0% Confidence of Acceptance

[Silent_G]

http://youtu.be/gCXQycyN_Vs

This song encompasses how I feel right now. With "that woman" being all the schools I've applied to.

[LLajax]

I am obsessed with this.

I also truly, honestly believe that a reality show about the PhD waiting process would be a huge hit. It starts out strong and erudite, full of vibrant potentiality and perhaps ostensibly a bit "pretentious" (to quote another thread) to people outside the community. Then it slowly disintegrates into a bunch of highly intelligent people in their pajamas endlessly perusing online boards, crying over utter silence from schools when a new post appears on the Results Survey, blaming everything on ETS and an inability to downgrade to their crude Analytic Writing standards, checking our horoscope yet again to make sure we didnt miss any ominous subtext, drowning our anxiety in macaroni and cheese while drinking red wine, trying in vain to contextualize our apps by desperately reaching out to others in similar subfields, sharing elation when we receive an acceptance, self-medicating with whiskey when we don't receive funding, and then maybe submitting a drunk post or two about Downton Abbey or those idiotic Victorian women writers. I don't mean anything in that to sound negative at ALL, I honestly find myself totally amused by how neurotic I've become, and how, "Well when I was looking at these online blog things, I saw...." has religiously been a primer to most of my conversations (and mostly with people who could care less). I just think an unabashedly objective view of our emotional-trainwreck selves pouring our hearts out to our mothers/brothers/boyfriends/significant others/dogs and then paradoxically refusing their valiant attempts at sympathy by stomping out of the room to find *real* empathy in complaining online about how they "JUST DON'T GET IT!!!" would be both endlessly hysterical and intriguing. I hope I'm not alone in this. Or my despicable love for reality television.

Hahahahaha they should call it "True Life: LLajax". My yesterday: crying in my plaid comfy-clothes (fine...pajamas) over paper edits while watching Netflix and drinking/GradCafe-ing/bothering my bf.

[LLL]

having a 0% of an acceptance right now, i was wondering (and it's kind of a stupid question)...how the hell do universities process all the applicants? i mean, does the department in which we are applying for has a vote before the graduate commitee rejects us?

i know is off-topic, but i need some hope.

i'm talented, but i dropped out of college before finishing my BA and i'm thinking that might scare a bit.

[impending]

I'm not exactly sure if this is what you're asking, but there are admissions committees for each specialization within a program; they make the decisions. The whole department doesn't vote, as far as I'm aware. The adcoms forward their decisions to the graduate college, which does the processing, but the grad college doesn't make any decisions on its own.

Did you later finish your BA? I thought a BA was a prerequisite for all grad programs.

[andsoitgoes161]

I just used this GIF in the Brown topic but I feel like more people would like it:

The show can surreptitiously cut to this image every so often, just for a brief moment...like a subliminal message of angst/euphoria/melodramatic instability in the way that the scary clown face in the Saw movie trailers pops up. I am also thoroughly impressed with Ablukhov and spasticlitotes' narrative voices. You're hired.

[LLL]

I'm not exactly sure if this is what you're asking, but there are admissions committees for each specialization within a program; they make the decisions. The whole department doesn't vote, as far as I'm aware. The adcoms forward their decisions to the graduate college, which does the processing, but the grad college doesn't make any decisions on its own.

Did you later finish your BA? I thought a BA was a prerequisite for all grad programs.

thanks for clarifying it.

i thought the first cuts were made by some sort of college graduate commitee and then the faculty.

sorry, my english is a mess...i did finished it 4 years after dropping out...i took a looong break.

[Ablukhov]

The show can surreptitiously cut to this image every so often, just for a brief moment...like a subliminal message of angst/euphoria/melodramatic instability in the way that the scary clown face in the Saw movie trailers pops up. I am also thoroughly impressed with Ablukhov and spasticlitotes' narrative voices. You're hired.

Thanks ansoitgoes! I accept! (So wonderful to be wanted...)

[deebee]

My favorite part of reading this forum (as bleak as it can be at times) is when you realize that someone out there shares your fears/excitements/annoyances/etc. as they relate to this hellish process to a T.

My mother always tries to comfort me when it looks like I might be heading into another breakdown. Typical line (said with absolute calm and no indication whatsoever that she understands either the gravity of my emotions or the statistical odds): "Aw, you know you'll get in somewhere." Which, I appreciate that I have a parent that is still trying to build up my self-confidence with me on the verge of turning 25 this week, but, in this case, it kind of just makes me want to punch a wall.

the worst is having your mom call you all excited because a letter showed up from X University and you've already received your rejection online. ffffffffff

[TripWillis]

the worst is having your mom call you all excited because a letter showed up from X University and you've already received your rejection online. ffffffffff

[spasticlitotes]

The show can surreptitiously cut to this image every so often, just for a brief moment...like a subliminal message of angst/euphoria/melodramatic instability in the way that the scary clown face in the Saw movie trailers pops up. I am also thoroughly impressed with Ablukhov and spasticlitotes' narrative voices. You're hired.

... you just made my day. (This is actually the only thing that happened so far... oh, wait for it! WAIT FOR IT! Yep, another speck of dust just floated across my field of vision.) I know people have said this before, and I realize I'm being cliche and repetitive (isn't that a symptom of some kind of psychiatric disorder?), but this blog really helps keep me going. Thanks, guys.

[TripWillis]

I just got a call from an unrecognized number... It was a fucking census worker. I wanted to scream my head off at her. Instead I politely answered her questions.

[Silent_G]

I just got a call from an unrecognized number... It was a fucking census worker. I wanted to scream my head off at her. Instead I politely answered her questions.

Was it a 360 area code? I just got a call from 360, got very excited, then saw that it was a Washington state number, and since I didn't apply to any Washington schools I didn't answer it. No message, so I figure it was a solicitor.

[jma310]

I got a call from a Boca Raton, FL number this morning while in Wegmans. gah.

[Stately Plump]

I just got a call from an unrecognized number... It was a fucking census worker. I wanted to scream my head off at her. Instead I politely answered her questions.

haha! I relate soooo much, especially with your response.

I got a text from an unknown number last night. At first I was like, "Omg! They're texting me to let me know I've been accepted!"

Then I realized how stupid that was

[andsoitgoes161]

haha! I relate soooo much, especially with your response.

I got a text from an unknown number last night. At first I was like, "Omg! They're texting me to let me know I've been accepted!"

Then I realized how stupid that was

The leaps of confidence we make, hahahaha. How amazing would it be to get a text letting us know we're in? I would undoubtedly attend any institution that communicated through text, just for the pure, unadulterated absurdity of it.

[Silent_G]

I'm really sick of all the flippant, "Of course you'll get in somewhere"'s. Even my fiance--who applied for his PhD two years ago and was rejected across the board, and then reapplied last year and received a handful of acceptances--keeps telling me he knows I'll get in because he has "a good feeling." I know he's trying to be supportive, but I figured he would understand how it feels. Plus I'm incredibly sick for the second time in two weeks. FML.

[TripWillis]

All the accepted people in the Columbia thread are giving me three feelings:

1) Hopefulness -- it is totally possible to get into an Ivy.

2) The strong desire to get into Harvard or Yale this week. REALLY strong desire. It's irrational, I know. Ivy League never tells the whole story or determines quality definitively. I think it's the fact that I come from such a poor family and went to such lowly state schools. I just want it to happen really badly.

3) Happiness for gradcafe people who make it.

[Silent_G]

On 2/20/2012 at 6:53 PM, TripWillis said:

All the accepted people in the Columbia thread are giving me three feelings:

1) Hopefulness -- it is totally possible to get into an Ivy.

2) The strong desire to get into Harvard or Yale this week. REALLY strong desire. It's irrational, I know. Ivy League never tells the whole story or determines quality definitively. I think it's the fact that I come from such a poor family and went to such lowly state schools. I just want it to happen really badly.

3) Happiness for gradcafe people who make it.

I would not be at all surprised if YOU got into Harvard or Yale. I will be rooting for you. I have just about given up all hope. Still holding out a little for WashU, but not holding my breath. You will make it though. I have a good feeling.

[TripWillis]

Oh, and another thing from the world of weird coincidences.

So I got this text friday or saturday night from a Boston number telling me that they'd "be at Reservoir soon," which I assume means Reservoir on the green line.

Since I am grasping for any sign that I'd get into BU, Harvard, and Tufts, my brain has deduced that the person was:

1) In Harvard/Tufts/BU GSAS and responsible for calling me.

2) Got my number mixed up with someone else's.

3) And shortly thereafter arrived at Reservoir.

SO yeah.

 

[ComeBackZinc]

I'm really sick of all the flippant, "Of course you'll get in somewhere"'s. Even my fiance--who applied for his PhD two years ago and was rejected across the board, and then reapplied last year and received a handful of acceptances--keeps telling me he knows I'll get in because he has "a good feeling." I know he's trying to be supportive, but I figured he would understand how it feels. Plus I'm incredibly sick for the second time in two weeks. FML.

I've been fighting every impulse to say that getting rejected everywhere the first go-round was the best thing that could have happened to me, even though it's true. Nobody wants to hear that shit.

[bdon19]

On 2/20/2012 at 6:53 PM, TripWillis said:

All the accepted people in the Columbia thread are giving me three feelings:

1) Hopefulness -- it is totally possible to get into an Ivy.

2) The strong desire to get into Harvard or Yale this week. REALLY strong desire. It's irrational, I know. Ivy League never tells the whole story or determines quality definitively. I think it's the fact that I come from such a poor family and went to such lowly state schools. I just want it to happen really badly.

3) Happiness for gradcafe people who make it.

Along similar lines, all the rejected people in the Brown thread are giving me the following feelings:

1) Hopelessness. It is virtually impossible to get into an Ivy.

2) The strong desire to give up hope on getting into any other schools. I know I should be happy with the acceptances I have (and I am very happy, don't get me wrong), but a few acceptances has given me a thirst for more, more. But my rejection from Brown has made me feel like it will never happen. Brown was my best fit (or so I had led myself to believe).

3) Commiseration with the approximately five bajillion of us who were rejected today. And incredible envy for Mr. Grimwig, apparently in a cohort of one this year.

 

[hazelbite]

incredible envy for Mr. Grimwig, apparently in a cohort of one this year.

Haha, seconded. It doesn't help that it seems our interests greatly overlap. A toast to El Grimwig at Austin weekend...?

[antecedent]

haha! I relate soooo much, especially with your response.

I got a text from an unknown number last night. At first I was like, "Omg! They're texting me to let me know I've been accepted!"

Then I realized how stupid that was

I hardly slept last night for a similar reason. The first, which is unrelated, is that I'm sick. But the second is that my phone makes a beep noise when I get emails, so every time I got an email last night I woke up, convinced myself it wasn't important, laid awake imagining but what if until I finally got out of bed to check my phone. It was never an acceptance email, for the record.

Edited February 21, 2012 by antecedant

[vordhosbntwin]

for what it's worth, i met someone at duke this week who has been accepted into yale american studies, which i think sent out acceptances around the same time that comp lit did. i think you applied am stud (have i seen that somewhere?), and i hate to bring bad news (if indeed you don't already know this), but i thought you might appreciate it all the same.

[TripWillis]

for what it's worth, i met someone at duke this week who has been accepted into yale american studies, which i think sent out acceptances around the same time that comp lit did. i think you applied am stud (have i seen that somewhere?), and i hate to bring bad news (if indeed you don't already know this), but i thought you might appreciate it all the same.

Hmm. I'm not sure. None of the people in the american studies thread/forum think notifications are coming out until this week, one being a Yale student citing an inside source. There are also no acceptances, rejections, or waitlists posted on the results board. I think I'm going to just maintain a sunny outlook. But thanks anyway. Are you sure it wasn't American History? I saw those go out.