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2023 Application Thread


dr. t

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Hi All, 

I just want to intervene and remind everybody here to take good care of yourself. Last time I applied, I received my rejections on Valentine's Day, which seems particularly cruel. I immediately went back on antidepressants. Most schools have already decided if you will or will  not be accepted, they are just holding out on letting us know.

Personally, I will be doing my best NOT to check my portal, this forum, or associated email. I have hyper-anxiety. I have seen a friend kill himself over a girl who did not want him. These rejections hit hard, especially when they come from school after school. Really do something for yourself this week, something kind, and make sure you are in a strong place before checking your email. These schools may think it is cute to email perspective candidate x while leaving hundreds of us in the dark, but it is not; it is downright cruel, and should be abolished. 

Smoke some weed, have a beer or take a bar and forget about it (if you do not have a substance problem). As somebody whose had multiple friends commit suicide, it is just not worth getting worked up over this. 

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I am still waiting to hear back from all the schools I applied to. The process is nerve-racking. I can not be on my computer without checking every portal and looking through the decisions page on gradcafe. I honestly struggle to get assignments done because every time I am on my laptop I find myself staring at my email. I am also waiting to hear back about a fellowship and an essay contest I entered which does not help my obsession with my email. For people in their masters or who completed their masters, when did you guys hear back? One of the schools I also rolling admissions but I have not heard from them yet and it has been like a month. Am I just being impatient?

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1 hour ago, greenlandsharki said:

I am still waiting to hear back from all the schools I applied to. The process is nerve-racking. I can not be on my computer without checking every portal and looking through the decisions page on gradcafe. I honestly struggle to get assignments done because every time I am on my laptop I find myself staring at my email. I am also waiting to hear back about a fellowship and an essay contest I entered which does not help my obsession with my email. For people in their masters or who completed their masters, when did you guys hear back? One of the schools I also rolling admissions but I have not heard from them yet and it has been like a month. Am I just being impatient?

I don't know how helpful this will be, but I was dealing with the same issue a couple of weeks ago -- checking every portal every 30 minutes, obsessively checking my spam folder in my email, scrolling through page after page of decisions. I decided that whenever I was too anxious to do work for my classes but knew I shouldn't doomscroll Gradcafe, I would pick a stupidly long book and read as much as I could stand until the anxiety went away. Currently, it's War and Peace (which I'm actually really enjoying).

Other things I've been doing is limiting myself to only checking this forum page instead of the results page and checking the history applicants group chat I'm in on Reddit. My philosophy is, when I know, I'll know. There's no point in scrolling hoping to see some lost decision and just making myself feel worse when I could be doing something nice -- like taking a walk, or listening to music, or getting a coffee.

Best of luck to you! We'll know eventually... it's just a ride to get there.

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10 minutes ago, AmramtheAgronomist said:

ahhhh the sadly expected rejection from Harvard has arrived...

Does anybody know when is the joint program of History and ME at NYU is expected to send results? Not a lot of info on the results page + I have a sense it will be crazy late 

It might be different for the joint program, but for just history, the website says 4-8 weeks after the application deadline. Next week marks 8 weeks so they're certainly holding out until the end at this point...

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10 minutes ago, stillwaitinggg said:

It might be different for the joint program, but for just history, the website says 4-8 weeks after the application deadline. Next week marks 8 weeks so they're certainly holding out until the end at this point...

I've been told that they already informally told everyone who was accepted into the history program... I just hope it's not like that in the joint program, which also had a slightly different application deadline (3 days later) 

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7 minutes ago, AmramtheAgronomist said:

I've been told that they already informally told everyone who was accepted into the history program... I just hope it's not like that in the joint program, which also had a slightly different application deadline (3 days later) 

Have they told everyone? Only one person actually posted they were told, I haven't seen anything anywhere else. 

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1 hour ago, stillwaitinggg said:

Have they told everyone? Only one person actually posted they were told, I haven't seen anything anywhere else. 

big bummer if true…but i don’t even see that post on the results page anymore? I have to stop checking this page 

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9 minutes ago, greatdivergence said:

I think they should have informed everyone. It would be strange to inform waitlist first.

Oh I see. I got rejected from Yale, Stanford and Princeton so far but this one hurt the most. My POI gave me the impression that I had a very high chance of getting in. It is what it is I guess. Good luck to everyone who got in and I wish you get off the waitlist if Northwestern is your top choice. If not, I hope you get in to your top choice!

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15 minutes ago, orcinusorca said:

Oh I see. I got rejected from Yale, Stanford and Princeton so far but this one hurt the most. My POI gave me the impression that I had a very high chance of getting in. It is what it is I guess. Good luck to everyone who got in and I wish you get off the waitlist if Northwestern is your top choice. If not, I hope you get in to your top choice!

I hope you have good news from other programs!

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17 minutes ago, orcinusorca said:

Oh I see. I got rejected from Yale, Stanford and Princeton so far but this one hurt the most. My POI gave me the impression that I had a very high chance of getting in. It is what it is I guess. Good luck to everyone who got in and I wish you get off the waitlist if Northwestern is your top choice. If not, I hope you get in to your top choice!

you may also try contact your POI if he/she indeed gave you that impression? It may not change anything but most likely there is nothing wrong with you and your application - it could well be an administrative decision. Maybe that makes you feel better?

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12 minutes ago, orcinusorca said:

Oh I see. I got rejected from Yale, Stanford and Princeton so far but this one hurt the most. My POI gave me the impression that I had a very high chance of getting in. It is what it is I guess. Good luck to everyone who got in and I wish you get off the waitlist if Northwestern is your top choice. If not, I hope you get in to your top choice!

That's exactly why I don't support the practice of "reaching out to POIs" before an application process (u nless the requirement for such communication is stated on the application portal). Several professors from various Ivy schools have told me that this is a waste of time. Almost all POIs will encourage you to apply anyway because they appreciate your interest in working with them, but they have almost no influence on the selection process or how other professors will evaluate your application.
My point is that such communication creates a false sense of "good odds." Your application, SOP and recommendations are the only things that can boost your chances, not a friendly chat with potential POI.

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6 minutes ago, SpiralJetty said:

wondering if I am prematurely mourning Rutgers and NYU? any thoughts? 

I’m in the same boat with Rutgers. Panicking over not hearing from Rutgers and Northwestern yet. Hopefully this isn’t the end for us. 

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1 hour ago, waitingforresults said:

That's exactly why I don't support the practice of "reaching out to POIs" before an application process (u nless the requirement for such communication is stated on the application portal). Several professors from various Ivy schools have told me that this is a waste of time. Almost all POIs will encourage you to apply anyway because they appreciate your interest in working with them, but they have almost no influence on the selection process or how other professors will evaluate your application.
My point is that such communication creates a false sense of "good odds." Your application, SOP and recommendations are the only things that can boost your chances, not a friendly chat with potential POI.

I don't think outright rejecting the practice of reaching out to POIs is a good idea. In my case, certainly not all POIs encouraged me to apply. However, all of those who did encourage me told me to reach out to multiple faculty members to increase my chances. They gave tips on who to reach out to and how to frame my project in my SOP. They introduced me to their current graduate students who helped me in ways I could not even dream of. I'm certainly aware that communicating with faculty beforehand does not guarantee admission but I don't think it's a "waste of time". 

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47 minutes ago, SpiralJetty said:

wondering if I am prematurely mourning Rutgers and NYU? any thoughts? 

I don't think so with NYU. Although someone announced their acceptance, I think it would only be worth mourning if more people had done so. It's such a popularly applied to program that we'd hear from more acceptances if everything was out. It's never too late until the portal is updated!

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5 hours ago, orcinusorca said:

I don't think outright rejecting the practice of reaching out to POIs is a good idea. In my case, certainly not all POIs encouraged me to apply. However, all of those who did encourage me told me to reach out to multiple faculty members to increase my chances. They gave tips on who to reach out to and how to frame my project in my SOP. They introduced me to their current graduate students who helped me in ways I could not even dream of. I'm certainly aware that communicating with faculty beforehand does not guarantee admission but I don't think it's a "waste of time". 

But, in the end, all of those tips and communications didn't really help you with your admissions, did they?

All I'm trying to say is that communicating with POIs has no positive or negative impact on your chances, and the false impression of being friendly and helpful can create unrealistic expectations from applicants. Furthermore, you can get all of this advice from your home institutions' advisors and professors, current grad studnets. Especially when it comes to SOP, which is a unique genre of writing that you will never encounter elsewhere and for which you never receive actual feedback from reviewers.

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