What were you doing when you got accepted?

[PhDerp]

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. 

Aww, I hope you find a way to make it work for you. Ruined pixie cuts are the worst.

Try new things while it's short enough to adjust easily! You might find a style that works with the cut.

[Guest |||]

Looking at what the hiring prospects were for straight heterosexual males in pornographic roles.

[TheHopefulGrad]

I was accepted to Cornell as I was walking out of a counseling appointment. Needless to say -- my anxiety has officially been alleviated!

[CoolZero]

I had been following this thread last year and even though I didn't have a funded offer that I  can attend, I really enjoyed reading people's stories, so I thought I would bump this thread for this year too.

Also my story, I am from the middle east, so the usual working hours in U.S is around midnight in my country. anyway, I usually stay awake till 2 a.m but never check applications status before sleep ( last year I saw my top program reject right before going to sleep, it was such a disaster for me). I was speaking to one my friends in U.S around midnight on Skype and he told me he had an interview which is about the field I am very familiar with with a company in 4-5 hours. So we talked and we decided I would wake up in 2-3 hours to prepare him for the interview. I went to bed around 1 a.m and woke up around 3 a.m, I was all sleepy and tried to get back to laptop to begin the Skype talk with my friend, I called him on Skype but he didn't answer, so I checked my email and there it was, my first funded admission in 2 years and it was from Indiana University. I couldn't scream because it was midnight but I forwarded the offer to my best friend. and then called my friend again on Skype and told him too. We were very happy about the offer that we didn't talk about interview at all and he did awful on his interview later that day     

It was a wonderful surprise...

[angel_kaye13]

I had just come home, after a LONG day at work, and was busily trying to multi-task between opening packages from the mail, texting my friend, and cooking a quick dinner. When I found a spare moment to check my email quickly (on my phone), and I saw that name. I knew that name. That's one of my grad program names. Contacting me directly. {to self} "Steel yourself."

And the rest is history.*^^*

Edited February 28, 2015 by angel_kaye13

[HistoryGypsy]

I had just had a lovely dinner with my friend/coworker and her husband, who are the parents of a lovely college freshie whom I taught late year as a high-schooler (one of my favorite students, if I allowed myself to have favorites).  This girl is currently at Penn State, so her parents and I were talking at dinner about how great it would be if I got in there, since I could keep an eye on her and offer a little extra emotional support where needed (they/we live in China, so it's pretty unnerving having their daughter all alone in the USA).  I got home and decided to check the website, just on a whim, before I went to bed.  Being a Sunday, I really didn't expect to see any changes.  Then I saw the message about being accepted . . . and I was so caught off guard that I actually screamed!  Which, in turn, startled my roommate and caused her to scream (she had been almost asleep)!  And then I told her, and we screamed again together!  What a night.  

[VulpesZerda]

I received a voicemail during a doctor's appointment. The message was from my POI and she said she had news for me. Funny, I had just told my doctor that I hadn't heard anything yet! So I listened to the voicemail several times before calling back when I got home. Accepted! No less than a second after hanging up the phone I was running laps around my house/screaming. I eventually slowed down to walking laps while I called my mom, boyfriend, etc. lol

 

PS: I totally lurked this thread last year and lived vicariously through everyone's celebrations. So relieved that my chance came, too!!

Edited March 1, 2015 by VulpesZerda

[TheMercySeat]

I was leaving Joshua Tree National Park (excursion from SPSP conference) and, upon gaining reception, instinctually checked my email for rejections... Only I got an acceptance

[clinicalapplicant]

I was at work, and was still incredibly anxious about not hearing back. I noticed my phone vibrated so I checked and it was an e-mail from the program coordinator saying she had "good news about my application". We spoke on the phone shortly after and she offered me a position.

It still feels so surreal. I am just so eager for it to start.

Edited March 1, 2015 by clinicalapplicant

[itscontrary]

When I got my first acceptance, I was hanging out with friends since it was winter break. We just ordered some food and then I saw an email notification come in. I swiftly opened it and started bouncing up and down in my seat.

 

When I was accepted into my top school (Caltech), I was in one of my chemistry classes. It was the last school I was waiting to hear back from and everyone in my lab was waiting to hear back from Caltech. I'm a bad student who checks their phone in class. So when I felt a buzz on my phone, I had to look. It was an email from Caltech and I quickly opened the email. Upon reading the email, I was shaking in my seat rather uncontrollably. Luckily there was only 5 minutes of class left, but I quickly bolted once class was over. I rushed quickly to my lab, sat next to one of my friends, and started crying/blubbering. Everyone in the other room heard and thought something terrible happened to me. My friend then told them about my acceptance to calm everyone's nerves and a wave of congratulations then came in. (I was happy my PI didn't walk in at that moment - have never cried in front of him and I wasn't planning on doing so anytime soon).

[mb712]

I was in class and had to sit with my hand over my incredibly goofy grin for half an hour after reading the email. I'm honestly surprised I didn't start crying, I'm glad the less disruptive reaction happened haha.

[BiochemMom]

Same thing for both interview notification and acceptance--not a shocker for me what I was doing.

Driving to school and saw then when I arrived--both times I did an insane fist pumping screaming dance in my car in the parking lot while freshman walked past from their dorms staring at me like I was a lunatic.

[Journey2015]

I was complaining to my boss a out how I frantically check my email every time I get a notification only to find its nothing related to grad apps. As I was talking I get a notification on my phone and say "see, just like..."

OMG!!!

Almost like it was scripted...

[nanoE]

I just got back from a tough leg-session from the gym after an exhausting day at office. The acceptance email totally wiped out my fatigue!

[Sarochan]

For the first, I was (sort of) playing Disgaea 4 while lying in bed, half asleep. I grabbed my tablet to look something up, saw an email notification, checked it, and promptly woke right up.

 

For the second, I was on the phone with my POI at the school, finishing up an interview, and she told me that I could expect an official offer of acceptance sometime in the following week.

[Cheshire_Cat]

I was fuming at my brother because we didn't have gas which meant no hot water in the middle of January. And I was PMS. So that was bad. Then I got the email at work and it made everything better.  But then instead of celebrating I freaked out about leaving my cush job for grad school, because I was PMS.  Then I talked to a friend who is in a ph.d program about it, and he said it was ok to freak out and that helped a lot.  But I didn't really start to get super excited about it until a week or two after the acceptance.  So anticlimatic.

[MidwesternAloha]

I was on the phone with my mom, TALKING about my interviews, and I heard the call waiting beep.  I looked and the area code was from one of the cities I had interviewed in.  The POI answered the phone with, "Hey? Remember me?  We have good news for you...!!!!" in  a sing-song voice.

[ivmeow]

At my internship with one of my LOR writers. I gasped, I cried, and called my mom. It was actually a graduate student from my Undergrad school who emailed me. Much faster turn around than anticipated. 

[ed_psy]

I double checked to make sure I read everything correctly.

[attackonthedoctor]

I was talking with a flight attendant friend when I got accepted into my top choice. He was trying to convince me to fly the friendly skies with him if graduate school didn't work out.  I got the email and we both freaked out!

[eeee1923]

Mostly doing my daily email check. However, when I got into one of my top choices - a seminar I attended just ended and when I checked my phone I yelled out and the one of the profs (who I didn't know too well) gave me a high five. 

[grad_wannabe]

what a fun thread!

 

For Acceptance #1, I was sitting at my desk refreshing my email every two minutes, and it popped up! No doubt about the contents, it said ADMISSION OFFER LETTER in the subject line. I gasped and told my LOR writer (who's also my boss) and emailed a ton of people at work. A good friend of mine came running over from his office and we went to have a celebration piece of cake at the cafeteria. 

 

Acceptance #2, I was at a birthday party on a Saturday night. We were playing some kind of RPG board game, I checked my email and there it was! Again, no ambiguity: "Good news from [school]!" in the subject line. 

 

Acceptance #3 was the big one.

 

I did not anticipate getting into this school AT ALL. I never contacted any POIs, had zero interactions with the program, never visited the campus, nothing. It was a total shot in the dark. 

 

On the Monday morning after my email from the Acceptance #2 school, my phone rang with a call from an unlisted number. I figured it was School #2, because they had called from an unlisted number to set up the interview some weeks before. I was at work so I let it go to voicemail. I was busy with a bunch of other stuff, so I distractedly hit the play button assuming I was going to hear "we're calling to confirm the email sent on Saturday..."

 

Instead, an unfamiliar voice said "Hi [grad_wannabe], this is [Grad Chair] from [unobtanium University], I have some good news for you! I'd like to deliver the message as directly as possible rather than via voicemail, here are some numbers where you can reach me..."

 

I started shaking instantly, I could barely pick up the phone. I ran out into the hallway and called the first number he'd left but got his voicemail. I turned to a friend of mine who happened to be in the hallway and said "I think ... I think I just got into Unobtanium!" and then I started screaming and literally jumping up and down, still shaking like a leaf. 

[RachaelMC]

I was at work, had a couple of slow minutes and just happened to open my email. I sat there stunned for about five minutes. The first person who knew was my boss!

[Perhaps Later]

I've received 4 acceptance letters till now and three out of these four letters were emailed to me sometime in the midnight (different timezone). So every time I opened these emails, it would take me a couple of minutes to adjust my eyes to the bright screen and then another 5 or 10 minutes to wake my half-asleep mind to read the letter and to make sure I wasn't dreaming.

 

The other acceptance letter I received was when I was taking an afternoon nap. This also happened to be my dream college! I could not believe I got in. It took me a while for the thought to sink in as I was very groggy and tired (I hate noon naps!).

[echlori]

Due to time zones, I only saw the acceptance email in the morning over breakfast. I waited for a while before telling anyone else just to make sure I didn't get a retraction email again

 

By lunchtime, it was clear that no retraction email was coming so I told my colleagues.