Interviews/Acceptances/Rejections Fall 2019

[Dorkface]

4 minutes ago, Soc_foucault said:

I wonder if someone were trolling what the motive would be? It isn't very funny and no one gets anything out of it. Doesn't make sense to me.

 

Nonetheless, here's to hoping everyone's valentine is an acceptance letter ❤️

Will you be my Valentine? - signed, your top choice!

[bandanajack]

So what's the deal with waitlisting? Like, do some programs have silent or unofficial waitlists? I'm still not hearing anything from UConn and they sent out their first acceptance more than a week ago.

[GenreTrouble]

I just got a rejection email from Chicago. I had been interviewed, and it was my top choice.

Happy Valentine's day everyone ?

[markhame]

3 minutes ago, bandanajack said:

So what's the deal with waitlisting? Like, do some programs have silent or unofficial waitlists? I'm still not hearing anything from UConn and they sent out their first acceptance more than a week ago.

Some schools have a significant gap between acceptances and other decisions. Uchicago for example tends to accept early February then reject early March. It seems like there’s an exception for those who have been interviewed and are getting those results now. I would personally assume a rejection but hope for a waitlist but maybe that’s too pessimistic.

Edited February 14, 2019 by markhame

[bandanajack]

9 minutes ago, markhame said:

Some schools have a significant gap between acceptances and other decisions. Uchicago for example tends to accept early February then reject early March. It seems like there’s an exception for those who have been interviewed and are getting those results now. I would personally assume a rejection but hope for a waitlist but maybe that’s too pessimistic.

Thanks for the input! I personally assume a rejection, but gradcafe results kind of suggest both. They don't have interviews, and people were only waitlisted one year (only found out bc apparently there was a funding issue that year). Anyways, thanks!

[socquant]

high key fucked up.

[Soc_foucault]

@GenreTrouble sorry to hear that. i know it sucks to get that far along in the process and not make it all the way through. i'm sending virtual hugs to you. 

[bandanajack]

1 minute ago, socquant said:

high key fucked up.

Yeah, I feel bad, but it is a fuck up. Unless you get your TOEFL scores waived then why apply anyway? Still a waste of money.

[jriveracal]

I just wanted to send a gentle reminder for self-care as these rejections come out. Where one door closes, another will open. 

[socquant]

8 minutes ago, bandanajack said:

Yeah, I feel bad, but it is a fuck up. Unless you get your TOEFL scores waived then why apply anyway? Still a waste of money.

I'm more critical of the institutional practice than how this individual went about applying, but I get you. We're talking about a program which is largely devoted to the study of inequity and how its perpetuated yet... here we are (@ all the schools with no fee waivers).

[bandanajack]

Just now, socquant said:

I'm more critical of the institutional practice than how this individual went about applying, but I get you. We're talking about a program which is largely devoted to the study of inequity and how its perpetuated yet... here we are (@ all the schools with no fee waivers).

That's a fair point and I agree with you conceptually. But trying to subvert an institutional practice isn't getting that guy anywhere. But again, I really do see what you are saying now and I do agree.

[DuBois]

Well the dream is over for me. Heard back from my POI at Uchicago. I didn't make it. My best wishes to everyone who has been admitted. 

I cannot say I am shocked because I had applied only to Chicago and Harvard. Making graduate applications is a tremendous financial burden and the affordability factor drastically reduces the chances of diversifying the number of application thus limiting my number of applications and attempts. So not shocked but devastated beyond measure.

 

[TheBunny]

18 minutes ago, bandanajack said:

Yeah, I feel bad, but it is a fuck up. Unless you get your TOEFL scores waived then why apply anyway? Still a waste of money.

As an international student with a 2-year master from America, and 4-year undergraduate from a 100% English program in Europe, there are still schools which ask me about TOEFL, and it drives me crazy. Getting TOEFL is an extra $205 which is a very large sum of money if you are living on a stipend, in a large city in America. I was not able to convince some schools not to send TOEFL even though I had a signed document from my undergraduate institution which approves the university is 100% English. In the end, I took the TOEFL and sent my scores, but it drove crazy in the whole process.

[TheBunny]

Just now, DuBois said:

Well the dream is over for me. Heard back from my POI at Uchicago. I didn't make it. My best wishes to everyone who has been admitted. 

I cannot say I am shocked because I had applied only to Chicago and Harvard. Making graduate applications is a tremendous financial burden and the affordability factor drastically reduces the chances of diversifying the number of application thus limiting my number of applications and attempts. So not shocked but devastated beyond measure.

 

Did you get an answer from Harvard? Maybe you are in. I did not hear back from them yet.

[DuBois]

Just now, TheBunny said:

Did you get an answer from Harvard? Maybe you are in. I did not hear back from them yet.

Unfortunately I was informed by a fellow colleague here that all the Harvard admits have been sent out. 

[TheBunny]

Just now, DuBois said:

Unfortunately I was informed by a fellow colleague here that all the Harvard admits have been sent out. 

I heard from another person that Harvard is still in the process of making decisions. We will probably learn in a day or two what our fate is.

[ErikaFate]

1 minute ago, DuBois said:

Well the dream is over for me. Heard back from my POI at Uchicago. I didn't make it. My best wishes to everyone who has been admitted. 

I cannot say I am shocked because I had applied only to Chicago and Harvard. Making graduate applications is a tremendous financial burden and the affordability factor drastically reduces the chances of diversifying the number of application thus limiting my number of applications and attempts. So not shocked but devastated beyond measure.

 

The only reason I was able to apply to so many was because I applied for an application fee waiver for all of them. I hope that you'll be able to figure out a way to reduce the financial burden and apply again next year. There may be services locally to you that may help, and some universities also have a lower application fee of about $65. 

[SeijiAmasawyeah]

Is anyone who was waitlisted for funding at Rutgers planning on attending the campus visit day? Today I got an email about the itinerary and was wondering how many of us there are who are waiting on funding and how y'all are making the decision about whether to go or not. 

[bandanajack]

15 minutes ago, TheBunny said:

As an international student with a 2-year master from America, and 4-year undergraduate from a 100% English program in Europe, there are still schools which ask me about TOEFL, and it drives me crazy. Getting TOEFL is an extra $205 which is a very large sum of money if you are living on a stipend, in a large city in America. I was not able to convince some schools not to send TOEFL even though I had a signed document from my undergraduate institution which approves the university is 100% English. In the end, I took the TOEFL and sent my scores, but it drove crazy in the whole process.

I can totally see how annoying and stressful that can be. I didn't mean to sound ignorant or unsympathetic at all, and apologize if I did. Application fees and GRE fees (and transcript fees) are bad enough, so I am lucky I don't have to deal with TOEFL. I don't get why schools couldn't be more lenient in this situation. I just meant that I didn't get what someone would expect when they ignored an app requirement. Then again, I am speaking about something that has nothing to do with me, so...

[thedudeabides]

4 minutes ago, bandanajack said:

I can totally see how annoying and stressful that can be. I didn't mean to sound ignorant or unsympathetic at all, and apologize if I did. Application fees and GRE fees (and transcript fees) are bad enough, so I am lucky I don't have to deal with TOEFL. I don't get why schools couldn't be more lenient in this situation. I just meant that I didn't get what someone would expect when they ignored an app requirement. Then again, I am speaking about something that has nothing to do with me, so...

It's not just the cost of the TOEFL alone, but the cost of sending out additional score reports @ roughly about 20$ per report. They do let you send out four reports for free at the time when you're registering for the exam, but if you haven't specified them at that point, you'll have a lot more to pay later on. 

So if a school's asking for about 75$-125$ as application fees, you'd have to spend an additional 50$ (TOEFL+GRE score reports) to apply. 

[Vldksh]

25 minutes ago, TheBunny said:

As an international student with a 2-year master from America, and 4-year undergraduate from a 100% English program in Europe, there are still schools which ask me about TOEFL, and it drives me crazy. Getting TOEFL is an extra $205 which is a very large sum of money if you are living on a stipend, in a large city in America. I was not able to convince some schools not to send TOEFL even though I had a signed document from my undergraduate institution which approves the university is 100% English. In the end, I took the TOEFL and sent my scores, but it drove crazy in the whole process.

That really sucks. I understand your annoyance. The English language admission standard needs to be more clear for sure. I'm an international student and did my 4year undergrad in the US and 1-year masters in the UK, and they have never asked me for TOEFL. Maybe it also depends on where you received your primary and secondary education??

[SgtDonut]

Did you all see this story a couple of weeks ago about a graduate director at Duke telling Chinese students to speak English? This talk about TOEFL reminded me of it. I feel like bias against international students is pretty widespread in the U.S. It definitely was an issue at my undergrad college among both students and faculty. And I would bet like @Vldksh said, what part of the world you come from probably affects how you're perceived, along with where you did your undergrad/grad. Like maybe they'd overlook a student from a non-English-speaking European country who went to an Ivy not sending their test scores, but not let it go for a student from East Asia or the Global South who may not have attended a prestigious and/or non-US school.

Not sure if anyone's read Inside Graduate Admissions by Julie Posselt at USC (it's on my list), but admissions committee members are often quite frank about their biases. Apparently in the book there's an anecdote where committee members write off / joke about a Christian applicant simply because they're religious (and apparently faith doesn't jive with elite academic culture).

[TheBunny]

17 minutes ago, SgtDonut said:

Did you all see this story a couple of weeks ago about a graduate director at Duke telling Chinese students to speak English? This talk about TOEFL reminded me of it. I feel like bias against international students is pretty widespread in the U.S. It definitely was an issue at my undergrad college among both students and faculty. And I would bet like @Vldksh said, what part of the world you come from probably affects how you're perceived, along with where you did your undergrad/grad. Like maybe they'd overlook a student from a non-English-speaking European country who went to an Ivy not sending their test scores, but not let it go for a student from East Asia or the Global South who may not have attended a prestigious and/or non-US school.

Not sure if anyone's read Inside Graduate Admissions by Julie Posselt at USC (it's on my list), but admissions committee members are often quite frank about their biases. Apparently in the book there's an anecdote where committee members write off / joke about a Christian applicant simply because they're religious (and apparently faith doesn't jive with elite academic culture).

I read that article and book written on graduate admissions. Thankfully, I have never had a problem in the US, at least in my school but TOEFL requirements just made me spend extra money. On the other hand, I agree that there is bias against students who are coming from the Global South. I saw this bias in several places I visited. 

 

52 minutes ago, bandanajack said:

I can totally see how annoying and stressful that can be. I didn't mean to sound ignorant or unsympathetic at all, and apologize if I did. Application fees and GRE fees (and transcript fees) are bad enough, so I am lucky I don't have to deal with TOEFL. I don't get why schools couldn't be more lenient in this situation. I just meant that I didn't get what someone would expect when they ignored an app requirement. Then again, I am speaking about something that has nothing to do with me, so...

You do not sound ignorant, don't worry. It is just the schools have different attitudes towards international students. For example, most of the Ivy and Ivy-ish schools asked me some level of language credential. On the other hand, there were some schools that just accepted my American degree and directly waived the TOEFL requirement. I was lucky that I took TOEFL way before the deadlines, just in case. If this requirement was imposed me close to deadlines, I do not think I could have taken it and sent the scores.

 

44 minutes ago, Vldksh said:

That really sucks. I understand your annoyance. The English language admission standard needs to be more clear for sure. I'm an international student and did my 4year undergrad in the US and 1-year masters in the UK, and they have never asked me for TOEFL. Maybe it also depends on where you received your primary and secondary education??

It maybe is. I was in a private school in my country so even though the primary and secondary education was not in English fully, it was 50% English, at least. The thing is I do not have any documentation about my language education in my childhood. I started learning English when I first started talking as my mother was an Egnlish teacher in my country. Yet, I am not able to document my knowledge of English since I was born. 

[utley24]

1 hour ago, DuBois said:

Well the dream is over for me. Heard back from my POI at Uchicago. I didn't make it. My best wishes to everyone who has been admitted. 

I cannot say I am shocked because I had applied only to Chicago and Harvard. Making graduate applications is a tremendous financial burden and the affordability factor drastically reduces the chances of diversifying the number of application thus limiting my number of applications and attempts. So not shocked but devastated beyond measure.

 

Out of curiosity, if you were only applying to two programs, how did you settle on those two? I'm not judging--I also only applied to a couple programs. But would be interested to hear your rationale. 

Also, have you looked into fee waivers? If you apply again next year, they could help extend your list. 

[NReken]

Interesting perspective as I sit here waiting to hear back from Yale: I went to UChicago as an undergrad and then for a master's degree and, during that time, worked in our department of graduate admissions. Although I was rarely involved with Sociology, I did see a lot of Philosophy/English/History applications. 1) It was insane how many highly qualified candidates were turned down--I'm talking super high undergraduate GPAs, bomb GREs, research experience, published papers, great recs, the works 2) Professors could leave notes on a student's profile for other professors to see, and it so often happened that a professor would say something like 'Fascinating research proposal!' or 'Great fit!' only to turn them down. The fact of the matter is that there are just too many great applicants relative to open spots and sometimes the department is just not looking for someone who studies x, y, or z no matter how great that person may be. 

And how did I do with all that UChicago knowledge? I didn't even get an interview, so there you go Stay strong everyone!