0% Confidence of Acceptance

[ComeBackZinc]

I have bad insomnia, which can help as an academic but makes obsessive message board surfing harder to avoid.

[jywayne]

Another day--more gut wrenching torture of nothingness. I am currently going over in my head what I'm going to do with my life if shut out, considering this is my life. I guess I'll just have to throw my master's degree in the drawer and go work at a coal mine or hopefully my father can get me a job on the railroad. I might have to go back to my part time summer job at Wal-Mart for full time. I do think that if I get shut out, I'm definitely not going to put myself through this hell again, which means just giving up on academia.

[antecedent]

Thanks ComeBackZinc! Looks like next week for UT Austin and two to three weeks after that for UIUC. Blargh. Soooo sick of waiting!

[TripWillis]

Observation: next week is like the bedlam of school reportage. I have 5 of my schools as reporting next week, historically. Yikes. Bring it on.

[JElliott]

I've thought about that too, but I know I'd be a MUCH bigger stress case if I didn't have some clue as to when/what people were hearing back from schools. If I hadn't found this site I'd be an absolute wreck, wondering why I hadn't heard anything from anywhere and whether I was the only one.

Same here. I'm not going to pretend that there is any way (that I've found, anyway) to overcome the ridiculous amounts of anxiety I feel waiting for decisions, but I do feel so much better knowing that I'm in this with so many other people, many of whom are very witty when they're at their wits' end.

...anyone have some effective coping mechanisms they'd like to share?

[JayJay329]

Kudos for all of you getting paid to read this forum. Ever since I found it this last weekend I haven't been able to tear myself away (hence have not done any school work or work-work). I got into my safety safety school and have yet to hear from any others. Is going to a school for an English M.A. ranked 212 out of desperation a horrible thing to do? It gives me comfort to know I got in somewhere at least...

[DorindaAfterThyrsis]

Observation: next week is like the bedlam of school reportage. I have 5 of my schools as reporting next week, historically. Yikes. Bring it on.

I think I'm in the same boat, but since a couple of my still-to-respond schools have traditionally sent rejections via post (not e-mail), I may, through that wonder of inefficiency that is Canada Post, be spared the process of finding an inbox full of sad trombones for five straight days.

However, I suppose that means that I will just be prolonging the agony....

[ComeBackZinc]

Funny thing today: someone left a thumb drive in one of the computer lab computers labelled "Dissertation." I'm sure they'll come looking for it, and I'm sure they have backups... but can you imagine? Just hearing the story my heartbeat started racing.

[perrykm2]

Didn't hear any news today, but that means I didn't get rejected yet either. I'm going to fry 2 pull and peel mozzarella sticks to celebrate.

[veniente]

Did someone mention that it's about to be a long weekend in the US?

[LLajax]

Did someone mention that it's about to be a long weekend in the US?

Only for the state schools. Most private universities (including the one I attend), don't close for the holiday. On the other hand, the postal service won't be operating. Sorry if that didn't help.

[veniente]

Only for the state schools. Most private universities (including the one I attend), don't close for the holiday. On the other hand, the postal service won't be operating. Sorry if that didn't help.

Thanks!

[spasticlitotes]

Only for the state schools. Most private universities (including the one I attend), don't close for the holiday. On the other hand, the postal service won't be operating. Sorry if that didn't help.

ASDFJKL:asdfjkl; Schools shouldn't be allowed to close until they've picked. This is like dodgeball. Except for instead of being picked last, you might end up on the bench without a team. DRY DAY - I heard NOTHING back today. No Yes. No No. NOTHING. And I know other people have... so basically, they're holding me to send me a formal rejection via mail (which I won't get until Tuesday, thanks USPS). They've notified the waitlisters, so that's not an option.

*sigh* Depression is setting in. How do I cope NOW?

[hanoverkontent]

I had abandoned all hope and ruined what was supposed to be a nice dinner with my boyfriend by drinking too much at the restaurant and breaking down and crying about my surely-fated admissions failure last night-- and then I just got into Rutgers! Hang in there, all! These weekend notifications happen and the game is far from over for most schools!

[Silent_G]

Congrats!! Let's hope we all have similar luck.

[spasticlitotes]

I had abandoned all hope and ruined what was supposed to be a nice dinner with my boyfriend by drinking too much at the restaurant and breaking down and crying about my surely-fated admissions failure last night-- and then I just got into Rutgers! Hang in there, all! These weekend notifications happen and the game is far from over for most schools!

Weekend notifications? I didn't know that was a thing!!! Despite that I'm on here posting right now, I decided the healthiest thing for me to do is to STOP staring down my laptop and cell phone and house phone and drinking things (note ambiguity) straight out of the bottle. We (my schizophrenic paranoid multiple selves and I) are going for a run, and we're going to get food from the grocery store, where hopefully I'll have to interact with real people. So, in light of that, farewell, awesome new friends! Good luck!

[ComeBackZinc]

Yes, yes, yes. I know it's easy for me to say, and I don't mean to be annoying. But go have fun. Live your life. You'll feel so much better.

[HunkyDory]

Did someone mention that it's about to be a long weekend in the US?

Not all Universities are closed for President's Day though, so Monday is a viable notification day.

[Timshel]

I had abandoned all hope and ruined what was supposed to be a nice dinner with my boyfriend by drinking too much at the restaurant and breaking down and crying about my surely-fated admissions failure last night-- and then I just got into Rutgers! Hang in there, all! These weekend notifications happen and the game is far from over for most schools!

Almost the exact same thing happened to me the night before my first acceptance.

[ekant]

I'm nearly ready to break down in tears, just as many of you have agreed in earlier posts. I keep seeing these threads of schools I applied to and how they've all sent out their first acceptances and wait lists and interview weekends, and I just can't handle it anymore. I need to get off this fucking computer and stop reading about other people's decisions.

Congrats to everyone who has gotten in to at least one school! For all those who haven't gotten in anywhere yet: I feel you, I love you even though I don't even know you, and let's stay strong...somehow.

[TripWillis]

I'm nearly ready to break down in tears, just as many of you have agreed in earlier posts. I keep seeing these threads of schools I applied to and how they've all sent out their first acceptances and wait lists and interview weekends, and I just can't handle it anymore. I need to get off this fucking computer and stop reading about other people's decisions.

Congrats to everyone who has gotten in to at least one school! For all those who haven't gotten in anywhere yet: I feel you, I love you even though I don't even know you, and let's stay strong...somehow.

You still have some dogs in the fight, ekant! We'll all be pulling for you! It's going to feel so amazing when it finally happens.

[Aztecson23]

Fail not applications, full of anxiety, our thoughts are with you

Blessed art thou among other applicants and blessed is

the fruit of thy labours, acceptance.

Holy graduate co-ordinators, gatekeepers of decisions, pray for us refreshers

now, and at the conclusion of the work week. Amen.

Our Adcomms, who reign (pre)academia, hallowed be thy names; thy decisions come, thy will, alas, be done, for us, and for those accepted; give us this day our daily decision, and forgive the spelling mistakes on our apps, as we forgive those who misspell against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us an acceptance, for thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, for now and through March. Amen.

Admissions committees would be complete idiots if they didn't accept either of you--I was first laughing, then utterly amazed at your wit and powers of (re)invention. Thanks for the intellectual laughs. Cheers.

[ekant]

You still have some dogs in the fight, ekant! We'll all be pulling for you! It's going to feel so amazing when it finally happens.

Thank you, TripWillis! I sure hope it happens. I just see a lot of implicit rejections coming soon. Congrats on your acceptances to CUNY, SUNY Buffalo, and UMass. I'd to go CUNY and UMass any day. I already go to a SUNY school in the middle of nowhere, so I shied away from applying to Buffalo haha.

[lolopixie]

Ekant, I completely feel you. I have been shying away from gradcafe for about 2 weeks due to not being able to handle watching the acceptances go out. Gradcafe is such a wonderful place when you're completing your apps, but when it comes down to the waiting for response portion, it is a killer. Keep the faith as strong as you can, I continually pray to the universe that I will have my moment this year. It has been hard as hell for me. My best friend who was rejected across the board last year got accepted by the first school that reported to him, which I was rejected from, and now I don't have anyone in my corner. While I am happy for him, it depressed me even more than seeing the rejection itself. Do what you have to do to keep your sanity.

[Heather Hoffman]

I woke up at 5am crying this morning, couldn't go back to sleep. I have an campus visit/interview on Thursday, so that's good, but I am 99 percent certain that it's for a wait list position only, and the cherry on top is I'll be spending the day with people who've already received their acceptance letters for the program. So it will be day of me smiling and saying "Yeah, it's a great program! You should go!" while on the inside I'll be saying "don't go! don't go!"

Now I'm blasting Bob Dylan's "Highway 61 Revisited" album. It's helping. Next step: work on M.A. Comprehensive Exam studying, interview prep (dammit, I'm not going down without a fight!) lesson planning, and resume polishing (ah, Plan until I'm exhausted. Here's hoping burying myself in work is the ticket today. Because the alternative is culring up in bed with TV and depression, and dammit, I refuse to do that. It's not over till it's over, and if I get rejected from everywhere, I know what to do next year. I'll apply to more schools, I'll have a better SoP, and I'll make contact with profs in the programs I'm applying to early in the season. In addition, if I'm not in grad school next year, I'll be a classroom teacher... and honestly, there are worse fates.