Okay, I'm starting to get nervous....has anyone heard anything yet?

[dmdonig@gmail.com]

I hear you- the anxiety is really overwhelming. I really did not expect it to be this difficult, and I am not sure what I will do if i don't get into any of the programs (sitill waiting to hear back from 3 schools). I thought I had a pretty solid application- I guess my thought now is do I reapply next year or call it a day and move on to developing a career elsewhere?

[dmdonig@gmail.com]

Well, I was holding out for Columbia but it seems like they sent out their admissions notices today. I haven't heard from them, so I guess that's it!

[dmdonig@gmail.com]

Did you hear back from UC Davis?

[Scraggle18]

Me? No! I've seen like, two acceptance phone calls on two very different dates on the various grad results sites. It looks like thay are calling people they accept as they accept them, in a trickle - one at a time? I don't really know, though.

I am still waiting to hear from Brown, UPenn, UC Davis, U of Rochester, U of Illinois, and Harvard. I am hoping and praying to get in to U of Rochester!

Oh, and with Columbia - remember that you can now apply to their Masters in English for no extra fee. The due date for that is April 15th.

[Scraggle18]

Also, for those who (like me) have not gotten any acceptances yet and are feeling bewildered, you can try calling the schools you were rejected from and asking for feedback on your application. I did this with the first few rejections I got, and it helped to have an idea of what they thought of me - they were very positive about reapplying next year, with a fresh writing sample. That might be what I have to do!

In the meantime, I do hope to get into a Masters program of some sort - there are MA programs in English with deadlines that have not passed yet. (Only a few, but hey, its better than nothing!)

Hope this helps! I feel the pain too, and it definitely is a downer - but we have to get back up and keep trying. For me, it sounds like my writing sample was too specific about critiquing one single author's model, and too law article-like. Now that I reread it from a fresh perspective, I can see what they are saying. I need to make it more like literary criticism and less like a law review article, heh! Getting a Masters will help give me the background to write a more literary writing sample, I think.

Chin up, everybody!

[dmdonig@gmail.com]

Which masters programs are still accepting applications? Best of luck waiting it out with UC Davis...

[dmdonig@gmail.com]

Also, when you called to get feedback on your applications, did you ask to speak with anyone in particular or did the department secretary just share notes from the admission committee? Thanks so much for all the advice in your posts. It's good to know that there is a community willing to share insights!

[Scraggle18]

When I call for feedback I just call the front desk. They either (1) transfer me to the right person to ask (which is awesome), who then reads me what my file says, or they (2) give me the right person's email address, and tell me to email them, or they (3) tell me to go away. The only schools that were lame and said, "oh, we don't do that. bye" were Berkeley and Michigan. I got GREAT feedback from Emory, Columbia, and Duke. I'm waiting for a bunch of people to email me back.

The Masters programs with late deadlines that are coming up include: (these are schools that I also am okay with moving to) SUNY Cortland in upstate New York (half hour north of Ithaca), Sacramento State, Wake Forest(?), Northwestern, St. Bonaventure U (upsate New York), and University College Cork, which is in Cork, Ireland (where I studied abroad).

It was tiresome - I basically just browsed Masters websites and when I found a program with a deadline that hasn't passed yet, I wrote that name down...unless it was somewhere I just refuse to go to because of location. Heh. I was not systematic at all - I'm sure there are more out there.

Pray for me, for U of Rochester. Its my last hope, along maybe with U of Illinois. I called all my remaining schools today, and these two sound the most promising. UC Davis said that they already sent out acceptances, and now are figuring out who to put on their "pending" list.

(I'm going to post this before I accidentally delete it. My keyboard has been being weird and suddenly highlighting all the text, causing me to delete everything, gahhh!)

[Scraggle18]

I had some great news today! I was admitted to U of Rochester's PhD program!!! Fully funded!!! Hurray!!!

Best of luck to all of you waiting to hear. Don't lose hope!!

[vainamoinen]

congrats on rochester. that seems like a great school and i've heard it's a great city.