Fall 2015 Acceptances (!)

[pannpann]

As always great advice from WT.

I just saw on the results that someone was accepted via email to Hopkins? If whoever that is is around I'd love to know if the email said anything about other notifications going out, and if it was from the DGS or a POI?

[unræd]

I am dumbfounded and crying with happiness. My first choice, Tennessee, accepted me, fully funded, with three additional fellowships and a nomination for a fourth. 

 

And there's snow on the ground outside. It's like the best day of my life.

 

WOOT! Congratulations!

 

I was just there for a manuscript studies conference, and the community of medievalists is amazing. Plus--word on the street is that Liuzza is coming back from Toronto, which means you'll be working with one of the absolute best Anglo-Saxonists around!

[zanmato4794]

I had entirely given up on this season. I had so given up that I ALREADY SIGNED UP FOR THE APRIL SUBJECT TEST.

 

And here today a UCSB acceptance lands in my email.

 

I'm so happy and so relieved. I was considering quitting academia! What nonsense!

[unræd]

I had entirely given up on this season. I had so given up that I ALREADY SIGNED UP FOR THE APRIL SUBJECT TEST.

 

And here today a UCSB acceptance lands in my email.

 

I'm so happy and so relieved. I was considering quitting academia! What nonsense!

 

YAY!!!!!

[InHacSpeVivo]

I had entirely given up on this season. I had so given up that I ALREADY SIGNED UP FOR THE APRIL SUBJECT TEST.

 

And here today a UCSB acceptance lands in my email.

 

I'm so happy and so relieved. I was considering quitting academia! What nonsense!

 

HOORAY! Now get your refund (as much as ETS will give you... )!

[unræd]

HOORAY! Now get your refund (as much as ETS will give you... )!

 

Knowing ETS, they probably only give you store credit.

[Dr. Old Bill]

I had entirely given up on this season. I had so given up that I ALREADY SIGNED UP FOR THE APRIL SUBJECT TEST.

 

And here today a UCSB acceptance lands in my email.

 

I'm so happy and so relieved. I was considering quitting academia! What nonsense!

 

Ah, congratulations Zanmato! You're going to love Santa Barbara. Such a gorgeous city!

 

 

Knowing ETS, they probably only give you store credit.

 

Edited February 18, 2015 by Wyatt's Torch

[slightlymoreanonymous]

Congrats guys! It seems like tons of fantastic acceptances have been coming in lately! Go y'all:) 

 

I was wondering who the other Florida State rhetoric person is. I don't know much about their program, so I'd love to hear someone else's perspective! Haha and maybe know someone at their open house next month?

[bgt28]

Rejected from Stanford

[kurayamino]

I had entirely given up on this season. I had so given up that I ALREADY SIGNED UP FOR THE APRIL SUBJECT TEST.

 

And here today a UCSB acceptance lands in my email.

 

I'm so happy and so relieved. I was considering quitting academia! What nonsense!

GO you!!!

 

Knowing ETS, they probably only give you store credit.

 

hahah, seriously though.

[youngcharlie101]

Rejected from Stanford

 

I'm sorry. I got rejected from Brown today, if it's any consolation.

 

Congrats to all the admits! This is so exciting!!

[jhefflol]

Acceptance from Syracuse--sounds from the letter like they only accepted 4 this year, or only 4 with funding, or only 4 invited to campus visit. Rejection from Brown.

Congrats on Syracuse! And there goes my hopes for admission in to one of my top choices. Only FOUR people?!?! What the crap? You are awesome for getting in!

[greenmt]

I was accepted to BU earlier this week. It was via phone call from the DGS, who told me they’ve been seriously delayed due to the ridiculous Boston weather, and that they’re going to be sending out acceptances via postal service as soon as they can. I’m not sure if he called everyone or not; it sounded like he may have only called me because we share a subfield and he’s a POI for me. I also haven’t seen much BU English activity on the results board, so who knows. I would look for something (hopefully) within a week or so at most

 

Thanks for this, and to those who suggested coping mechanisms.  Where I live, it's been unusually cold this winter, compared with recent years, and I'm spending more time indoors.  The combo of cabin fever and anxiety over how all this will turn out is contributing to the compulsive checking.  

 

Earlier tonight I got a waitlist notification from the DGS at the U. of Maryland; saying so in case anyone else here has been waiting to hear from them.  

[InHacSpeVivo]

Congratulations, greenmt!

 

And thanks for sharing; much appreciated. Best of luck with BU!

[NotSpyderman]

This community is incredible. Thank you all for the support and advice.

[greenmt]

Thanks, InHacSpeVivo.  

 

One of the things that occurred to me last night, after I heard from UMD, is how crazy-narrow the funnel is into these programs.  UMD is accepting 8 people out of about 200 applicants.  In that context, just being seriously considered is an accomplishment.    8 out of 200 is 4%.  How on earth do admissions committees even meaningfully assess 200 applications?  I mean, 4% of people think the world is controlled by lizard-people. http://dailycaller.com/2013/04/03/poll-4-percent-of-americans-believe-lizard-people-control-world/  (Sorry for the Daily Caller link, but you have to admit, great story.) 4% is not an uncommon sampling error.  You stand as good a chance of being falsely sent to death row: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/28/innocent-death-penalty-study_n_5228854.html  My point, of course, is that to some extent the decisions are out of our control.  

 

Sitting on a couple of waitlists, and hearing the variety of experiences here, I want to say to myself, and others, not to take it personally, or to glean any meaning in particular about ourselves and our ambitions, if we don't get in.  I write a lot of grant proposals in my work, and a truism there is that getting turned down is often an invitation to a conversation that will improve your proposal next time around.  The funders often want to fund you; they just have limited resources, and sometimes you're just not asking the right way.  I suspect there's an analogue with these programs / committees... as hard as it is to wait a year and come back around.  For what it's worth....

[babelcopter]

I see there's a WVU acceptance on the board -- I did my MA there, so if you have any questions feel free to ask me here or pm me!

[InHacSpeVivo]

Thanks, InHacSpeVivo.  

 

One of the things that occurred to me last night, after I heard from UMD, is how crazy-narrow the funnel is into these programs.  UMD is accepting 8 people out of about 200 applicants.  In that context, just being seriously considered is an accomplishment.    8 out of 200 is 4%.  How on earth do admissions committees even meaningfully assess 200 applications?  I mean, 4% of people think the world is controlled by lizard-people. http://dailycaller.com/2013/04/03/poll-4-percent-of-americans-believe-lizard-people-control-world/  (Sorry for the Daily Caller link, but you have to admit, great story.) 4% is not an uncommon sampling error.  You stand as good a chance of being falsely sent to death row: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/28/innocent-death-penalty-study_n_5228854.html  My point, of course, is that to some extent the decisions are out of our control.  

 

Sitting on a couple of waitlists, and hearing the variety of experiences here, I want to say to myself, and others, not to take it personally, or to glean any meaning in particular about ourselves and our ambitions, if we don't get in.  I write a lot of grant proposals in my work, and a truism there is that getting turned down is often an invitation to a conversation that will improve your proposal next time around.  The funders often want to fund you; they just have limited resources, and sometimes you're just not asking the right way.  I suspect there's an analogue with these programs / committees... as hard as it is to wait a year and come back around.  For what it's worth....

I wish I could give more than one up vote! Such a great way to put things in perspective, and the grant writing analogy is amazing!

[__________________________]

 4% of people think the world is controlled by lizard-people. 

 

How can you go through the process of taking tests with ETS, wrap your head around the extent of the CIA's tentacle-extensions into almost every country in the world, explain the entire decade of the 1980s, or justify the results of the 2000 and 2004 U.S. presidential elections and the invention of drone warfare and NOT believe in the existence of the Reptilians???  Come on, man.  How can you not have seen the yellowy lizard-like gleam in the president's eyes?  Look again.  He's a lizard.

[greenmt]

How can you go through the process of taking tests with ETS, wrap your head around the extent of the CIA's tentacle-extensions into almost every country in the world, explain the entire decade of the 1980s, or justify the results of the 2000 and 2004 U.S. presidential elections and the invention of drone warfare and NOT believe in the existence of the Reptilians???  Come on, man.  How can you not have seen the yellowy lizard-like gleam in the president's eyes?  Look again.  He's a lizard.

 

:-)

 

You wrote Reptilians.  I read Republicans.  Probably says more about the nature of my political outlook than is appropriate in this non-sectarian environment.

[jhefflol]

Congrats to the new admits!

[kadel]

 I write a lot of grant proposals in my work, and a truism there is that getting turned down is often an invitation to a conversation that will improve your proposal next time around.  The funders often want to fund you; they just have limited resources, and sometimes you're just not asking the right way. 

 

My work also involves a lot of grant-writing, and I find this to be so true as well!! Especially the part about asking the right way. Foundations and such have agendas of their own and they need to know you'll be able to work towards something that will reflect back well on them, and as specifically and clearly as possible. It's probably like when you spend your entire time in your SOP talking about your brilliant work without letting the committee know how it'll actually fit into their program. But you can always get feedback, and beyond simple name recognition I imagine it has something to do with the number of people who end up getting big grants only after applying once or twice ... I do work in visual art though, where the old narrative of slaving away in poverty/obscurity until you're rescued by a rich patron maintains some allure(/truth ).

 

Thanks for sharing the insight, I didn't realize how much this attitude was informing my thoughts on how to improve my applications for next round, but thinking of it like this is SO much more encouraging than just glumly mumbling "there's always next time" to myself

[silenus_thescribe]

Howdy folks! New GradCafe member here. Throughout the application process I popped in and out of here without ever making a profile, and got some helpful advice. (Making a separate email for grad apps=genius.) You're all very helpful, which is much needed in a stressed-out first time applicant, so a big thanks to everyone on this site.

 

Fortunately, my stress has been substantially mitigated by my first acceptance, to the University of Texas at Austin. This was very high on my list, and basically a dead ringer for research interests. (Perhaps fittingly, this was the one app that, upon finishing it, I felt truly confident and comfortable with.) This acceptance came after rejections from Cornell (my #1) and Columbia (predictable, but sad). Just got rejected from Pittsburgh yesterday.

 

Truth be told I found it best at first to avoid Grad Cafe, as looking through acceptances only added to my stress. Now, however, I feel much more comfortable chiming in here given that I know at the very least (in fact, most likely) I'll be at UT in the fall.

 

This goes without saying, of course, but major props to all of the acceptances so far!

Edited February 18, 2015 by silenus_thescribe

[CarolineNC]

Howdy folks! New GradCafe member here. Throughout the application process I popped in and out of here without ever making a profile, and got some helpful advice. (Making a separate email for grad apps=genius.) You're all very helpful, which is much needed in a stressed-out first time applicant, so a big thanks to everyone on this site.

 

Fortunately, my stress has been substantially mitigated by my first acceptance, to the University of Texas at Austin. This was very high on my list, and basically a dead ringer for research interests. (Perhaps fittingly, this was the one app that, upon finishing it, I felt truly confident and comfortable with.) This acceptance came after rejections from Cornell (my #1) and Columbia (predictable, but sad). Just got rejected from Pittsburgh yesterday.

 

Truth be told I found it best at first to avoid Grad Cafe, as looking through acceptances only added to my stress. Now, however, I feel much more comfortable chiming in here given that I know at the very least (in fact, most likely) I'll be at UT in the fall.

 

This goes without saying, of course, but major props to all of the acceptances so far!

Hi! I was also lucky enough to get into UT Austin too! I'm so so grateful. I'll probably end up going there, unless I get off the waitlist at Chapel Hill, and then only because my family is in SC and I want to be near them. So, cool, we might be in a cohort together! 

[silenus_thescribe]

Hi! I was also lucky enough to get into UT Austin too! I'm so so grateful. I'll probably end up going there, unless I get off the waitlist at Chapel Hill, and then only because my family is in SC and I want to be near them. So, cool, we might be in a cohort together! 

 

Well hello! Pleasure to meet a fellow admit. Of course, I hope you get to go where you like, but the more at UT the merrier!