dazedandbemused

You can kill mine! Just make it quick and painless.

Amen to that. I have MORE than enough deadbeat cousins in their 30s as examples. Honestly, I have a hard time believing that that many people who apply straight out of undergrad just because they think they're supposed to are actually getting in. That kind of mentality probably shows itself pretty well in their SOPs. I also don't think that most of us who've never been outside of academia should leave it just to make certain it's what we want. I mean, what am I going to do, flip burgers so that three years from now I can come home smelling like grease and think "yup, it's definitely time for that PhD now"? Even if by some mad happenstance you decide that a PhD isn't what you though it would be, at least you spent a few years getting paid to do work that you found interesting. That's got to be worth something.

Does anyone know whether the Language and Literature acceptances go out at the same time as English and Women's Studies at Michigan? I applied to the joint program, even though I know I don't really have half a chance in hell (I think they accepted two last year?) and I just want to be put out of my misery!

Cool, maybe we'll run into each other. Nancy Glazener said something about meeting other acceptees over the next few weeks. (I also told her about gradcafe a few days ago, and now I feel like Big Brother's watching me whenever I write anything that could potentially identify me )

No kidding! I'm scared someone will ask me my opinion about some foundational theorist that everyone knows and that I've never read. It'll be like my freshman year of undergrad when my professor said to the class "of course, you've all read C.S. Lewis's Mere Christianity, right?" and I just nodded along with the rest of them, terrified smile glued to my face.

Fingers and toes, for sure!

Hey Orbis, I see you got into Pitt! I know we aren't having a visit weekend, but are you going to do an individual campus visit?

Ah, drat. Sorry! I was going to suggest the program I'm currently in, but it's for citizens and permanent residents only

Oh, haha. Yeah, we get all up in each other's business around here; we often ask people to claim an acceptance because if it's real we can start foaming at the mouth/suffering from insomnia immediately.

Yeah, transferring isn't really a thing at a lot of schools. I know quite few programs whose websites explicitly say they don't accept transfers. And yeah, the stabbing in the back thing can't be great for your academic reputation either.

The Whistler, are you international, or are you an American who lives outside of the country? Because if the latter, I might have info for you.

Why the ellipses of uncertainty? That's awesome!

I'm sorry, you got into four top 20 schools and you want to try again?? What schools are you aiming for? I mean, I would never do something that mad (the stress is bad enough), but if you think you can handle it... Edit: I mean, this is why you should only apply to schools that you could see yourself going to. And lets not forget that the whole point of applying to a large number of schools is that one hopes to get accepted to at least one. So many people don't get accepted to their dream programs every year, but at some point we have to move on and recognize that dreams don't always become reality.

Yeah, I'm kind of surprised I haven't gotten my rejection from them yet. But maybe they're one of those schools that just hangs on to our apps until May and then goes "Oh yeah, might as well reject those losers already." How many do they usually accept? Because five does seem like a very small number, even not counting the hundreds of people not on gradcafe.

I think you're referring to the results search. It's one of the tabs at the top of the page, next to chat. You can search for English, or a particular school, and see the results that people have posted as far back as 2006.

I don't think it's very common to reimburse people that the school isn't really interested; maybe they feel confident about your place on the waitlist! As for how soon to reply with questions, my average is about 12-16 hours. Usually after sleeping on it. But that's only because if I replied immediately, I would sound like a babbling, overeager buffoon. If you think you can handle it, write that email! And then tell us everything

Hurrah!!

No probs. I think it's most difficult right now because there has been so much news already, but so many schools haven't really even started doing any notifications yet. All you need is one! I think you'll get more, though. Darkest before dawn and all that, eh?

You got this, girlwhowearsglasses. I have faith in you. And in a few weeks, you're gonna be all: Cause that's what being a boss looks like.

Oh God! Friendly bets, I hope?

Wow, it's really been a good news day around here! Congrats everyone and good luck to everyone waiting!

That's why I'm always amazed at the way some people act like top ten = tenure track job. As a professor recently told me, "a lot of highly ranked programs no longer deserve many of the amazing applications that they no longer receive." Many highly ranked programs aren't doing the necessary teacher training, and there are only so many R1 jobs available; the schools with the jobs need people who can teach AND research. Not only that, but I keep hearing people say that you should look at where the majority of professors went to school and apply there. What they seem to be forgetting is that a lot of those professors graduated in the 70s and 80s; the younger professors definitely do not all come straight from the Ivy league.

Yeah, I tried the Craigslist route, but nothing even remotely affordable came up, and most of it was in neighborhoods nowhere near the campus. I would much rather live by myself than not, and I don't want to pay more than 700. sheisthesmoke, you said you never paid more than 500; did you ever live alone on that budget? I will definitely try looking in South Congress; thanks!

Same here; it's always best not to sound too informal. I think once they've signed their email with their first name, feel free to use it.

Mine changed as well. I got the email from Wayne Lesser first, and then an email from the graduate school to check my application status. It changed to "admitted".