grad2be

Not even an e-mail. I could still be rejected haha.

Thanks for the recommendation! I enjoy commerce/economics so I'm sure that will be a great read for me. I haven't received an email from Georgetown; I don't have high expecations now that many people have received acceptances. Good luck to everyone on funding!

GDom87, I'm in a similar situation where it seems difficult to gain employment based solely on undergrad. I think the most oft-cited article about a PhD in the Humanities is Thomas Benton's article in the Chronicle of Higher Education ( http://chronicle.com/article/Graduate-School-in-the/44846 ). Many PhD's struggle for hourly community college positions that pay in the teens of dollars an hour. I liked the NYTimes debate because it provided more sides to consider while Benton has a clear aim: to discourage as many people as possible from pursuing graduate work in the humanities. It's certainly a personal choice. The fact that only 14% of humanities students have more than $50,000 in debt may also color your expectations for how much is too much for you. Congratulations on your acceptance! That is a great accomplishment! Postmodern, does a master's degree in English have clear career benefits or are you going for the intellectual stimulation? Is there any chance you could travel to UVa for courses? I live in Virginia also and I'm sure you know the UVa English department has a fantastic reputation. I'm not sure how they structure the program (class meeting times or part-timer options), but they do give you five years to complete the program: http://www.engl.virginia.edu/graduate/current/MArequirements.shtml If you got into Georgetown last year, I believe you will get into GMU as well. Good luck and let us know how it goes!

Postmodern, I'm sorry to hear that. I'm certain you were competitive for admission. You were admitted last year, so it's probably just that they couldn't offer you funding and figured that you wouldn't accept an unfunded offer. And honestly it's probably not worth the cost to attend without funding. I got half-tuition at UChicago for the MA program in the humanities; even with that reduction (~$22k) the true cost would still be just over $40,000 for the year (living inclusive), not even counting the interest on Grad PLUS and/or undergraduate loans. It's unlikely that I'll accept the offer. I can't even begin to calculate the true cost of Georgetown for two years with 0 aid and a cost of living that is significantly higher than the southside of Chicago. Anyway, you have some great acceptances already! Everyone, How much do you think is "too much" for an MA, considering overall debt BA+MA? I've been trying to judge the true value and this debate on the NYTimes website was helpful: http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/30/what-is-a-masters-degree-worth/

Same here. It looks like this happened last year too. I wondered if it's less messy for them to extend a few decisions and have most of their funding offers accepted before letting everyone know.

Thanks for the update! Is anyone finding it difficult to get other work done while waiting? I'm useless.

Lol. Harvard Business School.

Yeah this is kind of like being tortured. I wish I hadn't looked at the grad results page, then I could tell myself that they haven't started making offers.

"Let me thank you for the spirit of adventure you have demonstrated by applying at this early stage of your professional life. We respect and value the considerable investment you made in your application and hope that the process of reflection and self-assessment has been valuable."

Thank you! Any insight you can glean from them to share with us will be greatly appreciated!

I spoke to an AD for MAPH. She said "some may receive an e-mail." She didn't give me any more details about why some people may receive an e-mail instead of a letter. However, it doesn't seem like anyone, except perhaps one person, has posted a decision for MAPH-only admissions, so maybe they didn't send anything by e-mail after all. An alternative, and sad, explanation may be that only people who are being offered partial funding will receive an e-mail. The number of people receiving funding through MAPH-only admissions is probably very low (several PhD rejects have already been offered funding) so that it makes it less likely that one of those few will actually post to this site.

I refresh Gmail all day at work and sometimes simultaneously check the inbox on my phone – mindlessly expecting something different even though it is linked to the same Gmail account. I frequently check ApplyYourself , even though the adcom said they will send an e-mail when a decision is available. What if the e-mail is lost? Addiction/paranoia

Haha that's great. It's exhausting!

I was confused by that too. I noticed on the Georgetown CCT program website that students offered funding for that program must maintain a 3.8 to receive funding their second year. The English department website does not indicate a minimum GPA, but it does say in the Student Funding section, "Any student offered tuition support for their first year can count on tuition support in their second, depending on their maintaining an excellent academic record. " It made me wonder if the GPA requirement is the same for English (as a sort of standard within the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences), but simply isn't published. Because they say "tuition" is guaranteed in the second year depending on an excellent academic record (it should be possible for everyone to have an excellent record), it seems to me that the "smaller number of second-years" actually refers to professional development work. The CNDLS fellowship, in particular, is only one year, "with the possibility of continued employment during the second year on an hourly basis." What do you think? Hoping for a GAship is certainly risky, especially for such an expensive graduate humanities program. I wondered if it would be more prudent to work full time because the program is technically half-time and they have several seminars that are in the evening, once a week. However, that could severely limit course options and make it much more difficult take advantage of everything the program offers.

I drew the same conclusion. They said they are staggering responses through 1 April, presumably to wait for those offered funding to accept or reject. Assuming this means they have made their first round of funded offers, I don't know if I would rather have silence until they can communicate a clear decision on funding or if it would be better to get an acceptance e-mail that says I have a "chance" for funding. Certainly if it is a rejection then I would rather have it now to get it over with!