ûl ʾašerātō

LLP: That totally happened to me a few days ago! The day I got accepted to UW-Madison I got a call from a Wisconsin number. I got really excited because I thought it was going to be my POI calling to talk about funding, but it turned out to be one of my students. She probably wondered why I was so short with her...

Has anyone heard from UCLA yet (NELC)? I saw someone post an acceptance into an MA program, but haven't seen anything on PhD. Based upon the last few years on the results search, they begin announcement in mid-February. But, I spoke with the Student Affairs officer this past week, and she assured me that the committee hadn't even met yet! #conflictinginformation

My area is also ancient Near East, though I am in ancient Israel and NW Semitics. I've seen a few results posts from people in these areas (UMich; Emory; UChicago). Has anyone heard from anywhere else? I got accepted at Wisconsin-Madison in the Hebrew and Semitic Studies PhD program, but it's 8 years and funding is dodgy. So, I'm not sold yet. I got rejected from UT-Austin, but Jo Ann Hackett had already told me that I needed more language work (I didn't switch to HB/ANE until grad school). So, I wasn't surprised. Emory (GDR) sent invites to their interview weekend mid-January. I didn't receive an invite. So, I've pretty much been rejected from there as well, which is fine considering it's not a NELC department and it was apparent that it wasn't the best fit for my interests when I visited. UCLA is my top choice, but they had a larger than usual incoming group last year. When I visited, my two POIs suggested that it was going to be really tough this application year, which seems to be even worse now that every program is reporting record applications this year. Has anyone heard from UCLA? I've avoided contacting Schniedewind, mostly because I don't want to be bothersome. Any advice? Obviously my candor might show my "hand" a little too much, but I don't really care. Ideally the academic community would be willing to support one another, despite the tough competition. Though, as the earlier posters noted, it doesn't seem to be going that way as much this year.