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Posted

Anyone accepted to Syracuse and/or Pittsburgh planning to decline? =)

Posted

I recall that form asking applicants to check whether they are descendants of John Harvard, some military officer from Massachusetts, and/or other people who gave a lot of money to the university.

 

Indeed. "Equality of opportunity" my a**. But you certainly do get an upvote for being a first gen college student, particularly a first gen phd! Nicely done.

 

Curb your ressentiment, my friends. Harvard asks strange descent questions b/c it has small specially endowed scholarships for very narrow categories of people and is trying to find who it can dump them on. Some are for people raised in specific New England towns, or who graduated from some handful of New England schools (not particularly illustrious ones). It has nothing to do with your chances of admission.

Posted

The graduate program coordinator at Harvard confirms "no notifications have been made as of yet. We hope to have admissions decisions available sometime next week -- most likely toward the end of the week."

 

thanks for sharing this!

Posted

Hey, is anyone else still waiting to hear from UNC-Chapel Hill? I haven't heard anything at all.

Posted

Also wait-listed by Syracuse. But I am afraid I cannot get in since the wait list is not short. Comp subfield with a focus on Japan.

Posted

Hey, is anyone else still waiting to hear from UNC-Chapel Hill? I haven't heard anything at all.

Same here.

Posted

Having to wait for the top school and the bottom school on my list of applications is rather bothersome. Why does Temple have to wait around the same time till Harvard announces? It's like a sudden-death match for me. 

Posted

Curb your ressentiment, my friends. Harvard asks strange descent questions b/c it has small specially endowed scholarships for very narrow categories of people and is trying to find who it can dump them on. Some are for people raised in specific New England towns, or who graduated from some handful of New England schools (not particularly illustrious ones). It has nothing to do with your chances of admission.

I didn't mean to sound resentful =) I didn't even apply there, cause there is no POI and my own application likely wouldn't have been strong enough, even if I did have a relative who donated a library or two haha. That being said, I still think "external factors" like that can play a role in admissions at top schools. I don't resent it, but I certainly find some humor in it =)

Posted

Woke up to a rather direct email from UNC. "We have made our decisions and I am sorry to say that you were not accepted." No hello, no goodbye =D

 

Oddly enough, I actually kind of appreciated it. Not that I don't like hearing that the applicant pool this year was extraordinarily large, like last year and the year before =P, but I've always preferred the direct and honest responses that don't waste my time or the department's =) 

(Though, ironically, I suppose the long response could be a stock email, in which case the short and direct email written to me personally probably took more of the department's time... Oh God, what have I done?! :|  I think it's time for coffee now.)

Posted

Woke up to a rather direct email from UNC. "We have made our decisions and I am sorry to say that you were not accepted." No hello, no goodbye =D

 

Oddly enough, I actually kind of appreciated it. Not that I don't like hearing that the applicant pool this year was extraordinarily large, like last year and the year before =P, but I've always preferred the direct and honest responses that don't waste my time or the department's =) 

(Though, ironically, I suppose the long response could be a stock email, in which case the short and direct email written to me personally probably took more of the department's time... Oh God, what have I done?! :|  I think it's time for coffee now.)

 

It is a funny thing to ponder. I found Yale's rejection particularly stupid. Why did they provide me a statistic of the number of people who applied to their entire graduate school? Do I give a flying f*ck? At least tell me how many people applied in political science. 

Posted

It is a funny thing to ponder. I found Yale's rejection particularly stupid. Why did they provide me a statistic of the number of people who applied to their entire graduate school? Do I give a flying f*ck? At least tell me how many people applied in political science. 

Haha, I suppose you don't. I don't mind when they include stuff about how many people applied. People take bad news differently, so I imagine it does soften the blow for some. I just don't happen to be one of them =) I'd rather yank the bandaid off and be done with it so I don't have to think about it any longer than necessary.

Posted

Would the waitlisted Brandeis applicant please stand up? I'm waiting on Brandeis also. Any details would be much appreciated. It's funny that they would waitlist people before accepting or denying anyone, no? I know they are still hurting from Madoff but I thought they would be accepting people this year.

 

 

I need to hear from Penn today; I can't take it anymore. Seriously considering trying to boost my odds by making a sacrifice to the ghost of Ben Franklin. Anyone know any French prostitutes?

 

This won't help you. But I can verify that it is all true. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/28/philadelphia-underrated-city_n_4826930.html

Posted (edited)

Would the waitlisted Brandeis applicant please stand up? I'm waiting on Brandeis also. Any details would be much appreciated. It's funny that they would waitlist people before accepting or denying anyone, no? I know they are still hurting from Madoff but I thought they would be accepting people this year.

This won't help you. But I can verify that it is all true. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/28/philadelphia-underrated-city_n_4826930.html

It might help me, insofar as it gives me something to do that doesn't involve clicking the refresh button in my browser. And I'm already on board the Philly love train — born and raised in PA, though I haven't lived there for about seven years now. Wouldn't hate going back!

Edit: I'm assuming you live/have lived there? Also, re: your 43 page long writing sample — that actually makes me feel good about my 16 page one, because according to their admissions page (which I didn't notice until after I submitted the app), they requested that writing samples be "up to 10 pages." Seems neither of us knows how to follow directions.

Edited by Sluggo57
Posted

I FIGURED OUT WHY PENN IS TAKING SO LONG! The writing sample I sent them was 43 pages...

 

Sorry guys, I'll take the fall for this one.

 

 

Bad move. Penn only accepts 10 pages ;)

Posted

Bad move. Penn only accepts 10 pages ;)

 

Now I can't recall if I sent them the 19 page sample or the 5 page sample...

Posted

The department doesn't have a limit on the length of the writing sample, it's the grad school that requests the 10 page limit.

 

I wouldn't worry about submitting something that is over 10 pages, you're not going to be rejected for it. The worst thing that can happen is that they stop reading at page 10 (they don't actually read every word anyway...)

Posted

The department doesn't have a limit on the length of the writing sample, it's the grad school that requests the 10 page limit.

 

I wouldn't worry about submitting something that is over 10 pages, you're not going to be rejected for it. The worst thing that can happen is that they stop reading at page 10 (they don't actually read every word anyway...)

 

Gosh, I hope not.

Posted

Bad move. Penn only accepts 10 pages ;)

 

My best paper is on something really unique and obscure. If I take away any of those 43 pages needed context would be lost. Of course no professor is going to read every page of it, I just wanted to make sure they had the full picture incase they were confused about a certain term or reference. 

 

I sent it to every school, even when departments made requests about length. I got into some and denied by others. I don't think it made a difference. Lol

Posted

And one more reject from Northern-Illinois. Double kill.

 

Sorry about that. You still have a lot of good options!

Posted

 I emailed JHU today too... there is a transcript issue on my application and I'd really like that that not be a factor in their decision given that I followed procedures by the book. That one would actually have spoiler capacity though. We'll see what happens. 

 

I have similar problem with JHU transcript issue. I wrote to them about 6 weeks ago and never heard back. And they insist on not sending more than one query. Highly unprofessional. It really is not like they are doing s a favor by responding our queries. We are paying to be ensured of that. 

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