Katie Brady

It's actually a nickname that lots of my friends call me. Katie is my real first name, but since I'm going to marry Tom Brady some day, the last name sticks. That said, the avatar follows.

Just got rejected via email/website. Oh well, at least I heard something. Good luck to everyone who applied and congrats to all who are hearing great news!

hahaha touche. ...must...not...twitch....

Holy shit, I love Snape. Sorry about the rejection.

"all intensive purposes" drives me INSANE. Glad to see fellow grammar nerds around here.

your vs. you're when people spell ridiculous like "rediculous" Misuse of semicolons Misuse of good v. well (this one BUGS me) Overuse of commas or parenthesis When people don't know how to properly make something possessive when it's singular but ending in an "s". For example, I attend Johns Hopkins. When someone says something like Hopkins is going to acquire a new lab, but they say "This will be Johns Hopkins' first lab of this type" or whatever......PEOPLE. It's "Johns Hopkins's. Hopkins is NOT plural. GAH!". But, I agree with the person who said that English is tough, even for people who have it as their native language, so I give much space to those who grew up elsewhere.

I think it depends on what each program is looking to admit. I would assume, though, of 12 schools someone would be happy to have you....You have a good GPA and your GRE isn't horrible. If you had good recommendations, some work experience and a decent statement of purpose, I don't see why you wouldn't get in at a few places.

I got one notice via email from Maryland saying that my application had passed through general screening and was being submitted to the individual department for review, and a decision would be coming my way "shortly". That was about 10 days ago, so their "shortly" might mean two weeks, a month, who knows. And that's frustrating, awvish. I think that the way schools get around that is so they don't get inundated with emails and calls from people who are equi-anxious as we are (if not more). If they say "you will know by X date", and its a few days after that, people will just call and bug them, so I think they are trying to prevent that. When they say "you'll know in a few weeks", that's not a definite time frame, so it allows for less phone calls and traffic in and out of their office. I'm only assuming this because we do that where I work. If someone submits paperwork for a grant or whatever, we have to give a vague "you'll know by" or "within the next few weeks" as a response, since a specific date would cause insane amounts of questions and phone calls to come our way if it's a day later. That might not be the reason, but I'm willing to bet it is. It's still really crappy and frustrating.

This thread made me laugh, because I didn't notice that I started a couple hobbies to pass the time waiting for responses. I taught myself to knit last week, so I can be a total dork and make myself scarves of the four houses in Harry Potter (did I really just admit that?) and I also randomly started training for a 5k that doesn't exist.

I just turned 29 last month. I think I'm smack-dab in the middle of the age range, so I don't think it really makes a difference for me.

Technically, you are only required a certain number of days (usually two weeks, but sometimes it's a month) to let people know. That said, I would take whatever your minimum is and add a couple weeks to it. You can't be seen as a jerk for giving the minimum notice, that's just company policy, and two weeks more than that wouldn't be enough time for them to push you out or replace you. So, say you have to give a two week notice, letting them know a month in advance is more than acceptable. You have to think of yourself in that situation, and it's not selfish to do so.

Wow, that is probably kind of tough and awkward. I currently am not a fan of my job, so I'm not telling people in case I don't get in and then they decide to rub my face in it. Of course, if I don't get in, I'm peacing the hell out and working elsewhere, but that's beside the point. So, I kinda know what you mean.

Random stupid question: Do they alert you if you're rejected? Is the "no news is good news" better? Or is it generally "no news means you're not getting in anywhere"?

Drew Brees? Okay, yeah, sure, best current QB based on what? His one Super Bowl win? His stellar post-season showing against the Seahawks? His 2010 season MVP? Feel free to jump in and back up that statement any time you want. He pays child support. That life sucking trap tried to force him to marry her by getting knocked up. She's so crazy. Every time I catch the end of "I Robot" on TV, I'm really sad because she's not actually killed.

His family actually calls him "Tommy". I only call him that because any of my guy friends who are also Tom or Thomas are called "Tommy", too, so it's more that habit. I also call him "the greatest QB alive".

Not to sound like a pain, but in my opinion, unless you're married to the person, moving is not worth it if you have your dream job. That said, on the other side, I agree with people about the honesty thing. If it's something your wife/husband can do somewhere else, just being upfront with their boss is the best way to go. It's not the easiest way to to, but it's the best.

Ha! I'll be able to tell you once Tommy dumps Giselle and realizes I'm his soul mate. (yeah, right.)

I like the "no news is good news" view. Is that actually accurate? I applied to 6 schools and haven't heard anything other than from U of Maryland. They sent me an email a week ago or so, just saying that my application has been reviewed and submitted to the specific department for which I applied, so I guess that is a good sign. Another update would be excellent. I'd be interested in conducting a study or seeing the results of one that could correlate the volume of alcohol consumed by potential grad students from mid-February through mid-April. I bet the results would be hilariously staggering.

I got an email last week from Maryland telling me they had information about my application (yay!). Come to find out, they were just telling me that it's been passed on to the specific department for which I applied. I guess that's good news but what a tease!

Thanks, everyone, for the updates. I'm brand new to Grad Cafe and I was just coming in here to ask about the post that was put up on the results page regarding an acceptance via post. I've turned into that crazy person that has been obsessing over the mail for the last week or so. Of course, it seems as though all mail has stopped arriving at my apartment. I'm glad to hear that Harvard doesn't send out results via post and that I should be looking for the results via e-mail. Harvard was kind of my "I'm going to apply and see what happens" schools, even though I'm pretty sure I had no chance of getting a second glance. Good luck to everyone, and I hope you all are taking time to relax during this stressful time!