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15 hours ago, kaithewriter said:

Thank you! I'm in a weird place today...I really love Madison (the only PhD I got into), but it will be hard for my partner to find a job there, and if we went to LSE, I'd get to work with a professor who I adore and would be honored to get to work with...but it's only a masters, and I'd still have to apply for a PhD the following year. Penn would have been a nice way to split the difference in terms of doing a phd and also going somewhere my partner is excited about, but...I'm grateful that I even HAVE options! I'm coming from outside of academia -- 10 years since the last time I was in school -- so I knew I was a long shot for most programs. 

I'm in the last leg of a two-year MA after also being out of school for a while. I wanted to go straight into a PhD, but only got into an MA program. Obviously there are pros and cons to each, but I'll say that doing an MA first let me shake off some of the rust and I'll be a much better PhD student for it. Also, especially if you're looking at humanistic comm programs, it will make you a MUCH more competitive applicant--so if there were places you wanted to go but didn't turn out this application cycle, you know, you might get em next time. 

Good luck with your decision making! Honestly it's way harder than I expected. I only got into one program last time so I just went there, but now that there are choices...

Edited to add: I don't know your partner's field, but I lived in Wisconsin just south of Madison a few years back. I watched a lot of folks move up there and find jobs really quickly. 

Edited by halcyonday
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2 minutes ago, transrelativity said:

@jmc117 Omg, congrats on the Temple acceptance! That's awesome news!! Now we await the funding notifications together... 

Yess!!!! So happy and relieved 

A question-what is the protocol when awaiting answers from funding/other acceptances/rejections. Is there a certain time frame one can respectfully wait to hear back from other programs/wait on funding decisions? I know the Temple slip lists an April "answer by" but...

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34 minutes ago, jmc117 said:

Yess!!!! So happy and relieved 

A question-what is the protocol when awaiting answers from funding/other acceptances/rejections. Is there a certain time frame one can respectfully wait to hear back from other programs/wait on funding decisions? I know the Temple slip lists an April "answer by" but...

I think it's reasonable to wait to hear back from all your schools before you decide, and I think it would be unreasonable for one school to expect you to make a decision before hearing from other places. That said, if you anticipate a response from one of your schools coming later than the deadline that another school gave, I would contact both the school with the deadline and the school that has yet to decide and tell them the situation.

My Temple letter said that first-round funding offers would come in early March. Did yours say something similar? I was hoping to hear sooner because I got their acceptance letter so early, but it doesn't look like that will be the case!

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25 minutes ago, transrelativity said:

I think it's reasonable to wait to hear back from all your schools before you decide, and I think it would be unreasonable for one school to expect you to make a decision before hearing from other places. That said, if you anticipate a response from one of your schools coming later than the deadline that another school gave, I would contact both the school with the deadline and the school that has yet to decide and tell them the situation.

My Temple letter said that first-round funding offers would come in early March. Did yours say something similar? I was hoping to hear sooner because I got their acceptance letter so early, but it doesn't look like that will be the case!

Okay good, I think so too. My letter also said first-round funding offers would come in early March. I anticipated my decision making phase being around Mid-March so having the funding options infront of me would be very helpful and important. 

Cross your fingers for us both to be in the first round funding!! 

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3 hours ago, halcyonday said:

I'm in the last leg of a two-year MA after also being out of school for a while. I wanted to go straight into a PhD, but only got into an MA program. Obviously there are pros and cons to each, but I'll say that doing an MA first let me shake off some of the rust and I'll be a much better PhD student for it. Also, especially if you're looking at humanistic comm programs, it will make you a MUCH more competitive applicant--so if there were places you wanted to go but didn't turn out this application cycle, you know, you might get em next time. 

Good luck with your decision making! Honestly it's way harder than I expected. I only got into one program last time so I just went there, but now that there are choices...

Edited to add: I don't know your partner's field, but I lived in Wisconsin just south of Madison a few years back. I watched a lot of folks move up there and find jobs really quickly. 

Thank you for your insights -- that's what I was thinking, re: becoming a better student. I'm just worried about giving up the opportunity to go straight into a PhD program without taking on extra debt...since I have the option, it seems like a silly thing to give up. (On the other hand, if I can work with some of the top profs in gender and comm in London, where they're actually doing the exact work I want to be doing, it seems like getting my foot in the door with an MSc might be a good option...) 

My partner wants to go into consulting (he's just finishing business school now), but most of the firms he's looking at are outside of Madison. He doesn't want to commute...but I can imagine that finding a job in the midwest will be a lot easier than trying to find a job in London (especially since there's the whole issue of us not being UK residents). 

Sigh. Time to go make some pro and con lists...

(Also...got rejected from the USC PhD this morning, which was expected. So, now I'm just waiting on NYU MCC, but I have a feeling that I'm going to get similar news...and I also don't know if moving back to NY is really a good idea even if I did get in so...) 

 

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46 minutes ago, jmc117 said:

Okay good, I think so too. My letter also said first-round funding offers would come in early March. I anticipated my decision making phase being around Mid-March so having the funding options infront of me would be very helpful and important. 

Cross your fingers for us both to be in the first round funding!! 

I'm definitely going to be deciding in April. That wasn't my preference -- I'd much rather make a decision sooner -- but the Rutgers recruitment day is on March 29, and I want to hold off on my decision until I get the chance to visit the school and meet with the professors I'm most interested in working with. I'm hoping that Temple will have something similar that I can attend, but no word yet.

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6 minutes ago, jmc117 said:

If anyone is looking for entertainment the Yale students are being particularly rowdy on the results page.....

Wow, what in the world!!!! I get that admissions season means emotions are running high, but damn.... 

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23 minutes ago, halcyonday said:

Wow, what in the world!!!! I get that admissions season means emotions are running high, but damn.... 

Right? Ignorant. But keeps my mind off of my own anxiousness and impatience at the same time. I am glad everyone in this section is chill!

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10 minutes ago, jmc117 said:

Right? Ignorant. But keeps my mind off of my own anxiousness and impatience at the same time. I am glad everyone in this section is chill!

Seriously! Holy cats, that is an...interesting back and forth they have going there. Also...who wants a clinical psychologist who can’t keep their sh** together and acts like that? Thank you all for being so lovely and encouraging and lifting one another up even if you didn’t get what you wanted this application season.

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1 hour ago, lovekilledinos said:

I am! I am hopeful that their decisions will come next week. 

Just out of curiosity - did you have an interview? (Don't know how to say this without sounding like I'm bragging...) I did, but I'm not really hearing that a lot of people did, which almost seems weird to me, but that could just be paranoia and nerves creeping in 

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14 minutes ago, IBrakeForVanJohnson said:

Just out of curiosity - did you have an interview? (Don't know how to say this without sounding like I'm bragging...) I did, but I'm not really hearing that a lot of people did, which almost seems weird to me, but that could just be paranoia and nerves creeping in 

Not after I submitted my application, but I did speak over skype with my POI waaay back in October before I submitted my application. It was a 20 minute convo where we discussed the program and my questions and research. So, idk! 

Edited by lovekilledinos
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Official Update:

UGA: Accepted with assistantship funding

UWMadison: Accepted with fellowship funding

Stanford: Rejected (haha-not surprised..)

Penn State: Interview went great. 

UNC Chapel Hill: Interview went great. 

UPenn Annenberg: Rejected

UMichigan: Rejected

UI Bloomington: No News Yet-contacted them and they said decisions go out in late Feb.

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On 2/12/2019 at 10:38 AM, kaithewriter said:

You got your financial award letter already? I’ve been checking my mailbox obsessively for anything from Madison...no dice yet. It might have ended up at our neighbor’s house though. Our mail people are not good at delivering mail where it’s supposed to go...

Well, to be fair, they let me know early because I got a special award (probably because I was first generation, which gets consideration similar to that of racial minorities), but the actual contract that I sign and send back to the grad school just came. Also, I think you are rhetoric and I am mass comm-we may be on completely different timelines. My instincts tell me it's too early in the game to assume you won't get a financial offer. ❤️

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Got an email from a UT-Austin POI tonight saying that they had been told that I had received an acceptance email (I hadn't...) and they wanted to extend their congratulations! I emailed back almost instantaneously, to say thank you and I had yet to hear anything, but it seems like it's legit - I got into UT-Austin RTF/Media Studies! Absolutely over the moon. Sounds like they've either started notifying people, or will be emailing/calling accepts soon.

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8 hours ago, IBrakeForVanJohnson said:

Got an email from a UT-Austin POI tonight saying that they had been told that I had received an acceptance email (I hadn't...) and they wanted to extend their congratulations! I emailed back almost instantaneously, to say thank you and I had yet to hear anything, but it seems like it's legit - I got into UT-Austin RTF/Media Studies! Absolutely over the moon. Sounds like they've either started notifying people, or will be emailing/calling accepts soon.

Congratulations! I'm new at gradcafe. I'm argentinean and I also applied for UT Austin (MA in Latin American Studies). I got anxious with your post. Hope to get some news soon!

Edited by Melisa
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Congrats @IBrakeForVanJohnson!! That's awesome news!

I have an update about Temple funding: I received an email from my potential adviser to say that I've been awarded a University Fellowship! She said the details would come by mail sometime this week, so @jmc117, keep an eye out in your postbox, too! 

Funny story, though: the email actually came last Thursday, but it got caught by my spam folder, probably because it was titled "Good news" and mentioned a large dollar amount in the body, haha. I only caught it because I was looking to see if I got into the Broad Street Run lottery.

I'll update with the details of the fellowship whenever I get the official letter. Fingers crossed for everyone who's waiting for news!

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