kaputzing

Nice slacks/khakis and a nice, well-fitted button-down.

If you believe the school actually has the chance to woo you, then go. Only decline offers if you are sure that there's no chance in hell they'll be able to convince you to attend. You sound like you like School C well enough though, so I would definitely visit. You will probably get the chance to meet some of your cohorts as well, and, who knows, you might find the cohort atmosphere more to your liking at School C than at School A. Chat with some of the grad students to see how your POIs at C might work, etc.

I decided many years back to be more gender-sensitive in my pronoun usage. However, and this may sound odd to many, I feel more uncomfortable these days using "s/he" than using "he." After becoming acquainted with those who identify outside of the gender binary, "s/he" now doesn't strike me as particularly gender-neutral anymore, since it presupposes a gender binary. But gender-neutral pronouns are still incredibly awkward to use. In conclusion, now I just practice English gymnastics in order to avoid pronouns altogether if necessary. Or I just go with the singular "they" if I must, but never without wincing.

If it'll give you peace of mind, then go ahead and pay for a rescore. (You might be able to argue them into rescoring for free as well given the initial mishap.)

There's very affordable housing around Hyde Park that isn't owned by the university. Some of it may be a little out of the way, but the prices are usually better, and the walk isn't too bad, plus the pet rules are more flexible. I highly encourage you to check out http://marketplace.uchicago.edu/ for apartments.

Yup, unless HB/NWS didn't take anyone this year. (Possible, but I find it unlikely.)

Grats, Tynan! Chicago Div School results are coming out, it seems. Grats to acceptees! Regarding Chicago ancient fields, if my information is correct, then there are three "unaccounted for" students who have been accepted. Chicago took three cuneiform and la sarar reports two comp. sem. and one archaeology, and as far as I understand, ancients only took nine total this year for the PhD programs.

1. Advisor: Sane? Insane? Nice? Not so nice? Someone I can conceivably work with? Open to ideas? A good mentor, both academically and "politically"? Well-connected and liked by the field? Invested in grad students getting good placements? I am willing to compromise on research interests if the advisor is some combination of these things. I would rather work with someone who won't drive me crazy than with someone who shares my interests and does drive me crazy. 2. Funding, up to a certain extent. If all offers are within the same ballpark, then discount this point. (Of course, must factor in cost-of-living into the funding calculation.) 3. Research fit. 4. Resources, both in # of full-time and diverse faculty and # of projects available for students to work on. Also, stuff like libraries/archives and museums are important to me. 5. Tradition/prestige: Sorry to sound shallow, but it's at least a little bit important for placements. Also, schools who continuously place their grads in good positions are often dedicated to getting their grads good jobs, while those that do not may be less dedicated to developing their grads professionally so to speak. 7. Location. 8. Atmosphere. To be honest, so long as it is not overly competitive and toxic, I am not picky. (I am in a department that is known to be highly competitive and a little toxic, and I didn't even realize this until people described the department in this manner to me. It is clearly a function of "this is all I know, so I thought this was normal ..." but I think I may be able to swim in most environments. Which is not to say that a warmer and fuzzier department might not woo me, but it's not the most important thing. )

Visit the campus, see if you like what you see and the people you meet.

1. There is some major turmoil going on in the OI right now. 2. I know of at least one person accepted at UChicago who didn't know his admission results until the official letter came out. (Yes, he was accepted and didn't hear from his POI until he had the official email in his inbox; his POI flat-out refused to give him an answer.) 3. Yeah, check with Pardee if you're really nervous.

It is field-dependent. Yes, there are top scholars everywhere scattered amongst departments of less prestigious schools. In some fields, though, you'll notice that no matter where these scholars teach, they'll all have gotten their degrees at a group of core schools. (Example: in my field, top scholars basically come from UMich, UChicago, UPenn, Yale, Harvard, a few German and Dutch schools, and maybe Oxford once in a while.)

I never realized exactly how dismal the stipends were until my brother got offered a $5000 annual stipend today from a Masters program.

Yale is killing me with the silence. I didn't send in a writing sample either, 'cause they didn't breathe a word about it on their sit, and it was too late to email the DGS to ask if they wanted one. Now I'm wondering if it'd have been better to stick it into the supplements despite its length.

When you are notified is up to your POI or head of your program. Some professors will contact you earlier, some later. If's only been three days since they made their picks, so I would say you might want to hang tight until next week and see if you get any word from them

Congrats to whoever was admitted to Chicago! (I too have an acceptance but am refraining from posting anything to the results page until I actually have the official letters in my hand and/or in my email inbox ... I am still a little dubious of my results so far and keep expecting follow-up emails, saying, "We're sorry, but we made a mistake.") My own subfield is cuneiform. I believe they accepted nine students this year for the ancient side in total, with three of them being cuneiformists. They may have accepted nine for the more modern side as well, but don't quote me on that. I think they accepted three cuneiformists at Berkeley as well. No clue about the totals though. Someone was asking about Michigan earlier; I know the NELC department is having funding issues. I can't speak about all of the sub-fields, but I understand that their cuneiform department is particularly unstable right now, with Michalowski nearing retirement and no replacement in sight.

It is actually pretty terrible. I was blissfully oblivious of the decision-making process until I got a notification yesterday. Now I have to retrain myself into not thinking about schools again; I've wasted a lot of time since yesterday neurotically checking emails and such. Before yesterday I didn't have this problem, but once the flood gates are open ...

I see! Thanks for the update on the situation and reviving a glimmer of hope for me, haha. As a Yale insider, you will keep us posted if you see hordes of potential NELC grad students swarming the campus for interviews, yes? ? In other news, this is what I've heard about JHU, for those who are interested, but keep in mind I do not have particularly good contacts with the department. One of the profs at JHU dropped me a hint a few months ago that they may not be accepting Assyriologists this year, but it really depends on if the archaeologists find anyone they want from the applicant pile.

I wouldn't be surprised. UChicago usually notifies early February. I think Yale typically notifies around early to mid-Feb. as well, but they also do interviews, usually sent out late January? So it's getting a little close to the wire for Yale; I imagine if you haven't gotten an interview or don't get an interview very soon, you may consider yourself pretty much rejected. JHU seems to notify late February afaik. They have very few spots though. I've heard their recent policy is to take three students a round for the entire department (so at least one sub-department will lose out), but I may be wrong on this. Let me know if you guys have anything else on them. No idea about UPenn. That place is like a black hole. History has them sending out notifications in March.

Unofficial acceptances rolling out for Berkeley. (True to history, they have made their decision earlier than everyone else in the process!) I am not sure whether all the NELC/NES sub-departments decide at the same time, but just an FYI for you peeps. Good luck!

Ancient Near Eastern studies (more on the philology side). Three schools I've applied to require writing samples, one school strongly recommends it, and this last one says not a word about a sample.

Doesn't say it's required, doesn't say it's optional, doesn't mention anything at all about writing samples. Attach or don't attach a sample? My gut instinct tells me to attach one as if it is optional so they will at least have a sample to read if they want to (and they can obviously just throw it away otherwise). OTOH, I'm afraid it'll seem as if I didn't read their website. It's a little late in the process for me to be emailing profs/grad students about if a sample is recommended, so any thoughts?

I disagree. They can definitely hurt an otherwise stellar application if the adcoms read something in there that makes them think (extreme example) that you're an arrogant prick who isn't aware of his own privileges. There's a very real chance that the statement may rub the adcom the wrong way if they haven't had their cup of coffee in the morning, etc. If you have something to say, submit one. If you don't, don't try to twist your past into something that fits what you think they're looking for. If I'd had a choice to opt out of these, I would, even as someone who falls into multiple minority groups and has done work for minority communities, simply because I don't think my minority status has ever disadvantaged me or had a great effect on my decision to pursue higher education.

Submitted one, have two more left to go for today. Anyone getting pissed off at the doc to word convertors some grad schools use where either they screw up your formatting or replace all unconventional letters/symbols with boxes or dots or stuff? Had that issue with one app. Tried to fix it for 15 minutes, got pissed, gave up, and just submitted it, dots and all.

Absolutely tell them. "After careful consideration, I've decided to drop X school and add Y school to my list. Here is the new attached Excel sheet with all the due dates etc." I updated my professors on my list 3-4 times. They won't mind at all.

Just wanted to know what people stuck to when formatting their writing samples. Did you include a title page, abstract, and/or outline? Or did you omit a title page and abstract, etc.? Application number and/or name in the header in addition to page number even if it goes against the bibliographic style you chose?