apieceofroastbeef

I broke down and emailed UMass tonight, because I'm sick of waiting and, seeing as all the interviews for funding have already happened, they are not going to accept me anyways. I just want to know and I think I deserve to be officially notified for the $$ I spent to apply there. I've gotten past trying not to annoy my programs-- or at least this one.

It is almost 4PM and I've got NOTHING. Again. This better mean that I'm at least on some sort of wait list.

My thoughts exactly. It makes me despair on so many levels. Hang in there though! It sounds like you are a competitive applicant this year and perhaps the remaining schools will find you to be a better fit. Any school would be lucky to have someone with your perseverance in their program.

SAME HERE. What is wrong with UMass? Just tell me that you've denied me already. A poster on another forum that I am a part of has already received two acceptances with big stipends. I'm happy for her, she seems lovely, but can't help but be a *little* jealous. I'd be satisfied with just one!

Really? I called them today, because I haven't heard anything, and the person said that they were still making decisions. Perhaps this was just an unimportant person who was not allowed to tell the "truth"? At any rate-- I'm sorry. I've gotten two official rejections and now this UMass one, and I feel exactly the same way. Everyone says that rejections mean nothing and many people who get rejected from good schools end up with offers. But it doesn't feel that way for me. It feels like the English world, after all my isolated studying/writing/applying, has finally identified me as someone who doesn't qualify on some basic level. And now they're all making a group decision to make me feel the rejection.

You are obviously more imaginative than I am...

Wow. I was just going to quote the rather obvious: I fall upon the thorns of life! I bleed!

I'm in the US and I haven't gotten anything in the mail yet either. Or in my email, sadly. I wish they would just put us out of our misery! Their application site is so pretty and well maintained that you'd think whoever built it could just figure out how to send automatic rejection emails to the "denied." Nothing from ANY of my schools today. Not even UMass, which was sending out rejections right and left last week. This is horrible.

Driving on 94 and 35 during rush hour is pretty horrible. I've spent a half hour before driving the mile from 35 to 94W. Public transport is pretty good, especially around campus. The campus shuttle is free and runs all the time. And you CAN get around without a 4-wheel drive, if you can drive in the snow. Sometimes, however, it is just wiser not to go out into a blizzard. As far as bike, moped and motorbike parking on campus goes-- be careful! Campus security loves giving people expensive tickets for parking in the "wrong places." I had a friend get a $100 ticket for leaving her bike outside the building we were having class in. They should have spent more time keeping students from being shot in front of the dorm rooms. As far as living close to campus and having walking access to grocery stores? Good luck with that. You can live near Dinkytown, but I think the only grocery store there (tiny, old, and expensive) closed this year.

This is my life! If I don't hear anything tomorrow...I keep checking my spam folder too, just in case, but there is nothing. Cruel, cruel ad-comms!

I can't believe I haven't gotten ANY emails today from the schools I originally posted about! There are more accepts/rejects on the results board but nothing for me...

Yeah, I don't know if I could handle the emotional investment of a second round. This whole experience has given me a lot of respect for those people who do it twice (or three) times and eventually get in. I think I'd have a psychotic break if get rejected all-round this time and then reworked all my materials only to be rejected all-round again. I'm actually not sure whether I'm having psychotic break right now or not...

The last two days have been TERRIBLE. As I'm sure you've all seen, acceptances have popped up from U-Chicago, U-Wisconsin and U-Mass-- all of which I applied to but I've heard nothing. I'm fairly sure this means rejection and I expect emails soon confirming it, but I just wish that these schools would put me out of my misery! A letter in the mail next month would just be cruel. By the way-- I know of the websites to check application statuses for Wisconsin and Mass (which was never updated for me), but am I right in thinking that there isn't anywhere to check online for Chicago? Also, University of Colorado (English MA) will probably be notifying this week as well-- I just rechecked my emails from them. More to worry about!

Sounds amazing and expensive. ~sigh~

I do appreciate that they let us know right away. I just wish they'd made a different decision!

Go to your GP and tell him about your unhealthy anxiety (not about cutting yourself!) and ask for an Rx to help manage it (xanax or klonapin). He might send you to a psychologist first, but probably not if you act rationally. Don't abuse the pills, but find out how they affect you and then take one before the exam. I have major anxiety issues and I took one the night before so I could sleep. I personally wouldn't take one right before the exam because they make me lethargic and I basically needed the relief BEFORE the exam to set me up for a calmer testing situation. They are sort of like a reset button and I use less than 10 pills a year (I could use more but I don't want to become dependent). What will happen will happen. You're not doing yourself any favors by dwelling on your bad reaction to the GRE. Set aside a set amount of time everyday to study and when you've completed that, tell yourself that you've done what you can and move on to something more enjoyable. When you get to the actual test, remember all the hours you've studied and let yourself feel prepared. You sound like a competitive applicant already, so try not to worry so much.

For anyone watching this thread: I heard back from the program coordinator and she said that my file is complete and everything has been received, despite the fact that my profile hasn't been updated. She also said that decisions will come out in March for most applicants. That seems like a long ways away!

From what I've read on The Chronicle forums (bad, bad soul/time sucking Classroom fora) professors will generally say no to a student if they can't recommend them highly. On the other hand, I've read some posts where the professors encountered a student that they didn't like or wouldn't go away and the others chimed in saying "damn them with faint praise!"-- meaning that the letter wouldn't say "I don't recommend this student" overtly, but instead lists generic, vague attributes that obviously say that "this student isn't special at all." I'm worried that my professors did this. I got to read one of mine as well, though I didn't ask to, and I'm not sure it made me out as anything wonderful.

Wow-- that is horrible! I bet they took your application fee anyways too.

Thanks! I think I'll call them tomorrow to see what is happening.

Hi everyone! Does anyone know about the accuracy of the University of Washington's application site? The deadline for my program was Jan. 2nd and it still says that UW hasn't received any of my materials. I did get a confirmation email when I submitted the application and it said that UW might take a while to update the site but I'm worried. Has anyone heard anything about their process? I would call (and probably will call eventually) but just wondering if someone already knows, because if they're too busy to update application profiles they are probably not going to be happy about numerous phone calls about said profiles.

I wish the version of the SOP I submitted to my last school, with a Jan. 15th deadline, was the version I sent to the schools with Dec. 15th deadlines... I wish I hadn't applied to at least two of my eleven schools. I wish I had decided that I was going to apply to graduate school earlier last year so I could have taken the GRE tests in the summer and given myself more time for the writing sample and SOP. I wish I had attended office hours during college so that my professors knew me better, because I'm actually pretty amazing.

I felt the same way! I've paid a lot of money to do correspondence/online courses from my UI that were complete crap compared to the Yale courses. I hope they put up more English ones at some point.