Ignatius_J_Reilly

girl talk

Haha +1. I love how the most unproductive methods of coping (obsessively checking e-mail / gradcafe, binge eating, alcohol, etc.) represent like 98% of that pie chart. Especially since I'm no different.

My first notification was also a rejection. I reacted kinda the same way where I was shocked that I wasn't more devastated. Although, this was probably because it was a definite reach school. Didn't even get the satisfaction of a physical paper rejection letter. Rats..

grass stained

Hahaha! So glad I'm not the only one who had to figure out what POI, LOR, and SOP meant on their own. (+1 to MojJingly!) I think I'm going to start making-up my own ridiculously misleading acronyms so everyone else is confused as we are. For example, anyone's top school can be S.T.I.L.L.T.A.N. (School That I'd Literally Love To Attend Now) Anyone have any others?

false hope

I think we're leading the same lives! My typical weekday (since I work evenings then): Check e-mail, refresh, gradcafe results, gradcafe forum, check e-mail ... repeat endlessly til work. Then, during my break, use the computer in the staff room to repeat the process.

Thanks for sharing! Cool to actually see an image of how they separate the piles. Thought I'd share this link (mainly for other Philosophy hopefuls) since UChicago did a really thorough description of how they evaluate applicants. Although I didn't apply there, I appreciated the detail with which they described the process: http://philosophy.uchicago.edu/prospective/admissions.html

Deathly is the wait Complete torment of the mind Both hope and despair Dreams of an e-mail A wonderful acceptance Dissolves when I wake

opera house

To completely steal from Blanchot (never thought I'd quote him ever again after my Phil. of Literature class): "I experience boundless pleasure in living"

petty theft

lol, the waiting has definitely made me an obsessed anxious wreck. I'll be here all week month and next month, helping to bump-up that record... :sigh:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSn4DXgxSVA

Yeah, I'm not too surprised since I know of some people who have to do certain background checks on applicants due to the nature of their job, and the internet is almost always a major part of checking out a person's profile somehow (forum posts, social networking sites, google, etc.). I'm not too worried because even if they identify me, there's nothing on here to discredit me in anyway (at least I hope). Just for the fun of it I googled my name just now to see what the adcomms would see, and it was a pretty boring sight with nothing notable to speak of. Oh no ... Maybe the adcomms could even hold THAT against me. AHH

immovable structure

To summer_reader above - My mom was about that age when she got her PhD, so being an older applicant shouldn't be any kind of hindrance, at least to the admissions committees. I'm 23, and I would hope my age is irrelevant but in my freak-out moments I start to think it would've been better to apply while I was in my senior year of undergrad last year instead of waiting a year...

Seems like this is working really well so far. Well done!

whispered confessions

I, too, am applying to 8 PhD programs straight out of undergrad (and I'm applying to one MA program). I'm sure it varies greatly depending on the discipline, but my understanding of Philosophy programs is that MA programs are reserved for students who didn't major in Philosophy in their undergrad institution but who wish to switch to the field and eventually pursue a PhD. In fact, the majority of programs that I saw discouraged people like me (majors with research and teaching experience as well as an abundance of Philosophy course credits) from applying to MA programs since these are meant for students relatively inexperienced in the field. So I know that you are definitely not alone.

I agree - the fact that anyone can post information without first creating a user name & account seems a bit problematic in these cases. Although changing the website to make sure only registered users can post results won't solve all these problems (users can still post phony info), it would hopefully limit this type of activity and make the results page more legitimate. I think this page could benefit from imitating sites like Law School Numbers where only members can post statistics and on each members page they can list schools they applied to with their results. This sort of format would also eliminate these 'multiple results posts' since each user could only upload one result (i.e. - accepted, rejected, waitlisted, other) for each program to which they applied. Just a suggestion (since I actually found this website in the first place because my girlfriend is applying to law school and I was always jealous of her ability to check Law School Numbers.)

LOVE this thread and the link to Petersons. I just spent a nice chunk of time calculating my odds for s**** and giggles. Doubt my chances are really as high as I calculated (probably made a mistake or ten) but it was amusing and entertaining none the less!

Yeah - I, too, worry about not standing out enough. I'm guessing it will go something like .. "Hmm, Good GPA (3.83 in Major) but who couldn't do that at this small liberal arts college? Decent GRE scores, but we have much better. Excellent LOR's, but who are these Professors?? And his SOP stands out like a piece of straw in a haystack. NEXT!" or a more likely scenario - "GRE's aren't over 1400 [crumpling of app]"

I offer my congratulations too! It must feel great to be accepted (and so early on!). Although I only applied to two of your potential programs (Brown & Georgetown), I haven't heard back from either of them yet - from none of my schools actually. Don't know if it's like this for all other Philosophy PhD programs, but most of my deadlines were pretty late (Georgetown I'm pretty sure was the only deadline in December). So you may have to wait a little to start getting some responses from other admitted students.

Scenario A: I open the acceptance letter and just stare like a statue with its jaw on the floor .... for days, months, maybe even until April 15th. Scenario B: Let loose all my stress, anxiety, and doubts in a huge scream, running around my apartment and neighborhood yelling nonsensical half-words with a HUGE sloppy grin on my face. Let all my friends, family, and LOR writers know immediately, then party like it's Carnaval time in Brazil. Man, it is so fun to dream..