MDLee

Woah, they SAID that? Harsh...

After a rousing fight for admissions to her favorite university, Team MDLee has just received yet another reject EMAIL throwing her dreams of PhD superstardom out to sea. Asked if she felt slighted in any way, the diminutive scholar declined to comment other than to grumble something about having no time to think about it since she was too busy trying to make the "Top Poster" list for March. The current status of Team MDLee is 0 for 5 with 5 apps out...its anybody's game, folks. Stay tuned! UPDATE: Add Vanderbilt to the "Sorry girl, you suck" category... UPDATED UPDATE: Oh yah..and Brown. UPDATED UPDATED UPDATE: ...And Emory. Who insisted that I was qualified but that funding was a problem.

You've got a few options: (1) Hold tight for another acceptance with funding. This is stressful, but its possible if you sent out other apps that another offer will come through. If not, fall back to-- (2) Accept this one and do as others have said--schools are more likely to fund second year students than intro students. I know that at UNLV the priority is given to Second Year PhD students, then to incoming PhD, then to second year MA, then to first year MA. It is possible that the funding will come. (3) Reject it all together and start the whole process over next year. To be totally unfunded for the entirety is not a wise move, but to go one year (or one semester...you never know) may be all the option some of us have until the economy picks back up and schools start handing money to us would-be intellectuals again.

And as an aside... every time I see this post I get that song stuck in my head... "The first cut is the deeeeepest, baby you know, The first cut is the deeeeeepest. When it comes to being lucky he's first. When it comes to loving me, he's worst..." I'm getting to where I'm singing it about my reject letters "The first rejection's the hardest, hunny I said, The first rejection's the hardest. My GRE kept me from UPenn and Yale Across the app the schools wrote "EPIC FAIL" sigh. I'm quietly losing my mind. :roll:

I have all of my rejection letters printed out and tacked to my fridge...I've got this sick fantasy of sending each them a copy of my fully funded acceptance to my favorite school of choice...but since that fully funded acceptance hasn't come in yet I've just got a sad looking pile of reject letters that now requires two magnets to hold up

::giggle:: that sounds exactly like my dreams lately. Lots of big "REJECT" letters from schools I didn't even know existed. And I woke up in a cold sweat three nights in a row with the same dream that none of my materials had made it to the schools I was applying for...and that none of them were going to tell me because they all thought it was funny... it was baddddd.....

sure, sure...rub it in

Oh yes, I remember the vivid daydreams of having to choose between ten funded school offers...and facing the difficult choice between my top school (Clark) and everyone else's obvious top choice (Yale)...and perhaps being the first person ever to say 'no thanks' to Yale... sigh. Those were the days. Isn't it funny how a single piece of marked up letterhead can screw up your visions in as much time as it takes to read it? :roll:

ACHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! ...that was an empathetic scream. I totally feel you on all of this.

Its a good school...Georgia has nice weather... I haven't heard about funding. I just assumed it had pretty decent options for it--being so highly ranked for most of its programs.

They're coming to take me away (ha ha, he he, ho ho) To the funny farm! Where life is beautiful all the time And I'll be happy to see the nice young men in their clean white coats They're coming to take me away!! tehee.

Oh Riss...if I knew, you'd know. One of my recommendation providers got his PhD at U-SC and he said that they sometimes take a little longer to respond because they're a state school. I've got a feeling it's going to be this week... Let me know when you know though, yah?

Then its settled! Plan "B" is the Mother Trucker and Lady Blue's express 18 Wheeler Service

In this regard I am SO glad that I'm the only one in my department studying what I do...Its bad enough to have to deal with the stress of applying with a bunch of first year MA students who don't even have a grasp on grad school yet much less applying to PhD programs. I can't even IMAGINE the competition we'd have in here if we were all applying to the same handful of institutions. Thank God for the GradCafe.

I would call the administrative assistant for the department--since they are usually the key to all things. Just politely say that you're trying to make plans for the future ("I'm sure you can sympathize"...) and that you are curious as to how the wait list for XYZ university works. If they're really chatty, they may tell you where you are or in what area of the list you are so that you can have a more clear idea of how this works...you'll get more good responses with honey than vinegar so I'd be really, super-duper nice. Once you've got that info, take a deep breath and move on. Good luck!!

I agree with GirlattheHelm, here. Right now isn't the time to be planning campus tours..unless you're just interested in seeing a pretty educational institution (I personally tour college campuses wherever I go just for the fact that they often are the prettiest part of the city). I wouldn't tell em you're coming unless they accept you between now and your trip. Then it looks like a proactive effort to be campus-friendly. Otherwise it just looks desperate and there's nothing they can do for you anyway.

If you've been waitlisted...that's pretty much the end of it. Depending on the university you have one of two options (1) you're on the list in an order -or- (2) you're randomly on there and they choose by lottery. This piece of information is more important to find out. They're not going to accept anything else paperwork-wise from you because they'd have to basically reopen the application process to everyone and that is a hellacious endeavor no one wants to go through. If they need more info from you, they'll ask. If you're on the list in an order and you're near the top, your odds may still be good (unless you were waitlisted for Yale, in which case you need to just figure that everyone accepted said 'yes' and move on with your life). If its a lottery, move on anyway because your chances are not improved by the quality of your application but rather by sheer luck that they choose your name to fill the "potentially" open spot. Don't irritate them. Not a good idea. If they were impressed, they were impressed. I know its hard but let it be at that.

LOL!!! AMEN SISTER. PA-REACH IT! My mom wanted to write a nasty letter to Yale when they rejected me. I thought that was funny too. I too am tired of being told that wanting something badly enough can make all :roll: the difference. It can't. I can want desperately to be married to a Brazilian soccer star (hmm...there's a thought) but my odds are pretty much shot. Ditto for grad school. I wanted desperately to go to Yale. It wasn't to be. And while I am usually Miss Mary Sunshine, I'm also a realist. Yes, I could potentially get into grad school. Right now, however, I'm planning life as if I've received 10 solid rejections.

Heh...I've said in other posts that I rejected Wisconsin wayyyy before they ever rejected me. Didn't make the fancy letterhead telling me how bad I sucked was not a huge blow to my little ol' ego. The trouble is...even though I didn't WANT to go there, I would've gone there without complaining (much) if they'd been the only acceptance I got. I mean, they were a safety school for a reason...you know? I have words of wisdom for you: Patience young grasshopper. You can always join me in the cross country trucking business I'm planning to start if this all fails. My call sign is Mother Trucker...or Dr. Trucker...you can be thinking on yours, and that'll at least make time go by. :wink:

I second all of this. I want to make summer plans...but if I'm going to be moving, that puts a bit of a kink in my chain, doesn't it! Although, I agree...keep the darned thing if you're planning on giving me a funded acceptance!!

I'm a personal fan of the word "Hoodwinked". I think that deserves and honorary PhD anyway!

changed my mind. Joined the circus.

I think I may just lose it :roll: I have spent the last 12 months focusing my life on getting into a solid PhD program. Since I didn't know where I'd go I haven't been dating (who wants to start something new only to have to leave it?) I almost didn't adopt my cats because I wasn't sure if I could keep them (then decided "To hell with it, they go where I go!") and for as much as I long to tell my boss to "take this job and shove it!" I may NEED it since it looks like now I may not be leaving after all! my landlady wants to know if I'm renewing my lease (I'll renew for 12 months if I'm not leaving and take the lower rate!)... the world wants answers and it feels like everything is on "pause" as I sit around in limbo WAITING for a "yes" or a "no". :roll: If all of this ends up being for nothing, I may just lose my blinkin' mind. To think that I've put life on hold so that not one, not two, but TEN schools could simultaneously tell me "No!"....ACCCCCCKKKKKHHHHHH!!! :evil: :evil: :evil: :!: :!: :!:

I'm not even sure where my life is going to be in six months. I have six applications still out--two of which I'm almost positive will not respond at all (maybe its my paranoia speaking), and one which I have heard is accepting no one... I'm so buried in thesis writing that waiting for acceptances/rejections is actually beginning to take a back seat...but as mid march comes creeping up on me I begin to worry a bit. I think I'll need to take the summer to reconsider my life's trajectory if I don't get in. Who knows if I'll have it in me to apply to any more? :roll:

Go where the money is. Period.