How did you share your news?

[med latte]

Just curious how everyone shared their big news about starting a Ph.D. program. I'd love to hear your stories; especially how you shared the news with friends and family who are unfamiliar with the grad school process, confused about why you're excited about being a poor student for another 5 years, etc. 

[nugget]

This is going to be a really long thread. lol Since I'm not in a PhD program I can't respond, but I'm looking forward to reading the replies.

[maelia8]

I took a screenshot of the header and first paragraph of the congratulatory admissions letter and posted it on my social networks with the text: "I got into __________! Somebody pinch me, because I can't believe it!" I got a lot of funny comments on the status, including a lot of people making fun of the fact that I'll be a "doctor" when I graduate. 

[DeleteMePlease]

It's even more strange when you're not form the states.

In Germany we don't have American style graduate schools, so nobody knew what the big deal was when I got accepted. Also, nobody knows the institution I am going to although it's one of the best schools for my field.

It's also not common here to do your Ph.D. directly after your bachelors, so I just told most of the people I am doing my Masters

 

I ended up just changing my facebook profile to the new school so everybody knows about it and I don't have to explain it anymore. I really don't like using facebook but for such purposes it is kind of useful.

(I did not figure out how to use this life event feature though. There is no option for grad school acceptance...)

Edited May 31, 2014 by GermanStudent

[toasterazzi]

For my mom and people I talk to on a regular basis, I just told them directly. But beyond that, Facebook and G+ were where I shared info with most other people. My mom, and a lot of my close family members as well, still doesn't quite understand what I do in an academic sense, but she understands that I teach, so there's that. Most other people that I know seemed to roll with the info pretty easily. The things that I find that people are most thrown about are the length of phd and the various things that have to happen before I even start writing the dissertation. When I tell people that I'm about to start another 5 year (or more) round of school, they look at me like I'm crazy

[GeoDUDE!]

I didn't announce it; told the people directly whom it was important to, people who dont need to know dont know. 

[Brisingamen]

I initially announced it to close friends and family and to the mentors I've had. Nobody else, really. I haven't made a Facebook post or anything, but then again, I don't put much about my life on social media. I don't think most people *get it* at all, but they're all being polite. 

 

Now, I realize I need to announce it to so many more people -- because I'm moving halfway across the world! And this is weird, because when it comes to extended circles, politeness definitely takes a back seat. I have been told I could do the same course here in India is 2 years (not really), been asked when I'm going to 'settle down' and have had people tell me I should research something entirely different. Heigh ho, that's how it goes. 

[Maleficent999]

Most of my close friends and family knew that I was applying but when I got accepted I sent texts to those people along the lines of, "I got into ______!!!" And then after I had decided on a school I posted on Facebook and thanked everyone for their support. I also wrote personalized thank you letters to the professors that wrote me letters of rec and let them know where I'll be going.

Edited June 1, 2014 by Maleficent999

[kimmibeans]

I told my mother and then she told the rest of my family before I got the chance to tell them myself . But I informed a few of my friends and put it on facebook for those I hadn't told yet. I also emailed my professors that recommended me to thank them and I visited two of them soon afterwads to thank them in person. I am going to head up to my undergrad institution in July to talk to the other two professors who wrote my recommendations to thank them and give them cookies.

[juilletmercredi]

I told my family members and friends directly.  I'm a first-generation college student and will be the only one in my large extended family with a graduate degree (and I'm currently only one of two with a BA - my younger sister is the other one), so I got a lot of interesting reactions.

 

Most of my friends were fellow college students, and so they generally said congrats and understood the gravity of it.

 

My mom was excited 1) because she knew it was something I always wanted to do, and 2) because I got accepted to some big-name schools she had heard of - she was excited about telling her co-workers that her daughter got into Yale and Columbia, lol.  My mom has just been incredibly supportive through the whole thing - I know that she doesn't really understand all of my reasons and motivations, but she's the kind of mom that's just like "whatever you want to do, I'm behind you."  In fact, she has a long memory and seems to remember me as a child saying that I wanted to be called Doctor and work at a specific government agency, which I don't remember at all, but that's actually what I DO want to do so I know she's right.

 

My dad was confused about why I wanted to do MORE school.  He's definitely the "get what you need and then get out" kind of person, and again since I'm first-generation, he assumed that BA = $$$$.  But I found out later via my mom that he was actually pretty proud and brags about it to people.  He did try to get me to quit after I explained that I got an MA along the way to a PhD ("OH, so you have a master's now?  Why don't you just leave?")  He actually told me that I could make a lot of money being a principal in Mississippi.  It was totally random because 1) it is false; I am not in education and in no way qualified to run a school and 2) we live in GA and my graduate program is in NY, so why he randomly brought up MS I am not sure.

 

My sister's reactions were probably the funniest, but tenderest.  She asked me about what it took to get a PhD and her eyes bugged out when she realized I had to write a long paper (she was just beginning college at the time).  She didn't understand the concept of liking something so much that you wanted to go to more school for it.  She also could never remember what my PhD was in or my research interests were, and gave people amusing incorrect answers when they asked her (for a time, she was telling people that I was working on the cure for AIDS - which is kind of related to what I do, but makes me sound way smarter and more STEM-y than I actually am, lol).  But over the course of her own college degree, she became more interested in her own major (exercise science - related to mine) and decided that she wants a graduate degree, too, although not a PhD.

 

My in-laws have been super-cute about it; they've been cheering me on the whole way and keep asking if there is anything they can do to help.

 

My cousins thought I was in medical school until about my second year of my PhD.  They just knew I did research on medical stuff and they assumed that = MD.  Even now, I have to constantly explain to them that no, I won't be licensed to provide psychological services after I finish (my PhD is an interdisciplinary psychology program).

[Macavity]

I told my family and close friends right away but waited over a month to tell my in-laws.  It was really hard because there was no way of explaining to my MIL what a PhD means -- all she gleaned from the conversation was that I was dragging her son across the country for more school. She tries really hard to be supportive but she has no idea what I do for a living.  After trying to explain countless times what I meant when I talked about defending my MA thesis, I gave up and talked about buying a new outfit for the defense instead

 

After we told the in-laws, I made a FB status announcing that I'd accepted a place in X University's English PhD program.  Since then, I've had a lot of people making snarky remarks about how I'll be going another 4-5 years without an income.  I secretly love it, because then I get to tell them about my 6-figure funding package and bask in the awkward silence.

[DeleteMePlease]

After we told the in-laws, I made a FB status announcing that I'd accepted a place in X University's English PhD program.  Since then, I've had a lot of people making snarky remarks about how I'll be going another 4-5 years without an income.  I secretly love it, because then I get to tell them about my 6-figure funding package and bask in the awkward silence.

 

6 figures? Woa.

[MakeYourself]

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