Aubergine

For me, location is actually pretty key! I am pretty affected by my surroundings, and know from experience that I don't do my best work in environments I find depressing.

I got into Northwestern IPTD! I feel like I have felt every single possible emotion over the past 24 hours. Woof. 

Kamisha - I'm close with several students choosing between PhD programs at this very moment and in talking with them have gotten the sense that applicants do not have a fully realistic picture of what the job market is like--nor do many admitting programs provide that data for them.  I'm also an interested observer of the job market as I prepare to go on it in the fall.  Also, I have a lot of friends who have gone through the job market--some of whom have been spectacularly successful, some who are fighting to get by.  Many of them felt that they had little knowledge about the job market when they started (though it was certainly better than) and many of them feel they would have made different decisions had they known.
 
In his fit of immaturity, TDazzle suggested that these statistics are known to all.  In actually, getting numbers on the situation is rather hard.  There are aggregate level numbers like those reported by the MLA, etc, but those don't really tell us what it looks like on the ground.  Few schools actually report reliable numbers too.  The Harvard numbers I posted are the best quality and timespan I've see for what it looks like to get a PhD from a top department.
 
No, as I said at the end of my post, I am not at all inclined to steer people away from choosing a PhD program.  In fact, all things considered, I would very likely choose to do it again.
 
My point is not to dictate peoples' choices--each of us have to decide for ourselves, obviously, and what you value may not be what I value--but since a tt job is the endgoal of many pursuing PhD programs, data that helps people on the verge of committing to a career figure out how likely that is may be very useful to some.  Unfortunately, as TDazzle's snark makes clear, such information is, for many, also anxiety provoking. 

WHAT THE FUCK I'M IN AT ROCHESTER NOW. WITH UNI FELLOWSHIP + STIPEND this is too much i'm going to drown myself in rum.

There are some that I still haven't heard from... but I'm going to Brown. It was my top choice in terms of faculty, ranking, placement, etc. I suppose if I got into U of Chicago I might have convinced myself for geographical reasons. But I didn't, so yeah.

In at Yale, History of Art+Film Studies. 

I'm in at Yale. History of Art + Film Studies.
 
This past hour has been the strangest, most discombobulating experience of my life so far.
 
After years of browsing this forum, sharing the joys, frustrations, and heartbreaks...it's over. All those rejections, and then I get an acceptance from one of my dream choices.
 
Thank you all. 

Jazzy, bringing the drama! I also read the original post, and basically the issue to me is not that you want to go to Columbia or Berkeley, which is totally fine, but that you want to go to those programs solely because you think they are viewed as more prestigious than the ones you got into. It doesn't even seem like you're concerned with anything substantive about the programs themselves. Where are you getting those ideas? The idea that Columbia or Berkeley are appreciably more prestigious than Chicago or Brown or UCLA is just straight-up bizarre to me. They're all different, sure, but in type, not degree. I mean, there are multiple people in my program (Michigan) who turned down Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and a ton who have turned down Berkeley to come here - and that's just my cohort and the ones directly above and below. I feel like we always have a bunch of admits who are deciding between Berkeley and Michigan, and it's usually about 50/50 if they come here or there. I'm not tryin'a brag on my program or anything (though it is awesome!), but it's just reality. A lot of people consistently turn down multiple Ivies for Rutgers, which has better placement than most Ivies (and really, why does prestige matter except for that? Isn't that sort of the ultimate test of prestige?). It just seems like your ideas about prestige are coming straight from US News's exact rankings, which is stretching them beyond what they are capable of doing.
 
Your friends who got into Berkeley or Columbia - did they get into Chicago or Brown or UCLA or NYU? I highly doubt they got into everything, because it's individual at that point and not about how "good" you are. It's not like undergrad where there's an objective scale. If there is something about Berkeley or Columbia specifically, substantively, that you really, really can't live without, that's totally fine, and I agree that if you really want it, apply again and go for it (and that time around, don't apply for schools you won't be thrilled to go to)! But don't do it because you think the schools you got into aren't prestigious enough. It's just simply not true.
 
And hey, if you are a competitive person, I bet you'd LOVE Chicago!

Hey don't dismiss Philly. It has an amazing restaurant scene (some say better than New York). It's totally walkable and the people are very nice. Unlike New York. 

You guys!!  I just got in to Penn State!!! 6 years of full funding!!
 
AAAAAHHHHH!!!

Just accepted at Brown!!!!!!

How is that cryptic? You're a finalist. They're gonna let you know later if they accepted you and if they will fund you. Not much of a close-reader, are you?

Thanks eigen. If anyone is unaware, gradcafe does offer the option of blocking posts/some interactions from other users. My gc life has improved exponentially since I started to use that feature. I can't stop someone from targeting me (and I'm sure I have signed on to another week or so of reputation bombing, profile visiting, and nasty messaging just by posting this) but I don't have to listen to it.

- infj, who believes that most people are actually pretty wonderful

No, it's not their job. It's a single component of their job, which includes a bunch of other things that take priority over getting admissions decisions out on the applicants' schedules. It is completely normal to send graduate applicants a response on the application anytime between January and April. Professional courtesy includes courtesy from us.

Hey Lefils-
I applied to Northwestern as well, just wondering how you found out (i.e. email, view decision link on app, phone call etc.). I had some good news in an email from POI, but nothing solid. 
 
Congrats
Best,
 
Hi Sogni-UofC sends emails only, from what I hear.

I have to agree. If you have legitimate evidence to prove that this has happened to you, you might contact the University or department and present that evidence. But it sounds like you are basing this off of an assumed-rejection and an iffy comment by a stranger on the internet that they were unaware of of any current students from Asia. Berkeley is ranked #1in English and gets close to 500 applications for 10-20 spots. There is NO ONE who is a shoe-in for that program, no matter how good their work is or how productive their contact with a POI has been.
 
I hope that you get good news very soon but your signature in the face of no real substantive evidence is definitely unprofessional and potentially libelous. 

CONGRATULATIONS ME TOO THAT WAS THE NICEST EMAIL EVER TOO

Cheryll Glotfelty from the University of Nevada, Reno just emailed me to tell me that they have not finalized their acceptances yet, but that the committee has already voted to give me admission with a Teaching Assistantship.  I'm... I'm in.  I'm in.  I did it.
 

That was me. I received an email late last night (apparently they tried to leave a voicemail on Friday... but I never received it).
 
Super excited!

OK, so why is everyone taking what "Hal Foster" says so personally? The tone is a little strange, I admit, but that's no reason to get angry about it and jump down his throat. There were no personal attacks, though he did get some in return (calling someone an asshole is not very collegial, by the way). Take it from someone who's been in a PhD program for four years now, you can't get so offended, so defensive, if someone says something you don't like. And I hate to say this to everyone who is so on edge about admissions decisions, but getting in to a PhD program is the easy part: if you're qualified you will get into a good number of programs; if you don't get in anywhere you probably aren't qualified. It's simple, and probably the fairest shake you'll get in grad school (think about this: when you apply for fellowships, all the committee will see is a short project proposal and your letters of recommendation--in most cases, no transcripts, no writing samples, very little about your previous work, no matter how good). So don't stress so much. Be generous about what people say. Give them the benefit of the doubt. Let people share their interests, and get excited about what you're about to do. You shouldn't be applying to grad school if the biggest pleasure it gives you is to indulge your neuroses and anxieties (though that is part of the fun).

This is exactly what I did in my SOP. Eerie!

Funny that I just posted the above this morning.
 
Just accepted to Ohio State's Comparative Studies program and nominated for a University Fellowship.

In my SOP (last season), I mentioned discovering a love of teaching while teaching abroad, which motivated me to return to school in order to eventually teach the subjects I love at a university level. I think it's a good idea to devote a line or two to teaching experience (if appropriate) in the SOP, since we are ultimately training to be professors. I don't think it implies that you would be any less capable or devoted a researcher. At least, that was my approach.    

Dont knock participatory things.  Zizek is an idiot but Boaventure de Sousa Santos is all-righty.  There is far more going on with democracy movements than meeting-up in a park and voting on stuff in places outside of Zizek's viewpoint. 

(this is an ok-post since I am hating on riotbeards comment)
 
And Pynchon may suck - gravity's rainbow was soo booring - but the crying of lot 49 is still a great book. 

This is an unfortunate opinion that keeps so many people from seeking help. Mental health counseling or "therapy" can be just as important to maintaining wellness as it is to fixing problems that already exist. It is enormously helpful to be able to talk and bounce ideas off a neutral person who can really put things into perspective for you. You can seek out therapy without being pathologized or diagnosed with something or prescribed drugs.