Katy85

First of all, congrats on the acceptances! What you did in your application package sounds really sound, and well-done. It also reinforces what I did in my applications, which was very similar - I outlined my research interests in the SOP and also went into specific arguments from my undergrad and graduate theses. Then, my writing sample was a segment of my graduate thesis. Not to say that my application package was perfect, but it seems like I had everything lined up right (including letters, etc). I'm beginning to think what's gotten me all these rejections so far is my state school undergrad degree...but Goddamn, I didn't (and still don't) want to go 100,000 dollars into debt even it it was William and Mary, UVA and other bigger-name undergrad schools....ahh, the decisions we make that will haunt us later. (end rant)

Not me - mehhh...

Thanks KilgoreTrout (nice name by the way)! And thanks for the information, fed. Congrats on the good news too! Did they mention how many people applied and what their target incoming class would be? Inquiring minds (or at least me hah) want to know.

Hey again, I see another acceptance on the board from U. Missouri-Columbia. Crazy how fast they're accepting people, since I emailed the DGS and she said the admissions committee met for the first time last week! Hopefully they're spreading out the acceptances over a couple of weeks...I still have my fingers crossed for this one...

I agree. The thought that they are at all "distressed" about making these decisions, or at least claim to be, was oddly comforting.

Thank you! I (and I'm assuming a lot of other rejectees) needed this.

I'm with both of you, exactly at that halfway mark and feeling like giving up altogether. (Thankfully I can't give up since the applications are already nebulously out there.) I'm pulling for all of us 0-fers, I think we deserve something positive.

Agreed. It looks like they usually do all go up in one day, so I think we can still hope for that. Of course this would happen on a day I have off from teaching high school, so I have less to distract me and will definitely be staring at my computer all day.

HOLY CRAP, I see Brown rejections on the board. No email yet for me though. WHAT DOES IT MEAN?? <-- Freaking out.

No rejections yet on the joint English/WS front (it'll probably be a week or so since they just did acceptanced), so that must be an English rejection. Not looking to getting that envelope eventually...*sigh*

Hey, don't forget some of us don't have acceptances to lean on yet...

I take that back. Implicit rejections are worse than outright rejections AND silence. Yay!

YES. I think if I don't hear anything today, and have to go into another weekend without news, I might just go crazy. Even a rejection is better than silence!

I totally understand how difficult it is to apply while you're still in college, doing theses, taking difficult courses, etc. It's why I decided to take a couple years off after completing my MA. That being said, however, I almost wish I had applied while I was still entrenched in academics. It's extremely difficult it is to put all the time and energy it takes into applications when you're NOT still in school and don't have the momentum of still being involved. It makes it that much harder to stay on top of professors (you know how impossible they can be to get ahold of, even on campus), perfect your writing samples, etc. It also makes you feel like you're living this weird double life - still putting in 60 hours a week at your job, and then going home and putting in more hours on something that feels totally unrelated and like a pipe dream. To make matters worse, I teach middle and high school which takes an incredible amount of time and energy, and is a job that you can't do half-assed (or your life will be even more miserable). I want to constantly improve my lessons, assessments, etc. but then I wonder whether I'll even be doing this next year (and hoping I can go back to teaching college, which comes so much easier). I thought teaching secondary school would be similar to when I taught college - I was SO wrong. It is much more draining, there are many more factors involved (classroom management, parents, national core standards, seeing the kids EVERY DAY), and it's just life-consuming. It's rewarding but not often enough, and summers off don't begin to make up for the stress of every week. SO, in conclusion to my rant (sorry by the way), maybe I would have done things differently and applied while still in school? I don't know. The life experience is good but I miss academics terribly. Aaaand...done.

Congrats Marlowe23, and thanks for letting us know (and for being sensitive). I thought it might have something to do with a fellowship. So you found out by postal mail...interesting and good to know!