TheOtherJake

Beware the Ides of March?

Ditto, peeps

The Belief-o-Matic is an amusing quiz I found a while back that aligns your beliefs with how well they match up to major religions. It even gives you a percentage of compatibility. http://www.beliefnet.com/Entertainment/Quizzes/BeliefOMatic.aspx It's for amusement purposes only, of course, but it's fun to see. My own highest match was Reform Jew, because - I think - of its belief in a higher power, but a priority on being a good person in the here and now for its own sake.

Bumping due to recent slew of results on the results board. Looks like it's that time.

That's valuable information, sadsac, thank you. I wonder why so few of the accepted have posted their results on the board. Every other school has so many results. Ah well.

From the small, small amount of results posted so far I would say that those few decisions, if legitimate, are anomalies: just a few decisions that went out way ahead of the pack for some reason or another. The majority of replies, as you were told, will go out in March. When they do, we will see a great many listings on the results board.

News continues to trickle in! Exciting, exciting!

This part made me lol. Not at you; just because it's a funny sentence. I feel you, though. If you think about it, how much can one person really know about another person from a small set of distinct application components, ones that have become acronyms no less (SOP, LOR, etc). Okay, so they're abbreviations, not acronmys, technically, but you know what I mean. Bottom line, they don't really know you or what you're capable of in the application process - they can only find that out once you get there. So they just do their best with the little bit of info they have, and you know, we all know, that they must make a lot of mistakes and turn away a lot of capable people. Brilliant, determined, capable people. So keep your focus on your internal locus of control, everybody! Other people can't decide your life for you. If you're the kind of person who would be an excellent and successful scholar at XYZ University, then I bet you're the kind of person who can be an excellent scholar / author / teacher / executive / non-profit worker / firefighter / etc anywhere else as well. Make a plan for your future that depends only (mostly) on your own talents and abilities and determination! The world is big and there's plenty of great things for great people to do!

I agree, it sounds like you really want to know, "School A, can I have some funding? When can you tell me if I will have funding?" Which has nothing to do with School B, so I'd leave them out of the conversation.

Strange. I started an application (just the basic info) before I realized that the English Ph.D is only open to those who already have an M.A. (which I do not), at which point I abandoned the application. Today I got an email that says, "Thank you for applying to Fordham university. The Graduate School f Arts and Sciences is now offering a 50% discount for applications submitted February 15 through march 15, 2011. The application fee is reduced to $35.00." Of course this is meaningless to me, since I can't apply for the program anyway, but if they're so far along in the process they've already made decisions even, then why are emails like this being sent out?

You're absolutely right. I'm sorry to hear about your students. I'm in my second year teaching, and I know what it's like to lose students: although the one death at my school this year (from a shooting) was not in my class, the loss was felt across the school, and I've lost a few students in my class to arrests and parental neglect. It does indeed put things in perspective, and it makes me grateful that I still can worry about things like whether I will get accepted to a graduate school, while others around me have never had the privilege of such a worry, and worry instead about things like affording food or not being hurt by gang violence. Anyway, I'm not sure what my point was except to say that you're right on the money: having good health and opportunities is what really matters, no matter what happens this season.

The apparition of these rejections in the email: leaves on a wet black bough

Yeah, it looks like their responses typically go out in March. It also looked (on the results board) like last year was the only year they did interviews, because of the number of applicants they got. Is that true? Because I'd assume that this year had as many applicants, but it doesn't appear (with this being mid-February) that interviews are going to happen this year, and they didn't for the '09 application season either.

Tubthumping, by Chumbawumba. I get knocked down! But I get up again! You're never gonna keep me down.

Wow, if I didn't get in my plan was to do exactly what you did last time. I've always wanted to move to New York City, and I've always wanted to be a writer, so I figured I'd exercise my internal locus of control and just go do it. If possible, I would also get a Master's. What I'm worried about is money - I've put a little bit in the bank, but I'm pretty sure it would only last like one season in NYC if I didn't get a good job soon after arriving, and good jobs are in short supply. That, plus I hate the idea of needing a roommate again... Anyway, following your dreams ftw