salvatura Posted February 9, 2012 Posted February 9, 2012 I need some advice. What do we do about silence? How can we perceive it? I visited a PhD Theatre program in December after a great deal of fantastic conversation via email with POI (and after completing all application materials in mid November). Since then, it has been completely silent. I sent an email inquiry to the graduate program secretary for a status update and heard nothing. I sent a thank you email to a professor who is not my POI but gave me some great insight in our interview, and I heard nothing. I recently emailed the POI, and also silence. The silence from the POI is telling. I think I've given up with this one and moved on. But it hurts a lot because this was my top choice and the POI is someone I admire greatly in the field.
Seeking Posted February 9, 2012 Posted February 9, 2012 Salvatura, The silence from the POI is a matter of concern. Perhaps you can send an email to the Graduate Program Director and/or the Department Chair, asking if a decision has been taken.
salvatura Posted February 9, 2012 Posted February 9, 2012 (edited) Well, the silence was for good reason. I just got my rejection. The program directors say GRE doesn't matter, but then the Graduate School says, "ok, but we won't fund them. We cut off at this score." And no funding means they cannot accept because they guarantee full funding to all aceepted. Man, I hate that stupid test that proves nothing but that you know how to study. I am a full time faculty member, father, and director of three shows a year. When am I going to have time to study vocabulary words I will never use? This really hurts. That was my top choice, and I spent so much time and energy into that application and in money paying my own way to travel across country to visit and meet with every single professor in the program. OK, I am pretty furious right now! Please tell me I am not alone in these feelings. Three rejections in a row in a week. I need a drink! Edited February 9, 2012 by salvatura
appseasonover Posted February 9, 2012 Posted February 9, 2012 Good news - I got an email from UT-Austin telling me I'm on the short list and that they'd like to do an interview tomorrow or Monday. Fingers crossed! @ salvatura - I'm so sorry to hear of the rejection. It sucks and you're absolutely right, the GRE is a horrible, useless test.
Seeking Posted February 10, 2012 Posted February 10, 2012 Drocket, Good luck to you! Salvatura, You are absolutely right. I wonder who had the brainwave of having GRE as an essential part of the application and why it is there. I do wish you all the best for the remaining schools. I'm sorry to hear you have got rejections from top 3 schools in a week. You are truly a strong person to be able to handle it. I would have broken down.
Seeking Posted February 11, 2012 Posted February 11, 2012 Someone has posted an interview call from Northwestern Theatre and Drama PhD on the results page. Would anyone like to claim it?
BreathingSister Posted February 11, 2012 Posted February 11, 2012 (edited) BreathingSister, Have you heard anything out of UCI? I thought about applying there too, and I may next year if I don't get into the UCSD side. diermh, I contacted the UCI Drama department today and he said that committee members will contact who they're interested in for interviews by late February, otherwise "official letters" (meaning rejections) will be sent out in late March/early April. Perhaps the two schools are on similar timelines? Edited February 11, 2012 by BreathingSister
Spaceman Posted February 12, 2012 Posted February 12, 2012 Hi there, Wiish I had found this forum before and seen that I'm not alone in this and that I'm not going crazy!! So much anxiety these days. I check my box mail and email all the time. This is insane! Wait, wait, wait... well good to see that I can share this with other people. Insofar, I've heard nothing, guess that if I haven't heard form Northwestern for an interview I should start to forget. I just got a letter from one the universities asking me to send a certified translation of one of my transcripts ( I did my MA in France).... I wonder if this is a good sign because a person who I spoke with at the admissions office said that they couldn't send me an offer if I didn't send it. But, I'm not sure if this really means something or its just admission's office routine before the department checks my application - however its been a month since I sent it so maybe they have already reviewed all the applications and they want me.... Oh man, I'm going nuts. Good that I found this forum because I'm driving my girlfriend crazy! Good luck to everybody out there and congrats to those of you who already know something!
Seeking Posted February 12, 2012 Posted February 12, 2012 Spaceman, Good luck to you and I do hope you get an acceptance soon! Do keep us updated. It's so comforting to know that I'm not the only one who hasn't heard from any of the schools yet, though have given up on Northwestern now.
Spaceman Posted February 12, 2012 Posted February 12, 2012 Hi Seeking, Well it's going to be a pretty intense period until April! One never knows when we will get a response. I really hope that at least one of my options works out well. I'm crossing fingers for the one that asked for the transcrip...kind of have a good feeling. How many programs have you applied to?
Seeking Posted February 13, 2012 Posted February 13, 2012 (edited) Spaceman, Yeah, I too hope only one school takes me in. I have applied to only 3 schools, but am thinking of sending applications to some more with a late deadline. Edited February 13, 2012 by Seeking
Clown Posted February 13, 2012 Posted February 13, 2012 Hi there-- I also applied to Theatre and Performance Studies PhD programs at NYU (MA), Northwestern, Cornell, Brown, Berkeley, UCLA, UC Davis, and UT, Austin. So far, I have been rejected by Northwestern, and Brown but admitted to UCLA. And I had a phone interview with a professor from UT, Austin. Congratulations to all who have already been accepted.
Clown Posted February 13, 2012 Posted February 13, 2012 Has anyone on here applied to any of these schools? Know anyone who has? Heard anything back? UT Austin - Performance as Public Practice University of Pittsburgh University of Maryland University of Washington (their deadline isn't until 2/15, so I don't expect to hear from them for a while) It blows my mind that there's so little representation here from the theatre/performance studies realm... I have to say that the waiting is more maddening than I anticipated! Hi Dan0075, I applied to the PhD program in Performance as Public Practice at UT, Austin. And I had a 45-minutes phone interview with a professor yesterday. Among various questions about my research proposal, she asked me if the program at UT was my top choice, and whether I had applied to other programs. In the end, she said that she was going to recommend my application for admission, and invited me to visit the campus to meet faculty and other students in the program. The following are the performance studies programs I applied and their status so far. NYU [MA Program] Northwestern (Rejected) Brown (Rejected) Cornell: Berkeley: UCLA: (Accepted) UC Davis: UT, Austin (Interviewed)
appseasonover Posted February 13, 2012 Posted February 13, 2012 Hey Clown, I also had an interview with UT-Austin (on friday 2/10) but not with either POI named in my statement, which was interesting. The interview went really well, and he said they meet later this week and decisions will go out in 2 weeks, or so... and that it wasn't necessarily a bad sign if I hadn't heard anything and that I could feel free to contact him anytime. But still... Huge congrats on the immediate acceptance! I guess I'm just freaking out a little now, since I'm hanging out here in post-interview land. I don't know that the person with whom I interviewed is able to immediately say, "you're accepted," but it still feels weird. Is UT, Austin your top choice? Thanks and congrats again!
starbelliedsneetch Posted February 14, 2012 Posted February 14, 2012 hey y'all. i'm a bit late on the uptake, but I applied to brown, berkeley, and nyu, all for performance studies. i had an interview with brown but ultimately got rejected. got a strange email from berkeley a few days ago from their grad admin giving me info about how to get reimbursed for travel expenses for their accepted students visiting weekend and saying congrats again for being accepted. i followed up by phone since this was the first i heard from their department. grad admin said she was "sorry" but made a "horrendouse mistake." she said i mistakenly got that email because I was on a "very short list" of students they were "still considering." she said they had sent out some but not all of their acceptance offers. i asked if this was a de facto wait list and she said "well, no not even necessarily that. we just haven't made all our decisions yet." can't believe that they would make such an unprofessional mistake, but hey, i guess we're all human. in any case, i'm not holding my breath since i'm not terribly interested in their program (don't even have a POI over there, hahah!)
starbelliedsneetch Posted February 14, 2012 Posted February 14, 2012 Hi there-- I also applied to Theatre and Performance Studies PhD programs at NYU (MA), Northwestern, Cornell, Brown, Berkeley, UCLA, UC Davis, and UT, Austin. So far, I have been rejected by Northwestern, and Brown but admitted to UCLA. And I had a phone interview with a professor from UT, Austin. Congratulations to all who have already been accepted. decision for the nyu MA program will be out very, very soon.
starbelliedsneetch Posted February 14, 2012 Posted February 14, 2012 (edited) Well, I got into Brown! --- which is unbelievable. I can stop stressing about everything else, I think... And now it's just funny to me that everyone else wants to reject me. Oy!! Just got my Brown acceptance as well! My heart is still pounding.... Congrats you two! Rebecca said they were aiming for a cohort size of 2 this year so you guys might be _it_! Edited February 14, 2012 by starbelliedsneetch
Clown Posted February 14, 2012 Posted February 14, 2012 Hi drocket, I don’t even know what my top choice program is. After being rejected by both Northwestern and Brown, I kind of expect the worst. I guess at this point I care more about who offers me funding that anything else. Berkeley would be wonderful place to get my PhD, though. I’d ultimately like to go to NYU but they don’t take PhD students without a MA. And if I ended up getting in that program, the MA would cost me at least 50K in tuition. Meanwhile, UCLA doesn’t offer much financial support. Finally, I’ve never been in Austin, so I don’t know if I would like to be there. I’ll wait until I visit it. Overall, I’m lost and this agony is killing me. By the way, I still need to finish my BA and can’t concentrate in anything.
appseasonover Posted February 14, 2012 Posted February 14, 2012 Hi drocket, I don’t even know what my top choice program is. After being rejected by both Northwestern and Brown, I kind of expect the worst. I guess at this point I care more about who offers me funding that anything else. Berkeley would be wonderful place to get my PhD, though. I’d ultimately like to go to NYU but they don’t take PhD students without a MA. And if I ended up getting in that program, the MA would cost me at least 50K in tuition. Meanwhile, UCLA doesn’t offer much financial support. Finally, I’ve never been in Austin, so I don’t know if I would like to be there. I’ll wait until I visit it. Overall, I’m lost and this agony is killing me. By the way, I still need to finish my BA and can’t concentrate in anything. Hey Clown, I hear you! I got into the MA program at NYU a couple of years ago, but the lack of financial support made the decision for me. I couldn't afford it. I ended up going into a funded Women's Studies masters program and have been really happy with my decision (i finish in May and yes, writing a thesis while under application stress is making concentration a challenge!). And while I will have a masters and I applied to the PhD in Performance studies at NYU, 33 out of the 35 phd students on their website went to NYU for their masters... so it seems a bit hopeless even as it would be a great fit. I got into Gender Studies PhD program a couple of weeks ago, but I'm still waiting on any funding possibilities to appear. I totally agree with you, the agony stinks and I really just need one good funded offer to quell the anxiety. Do you know when the visitation weekend is at UT, Austin? I wasn't given that info in my interview. Best of luck, I hope we all end up with at least one funded offer!
Aubergine Posted February 14, 2012 Posted February 14, 2012 Congrats you two! Rebecca said they were aiming for a cohort size of 2 this year so you guys might be _it_! Thanks very much! I'm super, super excited. Have my fingers crossed that we'll all end up in great programs!
byrony Posted February 15, 2012 Posted February 15, 2012 Who posted the acceptance for Brown modern culture and media?
salvatura Posted February 15, 2012 Posted February 15, 2012 Hello all. Some good news finally! I was accepted into the University of Maryland PhD in Theatre and Performance Studies program, and we should hear about funding by March 8th. I have also received word from University of Pittsburgh that they have recommended me for full fellowship, and I should be hearing about money soon. I haven't gotten official word yet from Bowling Green, but I am almost certain I am accepted. Now, it's just waiting for money. Question for you all: of the three (Maryland, Pitt, and Bowling Green) which would you choose based on quality of education and prospectus for university teaching positions?
Aubergine Posted February 15, 2012 Posted February 15, 2012 Salvatura, that such amazing news! Three schools to choose from! Congrats! I am not American, so I can't really speak to the quality or reputation of any of these schools. Do they have placement records posted somewhere? That would certainly be a question I would ask during a campus visit! Which program is the best fit for your interests? Of course, funding will be a factor as well... Congrats again! It must feel wonderful to not be waiting on any schools!
dan0075 Posted February 15, 2012 Posted February 15, 2012 I also received my acceptance from University of Maryland today! It made my day, as it is my first choice. Still keeping my fingers crossed on funding. I also have an interview at UC Santa Barbara next month. We'll see how that goes; that's up there at the top of my list with Maryland. Still waiting to hear from University of Washington, Pittsburgh, and UT Austin. Probably not looking good for the latter two, since people have already received word of acceptance and/or interviews. Now I just have to write my thesis and finish my M.A. That's the challenging part, as extreme senioritis begins to set in!
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