[UVA]

I love the way the email directing me to check the website didn't even have my name in it- "Dear ," it said at the top. Hilarious.

Wow, and I thought Berkeley's rejection letter was unnecessarily rude!

[Guelph, Ontario, Canada]

I didn't live in Guelph, but a neighbouring city, Waterloo...can't answer as to their residence situation, but I can tell you that the cost of living is pretty low for SW Ontario, and it's a really beautiful area.

[hope for unsuccesful applicants]

Thanks for this -- it's good to hear of successes as a second-time (or third, or whatever) applicant, since at this point that's all I can hope for. I'm already planning how to improve my application for the next round, though -- and it'll be easier when I'm NOT a senior. (Yes, I am doing that ridiculous thing.)

[UVA]

I'm also being driven nuts...I scoured my web app once I saw the rejection, but nothing. I'm a C, so I don't think it's alphabetical, but it seems like there are too many of us to take it as an indication of still-in-the-running...I vote for "they're just messing with our heads out of the cold icy depths of their hearts."

[Cornell]

Anyone have any idea what this means for those of us crazy enough to apply to the MFA/PhD joint program?

[nothing, nothing, nothing]

Seven schools, not a word. Two implicit rejections for sure, three more probable implicits (not clear on whether they're done notifying), and one of my schools is UPenn...that leaves the sole Master's program I applied for at my undergrad school, which would be okay except I also need to win funding...and while I made it past the first round, that's the only good news I've had all year!

Woe, consternation, etc.

[Berkeley]

Personally I'd kill to be in your position of worrying about Berkeley's future...

[Does anyone else hate this?]

In agreement with everyone here! I don't know anyone else in real life applying to PhD programs (I'm currently in Canada, where most people get an MA in English Lit first), so the you're-smart-you'll-get-in refrain is constant. To the point that, when one of my professors e-mailed me as kindly as possible to point out that all the places I'm applying to are extremely competitive, and I might not get in, my immediate reaction was of profound relief. Somebody gets it. Even if it's only the people who have already made it...