ElusiveMuse

That is insane! So are they going to offer you a job then? My brother is actually having a bit of difficulty with undergrad residency for U of Maryland. He is just out of the military and our parents don't live at his original home of record so he's in the same resident-less boat.

If you read my posts in this thread you would see that I am certainly an advocate of visiting.

Right. And I'm saying there are ways to be proactive about those tough decisions.

What new information could possibly pop up in the next month that would make a difference? Honestly, do people not research the programs they apply to? I just find it really hard to believe that people had absolutely no idea of their preference or had never mentally ranked the schools they applied to way back in November/December when they applied. I realize there are issues such as funding to be weighed, but I'm sorry I doubt that much will change in four weeks to help one make their decision, unless one is also on waitlists elsewhere. It has to be an active process, you can't just go around hoping it will hit you one of these days between now and mid-April.

You should care that you are putting your peers and the graduate programs in a rather difficult situation. I am not saying anyone should make hasty or uninformed choices. But there does reach a point when you have to sit down and make a decision, and I do not see how letting it roll around in your head up to the eleventh hour is particularly useful. Dig in, think it out, spend some time with it, decide. This should not be a four week thought process. Now, if you're waiting to hear from some other schools yourself, that's a bit of a different story. (And one I hope would make you realize how important it is to avoid the dithering.)

Void, they should give you that information without any problem. After all, they want you to accept their offer. It is not an unreasonable question. I mostly rely on the opinions of various trusted faculty members as to the reputation of these programs for finding graduates a job, but one university gave me that information in a packet.

I would choose Princeton for the larger network of people to potentially work with. What if you get to Yale and absolutely do not mesh with the one prof you can work with? That would be bad.

I'm not sure I can agree with you there. Especially if the program is using a waitlist, I think this puts a lot of people in a very bad position. Definitely visit and weigh your options carefully. But I really doubt that a decision is going to magically come to you ten minutes to midnight on April 14th that you couldn't sit down and rationally figure out some time beforehand. It just seems like a rather flighty way to handle things.

Just send them an email and thank them for considering your application so closely and supporting it this far. Let them know that you continue to have great enthusiasm for the program and for working with them, and that you really feel it would be a good fit because of XYZ. Then end by saying that you look forward to hearing any updates about your status and if they need any additional materials to contact you.

Well, Rice is a nice campus in a nice part of Houston, certainly. I've never heard of a part time PhD program, and I doubt Rice offers it. But it wouldn't hurt to check out the faculty and email the one who has research interests close to your own and put these questions to him/her.

It's probably out of courtesy for those on the waitlist. If you tell them April 15th that you decline their offer, you just screwed over a whole lot of people who are waiting for the spot you rejected and probably felt compelled to accept another spot someplace else, as well as the program who is trying to fill these spots. Yeah, can you tell I'm a waitlister who is frustrated by all the dithering? I know it's hard for everyone. You are waiting to hear from other schools who may be waiting to hear from other students before they let you know and so on and so on. I really think that a minor revision to the system is in order to make waitlisting a viable situation for both applicants and grad schools. There should be a first string and second string deadline to expedite this process.

Yes. I just cannot handle the pleasantries. "Oh, it's not the end of the world if you don't go to grad school." Yes. It is. "You still have a lot of options." No. I don't. "Wow! Really? I don't understand why you haven't gotten any good offers yet!" Yeah, who knew I was so inadequate! "There's still time, you'll get good news soon." You are basing this lie on what exactly? I straight up told a friend I've been avoiding for weeks who got into her top choice that I cannot handle being around her right now because I do not want to talk about it and I can't talk about anything else so I'm incapable of being social until I know what is going on next year and can deal with the grief if necessary.

I am also waiting on BU. I called to ask when they would notify and the secretary had no idea and told me to email the grad director but I didn't want to be a bother. I sent a writing sample with my transcripts.

I haven't because I'm waiting to see how some things play out with some other schools before I make a final choice..

Race is all the rage in dance history right now. I am positive you'll find good support if you ask for it in those departments.

Lunalee, you might want to look into those schools' dance history faculty interests. There is a lot of that sort of thing in dance and theatre, so you could put together a good interdisciplinary support system if you look around.

The comforting lie I tell myself is that maybe the faculty member I would be working with is leaving soon or has too many grad students right now or some such thing. It only works a few times, though. Then you just start to think u haz teh dumbz. ETA- Next year if I have to do this again, I'm writing my personal statement in LoLCat speak. IM IN UR GRAD SKOOL REEDIN UR BUKS!

I think I'm going to go ahead and take it as a bad sign that I did not get a call from Delaware on Friday. :|

I love Chinese painting of the Song and Yuan Dynasties. I wish I had discovered it in time for adequate language preparation, I may have given it a go! I've actually been to Beijing and Hong Kong and feel a real affinity for the art and culture there.

Actually, Irvine has kind of not-so-great weather. It's unbearably hot in the Inland areas of Southern California.

DC is awesome, but I'm a city girl so my idea of expensive and dangerous may be different from yours. I mean, yes it is expensive, like any other city, but in my opinion it's worth it. It's hot and humid in the summer, which isn't pleasant, I will say that. But you can easily get around with no car, even from some of the suburbs.

Can I just say that I went to one of my trusted professors and basically expressed this exact paranoia to him and he laid it out for me very honestly. He was really encouraging and told me one or two things I can work on for next time, helped me formulate some Plan B's, boosted my confidence with candid feedback of my work. If there is anyone like that in your life I highly recommend calling on that person right now.

This. For my spring break I will alternately put the finishing touches on my senior thesis and enjoy the empty town. I plan to finish reading for pleasure ( ) because I started Little Women during Christmas break but never got to finish it and...yeah...been kind of busy. I also may read a little Henry James or maybe Anne of Green Gables. And I need to watch some movies. Gone With the Wind and Funny Girl are very high on that list. "You think beautiful girls are going to be in forever? One day they'll be finished! Then it'll be my turn!"

Thanks for the crossed fingers! I didn't actually apply to Yale but I'm waiting to hear from Harvard, Columbia, and Penn (rejected from Stanford over the weekend, but I was sort of fine with it because their Americanist situation is kind of up in the air right now from what I understand). I've also seen a few later Art History Princeton accepts (congrats to whomever you are out there!) so there is hope, I suppose! I've still got my heart set on getting off the U of Michigan waitlist :wink:

I have lived in all the cities where these schools are located, so I can give you input in terms of that. I know nothing about your field though so I have no idea if one program is better than another. But I would want to live in Santa Barbara. Cleveland is a really economically depressed area right now, I dislike the conservative atmosphere of San Diego and Irvine is to far inland for me to enjoy the weather at all (too hot).