!!"
2. Accept the friend request and send 50,573 Farmville requests
3. Accept the friend request and quickly invite your school to be in a relationship.
4. Send an invitation to your next "CEOs and Office Hoes" keg party in celebration of finishing grad schools applications.
5. Send this bumper sticker:



Just some thoughts.

"Thankyou; we will express the sincerity of our gratitude with an automated message”

Not when your mom says it.

As in..."Kid, you've been living at home too long. Figure out what you want to do and Get The F*** Out!"

haha, I've been waiting until february too! I told everyone that this is the month I should be hearing back..my mom keeps asking me if I've heard from anywhere yet . Well I did. I got an email from CMU today, telling me that the deadline to some other program that I am not interested in was extended! ugh, don't be a tease, CMU, don't be a tease.