omensetter

Re Brown: I applied in English and haven't received anything either. There's also nothing on the results board for English, so maybe the rejections for that program haven't been released yet?

Thanks for these kind words, margeryhemp! You're right about the impossibility of knowing the intricate workings of the adcomm. If only there were some way the process could be made more transparent! I suppose the number of applicants makes that impossible, though Sorry to hear that! Rejections suck.

So.. Are those of us who haven't yet heard from Brown assuming rejection? This one is pretty painful, I have to admit. It's not like I was expecting to get in, and of course I understand it's competitive and stuff, but from my perspective the fit was pretty much perfect (used a POI's work extensively in my WS; multiple other POIs with shared interests and whose work I explicitly related to future planned projects). I mean, there must be some major weakness in my application, I just wish I was more able at this point to see what it is! (Since it's being discussed, I also have a 4.0 equivalent, 170v/156q/5.0aw and 700 GRE lit - that stuff guarantees nothing.) ETA: ugh, I read this back and I sound like an asshole. All I meant to say, in addition to the Brown question, was that it sucks not getting in to your dream school.

Major congratulations to the Brown admits, and to everyone else who's heard good news in the past few days! madamepsychosis, fwiw I had an interview with Chicago and have heard nothing since so am assuming rejection.

Fantastic! Major congratulations!

Looks like there's a UChicago English acceptance on the board! Anyone want to claim it? I'd be very interested to know whether the email was from a POI or from the graduate school itself.

Yep, most of this is consistent with my interview as well. Like mollifiedmolloy, mine was a Skype interview. My interviewers spoke in general terms about my application, then asked me to kind of summarise my research for them. They asked about my plans for future research in quite specific terms -- e.g. texts I might want to work with -- but certainly didn't seem to be expecting any kind of defined dissertation project (which was a relief!). They also asked me to explain a specific phrase from my SOP; like everyone else, I would make sure that going in, you know your materials really well, and can clarify things as needed. Quite a bit of my interview was dedicated to my questions. I'd strongly suggest preparing some decent questions for this aspect of the interview, especially because it's the only part one has any real control over. The questions that one's likely to ask after admission are, to my mind, quite different to pre-admission questions, so perhaps have some questions that aren't answerable with facts -- conversational questions, I guess I mean -- ready to hand.

Thanks also for all these responses! They've definitely cleared things up a bit.

Nope, I have an MA! Lol. But 'potential future projects' sounds like just the kind of stuff I wrote in my SOP, so this is reassuring.

Congratulations 1Q84 and LCB! So nice to get positive news this early in the season!

Thanks so much for the information, REOSlowdeath!

I'm interested in what people mean by 'research project' here. I might be alone in this, but I certainly don't have a dissertation topic in mind. I spent quite a bit of time in my SOP discussing possible ideas for future research but these were definitely at the 'motivating question' rather than 'defined topic' level. What do others understand this term to mean in the specific context of an interview? Oh, and I told one of my LOR writers about my interview, but we talk multiple times a week and I feel like it would be weirder if I didn't tell him. The others I haven't told; I'm probably just going to talk to them when I've made my final decision (if I actually get accepted anywhere, that is).

Congratulations, mollifiedmolloy!

Thanks for the congratulations, and the much-needed good luck! I really hope my posting here hasn't caused anyone any excessive anxiety; as has been said multiple times, nobody should count themselves out until there's an official rejection in hand. A current grad student in the department told me that last year's cohort was unusually large, so perhaps that might have something to do with the change in this year's process.

Just got my actual Chicago interview invite! No clue what's going on in terms of what they're telling people, but I don't think it's a mistake. Excited/terrified!!