Notifications, anyone?

[barry_86404]

No news, although I'm trying not to stress until I definitively hear one way or the other. I don't want to call today being as it's a holiday and I'm not sure the folks in the admin office will be there, but if I don't hear by tomorrow, and the status doesn't change, I may try to work up the courage to investigate.

I would wait a couple more weeks at least. It is only Feb., so I wouldn't cantact anyone until midmarch at earliest. I know I haven't heard from the 9 places I applied to which I fel is a ood thing sense when i applied for my master's two years ago, the only response I got before late Feb. was a rejection while after that i got all my acceptances late Feb., Early March. I even got an acceptance late April but had already told my current school i was attending them. I think going through the whole application part for a second time makes the waiting easier. But then again i will start checking my mail with anxiety starting next week since it is still not even late Feb. yet and one of the programs told me they would notify by the end of Feb. Plus i know since I havent gotten any rejections yet I at least made it past the first round of all the places i applied to.

And also congrats to everyone who made it past the first round of rejections everywhere since now all the programs have sent off the automatic rejections already. And may everyone have the best of luck going forward

[Tonights]

And also congrats to everyone who made it past the first round of rejections everywhere since now all the programs have sent off the automatic rejections already. And may everyone have the best of luck going forward

Wha? As far as I know, some of my adcoms haven't even met yet, let alone thrown out the first round of rejects.

[barry_86404]

Wha? As far as I know, some of my adcoms haven't even met yet, let alone thrown out the first round of rejects.

Well first round of rejections come before the adcoms even meet. The secretaries actually have a small paper telling them who gets automatic rejections based on requirements that the adcoms have come up with which varies for every school. For instance when I was appling to masters programs, one letter i got was a rejection based on not having a 4.0 GPA since spots were so limited at that school for that year they only accepted people with 4.0 gpa's

[Dubya]

Well first round of rejections come before the adcoms even meet. The secretaries actually have a small paper telling them who gets automatic rejections based on requirements that the adcoms have come up with which varies for every school. For instance when I was appling to masters programs, one letter i got was a rejection based on not having a 4.0 GPA since spots were so limited at that school for that year they only accepted people with 4.0 gpa's

Did they tell you that?!? Sorry, I just find it really hard to believe.

[Tonights]

Did they tell you that?!? Sorry, I just find it really hard to believe.

Me too. Plus, nobody's had rejections yet from some of my programs, so I wouldn't assume anything based on what we haven't heard.

[barry_86404]

Well first round of rejections come before the adcoms even meet. The secretaries actually have a small paper telling them who gets automatic rejections based on requirements that the adcoms have come up with which varies for every school. For instance when I was appling to masters programs, one letter i got was a rejection based on not having a 4.0 GPA since spots were so limited at that school for that year they only accepted people with 4.0 gpa's

Did they tell you that?!? Sorry, I just find it really hard to believe.

[medianerd]

I'm having a bad day today, triggered largely by the conviction that I didn't get into one of my schools. Sometimes I'm not sure if the Results Search feature of this site is a good thing. *head down*. I mean, I'm jumping to conclusions.

Also, I've gone through this process before and for me it gets harder each time, not easier. sigh.

[philoanthro]

Hi everyone,

I'm still waiting to hear about the anthro programs that I applied to and from what I've been reading (or not reading) lately on the blogs, it sounds like the programs haven't made decisions yet- which gives me hope. However, I did receive an acceptance letter from another doctorate program that is not anthropology but close. The program offered me five years of funding with a small living stipend and I feel so lucky to have been offered this opportunity (even though, my first choice is an anthropology program). However, I worry about possibly taking it because the stipend is too small to cover my living expenses in the area. I was wondering if any of you could give me advice. Do any of you know if you can get student loans to cover the rest of your living expenses? Is this a good idea? I'm an older student and the economy is pretty bad near the school, so money issues are very much on my mind and I thought that I would ask to see what all of you thought. I have a lot of time on my hands while waiting and I thought that I'd do some planning in the meantime. Thanks.

[crofty]

I've been absent from the forum for awhile, and I thought I would try to summarize some of my thoughts after reading through some posts:

1) congrats to everyone who got in everywhere!!

2) I just can't believe that *all* schools have already had their admissions meetings and *all* schools have sent out their first round rejections. I have a feeling that while it is true that some schools may be this far along, I just don't have enough information to believe that this is case across the board. (Of course, my opinion is based on nothing more than hunches, feelings, and guesswork)

3) As for folks who are feeling especially down today (ahem, medianerd, I'm talkin' to you) - I have heard that there are a lot of waitlists going on this year because of tightened financial situations. And, I'm guessing that not all schools actually notify waitlisters that they are on a waitlist. So, I take this to mean that it ain't over til it's over. If you haven't received a rejection yet, then don't lose hope!! It might just be that this year we will all have to wait a little longer to get all of our responses - as students decline their offers, schools will probably send out more admit letters. I know that it is torture to have to wait, but, hey, it's not rejection!

4) I am pretty sure that you can get a stipend and student loans at the same time - but I think that is a very reasonable question to ask the school too. The Bursar's office, financial aid office, or current grad students can probably give you a good feeling for how people survive.

[medianerd]

Thanks for the pep talk, crofty I'm feeling a lot more mellow this evening, actually. Loads of things were going wrong today @ work and I was on edge as it was.

I'm not actually sure looking at the results postings is good for my mental health. Not sure I'll be able to resist, but am going to try to take them with a grain of salt.

[zhukora]

So, you know that dream where some of your teeth get loose and fall out, and supposedly it signifies that you are undergoing stress and don't feel in control of yourself? I've had that dream many a time over my life, usually mild, where I'll notice that one or two of my teeth are loose and then eventually they come out. Horrible dream, but not really straight-up nightmare material.

Last night I dreamed that all of my teeth fell out. I noticed something was wrong in my mouth, in the dream, and then I felt confused and I just spat all of my teeth into my hands. THAT was straight-up disturbing nightmare material and made me start to think that this process really has been psychologically harmful for me.

Funny story (and a true one, too!)... I went to the dentist today for my 6 month check-up and while he was poking around in my mouth he asked me if I was under any stress lately. Turns out I was starting to get a canker sore on part of my gums and he was convinced it was because of stress and not being sick or anything else. I told him about how stressful it is to wait to hear back from grad schools, and he proceeded to lecture me on how I should just "chill out" because there's nothing I can do about it now, and that my "ulcerative gingivitis" would go away after I stopped being stressed.

So it looks like the stress of waaaiiitiinng really can harm your oral health. Watch out, kids! :twisted:

[zygomatic]

So, I have been avoiding the boards this weekend (okay, looked a little) and not checking emails with dreaded excitement because there was no point. Now however, here it is a new work week (excluding holiday) and I can begin the painful process all over again.

Hope everyone has a great day.

[philoanthro]

So, I have been avoiding the boards this weekend (okay, looked a little) and not checking emails with dreaded excitement because there was no point. Now however, here it is a new work week (excluding holiday) and I can begin the painful process all over again.

Hope everyone has a great day.

Hi Zygo,

Yes, it's a new week. Hopefully, we'll all get some good news over the next few days!!

[zygomatic]

Tonights,

I am in the same boat as you. I have not heard from UMass either. I don't think they update their app site very often. It said until this week that they did not have any of my transcipts even though they had them before December. I'm going to give it a couple of days and if I don't hear one way or the other then I am going to call.

Congrats to I_heart_fieldwork on getting an acceptance. Hope it was one of your top choices.

[Tonights]

Tonights,

I am in the same boat as you. I have not heard from UMass either. I don't think they update their app site very often

Well, it does say somewhere on there that if you're rejected, they don't update the status until at least 21 days after the decision to give the postal rejection time to reach you first. Which makes absolutely zero sense to me. What is the point of an online status system, in that case?

Most of my schools don't have functioning online status systems, which to me is both a blessing and a curse.

[spoonfeeding]

The "first round" of rejection letters thing sounds like a nice idea, but doesn't bear up. 3 of the programs I applied to are insanely popular, and only one person has posted a rejection anywhere? The same school has 3 admits posted from a couple weeks back, but there hasn't been a peep from anyone about the other schools either way. Everyone *could* just be curling into a little ball of sorrow and not posting about their rejections, but that just seems unlikely, considering the size of the schools.

And I agree about it not getting easier- I went through this last year for an MA program (got in! hated it! got out!), and the waiting period this year is much, much worse.

[erudite crudite]

I got an email this afternoon inviting me to the NYCEP conference on behalf of CUNY, in order to meet my prospective advisor and other faculty in the program, and they're footing the bill! Wahoo!

[I_heart_fieldwork]

erudite- congratulations, that is so wonderful! I hope you have a fantastic time.

zygomatic- it is one of my top choices and I'm really starting to think it is where I'll go! I'm a bit worried about funding though. to both you and tonights... I checked around and NO one else I know who applied has heard from them either.

[zygomatic]

The "first round" of rejection letters thing sounds like a nice idea, but doesn't bear up. 3 of the programs I applied to are insanely popular, and only one person has posted a rejection anywhere? The same school has 3 admits posted from a couple weeks back, but there hasn't been a peep from anyone about the other schools either way. Everyone *could* just be curling into a little ball of sorrow and not posting about their rejections, but that just seems unlikely, considering the size of the schools.

And I agree about it not getting easier- I went through this last year for an MA program (got in! hated it! got out!), and the waiting period this year is much, much worse.

After speaking to my former dept chair, I think alot of program committees are meeting later (and making decisions later) because they are finding out what their budgets are going to be next year (cuts, # of GA positions, tenures, etc). My old program lost ALL of their dept funded GA positions for next year and 2 faculty up for tenure are going tohave to wait...these lovely revelations came fairly recently at a budget meeting. Most programs are probably attempting to balance positions for current students with apps (to entice new students).

As for first round, there is a list of requirements that are used to prescreen (at least in our dept there was) and the sec or admin assistant goes through all of them. However, our school did not send out replies these until ALL decisions had been made. Course every school is different. :?

[medianerd]

You know, I am wondering whether all of my news will come next week and the first week in March at this point.

I hate this feeling of wishing time would just pass by- life is too short, but argh, I do.

[spoonfeeding]

oh, I totally believe there's an auto-cut round of apps that get rejected right away, many of which don't make it to the review committee- it's just that I doubt they notify those people earlier. (I had guessed that for the big schools, it was more of a "BCC: LOSERS" mass rejection email, since, historically, people applying to my programs all seemed to get notified the same day.)

[barry_86404]

Ok so yesterday was the first day I got crazy anxiety when I checked the mail and of course all i had was junk mail. Still waiting to hear from my nine places and now my anxiety will begin.

[anthro2009]

I heard from University of Michigan and the Leipzig School of Human Origins last week that I got in! I think Leipzig might do things on a more case-by-case basis instead of one round of admissions, although I'm not actually sure about that... has anyone heard from Harvard or Yale?

[medianerd]

Congrats anthro2009. I hope to join you at one of those 8)

It definitely seems as though schools are not letting people know this year. I'm also noticing folks in archeology/physical/bio anthro are hearing first, perhaps because there tend to be so many more social anthro applicants to programs that are strong in both. It's as though the applicants were considered separately in the different areas of anthro, and social is taking longer- which would make sense.

I dunno, I am officially in the 'making stuff up' stage.

Or perhaps I should call it the 'crackpot theories' stage.

[Tonights]

Or perhaps I should call it the 'crackpot theories' stage.

I'm there as well. I haven't heard a word from anyone, not even the department that's historically notified at the beginning of this very week. I've convinced myself that they've all thrown away my applications and I'm going to have an inbox full of emails with the subject line "HAHA LOSER!!!" on April 14th.