Fall 2015 Applicants

[InHacSpeVivo]

Thanks much all! it was a pleasant surprise to hear back so quickly; I just took them on Friday!

 

Best of luck on your comps, jhefflol!

[thepriorwalter]

Pittsburgh!! [dances]

 

Their email came at 8:45 PM, way after I had counted them out for the day. 

 

ETA: Sigh. Wrong thread. Won't repost, but sorry, y'all.

Edited February 10, 2015 by thepriorwalter

[Dr. Old Bill]

Ahh! Fantastic news!

[fancypants09]

Pittsburgh!! [dances]

Their email came at 8:45 PM, way after I had counted them out for the day.

ETA: Sigh. Wrong thread. Won't repost, but sorry, y'all.

No worries about being in the wrong thread!! Completely excusable given the excitement Congrats!!!

[kurayamino]

Pittsburgh!! [dances]

 

Their email came at 8:45 PM, way after I had counted them out for the day. 

 

ETA: Sigh. Wrong thread. Won't repost, but sorry, y'all.

 

Hooray!!

[1Q84]

Pittsburgh!! [dances]

 

Their email came at 8:45 PM, way after I had counted them out for the day. 

 

ETA: Sigh. Wrong thread. Won't repost, but sorry, y'all.

 

Wow, you're on a hot streak! Congrats

[Dr. Old Bill]

Never have I checked my spam folder so often.

 

I'm starting to feel like I'm the only one who hasn't heard a scrap of good news yet! I know that's hardly the case, but my heated arguments with the calendar are getting to the point that I think it's going to jump off the wall and start beating me about the head.

[fancypants09]

Never have I checked my spam folder so often.

I'm starting to feel like I'm the only one who hasn't heard a scrap of good news yet! I know that's hardly the case, but my heated arguments with the calendar are getting to the point that I think it's going to jump off the wall and start beating me about the head.

Hang in there! I know too well what being gripped with anxiety feels like, but seriously news will pop up when you are least expecting it.

[Dr. Old Bill]

Hang in there! I know too well what being gripped with anxiety feels like, but seriously news will pop up when you are least expecting it.

 

Thanks. Just off to a rough start this morning after seeing a couple of acceptances to Irvine -- somewhere I thought I might have a "leg up" given my specific interests in prosody and related subfields.

 

Having to give legitimate thought to plan Bs is unspeakably painful. I'm usually so upbeat, but I've had some downright emo moments lately. Such a heart-wrenching process!

[InHacSpeVivo]

Don't give up just yet, WT. I was in your same boat the last time I applied so I completely know how you feel. While we are in the thick of things, notifications should be steady through mid-March. There is way too much time left to be emo!

[Hannalore]

 

Having to give legitimate thought to plan Bs is unspeakably painful. I'm usually so upbeat, but I've had some downright emo moments lately. Such a heart-wrenching process!

 

It really is. But hey, you still have 12 schools left that haven't notified at all! That's quite a number, you could pretend the admissions season hasn't even begun yet. Like, conveniently forget you applied to your rejected schools and that you only applied to those 12. You still have some pretty great chances, considering!

[1Q84]

Thanks. Just off to a rough start this morning after seeing a couple of acceptances to Irvine -- somewhere I thought I might have a "leg up" given my specific interests in prosody and related subfields.

 

Seeing as the UC's seem to be pulling new tricks for sending out acceptances (Sunday evenings, leaving several days between groups of acceptances) I wouldn't feel bad about Irvine yet! 

 

Spending some time with some good emo music helps! Tom Waits and Nick Cave have carried me through some rougher patches these past few weeks.

[Dr. Old Bill]

Thanks guys. Seriously! I'm still in a bit of a funk, but these comments help.

 

I also talked to my advisor / main LOR writer / best professor in the world, and she commiserated and gave me some good plan B options. And she reinforced the idea that rejections do NOT reflect on the merits of the applicants. It's true, and I know it's true, but it's good to hear it repeated.

 

Nick Cave and Tom Waits, eh? I have to admit that I have several albums by both, so I may just take you up on that suggestion, 1Q84...

[zanmato4794]

My sabbatical from GradCafe was kind of nice, as a little self-control exercise. If any of you are stressing about waiting for acceptances (especially if you haven't gotten one yet), I suggest taking a break from the site. I did notice my stress levels kind of go down, and I stopped obsessively checking email and the results page and was able to focus on other things. Obviously, everyone here this year is super nice and supportive, but watching everyone else get life-changing acceptances while you kind of piddle around and wonder if you're out of their league is pretty disheartening.

 

Is there any consensus on UCSB, does anyone know? I have the feeling that the first round admits have all been contacted already. I go between, on the one hand, accepting that fact that I think this is a shutout year for me and actually having a good attitude about it, and, on the other hand, hoping that I still might squeak in this year while also dreading the idea of rejection and not knowing if I'll have the energy to apply again.

 

Emotions!

[pannpann]

Just joined the site yesterday, looking up decision results. I thought GC would make me freakout and become more obsessive, but seeing all these wonderfully qualified applicants who are just as panicked as I am has been oddly comforting! 

In latest freaking-out news I see that a lot of Lit applicants have heard from CUNY, but only those who were put on the waitlist. Is this normal? I'm certain now that I can't possibly be on the waitlist because I've heard nothing, so I'm either accepted or (more likely) rejected. Do waitlist e-mails come in waves the way that acceptance ones do?

[echo449]

Unfortunately, pannpann, it can be pretty random. For all we know (and I speak as a fellow CUNY hopeful), all the acceptances have gone out, or none have. And it can change from year to year, despite the authority those dates seem to have on the website here. 

[pannpann]

Okay, well thanks Echo449! And good luck. 

[Dr. Old Bill]

The more I think about it, the more I think that the significance of the GRE scores is underrated on GC at times. I know that stats can only tell you so much, but looking through all of the acceptances of the past while shows a pretty clear picture: that verbal scores of 165+ predominate. I wonder if cutoffs are simply higher than they have been in the past? Either way, I know that if I wind up getting shut out this season, that's one thing I'll work on for next year.

[CarolineNC]

Those of you who haven't heard from Vanderbilt or Pitt yet for the PhD, are you assuming this means rejection? I'm getting quite antsy. 

[jean-luc-gohard]

I'm assuming Vanderbilt is a no. Nashville, why don't you love meeeee?

[1Q84]

Got my official Columbia rejection. Le sigh.

[Lycidas]

The more I think about it, the more I think that the significance of the GRE scores is underrated on GC at times. I know that stats can only tell you so much, but looking through all of the acceptances of the past while shows a pretty clear picture: that verbal scores of 165+ predominate. I wonder if cutoffs are simply higher than they have been in the past? Either way, I know that if I wind up getting shut out this season, that's one thing I'll work on for next year.

 

I think it’s generally underrated how, in an applicant pool as competitive as top-50 English PhD pools are, almost anything can be used as a tiebreaker. Yes, sometimes that’s “fit,” but when 600-1,000 people apply to a school, the odds of at least 2 or 3 of them having great fit, excellent SOPs, and polished writing samples is relatively high. If something is needed to break that tie, it can sometimes be GRE scores, perceived prestige of undergraduate institution, or some other metric that isn’t all that indicative of an applicant’s actual ability. Add in the fact that many high prestige graduate programs still demand the subject test, and you’ve made things even more convoluted. 

[allplaideverything]

I think it’s generally underrated how, in an applicant pool as competitive as top-50 English PhD pools are, almost anything can be used as a tiebreaker. Yes, sometimes that’s “fit,” but when 600-1,000 people apply to a school, the odds of at least 2 or 3 of them having great fit, excellent SOPs, and polished writing samples is relatively high. If something is needed to break that tie, it can sometimes be GRE scores, perceived prestige of undergraduate institution, or some other metric that isn’t all that indicative of an applicant’s actual ability. Add in the fact that many high prestige graduate programs still demand the subject test, and you’ve made things even more convoluted. 

 

I think this is important to remember, and I think we know more than we think we do about the process: it's likely the same kind of decision for them as it is for us. Why did I cut Emory [or whatever awesome school] from my application list at the last minute? Well, because I had to cut somebody and that felt like the best move. If we're all lucky enough to be admitted to multiple programs, how will we decide which one to attend? Not necessarily because one is objectively better than the other. GRE scores might be similar to "milder winter" or whatever. Ultimately we're talking about individual humans taking risks and making decisions based on their feelings.

[Lycidas]

I think this is important to remember, and I think we know more than we think we do about the process: it's likely the same kind of decision for them as it is for us. Why did I cut Emory [or whatever awesome school] from my application list at the last minute? Well, because I had to cut somebody and that felt like the best move. If we're all lucky enough to be admitted to multiple programs, how will we decide which one to attend? Not necessarily because one is objectively better than the other. GRE scores might be similar to "milder winter" or whatever. Ultimately we're talking about individual humans taking risks and making decisions based on their feelings.

 

Absolutely, and that’s why it can’t be said often enough on here (as it’s been said already several times on this very page) that admissions and denials are very rarely to be taken as reflections of an applicant’s true abilities relative to others. All we can do as applicants is try to give a committee the fewest number of “milder winter” options that we can, but even that’s a very limited form of control—nothing (besides maybe some really great blackmail material) can make someone a guaranteed admit. 

[allplaideverything]

Absolutely, and that’s why it can’t be said often enough on here (as it’s been said already several times on this very page) that admissions and denials are very rarely to be taken as reflections of an applicant’s true abilities relative to others. All we can do as applicants is try to give a committee the fewest number of “milder winter” options that we can, but even that’s a very limited form of control—nothing (besides maybe some really great blackmail material) can make someone a guaranteed admit. 

 

UGH BLACKMAIL! WHY DIDN'T I THINK OF THAT.