Billman

Just saw this thread. I posted the acceptance that mentions being wait-listed for funding. It is incredibly unlikely that I'll attend Ole Miss unless I get taken off the funding waitlist. Even then, I got into LSU, and while both schools are strong in Southern Lit (my field), it will be very hard to say no to Baton Rouge....

Thanks ryanweb! The dreamlist is limited to half the number of official admits, so I'm...tentatively optimistic. And yes, I applied in modernism/20th century, but also as an Americanist, so they could have me under that classification. Are you one of the WM guys? My ability to retain information from the outside world that is not in textual or narrative format is horridly deficient.

You sure about that "nobody's been officially rejected yet" business? Because if so, that is officially my least favorite thing about the process some of these programs use. Some other schools do the whole don't-reject-or-accept-a-huge-percentage-of-applicants thing and it's a bit...annoying, enervating, obtuse--dare I say, unethical? Blah. I'm with the "put me out of my misery if there's not reasonable chance for me" folks.

6% and waitlisted 3%: For what it's worth, I received a letter informing me of waitlist status middle of last week. Since they have a discretely limited watilist, I assume they sent out letters to most of those on it (unless they roll it along as people decide for other programs? which doesn't seem like them -- some programs do that...like some from which I'd really like to hear...but every vibe I get from UNC say they're more classy than to string people along).

In response to the informal interview vs. honest-to-goodness getting to know you day questions, the visit felt like a little of both to me. Most of those I spoke with seemed primarily concerned with putting faces to names, making a relational connection, etc. The director stated that the event was put together very last minute and that this was the first time they have held such an event. Again, felt like kind of a hybrid/uncommon way of doing things that blended the more standard late March visiting weekend with the pre-selection interview -- but the program feels very close/supportive overall. Also thought I would mention that I am one of those who received a call last week. I will of course aim to give them a decision ASAP, but I've been put on a discretely limited waitlist for my dream school, and Loyola is otherwise my best option so far, so I may not have an answer for some time. Just thought I'd put it out there. Gl all.

I too received the mystery email and will be going. In response to one of the original questions posed at the top of the thread, I am personally treating this as an interview. I know that the email seemed to indicate that visiting/ not visiting would not affect funding, but this seems at least partially a syntactic ambiguity in the message. Moreover, I can't imagine a scenario in which they would invite a group of folks up to visit prior to funding decisions, and then somehow attempt to ignore whatever they had learned of the candidates in the visit. I feel like the visit does have clear weight, but personally I'm trying not to get too worked up about it. Just thinking of it as an opportunity to talk to some folks about what I love most and find out more about the program...with the added bene that I get to visit a great city I've never been to before ;-)