Fall 2014 applicants??

[toasterazzi]

 

P.S.

National Pop Culture Conf. has a beer panel this year. anyone going to Chicago? eh eh?

 

I'll be there. I'm hoping it actually warms up a bit here in the midwest by then

[mikers86]

So, just looked at my status for Rutgers. Rejected. No email. Always classy, Rutgers!

[purpleperson]

Just checked my Rutgers status.

 

"Your application has been reviewed, and the Committee has denied admission."

 

Allrightythen....

 

Hopes = dashed

(not that I expected to get in)

Edited February 26, 2014 by purpleperson

[mikers86]

I'm proud to be the first Rutgers rejection of the season. Ugh.

[DyslexicBibliophile]

Just checked my Rutgers status.

 

"Your application has been reviewed, and the Committee has denied admission."

 

Allrightythen....

 

Hopes = dashed

(not that I expected to get in)

 

I just checked too - I second your "Hopes = dashed" and raise you a pint of the finest ice cream your local corner store offers. I found the method of letting us know really uncalled for - all schools could take a manners lesson from UMich, which had the finest and nicest rejection email ever.

[back2black]

"Your application has been reviewed, and the Committee has denied admission."

[Horb]

I too was rejected. Wow. No email. Nothing. What did I pay that fee for?

[arober6912]

Here to join the Rutgers bloodbath. That ruined my post-yoga feels. 

[iExcelAtMicrosoftPuns]

So, just looked at my status for Rutgers. Rejected. No email. Always classy, Rutgers!

That's shitty. It's sort of like your girlfriend changing the relationship status on Facebook. 

No text. No call. Nothing... suddenly it goes from In a relationship with YOU to single.

[Horb]

Ok, now that I've been rejected, I have a question: did you guys send in an official transcript? I was confused because on one site for Rutgers it said to but on the English site it said not to. Really, I just hated their application process. If I was reapplying next year, I wouldn't apply, but because of the app process, not because of their rank. 

[DyslexicBibliophile]

That's shitty. It's sort of like your girlfriend changing the relationship status on Facebook. 

No text. No call. Nothing... suddenly it goes from In a relationship with YOU to single.

 

I too was rejected. Wow. No email. Nothing. What did I pay that fee for?

 

"Your application has been reviewed, and the Committee has denied admission."

 

Not that this matters much, but that is just Rutgers. I live in NJ, grew up in NJ, and had a lot of friends do Rutgers undergrad. I graduate hs in 2010, and the incoming class to Rutgers that year was about a 1/3 larger than it was anticipated - apparently Rutgers had not realized that the recession was hitting hard and a lot of students that would normally turn down their offer of admissions to go to a better school were now going to Rutgers because it offered them better financial aid or they didn't have to leave the state. Rutgers had to SCRAMBLE to figure out what to do. I'm still half convinced this may have been a myth, but apparently they had some classes schedule through the night because there wasn't enough classroom space during the day (like, 10pm, 11pm, midnight, 2am, 4 am classes). I'm still not completely sure she was telling the truth, buy my friend swore up and down that her roommate had a 2am class.

 

So while the method of this rejection feels like a real slap in the face, it does not at all surprise me that this is how Rutgers did it.

[ArthChauc]

You know when you get an email to check the website you're probably about to get denied from a school. 

 

So long, Rochester dreams. You were beautiful and now you are over. 

[mikers86]

Historically, Rutgers never notifies you through email. It's all a random check crap shoot.

[arober6912]

Ok, now that I've been rejected, I have a question: did you guys send in an official transcript? I was confused because on one site for Rutgers it said to but on the English site it said not to. Really, I just hated their application process. If I was reapplying next year, I wouldn't apply, but because of the app process, not because of their rank. 

 

Horb I did not send an official. I'm guessing with the way they handle things as far as number of applicants they said "screw it, 90% will be rejected anyways" and didn't want to bother with officials. 

[Horb]

Historically, Rutgers never notifies you through email. It's all a random check crap shoot.

 

Yeah I heard about this. I still think it is rude. All the other schools at least do email. 

[DyslexicBibliophile]

Ok, now that I've been rejected, I have a question: did you guys send in an official transcript? I was confused because on one site for Rutgers it said to but on the English site it said not to. Really, I just hated their application process. If I was reapplying next year, I wouldn't apply, but because of the app process, not because of their rank. 

 

I sent the official transcript just to be safe, but I did have this same experience at other schools that you’re describing. I think my issue was I didn’t know the true meaning of “electronic transcript.” I thought it meant scanned & uploaded to the application, but apparently there is this new way to transmit OFFICIAL transcripts between universities (& only about four schools in the country have the capability). As I said, I completely and totally thought by "electronic" it meant the transcripts I scanned in & uploaded to the application . . . needless to say there was some Mid-January scrambling to get official transcripts sent for those schools.

 

I also totally messed up a few apps I didn't think needed the GRE subject score, only to get an email telling me it had not yet been received and asking me to submit it ASAP. Oops. 

[arober6912]

I mean, how hard is it to send an en masse email to us sorry souls? I kinda wonder how the program would be if they handle things like this. I'm not mad or doubting their quality, I just feel like I'd end up being a number. A well-paid number

[Horb]

I like to think they would have told me, but when it said: only submit it if your program requires it and then the english department said: all of it should be done online, I figured I was safe. I highly doubt that was the reason though. 

[DyslexicBibliophile]

My boyfriend is now (somewhat begrudgingly) doing the required ice cream run for such an occasion as this. I also told him it wouldn't be a bad idea to get whipped cream while he was at it (with a look that communicated very clearly if he doesn’t come home with whipped cream he’s a dead man). This whole process has made me feel like a one of those stereotypical raging-food-eating pregnant ladies.

[Tweedledumb]

National Pop Culture Conf. has a beer panel this year. anyone going to Chicago? eh eh?

Tweedledumb2 and I are presenting at PCA, but we'll be gone before the beer panel, so that's sad. We'll just drink lots of beer before we leave

[purpleperson]

My boyfriend is now (somewhat begrudgingly) doing the required ice cream run for such an occasion as this. I also told him it wouldn't be a bad idea to get whipped cream while he was at it (with a look that communicated very clearly if he doesn’t come home with whipped cream he’s a dead man). This whole process has made me feel like a one of those stereotypical raging-food-eating pregnant ladies.

 

 

When I tell my boyfriend of rejections, I can tell he feels so sorry.  It makes me feel even worse.  I had wanted to dazzle him and a few other close friends with how many acceptances I get.  Or by at least getting 2-3, which I think is respectable.  But I have just the one and it is possibly/probably unfunded.  

 

One friend emailed me Sunday and said, "Any new acceptances?" (he meant since the last time I'd updated him on February 11th with 1 acceptance and only 2 rejections.)  I then had to tell him...no, everywhere else has been rejecting me.  

 

Fortunately, not many people know I applied.  My family doesn't even know. And aside from the above-mentioned friend, only two other close friends know, and they are long distance and probably won't think to ask until next time we talk, which could be in several months.  Everyone else who had some idea of my applying only knew of it in passing and very easily could have mostly forgotten.  

 

For anyone feeling really horrible about it all, just remember that getting rejected everywhere or at most places is the norm.  Every time I start to feel really crappy, I remind myself of friends who have done this exact same thing and gotten rejected all around.  I actually did better than some of them (with my one acceptance, even if it is unfunded or possibly unfunded).  

 

The good thing is that as we draw to just a few schools left, I'm resigning myself to it more and more.  I don't feel terribly depressed.  I feel more like...damn...wasted money...wasted energy...the whole thing is like playing the lottery.  

 

I don't want to do it again.  I think I want funding at the place I got into and want to go there so as not to have to do it again. 

 

Anyway, back to grading papers...

 

 

 

Edited February 26, 2014 by purpleperson

[Ozymandias Melancholia]

Oberon is an entirely different beast when had from the keg. I never cared much for the bottles of it but in a keg that stuff is what dreams are made of. 

I'm lucky enough to live in a town with a very good (but obscure) brewery. I get to have galaxy IPAs and Citra IPAs all the time. 

 

 

I haven't many Texan beers. I'll have to give it a try.

P.S.

National Pop Culture Conf. has a beer panel this year. anyone going to Chicago? eh eh?

Unfortunately 512 doesn't produce bottles or cans, only kegs. :/

[Kamisha]

Tweedledumb2 and I are presenting at PCA, but we'll be gone before the beer panel, so that's sad. We'll just drink lots of beer before we leave

 

I’m normally at PCA/ACA every year, but couldn’t make it this year because I have to defend my thesis right smack dab in the middle of the conference. Boo. 

[Tweedledumb2]

Tweedledumb2 and I are presenting at PCA, but we'll be gone before the beer panel, so that's sad. We'll just drink lots of beer before we leave

 

But we'll only be slightly intoxicated during our presentation.

[DyslexicBibliophile]

 

When I tell my boyfriend of rejections, I can tell he feels so sorry.  It makes me feel even worse.  I had wanted to dazzle him and a few other close friends with how many acceptances I get.  Or by at least getting 2-3, which I think is respectable.  But I have just the one and it is possibly/probably unfunded.  

 

One friend emailed me Sunday and said, "Any new acceptances?" (he meant since the last time I'd updated him on February 11th with 1 acceptance and only 2 rejections.)  I then had to tell him...no, everywhere else has been rejecting me.  

 

Fortunately, not many people know I applied.  My family doesn't even know. And aside from the above-mentioned friend, only two other close friends know, and they are long distance and probably won't think to ask until next time we talk, which could be in several months.  Everyone else who had some idea of my applying only knew of it in passing and very easily could have mostly forgotten.  

 

For anyone feeling really horrible about it all, just remember that getting rejected everywhere or at most places is the norm.  Every time I start to feel really crappy, I remind myself of friends who have done this exact same thing and gotten rejected all around.  I actually did better than some of them (with my one acceptance, even if it is unfunded or possibly unfunded).  

 

The good thing is that as we draw to just a few schools left, I'm resigning myself to it more and more.  I don't feel terribly depressed.  I feel more like...damn...wasted money...wasted energy...the whole thing is like playing the lottery.  

 

I don't want to do it again.  I think I want funding at the place I got into and want to go there so as not to have to do it again. 

 

Anyway, back to grading papers...

 

 

 

 

 

 

1. I wish I could be like Kamisha, who is so upbeat and full of sunshine & rainbows, but I’m a cynic – so when you say you’re getting more and more depressed and starting to despair, instead of the required – “chin up! Everything will be all right! You’re amazing and get in everywhere you dream of!” – I’m finding myself saying, “yeah, me too. This totally sucks balls” (eloquent, I know).

2. Telling my boyfriend is the worst thing ever, not because he feels sorry, but because he’s a super-realist and then I am required to answer questions affirming what my back up plans. Today I was told by the head of my McNair program that I need to apply to at least three MA programs this week, when he heard this, his response was, “well it looks like you’re getting rejected across the board for the PhD programs, why would you only apply to 3 MA programs? Shouldn’t you apply to at least 5 considering the response you’re getting from the PhD’s?

3. I’m dreading the conversations about applications. Not only do I have to meet with my academic advisor later this week, who will me sure to ask (he emailed me saying he was “anxious to hear”). Also, my entire place of work knows I am applying, as well as my family (including siblings, parents, & step-parent/siblings) and my boyfriend’s family knows I’m applying (including his grandmother with a PhD who is incredibly judgmental). Luckily the last time anyone at work asked about my applications was two weeks ago before I had anything to report, but now . . . it is going to be incredibly depressing telling them the results. And my mom? She tells EVERYONE she meets that I’m applying, because she’s assumed that I would be accepted across the board. The face she makes (or change in voice modulation) whenever I tell her about another rejection is heartbreaking.

 

4. I entered this process with such a naïve and doe-eyed perspective. I had an amazing undergraduate GPA, and that was with taking unnecessarily high-level courses repeatedly, taking overloads almost every semester, working part-time, and doing honors options whenever I could; I also had a respectable score on my GRE verbal; my LoR were tear-worthy (one woman, who teaches graduate level courses at a different institution, said that I am the best student she’s ever had in the 17-years she’s taught, and she was the recommender who’s recommendation I doubted the most); and everyone that read my writing sample(s) and SoP said that they were excellent. I really thought I was a competitive candidate, but now I don’t feel that way, not even in the least.

 

 

 

 

Okay, this is post is probably riddled with grammatical errors and all sorts of weirdness. But my ice cream just walked through the door, so you must excuse me while I go gorge myself.