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!!

Thanks for all the replies re Chicago! Just to clarify, I did not yet receive an invite to interview; the email made clear that these would be going out this Monday, and that not everyone who received the email would be receiving an invite. My thought was that perhaps the adcomm are planning to finalise a list over the weekend, but wanted to make sure everyone is prepared to respond quickly to their invite if/when it comes. I guess it'll become a little clearer Monday afternoon.. It's so hard to stop obsessing over, though!

Yeah, I applied in English. The wording certainly made it sound like it went out to everyone.

Did all other University of Chicago applicants get the email re invites for interviews going out this coming Monday? I don't think they've interviewed before; I wonder what made them decide to do so this year.

I'd also note that a number of programs encourage you to apply for external scholarships/funding, but then deduct the amount you receive from your stipend/funding package. That is, if your stipend is $25000 and you get an external scholarship worth less than that, you won't 'see' any of the extra money. I'm not at a program, though, obviously, so have no idea how rigorous the enforcement is with this. It's also dependent on the program: I know someone at Berkeley (different field) who got a particular award and got to keep that on top of their stipend; I know someone else who went to Chicago and who got the same award, but the money went straight to the school. You do get the prestige of having an external award to your name, though, and the experience of applying for that stuff is good practice for academic life, which I guess is partly why programs encourage it. I've also heard of people negotiating their teaching loads based on having significant external support. Again, I'd emphasise that I have very little knowledge on this topic, but as far as it does apply, it's something to consider when applying for extra funding in addition to the package your school provides.

Thanks for such a quick response, and for taking the time to check your own app! I've emailed the graduate admissions people. Brown's my top choice, so I'm especially anxious to make sure everything's in order.

Columbia explicitly allows it, and Chicago (which seems to use the same application software as Columbia) has the post-submission 'Upload Materials' option.

A note on the UChicago date listed here - the single early March acceptance in the Results Search is anomalous, I think. In past years (including 2014) they notified in the first couple of weeks of February. Posting this because they're likely to be the first of my programs to send acceptances; all the rest usually notify mid- to late February.

To Brown applicants: when you check your application, what message do you get? Mine says 'Awaiting Materials', and when I scroll down the checklist, under 'TOEFL scores' it says 'Awaiting'. I'm international, but don't need to submit TOEFL/IELTS scores (I'm from an English-speaking country). Is this likely just to be an error that the adcomm will ignore? Or should I contact the Graduate School? I'm worried they'll see the 'Awaiting' bit and just not look at my app, even though a quick glance would show that the scores aren't needed!

Coming back to this late, but thanks for bringing this up - I was all set to send my transcript off until this made me re-check the English department website. It definitely used to say something about sending in hard copies, but must have just recently changed in preparation for this season. Yeah, I don't have as many language courses as you but, as you say, it seems bizarre to re-list every course under a separate institution heading. I've not submitted yet, but in my 'course title and number' field I've just listed the course codes (e.g. ITAL11 or whatever). Would yours fit if written like that? Or you could do something like 'ITAL: 11, 12, 33, 45, 66' etc. As is obvious, I'm totally guessing. Also, I assume (based on nothing) that the 'length of study' bit would be more important, and the codes would just confirm what's on the transcript, although I guess the titles, if included in full, would also give an immediate indication of proficiency. The 'Grades Received, if any' bit is also weird - is this meant to be an average? (I've left it blank, but I've left most 'grade' fields blank on my apps due to not attending a school that gives a GPA.) While I've been getting completely frustrated with little parts of the apps, too, I also kind of think that as long as the information's there then the administrators/adcomm aren't going to judge how the form's been filled out; they presumably have to deal with the totally unintuitive and unnecessarily repetitive system as well. For various reasons my information never seems to 'fit' properly with any of the applications but I'm just trying to fill them out so that the information is there, no matter how weird it ends up feeling.

Thanks proflorax and Wyatt's for your replies! You're right, I should just do both. I'm not worried, but I am international, so it's expensive to send (though not prohibitively so).