KRC

I can somewhat understand the idea behind taking mainly BA's for an eventual PhD, but rejecting MA's (or subjecting them to different standards simply because the hold the degree) seem completely arbitrary. Plus they make most admits wait until the last day to accept an offer? With a 2% acceptance rate I assume my chances of taking my MA to PS for the PhD are nil... but I won't know for sure until the last day!!! Yippee!!

Not saying there's nothing worth debate regarding the working conditions of academia, just that the rhetoric will get massively overblown and the details of the scenario will get posted online more often than not, as opposed to say, not being so shocked that an entitled attitude isn't sustainable and moving on.

I'm surprised by the responses to another installment of I'm-cynical-so-you-should-be-too. Usually when posts like this make the interweb rounds they're applauded wildly. I really wonder how many of the people writing these posts have been in a position where their well-being depends on doing something they hate, for someone they hate, for a salary they hate; i.e. most entry-level non-academic, non-specialist jobs. Statistics are statistics indeed, but a side-by-side comparison between academic work and a diverse selection of non-academic work would be more illuminating than another bitter PhD asked to work a little harder than usual. Cheers to good-intentioned attempt at helping would-be grad students know what to expect, but boo-urns to another public podium for perhaps the worst kind of complaining, academic complaining.

I think those people that are able to attain "'elevated' society status" have managed to overcome and not give as much as a damn about the crappy parts of graduate and academic life. I'm sorry I can't/won't apologize for people that approach a career with that level of naivete, entitlement or tendency to take irrelevant minutia personally. Something tells me the people that have drastically skewed views about what to expect as an academic would have those views whatever their profession. Like I said, giving tips on "how to succeed" as in the link above seems to be far more edifying than painting such an awful, complaint-laden picture as most of the blog posts similar to the OP do, even if some of the tips could be misguided or wrong. In any case, here's to a better grad experience for all <lifts glass>

I also want to post this for some refreshing contrast: http://www.placehack...s-phd-students/ The writer is not in the US so take it with a grain of salt, but at least the moral of the story isn't that you have little chance but to be destroyed by grad school. I'll take tips on how to maximize your time rather than horror stories designed to demoralize any day.

EPIC post is EPIC. Seriously I can't think of any other field or profession (***especially*** the humanities--which I am in) that publicizes their woes so willingly. Do you see blog posts by the janitor who broke his ankle the first year of his D1 football scholarship year? Do you see diatribes about how hard life is doing what--ahem--you chose to do, from the secretary working overtime raising several kids? Honestly I sympathized with a lot of these types of posts when I first started researching grad schools because there is a lot that goes on in grad life that is unfair or even straight wrong, but enough is enough. If you don't like it, get out. If it's hard, save the energy you'd expend complaining to tens of anonymous internet readers and work harder. Really I don't know why academics--again, what I am aspiring to be--think they are the only ones whose working conditions are shitty.

Thanks and congrats on the admit! Good luck with Buffalo!

Just got waitlisted for the PhD. I'm only half-joking when I say you can PM me for enticing bribes. I'm in CA now but am from Albany (read--would be living rent free) and I also have received 7 rejections prior to this wait-list (with one other school yet to be heard from). I'd all but given up and recently started applying for non-acadmeic jobs... ZOMG ZOMG ZOMG.

Put me out of my misery Buffalo... pleeeeeeease. "Not reviewed" yet? Come on!

Good luck to all admits. Cary Wolfe is my dream POI but I couldn't bring myself to apply as he is far and away on his own in terms of AOS. Why did you leave Albany with Wills, Shepherdson, et. al., Cary?! WHY?!?

These situations usually pan out far better than they do in our minds. Being upfront and honest is key, which you seem to realize. Of course it ultimately depends on the field and this particular workplace, but given what you've relayed in terms of her performance/social interactions, unless she has extremely insidious and malicious bosses everything should be fine. Shit happens and the vast majority of employers realize this. Congrats on getting in btw!

From early January to today, a small spot on my beard has developed into a 3/4" in diameter "blank spot" where not a single hair grows. I looked around and found similar phenomena; the #1 cause, far and away, for this is stress. FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU This isn't me, and it's only 1 spot, but it looks EXACTLY like this:

Indeed. Also followed up by the equally apropos, "well that just, like, your opinion, man."

I've accepted the fact that this is most likely a reject, but my status on the UB site STILL says "not reviewed." Makes me furious.

Same here.

Not just CUNY: is the only way to respond to "rejecting university 'x'"

After reading this thread, I decided to call back the random number (from one of my potential schools' area codes) that called me Sunday night. No answer. So I... ahem... paid the 99 cents for reverse phone lookup info online! This is what this time of year does to people! I wouldn't have ever dreamed of doing such a thing previously... Anyway it was money poorly spent--it was a marketing company, presumably calling for some survey. Why on Earth would I only NOW start to get spam phone calls after 3 years with this number? And from that particular city no less! SERENITY NOW!!!

When I called late last week Monica Moore said notifications would all be out "before the end of February."

Congrats to the WashU and Emory admits! Such great departments!

Just spoke with the grad coordinator. She gave the "we're still reviewing the applications" response, and said that they'll have all notifications out in "a month, at least."

Sing it!

Been out of UG for almost 5 years, working non-academic jobs since (and through my MA). I have a job that pays me obscenely well for minimal work, but that is the only aspect of it that isn't excruciatingly awful. There is no way that I can stay at this job a day after my last rejection (presuming I get 10/10 rejects), so I've been scouting new jobs in the meantime. I have an ass-load of UG student loans so I have to stay in a certain pay range, but i'll definitely take a pay cut to leave this sh*thole. I know I'm lucky to even have a job at this point, so good luck to all ya'll looking for Plan B's! Be disciplined, apply to at least 10 jobs a week, MINIMUM. If you think you're under qualified or the job isn't a perfect match, don't worry about it. Apply. Private sector hiring boards are NOT like adcomms. Just apply, and keep applying. You will find something.

Big, big congrats to the Vanderbilt admit! That's amazing turnaround for a Jan 15th deadline.

When you're an uber-famous movie star, schools will do "things" to get you in and through. How is this situation any different from star athletes? I also tend to doubt that wiki listing about him attending several schools at once and having 62(?!?) credits at a time.