Fall 2015 applicants

[tristansmells]

Congrats on whoever got an offer from St Andrews! That's where I'm at atm.

[salvoquat]

Do you know when McMaster is going to be sending out decisions? 

By the way, it looks like we've applied to a few of the same places. Yay, Canada! Lol

Oh, yeah. Hello, everyone!

mcmaster: a couple of weeks

[B. Blumenstrauss]

So bored...

[RedViper]

This year seems to be very quiet, as in, there doesn't seem to be much information coming from the search results page.

Previous years, results from interview requests and such were always being posted by this time, especially for the Ivy League schools.

This year, no one has reported any results from these schools, and the only way we've found out anything is through the Forums. In previous years, we would have found out something by now, just by searching the results page. It looks like the results page isn't very informative this year.

I wonder why information isn't coming as quickly this year. Is it because people aren't using the GradCafe results page very much this year? Or are schools being more secretive?

[Hypatia14]

mcmaster: a couple of weeks

 

Thanks, Salvoquat! 

I called them today but I think they are closed for Reading Week. Hopefully I hear from them and Western soon. 

Which is your top choice from the schools you've applied to?

[poliorkein]

Well, the number of people posting on the forum compared to last year is definitely down.

 

I would hazard a guess that (for whatever reason) there are perhaps fewer people posting their results just based on the information we've gotten on the results page. There are a number of ivies who we've seen pop up with interviews on the results page and subsequently not had any rejections or acceptances for them since then. Again, this is just based exclusively on the results page (Scipio did give us the info about Brown yesterday).

[RedViper]

I think you're right poliorkein. I just wish that I had something, any kind of news. I was really hoping from some leads, since there seemed to be  information available in the previous years on this site. I guess it's just the luck of this year, that we are applying for an academic year when information is scarce. 

Oh well, back to waiting! Hope you all are doing well.

[Kallikratidas]

I half wonder if the slow down has anything to do with the dreadful weather the East Coast has been getting as of late. 

[B. Blumenstrauss]

Not posting results is like dropping litter in the streets: everyone thinks one's actions are not relevant until GC dies or streets are filled with rubbish.

 

 

And I am sure that this phrase would sound better if I were a native speaker.

[B. Blumenstrauss]

By the way, can someone claim the NYU acceptance?

And should I infer from that the fact that I was waitlisted/rejected at NYU?

[B. Blumenstrauss]

I half wonder if the slow down has anything to do with the dreadful weather the East Coast has been getting as of late. 

 

Well, that could be the case...

[RedViper]

I half wonder if the slow down has anything to do with the dreadful weather the East Coast has been getting as of late. 

 

Well, that could be the case...

I thought that this might be the case. But  like anonymous said, Harvard did interviews on February 7th, and the snowstorm was already in full swing at that time.

Besides, what with the technology like Skype and Email we have at our disposal, and the fact that there are no electricity blackouts in the USA Northeast, I don't think the weather is the case. 

I'm just wondering if schools are moving at the same schedules as the previous years, and we just aren't hearing about it on this website.

Oh well.

[Kallikratidas]

I thought that this might be the case. But  like anonymous said, Harvard did interviews on February 7th, and the snowstorm was already in full swing at that time.

Besides, what with the technology like Skype and Email we have at our disposal, and the fact that there are no electricity blackouts in the USA Northeast, I don't think the weather is the case. 

I'm just wondering if schools are moving at the same schedules as the previous years, and we just aren't hearing about it on this website.

Oh well.

Don't be so pessimistic, RedViper! If professors are snowed in and, consequently,  aren't able to make it into the university in order to read the applications that could slow down the process a whole lot. For example, I believe Harvard had 3 of 7 snow days in its history this year. 

[B. Blumenstrauss]

Don't be so pessimistic, RedViper! If professors are snowed in and, consequently,  aren't able to make it into the university in order to read the applications that could slow down the process a whole lot. For example, I believe Harvard had 3 of 7 snow days in its history this year. 

 

And don't forget staff!

They are key elements in all the application process + less involved than professors in it.

[ciistai]

Some input - a lot of people are warning their friends and colleagues off this site because they've found it a little stressful. I think I refreshed the results page and the forums (and my inbox!) every five minutes during my first application season a couple of years ago. It speaks volumes that I am still here checking the forum and the results daily even though I don't apply for PhD til later this year. Just a thought. I know everyone that whom personally knew applying for Fall 2013 admission who used this site really had a love-hate relationship with Grad Café and they may have passed that opinion on to friends/ colleagues.

 

Also, I think we luck out in Classics that everyone on the board is usually nice, but I know that a friend who was applying for her DPhil in art history had horrible experiences in the art history page with a few really snobby, condescending people who essentially chased a bunch of others off the thread/ turned them off of this site altogether. 

[Kallikratidas]

Some input - a lot of people are warning their friends and colleagues off this site because they've found it a little stressful. I think I refreshed the results page and the forums (and my inbox!) every five minutes during my first application season a couple of years ago. It speaks volumes that I am still here checking the forum and the results daily even though I don't apply for PhD til later this year. Just a thought. I know everyone that whom personally knew applying for Fall 2013 admission who used this site really had a love-hate relationship with Grad Café and they may have passed that opinion on to friends/ colleagues.

 

Also, I think we luck out in Classics that everyone on the board is usually nice, but I know that a friend who was applying for her DPhil in art history had horrible experiences in the art history page with a few really snobby, condescending people who essentially chased a bunch of others off the thread/ turned them off of this site altogether. 

I think the real problem is that the application process isn't at all transparent. Schools should give at least a tentative schedule and their usual admission procedures, i.e. whether they interview all short listed candidates, only a few candidates, or none at all, et cetera. If we had some idea of when we would hear, we'd be much less liable to rely so heavily on grad cafe--at least in my opinion. 

[RedViper]

Thanks for the encouraging words everyone. Like I said, I have had nothing but positive experiences so far on this website.

As such, I'll try not to bring down the general mood with my pessimism.

I'm just trying to stay positive, despite the lack of good news. And I do think that Universities like the are moving at their usual pace, even in the Ivy League schools in the North East U.S. We just aren't getting much information on this website.

I see from the search page that Yale and NYU has sent out acceptances, and with the news we got from Harvard, Penn and Brown, my list of schools are growing smaller and smaller. 

[Kallikratidas]

Thanks for the encouraging words everyone. Like I said, I have had nothing but positive experiences so far on this website.

As such, I'll try not to bring down the general mood with my pessimism.

I'm just trying to stay positive, despite the lack of good news. And I do think that Universities like the are moving at their usual pace, even in the Ivy League schools in the North East U.S. We just aren't getting much information on this website.

I see from the search page that Yale and NYU has sent out acceptances, and with the news we got from Harvard, Penn and Brown, my list of schools are growing smaller and smaller. 

I still wouldn't give up hope on Harvard! 

[birchleaf]

I think the real problem is that the application process isn't at all transparent. Schools should give at least a tentative schedule and their usual admission procedures, i.e. whether they interview all short listed candidates, only a few candidates, or none at all, et cetera. If we had some idea of when we would hear, we'd be much less liable to rely so heavily on grad cafe--at least in my opinion. 

I agree with this point and the point you quoted! I know that in the beginning, frantically checking the general purpose boards nearly gave me a heart attack whenever someone posted stellar GRE scores and rejections! It's important to see GradCafe as a source of information, especially in regards to results postings, and shouldn't be used to attempt to rate yourself in comparison to others.

 

That being said, it seems like most schools are defying their historical timelines. In the beginning, I thought that it was just me, that I wasn't hearing back because my application was rubbish (or something!) but it seems like most everyone is still stuck with either no responses or just a couple. Personally I'm stuck in a middle tentative stage that I don't want to report until anything at all is for sure. So I've held off from writing anything on the results page because I don't want to freak anyone out, or get too far ahead of myself!

 

I also want to say that I know for a fact of a couple of administrative boards who look at this forum regularly. There are stories bouncing around from current grad students at my university of people who've been admitted and later lost their acceptances based off of a combination of actions during the prospectives weekend and comments on here. So GradCafe is a real, unofficial tool in the grad process, and I think that it causes the grad programs to be so opaque! μέν the programs could make it easier and more streamlined if they released at least a semblance of a timeline, δέ I think they would view it as making themselves less competitive, while they run down a list of the people they want for their program. That is, making us wait is beneficial for them and they aren't about to give that up!

[B. Blumenstrauss]

 

I also want to say that I know for a fact of a couple of administrative boards who look at this forum regularly. There are stories bouncing around from current grad students at my university of people who've been admitted and later lost their acceptances based off of a combination of actions during the prospectives weekend and comments on here.

 

Woa, one can lose an acceptance from a school?! I didn't know that.

[birchleaf]

Yup, they can rescind acceptances for basically any reason. I'm sure there will be some people who disagree with me, I've just heard some hilarious "kiss of death" stories (if you will) about it from professors and grad students alike.

[bbpo]

I agree with recent posters. I started checking this site because I was caught off guard by a phone call/impromptu interview for which I was completely unprepared (and I was later rejected – who knows whether the phone call was the reason). So it is tempting to check these boards to get a sense about what is coming down the pipeline, but it causes me more anguish than relief. All this hand-wringing and page-refreshing won’t reveal whether *I* am rejected, waitlisted, etc.

 

I agree that more transparency about the process would be nice. I suspect schools probably do not want to commit themselves to a particular workflow. Maybe they want to have a phone chat with some but not others; maybe they used to accept people based on the application, but decided they would feel safer interviewing first. Several schools have adjusted their processes in recent years; friends of mine were accepted outright to programs that now want to meet me first. I think if they want to give themselves the flexibility it can only be a good thing; after all, they can reject me any time for any reason; if they want the freedom to suddenly accept me without an interview, who am I to complain?

 

And on the topic of rescinding acceptances: I suspect it is rare, but it can happen. Perhaps a more common scenario is that they offer a very poor funding package to someone they no longer wish to recruit.

[B. Blumenstrauss]

Yup, they can rescind acceptances for basically any reason. I'm sure there will be some people who disagree with me, I've just heard some hilarious "kiss of death" stories (if you will) about it from professors and grad students alike.

 

KISS OF DEATH? WAS IST DAS?

 

 

P.S.: I really understand the fact that some US applicants hate GradCafé and the reasons that can lead them to hate it. I do. So they close the web page, turn around and ask their older brothers, aunts or acquaintances about the application process. Or they can hear through the grape vines if some committee has decided whose in the wait list. Well, good for them. I don't have access to that privilege: no one around me understands the process of applications, I've never been to the USA, I've never seen or talked to someone with a degree in, just to name a few, Stanford, Berkeley, Columbia or Harvard. As a result, GradCafé is a unique tool for me.

[bbpo]

That makes sense, Beatrice. For the record, I am the first in my family to go to college, so it's not as though I have hordes of informed people in my life either, but I can appreciate that you might feel more disconnected from the process than I. My problem with this site is that I think it leads people to assume the worst, when really, until you are rejected you have no idea what is going to happen with your application. It doesn't personally help me to know that someone has been contacted by Cornell, for example. I have not heard from them, so perhaps (probably?) I am rejected, but perhaps I am just not at the very top of their list, and I might hear from them later.

 

"Kiss of death" behavior would include, I imagine, getting drunk at a visit, making a pass at someone, insulting a staff or faculty member?

[birchleaf]

http://psychology.unl.edu/psichi/Graduate_School_Application_Kisses_of_Death.pdf