doobiebrothers

just anecdotal from working on 2 adcoms, and from my best friend who is currently working on an adcom of a middle eastern studies MA program. check out my other posts about if you have further questions, or pm me.

just a bit of food for thought: the paid MA programs have about a 50% acceptance rate (even at Harvard) so most, if not all of you , with your very impressive preparation, will be fine.

thanks so much!

Hi All! Quick probably paranoid and stupid question, but as a Christmas present maybe you can help me out: One of my letter writers is my MA advisor and the head of my department. He is a very cold, very old-school German guy, who never seemed to like me very much, and never gave me a grade higher than an A-, and who was always very critical. However, I kept a good relationship with him when I left the MA program, I know his wife (who he adores) really well, I always make it a point to update him on my work since I left, and I think he's proud of the path I'm on now, which is in no small part thanks to him. My question is this: I used interfolio (a letter-sending service) for all of my apps this year, and I saw the length of the letter (but not the content). He wrote four pages! This is a good thing right? I think it is. I hope it is. But he has always been so cold and unenthusiastic and critical face to face. Is it possible he would write four negative pages? One of my friends told me "There is no way I'd waste four pages talking about someone I didn't like." The four page letter is a good thing right? Thank you all so much for your kind reassurance. I hope it is good, but I'm scared it could be bad. Does anyone have any experience of a long bad letter? Or of a seemingly cold advisor writing a great letter? Merry holidays, all!

I applied by the international deadline (american but live abroad) and I interviewed last week. who knows?

good luck with applications everyone! I'm sending seven in this year, for my second go-around

GRE's don't make or break you, and your scores are fine. Good luck!

Dear Grad Cafe, I'm preparing for the next round of PhD applications, and one of the reasons that I think this round was not as successful as I might have hoped was because of a less-than-professional online presence. Nothing bad--not bad pictures, or anything like that, but also nothing super polished. For instance, my academia.edu profile: I have one, I have maybe 3 articles and five presentations on it, and it gets alot of views--three weeks ago one of my papers was the #4 most viewed paper at Harvard! But this also works against me: I know that my profile was seen by the committee multiple times (because it shows you who looks, what search terms they use, and when they looked) and I want it to be perfect this time around. Does anybody use academia.edu and have any tips for what makes a good profile? What kind of pic should be up there? Papers? Should I comment? I'm just not sure how to make it an effective 'calling card' for my future academic work. I'd really appreciate any help and advice! Thanks, Doobie

yay! congrats! good to know people DO get off waitlists!

thanks love; i'm having a hard time in this year's arabic myself! poetry is no joke :/

waitlisted at harvard in religion; felt like it was the end of the world and a sure rejection, but I've been in contact w/ my POI today and she seemed super hopeful and nice and encouraging. Not sure if it will work out this year, but I will do my best to get a few extra rec letters in, write a letter of renewed interest, and cross all my T's. Worst comes to worst, inshallah next year!

religion. No, I'm not hopeful for an admit this season (a little birdy tells me anyone lucky enough to get a harvard admit will go there), and I'm pretty settled in my life abroad; but it does feel much better than a rejection, and my POI was very nice--she basically said, do xyz and re-apply and it will all be good. inshallah.

waitlisted at harvard; they say it's a "shortlist;" is there anything to do at this point???

so I'm gonna assume rejection at this point too; best thing for all the other stuff that is going on in my life, but ouch, my ego is really hurting. internal candidate here, so you can imagine it feels very, very personal.

alright harvard. at this point i haven't heard anything, i'm assuming rejection, and I'm moving on with my life. First thing on the agenda: buy a cocotte and start learning to make tagines!

i think religion of the americas

ok so a friend of mine is the one who got the email gsas acceptance yesterday; so our info was right--the final meeting was yesterday, and the choices have been made. so what's the holdup?

OMG HARVARD PLEASE JUST ANNOUNCE THE RESULTS. k thanks bye.

no it wasn't me, I should be so lucky! although at this point getting accepted means leaving behind the love of my life, my dream job and a great group of friends

the harvard thing I heard from several very good sources, but i'm shockingly calm with whatever the outcome. I've been so stressed for so long I haven't really stopped to appreciate that I'm living an already very happy and contented life, and this letter changes nothing. Good luck to all of us, inshallah all will be good, no matter what the outcome is.

no it will tell you what city and country someone searched from, and what search term they used

from what someone told me gsas plans to notify tomorrow or friday; if you have academia.edu you can check it and see if you are still in the running for the final round; they were looking at our apps monday (I have 3 cambridge, ma notifications)

yea that made my heart jump unpleasantly, the harvard admit. I still don't have a response to my POI email "oh, so when might we hear back?" so I feel like the news is gonna be...oy vey.

woohoo!!!!