2021 Applicants

[lilgreenblatt]

36 minutes ago, missmarianne said:

Okay, South Carolina needs to calm down with its stereotyping. ? 

The funny part about the "Texas girl = cattle rancher" is that the guy I'm dating (from SC)'s family are cattle farmers...my state has the wrong stereotype! Haha!

[missmarianne]

7 minutes ago, lilgreenblatt said:

The funny part about the "Texas girl = cattle rancher" is that the guy I'm dating (from SC)'s family are cattle farmers...my state has the wrong stereotype! Haha!

Bahahaha! At the risk of perpetuating a farm girl stereotype, my family 100% raises cattle in another part of Georgia even though my sibs and I grew up in the suburbs. Whenever I used to go horseback riding at my out-of-state summer camp, kids always assumed that I, as a nine-year old girl, could lasso bulls and jump barrels. 

[lilgreenblatt]

38 minutes ago, missmarianne said:

Bahahaha! At the risk of perpetuating a farm girl stereotype, my family 100% raises cattle in another part of Georgia even though my sibs and I grew up in the suburbs. Whenever I used to go horseback riding at my out-of-state summer camp, kids always assumed that I, as a nine-year old girl, could lasso bulls and jump barrels. 

Hahaha!! I had a friend in high school who was a rodeo world champion. Some stereotypes are fitting I suppose.

[Tybalt]

4 hours ago, missmarianne said:

Good points and I sort of have a question about this. As you recommend, I looked at commencement programs and saw that two students were set to graduate this year in my sub-field. I gathered that the department had brought in two Contemporary Drama students simultaneously, but I also wondered when they decided it was a good time to bring in new people. Is it after the majority of students have graduated in a sub-field or do they start bringing in new students when it looks like the original students are graduating in the next year or two? As I asked myself these questions, I also looked at current students and realized there were no drama scholars but there many first-year people who might not have decided on a sub-field yet and I felt very confused.

So my question: does anyone know when profs start thinking about bringing in new students for a particular subfield? 

Probably varies from school to school, but I doubt many people put much stock in the "almost finished" tag, haha.  Lots of people are "almost finished for literally YEARS.  I started being almost finished in 2017.  I defended in summer of 2019.  A friend of mine has been almost finished since 2015.  She's defending in April.  Time does funny things in graduate school.    For real though, each program is unique in how they determine that.  Some programs allow pre-tenured faculty to advise--some don't.  Some have faculty who can, and enjoy, advising many students at once.  Others might have faculty who get overwhelmed beyond one or two.  One program might be filled with profs who see grad students as an interruption to their research time.  Others might view students as energizing to their research.  It's borderline Dickensian, haha.

 

The TL/DR is that you can look at things like that to make the call between the last couple of schools on your application list, but if you try and use it to predict the future, you'll just drive yourself to distraction.  The main takeaway is to be aware that the vast majority of times, these committees aren't deciding against you--they are making their decisions on a huge pile of factors that have absolutely nothing to do with you.  Frankly, I would love it if programs were more up front about what they were looking for, re: pairing grad students with certain profs/fields, though in retrospect, that might have cost me my own admission way back when (I was admitted off the wait list at a school where my advisor hand-picked her new advisee herself.  I got in because a medievalist they admitted for another faculty member ended up turning them down).

[EffervescentMoon]

16 hours ago, Oklash said:

This is random but I am from the deep south and talking to departments that are definitely not in the deep is jarring. ? I suddenly feel very self-conscious of my voice and speech patterns. 

OMG Yes!!! Such a problem. I lived in the Midwest for three years and defaulted to simply spelling my name first because no one seemed to understand me. It actually was a culture shock, and I became self conscious of how I spoke to people. When I moved back South, I forgot simple things like how we pronounce "water" and my own name lol.

Edited February 21, 2021 by EffervescentMoon

[Tybalt]

2 minutes ago, EffervescentMoon said:

OMG Yes!!! Such a problem. I lived in the Midwest for three years and defaulted to simply spelling my name first because no one seemed to understand me. It actually was a culture shock, and I became self conscious of how I spoke to people. When I moved back South, I forgot simple things like how we pronounce "water" and my own name lol.

It works in the  opposite direction as well.  I grew up in the Northeast and now work in the deep South.  I think every teaching evaluation I've ever received has had a note about slowing down the rate of my speech, haha.

[missmarianne]

13 minutes ago, EffervescentMoon said:

OMG Yes!!! Such a problem. I lived in the Midwest for three years and defaulted to simply spelling my name first because no one seemed to understand me. It actually was a culture shock, and I became self conscious of how I spoke to people. When I moved back South, I forgot simple things like how we pronounce "water" and my own name lol.

AHHH! Yes, like NAMES ARE NOT THAT HARD. Marianne is not that hard. There are television characters with my name that are not from the South. My Michigan camp friends used to laugh at my name being super Southern so I got into the habit of holding my hand like a mitten and playing the, "What part of Michigan are you from?" game but then I flipped them off at the last minute. Like, why is no one extending a PhD invite to me when I am a literal genius?

[missmarianne]

46 minutes ago, Tybalt said:

Probably varies from school to school, but I doubt many people put much stock in the "almost finished" tag, haha.  Lots of people are "almost finished for literally YEARS.  I started being almost finished in 2017.  I defended in summer of 2019.  A friend of mine has been almost finished since 2015.  She's defending in April.  Time does funny things in graduate school.    For real though, each program is unique in how they determine that.  Some programs allow pre-tenured faculty to advise--some don't.  Some have faculty who can, and enjoy, advising many students at once.  Others might have faculty who get overwhelmed beyond one or two.  One program might be filled with profs who see grad students as an interruption to their research time.  Others might view students as energizing to their research.  It's borderline Dickensian, haha.

 

The TL/DR is that you can look at things like that to make the call between the last couple of schools on your application list, but if you try and use it to predict the future, you'll just drive yourself to distraction.  The main takeaway is to be aware that the vast majority of times, these committees aren't deciding against you--they are making their decisions on a huge pile of factors that have absolutely nothing to do with you.  Frankly, I would love it if programs were more up front about what they were looking for, re: pairing grad students with certain profs/fields, though in retrospect, that might have cost me my own admission way back when (I was admitted off the wait list at a school where my advisor hand-picked her new advisee herself.  I got in because a medievalist they admitted for another faculty member ended up turning them down).

Yeahhhh. "Almost finished" does seem pretty relative. Well, here's hoping someone has space for me this year even though it's looking rooough.

[shamrox]

4 hours ago, AnxiousBean said:

Is anyone still waiting to hear back from Tufts? I haven't had any update to my portal there or any emails. I'm expecting a rejection but didn't know if anyone had heard anything yet... 

I received an update on Friday, by e-mail instructing me to check the portal. However, when I went into the portal, my application status was still listed as submitted. I clicked on Submitted and I believe that took me to the holy decree of rejection. 

[AnxiousBean]

9 minutes ago, shamrox said:

I received an update on Friday, by e-mail instructing me to check the portal. However, when I went into the portal, my application status was still listed as submitted. I clicked on Submitted and I believe that took me to the holy decree of rejection. 

Thanks for the update! Mine still shows all of my things as submitted but doesn't have anywhere for me to look at a decision about my application. 

Can anyone give me advise if I should reach out to ask when I'll hear back? Or do I just wait it out?

[shamrox]

Just now, AnxiousBean said:

Thanks for the update! Mine still shows all of my things as submitted but doesn't have anywhere for me to look at a decision about my application. 

Can anyone give me advise if I should reach out to ask when I'll hear back? Or do I just wait it out?

I just rechecked this and realize I clicked on Fall 2021 and not Submitted. Anyway! I imagine you'll be hearing soon. I haven't gotten any satisfying responses when I reached out to offices but it never hurts!

[Lighthouse Lana]

1 hour ago, AnxiousBean said:

Thanks for the update! Mine still shows all of my things as submitted but doesn't have anywhere for me to look at a decision about my application. 

Can anyone give me advise if I should reach out to ask when I'll hear back? Or do I just wait it out?

HI! I'm in the same boat as you. I'm expecting a rejection and I'm not sure why they split up decision notifications in such an annoying way... Let me know if you decide to reach out to them! 

[torok2022]

6 hours ago, Arrrgghhhh said:

That’s the only thing that makes sense, unless it’s some weird alphabetical thing because my last name begins with V. But it seems that whenever I have a renewed sense of hope, I get an email an hour later explaining to me why that hope was stupid. 

I was so hoping to not have another week of endless stress and suspense...however, feel slight comfort in hearing you think we're still possibly in the running. Glad to not be in it alone. Take care of yourself, please! 

[queenofcarrotflowers]

It's unfortunate that my top-choice programme which would be a PERFECT fit for me is the one that's been totally silent... If I'd heard back from them first (with a rejection, I'm sure), I feel like I could actually sleep at night lol

[brockdenbrown802]

13 hours ago, AnxiousBean said:

Thanks for the update! Mine still shows all of my things as submitted but doesn't have anywhere for me to look at a decision about my application. 

Can anyone give me advise if I should reach out to ask when I'll hear back? Or do I just wait it out?

 

11 hours ago, Lighthouse Lana said:

HI! I'm in the same boat as you. I'm expecting a rejection and I'm not sure why they split up decision notifications in such an annoying way... Let me know if you decide to reach out to them! 

I'm in the same boat still via Tufts - I don't have anything on the portal to view other than "submitted" 

[kirbs005]

1 hour ago, queenofcarrotflowers said:

It's unfortunate that my top-choice programme which would be a PERFECT fit for me is the one that's been totally silent... If I'd heard back from them first (with a rejection, I'm sure), I feel like I could actually sleep at night lol

I'm in the same boat!! They pushed their initial deadline back and waiting to hear from them is killing me.

[lilgreenblatt]

I feel like the anxious waiting is starting to get worse after seeing so many schools release results...I know this month is like "the" month and that by the end of March I'll either have happy tears or sad ones for sure.

[Emailchecker]

Guys, will it be rude and insensitive to send a Texas POI a question about app status? 

[kirbs005]

2 minutes ago, Emailchecker said:

Guys, will it be rude and insensitive to send a Texas POI a question about app status? 

If there hadn't just been huge ice storms and power outages last week, I'd say no. But I think they'll probably get to it sometime this week (since it sounded like they were anticipating sending decisions last week, pre-storm). Their campus was closed last week and it's possible a lot of them couldn't actually get to campus or didn't have the power to trigger admissions decisions. I'd say if we get into March with no answer, then it wouldn't be bad to reach out.

[queenofcarrotflowers]

12 minutes ago, NervousYolk said:

big mood ahh

it's also so exasperating knowing that you know you're a perfect fit and that all signs point to it being a perfect fit, but the admissions committee may have an entirely different opinion!

exactly! It's such a strange game with so many things factoring into decisions, many of them being luck, that knowing you're a perfect fit just serves for more anxiety rather than hope !

[queenofcarrotflowers]

18 minutes ago, Emailchecker said:

Guys, will it be rude and insensitive to send a Texas POI a question about app status? 

Frankly, I would say yes, what with the situation.

The university website says it is closed until Wednesday- it's possible we'll start hearing back after then. I know how anxiety-inducing it is, but it's hardly an urgent matter.

[missmarianne]

On 2/18/2021 at 2:32 PM, missmarianne said:

Agreed! Though I got a rejection yesterday and my name was in a different font than the rest of the letter because someone had clearly copied/pasted it from a list and I laughed a little (while trying not to cry, obviously).

 

In the meantime, I composed a very silly rejection letter written by my anxiety disorder that I sent to McSweeney's and, whether or not it gets published, I will be sharing it with the group to ease the pain of my inevitable shut out.

McSweeney's took my essay, y'all!! I'm so excited to see something that's not a rejection in my inbox!

[Warelin]

2 minutes ago, missmarianne said:

McSweeney's took my essay, y'all!! I'm so excited to see something that's not a rejection in my inbox!

Congratulations! That's a huge achievement!

[OpenBook]

2 minutes ago, missmarianne said:

McSweeney's took my essay, y'all!! I'm so excited to see something that's not a rejection in my inbox!

OMG!!!  CONGRATULATIONS!!  That's so exciting!!! 

[missmarianne]

4 minutes ago, Warelin said:

Congratulations! That's a huge achievement!

Thanks! This season feels like less of a wash!