2016 Acceptance Thread

[MeNotMe]

I've visited three of my top four choices: South Carolina is the only one I haven't seen, and I'll fix that in the second week of April, a.k.a. The Week We All Lose Our Collective Minds. To echo what's been said, the visits were SO helpful in forming impressions, meeting people and just soaking up the qi of the campus and community.

I'm mulling over two funded offers (Univ. of Louisiana and South Carolina), and a third that's likely to become funded (UNC Greensboro). So while the visits have helped me make a rough rank order, in the end I'll have to zen it and cast my decision irretrievably out into the world. I don't want to be wrong, but then again, we're privileged to even be thinking about earning our doctorates; in the final accounting, I'd say any school we attend, under any circumstances, is pretty cool.  

I am pulling for the people on this board to get where they want to go, like EmmaJava and Sarabethke. Say a prayer, or just shout to the heavens real loud, in hopes that Davis and/or Mississippi are listening. I am optimistic for all of us, as we embark on our great adventure. 

[EmmaJava]

30 minutes ago, MeNotMe said:

I've visited three of my top four choices: South Carolina is the only one I haven't seen, and I'll fix that in the second week of April, a.k.a. The Week We All Lose Our Collective Minds. To echo what's been said, the visits were SO helpful in forming impressions, meeting people and just soaking up the qi of the campus and community.

I'm mulling over two funded offers (Univ. of Louisiana and South Carolina), and a third that's likely to become funded (UNC Greensboro). So while the visits have helped me make a rough rank order, in the end I'll have to zen it and cast my decision irretrievably out into the world. I don't want to be wrong, but then again, we're privileged to even be thinking about earning our doctorates; in the final accounting, I'd say any school we attend, under any circumstances, is pretty cool.  

I am pulling for the people on this board to get where they want to go, like EmmaJava and Sarabethke. Say a prayer, or just shout to the heavens real loud, in hopes that Davis and/or Mississippi are listening. I am optimistic for all of us, as we embark on our great adventure. 

Great post, seriously, and thanks so much. I'm pulling for you and others as well, and I echo every sentiment here.

[Juneoh]

On 2016. 3. 18. at 6:16 PM, hello_kitty said:

Has anyone heard from Purdue - Masters or Phd? I applied for Masters but no word still..Didn't see anything go up in the GC results board as well...

I haven't heard from them either. I want to play the game of deciding, accepting, declining, and negotiating so bad like every other person on this forum.  If you are in the same boat as I am, hang in there my friends.

[victoriansimpkins]

Has anyone heard from the University of North Texas or Arizona? Those are the one's I'm waiting for, and nobody's mentioned anything on the results page recently.

[bhr]

On 3/18/2016 at 8:57 AM, ‘Cat'erburyTales said:

I also applied for the MA at Purdue and still no word for me either!

They've notified.

Two things: Purdue only accepts with funding, and does a soft wait list for admissions, so they accept their first batch, then keep everyone else in pending status until they fill their cohort. Once someone else declines, they move down the list. Second, they lost half-ish of their admissions slots right in the middle of application season, which put everything in chaos (it's been all over the academic news). They also don't fund visits, so the first back of folks are probably in no hurry to accept. I'm planning to give them a yes or no after Cs

[HumanCylinder]

It's cool hearing about all your visits! It makes me excited for my own coming up, in spite of my nerves.  I'll definitely talk to grad students; I'm very interested to hear their take and to get advice about living in each respective city. 

@victoriansimpkins, U of Arizona notified a while back; I think it was the last week of February. I posted my result on the board when I got it, but I don't know if too many people on GC applied there this season, so maybe the results board didn't register a whole lot of info on this school. 

[hello_kitty]

5 hours ago, Juneoh said:

I haven't heard from them either. I want to play the game of deciding, accepting, declining, and negotiating so bad like every other person on this forum.  If you are in the same boat as I am, hang in there my friends.

Hang in there Juneoh! You'll get your chance...hope you saw bhr's infomation about the Purdue situation...You still stand a chance! Keep your hopes up and try not to take rejections personally (although its easier said than done! I know!)..After a point, this whole process comes down to sheer dumb luck!

[victoriansimpkins]

5 hours ago, HumanCylinder said:

U of Arizona notified a while back; I think it was the last week of February. I posted my result on the board when I got it, but I don't know if too many people on GC applied there this season, so maybe the results board didn't register a whole lot of info on this school. 

I knew a few were notified, but my application hasn't changed at all, and I wasn't sure if they were still reviewing applications? Probably not though by now..

[Pokeabun]

On 2016. 3. 17. at 1:16 AM, Wyatt's Terps said:

I know a little about George Washington University's graduate program in general...namely that it is quite highly regarded in the industry, even though it doesn't have a high ranking on USNews rankings. I have been encouraged by no fewer than THREE professors (on separate occasions) to apply there, as their early modern program is quite strong. Indeed, when I reached out to one of the professors there a few days ago (I met her at a conference last weekend), she invited me to get together with her next month to chat about the program.

I was recently told by another professor that a few years ago there was some scandal with GWU trying to up their USNews ranking in a less-than-honest manner. She didn't give me specifics, but she suggested that the low ranking shouldn't be seen as an accurate reflection of the department. Judging by the quality of GWU's faculty, that seems to make sense.

Congrats on the acceptances, by the way!

Thanks so much! I was actually learning towards GWU as an acquaintance of mine also recommended it over Stony Brook.

[mk-8]

On March 19, 2016 at 11:04 PM, MeNotMe said:

I've visited three of my top four choices: South Carolina is the only one I haven't seen, and I'll fix that in the second week of April, a.k.a. The Week We All Lose Our Collective Minds. To echo what's been said, the visits were SO helpful in forming impressions, meeting people and just soaking up the qi of the campus and community.

I'm mulling over two funded offers (Univ. of Louisiana and South Carolina), and a third that's likely to become funded (UNC Greensboro). So while the visits have helped me make a rough rank order, in the end I'll have to zen it and cast my decision irretrievably out into the world. I don't want to be wrong, but then again, we're privileged to even be thinking about earning our doctorates; in the final accounting, I'd say any school we attend, under any circumstances, is pretty cool.  

I am pulling for the people on this board to get where they want to go, like EmmaJava and Sarabethke. Say a prayer, or just shout to the heavens real loud, in hopes that Davis and/or Mississippi are listening. I am optimistic for all of us, as we embark on our great adventure. 

I visited UNCG with my boyfriend this weekend (he's looking at their comm program). It was absolutely beautiful! 

I've "visited" my top two programs, although at one I had the opportunity to talk to faculty and the other I didn't (I visited on the Saturday of spring break because it was the only time I had unfortunately). I enjoyed both visits, and I think the decision I need to make is clear, but I'm struggling with the fact that one of the schools is definitely a better research fit and has the prestige while I really enjoyed the people and location of the other school. 

[MeNotMe]

 

2 hours ago, mk-8 said:

I visited UNCG with my boyfriend this weekend (he's looking at their comm program). It was absolutely beautiful! 

I've "visited" my top two programs, although at one I had the opportunity to talk to faculty and the other I didn't (I visited on the Saturday of spring break because it was the only time I had unfortunately). I enjoyed both visits, and I think the decision I need to make is clear, but I'm struggling with the fact that one of the schools is definitely a better research fit and has the prestige while I really enjoyed the people and location of the other school. 

Great post. What you're describing, mk-8, is a real conundrum. It almost becomes a matter of going where you "should" want to go, based on the narrative that says prestige and research options are what we should want as burgeoning professionals. But the softer factors that speak to us as human beings, our comfort in our environment and our need to interact with like-minded people we can relate to and "fit" with, often gets lost, unnecessarily, in the translation. I am wrestling with the idea that I "should" go to the top-rated program because this is a professional degree and a serious endeavor, it's my future, etc etc etc. I know all of that, being in my 40s and having had careers as a college instructor and an attorney. I get the professionalizing aspect, and yet I won't ever relinquish my humanity or the things that make me a whole individual, in service of some narrative I didn't help construct.

For example, I went to law school in my 30s, not because I expected to get a killer job (though I did fine), but because I thought it would be a cool thing to do with my life, and when I was at the end of said life, I could be proud of myself for doing something that originated and ended with me defining and fulfilling my unique needs. I did it because it was a cool thing to do. I feel the same way about the PhD, which doesn't mean I take it lightly--I am no stranger to hard work, having excelled in law school, passed the CA bar on the first try, worked as an attorney, inter alia. I merely like (hope?) to think I have it in perspective: I will work harder than I ever have to be successful, but the reasons why I pick a particular program over another won't only be those stemming from the narrative. I also want to be happy, comfortable, and "fit."   

The sermon has now ended. Please drive home safely.  

Thanks for your post, mk-8. I've been itching to put those thoughts into print for some time now. Take care and good luck. 

[TomJones678]

On 3/19/2016 at 11:04 PM, MeNotMe said:

...and a third that's likely to become funded (UNC Greensboro).
 

Just curious--have you heard anything in particular from UNCG that makes you say "likely"? I'm on the the "top tier" of a wait list for funding there, but I've heard nothing other than that. Thanks!

[MeNotMe]

19 minutes ago, TomJones678 said:

Just curious--have you heard anything in particular from UNCG that makes you say "likely"? I'm on the the "top tier" of a wait list for funding there, but I've heard nothing other than that. Thanks!

The DGS has personally told me as such, but I think we both understand the situation well enough. When you want to keep as many good candidates on the hook for as long as possible, you use coded language like "highly likely" or "top tier," that allows you to be wrong without having guaranteed anything. I don't blame them at all, because they're just doing their job--it's the way this particular sausage gets made, and I'm OK with that--but I'm not counting on that funding coming through. It's an intriguing possibility at this point, but not something I'm actively relying on. 

Are you waiting on any other schools, like, oh, everyone else on this fabulous board? Take care, and let's fight the good fight against the funding hegemony, huh?

[mk-8]

8 hours ago, MeNotMe said:

 

Great post. What you're describing, mk-8, is a real conundrum. It almost becomes a matter of going where you "should" want to go, based on the narrative that says prestige and research options are what we should want as burgeoning professionals. But the softer factors that speak to us as human beings, our comfort in our environment and our need to interact with like-minded people we can relate to and "fit" with, often gets lost, unnecessarily, in the translation. I am wrestling with the idea that I "should" go to the top-rated program because this is a professional degree and a serious endeavor, it's my future, etc etc etc. I know all of that, being in my 40s and having had careers as a college instructor and an attorney. I get the professionalizing aspect, and yet I won't ever relinquish my humanity or the things that make me a whole individual, in service of some narrative I didn't help construct.

For example, I went to law school in my 30s, not because I expected to get a killer job (though I did fine), but because I thought it would be a cool thing to do with my life, and when I was at the end of said life, I could be proud of myself for doing something that originated and ended with me defining and fulfilling my unique needs. I did it because it was a cool thing to do. I feel the same way about the PhD, which doesn't mean I take it lightly--I am no stranger to hard work, having excelled in law school, passed the CA bar on the first try, worked as an attorney, inter alia. I merely like (hope?) to think I have it in perspective: I will work harder than I ever have to be successful, but the reasons why I pick a particular program over another won't only be those stemming from the narrative. I also want to be happy, comfortable, and "fit."   

The sermon has now ended. Please drive home safely.  

Thanks for your post, mk-8. I've been itching to put those thoughts into print for some time now. Take care and good luck. 

What a beautifully worded post! Thanks for sharing your thoughts; I really appreciate them. 

[MeNotMe]

Thank you, mk-8. Your words mean a lot.

26 days until we sit down to a buffet of chaos, with a side dish of wackiness. I can't wait. 

[ypink]

Hello, longtime lurker here!

I am currently waitlisted at one of my top choices; fortunately, I have offers from other good programs I have always admired and would be thrilled to attend; at the same time, however, I feel reluctant to make a commitment until I know all of my options ... aka waitlist purgatory.

As the April 15th deadline approaches, I have some niggling concerns which, rationally, I know to be dumb but wanted to bounce off you folks on the GC. I can't seem to erase the feeling that being waitlisted essentially equals not being the school's first choice, and was wondering if there are certain, even if subtle, repercussions of this slight hierarchy, for want of a better word choice. Is it the norm for students who are taken off the waiting list to be treated differently, such as being given different (lesser?) funding opportunities, and does this translate into a different academic experience once the student is in the program?

I'm aware of how neurotic this sounds.. and it hasn't helped that, due to personal circumstances, I am unable to visit any of my prospective schools. I wish I knew the "feel" of each school, what the general atmosphere of the incoming cohort is, if students accepted from waiting lists are treated differently, if such different treatment is felt/perceivable, etc. I have been told by acquaintances that, depending on the school and program, students can be very competitive, collegial, and anything in between, and I'm wondering if this extends to the division between students "picked first" and "picked last," as juvenile as this might sound.. but, at the same time, experience tells me that potent concoctions of pressure and competition can do extraordinary things to even the most rational of people, so ... I'm open to hearing your thoughts!

 

Edited March 21, 2016 by ypink

[Dr. Old Bill]

14 minutes ago, ypink said:

As the April 15th deadline approaches, I have some niggling concerns which, rationally, I know to be dumb but wanted to bounce off you folks on the GC. I can't seem to erase the feeling that being waitlisted essentially equals not being the school's first choice, and was wondering if there are certain, even if subtle, repercussions of this slight hierarchy, for want of a better word choice. Is it the norm for students who are taken off the waiting list to be treated differently, such as being given different (lesser?) funding opportunities, and does this translate into a different academic experience once the student is in the program?

I'm aware of how neurotic this sounds.. and it hasn't helped that, due to personal circumstances, I am unable to visit any of my prospective schools. I wish I knew the "feel" of each school, what the general atmosphere of the incoming cohort is, if students accepted from waiting lists are treated differently, if such different treatment is felt/perceivable, etc. I have been told by acquaintances that, depending on the school and program, students can be very competitive, collegial, and anything in between, and I'm wondering if this extends to the division between students "picked first" and "picked last," as juvenile as this might sound.. but, at the same time, experience tells me that potent concoctions of pressure and competition can do extraordinary things to even the most rational of people, so ... I'm open to hearing your thoughts!

 

Welcome!

To your first point, being admitted off a waitlist and being admitted straight-up might as well be the same thing, for all intents and purposes. There is a wealth of apocryphal commentary in the history of this forum that suggests that adcoms have way more candidates who pass muster than they are able to take. That's why there is so much mystery around exactly how particular students are chosen -- it feels like a crapshoot sometimes, because some very minor, arbitrary things can cause an applicant to be shifted into the "yes" pile instead of the "no" pile...and vice versa. If you are waitlisted, you are someone who the department will gladly fund without reservation. You just didn't happen to make the certain-yes pile for some reason that you really can't be concerned about. Again, don't forget that they are willing and able to fund you, and would were it not for necessary limits on how many people they can give pure acceptances to. So take some solace in that knowledge. At last year's day for admitted students at UMD, there was a Ph.D. applicant in attendance who was waitlisted. She was one of the most interesting people I met during that day, and her research interests sounded very...well...interesting. Fortunately she did indeed make it in off the waitlist, and she has been a wonderful grad student here in her first year.

This leads me to your second comment / concern. I have yet to see any dichotomy between students who got in off the waitlist and those who were accepted outright. In fact, unless you yourself tell people, there is really no way that anyone would even know that you weren't accepted outright. Likewise, there is very little distinction made between M.A. students and Ph.D. students. I'm not overly social, but most of the social events that are available don't distinguish between Ph.D. students and M.A. students, just as there wouldn't be any way to distinguish between a waitlister and a straight acceptance. There are probably different variations of this tendency in different programs, but speaking as someone at a top tier institution (or pretty close to it, at least), I doubt there will be much judgment (if any) over such a thing.

[MeNotMe]

10 minutes ago, ypink said:

Hello, longtime lurker here!

I am currently waitlisted at one of my top choices; fortunately, I have offers from other good programs I have always admired and would be thrilled to attend; at the same time, however, I feel reluctant to make a commitment until I know all of my options ... aka waitlist purgatory.

As the April 15th deadline approaches, I have some niggling concerns which, rationally, I know to be dumb but wanted to bounce off you folks on the GC. I can't seem to erase the feeling that being waitlisted essentially equals not being the school's first choice, and was wondering if there are certain, even if subtle, repercussions of this slight hierarchy, for want of a better word choice. Is it the norm for students who are taken off the waiting list to be treated differently, such as being given different (lesser?) funding opportunities, and does this translate into a different academic experience once the student is in the program?

I'm aware of how neurotic this sounds.. and it hasn't helped that, due to personal circumstances, I am unable to visit any of my prospective schools. I wish I knew the "feel" of each school, what the general atmosphere of the incoming cohort is, if students accepted from waiting lists are treated differently, if such different treatment is felt/perceivable, etc. I have been told by acquaintances that, depending on the school and program, students can be very competitive, collegial, and anything in between, and I'm wondering if this extends to the division between students "picked first" and "picked last," as juvenile as this might sound.. but, at the same time, experience tells me that potent concoctions of pressure and competition can do extraordinary things to even the most rational of people, so ... I'm open to hearing your thoughts!

 

What an intelligent, eloquent (!) and relevant post this is; I must admit I've wondered the same thing, albeit from the personal, "passed over" angle, not so much other students' attitudes. Having been waitlisted at two schools, and now offered full support at one, I too have wrestled with the legitimacy question: "if I'm so good, why did you pursue other candidates first?" Sometimes, despite knowing rank orders are idiosyncratic, I wonder if *I* could ever feel comfortable and wanted at a school where I wasn't in the top initial tier of applicants. 

Sure, I know outcomes vary, and I might be a raging success--having excelled in law school, which is as competitive an environment as academia offers inasmuch as grades come directly at the expense of your classmates, and hard curves leave much of the class with subpar GPAs--so I know from the struggle to achieve in school. Once you're in, no one cares how you got in, and if you're that good, you'll do well regardless of pedigree.

I also know, intellectually, that an application on paper can't measure someone's want-to, their drive, and while those initially stronger candidates who were the first chosen might very well be that good, even better than me, I could just as likely fly higher than they. Ypink, I think in the end this is an individual question, one that implicates our pride and sense of ourselves, more so than our classmates. When you have been in a zero-sum game like law school, it is no longer the me vs. my classmates that's the question: it's more a matter of personal feelings of adequacy and our basic human need for validation. Do we think we're good enough, even if our validation is slow in coming? I say yes, but to be honest, I have dark moments and sad days where I gnaw on the waitlist question and wonder what I did wrong. I have even contemplated taking a funded offer where I was a first-round choice, over a higher-ranked school where I wasn't. I continue to consider it. 

Ypink, I respect your courage in saying what many of us are no doubt thinking. I appreciate and want to validate your honesty--you are most definitely not alone-:and I consider this one of the most important posts of the season. I'm curious what others have to say, because there are others grappling with the waitlist beast in their private thoughts. I appreciate your comments, and stand with you, resolute. 

[ProfLorax]

Hopefully this is reassuring: I'm a third year PhD, and I honestly couldn't tell you who was waitlisted and who wasn't in our program! 

[sarabethke]

I also kind of feel like the waitlist is the B team, because even if they want 16 people, they decide which 8 get an offer, so they must be "better" in some way. But Wyatt, thank you for reinforcing how difficult it is to actually define what exactly sets the acceptances apart from the waitlists. 

[Dr. Old Bill]

42 minutes ago, sarabethke said:

I also kind of feel like the waitlist is the B team, because even if they want 16 people, they decide which 8 get an offer, so they must be "better" in some way. But Wyatt, thank you for reinforcing how difficult it is to actually define what exactly sets the acceptances apart from the waitlists. 

Of course!

If it helps, try to think about it from an adcom's perspective. You have, say, 300 applications. 100 of those will get nixed for various reasons -- mistakes, obvious misfits etc. Another 100 will just not be overly competitive. 50 will be good, and worth considering, but the eras are oversaturated, the chosen POIs are on leave or have too many students etc. Then you're left with 50 quality applicants, and you have to really get down to brass tacks -- what makes each one a great fit for the program? Is there a "vibe" that they give off, for good or ill? Is their writing sample readable to those without specialized interest in the subgenre / field? And whether an adcom will admit to it or not, there will surely be a bit of informal balancing of races, ages, and genders. So you can chop that list down to 20-25. Out of those, there may be a few who are shoo-ins: perfect fit, their POIs are free and keenly interested in their research, their GPA and GRE scores are extremely high, their recommendations are glowing... There will be a few of these people, which means that there are maybe four or five guaranteed slots you need to decide on, and another ten or so waitlist spots. At this point, it's just splitting hairs -- the adcom will convene or have an email exchange, and one member might say "I like X's research interests, but she hasn't had any teaching experience." Another might respond "That's true, and Joanne was telling me the other day that we might be a bit low on 101 teachers next year..." And there you have it -- this student gets relegated to the waitlist for a remarkably banal reason that is almost completely beyond her control.

I can't guarantee that this is exactly how every (or any) adcom works, but having served on selection committees in other capacities, I can tell you that when it gets down to picking between two similar quantities, the deciding factor can be surprisingly subjective, and arguably unfair. But someone has to get the guaranteed spot, after all. Rolling dice might actually be more fair when it comes to the final decisions. So take that to heart -- if you're waitlisted, you've made it farther than 90% or so of the other applicants, and chances are that the decision to waitlist you rather than accept you outright was relatively arbitrary.

Edited March 21, 2016 by Wyatt's Terps

[hello_kitty]

2 hours ago, ypink said:

Hello, longtime lurker here!

I am currently waitlisted at one of my top choices; fortunately, I have offers from other good programs I have always admired and would be thrilled to attend; at the same time, however, I feel reluctant to make a commitment until I know all of my options ... aka waitlist purgatory.

As the April 15th deadline approaches, I have some niggling concerns which, rationally, I know to be dumb but wanted to bounce off you folks on the GC. I can't seem to erase the feeling that being waitlisted essentially equals not being the school's first choice, and was wondering if there are certain, even if subtle, repercussions of this slight hierarchy, for want of a better word choice. Is it the norm for students who are taken off the waiting list to be treated differently, such as being given different (lesser?) funding opportunities, and does this translate into a different academic experience once the student is in the program?

I'm aware of how neurotic this sounds.. and it hasn't helped that, due to personal circumstances, I am unable to visit any of my prospective schools. I wish I knew the "feel" of each school, what the general atmosphere of the incoming cohort is, if students accepted from waiting lists are treated differently, if such different treatment is felt/perceivable, etc. I have been told by acquaintances that, depending on the school and program, students can be very competitive, collegial, and anything in between, and I'm wondering if this extends to the division between students "picked first" and "picked last," as juvenile as this might sound.. but, at the same time, experience tells me that potent concoctions of pressure and competition can do extraordinary things to even the most rational of people, so ... I'm open to hearing your thoughts!

 

Ypink thank you for voicing this! The same thoughts have been on my mind regarding my waitlist but I wasnt brave enough to articulate them...I'm also glad to know that I'm not the only one who is haunted by the same thoughts...I simply thought I was exceptionally paranoid! Wyatt's Terps, thank you for the reassuring answer...just what I wanted to hear!

[TomJones678]

20 hours ago, MeNotMe said:

The DGS has personally told me as such, but I think we both understand the situation well enough. When you want to keep as many good candidates on the hook for as long as possible, you use coded language like "highly likely" or "top tier," that allows you to be wrong without having guaranteed anything. I don't blame them at all, because they're just doing their job--it's the way this particular sausage gets made, and I'm OK with that--but I'm not counting on that funding coming through. It's an intriguing possibility at this point, but not something I'm actively relying on. 

Are you waiting on any other schools, like, oh, everyone else on this fabulous board? Take care, and let's fight the good fight against the funding hegemony, huh?

All right--thanks for the insight! To answer your question, besides UNCG, I have a great (funded) offer from one school, and I'm wait-listed at my top choice. So right now, I'm really just waiting on that top-choice to see if anything pans out there; otherwise, I'll mostly likely be going with the former offer.

[MeNotMe]

I bet we can both think of better ways to spend these days than thinking about competing PhD offers, amirite? Hang in there, man, and I'll do the same. 

[ThePandaBard]

I've been accepted to the MA/MFA program at Chapman but probably won't attend due to lack of fellowships offered and the price of tuition. I've also been wait listed at UCR - if anyone got accepted that doesn't plan on attending, please let them know! They said I'm on a short list to admissions.