antecedent

"Psychiatric Nursing" ....it's definitely been reading my email

One thing that stresses me out about all this is that POIs/AdComs seem to like sending emails at any time. So far my experience is that weekends and evenings aren't even sacred the way I would expect them to be - the first correspondence I got from a program was the Sunday night between Christmas and New Years. It means there's no time that I can kind of lean back and think "well at least I can stop worrying for the next few days" or "tomorrow is the start of a new week with new possibilities!" No more emotional crutches, basically /end whining

If my signature in part triggered this, keep in mind my applications are in Linguistics this time around (I applied in Lit in 2012) and they run things differently! Yeah, I'm super stoked but soooo nervous about UCSC. It's an 'informal' interview and I'm not quite sure what that means about my status but I hope it's good.

I recommend you study Language. I think that's a good topic.

Well, the truth of the matter is I'm unemployed and living at my mom's house at the moment, so if I didn't do those things all I would have in my life would be job applications and refreshing my gmail. As it is I already spend too much time on those things

The one for this page is for St Jude's Children's Hospital, but the one before that was a more regionally-appropriate Canadian Tire ad supporting the Canadian Olympic hockey team. Not very appropriate to my google searches (I rarely google children's hospitals or hockey) but at least the advertising has caught up with my location. For the past month my computer has been convinced I was still in the U.K., which was annoying for searches where geography/nationality was relevant.

Yoga. Socializing. Netflix/TV. Gym/running. Meditation. Fill up the hours! January is more than halfway over! I've given myself time markers unrelated to the outcome of my apps to help pass the time. In February I'm getting a tattoo I've wanted for a long time. In April I'm cutting all my hair off. In June I'm buying myself something I've had my eyes on for months. In July I'm running a half marathon! I find having goals during and after the time you're supposed to to hear back helps keeping perspective and making it through. Also going to the gym cause HELLO ENDORPHINS.

Do it! Often they'll try and put you up with current grad students, and it's a really good way to see if the program is as awesome as you think it is. If you get more than one acceptance I would try to attend every recruitment weekend to compare! That's what they're for.

I've heard from UBuffalo, but that's because their funding deadline is reaaaaally early and they have to nominate their potential PhDs for the first round by tomorrow. I haven't heard from any of my other 9 programs, including schools all over the U.S. I won't be getting nervous about the other applications until at least the beginning of February. That being said, knowing that UCSD responded back to SOMEONE and that someone wasn't me kinda bums me out :/

I'm fairly certain that, at least in the Humanities and Social Sciences, paying for your own PhD is a job application kiss of death. While the saying 'funding begets funding' is pithy and annoying, I think it's worth thinking about in the long run. If no one was willing to pay you to do your research as a PhD, why would anyone pay you as a post-doctoral researcher/prof/whatever? For the record, I would never, ever pay for a PhD. I'd even be (and am) a bit nervous about programs that offer fewer years of guaranteed funding than they project their PhDs to take to finish (i.e. offer 4 years funding when the average finishing time is 5-6 years).

Hi guys/gals! Thanks for the suggestions fuzzylogician! I hope I will have another interview before this cycle is over, so I'll undoubtedly be returning to the advice here. That being said, I think I prepared too much detail oriented materials for the interview. The first question was something like "We've read your SOP, can you please tell us some more about your interests?" and that caught me off guard a bit, so my response was quite unfocused and I think not entirely relevant to the department I was interviewing with. Rookie mistake! Somehow I figured since they had my entire application they wouldn't be asking me broad questions. WRONG. In any case, even making that stupid error straight out of the gate gave us an opportunity to have a frank discussion about some other aspects of my education and background that I think in the end reflected well on me, so that's good. Otherwise the questions were pretty much what I expected, along the lines of "Why this department?" "Who are you interested in working with?" and then some really specifc questions that I don't think were planned and just came up as we were talking, about theories, department preferences, and geography ("Why are you in Vancouver?"). It seemed like they were more trying to get the feel for me as a person/student/intellectual and less as a researcher/academic. There was lots of laughing, which was nice, but there were also some questions that seemed almost like trick questions. All in all, the interview was mostly pleasant, but also quite uncomfortable. I have no idea how it went on their end. I'll let you all know if I ended up getting a/the fellowship!

UBuffalo.

Wow, thanks again for your comprehensive answer! I totally agree with what you said. This is the first time in two rounds of applications that I've even been offered an interview so I am so new to the process and so unsure of what is good practice to ask and what it is good to wait on. When I asked about the stipend I worded it vaguely enough that he could comfortably answer the question without having to do any serious gymanstics, and he gave a suitably vague answer. I'll just wait and see if I get it and go from there. Fingers crossed!

I got a really nice, unsolicited email from a professor on Dec 29th, which was a Sunday. My dad was like "are you sure you wanna go there? They work on the weekends AND over winter break!" lol.

Thanks TakeruK! That is super helpful. I'll be sure to think of my research from a lay or at least academic non-specialist perspective! I'm in contact with a professor who isn't my POI about the interview, and he seems to be avoiding my question of "how much is the stipend?" Is this something I shouldn't be pushy about until after I know if I've been offered the fellowship or not? I think the fellowship adds a 'top up' to whatever stipend is included in the TA-ship, information about which is maddeningly vague on the website.

Hey, thanks so much! That was a super useful response. It is in fact a skype interview, but most of your points are relative to interviewing generally, so that's great. They admitted me without interviewing me first, so I'm trying to figure out if all the questions offered in other threads are relevant. Since posting the department sent me another email, so I have that to focus on now, which is great. I will post my experience here after the interview.

Hi Everyone, Is there much of a difference between fellowship and admissions interviews in terms of the kinds of questions they ask? I know that all of the funding at a specific program I'm interviewing with is tied to teaching, so I'm sure teaching experience will come up. Other than that, should I be expect the same questions about my research, future plans, fit with the program etc. or will they be asking other kinds of questions? I know it's not possible to predict precisely what I'll be asked, but I'm trying to figure out if there's something specific that might show up in a Fellowship interview that wouldn't come up in an Admissions interview. Thanks in advance!

Has anyone else applied for the fellowship deadline at UBuffalo? I've gotten several emails from them since submitting my application (wishing me a happy holidays, notifying that my app is complete, etc.), and every time I get one my heart momentarily stops beating. I got one this morning, and rationally I know no one is going to send out nominations on Christmas Eve, but a little voice in my head somewhere was like 'Hey! This could be it!' SO. STRESSFUL.

It took me at least two hours to fill in, double check, reformat/rename files, and correctly upload everything to each application form. I submitted 10 applications in 8 days, so the amount of hours I spent on mind-numbing administrivia that could play a role in deciding my future in such a short time was both exhausting and overwhelming.

My name is the same, but I updated my avatar to try and channel punk rock Frida in this round of applications - being a badass lady who doesn't give a fuck. The reality is I'm still scared shitless that after 2 rounds and 15 applications total I won't get it anywhere. Aaaaaah!

I've been reading The Mists of Avalon and it's taken me right back to my 'Arthur of the English' Arthurian legends class during my undergrad. I also hope to read some good YA fiction in the next few months. I loved TFIOS, and next I'm thinking of Lev Grossman's The Magicians. I also want to reread JPod over Christmas Woohoo fun reading!

I don't have much heartening advice, I just wanted to say I'm sorry that you had such a negative interaction with an advisor you trust, respect, and in some ways rely on during this process. I know how that can make things seem pretty hopeless because it happened to me too. You'll know you're results soon enough, when this awful period of waiting is over (it doesn't feel soon enough, but Feb-March will come sooner than we all think). Try and keep busy til then. Like rksdf said, in the event that it goes poorly, it feels like the end of the world but it isn't. Many people (myself included) apply 2 or even 3 times. Look for something meaningful to keep you busy and you'll make it through.

Thanks guys!