synthla

No panic here... you and I are in the exact opposite situation though; you are in without any word from anyone at the school... I have been in ongoing touch with a prof there and already have an on-campus meet and greet scheduled, but no one has actually said "you're in." It's just bizarre how these things work.

I assumed as much, but I can still be embarassed for myself.

It's occurred to me that I would be quite embarassed if anyone in the history department there ever checked the statistics for my account. I can't even imagine the number of log-ins that would be indicated.

No, I just went and checked and still no decision on the website for me. Interesting that the admit found out that way. I guarantee I'll be logging in about every 10 minutes now. And of course today is the day I have to be busy at work.

Hm, I received an email from a POI at Indiana that leads me to believe that at least some decisions might be forthcoming in the near future. But don't hold me to that.

How is Duma Key? I have it, but haven't read it - heard it was one of his best. I have mixed feelings on King - I enjoy some of his stuff, but feel like I'm slumming it from a literary standpoint. :wink: Doesn't stop me though...

Thanks for the support; I also attended a SLAC, but not in the UCSD neighborhood. Clearly if the department is taking a conservative approach and looking for people with a BA from an R1 university and a 4.0 GPA, I'm not going to be their choice. But I would rather have been rejected by them than by anyone else on my list, so there's that. I'd be interested to hear from anyone who eventually does get in, just to see what they were seeking.

Yeah I was one of the UCSD rejects posted today. Not at all surprised because there was not a good fit with faculty interests (at all), but there are only so many west coast schools to which to apply. Still one of the lower ranked schools I applied to, so worrisome. That was my first notification obviously so just hoping it gets better from here. :wink:

Given that the result is essentially the same, I'm hard pressed to explain why your clarification has slightly reduced my obsession about checking for UCSB results, but it has. Thank you for that. If work wasn't so slow right now, I'm sure I'd be in a better mental state.

Day 3 of 10 (only counting business days) in the above-described two week period. Come on UCSB!

I'm really starting to wish I'd applied to one of those schools, just so I'd have possibly heard something by now. Congrats to the European History admit at Wisconsin who just posted.

Ouch. I'm history, rather than art history, and this most recent editorial is definitely depressing. On the other hand, as someone who went directly on from undergrad to obtain one of those vaunted professional degrees, against which the average ph.d. is apparently at a serious disadvantage (according to the author), I can tell you that doing something you despise simply because it's more of a guaranteed job is not the way to achieve satisfaction in life. I'm sure he would probably tell me I'm making the biggest mistake of my life, but I'd rather do something I love for 7 years on a pittance, even if at the end of it all I'm forced to fall back on my old skillset, than continue on as is.

Very sorry to hear that. The only silver lining is that at least it's an indication that departments are starting to get on with the notification process. Good luck with UNC.

Your bf is pretty luck to have the work in this environment; so many law firms are laying off attorneys. That's my day-job right now, so I'll probably be envious of my past self here in a few months. But the work is just inane and challenging only in a physical sense, so I will not miss it.

Yeah, but it really is the conventional wisdom among law students that the average b-school graduate is far less intelligent but often makes more money. Which is especially grating on lawyers because they make a pretty high income too, it's just that b-school grads have lately made a lot more (though we'll see how that works out over the next few years). It's the petty jealousy aspect Brooks describes all too well.

Yeah, this one is pretty bad, and without even the smear of intellectualism that the other column had. That being said, the "Ward Three" hangups he describes (petty professional jealousies, sort of high income with disproportionate spending on private school for the kids, etc.) are exemplified by many of my friends and colleagues in my current line of work and they are as annoying and ridiculous as he makes them sound. Of course I wouldn't use those traits to justify feeling bad for people with even more money, but I'm certainly going to be glad to leave it behind to a degree. I enjoyed being broke and in graduate school more than I've enjoyed working for a generally high income, but feeling like I'm in a rat race I can't easily escape.

Ironically, it is likely that your academic advisor knows more than any of us. That being said, are their faculty at your schools with similar interests who you mentioned in your SoP? I'm no more an expert than you (being in essentially the same position) but that seems to be one of the biggest factors. If your application resonates with a professor, it seems that they're more likely to overlook other shortcomings. You don't seem to have any glaring ones though.

Classic movie. Haha... you could essentially cut and paste my email into a response to someone asking whether to "call that girl again" and it would be just about as appropriate. Good analogy.

As painful as it is to wait, I would not send a follow up email; I was once in a similar position and thought about it like this: either they've already decided to reject you, in which case they're not going to change their mind just because you ask about your application, or they're already leaning toward admitting you, in which case an email asking about your application at best does nothing really to help you, and at worst annoys them. It's been hard restraining myself at times because I like to feel like I'm taking positive steps toward a goal, but sometimes it really is best just to sit back and wait it out.

I think of the schools to which I'm applying, UCSB has been the earliest, historically. I don't have many schools east of the Mississippi... leaving the west coast would be tough. Already did the Ivy east coast thing once, and... no thanks.

Sorry, it seems like such a rare occurrence, I'd rather keep the specifics to myself at this point. But I will say that it seemed like it was an effort made on the professor's own initiative and not a department policy. I wouldn't be nervous. I haven't heard a peep from any other program.

Sure. Most of the conversation was about my interests; I mentioned some of my narrower historical interests in my SoP, but made it clear that I was open to other possibilities, and I believe the professor was just trying to determine if they would be the best possible advisor for me. Research experience was also discussed... I was not a history major in undergrad but I decided to use a history paper as my WS because of its relevance to my proposed field even if it wasn't the heaviest in primary source citations. (Based on our conversation, I ended up sending a second WS to this particular professor that was in a completely different area, but was all primary source research.) Then we talked about the school in general and I had the chance to ask questions. It was pretty free-flowing and ended up lasting nearly an hour. Completely low stress, and I think I got at least as much out of the interview as the professor did. We have kept in touch since and I am hoping decisions come out soon.

The new Andrew Bird album has seen a lot of play recently...

I had an informal telephone interview with a POI at one of my schools (not Harvard). I thought it was very helpful and definitely raised my interest level in the school (and it in me, I believe), but I don't think it was standard procedure.

A variety of stuff (mostly short stories) in German and French in an effort to brush the dust off my language skills. One of the professors I spoke with put a lot more emphasis on this than many of the department websites and graduate program handbooks.