English Literature PhD 2008

[icefired12]

Oh man.

I just discovered this site. I had been feeling pretty happy-go-lucky about things, until I I discovered my first rejection and this website - which has informed me of all the people steadily getting into the other schools I applied to.

Kind of wish I'd gotten at least once acceptance by now :?:

[bluewhisky]

great way to start the week...rejection from virgina (which was my back up. lol)...second rejection so far. where is the nearest tallest building on the block?

[Minnesotan]

Virginia was your backup?! That's a pretty damned good program.

Either way, I feel for you. I'm 0 for 2 so far, myself.

[bluewhisky]

welll...not so much a backup as an almost sure shot...the profs i corresponded with in the department were hugely enthusiastic about my research topics..how they would love to work with me on philip larkin...blah blah de blah. so it was quite a shock i guess. i dunno. i feel like im playing pinball with the universe.

[Minnesotan]

I am feeling more like the ball than the player. le sigh

[grifter]

welll...not so much a backup as an almost sure shot...the profs i corresponded with in the department were hugely enthusiastic about my research topics..how they would love to work with me on philip larkin...blah blah de blah. so it was quite a shock i guess. i dunno. i feel like im playing pinball with the universe.

They fuck you up, Virginia Profs

They may not mean to, but they do..

but seriously...my sympathy, coming from someone with 3 rejections and a hatful of worry.

[foreverastudent]

Hi everyone,

I'm new here. A little bit about me: after taking a couple years off school to work, I made a failed attempt to get my master's. Well, I didn't fail, but the school sucked. So, I applied to the Ph.D program at U Dub as a way to escape, but then dropped out of my program completely. Now, I ever-so-anxiously wait. I am a slave to the mail. Heaven protect any postman that comes near me. I got into the master's program last year (heard around March 13), but am not sure about the Ph.D, which I'm sure is more competitive. If I don't get in there, I can go to Okay State School backup, get my master's, and try again, while also applying to some programs that I ignored this year because they required a master's or seemed out of my league.

Long story short, has anyone heard anything from them? It starting to seem a little late, and no news isn't necessarily good news. The graduate secretary told me people would hear in Feb or March.

[Minnesotan]

Washington seems to be taking an unconventional approach to evaluating these things, i.e. they grab a pile of applications and look over them, make some offers, then grab another pile. Whatever works for them, I guess.

I wouldn't stress too much, yet. Their system renders the idea of an 'implicit rejection' null and void.

[foreverastudent]

Thanks for the info! My friends visibly cringe every time I mention the words "grad school," so it's nice to find others who are playing the waiting game, also. I've thought about emailing the graduate secretary, but experience tells me that I will receive a canned, "the admissions committee is meeting this week" sort of response.

[Minnesotan]

It's difficult, since many programs seem to notify most of their acceptees first, then snailmail the rejects (thus the idea of the implicit rejection, if you were not among the first to hear). With this seemingly random process of screening the applications, Washington is certainly keeping people on their toes.

[bluewhisky]

They fuck you up, Virginia Profs

They may not mean to, but they do..

but seriously...my sympathy, coming from someone with 3 rejections and a hatful of worry.

that did make me laugh! thanks all the luck in the world to you...there will be good news soon.

[foreverastudent]

Out of curiosity, how many folks here are non-Lit? I'm a Rhetcomp nerd myself, although my undergrad degree was in Lit. My interests evolved gradually after school. But, thanks to my UG institution's relentless indoctrination, I will always have a soft spot for Foucault, no matter where I end up.

[grifter]

Out of curiosity, how many folks here are non-Lit? I'm a Rhetcomp nerd myself

I'm comp/rhet too. But I wouldn't say I'm a nerd. I'm actually very, very cool.

[conor610]

Are there such things as non-notified waitlists? I'm trying to hold out some hope that my lack of responses from Berkeley, Yale, WashU, and Cornell are not automatically rejections.

But I'm into Hopkins, UVA, UCLA, and Michigan, so I'll be fine regardless...

Good luck to everyone!

[amethyst]

So based on the comments in this thread, I can pretty much assume that no replies from schools that have sent acceptances out means rejection? (yale, chicago, michigan, berkeley, WUSTL, NYU, brown) Why don't they just reject us at the same time they accept people so its less agonizing waiting for that rejection letter?

[Themagicalgoat]

Actually, I called Yale two mornings ago (Tuesday, 26th) and the receptionist said they were still working on them and we should hear soon.

According to this website, some acceptances have been sent out, so she could have been lying, I suppose. But I also think it's possible that certain concentrations sent out their acceptances before others.

Columbia's notifications go through the GSAS front office, not through the department, according to one of my professors who was on the admissions committee in years past. As of last night, he had not heard any decisions had been finalized, but he's not on the committee any longer, so you can take that as you will. The GSAS office, and Columbia in general, are notoriously unorganized though. So even if decisions have been made, I would be surprised if we heard anything this week.

Good luck to everyone.

[bluewhisky]

amethyst said:

So based on the comments in this thread, I can pretty much assume that no replies from schools that have sent acceptances out means rejection? (yale, chicago, michigan, berkeley, WUSTL, NYU, brown)

If this is true I may as well start looking for a job at the nearest shopping mall.

[whentostop]

So... am I hoping in vain that Temple acceptances may still come out? It is kind of my top choice, and well, there have been two or three people post getting in, no rejections posted, so am I sitting here with my rejected application sitting in Philly and we just don't know about each other? I suppose nobody here has any idea, but seriously...can I get a little white envelope...please?

[snagsby52]

Hi! I'm new here. A little bit about myself: I graduated from a small liberal arts college in Mass, and I specialize in Victorian Literature (with a focus on the novels of George Eliot and Charles Dickens.) I've been accepted into the Ph.D. programs at UNC-Chapel Hill, Boston College, and U-Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. I'm assuming that all the rest are going to be rejections...

[pnagy01]

A question on many minds that perhaps a veteran of applications can answer: Does not hearing from schools by March typically entail rejection?

[rising_star]

A question on many minds that perhaps a veteran of applications can answer: Does not hearing from schools by March typically entail rejection?

No.

[kjacobs]

When did you hear from UC Davis?

[snagsby52]

Hi. I heard from Davis on February 12th. Someone else on the gradcafe said that they did applications in batches though. It makes us sound like cake batter, but I like the idea of batches better, because then hopefully the schools are really reading all the applications. I think it is so hard to get in this year. I know people with perfect records who are having a hard time. I hope you get into davis if that is where you want to go!

[pnagy01]

Snags, when did you hear from UNC? *tugs on his collar nervously*

[snagsby52]

I just heard yesterday by email. I thought I wasn't going to get in because I saw that somebody else posted early in February. However, the website actually says that they have rolling admissions, so it's not over. I hope you get in!