Grunty DaGnome

Common sense would tell you that we're only interested in information that we can't get from the usual sources. Common sense would also tell you that there is no way you could tell us what chance we stand just by our research interests.

The object of the game is to get as drunk as possible so you don't really care once the rejection e-mails start to roll in.

Take a drink every time...

A science program shows up, and you remember that you are in the humanities.

Someone posts an "Other" about a mass e-mail.
...two drinks if you received that e-mail as well.

A school that you have applied to shows up, and even though it's not your program your heart skips a beat.

A school that you have applied to shows up, and even though it's not your program you check your e-mail/voice mail on reflex.

A school that you have applied to shows up, and even though it's not your program you run to your mailbox to check for snail mail.
...two drinks if it's Sunday.

A program that you have applied to shows up as a rejection, you have no new e-mails, and you just get even more nervous.

A program that you have applied to shows up as an acceptance, you have no new e-mails, and you want to die inside.

You bookmarked the RSS feed for just the programs you applied to.

You bookmarked the RSS feed for programs you wish you had applied to, so you can torture yourself if you Would Have Known earlier.

Someone posts a rejection with a note expressing bitterness.
...Two drinks if it's, "Their loss."

Someone posts that they received a notification a program is accepting only one applicant this year.

Someone posts a result from a program without rolling admissions whose deadline has not yet passed.

There is a forum post asking, "Who posted this result?"

There is a results search listing that asks, "Who posted this result?"
...Two drinks if it asks for GRE and GPA.

You are waitlisted at a program, and someone posts they were accepted there but are turning it down.

Someone posts a result for a subject you have never heard of.

Someone posts a result for a subject you are fairly sure does not actually exist.

Late 40's is not too old to start tromping around active lava fields!! Don't ever, ever fall into the "I'm too old" trap.

(I am biased, of course: http://unlikelygrad.wordpress.com/2009/10/11/never-too-old/ )

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!

Is the Blackout affecting anyone else?

No Reddit, No Wikipedia...yet I keep going to them. There's not even PennSound or UbuWeb...

At first, I also feared that pool of applicants who had saved a baby from a burning building, but then I thought, "what if that baby grew up to be Hitler?" So, in an attempt to dampen the ad com's enthusiasm for baby saving candidates, I made my entire SOP about this hypothetical; baby's growing up to be Hitler and the superior applicants who should be punished for saving them.

Now, I think I'm a shoe-in.



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When I applied last time (three years ago), I checked at least twenty times a day. It was pathetic and unheathly. This time around, once February hits, I'm not ckecking at all. I will still continue to check the forums and post things, but I refuse to check the results board. It sometimes skews your perception. My acceptances to MA programs didn't arrive until late March, and, but that time, I had ruled everything out because I kept seeing all of the acceptances/rejections in late February/early March.

Anyway, for the month of February, I bought some Good Luck incense. I plan to burn one a day for the whole month. That's how I'm doing it. No results board...just incense.

Some days it's just too difficult to think about getting rejected from everywhere, so I indulge my wildest fantasies of acceptance. It's a wonderful thing.

I'm 34. I was more worried about the age mattering to me than to the school. Or more accurately, the responsibilities I have rather than the age. I have a mortgage and an 18 month old son. I applied to a PhD program understanding I'd have to quit my job. And I'm finally making good money (but the work isn't meaningful to me). Going from 'good money' to a $16k / year stipend is something I can't just jump into given my commitments. Luckily my wife has a good, stable job. They pay teachers well here in CT. So we can probably make this work, but my choice to go back to school will require sacrifices from my family.

I found out I got accepted to my program of choice today. Which is f-ing awesome, but it makes all the money stuff real now. Had I had my epiphanies when I was 25 I would not have this conflict. For me, this is why age is relevant.

Don't stress out over GRE. You'd be wasting your time/energy.

Don't post any sensitive stuff on FB ever. Besides, if you get in to your first choice the people who are close to you who have suffered all your neurotic anticipation with you deserve the phone call.

At first, I also feared that pool of applicants who had saved a baby from a burning building, but then I thought, "what if that baby grew up to be Hitler?" So, in an attempt to dampen the ad com's enthusiasm for baby saving candidates, I made my entire SOP about this hypothetical; baby's growing up to be Hitler and the superior applicants who should be punished for saving them.

Now, I think I'm a shoe-in.



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Ha ha! I'm finishing a paper on Moby-Dick right now. Even though I am hating writing this paper, I do think it's the greatest book ever written. Hopefully, you'll pick it up again or take a random American Lit class someday just because it's on the syllabus. Be careful though, because people tend to fall into two categories; people who have never read Moby-Dick and people who re-read Moby-Dick about once a year. Moby-Dick is kinda like potato chips. Once you start, you can't stop.

My area of total ignorance is anything new or trendy...to an absurd degree. No Cormac what's his face, nothing from that guy who left the Oprah book club, then returned to it, no books with the word "tatoo" in the title, nothing about "soup" or "Maury" or "ashes" of any kind or "Speaking Pretty." No Joan Didion, whatever it means to be Joan Didion or to read her. I just can't ever bring myself to read more than 2 pages of anything on those very appealing tables in book stores. Friends sometimes give me books for gifts and at this point, I usually give them away before I even bring them home, because I just know I'll never read the thing.

I am also wholly ignorant of most French writers and poets. I've read about 1/2 of Proust's Rememberance of Things Past and 2 chapters of Zola but no Flaubert, no Verlaine, no Baudlaire, and these are the guys I always mean to get around to reading, I just can't seem to find a way into them.

Ha ha! I'm finishing a paper on Moby-Dick right now. Even though I am hating writing this paper, I do think it's the greatest book ever written. Hopefully, you'll pick it up again or take a random American Lit class someday just because it's on the syllabus. Be careful though, because people tend to fall into two categories; people who have never read Moby-Dick and people who re-read Moby-Dick about once a year. Moby-Dick is kinda like potato chips. Once you start, you can't stop.

My area of total ignorance is anything new or trendy...to an absurd degree. No Cormac what's his face, nothing from that guy who left the Oprah book club, then returned to it, no books with the word "tatoo" in the title, nothing about "soup" or "Maury" or "ashes" of any kind or "Speaking Pretty." No Joan Didion, whatever it means to be Joan Didion or to read her. I just can't ever bring myself to read more than 2 pages of anything on those very appealing tables in book stores. Friends sometimes give me books for gifts and at this point, I usually give them away before I even bring them home, because I just know I'll never read the thing.

I am also wholly ignorant of most French writers and poets. I've read about 1/2 of Proust's Rememberance of Things Past and 2 chapters of Zola but no Flaubert, no Verlaine, no Baudlaire, and these are the guys I always mean to get around to reading, I just can't seem to find a way into them.

Yay!!!! I am FINALLY done with all of my applications! Okay, so technically I still have to mail in the TOship materials for funding for UMass, but I am ultimately DONE with the applications.

Damn it feels good to be a gangster.

At first, I also feared that pool of applicants who had saved a baby from a burning building, but then I thought, "what if that baby grew up to be Hitler?" So, in an attempt to dampen the ad com's enthusiasm for baby saving candidates, I made my entire SOP about this hypothetical; baby's growing up to be Hitler and the superior applicants who should be punished for saving them.

Now, I think I'm a shoe-in.



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I did.
Whoever thought I was a conceited bitch before got their confirmation, but who cares about them.




I was just very EXCITED!! .


ETA: none of my friends were applying to grad school in the US, so it's not like I was rubbing it in anyone's face.

I'm starting to freak out now. Emory starts sending out interviews what? Next weekish? Which means shit just got real.
This is year 2 of trying to get in for me, and I thought maybe since I was more prepared than last year (I think), that I'd be less anxious. Nope. Anxiety levels are way up.

Probably sounds bad, but I have issues with people that are obsessed with being too correct. Some things just sound bad, even if they are right. For the most part, I like 90% of written communication to be light and informal.

I hate when people say things like "IT IS I!" Sure, it's correct, but you sound like a wizard.

Carnegie Mellon. They waitlisted me last year, which only brings my hopes up even higher. But really, I'll be happy if I'm offered admission anywhere--another round of rejections would be rough.

Now you're breaking my heart, because I never thought of doing that with my own horrible mistakes.

I went to all state schools out west, where life is pretty casual, and wound up working with a bunch of ivy leaguers in Boston, many of whom can't talk to their plumber. The joke's on that guy who wrote the article. There's probably not alot to talk about with your plumber in Boston, because plumbers in Boston are about as interesting as Harvard and Yale grads in Boston. It's the weather. It makes people introverted, kind of dull, but extremely hard-working. If the author of this article wasn't so self-involved, he might have realized the plumber didn't know how to talk to him either.

Madam Sosostris, famous clairvoyant, had a bad cold, nevertheless
Is known to be the wisest woman in Europe
With a wicked pack of cards.

Timshel,

You have application fatigue. I see you have one outstanding. I felt the same way once I sent out 6 and had that last push to send in the final 2. I had a hopeless feeling that just seemed to keep me from crossing the finish line with my last app. Have a friend read your writing sample with you, explain it to them, etc. It will get you moving again and you can finally finish.

I will be applying to grad school this fall and those who are also applying soon or will reapply in the near future, I would advise reading Donald Asher's "Graduate Admissions Essays: Write Your Way Into the Graduate School of Your Choice". So far, it is extremely useful in how I am approaching my schools. It is not all about crafting the best graduate school essay; its about crafting the strongest graduate school application possible.

For the past 2 weeks, I have been on this site more times than I can count and I was just so bothersome to see how the best applicants with the stellar GPAs and research experience were turned down. I do not know if it was because it were not lucky or too many people applied with few spots at hand, but I also think in comes down to how WE market ourselves.

Tip: Although I have not completed a graduate school application yet, don't list all your achievements in your SOP. Treat the graduate school process as your next potential job opportunity.

Asher goes into detail about what happens to when admission committees reviews your application and what ways you can beat more qualified applicants. I'm heard stories of people who brought this book getting accepted to all their graduate school programs so I had to loan it from the library!

I'm going to read the SOP part this week so I can start working on my SOP early. Thanks to the people above with the SOP advice. I will take that into consideration. Appreciate it. Good luck!