secretly_yes

I received my first rejection today (Michigan.) I applied to 8 more schools, but after being rejected my Michigan I feel like no other school will accept me. My undergrad (in a completely unrelated field) is from another school in Michigan and I thought this school was an ok (not perfect) fit. Clarification: after my fabulous BS in Useless Studies I did get an MA in political economy from a prestigious school, so it's not like I am crazy. At least I don't think so.

No, I meant that looking at GradCafe is not how I'll find out whether I was accepted or not. Of course I'll post when I find out what happened to my applications.

I thought I was all by myself with the refresh button thing. I have spent all day today in a cycle: I hit refresh. I explain to myself that my own results are not posted on GradCafe. I hit refresh on my e-mail tab. I forget everything I taught myself. I hit refresh again. Pause to work on Egypt stuff and read (I am an analyst.) Pause to consider what working forever with no PhD would be like. Hit refresh again. Restart cycle. I think the only way to break this stupid cycle is to not work. I think I'm calling in sick tomorrow.

I just called University of Michigan and they said they are planning on notifying decisions to all applicants by the end of next week. My heart definitely stopped for a few seconds when I heard that.

Do you think UCLA is done giving out acceptances? I e-mailed them on Monday and they said it would take until early March for the admissions process to close. I wonder if that just meant "mailing out rejections" though.

Thank you both. So I have only about a one in four chance of not ever having a PhD. That doesn't sound so bad. Also, I don't think there are 29 schools that I like. I think I'll stick with the nine I applied to and hope for the best. So far I haven't heard anything from any of the schools, but I checked online and I know that all the apps are complete. Good luck to me! (And to you!)

I applied to nine schools (9 is my lucky number) but after reading all these postings from people to applied to more than a dozen schools, I am nervous about my decision to stop at 9. Maybe I should apply to more? If I don't get in this year I am not sure whether I would try again...