What were you doing when you got accepted?

[sweetpearl16]

I was on a train in the quiet car. I opened up my email after going a couple of hours without checking it (which was probably the longest time I had gone without checking my email in several weeks). There sitting in my inbox was an email entitled "offer of admissions." I think I let out a squeal before grabbing my phone and running into the next train car to call my mother.

Edited April 15, 2013 by sweetpearl16

[esotericorigin]

zumba, hahaha.

[daydreamer254]

For my first one, I had just woken up and turned on my phone as usual. I had heard the 'dings' meaning that had I received new emails and there it was. I was shocked, but that definitely woke me up haha.

 

For my second one, my dad told me to sit on the couch because there was a letter for me. I was so scared to open it but did so really fast. A wave of relief came over me and I was pretty happy.

[nugget]

For my first acceptance (it was my second choice and is most likely where I'll end up going), I was on gradcafe. Other posters had already receive emails within the past half hour so I knew it was coming. I checked my email and there was nothing. About 20 minutes later, I got my email. Luckily, I use gmail so the first line of the message is visible even if you don't open up the email. I  was so petrified I don't think I would have been able to open it up right away. When I saw the word congratulations on the first line, I was shocked and started to tremble and I was finally able to open up the email because I knew good news was inside.

 

While I was shocked and unbelievably excited, I was also a bit sad that no one was home so I could share the news in person. I had to email my boyfriend at work, then called my bf, followed by my sister, and told them over the phone. It took 20 minutes for my boyfriend to get the news and he immediately called me at home to congratulate me.

Edited April 29, 2013 by jenste

[phmhjh85]

Ok this one I am not proud of! I got a notification for an email while driving , and since I have just contacted the admission office, I had to look :/. It was an acceptance! I was so happyily distracted , that I almost pumped into the car ahead of me! Had to restrain myself from replying while driving.. and bare in mind I actually work in PUBLIC HEALTH!! This process has been so nerve recking that I really don't recognize myself anymore. Hope all of this is just temporary and I can return to my relatively sane self soon.

[Satyam]

I was sleeping and was awoken by a text.  Quickly looked at it and almost closed my eyes when I noticed I had a few new emails.  Naturally, throughout this LONG waiting process, I eagerly opened my mail (on Iphone) expecting it to be an acceptance letter.  So rather than falling back to sleep, I checked and it happened to be the department secretary who first notified me.  Needless to say, sleep wasn't to come for a long, long time.  

[drglasner]

I was sitting in the break room at work eating lunch with my labmates when I got the phone call notifying me of my acceptance. I was in such shock I didn't even tell my friends when I walked back in...they were pretty peeved that I didn't tell them right away! but c'mon, how could I interrupt a dad telling a story about his adorable 6 year old daughter twirling around the kitchen?

[csibaldwin]

I was in one of my graduate certificate classes where we bring our laptops. I have my email open all the time, it popped up, I read it a couple times to make sure it was real. It was hard cause I couldn't yell. I just emailed people.

[Cking86]

Three days after my interview, I called to give the graduate secretary some info and she spilled the beans. I'm awaiting the arrival of the official acceptance package.

[Cheynina]

I was attending services on Ash Wednesday while out of town on a business trip.  Once services concluded I headed to my car and checked my email.  There it was…the decision email I had been waiting for!  I called my boyfriend and asked him to open the email and let me know the outcome.  

 

After fumbling through usernames, passwords and "where do I click now?" he found the decision.  While I was muttering that "I learned so much going through the application process….it's OK if I didn't get accepted" he stopped me and said, "Well, you're going to be disappointed…because you got in!"  After almost taking out his eardrum with screams of joy I hightailed it back into the church to offer up a prayer of thanks and gratitude.  Moral of the story….sometimes you really do get what you pray for! 

[EngineerGrad]

I just received my first acceptance. I was emailing the POI of another school when I saw the email "Admissions decision notification." Feels good 

[lisa19]

I was in the middle of a class debate and decided to glance at my phone during a quick minute break. The rest of the debate the other side's arguments went completely over my head and I couldn't stop smiling

[LittleDarlings]

Sitting in my room checking my email and the website and listening to my mom give my brother a pep talk about his grades

[betafish]

It was the day before classes began, and the letter for this semester's assistantship had gotten screwed up, so I was worried about getting paid. I was checking my email a billion times a day waiting for it. I woke up late, turned over, and checked my phone. At first, I thought it was my letter for this semester, but nope. It was an acceptance to my first choice program. With funding. That was a good day.

[elanorci]

I was sitting in my dining hall eating lunch with my boyfriend. That was a nice day  

[aecp]

Mine was really fun. We knew that if I got accepted I'd hear within a couple days, and I was meeting with my PI in her office when the call came in. I walked out into the hall to take the call and while I did another faculty member walked into her office. While I was on the phone with the Admissions Chair I could hear her shushing the other professor as she tried to hear what I was saying on the phone. When I walked back in she gave me a huge hug and had tears in her eyes. She has done so much to help me and I was really happy I could share that moment with her.

Wonderful story that gave me a few goose bumps.  It's so good to see when our mentors, teachers, advisers, etc truly invest in us, believe in us and want us to succeed.  This dynamic is sadly not too common, but magically special when it does exist!  Congratulations!

 

P.S.  I hope you are still in touch with your PI.

[MadtownJacket]

I was in pretty important meetings both times when I saw the emails show up on my phone with obvious headlines that I got accepted.  Nevertheless, I was useless during the rest of the meetings.

[SydneyAnne]

After the snow storm on Wednesday, I was out shoveling the curb so that I'd have a parking space.  I came back inside, after spending an hour and a half out in the cold (thanks to the idiots who steal my nicely shoveled spaces), to a voicemail saying that I had been accept at the University of South Florida.  Needless to say, the program director suggesting that "Tampa is the place for" me was pretty convincing at that moment!     Of course, the letter of acceptance into the doctoral program at my current school that awaited me in my mailbox almost came as a disappointment at that point!  Hahaha.

[meowth]

I was about to start work. It's annoying because I check my e-mail when I get out of my first job, then I have two and a half hours break, but I remember this and my rejection from a program came after that around a half-hour before my next job (so it comes basically while I'm riding my bike there). So it's like a few minutes before work starts again and I'm checking my personal e-mail AND I FIND OUT so I'm going on gradcafe and trying to get my stuff posted before I'm supposed to start work. Then I have to contain my excitement (or in the case a week earlier, major disappointment) throughout work. And then a little while later I ducked out for a few minutes to call a parent.

 

And it was the day before my birthday and I was so sad about my rejection the week before, so this was great. After work I treated myself to a crepe. Except I might have treated myself when I was rejected too. Who knows.

Edited February 8, 2014 by meowth

[Macavity]

I had to take a break from my laptop because I couldn't focus on anything other than refreshing my email. So I printed out a chapter to edit and headed over to a cafe.  When I returned to my computer, I had an email waiting for me.

[Cking86]

... At another institution's recruitment weekend. Couldn't stop smiling. I must have re-read that email 10 times.

[clairenicole]

I had just finished my shift at work and I purposely was staying away from my laptop because obsessively checking my email was starting to become bad for my mental health. I decided to check it one last time on my phone and there it was! A couple days before that, I got rejected from my second choice so seeing an acceptance email from my first choice was the best feeling in the world.

[peachypie]

First one was a weekday later in the afternoon I was at work and getting ready to leave.  Second one was also afternoon but I had just finished a round of interviews at another school.  Felt so excited but had no one to talk to about it.

[Imaginary]

I was at a coffeeshop working on my thesis and assistantship instead of my "day job," as there was a snow day. Bonus! 

[scottdickson86]

It was 9:40 PM and I was finishing an episode of The Big Bang Theory. I was feeling really tired as I haven't gotten enough sleep in the past few days because of the anxiety of waiting. I forced a laugh as Sheldon Cooper bragged about how he figured out a method in "synthesizing a new stable superheavy element." But my eyes were already closing involuntarily. I decided to hit pause to finally get some rest. When I closed QuickTime, there it was - an unread email from my POI. My mail client had been open the entire time and the first thing that I was able to read was the subject: Recommendation for Admission to McGill. My heart started racing. It was obviously good news but it didn't seem like it yet. I had to be sure. I was feeling both sleepy and scared so I went through the rest of mail as fast as I can. 

 

                     Scott,

                     I've recommended to the department that you be admitted to pursue your graduate studies with me...

 

I was smiling. And then I was reading it loud. And then I was screaming. Suddenly pictures of a snowy Montreal started appearing in my head. I remember thinking about making sure to get warm coats. I have lived in a tropical country most of my life.