The Waiting Game - Fall 2014

[ecologaia]

how many schools are you all still waiting on?

[NOWAYNOHOW]

how many schools are you all still waiting on?

 

Officially?  Columbia, UPenn and Yale; however, I know without an interview I'm just waiting for a rejection from Yale.  I have similar expectations for the other two. 

[skylarking]

how many schools are you all still waiting on?

Three, as well: Columbia. Wisconsin, UBC. Expecting a rejection from the former, cautiously optimistic about the second, completely unsure about the third. I know Madison is next week. Columbia has to be soon (right? RIGHT?) and UBC is historically next week.

[mesoarch]

I'm also waiting on three schools - Tulane, SMU, and UNC-Chapel Hill.  My POI says final decisions for Tulane should be made next week.  I don't know what's going on with the other two.    

[CulturalAnth]

I'm still waiting on two, WUSTL and Oregon State. I guess since it's spring break for many, I might be waiting a little while longer? OSU's spring break is still in 2 weeks, but I am less concerned with that one than I am about WUSTL. 

Edited March 7, 2014 by CulturalAnth

[colalalala]

I am waiting on MSU (which is killing me with the tardiness) and all my MA programs

[lackingpatience]

So much action this week guys!! I've been checking the boards obsessively while at work...ugh. Congrats to all the accepts!!

 

Still waiting on UPitt...brutal because my partner has been accepted to CMU, and we would love to end up in the same place. There were a couple of accepts in early Feb, but I couldn't tell if those were for Arch or Anth, I'm waiting on Anth. 

 

Anyways, thanks to you all for being a great support community! 

[sarab]

Hey! Good luck everyone. I hope you have good news today, so you can all have a great weekend. Wishing you all the best!

[Hula-hoop]

I'm still waiting on three schools, but it's not looking too great. Waiting post interview is absolute torture. Reapplying isn't the worst though. I can get some experience in the field. 

So much action this week guys!! I've been checking the boards obsessively while at work...ugh. Congrats to all the accepts!!

 

Still waiting on UPitt...brutal because my partner has been accepted to CMU, and we would love to end up in the same place. There were a couple of accepts in early Feb, but I couldn't tell if those were for Arch or Anth, I'm waiting on Anth. 

 

Anyways, thanks to you all for being a great support community! 

Pitt's cultural anthropology adcomm has been deciding on funding, so if you call the department, they can probably tell you if you're on the shortlist. All the early February acceptances/rejections were archaeology and physical. Good luck!

Edited March 7, 2014 by Hula-hoop

[anthroflea]

Very interesting discussion on grad school rejections... http://chronicle.com/forums/index.php/topic,60689.0.html ....but from the other perspective!

[NOWAYNOHOW]

Very interesting discussion on grad school rejections... http://chronicle.com/forums/index.php/topic,60689.0.html ....but from the other perspective!

 

Yikes!  Besides being kind of nasty in terms of tone (and dismissive of applicants in general), I think this is more about unqualified students who try to appeal, or who simply ask the wrong (see: rude) questions.  As I hear back, I'm trying to find out how I can improve, not why I was rejected -- and despite the fact that these two questions might yield the same answer, they are certainly questions with two very different implications. 

[lackingpatience]

I'm still waiting on three schools, but it's not looking too great. Waiting post interview is absolute torture. Reapplying isn't the worst though. I can get some experience in the field. 

Pitt's cultural anthropology adcomm has been deciding on funding, so if you call the department, they can probably tell you if you're on the shortlist. All the early February acceptances/rejections were archaeology and physical. Good luck!

 

Thanks!! Appreciate the update. 

And best of luck with the three schools you're waiting for. Fingers crossed for you. 

Edited March 7, 2014 by lackingpatience

[FaultyPowers]

Very interesting discussion on grad school rejections... http://chronicle.com/forums/index.php/topic,60689.0.html ....but from the other perspective!

 

Did anybody else read this part..."OP, I'm curious -- what kind of reasons do you give to the university for rejecting applicants? The safest we could come up with this time 'round was "incomplete application," even when there were more obvious problems ("can't figure out subject/verb agreement"; "GRE scores lower than my dog's IQ").

 

Not even touching the whole dog reference, I certainly hope this person isn't implying that Ad Comms are indicating applications are incomplete when they're not, just to save themselves the effort of stating an actual reason for rejecting an applicant. That's just disappointing. 

[sarab]

Not even touching the whole dog reference, I certainly hope this person isn't implying that Ad Comms are indicating applications are incomplete when they're not, just to save themselves the effort of stating an actual reason for rejecting an applicant. That's just disappointing. 

 

Yeah, I agree. That sounds really messed up. We spend a lot of time, effort, energy, and money preparing good application packets for each university, and for them not to take the time to fully review them or even check why someone was rejected is really unethical, I think. You know, applicants are busy, too, and we still put our best effort into the application process. Ugh.

[NoSleepTilBreuckelen]

Very interesting discussion on grad school rejections... http://chronicle.com/forums/index.php/topic,60689.0.html ....but from the other perspective!

 

Thanks for sharing that anthroflea! 

 

I find it very interesting that some of the posters on that forum seem to have forgotten just how hard and uncertain it is to be an applicant to grad school… I get really frustrated with the narrative (that comes out in those posts, but can be seen in a lot of other places like: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/wait-but-why/generation-y-unhappy_b_3930620.html) that refer to 'people born between the late 1970's and mid-90's,' to use the phrasing of the article, as entitled and unwilling to work hard. I think if those people spent some time, for example on this forum, they would see lots of people in that age group who work incredibly hard in their school work and jobs, go through the long/expensive/difficult process of grad applications and spend some of their free time on a forum supporting each other and sharing reading lists and book recommendations and the likes -  and they would have to reconsider. On top of the hard work that we've put in to prepare for and apply to grad school, I'm sure many of us have been in the position of seeing academic and professional opportunities disappear due to the economic downturn. (I, for one, graduated college in 2008 and had several exciting job interviews cancelled due to hiring freezes that year, and ended up waiting tables and interning, which I really enjoyed, but it was hard to see my 'dream jobs' move out of reach).

 

Anyways, I apologize for that rant, but I think the people who publish articles like that and say those things on their faculty forums, don't realize that it takes a lot for us to keep our heads up when the opportunities we were hoping for vanish or a harder to get than they were before the economic downturn or before moves like this: http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2013/09/30/cantor-gop-budget-science-spending-column/2896333/. I wish they would take a more supportive tone and point to all the people in whatever-generation-they-want-to-call-us who are working hard despite the odds, rather than pretending that they were better/more humble grad school applicants than we are: 

 

"Frankly, when I was applying for grad schools, I think my "default" expectation was not to get in. Sure, I had a 4.0 GPA and almost-perfect GREs...I think they are wasting THEIR time and effort by refusing to move on…" - Quote from the first poster on the Chronicle Forum thread

Edited March 7, 2014 by NoSleepTilBreuckelen

[strudelle]

While I don't support sending threatening emails or harassing graduate departments, I sincerely do not see any issues with asking for constructive criticism from departments that did not admit you.  I think these things can really help us to improve our applications in the future.  I understand they may not have time to respond to every person, and in that case a form letter may be acceptable.

 

I wonder if we will be this jaded and talking about "entitlement of the youth" when we're on graduate committees one day.

[CulturalAnth]

I think that if you have taken several months of corresponding with e POI, and are then rejected, it's totally acceptable to send an email asking if they could give you advice on improving your future applications. I did this with my Notre Dame rejection, and got a very nice, kind, and positive response from my POI. I wouldn't want to work with any of those professors who would treat their applicants like that. 

[KingScilla]

Wow. What shocks me most is just how negative the attitude towards grad applicants is.

 

While I don't think its cool to email and harass a department because you didn't get accepted, I think these posters are WAY off. No one I went to school with or have talked with expect to get in. I didn't get in my first year of applying, and almost didn't reapply this year (glad I did now).

 

Kind of a bummer to know that there is this much disdain for the applicant floating around in academia.

[CulturalAnth]

 

I wonder if we will be this jaded and talking about "entitlement of the youth" when we're on graduate committees one day.

 

haha.. I sometimes find myself thinking this way in a class I am a TA for. 

[catsrgods]

Very interesting discussion on grad school rejections... http://chronicle.com/forums/index.php/topic,60689.0.html ....but from the other perspective!

Real talk: some of these people sound like straight up jerks that I am forever grateful I will never know in person.

 

I understand that some rejected applicants approach them with an attitude of entitlement, which I do not support at all, but the dismissive way some of these message board folks responded to the questions of how they deal with rejected applicants seems a little harsh. There is no need to respond to every rejected person with an in-depth reasons that take up multiple paragraphs in an email, but responding honestly with ways they can improve their applications seems fair and "right". Applicants have invested hundreds of dollars to apply to these schools and I don't think it's out of line to ask for some constructive criticism in return.

 

I wouldn't, however, EVER get involved in the appeals process. If they didn't want you before you took them to court, I can't imagine how they will make your life hell after the trial! 

[FaultyPowers]

It's largely a self-fulfilling prophesy as well. If you're frustrated with applicants who are clearly unprepared and don't know how to properly craft an SOP, how do you imagine that ignoring their inquiries about how they could improve their applications will result in higher quality applications?

[CulturalAnth]

Upon a little bit of research in the results search .. it appears that historically most people who have received rejections from WUSTL got them around this time of year via postal mail.  I guess there is no point obsessively checking my email, huh. I'd really just like a quick answer. No need to waste a stamp on a rejection for me. Would be nice to start planning the next phase of my life.... 

[katekal29]

Thanks for sharing that anthroflea! 

 

I find it very interesting that some of the posters on that forum seem to have forgotten just how hard and uncertain it is to be an applicant to grad school… I get really frustrated with the narrative (that comes out in those posts, but can be seen in a lot of other places like: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/wait-but-why/generation-y-unhappy_b_3930620.html) that refer to 'people born between the late 1970's and mid-90's,' to use the phrasing of the article, as entitled and unwilling to work hard. I think if those people spent some time, for example on this forum, they would see lots of people in that age group who work incredibly hard in their school work and jobs, go through the long/expensive/difficult process of grad applications and spend some of their free time on a forum supporting each other and sharing reading lists and book recommendations and the likes -  and they would have to reconsider. On top of the hard work that we've put in to prepare for and apply to grad school, I'm sure many of us have been in the position of seeing academic and professional opportunities disappear due to the economic downturn. (I, for one, graduated college in 2008 and had several exciting job interviews cancelled due to hiring freezes that year, and ended up waiting tables and interning, which I really enjoyed, but it was hard to see my 'dream jobs' move out of reach).

 

I always take offense to being called a part of the "entitled" and "lazy" generations. I have worked so hard to get to where I am today. I am self-motivated and give everything academic related, 100%. I'm not trying to sound pretentious, but I don't take lightly to being lumped into that category...

[NoSleepTilBreuckelen]

I always take offense to being called a part of the "entitled" and "lazy" generations. I have worked so hard to get to where I am today. I am self-motivated and give everything academic related, 100%. I'm not trying to sound pretentious, but I don't take lightly to being lumped into that category...

 

Agreed! I'm out of votes for today, but if I had any left, I would vote your post up

[FaultyPowers]

Agreed! I'm out of votes for today, but if I had any left, I would vote your post up

 

I'm not, and I did!