0% Confidence of Acceptance

[t1racyjacks]

I see Berkeley has started sending out waitlists I wish they would reject me and get on with it

eta: I now hate them so much. I am sad about Alberta's rejection but I think it was routine. But Berkeley English -- does not like people from ASIA.

Edited February 9, 2013 by t1racyjacks

[Porridge]

I see Berkeley has started sending out waitlists I wish they would reject me and get on with it

eta: I now hate them so much. I am sad about Alberta's rejection but I think it was routine. But Berkeley English -- does not like people from ASIA.

 

If you look at the Berkeley grads currently attending Asian students (of descent possibly) are well represented. I understand your hurt, but it is critical that you do NOT give up. I can see that you are an extremely bright young woman and very passionate about scholarship. That puts you in good stead. It may be that you are not accepted this time round. But do NOT give up. Should you be rejected, email the POI and chair of admissions. Find out how you can improve your application. And TRY again. Success is built up persistance. I believe you can do this because your passion speaks volumes.

[t1racyjacks]

If you look at the Berkeley grads currently attending Asian students (of descent possibly) are well represented. I understand your hurt, but it is critical that you do NOT give up. I can see that you are an extremely bright young woman and very passionate about scholarship. That puts you in good stead. It may be that you are not accepted this time round. But do NOT give up. Should you be rejected, email the POI and chair of admissions. Find out how you can improve your application. And TRY again. Success is built up persistance. I believe you can do this because your passion speaks volumes.

I have looked at them. They are Asian American. It's not a matter of descent. It's a matter of nationality. My POI is about as pissed off as I am. He says the application is definitely good enough.

ETA: my POI there supervised the whole damn app, including the writing sample.

Edited February 9, 2013 by t1racyjacks

[Porridge]

I have looked at them. They are Asian American. It's not a matter of descent. It's a matter of nationality. My POI is about as pissed off as I am. He says the application is definitely good enough.

 

I find it difficult to believe that a graduate committee would look at nationality as a reason to reject, although I do believe international students do have different hurdles to overcome. Whether the students listed at Berkeley's site are Asian or Asian-American is not clear - their nations of origin aren't listed but this is beside the point. I'm trying to help you to see that all is not lost! You have options and you can still obtain your well-deserved goals because you are certainly capable. You don't know whether you have been rejected yet. You may be waitlisted. You may be accepted. Do NOT give up. 

[t1racyjacks]

I find it difficult to believe that a graduate committee would look at nationality as a reason to reject, although I do believe international students do have different hurdles to overcome. Whether the students listed at Berkeley's site are Asian or Asian-American is not clear - their nations of origin aren't listed but this is beside the point. I'm trying to help you to see that all is not lost! You have options and you can still obtain your well-deserved goals because you are certainly capable. You don't know whether you have been rejected yet. You may be waitlisted. You may be accepted. Do NOT give up. 

yesterday an insider (mosquito) said that there are no students from Asia there. A few brits, a few canadians -- which means they're all asian american. I wouldn't bet on it really.

 

I find it difficult to believe too, and as far as I know, Berkeley is the only english department at which international students are so poorly represented in english.

[Porridge]

Tracy, all I can really say, is that you are smart woman and not to give up. Academia is all about persistance in the face of those insurmountable odds. If the worst happens, I suggest you email the chair of admissions (not your POI, because it is seems that s/he may be somewhat on the outer of the grad committee - even if he is involved, maybe some office politics at work there)  and ask for advice. Build up a relationship, start collaborating with people who s/he knows. Start networking.

 

Edited to add: this is my humble opinion only. Others may disagree.

Edited February 9, 2013 by Porridge

[t1racyjacks]

Tracy, all I can really say, is that you are smart woman and not to give up. Academia is all about persistance in the face of those insurmountable odds. If the worst happens, I suggest you email the chair of admissions (not your POI, because it is seems that s/he may be somewhat on the outer of the grad committee - even if he is involved, maybe some office politics at work there)  and ask for advice. Build up a relationship, start collaborating with people who s/he knows. Start networking.

 

Edited to add: this is my humble opinion only. Others may disagree.

I know -- thanks for your sympathy. But they've roundly pissed me off, and if somewhere else takes me I will go instead. Just, I won't go to a uni that has this sort of hypocrisy and xenophobia at work. I deserve better than that. And I take satisfaction in knowing I won't be the only viable scholar they've lost that way. Probably many really other capable people from India, etc have applied, to no avail. And we'll just be going somewhere else instead.

[Mercyhurst2010]

I had been feeling pretty confident heading into the application season, but after this week that confidence is really starting to wane. I had strong recommendations coming from former advisors from my MA program, and lots of people who sit on adcoms themselves telling me that I would likely have options when this is all finished. And truthfully, I've only heard back from one program so far: Vanderbilt, which was a rejection (along with about 98% of the rest who applied). But as of tonight I count another five programs that have shown activity on the board (Notre Dame, Emory, Missouri, WUSTL, Iowa) and so far there's been nothing but silence on my end. Still, even if those are all rejections, I applied to 13 programs and I'm not even halfway through them, so who knows how it could all turn out. It's making me pretty anxious, though, and I just wish I would get something from somewhere fairly soon to allay my fear that maybe somehow I screwed up on some part of the process.

 

Oh well. Congrats to all those who have heard good news!

[InHacSpeVivo]

Ditto, Mercyhurst.

 

If it was possible to be less than 0% confident, that's where I am. Two official rejections, two implied (Chicago and now Pitt), and I doubt I have much of a shot at Michigan, Brown, or Iowa, so that leaves me with four schools out of eleven that *might* take me. Considering my writing sample was on Southern Studies and Vanderbilt couldn't even put me on the alternate waitlist, I'm really not feeling good about this at all.

 

I understand I can do this all again, but this literally took ALL of my money and free time over the past ten months. If, after all the time I spent narrowing down programs for fit and working on essays I can't get in, I'm really not sure what I can do differently next year. /end rant

[religioustiger]

Ditto, Mercyhurst.

 

If it was possible to be less than 0% confident, that's where I am. Two official rejections, two implied (Chicago and now Pitt), and I doubt I have much of a shot at Michigan, Brown, or Iowa, so that leaves me with four schools out of eleven that *might* take me. Considering my writing sample was on Southern Studies and Vanderbilt couldn't even put me on the alternate waitlist, I'm really not feeling good about this at all.

 

I understand I can do this all again, but this literally took ALL of my money and free time over the past ten months. If, after all the time I spent narrowing down programs for fit and working on essays I can't get in, I'm really not sure what I can do differently next year. /end rant

 

Just do somthin else. School is hella overrated 

[InHacSpeVivo]

Thanks, tiger, but I've done the something else for more than five years now. I much prefer school.

[waparys]

I've been trying to figure out how being an international student factors in. I have my BA from a US school and my master's from a UK school...I figured I could add a little diversity (well, except for the fact that I look and sound American...but they don't know that). Maybe it will actually hurt me? Urgh. Too many possibilities. 

[Ategenos]

I've been trying to figure out how being an international student factors in. I have my BA from a US school and my master's from a UK school...I figured I could add a little diversity (well, except for the fact that I look and sound American...but they don't know that). Maybe it will actually hurt me? Urgh. Too many possibilities. 

 

Who freakin' knows? The thoughts on foreign masters that I've heard about runs the full gamut from 'worthless' to 'looks good, but doesn't mean as much as good SoP/Writing Sample/references'. Of course, some schools (justifiably) hold people with any type of Masters to a higher standard... which in the case of most British Masters courses (unless you did a two year MPhil, which has some kind of mystical aura, despite just essentially being a one-year taught masters followed by a one-year research masters ;P) can actually hurt you, because the one-year ones are really just an ever-so-slightly more difficult version of the final year of undergraduate education... and the difficulty doesn't come so much from polish (and a ruthless desire on the part of the faculty to improve you), as opposed to how many essays you have to do.

 

My fiancee, who did her one-year MLitt at the same time as me (but is smarter, and therefore got in on the first try), is currently in the first year of an MA/PhD... and she says the difference is like night and day. While she loved our old university, she says that she feels that there is a much larger emphasis on faculty interacting with grad students at her current program, not to mention whipping them into shape, than she has come across before... and the difficulty now stems not from the workload, but the need to make everything as polished and perfect as possible...

 

I'd probably come down on the side of: it shows how interested you are in the subject, which is good, and just hope (like everyone else) that every other part of the app is as polished as you thought it was when you sent it off. ;P ... of course, I have also heard that some universities actually don't like you having a Masters at all, because they want to be the ones to mold you (as you said... too many possibilities)

 

As for being an international student, it depends on just how international you are. You have a BA from the US, so you presumably know the system. Apparently one of the areas in which international students (who have never been involved with the US system) fail is in this regard: Letter writers aren't primed to exaggerate, there is apparently more grade inflation in American undergraduate programs (which means that international students... depending on country... apparently have lower grades on average), a lot of international students aren't used to standardised testing and also end up doing worse on the GRE and Subject Test... being so far away means you are also unlikely to have references that people on an adcom will necessarily recognise, and there are fewer chances to meet with potential POIs...

 

Of couse, the above is just what I've heard and picked up along the way, so I could be entirely wrong.

[Imogene]

Thanks, tiger, but I've done the something else for more than five years now. I much prefer school.

 

Amen.

[practical cat]

Ditto, Mercyhurst.

 

If it was possible to be less than 0% confident, that's where I am. Two official rejections, two implied (Chicago and now Pitt), and I doubt I have much of a shot at Michigan, Brown, or Iowa, so that leaves me with four schools out of eleven that *might* take me. Considering my writing sample was on Southern Studies and Vanderbilt couldn't even put me on the alternate waitlist, I'm really not feeling good about this at all.

 

I understand I can do this all again, but this literally took ALL of my money and free time over the past ten months. If, after all the time I spent narrowing down programs for fit and working on essays I can't get in, I'm really not sure what I can do differently next year. /end rant

Don't let the Vanderbilt thing get you down about your writing sample or chances anywhere else. Maybe this was a year where they were admitting heavy on the popular culture and light on the southern studies. A rejection from them (OR ANYWHERE) is not a portent of doom for the rest of the cycle. It is still unbelievably early (no, for real) and good news could still be around the corner.

[DontHate]

Here's my philosophy: if you're gonna be pessimistic, and believe that your total rejection is inevitable, then start planning next year as if you've already been rejected but still want to do something productive and interesting. Live like you've already been rejected, and it will help you realize that getting rejected isn't the end of the world. 

[InHacSpeVivo]

Here's my philosophy: if you're gonna be pessimistic, and believe that your total rejection is inevitable, then start planning next year as if you've already been rejected but still want to do something productive and interesting. Live like you've already been rejected, and it will help you realize that getting rejected isn't the end of the world. 

 

Already working on a submission for publication, and I've put together a list of some additional programs to look into. It's going to be hard to pull myself together for another year-long ordeal (especially when I'm really not sure there's much more I can do), but I'm trying!

 

That being said, thanks for the pep talk girl who wears glasses. It's funny you mention popular culture for Vanderbilt because that's actually my main area of interest (a subsection of that being pop culture depecitions of Southern Culture). I know it was just a random example, it was just a somewhat ironic one. A poster on another thread mentioned that they hadn't heard anything about Film Studies acceptances at Pitt yet. I don't want to specialize in film, but I would like to get a doctoral certificate in it (and I specifically mentioned that in my SOP), so I'll hold out a little longer for that on that one I suppose.

[patientagony]

 He says the application is definitely good enough.

 

 

There are probably many applications that are "good enough", so I'm not sure why you are assuming that your nationality is what is preventing you from getting into Berkeley (not saying it couldn't be, but do you really have that evidence?). Don't take it so personally. I think you are letting too much of your self worth hinge on the opinion of one school. It really hurts to be rejected, I know, but you have to figure out whether you are going to let one rejection undermine you goals and ambitions. 

[not ready for prime-time]

Live like you've already been rejected...

 

 Watch out or Tim McGraw might steal this and record a follow-up hit for the academically broken-hearted! Copyright immediately! 

 

[practical cat]

Already working on a submission for publication, and I've put together a list of some additional programs to look into. It's going to be hard to pull myself together for another year-long ordeal (especially when I'm really not sure there's much more I can do), but I'm trying!

 

That being said, thanks for the pep talk girl who wears glasses. It's funny you mention popular culture for Vanderbilt because that's actually my main area of interest (a subsection of that being pop culture depecitions of Southern Culture). I know it was just a random example, it was just a somewhat ironic one. A poster on another thread mentioned that they hadn't heard anything about Film Studies acceptances at Pitt yet. I don't want to specialize in film, but I would like to get a doctoral certificate in it (and I specifically mentioned that in my SOP), so I'll hold out a little longer for that on that one I suppose.

Hahahaha, sorry. It's just that it's my thing so that's what I went with. There's just no way to know what went on in the smoke filled admissions decision rooms so we can't make assumptions. Wishing you lots of good luck for Pitt and all of the rest of your programs.

Also, your interests sound really, really cool. I keep thinking that if I ever deflect from what I'm doing now, it's going to be toward southern studies.

[Swagato]

Already working on a submission for publication, and I've put together a list of some additional programs to look into. It's going to be hard to pull myself together for another year-long ordeal (especially when I'm really not sure there's much more I can do), but I'm trying!

 

That being said, thanks for the pep talk girl who wears glasses. It's funny you mention popular culture for Vanderbilt because that's actually my main area of interest (a subsection of that being pop culture depecitions of Southern Culture). I know it was just a random example, it was just a somewhat ironic one. A poster on another thread mentioned that they hadn't heard anything about Film Studies acceptances at Pitt yet. I don't want to specialize in film, but I would like to get a doctoral certificate in it (and I specifically mentioned that in my SOP), so I'll hold out a little longer for that on that one I suppose.

 

Yeah, I still do not see anything for Pitt Film. If you're applying for the PhD in Film Studies at Pitt (which is what I did) then you need to apply with an associated department--for me, that was English. I'm working hard to convince myself that the English+Film news has not yet emerged. Perhaps Monday...

[DontHate]

 Watch out or Tim McGraw might steal this and record a follow-up hit for the academically broken-hearted! Copyright immediately! 

 

 

It sounds like Tim's advice about grappling with impending mortality is to try and kill yourself in as many different ways as you can think of. Not sure if I'm totally on board. You can get an adrenaline rush much more safely, playing board games for example. FUCKING LOVE BOARD GAMES

[InHacSpeVivo]

Thanks, girl who wears glasses! I know it was a complete coincidence, it just made me chuckle to myself so I thought I'd share. As I mentioned, the south is just one sub-area. On a very broad level, most of my work is how cannonical works and historical events are portrayed in popular culture in the late 20th and early 21st century (and how the differences in those portrayls reflect the culture of the time). That's why I ended up applying outside of English Departments (though I would LOVE to end up at Boulder or UF, presuming they have funding, of course). It always seemed to me, based purely on your signature, that our areas seemed to intersect.  Anyway, if you ever want some recs for good Southern Studies books you know who to ask.

 

Yeah, I still do not see anything for Pitt Film. If you're applying for the PhD in Film Studies at Pitt (which is what I did) then you need to apply with an associated department--for me, that was English. I'm working hard to convince myself that the English+Film news has not yet emerged. Perhaps Monday...

 

Here's hoping, Swagato! Good luck to you.

[1Q84]

Here's my philosophy: if you're gonna be pessimistic, and believe that your total rejection is inevitable, then start planning next year as if you've already been rejected but still want to do something productive and interesting. Live like you've already been rejected, and it will help you realize that getting rejected isn't the end of the world. 

I like this philosophy and I think you're offering positive advice. That being said, I do recall you throwing a tantrum and swearing and shame spiralling on the board when you received your first rejection of the app cycle. I gather from other threads that now you've received some more positive news (congrats!) but you should also remember that there is some emotional/cathartic value in completely hissy fitting at the first sign of bad news. I'm sure you know that as you probably felt quite a bit better after your wallowing. One of my biggest pet peeves is when people give "look on the bright side" advice when _they_ are in a good place, expecting others to be emotionally aligned to receive said advice. All I mean is, there's a time and a place.

[I'm a fact.]

I know -- thanks for your sympathy. But they've roundly pissed me off, and if somewhere else takes me I will go instead. Just, I won't go to a uni that has this sort of hypocrisy and xenophobia at work. I deserve better than that. And I take satisfaction in knowing I won't be the only viable scholar they've lost that way. Probably many really other capable people from India, etc have applied, to no avail. And we'll just be going somewhere else instead.

 

 

No doubt a diverse student population makes for a more enriched academic environment, however, Berkeley is a public institution and has a certain obligation to educate residents of the state of California (of all ethnicities) from whom they receive a good deal of funding in the form of tax revenue.  It also has an obligation to educate students from around the country.  My undergraduate institution was private and therefore had no such obligation to state taxpayers and was subsequently, and probably still is, a university with one of the largest international student bodies in the US, a real point of pride.

 

I am almost certain that international graduate students are more expensive to fund, which is probably why a public institution like Berkeley may regrettably be unable to admit a good deal of qualified international applicants, because it simply does not have the same deep pockets as private schools.  Berkeley is actually a bad example, since in my estimation it does have a decent size international study body (25% of doctoral students, 21% in master’s programs) and has the largest endowment of the UCs, but I’m trying to demonstrate possible obstacles an international student faces when applying to public schools in the US.  It is simply more competitive, though not impossible, for international applicants because there are fewer spots due to limited resources.  These obstacles are probably no different for Americans applying abroad, esp. with regard to securing funding.

 

People on this forum have been kind and supportive of you, Tracy, but I think it needs to be said that given you feel entitled to the resources of a country whose inhabitants you continually accuse of being xenophobic, it seems more like Berkeley dodged a bullet (if you have in fact been rejected). This is all without mentioning that English programs are some of the most competitive in which Berkeley is ranked among the top, and xenophobia is the reason you think you have been rejected?  In a country of immigrants, albeit a country not without problems of racism, in a state as diverse as California, and on a campus where a quarter of doctoral students come from outside the US? Seriously?!  Is this the only reason you can think of?

 

 

I've been trying to figure out how being an international student factors in. I have my BA from a US school and my master's from a UK school...I figured I could add a little diversity (well, except for the fact that I look and sound American...but they don't know that). Maybe it will actually hurt me? Urgh. Too many possibilities. 

 

What do you mean you look American?  

Edited February 9, 2013 by I'm a fact.