Simple Twist of Fate

Princeton: Thursday, I've been told.

I was one of the Duke rejectees. Not surprised, but still disappointing. It's tough staring out with bad news as I've spent this morning doubting if I'll ever get in anywhere. Yeah. That place. Oh well. Condolences to other duke rejections and thanks for the kind words everyone.

Hearty congrats tmp.

I've not heard anything yet, so I'm hoping that's just some kind of outlier. Would be great to hear from them this week, though. The silence is just killing me.

Congratulations to the NU and Wisconsin admits, and commisserations on the rejections. Those are two schools I really would have really liked to apply to if the fit had been better for my interests. I hope the admits celebrate tonight.

Bubblewrap was originally marketed as a wallpaper.

My fish died sometime last night. I'm pretty distraught. Now I have a weirdly strong feeling I'll come back from class/work this evening to a Princeton rejection. Probably just a reflection of my mood - but I think NE Nat did say decisions would be sent before the sixth, which would either be today or Monday.

That reminds me... apparently in the 1990s, the US military spent some money looking into the possibility of a "Gay Bomb" which would render enemy combatants so attracted to each other that they would lose interest in fighting. It didn't receive the necessary funding, thankfully.

Hello, welcome and congrats on the UNC admit. (I assume you meant "lurking" rather than trolling by the way ).

Do you mean you're the Indiana acceptance? If so, huge congrats! I was only kidding about the trolling conspiracy, to be clear.

Ugh, I just noticed today's interview for Notre Dame up on the results board. And now Indiana's starting? Indiana is one of my best fits (if not my very best) so I'll be extremely disappointed if this continues... I'm not saying that the results are faked, but I can choose to delude myself a little bit. After all, if you were an internet troll, what could be more fun than disturbing our sanity?

Congrats on the good vibes, tmp. For all the reasonable, measured advice you've offered this forum since I've been visiting it, I'm rooting for you almost as much as I am for myself. I would trade a rejection at one school for something encouraging from another school at this point. This radio silence is getting tough to navigate in.

To be fair, the quantitative section is reputed to be much easier for math/science people than the verbal section is for history/english/humanities people. Math and science people often totally bomb the verbal section. I don't know if I'm reading that correctly or not. I'm trying to remain calm and not obsess. My girlfriend has threatened to block this website from my computer (though I'm not sure how she would do that).

Maybe, I have to admit I didn't read the pdf file very closely. I want to be an historian, not a lawyer, so I tired quickly of that kind of stuff. Congrats to the UVA admit that just went up. When I saw it, I got upset for a second until I realized I didn't apply there...

That's a little bit more reassuring, thanks. Still, I'd feel more comfortable if they allowed consideration of either verbal or quant. That's the nature of a big bureaucratic place like OSU, though - I can get 99% in the two parts of the GRE related to my field and still get pinged for a low, unrelated quant score. Sigh. If I wasn't a lifelong Buckeyes fan, I would despair.

Congrats Kelkel and others. Tigalily - Thanks for the info. Interesting stuff, though the way I read it, I don't quite meet the criteria for a University Fellowship (my quant GRE is 10 percentile points too low, I think). Also looks like we may not be hearing from OSU for quite a while, though that was expected to be honest.

Well, Loimagraphia applied to Medieval Studies and History, so maybe that has something to do with... something. That's what I'll be repeating to myself tonight, anyway.

Mine's worse. I got an email, saw it was from a .edu address and had a milli-second heart attack before reading the rest of the address and realizing it was from one of my current professors sending out an assignment. Insanity. Congrats on the good news. Also a bit sad about ND, as I think it's one of my best fits. Won't count my eggs (or lack of eggs?) before they hatch, but I'm not encouraged.

Welcome Wendy. The problem with gradcafe is that it self-selects for the most conscientious and invested applicants, I think. It is pretty intimidating to see, but at the same time it's extremely reassuring to see that many of the very best applicants in history programs (judging not just by GRE/GPA/POI but by the interviews and acceptances already proferred) are just as, if not more, neurotic than I am. This place is a double-edged sword for sure. Still no news, though I've found that I get out of bed quicker these mornings when it occurs to me that I should check my email.

PM sent.

Hi and welcome, wikichic. Good luck this cycle. It seems like quite a lot of lurkers have been revealing themselves in the past few days. I guess this time of year is doubly frustrating if you can't vent to people going through the same thing. Of course, every time someone new pops up, I can only hope they're not in my subfield

I appreciate the comments about POI contact. It's just that I would feel more comfortable about things if I had built some sort of relationship with a POI or a few. Maybe it's not rational, but neither are about 80% of the things flowing through my head these days. And yes, I am unashamedly on these boards at 10:00 on a Saturday night... My girlfriend's working tonight and I'm too tired to go out, so here I am. Just saw "War Horse" which is better if you don't compare it to war movies, and just pretend it's an (inappropriately violent) children's movie.

Welcome, and thanks very much for the information. Along with the Princeton information post above, it looks like I might get most of my near-certain-rejections out of the way early Incidentally, everyone's posts about communication with POIs is concerning me, as I haven't been in contact with my POIs for some time now. Oh well, too late to do anything about it now.

Sincere congrats to the admits/interviewees today. Research. I've got a thesis to finish up and three other major historical research projects already this semester so I'm getting a head start on them. It's only half working, as I take notes on my computer which just puts me within a few clicks of my email and of this site...

That reminds me... I once took a class on the Holocaust taught by a Rabbi (it was technically a religion course). She was a stickler about spelling and grammar issues. One reviewer on her ratemyprofessor page, predictably, called her a "grammar nazi" with no trace of self-awareness. Amazing. I've found ratemyprofessor useful in my undergrad experience, though. It's pretty easy to tell which reviews come from serious, thoughtful students and which come from the students who simply want an A for showing up. RMP has led me to look into a few great courses and professors that I otherwise wouldn't have known of.