Fall 2021 Applicants

[hypsipyle]

21 hours ago, Octavia the Younger said:

Hello! Quick question from an international student finishing a BA in Classics. How long does it take to get a master's degree in Classics in the US? One or two years? Thank you!

It depends on the school/program. Many MA programs in our discipline in the US (particularly those that are funded) are designed to be two-year programs (in order to accommodate any teaching requirements and/or the writing of a thesis). There are at least a handful of one-year programs or MAs with requirements that could be realistically completed in one year (e.g., BU, Penn, Columbia, to name a few), though I don't think most of them offer funding. You can find a list of programs that offer MAs here: https://classicalstudies.org/education/graduate-programs-north-america

[Octavia the Younger]

5 hours ago, hypsipyle said:

It depends on the school/program. Many MA programs in our discipline in the US (particularly those that are funded) are designed to be two-year programs (in order to accommodate any teaching requirements and/or the writing of a thesis). There are at least a handful of one-year programs or MAs with requirements that could be realistically completed in one year (e.g., BU, Penn, Columbia, to name a few), though I don't think most of them offer funding. You can find a list of programs that offer MAs here: https://classicalstudies.org/education/graduate-programs-north-america

Thank you very much for the detailed answer!

[peploskore]

15 hours ago, Octavia the Younger said:

Thank you very much for the detailed answer!

I also found, at least from what I was told by faculty at several MA programs (including Brandeis and Columbia Classical Studies) that even though many of the requirements could be done in a year, they prefer that students take two years - and either remit tuition the second year, or make it a very low number, or have students do the program 'part time' so they can ultimately take more classes over the entire degree (As in, full time would be 4 courses a semester over a year and part time is 3 classes a semester over two years...something like that. Then you get 12 courses instead of 8). So it is worth contacting professors at programs you are interested in to ask how the typical structure works with timing and with tuition! Every program is different so take my experience with a grain of salt.

[exhaustionandtoast]

So...anyone want to claim that UBC rejection? It's the last school I'm waiting on and now that there's been a posted acceptance and rejection, my anxiety is through the roof haha

[Atalanta97]

3 minutes ago, exhaustionandtoast said:

So...anyone want to claim that UBC rejection? It's the last school I'm waiting on and now that there's been a posted acceptance and rejection, my anxiety is through the roof haha

That’s me.

I just got a rejection from the UBC Classical and Near Eastern MA about 30 minutes ago. It was a fairly generic email; since they had a large number of applications, they can’t give much more of an explanation for each applicant on why they were rejected. 

[exhaustionandtoast]

1 minute ago, Atalanta97 said:

That’s me.

I just got a rejection from the UBC Classical and Near Eastern MA about 30 minutes ago. It was a fairly generic email; since they had a large number of applications, they can’t give much more of an explanation for each applicant on why they were rejected. 

 That's a big bummer, I'm sorry! But yeah, that's sort of been everywhere in my experience. Just a rough cycle for everyone.

[alcestis21]

Received and will be accepting a PhD offer from Duke today with full funding! I still can't believe it!

[Sappho618]

15 hours ago, alcestis21 said:

Received and will be accepting a PhD offer from Duke today with full funding! I still can't believe it!

congrats!!!! How did you get notified? Did you get an email from the department or graduate school? I haven’t heard from them. I thought they’d send out all the admissions at the same time.

[ClassicsCandidate]

16 hours ago, alcestis21 said:

Received and will be accepting a PhD offer from Duke today with full funding! I still can't believe it!

Congrats, that's excellent!!! ?

[ClassicsCandidate]

So, while it's a bummer I didn't get into any of the PhD programs I applied to, I did have one other thing I was waiting on: I officially got the acceptance offer for the UPenn Post-Bacc! This year they're also offering a Fellowship, so I'll be waiting to hear back about that later in the month. But, this means I'll be able to strengthen my languages (usually it's 1 Greek, 1 Latin class per semester for the Post-Bacc, but I'm going to ask if I can do 2 Greek, 1 Latin per semester) while I do my next round of applications. Here's to hoping it helps on my next go. ?

[alcestis21]

2 hours ago, Sappho618 said:

congrats!!!! How did you get notified? Did you get an email from the department or graduate school? I haven’t heard from them. I thought they’d send out all the admissions at the same time.

I received a notification to check the portal and then a personal email from the Classics DGS a few hours later! They took 3 students. 

[Sappho618]

28 minutes ago, alcestis21 said:

I received a notification to check the portal and then a personal email from the Classics DGS a few hours later! They took 3 students. 

Thank you! I checked my portal. It’s still nothing there. Did they mention that they took  three students in the email if you don’t mind me asking? I hope I could still get a place on the waitlist....... 

[TaciturnTales]

4 hours ago, ClassicsCandidate said:

So, while it's a bummer I didn't get into any of the PhD programs I applied to, I did have one other thing I was waiting on: I officially got the acceptance offer for the UPenn Post-Bacc! This year they're also offering a Fellowship, so I'll be waiting to hear back about that later in the month. But, this means I'll be able to strengthen my languages (usually it's 1 Greek, 1 Latin class per semester for the Post-Bacc, but I'm going to ask if I can do 2 Greek, 1 Latin per semester) while I do my next round of applications. Here's to hoping it helps on my next go. ?

That's awesome, well done!

[ClassicsCandidate]

5 hours ago, TaciturnTales said:

That's awesome, well done!

Thank you!!

[lkjhgfd]

Hello, everyone. I am on the waitlist for Duke. To whoever gets admitted by Duke, if do not plan to attend, please decline the offer asap. Duke is my dream school and my top choice. I am desperate to get in there. I also have another decision I need to make by April. You would be my life-savior it if you withdraw soon. Thank you.

[ClassicsCandidate]

20 hours ago, lkjhgfd said:

Hello, everyone. I am on the waitlist for Duke. To whoever gets admitted by Duke, if do not plan to attend, please decline the offer asap. Duke is my dream school and my top choice. I am desperate to get in there. I also have another decision I need to make by April. You would be my life-savior it if you withdraw soon. Thank you.

I hope you get off the waitlist soon!!

[peploskore]

Hi! I was just generally wondering if anyone has heard from Tulane Classical Studies MA? I've had radio silence and have yet to see anything on the results board. I wouldn't be worried but it seems typically they send responses by the end of February...it just seems a bit odd! 

[exhaustionandtoast]

So I reached out to UBC since they're the last school I'm waiting to hear from and they said that they won't be able to tell me my status until next week at the earliest. Clearly I'm on some kind of waitlist, but why can't they just say that!?! It's killing me!

[Wafflotron]

On 3/25/2021 at 8:48 AM, peploskore said:

Hi! I was just generally wondering if anyone has heard from Tulane Classical Studies MA? I've had radio silence and have yet to see anything on the results board. I wouldn't be worried but it seems typically they send responses by the end of February...it just seems a bit odd! 

I reached out a week or two ago and got a response basically saying, 'We're a small program. You've been waitlisted, thanks for your application.' I'll submit a response- I forgot that we could do that for waitlists.

[Wafflotron]

Speaking of which, is it just me or is it really quite rude that programs will just ignore you if you've been waitlisted? I've had three now that were just dead silence until I reached out. I worked very hard these past years and I even paid an exorbitant amount of money for them to look at my application, and they can't even give a status update after sending out acceptances. I feel like if I hadn't reached out, I wouldn't even know they'd looked at my application until I got a either a 'congrats you've been admitted with no funding!' or a 'heh sorry no dice, we regret to inform you that...' email at 11:59 pm on April 15.

 

Edit: Sorry for ranting, I know everyone here is dealing with the same kind of events right now.

Edited March 29, 2021 by Wafflotron

[lkjhgfd]

4 hours ago, Wafflotron said:

Speaking of which, is it just me or is it really quite rude that programs will just ignore you if you've been waitlisted? I've had three now that were just dead silence until I reached out. I worked very hard these past years and I even paid an exorbitant amount of money for them to look at my application, and they can't even give a status update after sending out acceptances. I feel like if I hadn't reached out, I wouldn't even know they'd looked at my application until I got a either a 'congrats you've been admitted with no funding!' or a 'heh sorry no dice, we regret to inform you that...' email at 11:59 pm on April 15.

 

Edit: Sorry for ranting, I know everyone here is dealing with the same kind of events right now.

Don't worry about that! We are here to support each other. It is kind of a common practice for graduate schools not to send out notifications on waitlist now. I know this is bad, but we just have to deal with it. The department does get our money and they probably have so many applicants this year. They just do not have enough time to send out emails to everyone on the waitlist. Usually acceptance letter sends out earlier than rejection letters. So the best way to find out is to check if others get accepted. The only way for me to deal with the no information is to believe I am rejected already. Then it would be a surprise if I get in, and I would not be so disappointed if I get rejected in the end. I hope this helps!?

[peploskore]

6 hours ago, Wafflotron said:

I reached out a week or two ago and got a response basically saying, 'We're a small program. You've been waitlisted, thanks for your application.' I'll submit a response- I forgot that we could do that for waitlists.

Thank you, I was a bit hesitant about reaching out to them but I'll definitely do that now! I'm trying to plan, so knowing sooner rather than later either way is ideal. 

I agree, it feels quite rude to me to not have communicated anything at all essentially two weeks before the deadline. I understand programs are very busy and get many applications, but to me it really reflects on the school itself in some ways if they don't say anything at all! Especially since these decisions involve committing ourselves to a school for 2-7 years and applications are very expensive and time consuming to complete. I can't imagine a general 'we are working on decisions still, please be patient' email to everyone on a 'waitlist' would be that difficult to send? Or just any kind of acknowledgement that they are working on the apps? Idk. It's been extremely frustrating, so I completely agree! 

Edited March 29, 2021 by peploskore

[peachy4345]

My two cents about applying to or accepting offers from Columbia:

I am a current 2nd year PhD student at Columbia. The majority of grad students are currently on strike for a living wage, better healthcare, and protection from harassment and discrimination. I have been watching the process of our new graduate union try to bargain for our first contract for over two years. In these sessions, I have seen admin (and their sleazy lawyer, who charges $1,500/hr) do everything possible to stall negotiations, belittle us, and play down heartfelt testimonials that make clear why our demands are reasonable and necessary. Every time we've gotten a raise in the past, our Columbia rent magically goes up by a higher percentage. Our wages are not enough to live in NYC. There is no dental or vision coverage, and they recently removed the better health insurance plan option. The school has a terrible history with harassment and discrimination cases brought by both undergrads and grads (Google it), and at the moment they are doing everything possible to avoid meeting our contract demand about changing the investigation process to give more rights to the complainant (see link below).

We're entering the 3rd week of the strike, and Columbia has made very clear that they plan to not only doc our bi-weekly pay (which we receive for TA/RA work), but our academic stipends--yep, they are going to debit our student accounts, thereby jeopardizing course registration, degree progress, visas, and health insurance. We have a legal right to strike, but this later action constitutes illegal academic retaliation.

Long story short: I'm sure a lot of schools are as corrupt as Columbia, but I've just seen first hand how rotten this place is to the core. They only care about profit (their endowment grew $300 million during the pandemic alone), squeezing as much our of grad workers and adjuncts for as little pay as possible, sweeping bad press under the rug, and gentrifying Harlem with multi-million dollar campus expansions.

I encourage folks thinking about attending/applying to Columbia to express concerns to department chairs and administrators, and ask them why they insist on denying grad workers a fair contract: 

• President Lee Bollinger officeofthepresident@columbia.edu, Phone: (212) 854-9970
• Provost Ira Katznelson provost@columbia.edu,  +1 212 854 2404
• GSAS Grad Admissions: gsas-admissions@columbia.edu

 

https://gothamist.com/news/columbia-grad-students-strike-over-wages-and-harassment-policies-nyu-counterparts-vote-similar-actions

[Marcus_Aurelius]

Wafflotron, totally fair, that's really frustrating... I think a lot of it depends on how likely the program thinks they are to accept folks off the waitlist. Programs that rarely accept off the waitlist have, from their perspective, little incentive to invest time in interacting with WLed folks. 

[ClassicsCandidate]

Just here to say I'm crossing my fingers for everyone who got waitlisted to get off the list and accepted since I'm seeing a few of those come out now!!! ?