What were you doing when you got accepted?

[KingKazama5]

I was watching T.V. contemplating what I should do for the next year having received five rejections. One application remained, but considering it was my top choice and they were only admitting around three people this year due to funding cutbacks, I knew I didn't stand a chance. Then it happened, an email popped up from the DGS congratulating me on acceptance to their Ph.D. program. I was completely shocked, and ridiculously happy! 

[roguesenna]

I was at work, procrastinating on GradCafe and whining about how it was taking them forever to get back to me and wishing they would just hurry up and put me out of my misery.  

[oceanlover]

i was in cancun on spring break! i had my unofficial acceptance so to say, and was confident my official was coming.  it was the only time during my trip that i had internet access and was able to check my email, and there it was! needless to say i celebrated extra that day

Edited March 24, 2014 by turtlelover

[awkwardsparkle]

One I had just woken up from a nap. Another I got an unofficial email while playing a video game in bed. The official letter was a more deliberate time; I was checking the mail for the official letter =P

[Crucial BBQ]

i was in cancun on spring break! i had my unofficial acceptance so to say, and was confident my official was coming.  it was the only time during my trip that i had internet access and was able to check my email, and there it was! needless to say i celebrated extra that day

Congrats on getting into VIMS   That was one of the first programs I looked into, really wanted to apply, but....didn't.  

[ballerina18]

I heard from two programs today. These are not acceptances, but I wanted to share anyway.

 

I checked my phone when I heard the email update *ding* while driving. I saw that it was from UNCO and luckily I was close to my destination so I could park my car and read the email. I was wait listed at UNCO, but I am very happy! I would love to attend UNCO and this was happy, unexpected news.

 

I was hanging out here on grad cafe earlier this evening. I realized that I hadn't checked my WKU application portal today and when I logged in the decision was right there in front of me. It was nice of WKU to highlight the decision in bright yellow so I wouldn't miss the big fat rejection they gave me. lol =(

Edited March 28, 2014 by ballerina18

[kimmibeans]

Not an acceptance, but I found out I was wait listed while sitting in Starbucks before work. I was bouncing up and down I was so happy! I thought I completely bombed the interview, so this was a huge sigh of relief

[scottdickson86]

i was in cancun on spring break! i had my unofficial acceptance so to say, and was confident my official was coming.  it was the only time during my trip that i had internet access and was able to check my email, and there it was! needless to say i celebrated extra that day

 

Cancun and an offer of acceptance? That is fricken awesome! 

[psychpei]

Got my first acceptance today while waiting for an oil change! I had almost given up on getting accepted anywhere this year. I still have one more school to hear from where I was waitlisted.

 

Huge sigh of relief!

[Today12345]

I was on a plane on my way back to the US from vacation overseas.  As soon as we landed, I turned on my phone and there it was among 30+ new messages in my mailbox.  It was a great moment.

[Torque]

I drove 1.5 hours with my girlfriend to go to my home city to meet my mom for a crab feed. At the crab feed, my mother notified me that a letter had come from the University that I applied to.  I had eaten probably 5 crabs by that point and I asked how think the letter was.  She said it was very thin, one piece of paper tops.  

 

....

 

WHAT.

 

I was pretty disappointed because, well, we all know that thin envelopes from admissions typically don't have good messages in them.

 

I drove home after finishing all my crab and hesitantly opened the letter.  I got in!  It was a pleasant surprise. Plus, I will add that I like getting stuff in the snail mail.  I'm glad it wasn't an email. It felt so real.

Edited April 8, 2014 by Torque

[angelperak]

No joke: It was 6am and I was on the toilet in Cambodia. My husband said "your phone is vibrating" so I got him to toss it to me (expecting a relative to be on the other end), and that is when I got my first acceptance! I was half-asleep and at the end of the call (after rattling off a whole lot of stuff about funding, etc.) the caller says "Any questions?" I was so stunned and half-asleep that I couldn't say anything but "thank you so much"!

 

The only reason I was up that early was because we were about to travel 6hrs by public bus to another town in Cambodia. Not even endless Khmer karaoke and no leg room could wipe the smile off my face on that trip! I got some other acceptances (all boring stories) but this is the university I've decided to go to, so I'm glad it's the one I was on a Cambodian toilet for

[ahlatsiawa]

When I got accepted for my undergrad I was at my friend's house in Pakistan. The admission process in my country is very different than the United States. Excluding all government-funded universities, every private university has its own Entrance Test and acing the test almost always guarantees admission if your high school scores aren't terribly low (less than 60%).

 

So I was at my friend's house and we had heard unofficial news that NUST (my university) would be announcing results the next day. In Pakistan we have what is called a "Merit List" and students are assigned ranks in that list according to their performance on the entrance test. For engineering having a merit position in the top 200 means you are eligible to get into Electrical Engineering (the most sought-after program), then 200-500ish for Mechanical Engineering and so on. A complete and utter lack of career counseling means students choose their fields based on their merit positions. It's a very sad state of affairs.

 

Anyway, getting back to the story, we were lounging about after having just watched the movie "Accepted" (not kidding) and my friend got a call from his classmate that the results had already been posted on the university website. Electricity was out at that time due to load-shedding so he had to check the result on his phone. Turned out he didn't get in. I was so sure I would have been rejected too that I didn't even bother checking mine at that time. We went out and discussed what to do next and shortlisted some other lesser-known schools to apply to. Finally when we got back that evening I logged in just to give myself a sense of closure and move forward. It was then that I got to know I had placed 108th in a pool of upwards of 15,500 test-takers, which meant I could get into any program of my choice. That was, I guess, the happiest moment of my life.

[canuck1986]

I was at a sports bar with my dad, and I got an email just after 9 p.m. from my POI with an offer. It felt great after four rejections, and it was good to share the news with my dad right away. Then I called my mom and a couple friends.

[kimmibeans]

I was playing Animal Crossing while procrastinating on filling out job applications and getting ready for current job when I got the email. Best Day EVER!

[*Jenny*]

I had checked my email 50 times that morning already and nothing. I settled in to nurse my 6 month old daughter and my phone dinged. The email was from UBC FOGS and the preview said, "Welcome to UBC!" I was so excited, but my daughter had finally gone to sleep so I scream-whispered with joy. Then I texted my sister in law, drove to my best friend's house to share the news with her, then over to my mom's, and then had to wait 6 agonize hours before my husband was off work so I could tell him person. It was an amazing day.

[NerwenAldarion]

LOL oh mine is fun

 

I was at WORK! My post office is slooooow bringing the mail and I checked before heading out and nothing. I was bummed. Well my sister stopped to check the mail when she was coming home, stopped right at the mailbox (which is waaaay down the street from my house, I live in the mountains LOL). And she saw the BIG envelope, you know the one. The GIANT behemoth that beckons you in all it's glory because you know they only send the big kahuna when they want you.

 

She didn't even open it, just stood there on the street whipped out her cell phone to call me. Thankfully I was in the back of the store pulling stock and she called me breathless. "YOU GOT INTO MERCYHURST!! THERE IS A BIG ENVELOPE!"

 

I dropped my stuff and screamed. "OPEN THE ENVELOPE! OPEN IT RIGHT NOW OR I SWEAR TO GOD I'LL KILL YOU" Thankfully she did and started reading the whole "Congratulations, you've been accepted so on and so forth" She turned around to see my mom was parked behind her, she had just come up and thought something was wrong with my sister's car. Instead she ran around (almost slid down the hill) to tell my mom so they both started screaming and jumping up and down in the street.

 

Meanwhile I hung up on my sister to call my dad (he was the one who supported me the most in all of this) and I told him. He started crying and told me to call everyone else and let them know. First thing I did was RUN out of the stock room to tell my coworker. I literally shouted it "I GOT INTO MERCYHURST! I'M GOING TO GRAD SCHOOL" My coworker laughed and congratulated me, I didn't realize that the store wasn't empty though! LOL Thankfully the customers were all nice, in fact they all came to the register to congratulate me, laughing about the "blue streak" that came flying out of the back hehehe. Then I ran back tot he back room to send a massive text to everyone. Then I took a minute to actually cry tears of joy over the whole thing.

 

Didn't have long though, my phone was flooded with texts and my coworkers from our sister store found out and everyone was congratulating me. Best part was running home to see that BEAUTIFUL envelope myself. 

 

My family was so excited that I didn't know this, but when I was still at work they all went online to the school store and bought me merchandise. I now have a jersey, blanket and hoodie for my future grad school. hehehe My family rocks.

[onzeheures30]

I was in a bar with my best friend killing time before her train to another city (I was seeing her off), when an e-mail from one of my POIs at my top choice dept came in saying that she wanted to communicate some good news to me via Skype. Despite the crappy wi-fi connection in that bar, we somehow managed to have this talk straight away. This is also how my best friend was the first to know. The next things I did were (1) calling my Mum, (2) writing an e-mail to my other POI from the same dept who wasn't a part of the admission process.

Edited April 10, 2014 by onzeheures30

[Sevenoffs]

I was in the middle of a conference call at 9 pm, and just opened my email and had a single line from my POI stating that I was recommended for admission and would be hearing back about my GTA offer soon. Exciting!

[Im_doing_science]

I was in the grad admissions office at my school.  I went to inquire about the status of my application, and the coordinator gave a funny look and said "You were accepted weeks ago. I Know because I filled out the paperwork!"  Turns out the graduate school just never bothered to send me an official notification...

[Milesh]

I was working on my thesis, making some final editing touches. Checked my email and there it was! I kept repeating, "Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh..." Even now, it still seems unreal!

[Slutsky_Walrus]

I was at an invited department lunch at another school (and had pretty much made up my mind to attend there) when I got an email with the offer from the school I had been waiting for all along. Talk about timing. 

[fatlou]

It was late night and I was studying for my DSP final in the kitchen; because I was tired of the same study spot in my room. I had just poured a cup of coffee, and my laptop made an alert. It said "Congratulations!" First, I thought it was a practical joke from one of my classmates. After realising it is actually very real, I started screaming and woke the household up.

Edited April 26, 2014 by fatlou

[katielea]

Yesterday I got a really bad haircut. I had a great Jennifer Lawrence/ Anne Hathaway pixie that I was in love with. I went in and asked for a trim and she gave me a charlize theron/ Halle berry. Super short, gonna takes months to grow out to the fairly short cut I had before. I was literally crying to my best friend when I got an email that I was accepted off the waitlist at my top choice. 

[GeographyOSU]

I was at work, checking some food items when my phone buzzed. I pulled it out and saw a notification of an e-mail from the program director, with a subject line of "Congratulations!" I quickly opened it and read that I was accepted!