one school left and praying for a miracle... lol

[BigCheese]

Is that you?...

[Astaroth]

Maybe you shouldn't have applied to such high tier universities? Don't want to be mean but you don't really have a right to complain unless you've bothered applying to "safeties" and have been rejected by even those.

[BigCheese]

Maybe you shouldn't have applied to such high tier universities? Don't want to be mean but you don't really have a right to complain unless you've bothered applying to "safeties" and have been rejected by even those.

:roll: excuse me but i didn't apply blindly.... considering my experience, GRE scores and talking with advisors, i thought i had a chance...

[ElusiveMuse]

Plenty of people have high scores and a good CV. Plenty of people have a chance. Doesn't mean you don't need some safety schools.

I'm definitely sending you all the best and hope you get in, but I think that even the best candidates are wise to cast a wider net.

[BigCheese]

Plenty of people have high scores and a good CV. Plenty of people have a chance. Doesn't mean you don't need some safety schools.

I'm definitely sending you all the best and hope you get in, but I think that even the best candidates are wise to cast a wider net.

fair enough...

[enantiomorph]

.

[zoberg]

Good luck, OP! I'm hoping that you experience a miracle, as well! But, in all fairness, I don't think it would be a miracle, per se---I think it would come deserved.

[BigCheese]

Thanks zoberg and enantiomorph !!!

[frankdux]

best of luck to you, bigcheese.

out of 11, i've got 2 rejections, and am waiting on the other 9.

1 of those 9 has gotta be a rejection since the invitation weekend is in a few days and i've heard nothing. at least another 3 are reach schoools, so thats 4 more total rejections right there. the other 5 i'd like to think i'd have a reasonably good shot any other year than this one where the funding is less and the number of applicants is more.

realistically i'm just praying for ONE funded acceptance anywhere. but i'm already predicting 11 straight rejections.

[OnceAndFutureGrad]

The only one I have left as a complete blank is Cornell. Seeing the places I've been thrown out from, I'm pretty sure there's a rejection letter with my name on it flying through the post. Unless UConn decides to bring me in or UCC decides to throw money my way, to quote Half Man Half Biscuit, "I'm up the creek but never mind the paddle, boy I haven't even got a canoe."

[IRdreams]

In some fields applying for a safety school doesn't actually make that much sense. Big Cheese...here's rooting for GTown for you!

[GirlattheHelm]

Good luck!!

[Emilee]

In some fields applying for a safety school doesn't actually make that much sense. Big Cheese...here's rooting for GTown for you!

I agree. I did not even get an interview for any of my so called safety schools or target schools. Oddly, I only got interviews from my reach schools, which are still reach schools since I have not received one acceptance yet. :? Lower tier schools have less funding and tend to like local students better.

I hope we all get into at least one school or ten years from now they might call this the "Decade of the Lost Scholars", since obviously there are so many qualified people who can't get into grad school.

[iuhoosier]

Good luck BigCheese...I've got crossed fingers for you! Also, congrats for sticking to your guns and applying to schools that you really wanted. I applied to 2 (count 'em, T.W.O.) schools, knowing that I didn't want to go to any others and refused to settle for a "safety." Some people will go to a safety if they don't get in anywhere else, and others won't. I personally, knew that if I hadn't gotten accepted to my schools then I would have taken a year off, studied and retaken the GRE, and gotten more volunteer and job experience. So I have never, not even for undergrad, applied to safety schools.

All that to say, I applaud your decision and wish you the best!

[slowbro]

Maybe you shouldn't have applied to such high tier universities? Don't want to be mean but you don't really have a right to complain unless you've bothered applying to "safeties" and have been rejected by even those.

You might not want to be mean, but it's a mean response nonetheless. BigCheese wasn't complaining in the least -- only hoping for an acceptance from the one remaining school. And as others have pointed out, applying to safety schools sometimes is a poor choice depending on one's field.

Also, you've complained in other threads about your lack of acceptances. I doubt you'd appreciate it if someone told you that you "don't really have a right to complain" because you could at least afford to apply to eleven schools.

Besides, none of us have a "right" to complain since we all (presumably) have food, clothing, and shelter. That doesn't mean, though, that we should chide others for feeling disappointed when the effort they invest in their applications fails to pay off.

BigCheese, good luck!

[whateverneveram3n]

You might not want to be mean, but it's a mean response nonetheless. BigCheese wasn't complaining in the least -- only hoping for an acceptance from the one remaining school. And as others have pointed out, applying to safety schools sometimes is a poor choice depending on one's field.

Yep, I'd like to add my voice to that growing chorus. In some fields it doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

Also, you've complained in other threads about your lack of acceptances. I doubt you'd appreciate it if someone told you that you "don't really have a right to complain" because you could at least afford to apply to eleven schools.

Yeah...I wanted to apply to eight, but could only afford six. (On the flip side, at least I could afford to even apply to six.)

Besides, none of us have a "right" to complain since we all (presumably) have food, clothing, and shelter. That doesn't mean, though, that we should chide others for feeling disappointed when the effort they invest in their applications fails to pay off.

BigCheese, good luck!

Word.

bigcheese-- best of luck to you...I know that if (when? :| ) I get down to only one school left to hear from and have gotten all rejections up to that point, I'd be sitting on the edge of my seat too.

[BigCheese]

OMG thanks everyone for the kind words and support..i thought that other poster was being mean; but you know what? at this point i'm not up for a debate... but i really appreciate everyone's support... mmmmmmuwah

[MDLee]

:x :x

Look guys...for some departments Ivy league IS a safety school. My letter writers wouldn't even touch some of the state schools I tried to apply to--the job market is so nasty that anything but a first-tier school supplied PhD means total lack of hire-ability which means that you've just wasted six years of your life to get a piece of paper that just priced you out of almost every other job on the planet. ESPECIALLY in the humanities.

:!: Cut BigCheese some slack here. :!:

On that note, I'm at the point where I've just gotten apathetic about my three remaining schools. I expect they'll all reject me and I'm actually okay with it. After checking your other rejects I don't feel so bad about my own--since a lot of them match. You're in good company BigCheese...I'll keep my fingers crossed for you.

[ElusiveMuse]

Does it ever make anyone else annoyed that the Ivy League started out as a football division, or some such thing?

[OnceAndFutureGrad]

Does it ever make anyone else annoyed that the Ivy League started out as a football division, or some such thing?

All I know is that my undergrad was offered admission into the Ivy League...and turned it down! Bwahahaha!

I've enacted a last minute Hail Mary play - it's not over yet, people. Turns out Columbia still accepts Medieval Studies MA applicants through March 15. This time I'm going to do what I should have done more of and make absolutely sure my "target" professor 1. actually knows me 2. is accepting graduate students. I don't know how he'll feel about a student appearing from out of nowhere less than two weeks from the application due date but by the gods I'm going to try to make this work. At the very least I'll have the dubious honor of five matching Ivy rejections. I'm on my way to a whole set! Collect 'em all!

[peppermint.beatnik]

"GirlattheHelm," I thought of this the other day when you said SUNY-B was your safety and you didn't get in. I think state schools are difficult as a safety, this year, due to the economic downturn. I don't know if that helps, but I thought I'd mention it anyway.

[Astaroth]

Wow, that's kind of creepy, you searched for my posts to see where I've complained? Of course I've complained. But I had the sense to apply to a range of schools and actually give myself some form of a fair shot at this.

Ok, maybe my comment was mean, I'm not sure what you're trying to prove other than that, however (and it seems you are). I'm not interested in any sort of "flame war", but I just wanted to recognize that my comment was perhaps not worded properly (although the idea behind it still stands). BigCheese never said he had a financial problem that did not allow him to apply to other schools. If he did, then I would say he could have spent his money more wisely.

I would actually be interested to hear how "In some fields applying for a safety school doesn't actually make that much sense".

[Jakrabite]

Wow, that's kind of creepy, you searched for my posts to see where I've complained? Of course I've complained. But I had the sense to apply to a range of schools and actually give myself some form of a fair shot at this.

I would actually be interested to hear how "In some fields applying for a safety school doesn't actually make that much sense".

I agree the relative meanness of the original comment is debatable. Though it's a wee bit evil to kick somebody who's down already, propriety is hardly a cut and dry thing.

In my area of expertise applying to safety schools is a no-no. I was applying to a bunch of safety schools originally but my professors dissuaded me saying its hard to get a job after graduating from so called 'safeties'. Seeing that I have no admits as of now and am still waiting on quite a few schools, I can't really comment on the judiciousness of the strategy.

Evil or not, guys go easy on the snooping and ganging up on a singular poster. Flame wars are infantile. Best of luck BigCheese and Astaroth.

[OnceAndFutureGrad]

I would actually be interested to hear how "In some fields applying for a safety school doesn't actually make that much sense".

For instance, medieval studies. There are no safety schools. Only big famous schools, including big famous state schools, have medieval studies graduate programs. Undergrad is hard to find as well. Whereas in Europe every school has a medieval studies department, at least within history, in the States there's just no such thing as a safety school that supports a medieval program. I know from my advisor that Rutgers, my undergrad, accepted ONE (1!) medieval studies graduate student this year, and Rutgers was probably considered a pseudo-safety by a lot of its applicants.

[anthcat]

I did much the same thing, though I applied to 9 schools. If I actually want to end up tenured in a good program eventually (which I do!), then I am going to have to attend a really good program. I looked at the credentials of the people who do the best work in my subfield, and applied either to the schools where they are currently, or the programs they went to (with some alterations because some high-ranked programs are in steep decline).

I have zero interest in teaching at a community college or low-ranked program. No offense meant to those of you who would like it (it's a calling like any other), but it's not for me. And if I'm not "good" enough to go to a top program, which may be the case, then I would like to be rejected outright so I can get started on finding myself another career. So my "safeties" were big-name programs with loads of funding for few students that are known to produce lower-caliber PhDs (in my field, IMHO, Princeton is a "safety" - I can say this out loud because they already rejected me ).

In applying to a "reach" school, if you've got the scores and experience, then what really matters is fit and if you feel you have that then you have a good shot.