only days away?

[fall-11]

According to the Grad Cafe results forum, last year Wisconsin sent out their first acceptances on Jan 29, and Northwestern on Feb 1. If they follow a similar schedule this year, that means we might hear back in about 10 days' time. That's really really soon -- I don't know whether to be excited or scared. Honestly, how do they get through hundreds of applications in such a short time?

[soxpuppet]

According to the Grad Cafe results forum, last year Wisconsin sent out their first acceptances on Jan 29, and Northwestern on Feb 1. If they follow a similar schedule this year, that means we might hear back in about 10 days' time. That's really really soon -- I don't know whether to be excited or scared. Honestly, how do they get through hundreds of applications in such a short time?

I have no idea about Wisconsin, but Northwestern had a relatively early application due date (December 1?). Honestly, most schools don't do anything more than collect and organize applications before everyone reconvenes for the first week of Spring semester - which is to say, most admissions committees probably started their real work this week. (For all those schools with December 15th deadlines, here's what happens. Your applications arrive. Maybe they're collected and sorted, checked for completion. The professors give final exams, grade papers and then go home for the holidays. The professors to go MLA. The professors plan their courses, then come back to teach and look at applications in mid January.) If you consider that a huge portion of acceptances go out during an incredibly hectic week or two in mid February, that indicates that most programs really only take about a month in terms of active evaluation and decision making.

Merely speculating here, but with Northwestern there are a couple of possibilities as to why they are able to get back to applicants so quickly. 1) since the deadline was earlier, perhaps applications were actually looked at before winter break? 2) since they are on the quarter system, their Winter term started January 3, which means the Ad Com could have convened even 2 weeks ago (hmm, profs on the quarter system -except the UCs in SoCal this year - probably aren't so thrilled about the changes with MLA). Either way, it's possible to imagine a scenario where they have pretty much a full month, which is about on par with what other schools seem to do.

Obviously, some programs take considerably longer. Don't hold your breath for Cornell, Indiana-Bloomington, for instance.

[BrandNewName]

I also saw that UChicago English notified January 28th of last year.

And, Duke Literature sent out interview invites on January 25th in 2009!

I wish I wasn't thinking about it so much, but those dates are approaching so quickly I can't stop checking the results page.

[Medievalmaniac]

I also saw that UChicago English notified January 28th of last year.

And, Duke Literature sent out interview invites on January 25th in 2009!

I wish I wasn't thinking about it so much, but those dates are approaching so quickly I can't stop checking the results page.

Some of the earliest admits in English on the results board are UNC-CH, which has sent out acceptances as early as January 24 in the past. That's next week, if the pattern holds true! So yes, admissions season is nigh. Best of luck!

[snappysorbet]

I also saw that UChicago English notified January 28th of last year.

And, Duke Literature sent out interview invites on January 25th in 2009!

I wish I wasn't thinking about it so much, but those dates are approaching so quickly I can't stop checking the results page.

outofredink, I just wanted to tell you that I love your signature, specifically the university you're currently attending

Also, I don't think you're the only one who can't stop checking the results page. I'm definitely in the same boat.

[woolfie]

Here I am just merely checking the online status every few days. Thanks for giving me a new thing I can obsess over.

[BrandNewName]

outofredink, I just wanted to tell you that I love your signature, specifically the university you're currently attending

Thanks. I'm a bit of a superstitious person and I was worried that leaving it open (as if to imply that it will be filled with the name of some school in the near future) would only serve to jinx me in the long run.

I'm so superstitious, in fact, that I'm nervous to even acknowledge my anti-jinxing signature activities in this post for fear that that too will jinx me in some way.

I think I need help. I've also taken to seeing how many steps I can make it down before the hallway door in my apartment building closes, that number being equal to the number of schools that will accept me naturally. If you care, it's normally seven. Ha. I wish.

Yeah...results need to happen soon.

[fall-11]

I think I need help. I've also taken to seeing how many steps I can make it down before the hallway door in my apartment building closes, that number being equal to the number of schools that will accept me naturally. If you care, it's normally seven. Ha. I wish.

Jesus, do you have to give us ideas??

Good luck, though. We'll all make it!

[shepardn7]

Thanks. I'm a bit of a superstitious person and I was worried that leaving it open (as if to imply that it will be filled with the name of some school in the near future) would only serve to jinx me in the long run.

I'm so superstitious, in fact, that I'm nervous to even acknowledge my anti-jinxing signature activities in this post for fear that that too will jinx me in some way.

I think I need help. I've also taken to seeing how many steps I can make it down before the hallway door in my apartment building closes, that number being equal to the number of schools that will accept me naturally. If you care, it's normally seven. Ha. I wish.

Yeah...results need to happen soon.

Haha, I do something similar. I have an "If X, then Y" thing. For example, I'll be driving and see a green light awhile up ahead and think, If I make this light, then X will happen. These days X = "I'll get into school" but it's been other things in the past. I think it's a weird habit I developed as a kid, and I don't take it seriously or do it constantly....but still. We're weird!

[ssundva]

Haha, I do something similar. I have an "If X, then Y" thing. For example, I'll be driving and see a green light awhile up ahead and think, If I make this light, then X will happen. These days X = "I'll get into school" but it's been other things in the past. I think it's a weird habit I developed as a kid, and I don't take it seriously or do it constantly....but still. We're weird!

That's kind of weird. I do the EXACT same thing.

[milou]

That's kind of weird. I do the EXACT same thing.

ME TOO! And I feel like a crazy person when I do it.

[shepardn7]

Thank god other people do it. Now I'm not alone. I feel crazy when I do it, too.

[tortola23]

I do similar things! Probably just weird but not necessarily unhealthy responses to the enormous amount of stress we're all under right now.

Good news from a single school would seriously change my entire outlook on life. I haven't felt entirely like myself since this process began, which was LAST fall for me. I am so anxious and worried almost 24/7. ARGH.

[Alyanumbers]

I do the same things! I used to think it was my own personal weirdness, until I saw the movie A Very Long Engagement, in which the heroine is seen doing that ("If I can reach the road turn before the car turns it, my boyfriend will come back alive...").

Edited January 21, 2011 by Alyanumbers

[KRC]

Good news from a single school would seriously change my entire outlook on life.

So, so true!

[woolfie]

I hate to say it, but I think the only people who are going to be contacted in the last week of January are the TIP TOP candidates, it seems like there are only one or two acceptances in that week, and then most of them come mid-february, or the first week of March.

I wish I could fast forward to April right now.

[tortola23]

I hate to say it, but I think the only people who are going to be contacted in the last week of January are the TIP TOP candidates, it seems like there are only one or two acceptances in that week, and then most of them come mid-february, or the first week of March.

I wish I could fast forward to April right now.

Yes, I'm not expecting any news from any of my twelve schools until the third week of February at the earliest.

[fall-11]

I hate to say it, but I think the only people who are going to be contacted in the last week of January are the TIP TOP candidates, it seems like there are only one or two acceptances in that week, and then most of them come mid-february, or the first week of March.

Oh yes, I know that, but I just meant the *idea* that we might just be days away from hearing...

[soxpuppet]

I hate to say it, but I think the only people who are going to be contacted in the last week of January are the TIP TOP candidates.

This isn't necessarily true. Except for a few schools that notify fellowship recipients a day or so earlier than their other admits, and the rare schools that do rolling admits (UVA, UNC Chapel Hill, others?) the norm is to notify everyone at once. If they do snail mail notifications, which is rare, the spacing might look odd, but the letters are probably all sent at once. Most of the time, if you get in in January, or the first week of February, it just means you got into a school that notifies early, and it's nothing to do with being a higher pick than other people who got into the same school.

[Medievalmaniac]

This isn't necessarily true. Except for a few schools that notify fellowship recipients a day or so earlier than their other admits, and the rare schools that do rolling admits (UVA, UNC Chapel Hill, others?) the norm is to notify everyone at once. If they do snail mail notifications, which is rare, the spacing might look odd, but the letters are probably all sent at once. Most of the time, if you get in in January, or the first week of February, it just means you got into a school that notifies early, and it's nothing to do with being a higher pick than other people who got into the same school.

Not necessarily accurate. I know for a fact that UVA alerts the Jefferson scholar candidates earliest, with other applicants notified two or more weeks later in most cases, and just about any school with a university-wide graduate fellowship program is also going to alert those applicants eligible for such ahead of anyone else, because the process is so long and arduous - these are the spots for university-wide fellowships, super-prestigious and open to every grad school candidate in every department - that's a lot of applications, so the process begins earlier for those (this is one major reason for the earlier, December deadlines at most schools - allows these candidates to be pulled in a timely fashion, the screening process being something to the effect of, "Oh, look at this, 4.0 GPA and 800/800/6, subject test 780, that's a fellowship candidate").

The term "rolling admissions" is a problematic one, because in general academic use, it indicates that applications are reviewed year-round, with several possible start dates for a program (here's an example of a graduate program that offers rolling admissions, check out the right-hand side of the page, blue box).While many master's programs offer rolling admissions, very few graduate programs offering the PhD do, if any - UVA and UNC-CH certainly don't, and they specifically state this on their webpage. They have a strict deadline for Fall-only enrollment, and then the applications are reviewed on a rolling basis within the respective departments. I do know that they prefer to have all of this done and out of the way as soon as possible, and there are only two or three department sessions scheduled for application review, generally late January/early February..

That the admits and rejections go out in waves can also be accounted for by the waitlist. Some years, this is much longer than others, and they have to wait for someone to accept or decline before they can proceed with other offers. The actual reason for most of the later admits is that so many earlier-admitted students choose to sit on their acceptances until everything is in so they know what they have to choose from- totally their prerogative, but that more than any other factor accounts for the number of mid- to late- April notifications.

In the end- I think we are most of us in this for the long haul. Hang in there!!!! Not too much longer now!!!

Edited January 22, 2011 by Medievalmaniac

[diehtc0ke]

Not necessarily accurate. I know for a fact that UVA alerts the Jefferson scholar candidates earliest, with other applicants notified two or more weeks later in most cases, and just about any school with a university-wide graduate fellowship program is also going to alert those applicants eligible for such ahead of anyone else, because the process is so long and arduous - these are the spots for university-wide fellowships, super-prestigious and open to every grad school candidate in every department - that's a lot of applications, so the process begins earlier for those (this is one major reason for the earlier, December deadlines at most schools - allows these candidates to be pulled in a timely fashion, the screening process being something to the effect of, "Oh, look at this, 4.0 GPA and 800/800/6, subject test 780, that's a fellowship candidate").

Just wanted to point out for those worried about the bolded part that this is not always the case or, if it is, having a less than stellar GPA or less than close to perfect GRE scores will not always keep you out of the running for prestigious university-wide fellowships. As is my curse, I only really have my own anecdotal evidence to support this assertion but I had a terrible subject score and my GRE scores and GPA were middling at best and I received more than one of these kinds of fellowships last year. Except in one case where the department was doing an (unfortunate) overhaul on how it handled acceptances, I was contacted before most of the other accepted applicants when I had won a larger fellowship.

[soxpuppet]

The term "rolling admissions" is a problematic one, because in general academic use, it indicates that applications are reviewed year-round, with several possible start dates for a program

You are right - I was looking for "in waves" and came up with the wrong term. My apologies.

Except in one case where the department was doing an (unfortunate) overhaul on how it handled acceptances, I was contacted before most of the other accepted applicants when I had won a larger fellowship.

This was also true for me as well - my point, just to clarify, is that 1) my admissions with uncommon fellowships didn't necessarily happen in mid January (one was either LATE February or early March), 2) I can think of examples both from my personal experience and from the experiences of my friends where the main body of admitted students was contacted a day or two after the fellowship nominees (this is not necessarily universal, but it is pretty common for all admissions notices to go out the same week), and 3) not all late January admits are admitted in late January for the reason that they are prestigious fellowship winners.

My larger point was simply that it is a very unhealthy attitude to start placing yourselves and others in such hierarchies of worth (only the "TIP TOP candidates," suggesting that fellowship awards require astronomical GPA and GRE numbers, etc.) even before, as far as I know, ANY PhD program has sent out an actual admission for English lit. And it's unhealthy to do that anyway. Yes, some schools will start notifying soon. The schools that notify early will start notifying soon; the schools that interview will start notifying interviewees soon (or already have); and a few qualified, lucky applicants who are good fits at schools that don't notify especially late may receive notice of admission with fellowship nomination soon.

Amazing, qualified applicants who are a great fit at schools who notify later may not receive that awesome fellowship notification until even after the mid February rush.

Yes, there are traceable patterns in the admissions timeline, but they are delicate, ephemeral, and subject to myriad contingencies. It is even more difficult to identify trends in notification patterns based on this timeline that will brand your hierarchical worth as a candidate over and above (or below) other admitted students.

The TIP TOP candidates are the ones that get into solid programs that support their interests, no matter when that happens. That's all I'm saying.

[woolfie]

This isn't necessarily true. Except for a few schools that notify fellowship recipients a day or so earlier than their other admits, and the rare schools that do rolling admits (UVA, UNC Chapel Hill, others?) the norm is to notify everyone at once. If they do snail mail notifications, which is rare, the spacing might look odd, but the letters are probably all sent at once. Most of the time, if you get in in January, or the first week of February, it just means you got into a school that notifies early, and it's nothing to do with being a higher pick than other people who got into the same school.

I guess I meant the people who get phone calls seem to be first choice, and then there are those who get email/letters. Though, maybe I don't know what I'm talking about.

[woolfie]

The TIP TOP candidates are the ones that get into solid programs that support their interests, no matter when that happens. That's all I'm saying.

This is true. I more so meant fellowship recipients, those with the stellar GRE scores. Which shouldn't mean that they are better candidates than the other admits but, financially, they are treated that way.

[ssundva]

When it comes to schools that perform interviews, however, I think that notifications pretty much come more or less at once. And while most schools for English do not perform interviews, such should be taken into consideration. Otherwise, I agree that admits get notified at different stages of the admit process. Adcoms often speak of "waves," "cycles," and "X meeting(s)."