lolopixie

MY BAD! Didn't mean to cause any unnecessary anxiety!!! Apologies.

Congrats, Pinkrobot. Penn is an awesome program.

Most friends and family have no idea what it is like unless they are doing it. I have two friends that applied last year along with me and none of us got into any program. We all retook the GRE, gutted our writing samples, fancified (yes I said fancified) our CVs, and completely regeared our SOPs. I am lucky to have two friends doing this along with me because they 100% understand everything. Family/other friends...not so much. I remember last year begging my dad not to tell his friends and others that I applied to PhD programs, he couldn't help bragging because he knew I would get in everywhere I applied, but I was scared that I wouldn't get in. And I didn't. And no one could believe it. I really couldn't imagine going through this without a fellow applicant. Stick to the board. We understand.

Look, the email was already sent. And no, I did not say "why did you reject me?" I asked for feedback on my application and if there were any weaknesses that hindered my acceptance to the program. Even if I do get a generic response, it is better than nothing. The "decline" letter from the grad school specifically stated that if you want specific reasons for your decision, contact the department you applied to. So I did. Everyone has their opinion on what is best to do. My opinion for this program was to contact them and ask. It doesn't change any of the other applications I have out. Or my chances of getting in any other program. I understand. Bottom line - I want to know the reason. Generic or not.

It is also possible they may not be done with decisions. It is quite possible there were six people that were decisioned on, and now the committee is narrowing down the rest. Possible. HOLD ON TO HOPE!!!!

Will do.

Last year they made calls to people that were admitted. I think this disclaimer is so that people do not continuously call or email the department to check to see if there has been a decision made. They did send out generic emails telling you to go check the school website when a decision had been made.

Possibly. I don't know. I don't think there could be a law suit unless it came down to a discrimination issue based on race, sex, religion, etc., which I'm sure is not the case.

I think it is fine to ask, even now. The letter that was sent from grad school indicated that if you want to know further info on your application to contact the department directly. And I emailed, which allows time for them to get to me when they get to me. i get that it could not necessarily be that I did anything wrong and someone else was stronger, but the fact remains that I want to know what it was.

Sometimes. But if you look at the results board for the past two years for KU, they were going up on the same day. I'm just basing it on historical data, and many times the acceptances come before rejections. Although, I also know this is not always the case.

On the top of this page click on results survey tab. Then type in the program you want to see. I generally search program name English (ex: Maryland English), so the results I will see will be related to the English applicants. Then you can see if anyone has been accepted yet, waitlisted, rejected, whatever...if someone has gotten a decision and they submit the result to the board it will be there. When we reference the results board, it is not the school's website.

My rejection has slung me into the "I'm not gonna get in again this year and my back up plan is going to be my life" funk/depression. Yes, I still have schools to report, but that rejection shot any amount of self-confidence right out the window.

I saw a couple things go up today...random engineering, chemistry, non-humanities related PhD posts go up that they got acceptances today. Congrats whoever got in, Maryland is a cool program.

Yea, I get it. I've only heard of one school, well not heard of actually experienced, indicating the rejection reason in the letter. I get that with 500 applications it would be a lot, but we all did spend a lot of time and money applying. Just have something general to go in the letter: non-competitive GRE scores, non-competitive GPA, no need for a postcolonialist this year...something!

No, it is the EXACT enthusiasm we expect at lolopixie headcold U

I just sent an email to Kansas asking for feedback on my application. Of course, I am now having second thoughts about having sent this and still having decisions pending. I just want an explanation. Why do you think I suck at life and am not good enough for your program? It is just so odd to me that not one person on the board got accepted, or even waitlisted, to the program. I will still have to wait for this response. As soon as I sent the email, there was an auto-response from the graduate secretary that she is out of office until February 1st. Which is only a few days, but I'm a typical American that wants immediate gratification.

My program has very low standards. No application fee. We boycott the GRE. And I don't feel that any essays would tell me anything about you that I actually need to know. Simply showing interest will guarantee acceptance to the head cold program. Thank you for your interest.

I will donate my horrific head cold to anyone that is wanting to go into a fog for over a week and not think about anything except for "I CAN'T BREATH". Accepting applications.

Foucalt makes me LOL

Big dream, indeed! If you get it, let them know!

House of Fame is a goody. So applicable to what we are all going through right now. I was so scared before I took the Chaucer seminar because of the whole middle English thing, but I had an awesome professor teaching it. It is amazing to see how much we really have not changed in our perception of the world, chance, love, authority, experience in hundreds of years.

When is the recruitment weekend? Do they have a list of activities that you will be doing? I didn't apply to Emory, but I would like to know what these recruitment weekends entail.

Go for it. Last year I updated my applications due to a paper being accepted for publication after all of the apps were submitted. I contacted each department and they had me send in an updated CV and added it to my application package. Everyone I spoke with last year seemed understanding of the fact that a nice feather came after I submitted, and realized the importance. They had no problem with me updating. I think everyone understands that these accolades can come at any time.

Accept the charge, take the call, tell Rocco you are going to inform the warden of harassment from him, and that YES you are dating his girl, end call. That should do the trick.

It's so much easier to just create a thread once an acceptance/rejection is started. That way we don't have to scroll through pages of N/A info. My opinion. I, as well, have only received my rejection from KU. And yes, looking at the results board, last year it seems everyone got in and the year before no one. Even though we are a small portion of the applicants, I find it very odd that everyone on the board was rejected. Ugh. Oh well. On to the next one. I have a bit of a wait left before anyone else starts reporting for me, according to the results from last year: Miami (Florida) - mid to late February Purdue - late February to mid March Mississippi - early March LSu - late March