2020 Applicants

[The Hoosier Oxonian]

15 minutes ago, meghan_sparkle said:

from the Shatner Chatner newsletter by Daniel Lavery, yr welcome. not quite the gawain i remember reading for my middle english exam but ... entertained all the same

I've just humiliated myself by snorting loudly in a public place.  Thanks for sharing!

Edited February 13, 2020 by The Hoosier Oxonian

[timespentreading]

@digital_lime @inchoate-eyes @onerepublic96 and anyone else waiting for Brown, here's how they responded to my email:

Thank you for your message.  The admissions process can be a somewhat lengthy and it may be another week or so for decision letters to be sent out.  When decisions are available, a link will be sent to applicants to review the letter in CollegeNET.

So...perhaps there is still hope? Or, she means "rejection letters."

 

[onerepublic96]

5 minutes ago, timespentreading said:

@digital_lime @inchoate-eyes @onerepublic96 and anyone else waiting for Brown, here's how they responded to my email:

Thank you for your message.  The admissions process can be a somewhat lengthy and it may be another week or so for decision letters to be sent out.  When decisions are available, a link will be sent to applicants to review the letter in CollegeNET.

So...perhaps there is still hope? Or, she means "rejection letters."

 

Definitely vague af. But it does seem like in previous years there have been more acceptances, so here’s hoping that there’s still a light at the end of this tunnel.

@timespentreading thank you for sharing this info with us! 

[timespentreading]

To the most recent Notre Dame acceptance: CONGRATS! Reading your post made me smile. It's super fun to see people getting good news in the midst of this crazy-making wait!

[sidneys]

46 minutes ago, The Hoosier Oxonian said:

Huge congratulations!!!

Did the department share when its prospective student visit is? Being on the waitlist I am not, of course, included, but I'm thinking of waiting up until the visit happens to email Cornell and ask them to take me off the waitlist just in case there might be some change in time for me to visit (even if I were to get a spot later than that, I wouldn't commit without having visited).

cornell's visit day is monday, march 9!

[vondafkossum]

43 minutes ago, meghan_sparkle said:

Watching my inbox like a hawk and shaking my fist whenever an email that isn't admissions pops up. Just now got super excited when one came in but I opened it to find "The Sexiest Lines From "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" Gracefully Compiled For You", which .... (sighs reluctantly) okay I'm listening.

Okay, but are you as excited about this A24/BRON adaptation of Sir Gawain and The Green Knight—with DEV PATEL!!! as Gawain—as I am???

[The Hoosier Oxonian]

32 minutes ago, sidneys said:

cornell's visit day is monday, march 9!

Thanks so much!!!

[Fading_light]

4 hours ago, caffeinated applicant said:

I reached out to Maryland on Monday about timeline but didn't receive a response, which I take to mean "you'll find out when you find out." 

Other than them, I'm going to try to hold out until March 15th to email for info. If by March 1st I have at least one offer and I'm just waiting to hear back from one or two programs, though, I may email as a "I need to make decisions on this offer/these offers" deal. 

I mailed the program coordinator yesterday. Not sure if I'll get a response.

My application status (for PhD) is still marked as "under departmental/program review" which is not a great sign, given that some are already on wait lists.

What a stressful time!

[MichelleObama]

3 hours ago, The Hoosier Oxonian said:

Huge congratulations!!!

Did the department share when its prospective student visit is? Being on the waitlist I am not, of course, included, but I'm thinking of waiting up until the visit happens to email Cornell and ask them to take me off the waitlist just in case there might be some change in time for me to visit (even if I were to get a spot later than that, I wouldn't commit without having visited).

Thank you!!  Looking forward to meeting you at Yale visit!

WHEN WILL WE KNOW WHY BROWN LOVES TORTURE 

Edited February 14, 2020 by MichelleObama
cannot read

[Cryss]

5 hours ago, meghan_sparkle said:

In 2018 and 2019 they notified on Thursday (15th and 14th respectively) so tbh I thought it would be today! Ah well.

I thought I read somewhere that they like to do the February 14th thing, but at this point, who knows? Lol

[onerepublic96]

34 minutes ago, Cryss said:

I thought I read somewhere that they like to do the February 14th thing, but at this point, who knows? Lol

Really (really!) hoping for some good news from Princeton soon. ?

[Deleuze]

Another Penn State on the board .. anyone know if its normal for them to roll out acceptances so sporadically?

[karamazov]

Is anyone else trying to figure out how to manage visit dates while still in undergrad? Or does anyone from past cycles have advice about this? I've already missed two days of class, and I'm now looking at another three visits, two of which will require missing even more class. Both of those schools have expressed some flexibility about visit dates, so I'm tempted to see if I could visit sometime when I will not be missing class (spring break, maybe), but I'm also worried I might be missing something by not attending the regularly scheduled accepted students event. I really want to attend so I can make as informed a decision as possible, but visiting during the scheduled times would ultimately mean missing more class in this one semester of undergrad than I have missed in any of my other semesters combined. The thought of missing that much school makes me anxious but I'm also not sure if asking to come on another day would be kind of obnoxious of me and/or if by not going on the appointed day I'd be missing out on something. Since I'm applying straight out of undergrad I really did not think I was going to have any acceptances this cycle, so the logistics of campus visits in the middle of the semester had never really crossed my mind (until now). Does anyone have thoughts on this? Is anyone dealing with the same issue? I know this is a really privileged problem to have and I'm beyond grateful to have options but this is worrying me nonetheless. 

[karamazov]

21 minutes ago, Deleuze said:

Another Penn State on the board .. anyone know if its normal for them to roll out acceptances so sporadically?

Last year they sent out acceptances over the course of a few weeks! 

[urbanfarmer]

@karamazov I'd guess that most of your professors are probably thrilled you're going to be attending grad school, and will happily accommodate your absences. So talk to them first! Give them the days you'll be missing, and tell them why, and why it's important to you to go. They'll probably say something like, "congratulations! Have fun!" But if it turns out to be a problem (if, for some reason, you have a professor that says, "if you miss one more day, I'll dock your grade!"), then you can adjust your plans accordingly (maybe, say, only going to the visiting days for the PhD programs you're interested in, and not the MA ones).

And in terms of going to the scheduled days-- I'd suggest going if at all possible, because you'll have more opportunities for interaction with students and faculty than you would at another time. However, if you really can't make it, it's not a big deal. Most programs are happy to work with you (and if they're rude about it, that's probably a sign by itself!). Also, something to consider in terms of going over Spring Break: the program you're visiting might have the same break, so there won't be many people around campus. 

[The Hoosier Oxonian]

33 minutes ago, karamazov said:

Is anyone else trying to figure out how to manage visit dates while still in undergrad? Or does anyone from past cycles have advice about this? I've already missed two days of class, and I'm now looking at another three visits, two of which will require missing even more class. Both of those schools have expressed some flexibility about visit dates, so I'm tempted to see if I could visit sometime when I will not be missing class (spring break, maybe), but I'm also worried I might be missing something by not attending the regularly scheduled accepted students event. I really want to attend so I can make as informed a decision as possible, but visiting during the scheduled times would ultimately mean missing more class in this one semester of undergrad than I have missed in any of my other semesters combined. The thought of missing that much school makes me anxious but I'm also not sure if asking to come on another day would be kind of obnoxious of me and/or if by not going on the appointed day I'd be missing out on something. Since I'm applying straight out of undergrad I really did not think I was going to have any acceptances this cycle, so the logistics of campus visits in the middle of the semester had never really crossed my mind (until now). Does anyone have thoughts on this? Is anyone dealing with the same issue? I know this is a really privileged problem to have and I'm beyond grateful to have options but this is worrying me nonetheless. 

I am in this exact situation - as of now grad school visits are going to cause me to miss at least a week of undergrad classes (plus I was already going to miss another week to present at an international conference in April). And I'm still waiting to hear from five schools, so there could possibly be more visits on the cards. Among other considerations, I've taken the attitude that meeting my prospective cohort mates is an important part of getting a sense of what my experience of any given school would be like, so I've opted not to try to rearrange visits. My undergrad professors are very excited about my grad school prospects and have been kind and flexible about giving me excused absences and letting me make up assignments, but I definitely am feeling stressed about it!

[poetryislit]

Does anyone have any insight as to what it may be like transitioning from a semester system in undergrad to a quarter system for grad? 

[MichelleObama]

2 hours ago, poetryislit said:

Does anyone have any insight as to what it may be like transitioning from a semester system in undergrad to a quarter system for grad? 

I am likely going to be doing the opposite switch as my undergrad institution operated on a quarter system and the programs I am considering operate on semesters, but I do know that whenever my professors have lamented the quarter system, it has often been due to the fact that although students have the opportunity to experience an extra course in an academic year, you don't get as much time to marinate with the material, desired texts for the curriculum get omitted because of insufficient time, etc. In WA, the majority of the public post-secondary schools in the state operate on the quarter system, so I haven't actually experienced a semester system since high school. I think I'm looking forward to it? I have been craving more time to dwell with course material, but another benefit of the quarter system is that when I have registered for a course I wish would be over already, the class is probably pretty close to its conclusion by the time I arrive at mine. 

Edited February 14, 2020 by MichelleObama

[caffeinated applicant]

11 hours ago, karamazov said:

Is anyone else trying to figure out how to manage visit dates while still in undergrad? Or does anyone from past cycles have advice about this? I've already missed two days of class, and I'm now looking at another three visits, two of which will require missing even more class. Both of those schools have expressed some flexibility about visit dates, so I'm tempted to see if I could visit sometime when I will not be missing class (spring break, maybe), but I'm also worried I might be missing something by not attending the regularly scheduled accepted students event. I really want to attend so I can make as informed a decision as possible, but visiting during the scheduled times would ultimately mean missing more class in this one semester of undergrad than I have missed in any of my other semesters combined. The thought of missing that much school makes me anxious but I'm also not sure if asking to come on another day would be kind of obnoxious of me and/or if by not going on the appointed day I'd be missing out on something. Since I'm applying straight out of undergrad I really did not think I was going to have any acceptances this cycle, so the logistics of campus visits in the middle of the semester had never really crossed my mind (until now). Does anyone have thoughts on this? Is anyone dealing with the same issue? I know this is a really privileged problem to have and I'm beyond grateful to have options but this is worrying me nonetheless. 

Senior year my roommate was accepted to 10 or 11 programs and went to 8 visits (biochemistry, not humanities). Most of these visits were cross-country, as in visiting the opposite coast. And since they were in a bench science and TA'd, it wasn't just missing class, it was missing teaching and lab time as well. Basically they went to their professors and supervisors before the semester got underway to let them know this would be a possibility, and then my roommate kept them in the loop as much as possible. Everybody, even the professors with "attendance grading policies," fully understood that missing class time wasn't something that my roommate could avoid. My roommate got in their work on time, got notes from classmates, and, when possible depending on visit schedules and time differences, would Skype into class to catch discussions. There's always the chance of an exception that proves the rule, but by and large, your professors will understand that these visits are more important in the long run than any individual class day. Also, for what it's worth, I missed two weeks of class my freshman year to have an emergency medical procedure (LONG story), and in the end, it was fine, and my professors worked with me to figure out deadlines and assignments. Of course, the three of us (you, me, my friend) are three different people with quite probably no shared professors between us, but I also went through undergrad missing hardly a day of class outside of that medical procedure, and without that experience and seeing my friend's experience, I would be a lot more concerned about missing class time; with this context, my attitude is a lot more "well, you have to do what you have to do." 

Additionally, I would say that visiting on the actual visit weekend is probably worth it, unless there is another pressing reason why you'd prefer a different date (for example, flying in internationally, or if you were working and only had a certain amount of PTO so you needed to stack visits to keep getting paid). Visiting on the actual weekend, you'll probably have more opportunity to speak with faculty and current students, because they will have blocked off the time for that; you can't guarantee that as many people will be around on the alternate date, and ideally you'd want to speak to a whole bunch of people, not just a one or two professors and two or three grad students with whom you arrange formal meetings. From what I know about visits in bench and social sciences, official visits also give you a lot of opportunity to speak with faculty and students in casual, mingle-y settings, which might allow you to ask more candid questions. 

In the end, for this friend, juggling the classes wasn't nearly as bad as the stress of the travel and making the decision. There isn't a wrong decision here, as long as you get out to the visit one way or another, and when it comes down to it, there isn't one very convenient answer, either. 

[meghan_sparkle]

My official Brown email to check the website only just came in—maybe time to check those portals?

[caffeinated applicant]

7 minutes ago, meghan_sparkle said:

My official Brown email to check the website only just came in—maybe time to check those portals?

* logs into portal again even though I checked it when I got to work an hour ago * 

Still nothing here for me... 

[meghan_sparkle]

18 minutes ago, caffeinated applicant said:

* logs into portal again even though I checked it when I got to work an hour ago * 

Still nothing here for me... 

huh! I'm also seeing nothing on the board so far which seems odd, if (at the v least) that email meant all acceptances had gone out... ignore me!

[caffeinated applicant]

Just now, meghan_sparkle said:

huh! I'm also seeing nothing on the board so far which seems odd, if (at the v least) that email meant all acceptances had gone out... ignore me!

I think it may be a situation where the phone call folks have decisions pushed through first and the rest take a bit longer. (The board seems to indicate that they call a small number of first-round admits and then email the rest of the cohort a few days later? Unclear. Small sample size, etc.) But I'm also going to keep refreshing every couple hours, naturally. 

[onerepublic96]

I really hope Princeton comes through today... but also am terrified that Princeton might come through today 

Edited February 14, 2020 by onerepublic96

[Shakespeares Sister]

6 hours ago, poetryislit said:

Does anyone have any insight as to what it may be like transitioning from a semester system in undergrad to a quarter system for grad? 

I did the opposite for my MA. You will end up saying "this semester" in conversation a lot in the beginning. Old habits die hard.