[How are you coping with waiting?]

Thanks to whomever is calling all the Grad departments and posting on the boards when decisions are expected this year

[Programs that list admissions statistics online]

Pretty amazing - while the number of applicants to all grad programs combined has risen in the last 10 years from about 12,000 to about 15,000, a 25% increase, the number of English grad school applicants has gone from 141 to 289 - over 100% increase. And everyone says interest in the humanities is declining...

I was thinking this myself. There's all this defeatism that the humanities are dying, but those of us who get in to an English department this year or next should keep in mind the 500 or so people who didn't get in to the department. Those 500 or so people a year who are excluded represent a demand for what you/[we?] do. Thinking about how the scholarly community can engage these people over a lifetime, even after they go off to different careers, different lives, well, I think creative solutions to this problem could really transform the role of "scholarship" in American society.

[Programs that list admissions statistics online]

But that's just it. None of them think of themselves as not having a chance. They just don't actually have one. Schools like Yale get a lot of applicants who are "believing in the dream" and "following their bliss" or whatever.

I have to agree. I had a friend who worked in the Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Admin. Office specifically working on the "initial cut" committee and there is a huge population of candidates who were just totally uninformed about what applying to graduate school entailed. I mean, if you consider that many of the people on these boards spend maybe YEARS trying to get information about the process, editing writing samples, etc., and still get rejected, you can certainly imagine that people with very little information would not produce great applications.

Ironically, my friend said, Harvard probably gets some of the worst applications on the low end. It makes sense, really. If you ever caught a rerun of Goodwill Hunting on cable during the past 15 years, you might convince yourself that Harvard is the place for you. But that same person probably wouldn't even think of applying to the English Department at Minnesota U, because how would they know Minnesota has colleges? That wasn't in the movie.

[calling department]

I'd say it depends on whether your program has just started making decisions or if they are typically done by now. English Department's for example, haven't even announced wait-listed decisions, so it's definitely too early to call them.

[Where my Duke applicants at?!]

just received an invite to the interview weekend! good luck to everyone!

Are you in Comp Lit or English vordhosbntwin? If Comp Lit, what are your areas?

[Anyone want to claim that NYU?]

....every email is a dark potentiality.

Indeed.

[Am I the only one not freaking out??]

In my case, I think my stress level comes from wanting to move on, change jobs and the like. Becoming a professor would be my first choice, but I need to wait, basically 2 application cycles to find out if that might ever be a reality. I could just leave and find some other job, but not really until I know how the first plan plays out.

[How are you coping with waiting?]

I woke up this morning to an email in my inbox from a ucla[dot]edu address and freaked out, only to open it and see it was spam/result of a hack job. Googled the name and it's not someone associated with English, so it's not even like I can tell myself that the person had my email address in their contacts because I was on some kind of "WE WANT YOU" list, ha. #heartattacks

I keep getting spam from BC's psychoanalysis program and random MBA programs. They all start with something misleading like "congratulations" or "admissions."

[Anyone want to claim that NYU?]

Also interesting to note that (based on admissions page estimates), Forum users seem to make up around 2/3 of the incoming class.

Yeah, too bad 2/3 of all forum users don't get in to NYU

On the bright side, I had TWO new messages waiting for me when I got home. On the dark side, they were both telemarketers/fake "update your insurance" calls.

[How old are you?]

I feel about 20 years older than when this process started.

[List of things to do instead of checking admit status]

I'm 36 weeks pregnant so I like to make a wish list for the baby, though I imagine this is not much of a relevant project for most... Honestly there is nothing that can distract me from checking my email 15 times a day.

I think you definitely win the prize for caring the most about grad school, if 36 weeks pregnant is having trouble competing.

[List of things to do instead of checking admit status]

I'm making a list of programs where I should have applied but didn't. It will be my silver lining when my rejections start to roll in.

[gradcafe- how much is too much?]

You can take my whiskey, but you better leave me my grad cafe.

[Anyone want to claim that NYU?]

Man, the post about the first admit getting early notice only because he/she is an international student got my hopes up.

With 6 acceptances posted, I now know this pipe dream is done.

On the one hand, I feel the same. On the other, I wonder if some of those posts aren't true and are posted by trolls of this thread, just to make us crazy, especially the last one, claiming acceptance via email.

[My heart stopped...]

I recieved an email entitled "IE Admissions" but it was a bogus spam mail from someplace called the "IE business school" inviting me to an informational seminar on getting an MBA. Thanks for the heart attack. Yeah, thanks for nothing.

[How are you coping with waiting?]

I recieved an "invitation" email today from some fake place called "ie business school." I hope the Attorney General shuts them down, because I am COMPLAINING!

[My heart stopped...]

So, I don't know about you guys, but I talk myself down from some school ("yeah, I'll never get in there") as some sort of defense mechanism to not fall into a deep depression (I guess?).

So even though Georgetown is my #1, Harvard is in my top 4. And as much as I made myself believe that I didn't care if I got a call from them, today, when I got a call from a number in MA, my heart stopped. Then I realized it was someone from Amnesty international. I almost cried.

So, has this happened to anyone else? Does taking yourself down from a school actually work?

F*&^% Amnesty International!!!! They just undid years of good works in my eyes!!!!

[Lit, Rhet, Comp - Chat Thread]

I'm also surprised at how many schools have already made decisions! Last year I didn't even start thinking about hearing back until early March. Ignorance-bliss was had for much longer than this...Oh the days.

By CUNY did you mean the Graduate Center, Grunty DaGnome? Their website is so ambiguous: "These notifications begin in March and continue through June." But yes it does say that their review process begins early February.

I did mean Cuny Grad. Center / English. I'm not going by their web site, rather the date of posted Grad Cafe results from last year. I realize that's not the most accurate predictor since things change from year to year, but I too find their website confusing. It's hard to tell what applies generally and what applies to certain programs sometimes.

[Anyone want to claim that NYU?]

The worst part is that, if last year is any indication, it may take them a month to getting around to formally rejecting the rest of us

[Missed call from THAT area code]

My mother never calls me in the middle of the day when I'm working, but don't you know she calls right in that hour that NYU starts notifying people...to tell me something I already knew, of course. Thanks for the infarction, Mom.

[Anyone want to claim that NYU?]

My thoughts exactly. Plus, if they want us to visit say, from the other side of the country, do they think our jobs/life/whatever don't merit as much advanced notice? (the question of visas is obviously much more complicated and difficult, but still...)

Pretty much. They have 500 applications and a dozen or so spots. This process is therefore not set up with the individual applicant in mind.

[How are you coping with waiting?]

I don't want to go too far, past the point where all rejections have come in. I want to live forever in that moment of knowing and yet still hoping.

[Anyone want to claim that NYU?]

I have to agree here. seeing that go up made me wonder if I should maybe charge my phone since it's dead. then I figured I'd just charge it in the car at work, but then I realized I'd constantly check it and freak out over the lack activity, so ultimately I'll just resign myself to waiting for the postal rejection and try not to have a panic attack when debt collectors call from strange numbers looking for people that I am not.

Coincidence! I just had all the same thoughts and reached the same conclusion!

[Anyone want to claim that NYU?]

Now there are 2 acceptances. MUCH earlier than last year. Congrats to whomever it was, who said they could "throw up" know that we are all right there with you, but for different reasons.

[How are you coping with waiting?]

I am trying to astrally project my consciousness to the end of next week, when I expect to hear from 2-3 of my schools.