OnceAndFutureGrad

That sounds like an acceptance to me, and the best sort - a personal message from your potential adviser! Congratulations! I actually think that other students didn't get this e-mail, why else would she explicitly say that she have just one spot open? Hopefully no one is that cruel! I don't know what your position is, but polite and honest is the way to reply, as always. Let her know if you are waiting to hear from other schools, ask her about funding if that's an issue, and any other information you'd like to know. Good luck, and congrats again!

That's right. I intentionally narrowed my options down by a number of stringent parameters so as to have just a small number of schools to apply to, research, and visit. It makes me a little anxious that I've put so much on so little, but only creating two applications - and only waiting for two results - is much less stressful to me. Tyler and UDel are perfectly balanced for my intentions, so any acceptance (with funding) will be a mighty celebration! I have a back-up school with a late deadline, but for obvious reasons, I'm going to keep mum on that. Did you visit Tyler? As an artist, I'm certain you'd love their facilities.

My hesitation in engaging in camaraderie is because I'm still feeling awkwardly about not getting an acceptance last year when all my applicant colleagues did. You can only celebrate by proxy, and hear "don't worry, you'll get in somewhere else!", so much. Even now it's difficult to write about (this is my third attempt to write this post). When everyone's shared their stats, and you felt certain that you were near the top in terms of numbers, you start wondering how spectacularly you must have failed the written portions of your application. Tip from the crotchety old guy: do not (publicly) whinge about "only getting in to X". You'll make the folks with no acceptances, particularly those rejected from X, utterly miserable. All that bitterness aside (ahem) I have applied to the combination MA to PhD programs at University of Delaware and Tyler School of Art at Temple University. I hope to work with Larry Nees at the former and Elizabeth Bolman at the latter, and to go into either the Curatorial Track or the Fine Arts Administration option, respectively. I also intend on interning my heart out wherever I go. I want to do medieval art and medievalism in American museums. Here's hoping! Edited for clarification.

Wow, that's a pretty hefty list!

Ready for this? I'm gonna get accepted to both programs with full funding. Then I'll have to spend a few glorious days re-visiting both campuses and programs, counting up my options, making a Pros and Cons chart, and having all the power over my app season, for once. Mwahahahaha!

You know you've done it. You've seen something really nice, and perfect for you, with a price tag just a little outside of your reach. "Oh, I won't get that now," you say, "but I will when I get into _________!" For example, I had dreams of medieval studies grad school for the last two years of my undergrad. I actually promised myself three things if I got into a program: A CD set of Gregorian chant An action figure of Pope Innocent III A knotwork skull sculpture When I got my consolation MA, I didn't feel like celebrating. I no longer worked at the store selling the chant, I wasn't down the street from the store that sold Innocent anymore, and my tastes had moved beyond a decorative skull. So I didn't get myself any of these things and, well, you know where last year's attempts went. I'm not too much a believer in fate, but I am a believer that moving goals is a horrible morale sap; and a promise is a promise, even to yourself. I may not be near music or novelty shops any longer, but I have the internet! And I'm glad to say my tastes have fully returned to realize the awesomeness of a knotwork skull. So I will be making these purchases as soon as possible. In the meanwhile, I had promised myself one of those art history mugs if I got into an art history program. Well, I didn't, but too bad, because yesterday - the last of my museum internship - I got one from the gift shop anyway. Now I've gotta get into a program, right? And finally, I've promised myself a bottle of the finest 18-year-old Jameson whiskey for when that doctorate is mine. Now that's a promise I'll never break. So, what are you going to treat yourself to when you get your results?

I jumped a foot when I got an email from the University of Notre Dame. Then I realized it was announcing a sale from ND Press. Then I remembered that I didn't apply to Notre Dame...

Exactly - I know plenty of us can relate. "Go to college, do well, and you'll never have to work hard like I did." So you go to college, you do well; but then what? You get so caught up in the idea that being a good student magically opens doors and creates jobs, that you don't network and schmooze the way other kids learned to do. And forget about unpaid internships - you can't miss a paycheck from your menial job! My mom sounded like she was going to burst into tears when I told her my (temporary until grad school, hopefully) new job: an overnight EMT. She's worked herself nigh to death as a late shift ER radiographer. I don't mean to disappoint her, but her idea of college as a shining miracle institution has failed us both. Straddlers, remember: the fight has merely begun in college. You're fighting to get into, or succeed in, grad school. Then you're fighting for recognition as you mature as a student. Then you're fighting for jobs in a market where it really is who you know. And always, you're fighting the urge that you're a stranger in a strange land, an impostor from outside. Keep up the fight, straddlers!

Hi Lexicana. This is - well, I've been calling it round 3, but my fiance insists that it's round 2. You can read my story on my profile (and in several reiterations around this forum!), but in short: I've been trying to get into PhD programs since 2009, when I got 5 rejections and a "consolation MA". I took it anyway and earned my MA, and attempted the PhD again in 2011, going 0 for 7, including the very program where I earned the MA. March-April 2011 was an extremely dark, dark time for me. I try not to think what may have happened if I didn't have such good friends and family helping me to keep the bigger picture in mind. Please, make sure that you keep your loved ones close even when you want to be left alone. I know some people might turn up their noses at me because I got rejected so many times, but I choose to feel like a stone cold revenant, and I am very proud of my ability to be utterly flattened and yet try again. This time around I've only applied to two programs, although I have a third with a very late deadline ready just in case. I've been in face-to-face contact with POIs for months, some for nearly a year now, and done my utmost to craft the best, brightest, and most compelling application I could create. At the very least, my tenacity is a testament to my dedication. I've been very busy with volunteer work, a job search, fitness, and other vital busywork. Idleness is the enemy around this time. I wish everyone the best of luck, particularly those of us with the stamina to undergo this process a second miserable time.

Art History isn't meant to start until February, but when someone posted last week that a school had merely contacted them we were all aflutter. Clearly we are not the beacons of patience we thought we were!

cure all

No. You will feel an ominous sense of doom and continually refresh the results page like the rest of us!

Hello from the metal and punk side! Here are my songs of joy: Ensiferum - Victory Song Flogging Molly - Back of a Broken Dream Korpiklaani - Journeyman ("Narrow road behind me/I never look back") And of despair: Tiger Army - Under Saturn's Shadow Turisas - The Bosphorus Freezes Over ("I felt betrayed and disappointed/Was that really it?") Solefald - Crater of the Valkyries ("Here I lie/like a dead man...Here I am as nobody") Einherjer - Ironbound ("The torture never stops!") The Sword - Winter's Wolves Tyr - Sand in the Wind ("Like grains of sand in the winter wind/So is all existence") And to get me excited about grad school things: Bad Religion - You've Got a Chance Authority Zero - Find Your Way Turisas - The Great Escape ("Tilt the galley over/For no emperor nor chain will stand in my way!") As you can see I'm better at consoling myself than celebrating

Hi all, I too am first generation and from a working class background. My fiance has a steady blue-collar career so we are always going to be a house of two different worlds. Thank you for starting this thread. I have an MA - you can do it too! There are a number of challenges in graduate school for us "straddlers". It can be achingly difficult to interact daily with people whose experiences differ so much from ours. We may feel like impostors; or just as bad, the people we love may feel self-conscious by comparison to our success. In the US, a strong work ethic makes classicism less apparent than in other places, but it can still be awkward, particularly as some people refuse to admit their priviledged upbringing. I hope that we all find places in graduate school this season, and triumph through adversity.

I'd become a trauma nurse. I did really well as an EMT and the paramedics I spoke to all said to skip that step and go right to trauma nurse. Better hours, better pay, and so on. But I don't want to become a trauma nurse. My parents both work as hospital technicians and the medical field seems horrendous. Someone please accept me?

First check around online to see if there's an online status page. Most programs will have one, although they aren't always updated frequently. If you submitted your scores more than two weeks ago and they don't appear, then you'd be better off calling and asking.

I completely understand your frustrations, and the frustrations of the other thread's OP. It is absolutely true that companies will turn their noses up at people with MA degrees attempting entry-level positions. I've worked two separate cashiering jobs, retail, my undergrad university dining hall, medical offices, university offices; there's nothing I won't do. But after I got my MA and intended to return to the PhD, I applied everywhere - banks, corner shops, supermarkets, delivery companies, medical offices, you name it. No one even called me back, apart from one bizarre company whose second interview was two of their administrators berating me for twenty minutes for daring to apply with an MA. Don't let anyone tell you that you aren't trying hard enough. You say you have an MA, you aren't going anywhere unless it's a career. So I turned to volunteer work instead. I picked up an internship in the education department of my state museum and became an ambulance driver for my local first aid squad. The squad needed EMTs so I began taking night classes and now I am certified as an EMT in my state. I've been going stir-crazy without a source of income so I've just applied to a number of private ambulance companies. Here's the catch; I didn't tell them I have an MA. Less than a week after applying, I've already got an interview for one. It's next Monday evening and my fingers are crossed. I'm not saying that you need to become an EMT, but you do need to keep busy. Volunteer, even outside of your field: the local soup kitchen, library, elementary school, whatever. You'll find opportunities and meet people who know people who are hiring. And even if you can't find a job, it's better than moping around at home waiting for graduate school.

black widow

I don't have any answers for you, but rather a voice of agreement. I attempted to get onto the scholarly track - you know, where you aren't truly happy until you have your leather-patched tweed jacket full tenure appointment at an internationally prestigious research university. But after less than two years, I realized that I'm too pragmatic and possess too strong a self-preservation instinct to spend the rest of my life bashing my head against the ivory tower. I like history too much to leave, but I dislike academia too much to stay. So, I turned 90 degrees to the left and am now trying museum studies, because I think that the best use of my skills and preferences is in public education. In the "olden" days, a history BA was probably all that was needed before beginning a career in museums, and I believe that even up to the 1990s a Masters was more than sufficient to begin. But now everyone has five internships and a PhD under their belt before even applying...it's to the PhD we go! Like you, I'll love being bogged down in archives for months or even years, but you won't catch me pretending it's how I want to spend the rest of my career (any longer). But of course I say that in hushed tones, just in case anyone who's listening demands total allegience to academia...

Not necessarily. It sounds like a combination interview and perspective student visit. It's a very good sign, certainly; but to be safe I would treat it as an interview (still "selling" yourself) until you're explicitly told otherwise. Congratulations, anyway!

LLajax, I consider you my fellow footsoldier in this shield wall. Let your hysteria seep! Unless it's literal hysteria, in which case you should probably chase down that wayward uterus...see, you're not the only crazy 'round here. In other news, I dared look up the Peterson's stats on the two programs I applied to. I thought they were very even, and they have similar numbers in regards to students, professors, financial aid packages, and so on. One program (A)'s acceptance rate is 65% and the other (B )'s is 17%! But what's really strange is that program A is a top-20 whereas program B is more like top-40. There's a dynamite professor in my field at B, though, which evens it out for me. I'm not counting my chickens before they hatch, of course, but I wonder if I will have to choose between them. Not to mention that one is a very urban campus while the other is very suburban, with all the hazards and boredom associated with their respective settings.

Would you prefer them NOT looking at applications?

It's started! ...Sorta. Good on UVA for contacting the applicant; I got a similar suggestion from a school last year but it was long after app season.

I have to keep telling friends and family that it is much more like a job application than a school; it doesn't matter if you're great, it matters if you're both a good fit for the program AND the best of all candidates. Enough to drive anyone mad!

I don't think there is such a thing as a backup in graduate school. Perhaps some kind of low-profile university terminal MA program without funding? Even then there'll be people who don't get in and are disappointed.