2020 Applicants

[theburiedgirl815]

3 minutes ago, inchoate-eyes said:

I just got rejected too. Kind of a bummer. 

 

1 minute ago, agunns said:

I also just received a rejection from UT Austin. Definitely a blow because it was my top choice. 

Apparently they had a lot of applicants this cycle, which definitely makes it tougher. 

I'll admit that this one hurt.

[Les Miserables]

On 2/2/2020 at 12:04 AM, karamazov said:

I was also contacted by Northeastern. They make it sound like they'll be letting us ask the questions, but I can't help but think that they'll have some questions to ask us, too. I'm going to review my WS, SoP, and the work of my PoIs just to make sure I'm prepared for whatever they might ask. Since they don't explicitly call it an "interview," I'm assuming they won't be brutally grilling us, but I definitely want to review everything just to be sure I can speak intelligently about my work, the work of my PoIs, and why exactly I'm interested in their program. I'm also deciding in advance what I want to ask them so I won't freeze up during the meeting, ask zero questions, and come off as unenthusiastic/uninterested. 

I was also invited to Northeastern. It's my top choice so I'm pretty excited. I've been lurking for some time, but I thought it might be a bit weird if only I knew who you were (or rather, know of your online persona) when we ultimately met next week. I imagine it is an opportunity to have some light academic conversation with faculty and an opportunity for them to get to know us outside of the academy and outside of the application in general. At least, I'm going in with that mindset. 

[haleydanielle]

Since UT Austin just killed dreams, does anyone have any idea when UVA and Boston typically make their decisions? I think I may be looking at Fall 2021 at this point

[Les Miserables]

4 hours ago, alphabet soup said:

Good morning to all,

I have been silently creeping on this page and finally made an account to join in on the panicking during this dreadful waiting period. According to the results page, my top pick, Carnegie Mellon, had informed a few people through email on Saturday that they were waitlisted. And when I had emailed my POI before, he told me that they would have the results by the end of the month (January). It is February now and some people apparently received emails about being waitlisted, yet, my inbox is still waiting.

Should I take this as a good sign since the people who were contacted were all waitlisted? I am close to dying here of stress haha.

I was one of the people waitlisted. I don't want to add to your stress but since CMU only accepts 3 people a year, I think, I'm not entirely sure whether or not acceptances would have gone out first or otherwise. Best of luck!  

[merry night wanderer]

UT Austin saw a lot more applicants, too? I feel like there's been enough commentary to that effect to say it seems it was a trend across the board. 

[theburiedgirl815]

1 minute ago, merry night wanderer said:

UT Austin saw a lot more applicants, too? I feel like there's been enough commentary to that effect to say it seems it was a trend across the board. 

Rejection email said they got over 250 applications so it seems like it may be a trend. 

[agunns]

I just received a Northwestern and UT Austin rejection within about 30 minutes of each other - here's hoping that there's some good news coming in the next few days

[alphabet soup]

16 minutes ago, Les Miserables said:

I was one of the people waitlisted. I don't want to add to your stress but since CMU only accepts 3 people a year, I think, I'm not entirely sure whether or not acceptances would have gone out first or otherwise. Best of luck!  

Thank you so much for the well wishes and same to you, too!

[killerbunny]

42 minutes ago, digital_lime said:

Just looked over my application for UVa because I'm obsessive and in my SoP I mentioned how much I'd like to participate in department life at a completely different school from which I copied and pasted that paragraph 

So that's cool and great   

(And if anyone's feeling insecure about their SoPs, at least you didn't do what I have done!!)

I almost did this! I was about to upload it to an application and thought: better check it one more time. Yup, another school's name right in the subheading, second line. 

[aussiekoala]

41 minutes ago, theburiedgirl815 said:

I'll admit that this one hurt.

I'm really sorry about this. And I know how much it might hurt, especially when one is constantly trying to hope and hold out for good news. And amid everyone receiving different decisions every day it's difficult to remember the impact this can have on your mental health and sense of self and to keep yourself afloat. I went into a horrible downward spiral because of this a couple of weeks ago especially at a time when my mental health wasn't at its best. And the only thing to remember is that the admissions process is not a reaction to you as a person nor to you as a scholar. It feels more like a game of chess than anything else, and filling out the applications is like walking on numerous tight lines at the same time so as to hit all the notes that the committee might be looking for. Just keep your head up, and if you ever need to talk please feel free to message me (this offer is open to anyone who is having trouble through this application cycle, no matter what your decisions might have been, it's okay to feel hurt). 

[kolyagogolova]

56 minutes ago, theburiedgirl815 said:

Thank you! I did consider BC in my first application cycle in 2016, but I am trying to avoid taking the subject GRE as much as possible, since I don't do too well with standardized tests. Boston is also reaaaaaally expensive for living, but I might consider it in the future. 

 

I'm currently attending BC (I'm in the master's program) and Irish Studies is so big here it feels almost silly to be doing something else. You're totally right about Boston being expensive, though (since I'm from basically from the Midwest it seems especially bad lol).

I also just got a UT Austin rejection... boo this cycle sucks so bad

[jm6394]

1 hour ago, Wimsey said:

I've seen in other threads that you can be accepted even without an interview. I also recall reading that interviewed applicants tend to be in medieval or early modern subfields, but I'm not sure if that's accurate for this year.

Super helpful! Didn’t think about this varying from subfield to subfield. 

[jm6394]

39 minutes ago, agunns said:

I just received a Northwestern and UT Austin rejection within about 30 minutes of each other - here's hoping that there's some good news coming in the next few days

Fully expecting my northwestern rejection (and first response of the cycle) any minute now so don’t feel alone!!!

[qqq123]

Long time lurker. Got a Columbia interview. I know you don't need an interview to get in, but does anyone know if getting an interview signifies that you have a high likelihood of acceptance? trying to mediate expectations...

Edit: to answer my own question, found this on last year's board:

"My interview was pretty straightforward. No, they aren't asking us to make pitches. At least from what I gathered, if they interview you, they want to accept you. They're just trying to rank you within the final applicants for your specialty. Then once they hear from the admissions committee how many people they can accept, they'll accept the top ones based off of how many they're allowed. (Note: they can sometimes be allowed 0!) My interviewer said this was the last part of the process that was in their hands and the rest of it is up to a committee. 

For me, it was clear they were asking about the weaker points of my application. I'm fresh out of undergrad and I only switched to the English major in my senior year. Obviously, an admissions committee would notice the risk of accepting me into their PhD program when I am so new to the English discipline. My interviewer asked me questions about that, and I'm assuming in their "pitch" they will defend those weaker points of my application based on my answers, because they do want to accept me. It just still unfortunately might not work out based on things outside my control -- like maybe someone did better than me in the interview, and maybe the committee won't give c18 enough spots for me to be included in the accepted applicants."

Edited February 3, 2020 by qqq123

[aussiekoala]

1 minute ago, qqq123 said:

Long time lurker. Got a Columbia interview. I know you don't need an interview to get in, but does anyone know if getting an interview signifies that you have a high likelihood of acceptance? trying to mediate expectations...

I believe it might depend on your field of study. If everyone receiving an interview has the same research interests (such as medieval literature) then the committee might not be choosing all interviewees. However, if the interviewees are from a variety of fields then I believe your chances of getting accepted would increase. 

[theburiedgirl815]

If it's any consolation, I had a conversation with my mentor/adviser as soon as I got the chance (the UT Austin alum) and he said that it's always very competitive, even without the increase in applicants. His exact words were "it's a lot harder to get in than when I was there." He said in the many years he's been doing recs for his students he hasn't had a single one get in. Don't know how much he was saying to just try to make me feel a little less down, but just putting it out there in the hopes it might make everyone else feel a little less awful. 

 

Edited February 3, 2020 by theburiedgirl815

[onerepublic96]

Soo that’s it for my  Northwestern dreams. Was nice knowing you, Nathan Mead.

[jm6394]

5 minutes ago, onerepublic96 said:

Soo that’s it for my  Northwestern dreams. Was nice knowing you, Nathan Mead.

Also rejected, though I wasn’t so invested in it. Here’s hoping we have better news coming soon!

[karamazov]

3 hours ago, Les Miserables said:

I was also invited to Northeastern. It's my top choice so I'm pretty excited. I've been lurking for some time, but I thought it might be a bit weird if only I knew who you were (or rather, know of your online persona) when we ultimately met next week. I imagine it is an opportunity to have some light academic conversation with faculty and an opportunity for them to get to know us outside of the academy and outside of the application in general. At least, I'm going in with that mindset. 

Yes, that sounds about right. I'm excited for the event and I'm looking forward to meeting you! What's your field of interest? 

[Cryss]

A Vanderbilt rejection. My first official one of the season. 

So it begins...

Edited February 4, 2020 by Cryss

[vondafkossum]

1 hour ago, theburiedgirl815 said:

If it's any consolation, I had a conversation with my mentor/adviser as soon as I got the chance (the UT Austin alum) and he said that it's always very competitive, even without the increase in applicants. His exact words were "it's a lot harder to get in than when I was there." He said in the many years he's been doing recs for his students he hasn't had a single one get in. Don't know how much he was saying to just try to make me feel a little less down, but just putting it out there in the hopes it might make everyone else feel a little less awful. 

 

He told me roughly the same thing when we talked about applying there. Sorry if this is creepy, but we went to the same school. I figured you might have the same thesis advisor as I had for my undergrad thesis. I was also really disappointed by my Austin rejection. Trying to keep my spirits up, though. 

Edited February 4, 2020 by vondafkossum

[grace2137]

Hey y'all - I'm one of the waitlist folks at UT Austin. Anyone have insights about whether people have often been admitted off their waitlist in previous years/the timeline/how waitlists tend to work for PhD in general (are they ranked/does it depend on someone in your period choosing another program/do programs tend to only admit their intended cohort size or account for some turnover and admit, say 20 to get 12 etc)? 

Alternatively, are questions about these things appropriate to ask the dgs/etc in an email? This was my first notification and I'm still waiting on a lot of programs, but it would be good to know what exactly I'm dealing with here.

[Rrandle101]

13 hours ago, grace2137 said:

Hey y'all - I'm one of the waitlist folks at UT Austin. Anyone have insights about whether people have often been admitted off their waitlist in previous years/the timeline/how waitlists tend to work for PhD in general (are they ranked/does it depend on someone in your period choosing another program/do programs tend to only admit their intended cohort size or account for some turnover and admit, say 20 to get 12 etc)? 

Alternatively, are questions about these things appropriate to ask the dgs/etc in an email? This was my first notification and I'm still waiting on a lot of programs, but it would be good to know what exactly I'm dealing with here.

I was also waitlisted and wasn't sure how to -tactfully- ask how that all worked on their end so I just emailed them back a nice email and said that I would let them know if I end up wanting to commit somewhere else as soon as possible. The language used in the email makes me think that some people will be making it off the waitlist more likely than not but I'm also not sure how they'll be selecting people from it either. I'm hoping some of my profs here will have some insight and if they do I'll post it in here for everyone else that was waitlisted there.

[caffeinated applicant]

Okay, Chicago, you've notified your accepted students, can I please just have my rejection now and put it to rest??? Jeez louise, even when I'm quite confident of the answer, I crave that closure.

13 hours ago, grace2137 said:

Anyone have insights about whether people have often been admitted off their waitlist in previous years/the timeline/how waitlists tend to work for PhD in general (are they ranked/does it depend on someone in your period choosing another program/do programs tend to only admit their intended cohort size or account for some turnover and admit, say 20 to get 12 etc)? 

Seconding this call for more insights! Especially would love to hear from people who got in off waitlists in prior cycles. 

The best I can tell from scouring past forums is that it depends on the program. It would appear to me that grad programs tend only to admit as many people as they can fund and waitlist the rest. It's not clear to me, though, if that means UT admits 14 people and waitlists 10, and each person who declines opens up a waitlist spot, or if it's more like, UT admits 16 and waitlists 10 in the hopes of ending with 14, and after the third person declines, the first person from the waitlist is given an offer, or if like, two medievalists decline do they admit one off waitlist even though now they're at 15 people... It also sounds like the waitlists at some programs are broken out by period (like, we admit 3 people for 20th century, then we have our #1 backup and our #2 backup), though I definitely saw at least one school in the results pages that explicitly said they don't rank their waitlist. And then it's all over the map in terms of timing. Could get word next week, could be waiting until middle of April. I agree with @Rrandle101 though that the language of the email makes it sound like they assume at least a couple people will come off the waitlist. 

My plan is to email in mid-March after I have the rest of my decisions to see if they can give me a sense of where I am on the list--especially if I can leverage it based on an acceptance ("I need to reply to this offer, so now that you have a better idea of what your cohort is going to look like, could you let me know where am I on your list?"). Past results pages indicate that's information that the DGS will give out, at least in some programs. 

Edited February 4, 2020 by caffeinated applicant

[meghan_sparkle]

Does anyone know whether visit dates tend to be roughly the same year to year, or are they liable to change?