cquin Posted February 23, 2012 Share Posted February 23, 2012 Good luck Dorinda! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aubergine Posted February 23, 2012 Share Posted February 23, 2012 Greetings from LaGuardia, home of the $8 WiFi! Signs that Dorinda is Not Smart Enough For Grad School, #321: Failure to exchange Canadian currency before entering the United States coupled with failure to eat breakfast before leaving Canada results in a recruitment weekend starting off on a (very) empty stomach. Have fun! And hit up an ATM! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spasticlitotes Posted February 23, 2012 Share Posted February 23, 2012 I just ate through nearly half a tub each of trader joe's triple ginger snaps and dark chocolate-sea salt covered almonds in order to physically occupy myself, and now I am too caffeinated. Trader Joe's also has chocolate covered potato chips... Is anyone else having extreme job apathy knowing you'll be gone in a few months? Like, I'm gonna need this money, but can I please just quit and go read books all day? Signed, Paralegal Sneakily Posting at Work I want to skip the classes I'm teaching. It says a great deal about my lack of humanity that I can't even muster up the energy to go teach these poor kids to communicate clearly through complete sentences. :-/ Greetings from LaGuardia, home of the $8 WiFi! Signs that Dorinda is Not Smart Enough For Grad School, #321: Failure to exchange Canadian currency before entering the United States coupled with failure to eat breakfast before leaving Canada results in a recruitment weekend starting off on a (very) empty stomach. Have fun, Dorinda!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hazelbite Posted February 23, 2012 Share Posted February 23, 2012 Hey, Aubergine! Congrats on Tisch and TAPS! I had an agonizing summer deciding between English and theatre programs (I'm interested in adaptation-- Rachel Dickstein style). Hope I made the right choice Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aubergine Posted February 23, 2012 Share Posted February 23, 2012 Hey, Aubergine! Congrats on Tisch and TAPS! I had an agonizing summer deciding between English and theatre programs (I'm interested in adaptation-- Rachel Dickstein style). Hope I made the right choice Thanks so much, hazelbite! I too had a hell of a time choosing a discipline. I avoided the commitment by applying mostly to interdisciplinary programs. Got rejected from all of the programs with "literature" in the title and accepted to all the ones with "performance." And so the decision was made for me! I couldn't be happier, though. Clearly, people smarter than me had a much better idea how and where my research fits. It looks like you've applied to a lot of schools who are really strong in performance as well! Hopefully you'll have the opportunity to study a bit of both! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
margate Posted February 23, 2012 Share Posted February 23, 2012 Off the heels of your post, I remembered to go ahead and decline Buffalo. Hope that helps some lucky Am Studies scholar! Just to chime in (since I'm apparently procrastinating this morning) from my own experiences last year -- If you're declining an offer, make sure to go through whatever online system they have -- just telling the Department itself isn't "officially" enough. If you're not certain whether a particular program has some online button to press, ask. I let several programs know in early April that I wouldn't be attending, but then got e-mails/phone calls from them on/around April 15, because they needed an "official" decline before they could offer someone on their waitlist. So help out the programs and the waitlisters, and avoid my mid-April guilt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Grimwig Posted February 23, 2012 Share Posted February 23, 2012 Columbia has been emailing me incessantly. I've had notes from four POIs, as well as two other professors who just wanted to welcome me and tell me they liked reading my application. Meanwhile, I have not heard anything specific from Brown. I am trying not to let this sway my decision. But should it? How much can we tell from the email habits of programs? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dedalus Posted February 23, 2012 Share Posted February 23, 2012 The "love note" tactic (as I like to call it) from what I understand is idiosyncratic to certain programs. It is of course always very flattering to receive emails from professors telling you how much they enjoyed your materials, but it's also not the case that a love-note-free program didn't enjoy your materials. From what I can tell, some programs ask professors to recruit over email by sending such emails, while others do not (so also don't assume that you weren't/aren't a top prospect at a program who doesn't bombard you with emails). What I am 99% sure of is that these emails are determined by policy for the prospective cohort as a whole, not by individual professor enthusiasm for a student. As someone who chose a program who did not send love notes over others that did, my advice is to enjoy the flattery but take it with a grain of salt. The love notes do make you feel like you have a relationship with a program and that may make it harder to turn down. It's a recruiting strategy, and while it does mean that Columbia very much wants you, it doesn't mean that Brown is indifferent. koolherc, poeteer and marlowe 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stately Plump Posted February 23, 2012 Share Posted February 23, 2012 Ugh, I can only imagine. UMass has been REALLY nice and welcoming to me and it's going to be shitty if/when I decline. Sometimes I feel like if I don't accept by late-March (like they're probably all expecting) that I'll hurt someone's feelings or they'll take the offer away. Yeesh. I've had similar feelings; I almost feel sick to my stomach about the prospect of rejecting a school that wants me. I imaging it will only get harder after I've gone to visit. What I keep telling myself is that by not going, I allow someone else to get in off the wait-list, and it might be someone with no acceptances who has given up hope. So it's not all bad! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eriksmegs Posted February 23, 2012 Share Posted February 23, 2012 The one program I've heard from/been accepted to wants me to accept or decline their TAship offer by March 1. I know technically I can say yes and back out later (and I'm obviously not going to say no with no other acceptances yet), but that makes me feel so anxious/guilty. I'm trying to contact other programs to see if I can get more info to be able to make this decision with any sort of confidence, but the one I called Friday hasn't gotten back to me yet. Ack, I am desperate for more news before the end of this week. I am in the same boat. Their website says that they are a "member of the Council of Graduate Schools. Students who are offered financial support (TA) have until April 15 to make their decision," but then they have asked to be notified of my decision by March 1st. I kind of want to e-mail them and ask for more time, but I have this (probably irrational) fear that this will somehow result in my offer being withdrawn. But the idea of accepting and then changing my mind should I receive an offer I like more also makes me feel guilty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
koolherc Posted February 23, 2012 Share Posted February 23, 2012 The "love note" tactic (as I like to call it) from what I understand is idiosyncratic to certain programs. It is of course always very flattering to receive emails from professors telling you how much they enjoyed your materials, but it's also not the case that a love-note-free program didn't enjoy your materials. From what I can tell, some programs ask professors to recruit over email by sending such emails, while others do not (so also don't assume that you weren't/aren't a top prospect at a program who doesn't bombard you with emails). What I am 99% sure of is that these emails are determined by policy for the prospective cohort as a whole, not by individual professor enthusiasm for a student. As someone who chose a program who did not send love notes over others that did, my advice is to enjoy the flattery but take it with a grain of salt. The love notes do make you feel like you have a relationship with a program and that may make it harder to turn down. It's a recruiting strategy, and while it does mean that Columbia very much wants you, it doesn't mean that Brown is indifferent. this * 100. After I got over the initial lovestruck phase (You really love me!) I did some sober cost of living calculations and realized that the most friendly schools were also the ones offering the least money. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TripWillis Posted February 23, 2012 Author Share Posted February 23, 2012 Just to chime in (since I'm apparently procrastinating this morning) from my own experiences last year -- If you're declining an offer, make sure to go through whatever online system they have -- just telling the Department itself isn't "officially" enough. If you're not certain whether a particular program has some online button to press, ask. I let several programs know in early April that I wouldn't be attending, but then got e-mails/phone calls from them on/around April 15, because they needed an "official" decline before they could offer someone on their waitlist. So help out the programs and the waitlisters, and avoid my mid-April guilt. They do have an online system, and I did. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pelevinfan Posted February 23, 2012 Share Posted February 23, 2012 Hi all- First time poster to this thread, as I'm not actually having Post-Acceptance Stress (more like Post-Acceptance Work Procrastination in the extreme). However, I have a somewhat odd question to ask. I've only been accepted at one program so far, but it is my top choice and I'm pretty positive I'll be accepting their offer. I let them know that I'm very excited about their offer, and now some of my POIs have started friending me on Facebook. So...weird or not weird? The advice I've gotten from a variety of people around me has been that I can't possibly reject the request, but that I should put them on limited profile. I pretty much only use Facebook as a place to geek out about my scholarly interests with like-minded friends, though, so I don't really have anything on there that I would mind anyone seeing. Is this a common thing? Has this happened to anyone else? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ComeBackZinc Posted February 23, 2012 Share Posted February 23, 2012 I'm Facebook friends with most of my grad professors, at their initiation. I acknowledge that it's a lot different before you've actually met them, though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jbarks Posted February 23, 2012 Share Posted February 23, 2012 So I can finally start posting on this thread. I was accepted to UNCG this afternoon. I'm waiting to hear about funding, but it looks positive for a TAship. I was also nominated for a university fellowship. If funding works out, I would be super happy to go here. However, Rochester, Auburn, and GWU are still my top choices. But, hey, my anxiety level has decreased somewhat in the past few hours. Yay! wreckofthehope 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bayo Posted February 24, 2012 Share Posted February 24, 2012 (edited) I feel like I'm starting to shut down from stress. I still have no word on funding from my one acceptance, and I had so many thoughts running through my head last night that I couldn't sleep. I finally just got up at 4 AM and ate ice cream. Luckily I worked late today so I was able to doze off around noon and get a couple hours of sleep. I had people singing Happy Birthday to me at work all day, and I just smiled through it. On the inside was I thinking, "Just let me make it to the weekend." Edited February 24, 2012 by Bayo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ComeBackZinc Posted February 24, 2012 Share Posted February 24, 2012 (edited) Happy birthday! Edit: Uh, maybe that was stupid, given you just said it wasn't helping at work.... Sorry. Edited February 24, 2012 by ComeBackZinc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bayo Posted February 24, 2012 Share Posted February 24, 2012 No, thank you anyway, Zinc. I read in another thread that it was also someone else's birthday, and s/he received a rejection email today, so it could have been worse. And also, I've been meaning to relay how much I appreciate your contributions to the forum as someone on the inside. deebee 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ComeBackZinc Posted February 24, 2012 Share Posted February 24, 2012 I mostly just want to remind people that it can happen, even for a jamoke like me, and to balance the natural doom and gloom feelings we all get in this process. deebee 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hawkeye7269 Posted February 24, 2012 Share Posted February 24, 2012 I'm curious - does, after acceptance, anyone else have the feeling of, "Good Lord, why did I apply to THAT program? (not the one accepted, but some of the others)?" I look back now and have to laugh at myself - applying to schools I had little interest in going to, but just trying to cast the net wide. It's that sort of desperate, INEEDTOGETINTOGRADSCHOOL feeling that makes us all slightly manic. And now it just looks ridiculous. coffeeplease 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
impending Posted February 24, 2012 Share Posted February 24, 2012 (edited) I'm curious - does, after acceptance, anyone else have the feeling of, "Good Lord, why did I apply to THAT program? (not the one accepted, but some of the others)?" I look back now and have to laugh at myself - applying to schools I had little interest in going to, but just trying to cast the net wide. It's that sort of desperate, INEEDTOGETINTOGRADSCHOOL feeling that makes us all slightly manic. And now it just looks ridiculous. I'm finding myself with the opposite problem, actually. I sort of desperately want to go to every program I applied to. I have NO idea how I would decide between them if I end up getting into more than one. Edit: Although, I only applied to 4 programs, plus my safety which was the (easy to get into) MA program at the school of one of my (difficult to get into) reach PhD applications. Edited February 24, 2012 by impending Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ComeBackZinc Posted February 24, 2012 Share Posted February 24, 2012 What really squashed my mind grapes was when I was really hurt by being rejected by a program I wouldn't have gone to anyway. Not that I wouldn't have gone if I didn't have other options, just that I got into my number one program before I got the rejection. So why did I care? But I did. antecedent and deebee 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stately Plump Posted February 24, 2012 Share Posted February 24, 2012 What really squashed my mind grapes was when I was really hurt by being rejected by a program I wouldn't have gone to anyway. Not that I wouldn't have gone if I didn't have other options, just that I got into my number one program before I got the rejection. So why did I care? But I did. I think all rejections hurt because there is an awareness that the program didn't want you. Even if you didn't want them, it hurts nonetheless to find out--definitively--that they didn't want you, either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TripWillis Posted February 24, 2012 Author Share Posted February 24, 2012 (edited) Yeah, for some reason it stings even when I've gotten rejected from places I probably wouldn't have gone to. It's funny -- I have pretty much gotten into all my top choices -- BU, Tufts, Maryland, and Davis would've been okay, but were all in the bottom half of my preferences. So strange. Edited February 24, 2012 by TripWillis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
felicite Posted February 24, 2012 Share Posted February 24, 2012 You know, I was stressing out about this until yesterday. I have only heard from one program, which was luckily WUSTL with full funding and great stipend. But that was on February 2nd. It's been three weeks. I assume Michigan's rejection is on the way, and some others. I actually volunteered to be a stage manager in addition to my three part time jobs just to take the edge off and it worked! Two days of obsessively scheduling rehearsals and I am so glad I got accepted one place and they like me! They really like me! And I'm in such a zen place right now that if everyone else emailed tomorrow to reject me, I would be glad I wouldn't have to make a decision! Anyway, I just wanted to tell everyone how awesome you all are! I didn't get into one of the most prestigious schools, but I got in straight from my undergrad, so life is great! Everyone out there, jump up and down and give a holla! We are all really smart and people like us! Feel validated amazing people! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now