Welcome to the 2012-2013 cycle

[Quigley]

Is anyone who has heard from UCLA (whether rejection or acceptance) a comparativist? I'm wondering if its just one or two of the fields reporting back, since I haven't heard anything via email or the websites.

 

I haven't heard anything either, and im an Americanist.

[upam]

also can we take a moment to appreciate how silly and old the Massachusetts Institute of TECHNOLOGY's application site is?

 

Agreed! Isn't it the school that required you to send out your own recommender links?

[CGMJ]

Agreed! Isn't it the school that required you to send out your own recommender links?

 

Yes, that was awkward especially when I needed to sent a reminder!

[xcrunner]

Any news from USC?

Unfortunately I have yet to hear anything.

[PhDhopeful2013]

any claims for the UMich waitlists?

 

My hopes for Michigan are plummeting as I type....

[pseudonym]

Yes, that was awkward especially when I needed to sent a reminder!

 

I had to do that too, but luckily the person I needed to remind was an MIT PhD. He was actually defensive about it. 

[pseudonym]

Is anyone who has heard from UCLA (whether rejection or acceptance) a comparativist? I'm wondering if its just one or two of the fields reporting back, since I haven't heard anything via email or the websites.

 

Yes, I am one of those accepted, and I am (hoping to be) a comparativist. 

[news2yous]

also can we take a moment to appreciate how silly and old the Massachusetts Institute of TECHNOLOGY's application site is?

 

I don't want to out myself but I'm familiar with computer science, engineering, and hacker culture.  This is EXACTLY what I expected from MIT's website.  Especially the part where they made you copy and paste your recommendations.  I actually laughed when I saw that.

 

Really "techy" people are usually opposed to a lot of data-heavy fluff, and hell, the most extreme ones use stapled scratch paper as their planner, use 20 year old vintage computers patched together with random "computer graveyard" parts, etc. etc.

[news2yous]

Agreed! Isn't it the school that required you to send out your own recommender links?

 

As someone who used to be part of the same culture, that made me laugh hard.

 

It makes perfect sense from that point of view:

 

1. Zero possibility of screwups, glitches, failures, etc. unless the applicants themselves screwed up, leaving no possibility of them blaming the school.

 

2. No blaming the school if an automated email from them ends up in the spam box.  And if the student's emails end up in the spam box?  lol

 

3. The whole email-tag game isn't necessarily safer or more guaranteed in terms of preventing fraud.  It's so easy to register a fake email, and believe it or not it's pretty easy to fake .edu addresses.

 

4. The link system is surprisingly solid.

 

5. I had complaints about how awkward it was to pass that on, but no teacher had any complaints about problems registering or uploading, whereas Harvard's system for example was universally complained about.  It took a professor a full month of complaining to get his letter in, and one professor actually gave up and asked for a paper form because he was out of the country and didn't have anyone to help him with it.  Simple and straightforward.

 

6. Flashy design and feel are data-heavy and aren't actually any more "advanced" in the view of this culture, and some people in this culture really emphasize efficiency (pretty much what engineering is actually about.)

[lucid1984]

Just finished a Skype interview with POI at Vanderbilt. The POI said that their goal admit number is around 10 and final decisions would be made in Mid-February.

 

BTW, Michigan makes me shudder 

 

 

Edit: Grammar error

Edited February 8, 2013 by lucid1984

[news2yous]

 

 

This is totally true.  I have seen programmers argue about how legit they are for using more and more bare-bones systems.  I've written reports for humanities classes with terminal programs (which actually have much more powerful editing capabilities in terms of pure content, though superscript/footnote citations obviously become a problem.)

Edited February 8, 2013 by news2yous

[zzzzzz]

As someone who used to be part of the same culture, that made me laugh hard.

 

It makes perfect sense from that point of view:

 

1. Zero possibility of screwups, glitches, failures, etc. unless the applicants themselves screwed up, leaving no possibility of them blaming the school.

 

2. No blaming the school if an automated email from them ends up in the spam box.  And if the student's emails end up in the spam box?  lol

 

3. The whole email-tag game isn't necessarily safer or more guaranteed in terms of preventing fraud.  It's so easy to register a fake email, and believe it or not it's pretty easy to fake .edu addresses.

 

4. The link system is surprisingly solid.

 

5. I had complaints about how awkward it was to pass that on, but no teacher had any complaints about problems registering or uploading, whereas Harvard's system for example was universally complained about.  It took a professor a full month of complaining to get his letter in, and one professor actually gave up and asked for a paper form because he was out of the country and didn't have anyone to help him with it.  Simple and straightforward.

 

6. Flashy design and feel are data-heavy and aren't actually any more "advanced" in the view of this culture, and some people in this culture really emphasize efficiency (pretty much what engineering is actually about.)

Hilarious, revealing, and pretty logical. thank you.

[news2yous]

To the UCLA application who found out about their rejection via the website - first of all sorry, and I hope you get into your other schools.

 

Did you receive an email to check the website?

[rnoble1983]

Well, at least Minnesota finally updated their website with the rejections. I already knew, but at least that little glimmer of hope isn't bothering me anymore.

[balledematch]

To the UCLA application who found out about their rejection via the website - first of all sorry, and I hope you get into your other schools.

 

Did you receive an email to check the website?

Yes

[news2yous]

We've had a change in program coordinators, and the new one might be handling how letters are sent out differently. Decisions have been made since Monday.

 

Once again (since it might have gotten lost amidst the fray), if you were admitted to Michigan and have questions about the program, feel free to PM me.

 

 

Does this suggest that all admits have been sent already?

[news2yous]

Yes

 

Thanks!  You just saved me from logging in to their system every 5 seconds... niw I'm just checking my email every 5 seconds 

[balledematch]

Thanks!  You just saved me from logging in to their system every 5 seconds... niw I'm just checking my email every 5 seconds 

lol no worries. always happy to help

[GopherGrad]

Well, at least Minnesota finally updated their website with the rejections. I already knew, but at least that little glimmer of hope isn't bothering me anymore.

 

Did you find this by logging in to your application? Mine still shows that the application is awaiting a decision.

[Quigley]

Did you find this by logging in to your application? Mine still shows that the application is awaiting a decision.

 

Mine does too.  I'm still in purgatory at Michigan and UCLA too and refreshing roughly every 19 seconds.

[CGMJ]

Sorry if this has been covered but I've been in and out of meetings all morning: were the Michigan rejections and waitlists blast emails?

[clangeroo]

Mine does too.  I'm still in purgatory at Michigan and UCLA too and refreshing roughly every 19 seconds.

Me too - and purgatory at Mich, but rejected at UCLA. ): I got the email telling me to check the website.

[Wemayet]

Hello. My handle is wemayet, and I am a GradCafe "search results" junkie.

 

It all started in the fall, when I was looking for application advice. I figured a little wouldn't hurt, you know? It didn't take long before I was spending most, then all, of my spare time reading forums. It didn't seem like a bad trade off for all the good feelings I was getting from what I was taking in. I grew to rely upon it. I needed it to get through applications. But even when applications were over, I still needed. I tried to quit cold turkey, but found myself going back for more. I think on purpose at some level, I had even lost my login for a while, hoping I'd forget. Then one day, I saw it. The first indication that someone from one of my schools had gotten an interview. That taste brought me back. Worse than before. A great hunger inside of me, I needed the information. On my tower, on my ipad, on my laptop... all browsers had a GradCafe tab. I'd hit that refresh button... dozens of times... sometime dozens of dozens of times in one hour. When I wake up, I reach for the nearest computerized device and hit refresh again and again. Someday, I hope to stop...

 

My handle is wemayet, and I am a GradCafe "search results" junkie.

[shadi]

Unfortunately I have yet to hear anything.

 

As I learned from the phone interview I took last week from USC, the DGS said they will make a meeting this week and will send final offers next week.

 

[mogadishu]

Just saw someone posted acceptance for Northwestern University, did anyone else received offer from Northwestern?